OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858
FURTHER ASPECTS
CONTRIBUTION OF OHIO PHYSICIANS TO THE
MEXICAN WAR
By LEON GOLDMAN, M.D.
One of the wars least interesting to,
and least popular with,
the people of the United States was, of
course, the Mexican War
of 1846. Yet this war should be of some
interest to the physician,
for it was at this time that, in spite
of great difficulties, definite
advances were made by medical officers
in the army. Their con-
duct in the field went far to remove the
prejudices which they
hitherto had to contend with in the
army.
That tough Surgeon-General, Thomas
Lawson, and 132 med-
ical men cared for some 100,454 soldiers. There was the usual
serious lack of equipment, the usual
failure of preparation and
the inadequacy of transportation. Consequently, deaths from
sickness were listed as 10,986, more
than twice the total of battle
casualties, dead and wounded.
In spite of the country's disinterest,
volunteers unencumbered
by supplies or unaided by transportation
poured in on General
Zachary Taylor. There were 48 medical
officers of the volun-
teers. Ohio first, generously gave
three, then increased to five,
the number of volunteer regiments. There
were 10 Ohio volun-
teer surgeons and assistant surgeons to serve
as medical officers
for these regiments. There were many
independent companies of
Ohio volunteers which had, apparently,
none of their own medical
officers.
Organized medicine in Ohio reflected the
popular disinterest
of the country at large in the Mexican
War. In the Proceedings
(259)
260
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the Ohio State Medical Society of
that period there was
scarcely any mention of that war. In
fact, the address of one of
the founders of the Ohio State Medical
Society, Dr. Robert
Thompson, before the Ohio State Medical
Society on May 18,
1848, made no mention at all of the
Mexican War. The grand
speech of this literary figure included
references all the way from
Bacon to the American Revolution, yes,
he mentioned even the
chariots of Aminadab.
In the Proceedings of the Ohio Medical
Convention at Co-
lumbus in May, 1847, however,
there is a brief note to the effect,
"On motion of Dr. Sachse that while
we regret the absence of
our friend and fellow citizen, Dr.
William Trevitt, now in service
of his country with the United States
Army in Mexico, our kind
recollections accompany him, and that
our wishes for a speedy
and honorable peace and his safe return
to the bosom of his family
and large circle of friends and
acquaintances, are hereby expressed
by the Medical Convention of Ohio; of
which he has long been
an honorable member."
In the journals consulted no mention is
made of the other
nine volunteers who were probably not as
prominent politically
as Dr. Trevitt. The following is the
list of surgeons and assist-
ant surgeons obtained from the Official
Roster:
1st Regiment
E. K. Chamberlain--Surgeon--entered
service June 22, 1846
A. E. Heighway--Assistant
Surgeon--entered service June 22, 1846
2nd Regiment
Wm. T. Trevitt--Surgeon--appointed July
7, 1846
Robert McNeill--Assistant
Surgeon--appointed July 7, 1846
B. F. Mullen--Acting Assistant
Surgeon--appointed November 25, 1846
3rd Regiment
Benjamin Stone--Surgeon--appointed July
7, 1846
Patrick H. Mulraney--Assistant
Surgeon--appointed July 7, 1846
4th Regiment
Oliver M. Langdon--Surgeon--appointed
May 29, 1847
Robert McNeill--Assistant Surgeon--later
promoted to surgeon
Henry E. Foote--Assistant
Surgeon--appointed ............
5th Regiment
Robert McNeill--Surgeon--appointed
......................
George McDonald--Assisant
Surgeon--appointed September 14, 1847
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 261
The Ohio Volunteer regiments for the
most part were organ-
ized at Camp Washington in the Millcreek
Valley, on both sides
of Colerain Pike, and just outside of
Cincinnati. The regiments
saw active duty. Specific mention is
made of battles of Monterey,
Cervalo, Camargo and Atlexco. The same
proportions of battle
casualties to disease casualties is
maintained with the Ohio groups.
Here, for instance, are some figures of
the Second Regiment--24
killed--42 died of disease;
for the Third Regiment--5 of battle--
71 of disease. The chief diseases were
malaria, dysentery, yellow
fever and heat stroke.
Of this group of volunteer physicians
the only one mentioned
in the actual doings of organized medicine
in Ohio are Dr. William
J. Trevitt and Dr. E. K. Chamberlain.
Dr. Trevitt of Franklin
County was elected to membership in
1846. He served as dele-
gate to the National Medical Association
in Cincinnati at the
Convention of 1850. He was also
physician to the Penitentiary.
He was secretary of the Ohio State
Medical Society in 1851. In
1847, Dr. E. K. Chamberlain was elected
to membership. He
was also listed as a member of the
Committee on Ethics at the
Convention in Cleveland in 1852. The
names of the other volun-
teers do not appear in the membership
lists available for that
period.
In discussing General Lanis' Brigade in
Central Mexico, Dr.
Albert G. Brackett of an Indiana
regiment spoke of severe gastro-
intestinal reactions among a group of
soldiers on a trip for Vera
Cruz, in September, 1847. He believed
these reactions resulted
from castor bean poisoning and commented
that, "such sickness
as prevailed in our camp that night
would have broken the heart
of a homeopathic physician. It makes me
sick at the stomach to
think about it." He added that,
"Drs. Langdon, Brower, and
Foote rendered them every
assistance."
One must assume that this is just about
what the group of
Ohio physician volunteers did, namely,
the routine medical care
of their regiments, with the inadequate
and miserable equipment.
These unsung and for the most part
unremembered medical pio-
neers helped to bring about the glory of
the army surgeon. The
262
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
surgeon after this war was to be
considered as an officer and a
gentleman. There were no Lawsons,
Porters, Horwitz's or De-
Leons among the Ohio Volunteers but they
must have been a
goodly crew since many of the Ohio
Volunteers remained to be
mustered out with the regiments.
SAMUEL ROBINSON: CHAMPION OF THE
THOMSONIAN SYSTEM
By PHILIP D. JORDAN, PH.D.
Thomsonian medicine, as a system of
medical botany, cre-
ated a decided stir both among
physicians and the laity during
the nineteenth century when so many
curious panaceas were being
sponsored by scientific groups and by
social organizations. The
Thomsonian school was represented in
Ohio, not only by scores
of physicians, but also by medical
journals dedicated to the dictum
that the "flora of our country will
yet so enlarge and establish
her dominion as to supercede the
necessity of all other remedies."
There is small need to describe in
general or in detail the influence
of "Dr." Samuel Thomson upon
the history of medicine in Ohio.
That has been done elsewhere.
From time to time, however, the medical
historian interested in
the annals of Thomsonianism in the
Buckeye State finds supple-
mentary evidence that, if properly interpreted,
sheds additional
light upon a particularly colorful
chapter in the history of science.
The following discussion presents
another fragment which may fit
into the smaller picture of the
Thomsonian system in Ohio as well
as into the larger frame of reference
of the narrative of medicine
in the United States during the first
half of the nineteenth century.
In June, 1829, two "steam
doctors" of Cincinnati, named
Willis and Wilson, inserted
advertisements in Queen City news-
papers announcing that a Samuel Robinson
had been engaged to
deliver a series of lectures upon the
rapidly-growing Thomsonian
system of botanic medicine.1 As both
Willis and Wilson had been
advertising botanic medicines imported
from the East for sale and
had been dispensing this herbal
pharmacopoeia both in wholesale
and in retail lots to the profession as
well as to the layman, it
1 Liberty Hall and Cincinnati
Gazette, June 11, 1829.
(263)
264 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
may be legitimately inferred that the
booking of Robinson was
calculated to serve a double purpose.
First, to stimulate interest
in Thomsonianism and second, by this
interest, to increase the sale
of botanic supplies. Such procedure, of
course, was not uncom-
mon in the day when medical schools
competed fiercely for candi-
dates, when body-snatching was the rule
rather than the exception,
and when a dozen or more scientific and
medical philosophies
were challenging the authenticity of one
another.
Robinson's first lecture was scheduled
for Saturday, June 27,
1829, at candlelight in Talbert's
schoolroom. Admission was not
exorbitant, but was high enough for the
times. A single lecture
cost the earnest seeker after health via
the Thomsonian method
the sum of 25¢; gentlemen and
ladies were charged $1.50 for
the entire course of fifteen talks, and
practitioners were forced to
pay $3.00.2 Talbert's school was just
one of about fifty private
institutions located in Cincinnati
during the late twenties and
stood on Fifth Street between Vine and
Race streets.3 Although
the school was mentioned briefly in a
description of Cincinnati,
there was no mention that it was used at
times for private lectures.4
Apparently, however, Robinson, backed by
the two steam
doctors, delivered his lectures
according to schedule, and pre-
sumably the early residents of
Cincinnati came to hear him, al-
though there seems to be no testimony to
indicate the number who
actually attended either single lectures
or the entire course. Neither
is there evidence to show how local
physicians of other schools
of thought responded to this series of
addresses. It might be
relatively safe to assume that some
residents turned out either
from curiosity or from illness to hear
Robinson, and that a few
physicians might also have been present.
Such conclusions, how-
ever, are mere conjecture.
There is no doubt that illness ravaged
the Queen City popu-
lation and that then, as now, the laity
hurried from one school
of medicine to another in the hope of
securing relief from either
real or imaginary pain. Daniel Drake
pointed out in an early
2 Cincinnati Emporium, June 22, 1829.
3 Charles T. Greve, Centennial
History of Cincinnati (Chicago, 1904), 1, 545.
4 B. Drake and E. D. Mansfield, Cincinnati
in 1826 (Cincinnati. 1827), 43.
OHIO MEDICAL
HISTORY, 1835-58 265
work the diseases to which the Miami
Valley resident fell prey.
Although Drake expressed the belief that
the Miami country was
generally healthy, he also said that
Cincinnati and environs offered
a variety of typical frontier diseases,
including "pulmonary con-
sumption," cholera, croup, and
bilious and typhus fevers.5 He also
described the typical training of a
back-country physician during
the early years of the century.6 A
case, for these reasons, could be
made to support the hypothesis that
probably the prevalent interest
in health among the people of a frontier
community and the
curiosity of at least some physicians
resulted in a fair attendance
at Robinson's series of addresses.
There is, however, another bit of
evidence that seems to sup-
port the hypothesis that not only were
the residents of Cincinnati
and surrounding country more than mildly
interested in Robinson's
remarks, but that pioneers throughout a
rather large area of Ohio
exhibited some curiosity.
On September 17, 1829, Horton Howard, a
Columbus printer
and publisher, attested that he had just
published Robinson's lec-
tures as delivered in Cincinnati. The
volume, an octavo running
to 199 pages, was entitled A Course
of Fifteen Lectures, on Med-
ical Botany.7 It seems impossible to determine today either how
many copies of this work were printed or
how well it was re-
ceived by the practitioner and the
public. That it must have
attracted more than ordinary attention
is evidenced by the fact
that at least six editions were
published.8 It is entirely possible
that when all the volumes in the
long-delayed Ohio Imprints
Inventory are published, other copies--and perhaps editions--will
be located in the State and elsewhere.
It is worthy of note, how-
ever, that Sabin in his monumental
directory does not list the
volume.9 Even if other copies should be
located, Robinson's
series of lectures still would be
considered a rarity.
5 Daniel Drake, Natural and
Statistical View, or Picture of Cincinnati and the
Miami Country (Cincinnati, 1815), 179-86.
6 Daniel Drake, Discourses (Cincinnati,
1852), 52-6.
7 A Course of Fifteen Lectures, on Medical Botany,
Denominated Thomson's New
Theory of Medical Practice; in Which
the Various Theories that Have Preceded it
Are Reviewed and Compared; Delivered
in Cincinnati, Ohio [nine lines of
verse],
Columbus: Printed and Published by
Horton Howard. 1829. Covington Collection
(Miami University Library, Oxford,
Ohio).
8 Surgeon-General's Office, Index-Catalogue
of the Library (Washington, 1891),
XII, 265; ibid. (Washington,
1909), 2 Ser., XIV, 660.
9 Joseph Sabin, Dictionary of Books
Relating to America (New York, 1868-1936).
266
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
After the first edition of 1828, a
second was published in Bos-
ton by J. Howe in 1830. In the same year
still another edition
was brought out in Columbus. Five years
later, J. Pike and
Company of Columbus printed another of
205 pages and, at the
same time, a 216-page variant was
produced in Boston by J. Q.
Adams. In 1834, that is between the time
that Howe in Boston
printed an edition and that Pike and
Adams brought out their
editions dated 1835, Howe in Boston
published still another
variant edition. To sum up: the original
edition was printed in
Columbus in 1829; this was followed by
Columbus and Boston
editions in 1830 which, in turn, were
followed by another Boston
edition in 1834; in 1835, still another
edition was printed in Co-
lumbus and another in Boston. As far as
can now be determined
Robinson produced only one other work
devoted to medicine. In
1832 he wrote and had published in Cincinnati a
thirteen-page
pamphlet entitled A Lecture
Introductory to a Course on the
Science of Life.
The fact that Robinson delivered his
talks in June in Cincin-
nati and published them in September in
Columbus, leads to some
interesting speculations, particularly
as few biographical details
now are available. Who was Samuel
Robinson? Was he a physi-
cian in the sense that he had been
tutored in the time-honored
manner or had attended a medical college
of his day? Where was
the place of his birth and when was he
born? Was he one of
the steady stream of emigrants who
trekked into the Northwest
Territory during the early years of the
nineteenth century? Or,
was he a native Buckeye who had been
impressed by the new
system of botanic healing? Perhaps he
was only a traveling lec-
turer who earned his living, as did so
many glib talkers of his
day, by snaring the gullible public with
honeyed words? Did he
settle in Ohio, or did he follow the
frontier as it pressed west-
ward into the trans-Mississippi region?
Was he the author of
other medical volumes? Why did he speak
in Cincinnati and
publish in Columbus? When and where did
he die?
The majority of these questions can not
now be answered
with assurance, but the Cincinnati
directories offer a few tangible
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 267
clues. In 1828 and in 1831, a Samuel
Robinson was listed, al-
though he was not characterized as a
physician. In 1829, a
Samuel Robinson, described as a
"lecturer" on historical subjects,
was boarding at D. Davenport's. In 1831,
a Samuel Robinson,
"lecturer on philosophy and
history," was boarding at W. Porter's.
In 1834, an unidentified Samuel was
listed. Before and after
these dates there are no possible
entries.10 Until more intensive
research is completed there seems little
hope of knowing more.
Fortunately, however, the lectures
themselves shed some light
upon the author. Robinson, in his
preface to the reader, said that
a "combination of causes"
induced him to examine the system of
medical botany and to deliver his series
of lectures. He described
himself as "but a pioneer in a path
unknown" whose only purpose
was to aid in relieving the maladies of
the human race by direct-
ing the sick to a "mode of practice
safe and salutary, at once
within the reach of their attainments
and pecuniary resources."11
In addition, Robinson consistently
speaks of physicians as if he
were not one of them.12 Indeed,
Robinson does not describe him-
self upon the title page of his volume
as a physician as he most
assuredly would have done had he the
slightest claim to the title.
Then again, he apparently thought it
desirable or perhaps neces-
sary to append a sort of bibliography to
his book wherein he listed
some seventy-six authors, ranging from
the Greeks to the mod-
erns, whom he had consulted in the
preparation of his lectures.13
It seems a safe assumption that the
average frontier physician
would have been unfamiliar with many of
these citations. The
evidence that Robinson was more learned
than the average physi-
cian is indicated again in the text. His
lectures abound with his-
torical, philosophical and classical
allusions and seem devoid of the
scientific language and medical
vocabulary of even the average
doctor of his day. Robinson spoke glibly
enough of mercury,
arsenic, corrosive sublimate, white
vitrol, antimony, tartar emetic,
iron and opium, but a careful
examination of the text lends cre-
dence to the belief that he spoke of
them as a foreigner rather
10 Eleanor S. Wilby to Edgar W. King, Cincinnati, March 16, 1942.
11 Samuel Robinson, A
Course of Fifteen Lectures, iii.
12 Ibid., iv.
13 Ibid., [200].
268
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
than as a scientist who had actually
used an elementary materia
medica.14 One can almost observe him hard at work paraphrasing
and rearranging the words of the
authorities whom he laboriously
consulted. Then again, his knowledge of
even the rudimentary
anatomy of his day aids to build the
case against his being a
practitioner. There is still further
evidence. Although Robinson,
from time to time, quotes case
histories, he never speaks of a case
that he treated and only once does he
mention a case that came
under his own observation.15 This exception occurs when Robin-
son is speaking of surgery and says he
saw a patient perish be-
cause the operator was inattentive,
lacked a firm hand, "a fixed
eye and a determined soul."16 As
it was not uncommon for a
layman to be present or even in
attendance in the crude surgical
theater of the frontier home during
early days, it is entirely
conceivable that Robinson did witness
such an event, but even
here it is clearly understood that he
was not the operator, and it
seems doubtful that his presence was any
more than as an in-
terested witness. The preponderance of
evidence, then, seems to
indicate that Robinson was not a medical
man.
If Robinson was not a physician, what
was he? There is no
doubt that he was highly educated,
extremely well read and that
he possessed a literary style which,
although florid, was equal, if
not superior, to that of the common man.
His book abounds with
literary, philosophical and metaphysical
allusions. At times, his
prose is tinctured with religion, but
there is little internal evidence
to indicate that he was a clergyman. No
evidence at present
exists to show that he knew anything
about the law except in an
academic sense and he does not write as
a schoolmaster although,
at times, his language is obtuse enough
to be that of a professor.
It is obvious that he was not engaged in
trade and commerce.
The process of elimination, then, seems
to leave only one field of
activity.
Robinson probably was the historical and
philosophical lec-
turer who was boarding in Cincinnati in
1829
and 1831. As the
14 Ibid., 116.
15
Ibid., 118-9.
