Ohio History Journal

RISE OF MEDICAL COLLEGES IN THE OHIO VALLEY.

 

 

BY OTTO JUETTNER, M. D., F. R. S. M. (ENGL.),

 

Author of "Daniel Drake and His Followers," Secretary of the

"Western Association for the Preservation of Medical

Records," Cincinnati, O.

 

(Read at the sixth annual meeting of the Ohio Valley Historical

Society at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, November 6, 1912.)

In telling the story of early medical education in the Ohio

Valley or, for that matter, in the West, the account must properly

begin with a reference to the two men who were the founders

of the two institutions where the work of preparing young men

for the practice of medicine was first attempted on this side of

the Alleghanies. These two men whose gigantic figures loom

up in silent and solemn grandeur at the very inception of the

story of Western civilization, seem larger and more imposing

after the elapse of nearly a century and have long become land-

marks not only of medicine in the West, but of the United

States, being among the most distinguished characters in the

annals of medicine in America. One of them is Benjamin Wins-

low Dudley, the founder of the Medical Department of Transyl-

vania University in Lexington, Ky., the other is Daniel Drake,

that versatile and brilliant man who established the Medical

College of Ohio in Cincinnati in 1819. The life-work of these

two eminent medical educators forms one of the brightest pages

in the history of American medicine and was of incalculable

service to the cause of civilization in that unexplored Western

territory which, one hundred years ago, was one vast empire of

barbarism.

Benjamin Winslow Dudley, the father of the medical school

in Lexington, Ky., was born in Virginia in 1785, but came to the

pioneer-town of Lexington when he was but one year old. Here

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482       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

he remained, lived, worked and died at the ripe old age of 85

years. Dudley studied medicine at the Medical Department of

the University of Pennsylvania, the oldest and most distinguished

medical school in the United States.  Young Dudley was an

impressionable and ambitious student who drew no end of in-

spiration from the teachings of the famous men who composed

the Philadelphia faculty. Among them was Benjamin Rush,

usually called the "Father of American Medicine," who had

signed the Declaration of Independence and enjoyed a national

reputation as a physician and a public man. Then there were

the two surgeons-general of the American army during the

Colonies' struggle for freedom, John Morgan and William Ship-

pen who after the war had become associated with the newly

founded Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dudley graduated in 1806 and hastened back to Lexington to

offer his friends and neighbors his stock of newly acquired

knowledge. His ambition was to be a surgeon, but he waited

in vain for patients who were willing to let him try his surgical

skill on them. In another Kentucky town, namely Danville,

a young surgeon had arisen who attracted patients from far and

near, Ephraim McDowell, who in 1809 performed the first

ovariotomy on record and through his bold stroke has earned

a place among the greatest surgeons of all history. With such

a man in a sparsely settled country as a competitor, Dudley's

chances were not very promising. He was poor and found him-

self compelled to adopt some method of keeping the wolf from

the door. He purchased a flat-boat, loaded it with produce,

headed it for New Orleans, and floated down the Kentucky, the

Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the desired port. He invested

the proceeds of his cargo in flour. This he billed to Gibralter

which he reached some time in 1810; there and at Lisbon he

disposed of it with large profits. The liberal supply of filthy

lucre in his pocket re-awakened his medical ambition. He went

to Paris and London and sat at the feet of great masters in

surgery. With new hopes and greater ambition than ever he

returned to Lexington where a disastrous epidemic of malignant

typhus was raging. His European prestige proved to be quite a

drawing card. Everybody wanted to be treated by the man who

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Rise of Medical Colleges in the Ohio Valley.  483

 

had studied at Paris and London. Thus Dudley in a few years

became a famous physician and surgeon. In 1817 the Trustees

of Transylvania University in Lexington conceived the idea to

add a Medical Department to their institution and drew Dudley

into their confidence. The word "Transylvania" as you may

remember, was the original name of the colony which eventually

developed into the State of Kentucky. When in 1780 the charter

for a seminary in Lexington "for the teaching of the higher

branches of learning," was granted, it was decided to perpetuate

the historic name by calling the new school "Transylvania Semi-

nary" and afterwards "Transylvania University." Dr. Dudley

was made the head of the medical department and at once pro-

ceeded to organize a faculty. The rise of this school, the first

medical school in the West, was most auspicious. Lexington

was noted for its culture and urbanity. It had 8000 inhabitants,

among them some wealthy people who, in addition to their

shekels, had plenty of local patriotism to help the town along.

