JAMES FAIRCHILD BALDWIN, M.D., 1850-1936
by GEORGE M. CURTIS, M.D.
James Fairchild Baldwin, surgeon
extraordinary, was born in
the little village of Orangeville, New
York, on February 12, 1850.
He died at Columbus, Ohio, on January 20,
1936, approximately
86 years of age. He had practiced almost
sixty years, and nearly
forty of these as a surgeon. A master of
his craft, this "rugged
individualist" was finally
conquered by one of the surgical dis-
eases of which the least was then known,
i. e., cancer of the lung.
In fact, the first successful removal of
the lung for cancer had
been accomplished by Evarts Ambrose
Graham of Washington
University less than three years
previous to Baldwin's death.
His mother, nee Mary H. Fairchild, died
when he was a boy
of four, and with its keystone gone the
Baldwin family divided.
Two brothers and a sister went west to
Oberlin, Ohio. James was
sent by his father, Cyrus H. Baldwin, to
the home of friends, Mr.
and Mrs. C. B. Allen, in the village of
Otto, Cattaragus County,
western New York. There he obtained his
early schooling and
lived for eleven years.
At the age of fifteen he was ready to
enter Oberlin College
where he matriculated in 1865. There he
became an excellent
student, even though it was necessary to
do extracurricular work
to help finance his further education.
At one time he even was
forced to quit his schooling and teach a
year in a boys' school in
Brownsville, Texas, in order to continue
his studies. He was
graduated in 1870 with the degree of
B.A. from Oberlin College.
He was an honor student and was elected
to Phi Beta Kappa. His
gold key, hanging from his watch chain,
was a familiar sight to
those who saw him daily throughout his
later active life. He re-
ceived an M.A. degree from Oberlin in
1874.
He entered the Jefferson Medical College
of Philadelphia the
same year and received his M.D. degree
in 1876. His graduation
thesis, "The Relation of Ozone to
Disease," won the first prize and
374
JAMES FAIRCHILD BALDWIN 375
was later published in the American
Journal of Medical Sciences
for October 1876. He selected this
subject at the suggestion of
Dr. Robert C. Kedzie, at that time
professor of chemistry at the
Michigan State Agricultural College. It
was then the prevailing
view that too much ozone in the
atmosphere was often the cause
of inflammation in the respiratory
passages, and that lack of ozone
was responsible for the spread of
respiratory infection. After
carefully reviewing the evidence
presented in the available litera-
ture, and even living in an atmosphere
surcharged with ozone, he
concluded that ozone was in no way
responsible for respiratory
disease. Subsequent studies have not
altered his original con-
clusions.
James was the first physician in the
Baldwin family. His
father, who lived in Dayton, Ohio, urged
him to come there and
begin his practice. The young physician,
however, chose Colum-
bus, since it was the site of the State
Capital and more centrally
located. He earned two dollars during
his first month, and during
his first year of practice, 1876, a
total of eighty dollars. He con-
tinued in general practice for twenty
years, during which period
he saw "bleeding," as well as
other heroic modes of treatment,
pass into history.
In 1896 he began his work in surgery.
Asepsis was then
unknown; antiseptics were in their
infancy; and operative risks
were high. He had used chloroform as an
anesthetic six years
previously due to the influence of Dr.
J. R. Reeve of Dayton.
From then on followed a series of
brilliant achievements sufficient
to warrant him a niche in the history of
technical surgery.
He intubated the larynx in diphtheria;
used plaster casts in
the treatment of spinal tuberculosis;
urged the use of chloroform
in childbirth; introduced local
anesthesia to central Ohio; removed
a foreign body--a knife blade--from the
lung (June 23, 1898);
and studied ectopic pregnancy. He
invented instruments and an
operating table still in use. There were
other notable achievements
of particular interest to the technical
surgeon.
Dr. Baldwin became a prolific writer and
a leading contributor
to the literature of surgery in central
Ohio. In 1876, along with
the commencement of his practice, he
founded the Columbus
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Medical Journal and remained its editor until 1894. His one
book, Operative Gynecology, was
published in Columbus in 1898,
two years after he began his work in
surgery.
As an educator he was associated with
the faculties of various
medical schools, which in their
development finally led to the found-
ing of the Medical College of the Ohio
State University. He was
professor of physiology at the Columbus
Medical College; professor
of anatomy at the Columbus Medical
College; professor of surgical
gynecology and later chancellor of the
Ohio Medical College; and
finally professor of clinical surgery in
the Medical College of the
Ohio State University. He advocated an
earlier union of the two
Columbus medical colleges similar to the
mergers which had
already taken place in Cleveland and in
Cincinnati; however, the
union which later eventuated was
unpopular for a time.