16 Ibid., 66.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY,
1835-58 269
directories prior to 1828 list no Samuel
Robinson, it seems safe
to assume that he arrived in the Queen
City about 1827 or early
in 1828. Again, it seems fairly safe to
assume that he came from
the East and that he had been
well-trained in the standard classical
curriculum of his day. As the Cincinnati
directory did not list
Robinson in 1839, it seems a logical
inference that the lecturer
left Cincinnati sometime after he
delivered his series of lectures
in June, 1829, and moved to Columbus
where he had his book
published in September. He may have
remained in Columbus
for several months and might even have
gone elsewhere, but it
appears that he was again in Cincinnati
in 1831, and perhaps in
1832. What happened to him after that
must be the subject
of further research.
Robinson's lectures added nothing really
new to a knowledge
of what constituted the Thomsonian
system of botanic medicine.
When summing up the three important
results of what Robinson
believed to be the essence of the
Thomsonian system, he said
briefly that "it removes
obstructions, restores the appetite, and
invigorates the powers of life."17
He continued to describe the
effects of botanic medication upon the
patient as like a sound and
refreshing sleep after which the sick
man "rises restored and
strengthened, like a giant refreshed by
wine!"
That Robinson's lectures met opposition
in some quarters,
probably among physicians alien to the
Thomsonian school, can
not be doubted. The author himself hints
broadly at criticism
when he writes: "We are sometimes
forced into opposition with
our best friends; it is extremely
painful. I was often, since the
commencement of these Lectures, on the
very point of abandoning
them forever, and wished I had never
begun the subject; but as
I progressed, and witnessed the salutary
results of this new prac-
tice, I did verily believe that I was
serving God and my country,
in striving to diffuse a knowledge of
its doctrines."18
It is entirely possible, although
perhaps not probable, that
Queen City opposition to Robinson's
championing of the Thom-
sonian system prompted him to forsake
Cincinnati and travel to
17 Ibid., 193.
18 Ibid.
270 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Columbus until he thought it safe once
again to return and to
resume his occupation as an historical
and philosophical lecturer.
Up to this time, however, there is no
evidence that Samuel Robin-
son ever again spoke or wrote upon
medical practice nor, it seems,
ever again took up cudgels for botanic
medicine. His course of
lectures, however, offer an interesting
and valuable, although
minor, insight into the chapter of
Thomsonianism in Ohio.
THE EARLY USE OF THE MICROSCOPE IN OHIO
By RUSSELL L. HADEN, M.D.
The compound microscope invented in 1590 made possible
the observation of a new world of minute
things. The practical
application of this instrument, however,
developed very slowly.
No field of science, for instance, has
profited more from the rev-
elations of the microscope than
medicine. Bacteria, protozoa
and many animal parasites were observed
by the early micro-
scopists, yet the microscope was not
used generally in medicine or
even for the instruction of medical
students until after a lapse
of nearly three hundred years.
While Galileo as early as 1610 observed with
a microscope
the finer structures of certain insects,
the serious early use of the
microscope in science began in 1665 with
Robert Hooke's Micro-
graphia and was continued by Marcello Malpighi, Jan Swammer-
dam, Nehemiah Grew and Anton Van
Leeuwenhoek. The class-
ical period of the microscope ended with
Leeuwenhoek's death
in 1723. Many of the workers of this
period were only random
observers. A few such as Swammerdam and
Malpighi really
advanced knowledge.
Relatively few books on the microscope were written
during
the eighteenth century, and very few
improvements were made in
the mechanics of the microscope. The
compound microscope re-
mained much as Hooke left it. Among the
more important books
were Henry Baker's The Microscope
Made Easy (1742) and Em-
ployment for the Microscope (1753), George Adams' Micro-
graphia Illustrata (1746) and Benjamin Martin's Micrographia
Nova (1742). These writers described the microscopes then in
use and certain observations made with
them, but no serious at-
tempt was made to study nature
systematically. Microscopy as
such may be said to have been in a state
of stagnation. Often the
microscope was only a plaything or an
object of amusement.
(271)
272 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Further advances in the nineteenth
century followed several
important developments. One of the most
important was the
manufacture of the achromatic lens in
1827 by Amici. Hereto-
fore chromatic aberration had interfered
greatly with the study
of the finer structures of magnified
objects. In 1838-1839 the cell
theory of Schwann and Schleiden
appeared, which revolutioned
previous ideas concerning the structure
of living tissues. This
was followed by the cellular pathology
of Virchow in 1858.
Coincident with such developments a
number of excellent works
on the microscope appeared which aroused
a new interest in the
microscope and gave a great impetus to
its application in science
and in education. Among the important
books of this period were
Sir David Brewster's Treatise on the
Microscope (1837), John
Queckett's Practical Treatise on the
Microscope (1848), Peter
Harting's Das Microscop (1848-1850),
and Jabez Hogge's Micro-
scope (1854) which went through many editions. At the same
time such books as Lionel Beale's Microscope
and Its Application
to Clinical Medicine (1854) appeared, emphasizing the application
of the microscope to definite fields.
Little is known about the early use of
the microscope in
America. Cotton Mather in 16891 in a
Thanksgiving sermon
stated: "By the assistance of
microscopes have I seen animals of
which many hundreds would not equal a
grain of sand." He
never traveled far from Boston, so
there may have been micro-
scopes there at that time. Mather again
in his Christian Philos-
oper (1721) in discussing insects says: "How minute but
how
astonishingly curious must be the
joints, the muscles, the tendons,
and the nerves necessary to perform the
motions of these mar-
velous creatures. These things concur
even in the smallest ani-
malcules and such as cannot be seen
without our microscopes."2
Mather was a Fellow of the Royal Society
of England.
Probably the first microscope known to
be in this country
was at Harvard College. Thomas Hollis to
whom Cotton Mather
dedicated his Christian Philosopher sent
from London in 1732 a
1 This sermon is in the rare book room at the Widener
Library, Harvard Univer-
sity, from which the writer obtained a
photostatic copy.
2 Cotton Mather, The Christian
Philosopher: A Collection of the Best Discoveries
in Nature with Religious Improvements
(London, 1721), 150.
OHIO MEDICAL hISTORY, 1835-58 273
Wilson simple microscope for the use of
the college.3 Hollis says:
"I hope Mr. Professor Greenwood
will make good use of each for
ye promoting useful knowledge and ye
advancement of natural
and revealed religion." Edward Bromfield of the Harvard class
of 1742 had several microscopes and made
numerous observations
with them before his early death in
1746. His work is mentioned
most enthusiastically by his pastor, the
Rev. Thomas Prince, in
writing about him after his death.4
One of the earliest records in America
concerning the pur-
chase of a microscope by a school is a
bill of sale for a solar
microscope5 bought by
Transylvania University in 1805. This
microscope and bill of sale are still preserved
at Lexington in the
Transylvania collection. There is also
an upright Cuff micro-
scope of about the same date which was
evidently purchased
about the same time. Among the books
bought for Transylva-
nia's medical library, and still there,
were Baker's Employment
for the Microscope and The Microscope Made Easy.
The earliest record the writer could
find of a microscope in
Ohio is recounted by Dr. Frederick C.
Waite in a paper concern-
ing an old microscope now belonging to
Western Reserve Uni-
versity.6 This microscope was bought in 1838 by Dr. John Dele-
mater in Geneva, New York, from Charles
A. Spencer, who only
three months before had begun to
manufacture microscopes.
Delemater moved to Willoughby, Ohio, in
1839 to teach in the
medical department of Lake Erie
University and in 1843 went to
Cleveland to found with Dr. Erastus
Cushing the school which
was to become the medical department of
Western Reserve Uni-
versity. Waite thinks that no single
teacher of his time had so
wide an influence on medical education
as Delemater with the
possible exception of Daniel Drake, yet
there is no record of his
use of the microscope. This instrument
was used in 1870 by Dr.
Isaac Himes in teaching pathology. This
microscope purchased
3 Frederick T. Lewis, "The Hollises
and Harvard," Harvard Graduate Magazine
(Cambridge), XLII (December, 1933), 107.
4 American Magazine (Boston), November 30, 1746.
5 A
copy of the hill of sale was kindly furnished the writer by Mrs. Charles F
Norton, the librarian of Transylvania College.
6 Frederick C. Waite, The Personal Tale
of a Microscope: A Whimsy Based
Throughout on Recorded Evidence,
Unpublished. Dr. Waite has kindly allowed the
writer to quote from this paper.
274 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
by Delemater for $25 was the
thirty-seventh made by Spencer.
Spencer's thirty-second microscope is
now in the United States
National Museum labeled as the oldest
known American made
microscope.
About the middle of the eighteenth
century interest in the
microscope became more evident
especially in relation to medi-
cine. It was natural that the use of the
microscope should be
confined largely to medicine at this
period, since the major part
of teaching in science was then in
medical schools. The use of
the microscope in Ohio colleges came
somewhat later. Dr. Ed-
win G. Conklin--for so long the
professor of biology at Prince-
ton--in his early history of biology7
at Ohio Wesleyan during
his student days, 1880-1885, states that
only one microscope was
available. This was a Zentmayer made in
1876. At Wittenberg
College H. R. Geiger, the professor of
natural sciences, had a
single microscope made after 1876. This
microscope is still pre-
served at the college.8 The
situation in other Ohio colleges was
much the same, so it is evident that
little application was made of
the microscope for teaching college
students before 1885.
There are a few striking examples of the
intelligent early
use of the microscope in Ohio by
non-medical men. Edward
Morley, the distinguished physicist who
became professor of
natural history and chemistry at Western
Reserve College at
Hudson, Ohio, in 1868, was a Fellow of
the Royal Microscopic
Society. One of his first scientific
papers on measurements of
Moller's Diatomaceen-Probe-Platten was
published in the Jour-
nal of the Royal Microscopic Society in 1876.9 A
second paper
concerning measurements of rulings on
glass appeared in 1877.10
Morley's microscope is now preserved in the department of
chemistry at Adelbert College. Jacob
Cox, Jr., was using a
microscope about 1870 in Cincinnati as
an amateur student of
science, later becoming a distinguished
microscopist.
The use of the microscope in medicine is
earlier, however.
7 E. G. Conklin. "Early Stages of the
Department of Biology" Ohio Wesleyan
Magazine (Delaware), IX (March, 1932), 117.
8 Personal communication from Dean C. G.
Shatzer.
9 E. W. Morley, Monthly Microscopical Journal (London), XV (1876),
223-7.
10 Ibid., XVII (1877), 137-43.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY,
1835-58 275
than in the colleges. The writer has
reviewed the transactions
of the Ohio State Medical Association,
founded in 1846, and the
early Ohio medical journals with
reference to the microscope.
In the Western Lancet and Hospital
Reporter11 for Novem-
ber, 1849, R. D. Mussey, the professor
of surgery in the Medical
College of Ohio, speaks of examining
with a microscope the con-
densation of vapors emanated from the
lungs of a patient suffer-
ing from cholera and of finding a
multitude of animalcules which
moved in all directions. He also
observed a long slender ani-
malcule in the rice water discharges. An
editorial in the same
journal for February, 1854,12 says: "The distinguished Mr.
Goadby of London, who for many years has
devoted himself to
microscopical investigation is now in
this city (Cincinnati). He
is prepared with instruments and
specimens sufficient to give full
instruction in the minute tissues of
both the vegetable and animal
kingdoms. Some of his specimens are rare
and beautiful."
In the Ohio Medical and Surgical
Journal for November,
1851,13
this sentiment is expressed: "The
medical profession is
awakening to the importance of this
subject (microscopy) and
we trust the day is not far distant when
microscopy will be taught
as a prominent department in every
medical college and the
microscope shall be considered necessary
to complete the arma-
mentarium of every physician and
surgeon." In the same journal
in 185914 in discussing microscopy the
statement is made: "This
young science is receiving a very
respectable share of attention
in our city (Columbus)."
The first reference15 to the microscope
in the Transactions
of the Ohio State Medical Association
was during the eleventh
annual meeting in Columbus in 1856 where
it is noted that Dr.
J. G. F. Holston made some interesting
remarks on the micro-
scope and its uses. Holston and two
others were appointed a
committee to report at the next meeting
of the society on the re-
lationship of the microscope to
pathology.
11 R.
D. Mussey, Western Lancet and Hospital Reporter (Cincinnati), TX (Novem-
ber, 1849), 293.
12 Editorial, Western Lancet and
Hospital Reporter (Cincinnati), XV (February,
1854), 117.
13 Ohio Medical and Surgical Journal (Columbus), IV (1851), 161.
14 Ibid., XI (1859), 65.
15 Transactions of the Ohio State
Medical Association (Columbus), 1856.
276 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Among the papers presented at the
meeting of the associa-
tion in Columbus in 1857 was one by
Holston entitled "Report
of a case in which a pumpkin seed formed
the nucleus for a
vesical calculus in the male subject;
with an appendix on micro-
scopes and microscopy." In this paper Holston discussed the
possible value of the microscope to
pathology. Mentioning
Spencer and other workers, he said
America produced the best
microscopes in the world. He recommended
for cheapness and
goodness a microscope supplied by
McAllister and Brother of
Philadelphia for $32. This was a
vertical Oberhauser micro-
scope made in Paris. Two microscopes
were exhibited, but no
statement was made about the type. At
another meeting in 1857,
Holston presented an additional report
saying he had sent 100
questionnaires to individual members of
the medical profession
of Ohio about the microscope and had
received only one reply
couched in two or three lines. At the
same meeting Dr. Gundry,
chairman of a committee on the
relationship of the microscope to
pathology, made a report which was not
published. At the meet-
ing in 1864 a committee composed of
Gundry, Holston and Mus-
sey was appointed to report on the
microscope with its applica-
tion to practical medicine. No published
report was made before
the committee was discontinued in 1868.
The committee on the
microscope was one of the many appointed
to report on widely
different subjects such as monomania,
castration, uterine catarrh,
hernia cerebri, gastric irritation and
excision of the clitoris.
During this period the microscope seemed
to be an object of
curiosity rather than a scientific tool.
Starling Loving16 in his
history of Starling Medical College
states that the school in 1848 possessed
one microscope "already
well advanced in years." He also
says: "At the opening of the
session of 1855-1856, Dr. Richard
Gundry, an English physician,
who had been induced by Professor Moore
to come to Columbus
and engage in general practice was
requested to give the students
lessons in microscopy, a department of
learning which was then
beginning to be appreciated but which
was not taught systemati-
16 The writer is indebted to Dr. B. K. Wiseman of the Ohio State Medical
School
for these references.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 277
cally in any school of the country and
in but few elsewhere. The
doctor's lessons excited much interest
and enthusiasm not only
among the medical students but among
many laymen interested in
scientific studies and Columbus soon
became famous for the num-
ber and excellence of instruments and
cultural aims of the gentle-
men who owned and used them."
The microscope was being similarly
introduced in other
cities and in other schools. O. W. Holmes
was using a micro-
scope for demonstration at Harvard in
1850, but microscopes
were not used by medical students there
until 1880.17 At the
University of Pennsylvania Medical
School the first use of micro-
scopes by students was in the session of
1874-1875, although
Leidy, the professor of anatomy must
have made use of the
microscope in studying trichinae in
1845.18 Victor C. Vaughan
at the University of Michigan in 1876
had only two microscopes
for his classes. In the same year he
bought six more at the
Sesquicentennial Exposition in
Philadelphia.19 The Medical Col-
lege of Ohio in the annual circular for
1871 mentioned microscopy
among other courses.20 The
Miami Medical College in Cincinnati
stated in the announcement for 1875-1876
that a large addition
had been made to the building explicitly
for the prosecution of
the study of practical chemistry,
toxicology and microscopy.
Again in 1876 the statement is made that
each student is practi-
cally trained in the use of the
microscope.20 The annual circular
of the Cleveland Medical College for
1878 in mentioning physi-
ology and histology states: "In
this branch full and practical in-
struction will be given in the use of
the microscope." Probably
a single instrument was available.
While some general interest in the
microscope developed
about 1850 in this country, it is evident
that the use of the micro-
scope was limited to a rare instrument
in the hands of a professor
who occasionally may have employed the
microscope for student
demonstrations or to an exceptional
practicing physician who for
some reason was ahead of his time and
fellow doctors in owning
17 Personal communication from Dr. S. B.
Wolbach.
18 Personal communication from Dr. E. B.
Krumbhaar.
19 Quoted from the Drs. Mayo, University
of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis, 1941.
20 The writer is indebted to Dr.
David Tucker of Cincinnati for these references.
278 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and using a microscope. Beginning about
1875 microscopes be-
gan to get into the hands of students in
the more progressive col-
leges and medical schools. They were not
generally used, however,
until about 1890. The discovery of the
tubercule bacillus in 1882
and rapid advances in bacteriology,
histology and tissue pathology
evidently stimulated the general use of
microscopes. In West-
ern Reserve University the first
microscopes for student use were
bought in 1888. Dr. George Crile told
the writer that the Wooster
Medical College from which he graduated
in 1887 had at that
time no microscope.
The increase in interest in microscopy
rapidly became general
in the eighties. Many laymen took up
microscopy as an avoca-
tion. Most cities had a microscopic
society. In Columbus there
was a microscopic section of the Tyndall
Association. Rev. T. F.
Stidham, the secretary of this
organization in Columbus, was one
of the founders of the American
Microscopic Society in 1878.
Numerous Ohio names were among the early
members of the
national society, and at the fourth
annual meeting of the American
Microscopic Society held in Columbus in
1881, several papers
were presented by Ohio members. The
eighth annual meeting
was held in Cleveland in 1885. The
Cleveland Microscopic So-
ciety entertained the visiting members
at a soiree at which the
exhibits ranged from the "Lord's
Prayer Viewed Through a
Pinhole" to eggs of the bedbug and
the bacilli of tuberculosis.