Lexington was generally called the "Athens of the West" and

nobody questioned its ultimate supremacy as the leading city

in the Ohio Valley. Cincinnati at that time had 10,000 in-

habitants, mostly poor workingmen who had collected from all

parts of this country and Europe and, of course, could not cope

with their neighbors in Lexington either in wealth or in educa-

tion. Compared to Cincinnati, a typical Western pioneer-town,

Lexington with its wealth and fine colonial mansions appeared

like a metropolis. Yet Cincinnati began to be well known in

many places. A little pamphlet had appeared in 1810 which gave

much information about the town and proved to be an immensely

effective advertisement, especially in the East where the pamphlet

was eagerly read by people who intended to try their fortune in

the West. In 1815 a pretentious little volume appeared which

gave still more definite information about Cincinnati, its topo-

graphy, climate and municipal and civic possibilities. This book

called "Picture of Cincinnati" found its way even to Europe where

parts of it were translated and published for the benefit of

prospective emigrants. The author of the aforesaid pamphlet

as well as of the "Picture of Cincinnati" was a young Cincin-

nati physician whose name I have already mentioned. He was

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484       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

destined to become one of the greatest figures in American

medicine and cannot inappropriately be called the Father of

Western Medicine, namely Daniel Drake. When Dudley was

casting about for material to organize the Transylvania Medical

Faculty, he thought of Drake and offered him a professorship in

his school. To be a professor in a medical school in the West

was such an unusual distinction that Drake did not hesitate for

a moment to accept the offer. Before telling you anything more

about Dudley and his new school in Lexington, it seems proper

to pause for a few moments and think of Drake who-aside

from his medical achievements-is one of the pioneers of civiliza-

tion in the Ohio Valley and in the upbuilding of the entire West.

Drake and Dudley were born in the same year, 1785. Drake

was born in New Jersey and was about two years old when

his father came West to locate near Maysville, Ky. Here young

Drake was reared amid scarcity of money but wealth of virtue

until he was fifteen years of age when his father arranged to

send him to Cincinnati to study medicine under a typical doctor

of colonial times, Dr. William Goforth. In 1805 Dr. Goforth

male Drake a full-fledged doctor of medicine by granting him a

diploma, the first diploma received by a medical student in the

West. Later on Drake took a course in the Medical Depart-

ment of the University of Pennsylvania and received the degree

of Doctor of Medicine. In 1817 Drake left Cincinnati and

went to Lexington as a member of the medical faculty of Tran-

sylvania University. Incidentally let me call attention to that

splendid historical book in which Drake describes his early youth

in Kentucky. It is a book which every one who is interested in

the pioneer-history of the Ohio Valley, should read.

In connection with the early history of Cincinnati it is of

interest to know that the two names of the town, namely

Losantiville and Cincinnati, were suggested by two men who

were closely related to the medical profession. John Filson who

invented the name of Losantiville, was a medical student and

intended to locate as a physician in Lexington, Ky. Unfortu-

nately his career came to an untimely end before he had a chance

to carry out his plans. The name of Cincinnati was the sug-

gestion of General Arthur St. Clair. He wanted to thus honor

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Rise of Medical Colleges in the Ohio Valley.  485

 

the patriotic order of the "Cincinnati" of which he was a

zealous member. Before the fortunes of war tempted him to

become a soldier he had studied medicine for one year in London

under the famous surgeon, John Hunter.

The story of the Medical Department of Transylvania Uni-

versity, especially the first decade of the school, presents a com-

posite product of every phase of human emotion from the

heroically sublime to the grotesquely ridiculous. It reads like

an epic poem when the achievements of the really great men

are referred to, who composed the faculty, beginning in 1817.