In 1900 he founded, built, and opened
Grant Hospital. He
felt that the wealthy could care for
themselves when in need of
hospitalization and that the poor were
cared for by the clinical
services of the "teaching"
hospitals. The middle classes, however,
were in real need of a hospital so well
managed that the cost of
unexpected illness would be most
reasonable. For years it was a
matter of pride to him that the poor
received as fine service in
Grant Hospital as those who could afford to pay. In special in-
stances they received not only private
rooms but even needed
nursing service.
During his 36 years of incessant labor
at Grant Hospital he
had virtually no private life. He was
wholly devoted to his pro-
fession. He was always "on
call" day or night and willing to
attend those in need of his services,
under all conditions.
It is said that he never took a real
vacation. His vacations
were attending the medical conventions
and one busy trip to
Europe in 1896 previous to the
commencement of his active career
in surgery. In the following letter to
Jonathan Forman is clearly
expressed this ascetic spirit:
Dear Doctor Forman:
You spoke to me some weeks ago about
wanting a list of my "firsts",
as you were preparing some sort of a
sketch of the contributions of central
Ohio physicians to medical progress.
JAMES FAIRCHILD BALDWIN 377
I have been looking the matter up as I
had time, and now comply with
your request. "Anyone who works
hard", according to the world-famous
chemist Ostwald, "will find
something new."
It would possibly be of passing interest
to know some of the things
that I have not done, the doing
of which would possibly have taken so
much time that I would not have had so
much to my credit; I have never
even seen a game of golf or
tennis; have never gone to a movie; have not
seen a game of baseball or football for
nearly forty years; have no radio
about my house or office; once in
several years my wife drags me out to
the theater, particularly if there is a
Shakespearean play on the boards.
Possibly the entire absence from my
brain cells of any paralyzing in-
fluence of nicotine or alcohol may have
had some bearing on my report.
By thus not doing certain things
that are so commonly done by others
I have had time to read all the new
books along my line of work and to
read and digest about three dozen of our
best medical journals.
With kindest regards,
Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 6, 1934 J. F. Baldwin, M.D.
His social life consisted of membership
in the Six Handed
Euchre Club which he attended faithfully
with Mrs. Baldwin once
every two weeks. He was a member of the
First Congregational
Church and took a prominent part in the
formation of the
Columbus Y. M. C. A.
He was regular in his habits, arising at
6:30 each morning
and taking his meals at scheduled times.
Although large in frame
and six feet in stature, he was a light
eater. On finishing the
day's work he would often play solitaire
for half an hour. He
claimed that it relaxed his mind for the
night's rest. He had
perhaps one weakness, a busman's hobby,
the collection of gall-
stones!
Dr. Baldwin's patients speak of his
kindly and gentle reassur-
ances in preparing them for operations
which were then far more
serious than now. To the hesitant he
quoted Walter Scott, "To
the timid and hesitating everything is
impossible because it
seems so."
His long and fruitful life was so filled
with professional
activities that he actually accomplished
more than most successful
men. His devotion to his arduous work
was sustained by a
powerful body and a rugged constitution.
Up to 1934 he had
been ill but a single day. His mornings
were spent at operations,
378 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
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and his day was rounded off by visits to
his patients. Often he
worked late at night at his office on
Grant Avenue, thumbing
the journals and poring over his medical
books. In 1931 he
asserted to one of his friends that he
had performed 17,000 major
abdominal operations. He operated
without glasses, sometimes
performing as many as thirteen major
operations a day.
On Christmas eve of 1934 he was struck
by an auto near
Grant Hospital. He was taken into the
hospital, where he spent
two weeks as a result of the accident.
He never fully recovered
from these injuries although he steadily
refused to give up his
activities. In November of 1935 he
developed what was thought
to be a respiratory infection, which
gradually weakened him. He
was gradually succumbing to the now
second common foe of
civilized mankind.
His last working day, after nearly sixty
years of single-
minded service to sick humanity, was
Christmas of 1935. He
made several calls on patients, visited
Grant Hospital, and then, at
three P.M., retired to his home and to
bed. Even during this last
illness he worked upon a medical
article.
It appears to take ordinarily a lapse of
about 75 years in
order to assess properly an outstanding
medical figure, and prob-
ably more for a surgical one. For
example, there was Leopold
Auenbrugger and mediate percussion, and
his later discovery by
Corvisart. The eleven years since Dr.
Baldwin's death is not
sufficient for complete evaluation of
his work. He had an interest
in education, in the training of young
surgeons, in surgical
pathology, and, as a whole, in the
principles of Hunterian surgery.
His principal contribution was in the
field of technical surgery.