Forty-four of the 97 exhibits were by
physicians, one of whom,
Dr. John Sawyer, is still living in
Cleveland. Jacob Cox, Jr., of
Cincinnati, previously mentioned, was
elected a member of the
American Microscopic Society in 1882 and
was president in 1884.
Among the old microscopes in the
collection of the Medical
Library Association of Cleveland are
those of numerous early
Cleveland physicians. These include the
instruments of Gustav
Weber (1828-1912), Christian Sihler (1848-1920),
Henry Brain-
ard (1845-1930), and W. T. Corlett
(1854- ). Dr. Corlett
purchased his microscope in 1881. The
others mentioned were
used still earlier. It seems remarkable
to an observer today that
microscopes were so long in coming into
general use.
THE FORMATION OF THE ECLECTIC SCHOOL
IN CINCINNATI
By RALPH TAYLOR, M.D.
It is now more than a century since the
first Eclectic College
was organized in Ohio and the century
mark for the Eclectic
Medical Institute will soon be reached.
It is difficult to visualize
the social, domestic and commercial life
of the country when
these schools were founded. The writer
doubts if one can thor-
oughly visualize Ohio without a single
college of any appreciable
size, instead of one in almost every
town of consequence, as now.
In those early days a very large per
cent (sometimes esti-
mated as high as 90%) of the medical
profession held no medical
degree. Then education consisted of
"Reading medicine" under
a preceptor, and quite often doctors
were launched on their pro-
fessional career after a few months of
such training. Even
among the teachers in medical college
were found men with no
other degree than an M. D.
Because of dissatisfaction and
disappointment with the
crudity of some of such practitioners,
others were seeking a
gentler and more scientific method of
handling the sick. Thus
arose the so-called reform schools of
which there were several in
the beginning.
The pharmacy of a century ago was also
very crude and
some of the concoctions were repulsive
and nauseous; they might
well have been prepared to exorcise
devils. If for no other rea-
son than their insistence upon and their
assistance in developing
potent and palatable medicines the
smaller schools should feel
their existence as being justified.
No discussion of reform medicine in Ohio
and especially of
the Eclectic Medical College of
Cincinnati, can well be separated
from the name of one man. Dr. T. Vaughn
Morrow, who came
(279)
280
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to this State and was actively connected
with the Eclectic School,
when this was a department of
Worthington College, realized the
impossibility of a continuance of any
medical teaching in this
location after the enforced demise of
his department, and soon
moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. There, in
conjuction with Lorenzo
E. Jones, A. H. Baldridge and James
Kilbourne, Jr., he opened
the Reformed Medical School of
Cincinnati. This institution had
no charter, hence no legal standing.
Opening with a single student, it grew
rapidly. Two terms
of lectures were conducted each year and
the Western Medical
Reformer was published again. In 1845, with a class of thirty
students, inspiration was given to seek
a charter. Much opposi-
tion was encountered in the General
Assembly, through whom
they must obtain this charter.
In the discussion of this bill an
extraordinary compliment was
paid the medical profession by one Dr.
O'Ferrall, chairman
of the Committee on Medical Colleges and
Medical Societies, who
stated in his discussion that
"Medical Science does not need, nor
is it susceptible of further improvement
or reform." The bill
was passed, however, and a charter
issued to the Eclectic Medical
Institute of Cincinnati.
Colonel James Kilbourne, having been
very active in assist-
ing in the work before the Legislature,
was duly presented at his
home town of Worthington with a silver
pitcher, ornamented and
properly inscribed. Thus was the Eclectic Medical Institute
launched upon its course. Three terms of
lectures were given
each year and diplomas awarded at the
end of any term.
In this year there was added to the
aforementioned faculty
Dr. Wooster Beach, who is known as the
father of Eclecticism,
as professor of Clinical Surgery and
Medicine, and Dr. Joseph
Rhodes Buchanan as professor of
Physiology, Institutes of
Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence. Soon
the name "Eclectic"
replaced the term "Reformed
Medicine"; other Eclectic colleges
began to appear. The Scientific and
Eclectic Medical Institute
of Virginia was chartered in 1847. Also
active antagonism was
started against all reform and Eclectic
physicians by the domi-
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 281
nant school of medicine. This was
probably the provoking cause
for a circular address to the medical
profession of the United
States, in which the Eclectic Medical
Institute embodied the fol-
lowing:
The leading doctrines of the Eclectic
Medical profession, to sus-
tain which this Institute has been established is: That the investiga-
tion and the practice of medicine should
be entirely free and un-
trammeled; that no Central Body, no
Association, combination or
conspiracy, should have the power to
prescribe a certain standard of
faith or Medical Creed which shall be
received and forced upon
every member of the profession by threat
of professional disgrace and
ruin. We recognize every enlightened,
educated and honest physician
as standing upon the same platform of
professional respectability and
enjoying the same rights no matter what
doctrines he may advocate
in medicine or what system of practice
he may deem it his duty to
adopt.
The fees for the first course in the
Institute were five dollars
for each professor. In January of 1846 a
clinic was established
and the fees for the spring and summer
course were fixed at
thirty dollars, plus three dollars for
matriculation. Ministers and
theological students were admitted to
lectures upon payment of
the matriculation fee, possibly upon the
theory that they should
know more about the abode of the soul.
By the fall of 1846 a new college
building was completed,
built at a cost of $12,000 and capable of
caring for four hundred
students, which was quite an achievement
for that early date.
The annual report for 1847 records
eighty-one students for the
winter session, forty-six for the spring
session and thirty-one
graduates. On May 25, 1848, an assembly of physicians from
over the United States convened at the
Eclectic Medical Institute
and the National Eclectic Medical
Association was formed with
Dr. T. V. Morrow as president. This was thought to be an
agent both to cement the Eclectics of
the country together and to
aid in maintaining interest in the
college.
In 1849 a resolution to establish a
chair of Homeopathy
was passed and in the fall of that year
Dr. Storm Rosa, of
Painesville, Ohio, assumed this position.
The arrangement proved
unsatisfactory and was discontinued the
following year. Six
282
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
graduates, however, were given diplomas
both as Eclectic and
Homeopathic physicians; thus placing the
credit for the first
Homeopathic graduate in Ohio with the
Institute.
On July 16, 1850, Thomas Vaughn Morrow
died and the
Institute was bereaved of its most
inspiring apostle of Eclecti-
cism. His death was followed by a period
of confusion and dis-
sension within the faculty itself. Drs.
L. E. Jones and B. L. Hill
and Mrs. T. V. Morrow, who were involved
financially in the
Institute, made overtures to Dr. Robert
S. Newton of the Mem-
phis Medical Institute, inviting him to
take part in the manage-
ment of the Eclectic Medical Institute.
After a short correspond-
ence Dr. Newton came to Cincinnati for a
conference and as a
final result the entire faculty of the
Memphis Institute resigned
and five of its members came to
Cincinnati. They were Drs.
Robert S. Newton, W. Byrd Powell, Zoheth
Freeman, Milton
Sanders and John King. Drs. King and
Powell refused for
personal reasons to accept appointments.
Under a later reor-
ganization, however, both accepted
chairs and were very active
and valuable adjuncts to the school. The
faculty at this time
(1851-1852) consisted
of J. R. Buchanan (Dean), J. G. Jones,
M.D., R. S. Newton, M. D., B. L. Hill,
M. D., Z. Freeman,
M. D., L. E. Jones, M. D., J. Milton
Sanders, M. D., A. M., L. L.
D., and Orin E. Newton, M. D.
A three weeks gratuitous course of
lectures was given in the
fall. Tickets for a full course of
lectures (until graduation)
were one hundred dollars in advance or a
well indorsed note for
one hundred and twenty-five dollars. For
a single course of lec-
tures the fee was sixty dollars in
advance or an acceptable note
for seventy dollars. The matriculation
fee was five dollars and
the graduation fee fifteen dollars. A
demonstrator's ticket cost
five dollars.
Changes in the faculty were now quite
frequent due to
resignations. Dr. Hill resigned and
accepted the chair of surgery
in the Cleveland Homoeopathic College;
Dr. King now accepted
an appointment and succeeded Dr. Hill.
Dr. I. G. Jones, because
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 283
of failing health, stepped out; Dr.
Beach was dropped by the new
organization and the faculty of 1852
consisted of four members:
Drs. L. E. Jones, R. S. Newton, John
King and J. R. Buchanan.
At this juncture Dr. Buchanan conceived
the idea of and plan for
free medical education, theorizing that
the aggregate income
would be greater and the sale of books
increased and incomes
from private lectures abundant.
Objections to this scheme brought
about the resignation of Professors Z.
Freeman and J. Milton
Sanders.
So-called free education was put into
operation by the
abolishing of all fees, except ten
dollars for matriculation, five
dollars for dissection and a graduation
fee of twenty dollars.
New Eclectic books began to appear. King
and Newton's United
States Eclectic Dispensatory was now completed and used as text
book. Jealousies and personal
animosities which began at this
time caused a very stormy condition at
the school for several
years. One member was expelled from the
faculty upon accusa-
tion of another. This accusation was
later refuted. Several op-
position schools sprang up in Louisville
and one in Cincinnati.
While annoying, these schools did not
materially injure the In-
stitute. The faculty of the Institute in
1853 was composed of
eight very good men. The fees remained
low but the student
body was of a fair number. Up to 1855
there had been 2,145
matriculants and 593 graduates, and this
indicates at least a
thriving condition for the ten years of
its exixstence.
The next two years were the stormiest of
all the career of
the school. Owing to chicanery and
jealousies, two sets of trustees
were elected in 1856. This resulted in a
pitched battle for pos-
session of the college building, which
was followed by a suit at
law for a decision as to ownership. The
defeated party proceeded
to open a new school and graduated a
class of twenty-nine, and
in the fall of 1856 filed Articles of
Association with the Hamil-
ton County Auditor for the purpose of
creating the Eclectic Col-
lege of Medicine. This college, with a
faculty of able men, con-
tinued until 1859.
Owing to decreased income from a
lessened student body,
284 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the necessity of uniting the two schools
was forced upon them
and in December, 1859, this union was
accomplished with the
following faculty: H. D. Garrison, M.
D., chemistry, pharmacy
and toxicology; J. F. Judge, M. D., with
the same subjects;
L. E. Jones, materia medica,
therapeutics and medical botany;
Charles F. Hart, M. D., physiology and
medical jurisprudence;
Zoheth Freeman, M. D., surgery and
surgical practice; J. M.
Scudder, M. D., theory and practice of
medicine and pathology;
R. S. Newton, M. D., clinical medicine
and surgery; Edwin
Freeman, M. D., general, special and
pathological anatomy; John
King, M. D., obstetrics and diseases of
women and children;
A. J. Howe, M. D., demonstrative anatomy
and surgery; W.
Sherwood, M. D., emeritus professor of
practice and pathology.
The fees were not materially changed,
the total for one term
being fifty-five dollars. At this time
Dr. Kost's Materia Medica
was introduced as a text book. The
following year these eclectic
books were introduced: Materia
Medica, by Jones, Scudder,
et al.; Theory and Practice, by Newton Powell, et al.; and Ob-
stetrics, by King, Scudder and Beach. The fees per term now
aggregated eighty-five dollars.
In the winter of 1861 the Eclectic
Dispensary of Cincinnati
was opened and patients received daily
at 2:30 P. M., thus giving
students some practical instructions.
The following year (1852)
the financial state of the college was
marasmic and its demise
seriously threatened. At this juncture
Dr. J. M. Scudder stepped
in and apparently gained a controlling
interest. Having a keen
business and administrative mind, he
soon had the college on its
feet and going in a prosperous manner.
In fact, from this time
until his death he was such a dominant
figure that the Institute
became known as "Scudder's
School." It soon had the largest
enrollment of any medical college in the
city and up to 1862 had
graduated 1,002 doctors.
At this time classes in all medical
schools were small, prob-
ably because of young men being drafted
for the war and of the
unsettled conditions because of this
war. In 1863 but thirteen
were granted diplomas in the winter and
nine in May. No public
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 285
commencement was held but the degrees
quietly conferred in the
college building. The classes gradually
increased, as did the text
books by eclectic authors. In 1867 Dr.
Scudder's "Principles of
Medicine" and Dr. King's
"Chronic Diseases" were published.
Dr. Scudder began writing in the Eclectic
Medical Journal
about "Specific Remedies" and
"Specific Medication." In 1870
this series of papers was published in
book form under the title
of "Specific Medication and
Specific Medicines." This book had
a very marked influence on the teaching
of therapy in the college,
as well as encouraging the manufacture
of a standard line of
botanical medicines.
In November, 1869, fire partially
destroyed the college build-
ing and arrangements were immediately
made for new quarters
and classes continued uninterruptedly.
Repairs were soon made
and classes resumed in the old building,
as it has since been
known, until the fall of 1871, when a
new building was dedicated.
This building was modern, for its time,
and sufficiently com-
modious to care for the student body
from that time forward.
At the dedication there was an
assemblage of eclectic physicians
from over most of the United States and
ceremonies held during
the greater part of the day, October 5,
1871.
There was now estimated to be over five
thousand eclectic
physicians in the United States. From
this time forward the
college ran an almost uninterrupted
course, with Drs. Scudder,
King and Howe a strong trio and guides
for its course. They
must have been highly esteemed by the
students, as attested to by
the number of their sons bearing the
given name of Scudder,
Howe or King, or some combination of
these names.
The faculty of 1871 was composed of
these three men and
L. E. Jones, the two Freemans and J. F.
Judge. Changes from
this time were fewer. L. E. Jones was
retired because of age;
Dr. J. F. Locke took the chair of Medica
Materia and Thera-
peutics in the term of 1873-1874. In
July, 1874, John Allard
Jaencon, M. D., of Newport, Kentucky,
was appointed to the
chair of Chemistry and Physiology; he
was a very able scholar
and teacher. That same year Dr. Scudder
published his work of
286 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Specific Diagnosis. No particular changes were made either in
policy or teaching force until 1877,
when, yielding to popular
prejudice, the school discontinued
admitting women students.
Prior to this time about one hundred
women had been graduated.
A separate department, however, was made
for women and a class
of eight attended the winter session and
six the spring session.
At this time they were still having
three sessions a year.
In the session of 1878-1879 Professor
Jaencon taught physi-
ology only and John Uri Lloyd took over
the chemistry. Prior
to this time he (Lloyd) had been very
highly esteemed by the
trio, King, Scudder and Howe, and
through their influence allied
himself with the Eclectic Cause and the
manufacture of medicines
according to their liking. Even though
he had no academic
training he became one of the best known
and respected chemists
and pharmacists in the United States and
his renown no doubt
was a great asset to the school.
In 1879 the year's work was changed to
two sessions, com-
mencing in September and ending in May.
Diplomas were given
only in May and the recipients were
required to have had training
in a physician's office. There was an effort
made to improve the
quality of teaching and extend the time
of attendance. The term
was lengthened to twenty weeks instead
of sixteen and the work
intensified. Thirty-six lectures were
given each week with an
additional twelve hours per week in the hospital. Dissections
were held at night.
For the following nine years no changes
were made in the
personnel of the teaching staff; but
during this time considerable
activity was shown in revisions and new
publications of Eclectic
literature. In 1880 Dr. Jaencon began
the publication of his
Anatomical Atlas, which was a classic. Lloyd's Chemistry of
Medicine appeared in 1881. Jones and Scudder's Materia Medica
and Therapeutics was revised and came out bearing only Scudder's
name. The Institute was in its most
prosperous period at this
time and of the six medical schools in
Cincinnati, the Eclectic
Medical Institute led in revenues to the
city.
Age now began to tell on the leaders. In
1887 Dr. Scudder
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58
287
was forced to relinquish a part of his
work to Dr. R. L. Thomas,
who eventually succeeded him in his
entire work. Professor Ed-
win Freeman was forced to retire because
of ill health and was
succeeded by Dr. W. E. Bloyer of
Catawba, Ohio.
In 1890 a laboratory of chemistry and a
physiological and
histological laboratory were added to
the college. Dr. Lyman
Watkins was put in charge of the latter;
he remained with the
college during the remainder of his life
and filled other chairs
with credit. Professor King at this time
also was forced to re-
lease part of his work to Dr. Robert C.
Wintermuth of Delaware,
Ohio; during the year 1891-1892 all of
his work was taken over
by Dr. Wintermuth.
In 1891
the Eclectic Medical Institute received a
silver medal
and diploma appropriately worded from
the Exposition Univer-
selle of France. This was conferred for
a collection of catalogues
of graduates. A bound volume of Eclectic
Medical Journals for
1888 and eighteen text 'books written by
members of the faculty.
The display was deposited in the
Bibliotheque Medicale at the
conclusion of the exposition.
January 16, 1892, saw the active duty of the trio, Scudder,
King and Howe, terminated by the death of
Andrew Jackson
Howe. In 1893 Professor King passed away
and 1894 saw the
demise of John M. Scudder. Among the
alumni were capable
men to step into the breach and the
college went smoothly on.
Dr. Locke was elected dean; a number of
younger men were
added to the staff and additional
courses inaugurated; Dr. Wil-
liam Byrd Scudder was given the chair of
Ophthalmology and
Otolaryngology; Dr. William Mundy of
Forest, Ohio, was ap-
pointed professor of Physical Diagnosis,
Hygiene and Clinical
Diseases of Children. Dr. Bishop
McMillan was elected profes-
sor of Nervous Diseases. A free
dispensary and clinic was opened
and adequately manned.
The Institute was now leading all the
Eclectic colleges in
matriculants and graduates. In May,
1895, the school year was
established as one session of eight
months and matriculants after
288
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
September 16, 1895, were required to
attend three years of lec-
tures, including in addition four years
of reading medicine.
Now the following men were added to the
teaching staff: Dr.
L. E. Russell of Springfield, Ohio, to
teach Surgery and Oper-
ative Gynecology; and John R. Spencer of
Cincinnati, to instruct
in Electro Therapeutics.