Dudley was a tremendously able man, but he was intensely

human. This fact injects much pathos and still more humor into

the narrative. Thundering Jove was not a greater autocrat than

Dudley was in the management of the Transylvania School. He

was a giant in stature, had an awful temper and, when aroused,

used language in the faculty-room that laid no claim to elegance

while its force could not possibly be questioned. He was fond

of emphasizing his remarks with his fist which he would use

with telling effect on the faculty-table or, if he was disposed

to impress some special member of the faculty, on the head of

that special member. Some of the professors were Kentuckians

who did not take kindly to this mode of argumentation. The

result would be a fisticuff-engagement in which Dudley usually

held his own. Dudley used surgical instruments with consum-

mate skill, but-in true Kentucky style-he was also very handy

with a gun. One of the distinguished professors associated with

Dudley was Wm. H. Richardson, a typical Kentuckian, who

came from an excellent family and was a very scholarly man.

During one of the faculty-meetings Richardson criticised some

suggestion which Dudley had made. Dudley told him that if

he did not keep his mouth shut, he would shoot his d--  head

off. Richardson told him he would meet him at any time and

accordingly a duel was arranged. The two gentlemen shot at

the same moment. Richardson's bullet went astray, while Dud-

ley's bullet struck Richardson in the leg, severing the femoral

artery. Richardson would have bled to death if Dudley had not

come to the rescue by ligating the artery. After the operation

the two antagonists shook hands and were good friends ever

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486                Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

after.             In spite of this and similar occurrences the medical

school of Transylvania flourished and was for fully three de-

cades one of the great American colleges of medicine. In 1826

the class numbered 235 students. Among the professors were

some of the most distinguished medical men of their time.

Dudley was a tower of strength. In spite of his erratic man-

ner, he enjoyed the respect of his colleagues on account of his

great ability as a surgeon. The operation known as "lithotomy"

he performed more than 600 times with a mortality of only

4 p. c. and all this before the days of anaesthesia and surgical

cleanliness. This record alone stamps him as one of the im-

mortals in the history of surgery. Another strong man of the

Faculty was Charles Caldwell who was a wonderfully produc-

tive writer and was thought to be one of the, if not the most

learned American physician of his time. His clever speculations

on phrenology won him many admirers in his day and make

good reading even today. Then there was Charles Wilkins

Short who had a national reputation as a botanist and who is

still remembered because some American plants bear his name.

There were many other distinguished medical teachers connected

with Transylvania. In 1839 the City of Lexington erected a

special building for the medical school. About 1860 the medical

school of Transylvania was abandoned. During its brilliant

career more than 2,000 American physicians had received their

degree at the old school. The grim old warrior who had founded

the school outlived it by ten years. He died in 1870.

During the thirties some of the medical professors of Tran-

sylvania seceded and founded the Louisville Medical Institute

which after 1840 rose to great prominence. Daniel Drake taught

at this school from 1840 to 1850. Samuel D. Gross who after-

wards rose to one of the most exalted stations in American

medicine as professor of surgery in Jefferson Medical College

of Philadelphia, was also connected with the school for a number

of years. Lunsford P. Yandell, the professor of chemistry, had

a great reputation in his day. This school was the prolific

mother of a number of small medical colleges in Louisville that

came, saw and-were finally absorbed into the medical depart-

ment of the University of Louisville.

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Rise of Medical Colleges in the Ohio Valley.  487

 

I mentioned the fact that Daniel Drake was one of the early

professors in the Transylvania school. He remained just one

year. One season with Dudley was all he could stand. Drake

returned to Cincinnati in 1818 and at once got busy planning a

medical college in Cincinnati. The result of his activity was

the Medical College of Ohio which began a most tempestuous

career in 1819. Within two years after the college had sprung

into existence, Drake was expelled by his own faculty. The

faculty consisted of Drake, Jesse Smith, professor of surgery,

and Elijah Slack, the president of the old Cincinnati College,

who taught chemistry. These three men were their own trus-

tees and when trouble arose about some minor matters, Smith

and Slack decided to expel Drake which was accordingly done.