From this time forward the Institute
progressed as any other
reputable medical school. The various
branches of medicine and
surgery were taught in a thoroughly
modern manner. The stu-
dents were admitted to clinics and
lectures in the Cincinnati Gen-
eral Hospital on a par with those from
other medical schools.
New members of the teaching force were
drawn from the
Alumni of the Institute. The required
attendance was increased
to four years. Seton Hospital, a modern,
fully equipped hospital,
was made accessible to the students in 1901. Lloyds Library was
also made available. But after a few
years the requirements of
modern teaching became so great that a
privately conducted
school could not carry on and, with no
outside help available, it
was deemed best to close the
institution. After a shut down of
two years it was reopened with a younger
and more enthusiastic
faculty, but this venture was only short
lived, and while the char-
ter still existed until March 17, 1942,
there had been no activity
in the old Institute for some time.
CHOLERA IN CINCINNATI
By E. W. MITCHELL, M.D.
A worldwide epidemic of cholera,
beginning in far-off India
in 1826, reached Russia in 1829, England
in 1831 and was brought
to this country in 1832 by immigrants
landing in Quebec.
Dr. Daniel Drake, with characteristic
foresight, published
early in 1832 a paper on cholera, its
causes, symptomology and
its treatment. The first case in
Cincinnati was that of a passen-
ger on a steamboat from Portsmouth. He
had left Kingston,
Canada, nine days before. The epidemic
spread in the city very
rapidly and caused great consternation.
Dr. Drake estimated
that 4% of the population was destroyed
in the three years--
1832, 1833 and 1834. The number of deaths in the first year
was 571; the total for three years was
831.* In his paper on the
disease, he held the view that the
disease was not contagious. He
reviewed the various causes of the
disease, mentioning among
others, the "animalicular,"
saying about it, "I think it explains
more of the facts than any other of the
hypotheses." It may be
recalled that in his great work he
suggests the same cause for
malaria. There followed an animated
discussion as to its being
contagious. Dr. Drake contended it was
not.
When it became a problem to care for the
numerous orphans
left by the epidemic, benevolent ladies
of the city founded the
Cincinnati Orphan Asylum with funds
contributed by the Ma-
sonic Lodge and other societies. The
city gave a building on the
ground which is now Lincoln Park. The
asylum was later re-
moved to Mount Auburn.
A second epidemic began in 1848. The
epidemic of 1832
was described by several papers in the Western
Journal of the
Medical and Physical Sciences. The best description of the sec-
* The population of the city at that
time was 30,000.
(289)
290 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ond epidemic is found in two papers. One
was a report read by
Dr. George Mendenhall at the annual
meeting of the American
Medical Association in Charleston, S.
C., in May, 1851, and later
published in their Transactions.
The other paper by Dr. Thomas Carroll
was published in the
Western Lancet beginning with the June number of 1854. He
writes, "As early as December 25,
1848, patients laboring under
cholera arrived at our landing from the
South and were hurried
through our midst to our Commercial
Hospital. The decks of
many steamboats on the Mississippi
became charnel houses at an
early period. From December 25 to
January 10, fourteen cases
came from the river, there were seven or
eight from the city.
There were few deaths up to May 10 when
Judge John Brough,
a prominent citizen, died of the
disease. This producing general
alarm and consternation. Between this
date and June 15, sev-
enty-five people died." Death
seemed to stare everyone in the
face. In one family, out of eight
attacked, six died within ten
or twelve days. In a comparatively small
house there were four-
teen deaths. In a small district in the
region of Clarke and
Rittenhouse Street, sixty-nine of a
population of three hundred
died. The crest of the wave was reached
in July, there being on
the fourth, one hundred and thirty
deaths. On the fifth, seven
more were added to this list. From May 1
to August 30 there
were four thousand one hundred and
fourteen deaths from cho-
lera. The total deaths from all diseases
for this period being six
thousand four hundred and fifty-nine,
according to Mendenhall.
The population of the city was estimated
at this time to be about
one hundred thousand.
It is not strange that there should have
been a great deal of
confusion and dissatisfaction with the
Board of Health and con-
troversy about method of treatment.
There was quite a war
between the so-called
"Regulars" and "Irregulars," pamphlets
being published by each side as well as
numerous newspaper ar-
ticles. Dr. Carroll wrote about this
period, "Often the alarm of
the moment was the occasion of patients
being thrown in the
hands of quacks."
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 291
Drs. Pulte and Ehrman, leading
homeopathic practitioners,
published claims for the homeopathic
treatment of one thousand
one hundred and sixteen patients (sixty
to seventy of whom were
in deep collapse when coming under
treatment) with only thirty-
five deaths. Dr. Latta, editor of the Methodist
Expositor, after
having carried on the dispute for some
time in his journal, issued
a bulletin claiming to show gross
misinterpretation of the above
report. On the twenty-fourth of May, the
old board of health
was displaced by a new one composed of
one lawyer, one editor,
one dealer in spirits and one mechanic.
The treatment employed
at the cholera hospital is described by
Dr. Mendenhall as follows:
"Calomel in 1/2-dram
doses with three drams of camphor every
half-hour; after second half-hour,
camphor given with brandy,
the calomel given three to five time
only; cataplasm of mustard
applied over the abdomen as long as the
patient could endure it,
with emplastrum cantharides as a
substitute; cramps relieved by
friction with flannel wrung out of oil
of turpentine; warmth re-
stored to extremities by putting lumps
of lime in a stone pot,
water poured over the lime and the pot
placed between the pa-
tient's feet which were enveloped in a
blanket. In the most se-
vere cases in addition to the calomel, unguentun
hydrargyri was
applied externally. Opium was given
guardedly. This does not
differ greatly from the treatment of 1832, although
bleeding is
less frequently mentioned. Dr. Drake's
dose of calomel was 20
to 60 grains and was "Always
required." The homeopaths gave
camphor in small doses frequently
repeated. The Eclectic Medi-
cal Journal (February, 1849) advised opium, cordial stimulants,
perspiration induced by external heat,
mild warm diluent drinks
given freely.
The epidemic in 1866 was milder in
degree and less exten-
sive in this country than the two
preceding epidemics. It also
came from the South and in the Lancet
and Observer, September,
1866, Dr. Carroll described the disease
as it occurred in Cincin-
nati. The invasion began about the last
of July and reached its
height in August. There being on the
fifth ninety deaths, the
greatest number for any one day. In the
treatment one finds that
292
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
calomel was still given but instead of
half-dram doses, one or
perhaps five grains was the dosage. Dr.
Carroll's treatment of
the epidemic was as follows: In the
first stage calomel--five
grains, opium--I grain at bedtime,
followed the next morning by
castor oil or rhubarb. After the bowels
had moved bluepill--five
grains at bedtime every night or every
other night with one-fourth
grain of opium. After the irritation of
the stomach and bowels
subsided the patient was put upon the
Compound Tincture of
Bark and Brandy t. i. d. When the
patient was first seen in the
second stage, five grains of calomel
with 1/2 grain of opium every
ten minutes until twenty and two grains
respectively had been
taken. With each dose a teaspoonful of
brandy was to be given.
Other practitioners gave small doses of
calomel frequently re-
peated and various combinations of
capsicum, piperine, bismuth
and tannin. Most physicians used opium,
though some objected
to it. On August 16, Mercy Hospital was
opened for the care of
cholera patients and closed September 1.
Dr. David Judkins was
chairman of the committee in charge. Dr.
George Courtright
served as attending physician. Fifty
patients were treated in this
hospital with twenty-five deaths.
Professor Roberts Bartholow
published an interesting paper in the Lancet
and Observer (1866,
p. 652) entitled "Observations
Pathological and Experimental,
in Cholera." He reported a number
of experiments on dogs with
rather indefinite results. The
laboratory era had begun. As
routine treatment Dr. Bartholow advised
a prescription as fol-
lows: Dilute sulphuric acid two drams,
Tincture of Opii Camph.
six drams, Aquae Camphorae one ounce--a
teaspoonful every
fifteen minutes to one hour.
The number of deaths during this
epidemic was 2,028. A
smaller number relative to the
population than in the preceding
epidemic. The disease last visited
Cincinnati in 1873. The epi-
demic was less extensive and less fatal
than any of the preceding.
The number of deaths reported in the
United States was 7,336.
In Ohio 740 deaths, in Cincinnati 207.
The epidemic was most
severe in the Mississippi Valley. In
1874 Dr. J. J. Quinn, health
officer, published a report of 82 pages
with maps and charts (pre-
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 293
viously read to the Academy of
Medicine). At the first session
of the forty-third Congress a resolution
was passed and approved
by the President on March 25, 1874,
"Whereas an epidemic of
cholera had prevailed during 1873 in
various parts of the United
States causing deplorable mortality it
was ordered that a medical
officer of the army in connection with
the supervising surgeon of
the Marine Hospital service, should
ascertain the facts and make
a detailed report on or before Jan. 1,
1875." This work was
carried on under Asst. Surgeon Ely
McClellan and Dr. John M.
Woodworth, supervising surgeon of the
Marine Hospital service.
The exhaustive report covered 1000
pages. Dr. John S. Billings
contributed a full bibliography of
cholera up to that date. Dr.
William Clendenin, late health officer
of Cincinnati, contributed a
report on the epidemic in Cincinnati.
This report with recom-
mendation had so great an influence in
improving sanitary and
quarantine administration that the
disease has never gained a
foothold in this country since 1873.
During this time and includ-
ing 1873, much was written about
meterologic and geologic con-
ditions, overcrowding, bad food and
various other causes. In
1850 many observers drew attention to
water as a means of con-
veying the disease. By 1873
contamination of the water supplies
was generally recognized as a source of
infection and the belief in
its bacterial origin common among
advanced thinkers. Koch's
announcement of the discovery of the
causative organism came
in 1884.
DENTAL EDUCATION IN OHIO
1838-1858
By EDWARD C. MILLS, D.D.S.
With the unprecedented tide of
immigration to Ohio during
the early decades of the nineteenth
century came the physician as
a necessary adjunct to the widely
scattered communities for the
preservation of health and the
consequent prosperity of those
sturdy pioneers. His praises have been
largely unsung because,
in addition to his administrations to
the medical needs of the
community, his attention was necessarily
also given to dental ail-
ments, and in the absence of a
representative of the ministry, he
offered moral and spiritual consolation
in times of distress.
Later came the dentist, whose practice
was of an itinerate
nature, due to a scattered population,
and continued as such until
the growth of towns justified a
permanent location. Many of
these dentists had been medically
trained, and--fortunately for
dentistry--had adopted dentistry as a
calling in preference to
medicine.
There was no school for dental
instruction throughout the
whole world and anyone desirous of
becoming a dentist was
usually superficially taught by some
practitioner whose own abil-
ity, as a general rule, was of
questionable quality. Nor was this
knowledge to be gratuitous; such secrets
as the practitioners pos-
sessed were safeguarded, and to those
who sought advice, these
were only imparted for a consideration.
This preceptor-student
relationship was popular, previous to
the establishment of the
dental school, and, even after such an
institution was legally
chartered, it was recognized to the
extent that one or two years
under a preceptor of established ability
was accepted as an equiv-
alent to one year of college
instruction. It is a matter of record
that some dentists of recognized ability
did not take so kindly to
(294)
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 295
the advent of the dental college since
they were satisfied with a
preceptor's fee and the work the student
was obliged to do for
them during his pupilage. The spirit of
secretiveness in dental
principles and practice continued as
late as the advent of the first
dental journal in 1839. When the American
Journal of Dental
Science was in embryo, no less a personage than Dr. Horace H.
Hayden of Baltimore found fault with the
enterprise, alleging
that he "had labored too hard and
too long in the acquisition of
professional knowledge to sow it
broadcast through the land by
means of a magazine."
The spirit of selfishness was doomed by
the events that were
to follow in the advent of the dental
journal, the organization of
dental societies and the college--which
followed each other in
rapid succession (1839-1840).
The first semblance of a school where
instruction was given
in dentistry, was at Bainbridge, Ohio.
Dr. John Harris, formerly
of Madison (now Madisonville), Ohio, a
practitioner of medicine
until 1820, and of medicine and dentistry
from 1820 until as late
as 1830, here conducted a school of
medical instruction between
1825 and 1830.1
In this primitive school the necessity
for a medico-dental
education, and how it could be secured,
was discussed by John
Harris and two of his pupils, his
brother, Chapin A. Harris, and
James Taylor. The idea at first was to
have a dental department
as an adjunct to a medical college, but
this did not meet with full
favor. Chapin A. Harris, founder of the
Baltimore College, how-
ever attempted the plan, but without
success; he did organize the
school in 1840--the first dental college
in the world--as a separate
institution. In this connection,
attention should be called to an
unauthoritative and misleading statement
in a recent catalogue
of the Baltimore College of Dental
Surgery, to-wit: "In 1831
Dr. Chapin A. Harris came to Baltimore
to study under Hayden.
Dr. Harris was a man of unusual ability,
and possessed special
qualifications . . . etc." The
author of this statement no doubt
knew that Dr. Harris located in
Baltimore in 1835, and also where
1 Journal of the American Dental Association (Chicago), XIX
(1932), 363-89;
Dental Items of Interest (New York), LXIII (1941), 517-36.
296
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Dr. Harris had received his early dental
instruction; also that he
had practiced dentistry at Bloomfield,
Ohio, and Fredericksburg,
Virginia, before going to Baltimore.
Taking the above state-
ment at face value, Harris surely proved
an exceedingly apt
student--indeed a peer to his so-called
teacher, because in 1839--
four years after locating in
Baltimore--he published The Dental
Art, which, by 1898, had passed through thirteen editions as
Principles and Practice of Dental
Surgery; he was also founder
and editor of the American Journal of
Dental Science, in 1839 and
author of the first Dental
Dictionary, in 1849
To James Taylor fell the distinction of
founding the second
dental college at Cincinnati in 1845,
and his efforts to have it as a
separate department in a medical college
(The Ohio Medical Col-
lege), was fortunately a failure, as
will be shown below. Within
the past two years, an attempt has been
made to deprive Dr. Tay-
lor of this honor, but the evidence here
presented was published
during the lifetime of some of the
people mentioned, and there
is no evidence of any dissension of
opinion among his contempor-
aries.
In an article lauding the work and
qualifications of B. P.
Aydelotte, M. D., D. D., one of the
founders and the first president
of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery,
which was published in
the Dental Register (Cincinnati,
Ohio, January, 1870, pages 9-12,
edited by Drs. J. Taft and James Watt),
reference is made to the
difficulty of establishing the
institution referred to above:
No funds, no buildings, no apparatus,
and with but few competent
teachers. However, through patience,
labor, and anxiety, which en-
dured year after year, success crowned
their perseverance. . . . the
happy result was mainly owing, under
divine blessing, to the faith-
ful cooperation of two of the original
professors--Dr. James Taylor
and Dr. Melancthon Rogers, especially to
the strong common sense,
the forbearance, and the practical
wisdom of the former. Dr. Taylor
has clung to the institution with a
hopeful spirit, and unflagging energy
in every trial until now it has hosts of
friends and a position among
the best medical schools in the country.
Our readers, we doubt not, will peruse
with pleasure, the following
very brief sketch of facts by Prof.
James Taylor, and equally con-
fident are we that they will regard the
want of success which Dr.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 297
Taylor and his associates met with, on
their application to the Faculty
of the Ohio Medical College, as a most
happy, providential dis-
appointment. A mere professorship
appended to the faculty of an-
other college, would have been of little
benefit and must have been
short lived. While thankful then to these early friends of Dental
Science, and the Dental Profession, both
they and we have ample
reason to be satisfied with the result.
A quotation from Dr. James Taylor
explains:
After one or two interviews with some
two or three members of
the Faculty of the Medical College of
Ohio, with reference to a Chair
of Practical Dentistry attached to their
school, and which was thought
impracticable, I first called on Dr.
Rogers and opened up the subject to
him, after which we called on Dr. Cook,
and we then secured the
charter,--Dr. Rogers and Dr. Cook both
going to Columbus for that
purpose. These are the more secret facts
of our early organization.
and I have never until now felt disposed
to publish them, feeling that
it was unnecessary.
Dr. Archibald Berry, a member of the
first class to graduate
from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery,
published in the Dental
Register, XXXVI (1882), 186, the following under the caption
of "Founding of the Ohio College of
Dental Surgery":
About four years ago (1878) the writer
interviewed Dr. Rogers on
the origin of the Ohio College of Dental
Surgery. He said: "Drs.
Taylor and Cook came to my office and
spoke to me on the subject of
getting up a dental college. We talked
the matter over, prepared a
charter, and Dr. Cook went to Columbus
and got a Bill of Incorpora-
tion through the lower house. When it
was time for it to come before
the Senate approached, I went to
Columbus to attend to it, and met
Dr. Allen2 who was there two
days before me. The other dentists of
the city (Cincinnati) had not been
consulted in regard to the college,
and they sent Dr. Allen to work against
it. Their chief objection was
that the charter did not provide for a
board of trustees and the college
was to be controlled by the professors.
Dr. Allen and I called on the
chairman of the Senate Committee having
charge of the Bill, and he
said, "Gentlemen, agree between
yourselves concerning the charter,
and let me know."
Dr. Allen is a gentleman, and we had no
difficulty in arranging
the matter. We altered the charter to
have a board of trustees and I
had the nominating of the first member
of it who would be the presi-
dent, and named Dr. Aydelotte, a friend
of mine.
2 John Allen (1810-1902) was also a
student of Dr. John Harris at Bainbridge. He
located in Cincinnati where he remained
until 1854, when he moved to New York
City. He was a pioneer in Porcelain Dental Art.
298
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
We called again on the chairman, who
said to us: "Gentlemen,
you may go home; I will see that the
Bill passes." It was passed with-
out any objection. (Laws of Ohio, 43rd
General Assembly, Vol.
43, 1844-45).
A building, previously occupied for
educational purposes on
College St., was rented and the college
opened in the autumn
of 1845.
It is important that some concept be had
of the conditions
in Ohio previous to the organization of
the Ohio College of Dental
Surgery. The practice of medicine prior
to 1811, was unre-
stricted, when the Legislature
established districts in each of
which was a Board of Examiners for the
purpose of examining
candidates for the practice of
"physic, midwifery and surgery."
The first medical school was founded in
1819 as the Medical
College of Ohio, in Cincinnati; this
institution in 1833 merged
with the Miami Medical College, becoming
the Medical Depart-
ment of the University of Cincinnati.
Reference has been made
to this school in regard to founding the
Ohio College of Dental
Surgery.
It may be of interest to present at this
time the individuals
responsible for the organization and
founding of this--the Second
Dental College in the world. James
Taylor (1809-1881), Bain-
bridge, received his dental education
while a student of Dr. John
Harris in his School of Medical
Instruction at Bainbridge, Ohio,
and practiced medicine and dentistry
there. He matriculated at
the Transylvania College of Lexington,
Kentucky, in the session
of 1830-1831, giving as his preceptor,
Dr. John Harris. Dr. Tay-
lor attended one year--but in 1846 an honorary M.
D. degree was
conferred upon him. For several years
Dr. Taylor was an itiner-
ant between the North and South, and in
1834 devoted himself
wholly to dentistry, later locating
permanently in Cincinnati. Pre-
vious to the founding of the Baltimore
College of Dental Surgery
by Dr. Chapin A. Harris in 1840 (who had
also been a student
under his brother, Dr. John Harris of
Bainbridge), Chapin Harris
requested the assistance of Dr. Taylor
as a teacher in the proposed
college; this Taylor refused, as he had
determined to reside
permanently in Cincinnati, and at that
time was considering es-
OHIO
MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 299
tablishing a dental college in that
city. Dr. James Taylor later
became one of the organizers of the
Mississippi Valley Dental
Association of Dental Surgeons, editor
of the Dental Register,
and a contributor to dental literature.
Melancthon Rogers located in Cincinnati
in the practice of
medicine, but fortunately some cases of
dental origin turned his
attention to dentistry. He, also, was
one of the organizers of the
Mississippi Valley Dental Association of
Dental Surgeons. Dr.
Rogers was the first president of the
Cincinnati Dental Society
in 1844. He was born in Long Island, New
York, August 1,
1796, and died at Covington, Kentucky,
June 25, 1880.3
Jesse W. Cook was another charter member
of the Missis-
sippi Valley Association of Dental
Surgeons, and was its first
president in 1844.
The Act previously referred to, is given
below in its entirety:
SECOND DENTAL COLLEGE IN THE WORLD
The Ohio College of Dental Surgery was
the second dental college
and was the result of the efforts of Dr.
James Taylor. It was chartered
under the Laws of Ohio, Forty-third
General Assembly, Volume 43, for
1844-45.
AN ACT
To authorize the establishment of a
College of Dental Surgery.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the
General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That
B. P. Aydelotte, Robert Buchanon, Dr.
Israel M. Dodge. William Johnson, J. P.
Cornell and Calvin Fletcher, of
Cincinnati, Dr. S. P. Hildreth, of Marietta, Dr.
G. S. P. Hempstead, of Portsmouth, and
Dr. Samuel Martin, of Xenia, and their
successors, are hereby constituted and
appointed a board of trustees, with power to
establish a College of Dental Surgery,
in the city of Cincinnati; and said board is
hereby declared to be a body corporate
and politic, with perpetual succession, and shall
be known by the name and style of the
Trustees of the Ohio College of Dental
Surgery, and the said board shall have
power to acquire, hold and convey property
for the endowment of said college; to
sue and be sued, contract and be contracted
with, plead and be impleaded, defend and
be defended, answer and be answered unto,
in all courts and places, and in all
matters and causes whatsoever; provided that no
part of the estate, either real or
personal, which said corporation may, at any time,
acquire, shall be employed in the
business of banking or for any other purpose than
that designated by this act; and
provided, also, that the revenues arising from the
property which said incorporation shall
be permitted to hold, for the purpose above
specified, shall not exceed the sum of
five thousand dollars per annum.
Sec. 2. That the said incorporation may
have a common seal, which may be
altered, broken, or renewed, at
pleasure.
Sec. 3. That the officers of said
incorporation shall be a president, vice-president,
register and treasurer, who shall be
elected annually, by said board of trustees at such
time and in such manner as the said
board may direct, and shall hold their offices
until their successors are chosen.
Sec. 4. That the trustees of the
aforesaid incorporation shall have full power to
create and establish such professorships
as they may deem necessary for said College,
and that they may at any time, appoint
or dismiss all such professors or lecturers as
they may think proper, also to make and
ordain such by-laws, rules and regulations as
3 Obituary in Dental Cosmos (Philadelphia),
XXII (1880), 439.
300
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
they may deem necessary for the
government and well being of said College; provided
that such by-laws rules and regulations
are not in consistant with the constitution and
laws of this state and of the United
States; and provided, also, that no branches of
medical science shall be taught except
those necessary to dental surgery [.]
Sec. 5. That all vacancies which may
occur from death, resignation, or otherwise,
in the board of trustees of the
aforesaid incorporation, shall be filled by the remaining
members of said board.
Sec. 6. That the said board of trustees
shall have power and are hereby author-
ized to confer the degree of Doctor of
Dental Surgery, and grant diplomas for the
same, under the seal of the
incorporation; provided that no diploma thus granted shall
confer any privilege farther than the
practice of dental surgery.
Sec. 7. That the said corporation shall
be subject to all the regulations and lia-
bilities of an act instituting
proceedings against corporations not possessing banking
powers, and to provide for the
regulation of corporations generally, passed March
seventh, one thousand eight hundred and
forty-two.
Sec. 8. This act shall take effect from
and after its passage.
JOHN M. GALLAGHER, Speaker of the
House of Representatives.
DAVID CHAMBERS, Speaker of the
Senate.
Upon the death of J. P. Cornell (born,
Jefferson Co., O., Jan.
12, 1812; died, Cinn., O., Jan. 14, 1849) the vacancy on the
Board
of Trustees was filled by the
appointment of Dr. Edward Taylor,
brother of Dr. James Taylor.
The Trustees mentioned in this Act met
early in the spring
of 1845 and organized the second dental
college. Rev. B. P.
Aydelotte, M. D., D. D. (born, Phila.,
Pa., Jan. 7, 1795; died,
Cinn., O., Sept. 10, 1880), was made
president, Israel M. Dodge,
M. D. (born, Waterford, Conn., Oct. 6,
1807; died, Cinn., O.,
March 1, 1872), was chosen as secretary,
with the departments
and professors, as follows:
Jesse W. Cook, M. D., D. D. S. Professor
of Anatomy and
Physiology.
James Taylor, D. D. S. Professor of
Practical Dentistry
and Pharmacy (Including the Operative
and Mechanical Depts.).
Melancthon Rogers, M. D., D. D. S. Professor of Dental
Pathology and Therapeutics.
Jesse P. Judkins, M. D. (born, O., June
1, 1815; died, Cinn.,
O., Dec. 6, 1867. A prominent anatomist
and physician of Cin-
cinnati), Demonstrator of Anatomy.
The location of the college was in a
building on College
Street, between Sixth and Seventh
Streets, built by one John B.
Talbot, an educator, which to some
extent met the needs of the
college at that time.
Dr. Jesse W. Cook, who had been elected
Dean, issued the
first "Annual Announcement" or
catalog, as follows:
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 301
Ohio College of Dental Surgery, in
Cincinnati, First Session, 1845-1846.
A liberal charter has been granted by
the legislature of this state, to
establish a college in Cincinnati, with
the above title.
The government of the institution is
placed in the hands of the follow-
ing board of trustees:
B. P. Aydelott, D.D., President.
Israel M. Dodge, M.D., Secretary.
Robert Buchanan.
Calvin Fletcher.
William Johnson.
J. P. Cornell of Cincinnati.
G. S. B. Hempstead, M.D., of Portsmouth.
Samuel Martin, M.D., of Xenia.
James P. Hildreth, M.D., of Marietta.
Faculty.
JESSE W. COOK, M.D., D.D.S.,
Professor of Dental Anatomy and
Physiology.
MELANCTHON ROGERS, M.D., D.D.S.,
Professor of Dental Pathology and
Therapeutics.
DR. JAMES TAYLOR, D.D.S.,
Professor of Practical Dentistry and
Pharmacy.
Arrangements are in progress for the
chemical chair, which will secure
a thorough course in that department.
The first session of lectures in the
institution will commence on the
first Monday of November, and continue
four months.
Terms of Admission.
The matriculating ticket will be $5.00.
The ticket of each professor
for the session will be $25.00.
Dissecting ticket (optional) $10.00.
Diploma fee, $25.00. The fees for a full
course will be $100.00 (ex-
clusive of the diploma fee) to be paid
in advance.
Graduation.
Candidates for graduation will be
required to have attended two full
courses of lectures, the last of which
shall have been in this institution.
A full course of lectures in the
Baltimore College of Dental Surgery,
or a full course in a regular medical
college, will be acknowledged as an
equivalent to a course in this
institution. The candidate must be twenty-
one years of age, of good moral
character, and have studied the profession
two years with a reputable practictioner
in dentistry.
A regular student of medicine, who has
studied one year or more, and
has taken a full course of lectures in a
regular medical college, may be a
candidate, after studying dentistry one
year with a reportable practitioner,
and taking one full course of lectures
in this institution.
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
A reputable practitioner in dentistry
who has been four years or more
in practice, shall be entitled to an
examination for a degree after attending
one full course in this college.
Each candidate will be required to
present and defend before the
faculty, a written thesis on some
subject relating to dental science, and be
subject to a critical examination upon
the theory and practice of dentistry.
Anatomy and Physiology.
General and descriptive anatomy will be
taught, in all its relations to
dental surgery, by demonstrations on the
subject, drawings and preparations.
Physiological remarks will be made in
connection with anatomical
demonstrations, so as to give to the
latter additional weight and interest.
Anatomy, thus united with physiology, is
here, as in medicine, the only
groundwork of a correct dental
education.
We are thus enabled to understand
something of the translation of
disease from one organ to another; to
trace the effects of obstructed den-
tition to every sensible fibre and to
understand, also, the reason why artificial
operations in mechanical dentistry so
frequently fail.
That the dental student may have every
opportunity of acquiring a
thorough knowledge of anatomy,
arrangements have been made with J. P.
Judkins, M. D., as demonstrator in the
dissecting-room (which office he
has held for the last six years in the
Ohio Medical College.)
Independent of his regular anatomical
demonstrations for this institu-
tion, Dr. Judkins we understand, will
deliver a private course of lectures on
descriptive and surgical anatomy, to
which the students of this college,
who take the demonstrator's ticket, will
be admitted without additional
charge.
Dental Pathology and Therapeutics.
It will be the province of this chair,
1st. To present a course of instruction
upon the elementary principles
of surgery with such reference to
general medicine as will enable the stu-
dent to investigate the phenomena of
diseases and appreciate their in-
fluences, directly and indirectly, upon
the diseases of the mouth and teeth.
To attend profitably this part of the
course, it is essential that the
student shall have carefully read some
of the standard elementary works
upon general surgery and practical
medicine; as most of the works on
dentistry pre-suppose the student to
have a knowledge of the general prin-
ciples of medical science.
2nd. To give a systematic course upon
the diseases of the mouth and
teeth, and the parts most intimately
connected with them, embracing a
critical investigation into their
causes, as well as the nature and application
of the modes of cure. For this part of
the course the student should have
previously studied our best standard
works on dental surgery.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 303
Practical Dentistry.
Every effort will be made to advance the
student in this department of
dental science. All the various
operations will be performed before the
class, and each student required to go
through with all the manipulations
of mechanical, as well as operative
dentistry. Arrangements are being
made which will give superior advantages
for the acquisition of this part
of the profession.
Practical knowledge, so important to the
dentist, should, in all cases,
be obtained before assuming the
responsible duties of a practitioner. In
dental offices, but limited opportunity
for acquiring such knowledge is gen-
erally afforded. To meet this difficulty
and present to the dental student an
opportunity for a thorough medico-dental
education, is the great object in
the establishment of our institution. It
is therefore intended that each stu-
dent who pursues a regular course in the
Ohio College of Dental Surgery,
shall be enabled on leaving, to
manufacture the teeth he requires for use,
(particularly block teeth) and also have
some experience in the practical
part of his profession.
Pharmacy
When we take into consideration the
fact, that disease of the dental
organs is generally induced by some
chemical agent, the study of dental
pharmacy assumes a magnitude but little
appreciated in general practice.
Such a course of lectures will be
delivered on this subject as will enable the
student to avoid the use of all improper
and pernicious articles, in the
various pharmaceutic preparations
necessary to be used in practice; and,
at the same time, direct the attention
to such remedies as will remove, as
far as possible, the proximate cause of
disease.
The faculty of the Ohio College of
Dental Surgery, in issuing this,
their first announcement, do it with
feelings of deep responsibility.
The establishment of a new institution
for the diffusion of scientific
knowledge even under the most favorable
auspices, is an undertaking of no
small magnitude.
Every year makes it more and more,
apparent that some standard of
dental attainment should be adopted--an
intelligent public now require this.
They feel that the continued impositions
practised by the ignorant pretender
need a remedy. The time has past, and we
hope forever, when a little
mechanical tack shall be considered
sufficient to guide the dentist in his
operations. There is no branch of
operative surgery which demands more
general knowledge. The student should
continually bear in mind that his
services will be required on a part of
the general organization, the least de-
rangement of which exerts an injurious
effect on the whole of the system.
Daily observation verifies the fact that
those who have most thoroughly
studied dentistry, as a science, and
have devoted most time and labor in
preparing for its practice, never fail
to be sustained by an enlightened
public.
304
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The monumental city in the east, and the
queen city in the west, now
claim the only dental colleges in the
world--both are regularly chartered in-
stitutions, possessing full power to
give instruction, confer degrees, etc.
Their object is to secure the elevation
of the dental profession and the re-
lief of human suffering. It is with
pleasure we can point to the east, and say,
"The dawn of a better day" has
opened upon us. We respectfully ask the
profession of the west and a liberal
public, if this light shall not be re-
flected ?
The intelligent of the dental, as well
as of the medical profession, have
been looking forward to the
establishment of such an institution in the
west, as one which the rapidly
increasing population of this valley urgently
demands. Every year adds more and more
to the number engaged in prac-
tice, and each year, as the science
keeps on in improvement,--its im-
portance is raised in the estimation of
the public; soon thousands instead
of hundreds will be required in this
department:--need we ask those who
really feel an interest in its
advancement, shall they be such as a confiding
public may look to with safety for
relief?
JESSE W. COOK, Dean.
For the session of 1845-1846 the total
number of students
was twenty-one, of whom eleven were from
Ohio, five from Ken-
tucky, two from Indiana, one from New
York, one from Missis-
sippi and one from Arkansas. The number
of graduates were
six: Archibald Berry, C. P. Van Houton,
B. A. Satterthwait, Wil-
liam B. Ross, John Jones and David P.
Hunt.
SECTORI SALUTEM
IN DOMINO
Nos. Collegii Chirurgiae Dentium
Ohiensis Curatores Professoresque,
hoc scripto testari volumus BARCLAY A.
SATTERTHWAIT, postquam se suosque
progressus in Chirurgia Dentium
probasset, e nobis titulum gradumque
Chirurgiae Dentium Doctoris consecutum
esse, et ei fruenda concessa emnia
privilegia honores immunitates atqua jura
quae hic aut usquam ad hunc
gradum concedi solent.
Cujus rei quo major esset fides Nos.
Sigillo communi appenso, chiro-
grapha apposuimus in Urbe Cincinnatis
die vicesimo septimo Mensis
Februarie Anno Salutis humanae MDCCCXLVI
atque Republicae Septuagesimo.
B. P. Aydelotte, D.D., Curatorum
Praeres.
I. M. Dodge, M.D., Curatorum Scriba.
Jesse W. Cook. M.D., D.D.S., Anaty.
and Phys. Profr.
Dr. James Taylor, D.D.S., Pract.
Dentistry and Pharmacy Profr.
Melancthon Rogers, M.D., D.D.S., Dental
Pathology and Therapeutics Profr.
Each graduate was presented with a copy
of the Holy Bible,
a custom which prevailed for many years.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 305
The building occupied by the college was
leased for a term
of ten years, with the privilege of
purchasing it during that period.
Through the efforts of Dr. James Taylor,
plans were made to pur-
chase the building through issuing
shares of stock to members
of the profession, and such others who
were friendly to the pro-
ject. With the November session in 1851,
the building was owned
by the profession with some
encumbrance. On February 19,
1852,
the stockholders held their first annual
meeting and the Ohio
Dental College Association was organized
and for its government
adopted the following Constitution:
PREAMBLE
The stockholders and alumni of the Ohio
College of Dental Surgery,
believing that the interests of dental
science require a more thorough course
of dental instruction than has
heretofore usually been afforded and that this
can be best accomplished by institutions
devoted expressly to this object, and
that associations entered into with the
proper spirit must afford increased
facilities for our mutual improvement,
and for the promotion of dental
science, and that to further the views
of those who have already engaged in
the enterprise of permanently founding
the Ohio College of Dental Sur-
gery; therefore, for the promotion of
these objects, and all such others as
may conduce to the advance of our
science, we adopt the following:
Constitution
Article I. This society shall be called
the Ohio Dental College Asso-
ciation.
Article II. The officers of this
association shall consist of a presi-
dent, two vice presidents, a secretary,
a treasurer, and an examining com-
mittee of five; three from the dental
and two from the medical profession,
who shall be chosen by ballot at each
Annual meeting of the Association
and who shall perform such duties as
usually pertain to their respective of-
fices.