Drake described this serio-comic episode in a pamphlet entitled

"The Rise and Fall of the Medical College of Ohio." This

pamphlet is a classic of its kind and shows the versatile Drake

in a new role, that of a delightfully keen humorist. No physician

who is interested in the medical history of the West, should fore-

go the pleasure of reading this unique document. After his

expulsion Drake spent most of his time getting even. In 1831

the Trustees of Miami University of Oxford, Ohio, arranged

with Drake to open a medical department in Cincinnati. Drake

brought some excellent talent to Cincinnati mainly from the

East. The most distinguished medical teacher who was given

a chair in the prospected Medical Department of Miami Uni-

versity was John Eberle who had a national reputation as a

medical author. The plan miscarried most disastrously. To

meet the dangers of the unexpected competition, a re-organiza-

tion of the Medical College of Ohio was affected by the trustees

of the latter and, in some manner or other, the newly imported

professors of the Miami University Medical School were in-

duced to join the Ohio College. When he saw that the scheme

had failed, Drake meekly joined the procession and again be-

came a teacher in the school which he had founded in 181₉. At

the end of the session he resigned and decided to try another

plan to set himself right with the world. The old Cincinnati

College listened to Drake's eloquent pleading and opened a

medical department in 1835. The school was the climax of

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488       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Drake's career as a builder of medical schools. This school

which was abandoned in 1839, marks without a doubt the highest

point ever reached by medical education in the West. The men

whom Drake assembled in this great school were all national

celebrities and stars of the first magnitude in their respective lines

of work. They were such men as Samuel D. Gross whose name

I have already mentioned in connection with the Louisville

Medical Institute where he taught after he left Cincinnati, Wil-

lard Parker who later on in New York became a world-famous

surgeon, Horatio G. Jameson who was the first American to be

invited to speak before a medical society in Europe, Joseph

Nash McDowell, Ephraim McDowell's nephew, founder of the

first medical college in St. Louis, and James B. Rogers, afterwards

professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. Men

of this caliber were Drake's associates in the Cincinnati College.

The school collapsed after four years of glorious existence be-

cause it had no facilities for giving bedside instruction.  It

was barred from the old Commerical Hospital because only the

professors of the Medical College of Ohio which was a State

institution, had access to the hospital.

In spite of difficulties and hardships without end the Medical

College of Ohio soon became a formidable rival of the Tran-

sylvania school. One of the first graduates of the Ohio College

was John L. Richmond who performed the first Caesarean sec-

tion in America. I had the good fortune of presenting the life

and services of Dr. Richmond to the medical profession of Cin-

cinnati last winter and succeeded in arousing considerable in-

terest. The result was the erection of a monument commem-

orating Dr. Richmond's famous Caesarean section, in Newtown,

O., only a few miles from Cincinnati. In 1827 the first build-

ing in the West devoted to medical teaching arose on Sixth

Street, near Vine, and was the home of the Medical College of

Ohio until 1852 when a larger building took its place. Among

the teachers of the Ohio College, even before 1840, were some

very eminent men, notably Reuben D. Mussey, the great surgeon,

Jared Potter Kirtland who afterwards went to Cleveland and

became one of the greatest naturalists in the West, and John

Locke whose name is familiar to every American student of

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Rise of Medical Colleges in the Ohio Valley.  489

 

the natural sciences.  The Ohio College flourished for fully

seventy years. In 1896 it became the medical department of the

University of Cincinnati. Since that time it has gradually disap-

peared from the list of the great American medical schools. It

is almost tragic to contemplate the career of Cincinnati, once

the proud queen of western medicine and now occupying not

even the first place in medicine in her own State, Cleveland and

Columbus having robbed her of her laurels as a center of medical

education. Everybody knows that the medical interests of Cin-

cinnati have for a dozen years or more been in the hands of

men who seemingly were in no way equal to the task of living up

to the traditions of an honorable past.