Article III. The members of the
association shall consist of two
classes: 1. The holders of stock in the Ohio Dental College; 2. All
graduates of the institution may become
members on receiving a vote of
two-thirds of the members present
signing the constitution and obliging
themselves to pay annually into the
treasury a sum equal to the interest on
one share of stock.
Article IV. Any member may be expelled
by a vote of two-thirds
of the members present, for immoral or
unprofessional conduct.
Section 1. No expelled member shall have
any of his annual con-
tributions refunded but if he is a
stockholder he may sell his stock,
always giving the association the first
privilege as purchaser.
306
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Section 2. Stock may be sold or
transferred but the purchaser
shall not be entitled to membership
except by a vote of two-thirds of
the members present at any annual
meeting.
Section 3. The purchase of a share of
stock shall not entitle the
holder to membership unless he shall
receive a vote of two-thirds of
the members present.
Article V. The meetings of the
Association shall be held annually in
the Ohio Dental College in Cincinnati,
at 10:00 o'clock A. M. of the day pre-
ceding the annual commencement, and the
president may call a meeting
when requested by five members, and in
all meetings it shall require thirteen
to form a quorum.
Article VI. In all matters relating to
the property held by the associa-
tion, each stockholder shall have as
many votes as he may have shares of
stock, and in case of unavoidable
absence, he may vote by proxy.
Article VII. The constitution may be
altered or amended by a vote
of two-thirds present at any annual
meeting, except such change as would
affect the shares of stock: which
amendment must be proposed at one
annual meeting, and acted on at the
next.
Eighteen members were present and signed
the constitution;
eleven were represented by proxy. The
election of officers re-
sulted as follows: President, James
Taylor; First Vice-Presi-
dent, W. M. Wright; Second
Vice-President, Thomas Wood;
Secretary, Charles Bonsall; Treasurer,
Edward Taylor. This as-
sociation, thus organized, assumed
control of the affairs of the col-
lege both educational and financial.
Members of the Faculty and
the Board of Trustees being selected by
it.
Prior to 1852, an organization to become
a corporate body,
required a special Act of the
Legislature. From that period until
1879, the body could incorporate by
filing in its home county; and
since the latter date, it is a matter
within the province of the office
of the Secretary of State.
In this connection, it may be of
interest that about the time
of the organization of the Ohio Dental
Association the Legislature
passed an Act to enable the trustees of
colleges, academies, uni-
versities and other institutions for the
purpose of promoting
education to become bodies corporate.
Passed April 9, 1852, 50, Ohio
Laws, 128, Section 8, provides
for old institutions to come under the
provisions of this Act, by
complying with the requsitions therein
contained:
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 307
When any number of persons have procured
funds for establishing and
sustaining an academy, such persons may
adopt a corporate name, and
enter the same in the recorder's office
of the proper county, and proceed
to the election of such officers or
teachers as may be necessary.
Section 9 of the above Act: Any company
formed in pursuance with
this Act may increase its capital stock
in the following manner:
The Directors shall make out and sign a
certificate in which shall be
set forth the amount to which said
capital stock is to be increased and the
object: which certificate shall be
deposited in the office of the recorder of
the proper county, and by him recorded
in the same manner as the articles
of association and corporate names are
by this Act required to be recorded.
By the privilege of purchase, provided
for in the lease, the
original building was acquired for the
sum of approximately
$5,200
and the session of 1851-1852 was held in
the now owned
property. Plans and cost of improving
the newly acquired build-
ing, were presented by a committee
previously appointed, but a
desire to postpone action for another
year, was evident. The com-
mittee was authorized, however, to make
minor changes--cost not
to exceed the amount of money in the
treasury.
During the session of 1853-1854, the
original building not
meeting the requirements of the college,
it was decided to erect a
new building on the site of the old. At
the meeting of February
20,
1854,
in order to raise more funds, the trustees
were author-
ized to increase the number of shares of
stock from 38 to 50. By
a resolution, they were also authorized
to execute a mortgage on
the new college. The building committee
consisted of Drs. James
Taylor, Bonsall and Berry, and were
authorized to proceed with
the building, the cost not to exceed
$5,000.
At a meeting of February 19, 1855, the
building committee,
reported that the plans and proposals
presented at the last meeting
were postponed for a few weeks, to
ascertain the additional cost
of a stone front as had been suggested.
By that time, as material
and labor had advanced in price, the
proposals before them, were
withdrawn. With the new plan and
specifications, new bids were
asked. The lowest and most reliable was
selected, and a contract
made for the present building. This
contract amounted to $5,400,
and someone to superintend the erection
was to be paid $100.
Expenses in connection with a dissecting
room and vault amounted
308
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to $145.75. The committee advised that
they had means to meet
their engagements up to April I, when
the amount for $3,000 due
Messrs. Taylor and Talbot would have to
be paid; also $1,723.83
of borrowed money. They had an
arrangement made for $4,000
promised at that time on a mortgage of
five years at 10% plus
taxes.
Although forming the organization into a
corporate body
seemed to place it in an auspicious
condition, its voyage was not
to be over placid waters, as breakers
were to appear which had
to be overcome, especially in the
financing of the new building.
The committee which was appointed,
reported at a meeting
on February 18, 1856, that they had been
unable to secure a mort-
gage loan of $4,000 at 10%, and this
forced them to pay a heavier
rate of interest on the $3,000 due
Messrs. Taylor & Talbot. This
report showed an indebtedness of the
above amount with interest
of $334.94; $1,723.83 was borrowed with
interest of $310.27,
making a total of $5,369.04. Deducting
receipts, rents, etc. of
$1,088.46, left a balance of $4,280.58
due April 1, 1857.
The report for February, 1857, showed,
in addition to the
$4,280.58--interest, fees for
certificates of stock, etc. of $653.20--
or a total of $4,973.78. Two mortgages
had been negotiated, one
for $3,000 for five years, interest
payable annually at a rate of
1O%; another for
$1,000 on the same basis and rate. These mort-
gages, plus receipts for rent, stock,
etc. amounted to $4,774.40.
Deducting this amount from the
indebtedness, showed a balance to
be met of $199.38.
Dr. Taylor, in presenting this report,
stated that "the associ-
ation can point with pride to this
edifice as a part of its own work,
and may, with just feelings of pride,
say that no other Dental
Society can show such evidence of zeal
in laying broad the foun-
dations of Dental Science." He also
called attention to the fact
that in 1852, it was resolved that the
stockholders allow all moneys
accruing from interest on stock,
admission of members and other
sources, to be appropriated for the next
three years for repairs
and improvements on the college
building; in 1853, that time as
above resolved, was extended to six
years; in February, 1861, they
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 309
again relinquished interest on their
stock for a period of three
years. The stock bore interest at 6%,
which the faculty paid as
rent, and which was appropriated to
liquidate the debt incurred in
the erection of the building. It was
urged that graduates of the
school join the association as they were
required to pay--as dues
--6% of what constituted a share of stock.
During the period covered by this paper
the chairs were
filled chronologically as follows:
Deans--
1845 Jesse W. Cook, M. D., D. D. S.
Feb., 1846 Melancthon Rogers, M. D., D.
D. S.
Feb., 1847 James Taylor, M. D., D. D. S.
Dr. Taylor held
over without reelection until Feb., 1855
when he was re-
elected; at the close of the 1855-1856
session he declined
reelection and in Feb., 1856 George
Watt, M. D., D. D. S.,
was elected.
Feb., 1858 Jonathan Taft, M. D., D. D.
S., was elected; he
was succeeded by James Taylor, and he in
turn by Jonathan
Taft who continued as dean until 1878
when he was suc-
ceeded by Henry A. Smith, A. M., D. D.
S., who continued
as dean until death in 1913.
Dental Anatomy and Physiology
1845 Jesse W. Cook, resigned October
1847; 1847 J. F. Por-
ter, M. D., resigned Feb., 1848; 1848
Prof. John T. Shot-
well, resigned Feb., 1850; 1850 Thomas
Wood, M. D., re-
signed Feb., 1855; 1855 C. B. Chapman,
who was suc-
ceeded by Charles Kearns, M. D.
Dental Pathology and Therapeutics
1845 Melanchthon Rogers, resigned Feb., 1848; 1848 George
Mendenhall, M. D., resigned 1853; 1853
J. B. Smith, M. D.,
who was succeeded by George Watt, M. D.
Practical Dentistry and Pharmacy
1845 James Taylor, M. D.
In 1851 this chair became that of
Principles and Practice
of Dental Surgery, and in 1855 changed
to Institutes of
310
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Dental Science and assigned to James
Taylor who had been
incumbent of this department since 1845.
Demonstrator of Anatomy
1845 Jesse P. Judkins, M. D., resigned
October, 1847
Chemistry
1846 Elijah Slack, M. D., said to be the
first lecturer on this
science for dental students; 1848
Charles H. Raymond, re-
signed Dec., 1850; 1851 G. L. Van Emen,
D. D. S., lecturer
on Dental Chemistry.
1853 George Watt, lecturer on Chemistry
1854 George Kellogg, M. D.
In 1855 a chair of Chemistry and
Metallurgy was created.
1855 George Watt, who was succeeded by
H. A. Smith, D.
D. S.
Demonstrator of Mechanical Dentistry
1847 William M. Hunter; 1848 A. M.
Leslie, D. D. S.
In 1850 Chair of Mechanical Dentistry
created, filled by
A. M. Leslie who resigned in 1850 and
James Taylor filled
until end of session.
Demonstrator of Mechanical Dentistry and
Assistant Surgeon
in the Infirmary
1850 William H. King, D. D. S.
1851 John Allen, D. D. S.; 1853 H. R.
Smith, who resigned
in 1857, succeeded by Joseph Richardson,
M. D., D. D. S.,
who in turn was succeeded by C. M.
Wright, D. D. S.
Demonstrator of Operative and Mechanical
Dentistry
1851 G. L. Van Emen, D. D. S., resigned
in 1853 and duties
assumed by H. R. Smith, D. D. S.
1853 Chair of Operative and Mechanical
Dentistry divided
into two departments
(1) Chair of Operative Dentistry.
1853 John Allen, resigned Feb., 1854,
succeeded by
Jonathan Taft, who occupied the position
until 1878.
(2) Chair of Mechanical Dentistry
1853 H. R. Smith, D. D. S.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 311
1855 H. A. Smith of Oxford, was
appointed Demon-
strator of Operative and Mechanical
Dentistry. Con-
tinued as Demonstrator through
1858-1859.
In 1850 the following Resolution was
adopted by the Faculty:
That a committee of two from the medical
and three from the
dental profession be selected annually
to examine in connection
with the faculty, the candidates for
graduation. This was dis-
continued in 1860 as it was found that
some candidates had re-
ceived degrees who would have been
rejected if examined by the
faculty only.
The session of 1858-1859 opened with a
prelimary course
on October 18, and the regular session
on the first Monday of
November.
During the winter of 1861-1862, no
session of the College
was held. The graduates, 1845-1858,
numbered ninety-nine (99);
nine dentists had received honorary
degrees.
It is interesting to note that the
personnel of the Board of
Trustees named in the original charter
continued almost the same
until 1865, when an act to regulate
colleges of dental surgery was
passed by the Ohio Legislature. This
permitted the stockholders
to elect a new board of trustees, all
dentists, as follows:
G. W. Keely, Pres.; B. D. Wheeler,
Sec'y.; A. Berry;
A. S. Talbert; W. W. Allport; H. J.
McKellops; W. H.
Morgan; W. G. Redman; M. DeCamp.
At the close of the period covered in
this resume, the sphere
of influence of this school was evident
wherever dentistry was
practiced in the Mississippi Valley, and
even beyond its borders.
The precepts established were an impetus
to higher ideals and
stressed the importance and necessity
for a knowledge of the basic
sciences upon which all branches of
health service are founded.
Faith, hope and patience persisted in
the hearts of these pio-
neers in dental education. Individual
interests and personal am-
bitions did not enter into the scheme of
their activities, the fruits
of which were enriched during the
decades that followed, and
which became the cherished heritage of
the dental profession
312 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
STOCKHOLDERS OF THE
OHIO COLLEGE OF DENTAL SURGERY AS OF
FEBRUARY 16, 1861,
WITH THE NUMBER OF SHARES
POSSESSED BY EACH.
Bonsall, Charles,
Cincinnati..... 1 Goddard,
W. H., Louisville, Ky. 1
Brown, J. M.,
Cincinnati........ 1 Griffith,
Samuel, Louisville, Ky. 1
Chapman, C. B.,
Cincinnati ...... 1 Hermon,
E. A., Nashville, Tenn. 1
Mendenhall, George,
Cincinnati. 1 Jones,
White & McCurdy, Phil-
Richardson, Joseph,
Cincinnati.. 1 adelphia.
Pa. ................ 2
Smith, H. A.,
Cincinnati....... 1 Keely,
G. W., Oxford, Ohio .... 1
Smith, H. R.,
Cincinnati........ 1 Kells,
C. E., New Orleans, La... 1
Smith, J. B.,
Cincinnati........ 2 King,
James S., Pittsburgh, Pa.. 1
Taft, J., Cincinnati
............. 3 Knapp,
James, New Orleans, La. 1
Taylor, James,
Cincinnati....... 10 Lewis,
J. M., Marion, Ill ...... 1
Toland, John T.,
Cincinnati..... 1 McKellops,
H. J. B., St. Louis,
Wardle, Samuel,
Cincinnati..... 1 Mo ........................ 1
Wood, Thomas,
Cincinnati ...... 2 Manlove,
M. N., Logansport, Ind. 1
Martin, J. B.,
Franklin, Ind..... 1
Allen, John, New York
City.... 3 Minor,
G. B., Milwaukee, Wisc. 1
Allport, W. W.,
Chicago, Ill.....1 Peebles,
H. E., St. Louis, Mo... 1
Baxter, J. W.,
Warsaw, Ky..... 1 Perkins,
D. W., Milwaukee, Wis. 1
Berry, A., Raymond,
Miss ...... 1 Reeve,
A. J., Mt. Vernon, Ohio.. 1
Branch, I. B.,
Galena, Ill....... 1 Spalding,
C. W., St. Louis, Mo. 2
Bray, E., Evansville,
Ind........ 1 Talbert,
A. S., Lexington, Ky... 1
Chandler, W. S., Port
Gibson, Taylor,
Edgar, Palmyra, Mo..... 1
Miss.
...................... 1 Taylor,
Edward, Cleveland, Ohio 1
Collins, Eli,
Connorsville, Ind... 1 Ulrey,
J. P., Rising Sun, Ind.... 1
DeCamp, M., Mansfield,
Ohio... 1 Van
Emon, G. L., Tennessee.... 2
Dougherty D.,
Danville, Ky..... 1 Ward, B.
B., Mobile, Alabama.. 1
Dunlevy, J. B.,
Pittsburgh, Pa... 1 Watt,
George, Xenia, Ohio ...... 1
Fredericks, G. J.,
New Orleans, Webster,
W. R., Richmond, Ind. 1
La.
......................... 1 Wright,
W. M., Pittsburgh, Pa. 1
Total number of
shares....... 69
DR. JOHN MILTON BIGELOW, 1804-1878
AN EARLY OHIO PHYSICIAN--BOTANIST
By A. E. WALLER*
Meeting the name Bigelow in botanical
publication the reader
is sometimes confused. The name of John
M. Bigelow, the sub-
ject of this paper is close to John
Bigelow a journalist and news-
paper correspondent of New York City of
the same period and
also to a Dr. Henry Jacob Bigelow
interested in anesthetics of
whom this paper will make no further
mention, as well as to Dr.
Jacob Bigelow of Massachusetts.
Dr. Jacob Bigelow1 requires a brief
notice here since he is
more frequently mistaken for John M. Dr.
Jacob Bigelow in
1814 published a list of the plants growing in the vicinity
of Bos-
ton under the title Florula
Bostonensis. It became a popular
work for all those persons wanting a
small guide book to the
plants of the area and it passed through
three editions. It fol-
lowed the Linnean Sexual System for
naming plants. The 1824
edition is sometimes offered for sale as
a literary curiosity, having
the reputation of being the last work
published in the United
States which followed the Linnean
system. Dr. Jacob Bigelow
also authored the American Medical
Botany, a recognized fore-
runner of the modern American pharmacopoeia
establishing the
standard practice for the current Food
and Drug Acts. Three
volumes of this work were published
between 1818 and 1820. As
a result of this great editorial labor
Dr. Jacob Bigelow was the
correspondent of a number of scientific
men in European coun-
tries. The Swiss botanist, De Candolle,
honored and commemor-
ated his name by applying it to a newly
discovered golden rod.
Dr. Asa Gray of Harvard described
several American species in
* Papers from the Department of Botany,
Ohio State University, No. 449.
1 Howard Kelly, Some American Medical
Botanists (Troy, New York, 1914).
(313)
314
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
this genus, Bigelovia. Dr. Jacob
Bigelow's name is to that ex-
tent perpetuated for the botanists. By
the rules of priority fol-
lowed in naming plants, the creation of
this genus automatically
prevented John M. Bigelow having any of
the genera he discov-
ered named in his honor. There are a
number of species, new to
science when he collected them, carrying
his name.
Even the most virtuous, however, are not
above folly. It
does not harm the memory of Dr. Jacob
Bigelow now to record
that once he was a member of a committee
of Boston citizens who
solemnly listened to statements of eight
persons who swore they
had seen a sea serpent off the
Massachusetts coast. In all serious-
ness the committee prepared a pamphlet
from these hearings and
sent it off to the distinguished
explorer and sea captain, Sir Joseph
Banks, in 1817. Astonished but canny,
Sir Joseph replied, as
might the scientist of today under
similar circumstances, that
"future observation will no doubt
clear up" the remarks noted
in the pamphlet.