In addition to the medical schools named there are only two

more which were organized before 1840, the old Physio-Medical

School in Cincinnati and the old Worthington Medical College,

in Worthington, Ohio. The home of the Physio-Medical school

was the historical building known as Mme. Trollope's Bazaar at

the S. E. corner or Third street and Broadway in Cincinnati. Its

founder was Alvah Curtis, a very able but erratic man who

divided his time between lecturing on medicine and fighting the

rest of the profession. This school enjoyed a prosperous exist-

ence for about thirty years. When its founder died in 1880,

the school collapsed.

The medical school of Worthington College began in 1830

under the presidency of Dr. Thomas V. Morrow. In 1839 the

people of Worthington took exceptions to the robbing of their

graveyards and emphasized their protests by wrecking the build-

ing of the medical school and attempting to destroy Dr. Morrow's

house. Dr. Morrow decided that Worthington was not a good

soil for medical teaching and went to Cincinnati where he be-

came the founder of what is to this day known as the Cincin-

nati Eclectic College, at one time one of the most powerful

medical schools in the country.

The history of medical schools in the Ohio Valley is not

without its humorous features. The short-lived career of the

Evansville Medical College, many decades ago, was a product

of the religious fervor and temperance agitation of those days.

Classes were opened with prayer and lessons in anatomy made

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490       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

more interesting by the interjection of an occasional Bible-read-

ing. Students who promised not to use liquor, tobacco and pro-

fane language were admitted without having to pay any tuition.

The average medical student found these requirements too ex-

acting. Thus the schools soon closed its doors. The number of

medical schools of Cincinnati was appalling. At one time there

were almost as many medical colleges in Cincinnati as there are

today in the entire German empire. Whoever felt so inclined,

could start a school of medicine with himself as cashier and pro-

fessor of everything. Diplomas could always be had for the

asking at so much per. These were the days of medical free-

dom when rascals and ignoramuses thrived at the expense of

education and progress. Finally medical legislation put an end

to this carnival of greed and graft. Of all the medical schools

in the Ohio Valley only the fittest have been able to survive. In

Cincinnati, of all the medical schools, legitimate, spurious and

positively criminal, only two are left: the Eclectic Medical Col-

lege which has the larger classes and the old but moribund

Medical College of Ohio which under the protecting wing of the

municipal University of Cincinnati still manages to figure in the

list of the medical schools of the Ohio Valley. The forced

resignation of the late distinguished P. S. Conner sounded the

final death-knell of this once famous institution. Like Daniel

Drake, Conner became the victim of the malice and petty jealousy

of such as coveted his prominence and his position. The ulti-

mate collapse of the school is only a question of time. The

school may eventually be absorbed by one of the larger and

more viable medical schools in Ohio.

It is a suggestive coincidence that I am discussing the his-

tory of medical education in the Ohio Valley on the sixtieth an-

niversary of the death of the greatest medical teacher in the

history of the West. He was a product of the Ohio Valley

where he did his most enduring work in the interests of progress

and education. He organized the first Public Library in Cin-

cinnati, helped to found the old Cincinnati College of which the

present Cincinnati Law School is the last remainder, organized the

first Literary Society in Cincinnati, likewise the first art school

and also the once famous College of Teachers, started three differ-

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Rise of Medical Colleges in the Ohio Valley.  491 ent medical schools in Cincinnati, gave the first impetus to the building of the Southern Railroad, suggested and outlined the canal system of the Middle West in his "Picture of Cincinnati," and, in addition to all this, enriched the literature of the West by many notable contributions.  If he had done nothing more than to leave us his monumental work on the "Topography. Geography, Meteorology, Climate and the Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America," he would still rank with the greatest sons of the West. He above all others deserves honorable men- tion in connection with the subject of education in the Ohio Val- ley. I trust that the day will not be far off, when the present generation will find some suitable means of perpetuating the memory of this great Western pioneer and patriot, DANIEL DRAKE.

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