This connection with the Atlantic
seaboard and Europe will
or should be sufficient to clear up the
confusion between Jacob
Bigelow and John M. Bigelow. For John M.
spent all but a few
years of his life in Ohio and Michigan,
and his botanical collec-
tions cover the southwest and include
Texas, New Mexico, Ari-
zona and California, as well as his
early work in central Ohio.
Dr. John M. Bigelow's birth reputedly
occurred in Peru, Ben-
nington County, Vermont, June 23, 1804.2 In 1815 his
father
moved to Licking County, Ohio, near or
in Granville, where he
had his boyhood schooling. This was
meager and the family was
poor. Young John was a voracious reader
and spent time poring
over any books he could obtain. Legend
also drapes him with the
familiar garments of a boyish school
teacher by which means he
earned enough money to attend and
receive a diploma March 8,
1832, from the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati.
In November, 1832, he married Maria L. Meiers, daughter
of H. Meiers, Esq., of Lancaster, Ohio.
At the Medical College
2 W.
B. Atkinson, Physicians and Surgeons of U. S. (Philadelphia,
1878).
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 315
of Ohio, Dr. John Leonard Riddell3 was professor of
botany and
adjunct professor of chemistry between
1830 and
1836. It may
well have been this mentor's enthusiasm
that was communicated
to John M. Bigelow and inspired in him a
love of plants that was
to remain with him throughout his life.
Dr. Riddell's Synopsis
of the Flora of the Western States published in 1835, together
with a supplementary Ohio list is the
first catalog of Ohio plants
published by a resident botanist. There
is, however, no written
testimony to prove this interesting
teacher-pupil relation.
The first public record of Bigelow's
medical practice is from
the Lancaster, Ohio, Gazette and
Enquirer of January 2, 1834.
It reads, "Dr. J. M. Bigelow has
removed his office to his dwelling
on Columbus Street, a few doors south of
General Sanderson's
residence." A small but thoughtful
notice establishing a young
medical practitioner in a distinguished
neighborhood. He was
about 30 years old, and was beginning to
take his place in the com-
munity. Similar notices of changes of
address, probably because
of the increases in the size of his
family or because he was seeking
a more convenient office and of medical
partnerships formed and
dissolved are to be found in the
Lancaster newspapers between
1834 and 1860. It is thus known that he
was associated in a
partnership with Dr. Robert McNeil in
1844-1845. This is the
younger Robert McNeil who, in 1847,
became a surgeon in the
Mexican War. Again in 1856 he formed a
partnership with Dr.
G. W. Boerstler which lasted for two
years. Dr. Boerstler was
a founder of the Ohio State Medical
Society, and active through-
out his long life as a Lancaster
physician.
Aside from the assumption that the
partnerships displayed
good sense in increasing his office
practice, what we now know of
Dr. Bigelow indicates that he had his
own reasons for wishing to
be away from his office. We do not know
exactly how remu-
nerative or absorbing his work with his
patients may have been.
We do know that he was developing
another sort of work that
was to demand a share of his time. His
other love was botaniz-
3 Clara Armstrong, "Plant Names
Commemorative of Ohio Botanists," Ohio
Naturalist (January, 1901).
316 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
ing and he was beginning to collect
plants zealously and with a
growing understanding.
It should be remembered that in the
period of which we now
are writing, a doctor was keenly
interested in observing and know-
ing plants. He would want to identify
them and if possible find
those used in pharmaceutical
preparations. This no doubt calls
to the reader's mind the names of Dr.
Asa Gray and Dr. John
Torrey, American botanists and both
holders of degrees in medi-
cine.
Purely utilitarian ideas however were
not always uppermost
in the minds of these men. Ohio was just
in process of being
carved from wilderness. Torrey and Gray
were just beginning
to accumulate materials from which the
knowledge of North
American plants was built. The earliest
plant collectors and
botanists were European and a great many
of the type specimens
of our commonest plants are in European
herbaria. You will also
remember that as the applications of the
plant sciences to agri-
culture, horticulture, forestry,
pedology and other fields of learn-
ing were scarcely dreamed of at that
time, training in medicine
and pharmacy were almost the only
courses of study which in-
cluded any subject to which the name
botany might apply. In
short botany and medicine were closely
allied, as they had been
for many centuries previously.
One can, therefore, see in Dr. Bigelow's
medical partnerships
and in his absences from his office the
same urge that assails many
another doctor who wishes to find out
more about his medical
work or to explore it from another
angle. In the case of Dr.
Bigelow this was eventually to lead him
into the field of plant
collecting wherein his claim to fame is
well established. His re-
search took him from the town of
Lancaster farther out into the
country and finally across the continent
to the Pacific Ocean.
Materia Medica was in Bigelow's day
largely obtained from the
plant kingdom.
Fortunately one can trace the way in
which John Milton
Bigelow's activity forms a link in the
great chain of scientific ex-
ploration to discover the physical
extent and the nature of the
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 317
then unknown parts of continental United
States. Not later than
1840, though how much earlier it is
defficult to say, he had be-
come acquainted with William S.
Sullivant, at that time a student
of plant life. A letter4 to Torrey and
Gray in the files of the
Torrey letters in the New York Botanical
gardens dated Decem-
ber 29, 1840, sets forth the facts, and
establishes itself as his first
letter to Dr. Torrey. He writes:
"The whole subject of my let-
ter, I give as the apology that might
seem necessary in a total
stranger addressing you." He also mentions he is sending cer-
tain plants notably asters and golden
rods for further identifica-
tion. The significant fact is this
statement, "Last summer I col-
lected pretty thoroughly, having been
stimulated to it by an ac-
quaintance with Mr. William S. Sullivant
of Columbus." He
apologizes that his plants are not put
up with the neatness required
of a professed botanist. "Many
times some of my most interest-
ing specimens are brought home in my hat
and probably before I
have time to smooth out some of the
wrinkles consequent upon
their cramped position in the hat, a
call is made post haste and
my poor plants are obliged to suffer the
withering influences of a
hot summer day," he complains. The
letter further contains one
other important item showing that Dr.
Bigelow was more than
an ordinary country town doctor. He
states, "I am also anxious
to get a good microscope; if Dr. Gray
can procure one from
France of the quality and at the price of Mr. Sullivant's I should
be glad."
What are the threads connecting these
names and events?
Sullivant, distinguished resident of
Columbus, was the oldest son
of Lucas Sullivant, the surveyor, who
died a wealthy land-owner.
His son, William Starling Sullivant,
having spent approximately
twenty years since his father's death in
consolidating and increas-
ing his fortune had, about 1839, decided
to turn his attention to
botany. He was later to become so
noteworthy for his studies of
4 a. The Bigelow letters to Dr. John
Torrey are on file in the New York Botanical
Gardens, Bronx Park, N. Y. The entire
collection was recently photostated for Mr.
A. D. Rodgers to whom thanks are due for
permission to examine and use them. h.
For all the newspaper notices from
Lancaster, Ohio, grateful acknowledgement is
herewith offered to Edward S. Thomas and
the WPA assistants at the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society Museum.
318 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
mosses as to be known as the
"father of American Bryology."
The account of his career has recently
been made the subject of
a book by A. D. Rodgers.5 Sullivant at that time was just get-
ting started and had been for three
years in correspondence with
Dr. Torrey and Dr. Gray, America's two
leading botanists. Early
in the year 1840, Sullivant had
published his first botanical trea-
tise, A Catalogue of Plants Native or
Naturalized in the Vicin-
ity of Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Bigelow's letter to Torrey and
Gray indicates at this time that he knew
Sullivant well enough to
have heard of his work, perhaps even to
have seen the precious
microscope or used it, and to want one
of his own at the same
price. May it not be inferred that
Bigelow possessed an interest
in medicine and botany that is superior
to idle curiosity and that
he was wealthy enough to afford such a
scientific luxury as a
good microscope? He was at least bold
enough to ask.
Dr. Asa Gray's name and career,6 well
known to almost
everyone who has a nodding acquaintance
with American plants
needs little mention here. It may be
recalled, however, that at
this time (1838) he had been chosen
professor of botany in the
newly founded University of Michigan,
but as the buildings were
not completed, the Regents had entrusted
to him the assignment
of making the first purchase of books
for the general library and
sent him abroad with a fund of five
thousand dollars to buy the
books. This unusual procedure on the part of the Regents not
only resulted in beneficial sequences to
the Michigan Library but
Dr. Gray met Darwin and Hooker in
England and other scien-
tists on the European continent and
formed lasting friendships.
On his return from Europe, the pleased
Regents extended Dr.
Gray's leave for a year. As everyone
knows he worked with Dr.
Torrey on the flora of North America and
later went to Harvard
instead of assuming his post at
Michigan. Dr. Gray had brought
a microscope which was shipped to
Sullivant in April, 1840. In
May, 1840, Sullivant wrote Gray that he was
making "short trips
around the country of 2-3-4 days."
It may have been in these
5 A. D. Rodgers, Noble Fellow (New
York, 1940).
6 A. E. Waller. See foreword in Rodger's
book cited above.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58
319
short trips that Sullivant first met
Bigelow. He does not happen
to have mentioned how or where the
meeting took place. Yet the
remarks quoted from Bigelow's letter
above prove that Bigelow
knew all about Sullivant's microscope,
doubtless the first one in
central Ohio, and that he considered
himself an able enough scien-
tist to request that Dr. Gray perform
for him the same kindness
he had for Sullivant. Sullivant's microscope was one of the
earliest brought into Ohio.
The point of all of this is its
significance for early Ohio plant
studies. Sullivant's catalogue of the
plants collected near Colum-
bus was followed the next year by
Bigelow's Florula Lancas-
triensis.7 John M. Bigelow's title for this work follows the Jacob
Bigelow Florula Bostonensis. It
is known that Sullivant possessed
a copy of this popular plant guide. The Florula
Lancastriensis
of John M. Bigelow has the subtitle of a
catalogue Comprising
nearly all the flowering and filicoid
plants growing naturally
within the limits of Fairfield
County, with notes of such as are
of medical value. For the grasses and sedges credit is given to
Dr. Asa Horr who lived in the northern
portion of Fairfield
County at Baltimore, Ohio. The paper was
presented, at least by
title (one can hardly imagine anyone
having the courage to read
a lengthy list of plant names) to the
Medical Convention of Ohio
in May, 1841. It was published in the Proceedings of that con-
vention. The minutes of the meeting
record that a vote of thanks
was tendered to Dr. Bigelow for
presenting it.
At the present time not more than three
copies of the
Bigelow-Horr paper are known to exist.
The Florula Lancas-
triensis has frequently been referred to in the century that has
passed since its publication. Notice of
it is contained in Dr.
Britton's compilation of State and
Local Floras, and in the Torrey
Bulletin. It formed the basis for some of the plants not seen but
included "Fide Bigelow," in
the Sugar Grove paper of Dr. Robert
F. Griggs.8
7 John M. Bigelow, "Florula
Lancastriensis," Proceedings Ohio Medical Convention
(Columbus, 1841).
8 Robert F. Griggs, "A Botanical Survey of the Sugar Grove
Region," Ohio
Biological Survey 1, No. 3.
320
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Asa Horr9 was born in Worthington, Ohio,
September 2,
1817. Originally the family name had
been spelled Hoar. Asa
received his M. D. from the Cleveland
Medical College and began
to practice medicine in Baltimore,
Fairfield County, Ohio. It is
not known how or where he became
acquainted with Dr. Bigelow.
He did not remain in Ohio, however, for
many years after the
Florula Lancastriensis was published. In 1846 he moved to Ga-
lena, Illinois, and in 1847 to Dubuque,
Iowa. Dubuque was to
remain his home for the rest of his
life. Dr. Asa Horr is at the
moment a forgotten man in Ohio medical
history, but his career
was remarkable. Interested in botany,
mineralogy, astronomy
and meteorology, he was with Professor
Lapham of Milwaukee
the inventor of the methods for
forecasting the weather for the
United States weather reports. He
established a private astro-
nomical observatory in Dubuque in 1864
and was the first to de-
termine accurately the longitude of that
city. He was examining
surgeon to the United States recruiting
service during the War
between the States and in 1875 examining
surgeon to the United
States Pension Bureau. He was president
of the Dubuque Medi-
cal Society, a founder of the Iowa
Institute of Sciences and Arts
in 1868, and its president in 1869. In
1872 he was president of
the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and
one of a hundred English and American
short-hand writers chosen
to make improvements in phonography. He
deserves a special
study as one of Ohio's early medical
botanists, but this brief men-
tion must suffice.
How much help Dr. Bigelow received in
the preparation of
his work from his friend Sullivant or
from Torrey, Gray or Horr
may not be important. Ten plants of the
list are specially marked
with credit to W. S. Sullivant, twelve
are similarly credited to
Asa Horr. It is clear that they all knew
of his work and that his
own labors of collecting were benefitted
by the knowledge and the
experience of these four notable
contemporaries. The list con-
tains eight-hundred seventy-one
flowering plants and ferns. Some
of the species also are found in
Franklin County and included in
Sullivant's list. Some, particularly the
plants of acid soils, are
9 Kelly and Burrage, American Medical
Biographies (Baltimore, 1920).
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 321
excluded from the Franklin County list.
Rhododendron is in-
cluded from Hocking County, as is Iris
lacustris. Its larger con-
gener, Iris cristata, widely
distributed in Ohio is not mentioned.
Bigelow did not collect the Rhododendron
specimen himself,
but gives it as collected by Jacob
Greene "near the mouth of
Clear Creek." The patch of
Rhododendron known now is within
a quarter mile of the intersection of
the Fairfield-Hocking bound-
ary with Clear Creek Valley. It is
nearer to the village of Re-
venge than it is to the mouth of Clear
Creek. The two lists, Sul-
livant's and Bigelow's, together make an
unusually complete ac-
count of plant records of central Ohio a
hundred years ago. About
the same time Thomas G. Lea of
Cincinnati, collecting between
1834-1844, prepared a manuscript of his
list of plants of that
region. In 1849 Sullivant, after Lea's
death, edited and published
from his manuscripts. Thus the Ohio
Country has botanical lists
of a century ago that are today
invaluable.
It is unfortunate that the possible
existence of the herbarium
of Bigelow's Ohio specimens is not
known. The collections of
Sullivant were by his wish given to the
Gray Herbarium after his
death in 1873. His microscopes went to
the Starling Medical
College. Thomas Lea's collections were
sent to the Philadelphia
Museum of Natural Sciences. The absence
of the Bigelow col-
lections led Dr. Griggs to doubt in some
cases certain plants named
in his list. Yet to the credit of Dr.
Bigelow's and Dr. Asa Horr's
keen powers of observation, it should be
stated, that year by year
as Fairfield and Hocking Counties have
been revisited many of
the doubtful specimens have been
collected.
Some interesting items selected from Dr.
Bigelow's list in-
clude 26 ferns, 18 orchids, 68 grasses.
Among 65 sedges 45 are
species of the genus Carex, in which
Sullivant was for a time in-
terested. Medicinally noteworthy are 5
species of Lobelia, 3 of
Gentian, 8 species of boneset. The European species of Saponaria
is recorded. Apparently a hundred years
ago it had already be-
come naturalized in Ohio. There are
medical notations on 190
of the plants in the list.
From another point of view the Florula
Lancastriensis de-
322 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
serves special mention. It apparently brought to a close the
herborizing activities of medical
botanists of this section of the
United States. From this time onward
botanists were less in-
terested in the medicinal value of
Ohio's plants. The collections
were made by men who began to specialize
in the taxonomic
groups. The old urge to find new plants
to use in medicines goes
back a long time. As Monardes said in
Seville in 1577 in his
Joyfull Newes out of the Newe Founde
Worlde (Frampton's
translation, 1577), "as there are
discovered new Regions, New
Kingdoms, New Provinces by our Spaniards
so they have brought
into us new medicines, and new remedies,
wherewith they do cure
many infirmities, which if we did lack
them, would be incurable
and without any Remedie." Many
Europeans looked to America
to furnish the road to health.
Botany and medicine of the previous
centuries were very
much together. It has frequently been
stated that the need for
an accurate plant nomenclature had its
beginning in medicine.
From the middle of the nineteenth
century their ways were to
become parted. Dr. John Milton Bigelow
was one of those who
was to see this parting and perhaps
deplore some of its effects.
He was himself always to follow plant
collecting and in his sev-
entieth year of age to publish lists of
plant families with notes on
the medicinal plants, and to teach to
his students the plant lore he
so well loved. Perhaps in his own point
of view he was a cham-
pion of the cause of materia medica from
the plant kingdom. He
may have wanted to see the two old
sciences remain together. He
was as successful as Canute in stemming
the tides. The old herb-
orizing was swept away by newer, more
refined chemical methods.
From Lancaster newspapers of early dates
and other sources,
a brief record may be obtained of Dr.
Bigelow's standing in the
community as a citizen. Both A. A.
Graham's History of Fair-
field County and C. L. Wiseman's Centennial History of Lancas-
ter accord him prominence. When the first Board of Health
for
Fairfield County was organized in 1837
one finds that he was a
member of this Board. He was a member of
the committee call-
ing a meeting of all "Regular
Scientific practitioners of Medicine
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 323
and Surgery" to form a medical
society which had for its object
the advancement of "medical
literature and knowledge in the
great and extending west." A notice
of this meeting appeared in
the Ohio Eagle and Fairfield
Advertiser, February 24, 1838. Dr.
Bigelow was interested in education
probably from his own well-
remembered days teaching school. He is
mentioned as a member
of a committee "to visit and
inquire into the condition of the com-
mon schools of the town"--later he
was a school examiner. In
1843 he was named as treasurer of the
Irish Repeal Association,
a temperance group formed by the
Washington temperance move-
ment and the Irish Americans. When
trouble and even threatened
military hostilities excited people over
the Oregon boundary dis-
putes, Dr. Bigelow's name appears in the
Ohio Eagle of June 12,
1845, in a notice that "in view of
the menaces of war which Great
Britain has thought proper to make use
of in reference to this
question" a meeting discussing the
matter would take place.
Judging by all of the committee
memberships and board work in
which he was engaged Dr. Bigelow's life
must have been full.
There is a notice in the Ohio Eagle, October
30, 1845, calling at-
tention to the dissolving by mutual
consent of the partnership
with Dr. McNeil. This notice adds,
"persons with unsettled ac-
counts are earnestly requested to call
and close them immediately."
Apparently this problem of medical
practice is not unknown today.
There is no indication that Dr.
Bigelow's practice made him
wealthy. He had a large family to rear.
Apparently he lived in
comfortable circumstances. His wife,
Mary, is known to have
been the sister of Mrs. Phelan. He was
probably, like most coun-
try doctors, too busy serving his
patients to worry much about
his income. His record as an exemplary
citizen stands unchal-
lenged. The credits were on the giving
rather on the receiving
end and still seems to be fairly typical
of the doctors of small,
healthy thriving communities.
For reasons, now not known, he accepted,
in 1850,
the posi-
tion of surgeon on the Mexican Boundary
Survey. Perhaps the
most reasonable explanation is his love
for plants and his oppor-
324
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tunities to collect in new fields. His
former partner, Robert
McNeil, may have told him about the
country of the Southwest.
The survey of the United States-Mexican
Boundary, with
R. B. Campbell, Col. J. D. Graham and J.
R. Bartlett as com-
missioners in charge, was authorized in
1848. The boundary
crossed unknown, partly unexplored,
territory. In its execution,
Torrey and Gray saw the opportunity to
attach to field parties one
or more botanists to study and collect
the plant life of the South-
west. From the start the whole affair
was poorly managed. Bart-
lett, an ethnologist and antiquarian,
has been most frequently
blamed for much of the bungling. Two
treaties were signed. The
Guadaloupe-Hidalgo Treaty ended the war.
The Gadsden Treaty
arranged for a purchase of a strip of
land. Major W. H. Emory,
as astronomer, was sent, in 1849, to San
Diego to run a line east-
ward. He had with him Dr. Charles C.
Parry to study the geol-
ogy and the plant life. Parry described
the plants around San
Diego, naming among other items the
Torrey pine. He proceeded
to Yuma, Arizona, with Emory and when
observations at that
point were completed the party and the
astronomical instruments
were to be moved over to Texas. To do
this they were obliged
to return to San Diego as no more direct
road was open than via
the Isthmus of Panama.
The main party, with Commissioner
Bartlett, was to go from
New York around to Indianola, Texas, by
boat and thence to San
Antonio and El Paso. John M. Bigelow had
been recommended
to Torrey by Sullivant, but Torrey as
professor of chemistry in
Princeton and working also at Columbia
was often difficult to
find. The following letter indicates
this. It is written to Torrey
while Bigelow was in New York, July 25,
1850.
Dear Sir:
You may think I am crazy and I certainly
know I am confused. This
is the third time I have attempted to
transmit Mr. Sullivant's letter to you.
This is the charm. If I do not succeed
this time I must give up in despair.
I saw Mr. Thurber and he thinks you may
visit New York soon. If you
do will you be so kind as to let me
know!
Yours most respectfully,
John M. Bigelow
*
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 325
Events were moving at a rapid clip for
the Boundary Survey
when a month later Dr. Torrey wrote a
letter to Dr. Gray who
was in the British Isles studying the
North American plant col-
lections of various European herbaria.
"It would not take more
than half a year to settle most of the
knotty points in our botany
if we could both be with Bentham,"
he wrote. He also tried to
untangle the situations that troubled
the collectors for the Bound-
ary Survey. He mentioned Bartlett's appointment as commis-
sioner:
Bailey also informed me six weeks ago
that he had recommended
Thurber of Providence as Botanist to the
Survey not knowing anything
about Parry. Accordingly I at once wrote
Bartlett informing him about
Parry's position and claims to the
situation. He replied the appointment
had been made. He would retain Parry, as
it was his intention to have a
full scientific corps. I communicated
this to Parry by next steamer.
Afterwards I found that a Dr. Bigelow of
Ohio had also been appointed
Surgeon and Botanist to the Survey.
Bigelow was strongly recommended
by Sullivant but I think he is not a
Botanist. He and Thurber came here
to see me. Neither of them, I believe,
have the official title of Botanist.
The former is Surgeon, the latter a
"computer", but both are expected to do
duty as botanists. The commission has
left it to themselves to settle the
question of botanical rank but Bigelow
in his letter writes to Thurber as
his assistant. Thurber says he will not
play second fiddle to such a poor
stick. The commission will certainly
have a full staff of Botanists when
all three are on the ground.
Dr. Torrey's fears were to prove more
than imaginary.
The next letter from Bigelow indicated
that the parties in
the field were proceeding with their
work. Bigelow had seen an
interesting walnut which he would have
liked for Torrey to dedi-
cate to Lieut. Whipple. There is no
mention of wrangling with
Thurber. They did not always travel
together. Thurber and
Bartlett followed the northern route.
Bigelow took the southern
route.
Parry eventually met them and
also a fourth botanist,
Charles Wright, a life-long friend of
Dr. Gray. Wright had col-
lected in Texas previously. He probably
knew, more than the
others, what the collecting difficulties
were -- most particularly
lack of facilities for drying and
preserving specimens to suit the
needs of critical examiners. Bigelow is
known to have made the
326
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
same complaints and Torrey, in turn,
found some fault with many
of Bigelow's specimens. Bigelow had not
understood at first that
every plant new to him was not a new
plant. He had not been
aware of Wright's previous collections
nor of Parry's successes
around San Diego. He was disappointed to
learn that some of
his collections contained plants already
named. For as there was
no grasp of modern plant ecology, where
the specimen was picked
up was only a minor matter. When Gray
published the Plantae
Wrightianae Bigelow felt he deserved a larger share of credit and
some years afterwards wrote he had been
"Wrightized" out of
his plants. On the whole he was
cheerful, however, and often
the best companion of the party. He was
the oldest of the four
botanists, being, in 1850, 46 years of
age. Wright was 39, Thur-
ber 29; Parry, the youngest, was 27. All
of them, for endurance
and fidelity to duty, deserve praise
without stint.
Of particular interest at the present
time, one of John M.
Bigelow's newly discovered plants was an
arid land shrub. Dr.
Asa Gray described it and named it Parthenium
argentatum.
Bigelow found it near Escondido Creek,
Texas, in 1852. Today
it is grown by its Mexican name guayule.
When chopped and
macerated it yields a satisfactory
amount of rubber in fair qual-
ity. In 1917, methods of getting seeds
to germinate readily were
devised and in the present emergency,
attention is being given to
its cultivation. This single discovery
should serve to focus atten-
tion, perhaps on Bigelow at the moment,
but more importantly on
the permanent debt of civilization to
its botanical explorers. Dr.
Bigelow knew little about the value of
his discovery or the years
of research and the millions of capital
that would go into prob-
lems of the development of a rubber
supply.
Bigelow deserves a belated laurel for a
constructive sugges-
tion that was to save the botanical
records from utter confusion.
It was to wait and publish results only
after all the materials were
assembled. This simple solution saved an
otherwise impossible
situation. For Gray had already
published some of Wright's
early collections. If this practice had
been continued the whole
matter would have gone out of hand.
Torrey's work in the
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 327
Boundary Survey Report is complete. The
confusion resulting
from the several collectors rushing into
print was avoided since
all the work had to pass under the
watchful eyes of Torrey and
Gray. So Bigelow of whom Torrey had
written in the letter
quoted above "he is not a
botanist" in a peculiar sense performed
for botany the greatest service.
Passing over much correspondence during
this field work
period, a letter dated January 23, 1853,
tells Torrey he would
soon be back in Lancaster. From here he
wrote March 19,
With regard to the disposition of our
plants, you will please let me know
as soon as you get something definite
from Maj. Emory. By what I hear
from Washington our Commission, I judge,
is in rather a state of jumble.
I am told Congress passed a deficiency
for the relief of Maj. Emory's party,
but whether any of it can be used for
scientific purposes is more than I
know.
Actually Commissioner Bartlett was
removed and Maj. Emory
was appointed instead as Commissioner.
Bigelow followed his let-
ter with a visit to see Torrey about the
plant collections in New
York a month later. On his return this
interesting commentary
on travel at that date is given: "I
arrived safely in Columbus
34 hours from New York, but behold after
arriving within 28
miles of my home it cost me 61 hours to
get here. I arrived at
Columbus at 3 o'clock A. M. on Saturday,
but every seat in the
coach for my town was taken. Our mail is
daily only through
the week."
He had made Torrey his friend by showing
how he could
serve botany. His talents as a collector
were proved and his ex-
perience was valuable. His next letter
May 21, 1853, had a piece
of great news. He told Torrey he had
received from Lieut.
Whipple the commission of assistant on
the Southern Railway
Route to the Pacific and was
"assigned as Surgeon and Botanist
to this expedition."
The Lancaster Gazette, on May 5,
1853, carried a notice that
"Dr. J. M. Bigelow has returned and
will attend to the practice of
his profession. Office at his old
residence on Wheeling Street, 3
doors east of Columbus Street." It
seems therefore that the offer
from Lieut. Whipple to join the Pacific
Railroad expedition came
as something of a surprise.
328
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
In contrast to the Boundary Survey,
there was little con-
fusion connected with the Whipple
Expedition.10 Also, after
twenty-six months in field work with the
Boundary Commission
Dr. Bigelow could bring to his new
duties the benefit of his ex-
perience. He approached the problems
with zest and offered no
complaints. He probably remedied the
shortage of drying papers
or other such equipment that he had
found lacking previously.
In June, 1853, from the Steamer James
Robb on the Mississippi
enroute for Napoleon at the mouth of the
Arkansas River, he
wrote Dr. Torrey that he had spent
"parts of the 2 or 3 last days
with Dr. Engleman looking over our
collecton of Cactaceae and
getting items for more." Here is
plain evidence that he was
making a continuing experience of the
work of collecting. He
asked Torrey to compare some specimens
of the earlier collections:
"Will you please have the kindness
to send some of the stem,
spines, flower and fruit to Dr.
Engelmann?"
During the course of the journey, Dr.
Bigelow was possibly
too busy to write frequently. Only two
letters are in existence,
and besides establishing date lines that
serve to confirm the trail,
these letters contain little important
information. One is marked
Albuquerque, October 29, 1853, in which
he says he is preparing
for the long, arduous trip across the
Colorado Valley, and the
other is from Sonora, California, May
13, 1854. The expedition
completed its route in Los Angeles.
Then, in his own interest,
Dr. Bigelow journeyed by steamer to San
Francisco and crossed
the Sacramento Valley to the Sierra
Nevada. In July, 1854, he
was back in Washington at work with
Lieut. Whipple and the
artist, Baldwin Mollhausen, and others
of the members of the ex-
pedition preparing reports.
The Ohio Eagle, July 21, 1854, offers the
following summary
of the expedition:
Returned--our esteemed fellow citizen,
Dr. John M. Bigelow Physician
10 "The Botany of the
Expedition," Report of Explorations and Surveys, House
Executive Documents, 33 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 91, Vol. IV, pt. 5.
No. 1. J. M. Bigelow, "General
Description of the Botanical Character of
the Country."
No. 2. J. M. Bigelow, "Description
of Forest Trees."
No. 3. George Engelmann or J. M.
Bigelow, "Description of Cactaceae."
No. 4. John Torrey, "General
Botanical Collections."
No. 5. W. S. Sullivant, "Mosses and
Hepatics."
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 329
and Botanist to Lt. Whipple's Surveying
Party spent a few days with his
family last week. He informed us that
the party to which he is attached
has run a line from Ft. Smith on the
Arkansas to the Pacific at San Diego,
California. This line is on the so
called northern route of the contem-
plated Pacific Railroad and is
practicable. The company enjoyed excellent
health, losing but one man who wandered
off from camp alone, and was no
doubt killed by the Indians. Dr. Bigelow
has collected a very extensive
cabinet of Botanical and Geological
specimens, and is able from his laborious
research into his department of the
expedition to make a full report of the
Botany and Geology of the extensive and
interesting country over which he
passed. We shall look with interest for
the Doctor's report. Dr. Bigelow
has gone to Washington on business
connected with the expedition. It will
be recollected that the Doctor was a
Physician and Botanist to the Boundary
Commission under the treaty of
Guadaloupe Hidalgo, and acquitted himself
with such credit that his present post
was given him unasked.
The above item is quoted as it stands
since all the facts may
be substantiated. In all probability it
represents as nearly a direct
statement from Bigelow himself as one
may hope to find.
The results of the Whipple Expedition
gave Dr. Bigelow his
greatest opportunity for scientific
writing. The report is di-
vided into five parts. The first is a
general account of the coun-
try, its topography and climate, and
contains an elaborate chart
of the elevations at which certain trees
are to be found. This
was pioneering in plant ecology before
that science had been sep-
arated from its sister sciences. The
second part gave notes on
the trees and their usefulness in
supplying timbers for railroad
ties. The third part is a record by Dr.
Bigelow and Dr. Engle-
mann of the Cactaceae encountered and
collected. The fourth
part is Dr. Torrey's general list and
description of the botanical
collections of ferns and flowering
plants. The fifth is Sullivant's
description of the mosses. These were collected in California
after Dr. Bigelow left the party at San
Diego and journeyed on
his own account to San Francisco.
Sullivant several times re-
ferred to this as the Musci
Bigeloviani.
Since on the Whipple Expedition there
was no multiplicity
of collectors the whole report takes on
for Bigelow the signifi-
cance of the one-man show for an artist.
Here is his best effort.
He had completed his field work. He was
fifty years of age. Ex-
tended journeys were no longer on his
schedule.
330 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
With all the account of his activity
there are no authentic
photographs of him nor any guide to his
personal appearance. The
diary of the artist, Baldwin Mollhausen,
furnishes a short but
not entirely adequate description:
It was perceived that Dr. Bigelow, the
botanist of the expedition . . .
a general favorite and by far the oldest
of the party was not forthcoming.
The aged doctor was a pattern of
gentleness and patience always, rejoicing
with those that rejoiced, never wanting
when a hearty laugh or a good joke
was to be heard, quite conscious of his
own little eccentricities, and quite
willing that others should amuse
themselves with them. He was not only
a zealous botanist, but also an enthusiastic
sportsman, though it must be
owned that his exertions in the latter
department were not as productive of
as much profit as in the former, for he
had never yet succeeded in bagging
anything but a rattlesnake and an old hat.
The snake, which had rolled
itself up conveniently into a ball, he
managed to hit after firing at it only
seven times, and his bullet went through
the hat in a triumphant manner,
something having thrown it upon the
muzzle of his pistol. To his patients
he was kind and attentive, and of his
mule Billy he made an absolute spoiled
child.
There is also evidence of the dangers
due to quicksand and from
skirmishes with lurking Indians. Dr.
Bigelow left little that was
truly personal.
Dr. Torrey, however, pays his tribute to
Bigelow in no un-
certain terms when he speaks of the
number of new plants dis-
covered on the Whipple expedition. In
July, 1854, Torrey wrote
Gray that he had been examining this
material and found a num-
ber of extremely interesting composits
and a new Ceanothus. He
mentions again "several good
things" and that as to the quality
of the preparations they were "a
pleasure to study." He also
comments on the total number of
specimens and says that
Bigelow's collection was "twice as
large as Beckwith's and Pope's
put together." In the introduction
to his part of the Whipple
Reports he states of Bigelow: "His
ample collections were brought
home in perfect order. A number of new
genera and more than
sixty new species have been discovered
by Dr. Bigelow and he has
added much valuable information upon
many heretofore imper-
fectly known plants."
About the rest of the period during
which Dr. Bigelow lived
in Lancaster. there is little
information. It is known he returned
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 331
to his medical practice and enjoyed life
with his family. In 1855,
1859 and 1860 there are
medical notices in Lancaster newspapers,
and as late as 1859 he was still living
at the Wheeling Street ad-
dress. In 1860 or 1861 he removed to
Detroit where he was
placed in charge of the meteorological
department on the northern
and northwestern Great Lakes Survey. How
long he remained
in this position is again elusive, for a
little later he was professor
of botany and pharmacy in the Detroit
Medical College. Before
he left Ohio entirely, however, he may
have performed one more
service with lasting consequences. He
was a member of a com-
mittee asking that a county asylum be
provided for mental cases.
In 1867 he was made a member of the
State Medical Society
of Michigan and attended later meetings
also. He was, in 1868,
appointed surgeon to the Marine Hospital
in Detroit. The Detroit
Review of Medicine, in volumes two and three, contains a lengthy
contribution by Dr. Bigelow. He called
it "The Medical Botany,
Topography and Climate, of the
Southwestern States and Terri-
tories." In it he discussed the
families of plants he knew in the
Southwest. It is a digressive work as
the title implies and may
be regarded as a memoir of his
exploration.
He also made a new preparation of opium
which the writer
has been told was called Svapnia. A
notice of the preparation,
without the name, however, appears in
volume three of the Detroit
Review of Medicine.
When his long and active career closed
in 1878, Dr. Bigelow
was buried from St. Patrick's Cathedral
in Detroit. Though no
one now living can find a great deal of
a personal nature by which
he may be better known, there are today,
as in his own time,
many who may respect his memory through
his accomplishments.
The numerous plants named in his honor
will serve to recall one
of Ohio's pioneer medical botanists.
Perhaps some of his other
discoveries, like guayule, may
have at another time some use or
special property not now known and may
again serve to call at-
tention to the devoted efforts of the
gentle little doctor who could
treat a mule like a spoiled child.
DR. ALVA CURTIS IN COLUMBUS
THE THOMSONIAN RECORDER AND COLUMBUS'
FIRST MEDICAL SCHOOL
By JONATHAN FORMAN, M.D.
In 1769, in the town of Astead, New
Hampshire, was born
one Samuel Thomson. He lived and grew up
as a farmer's son.
He became a keen observer of men and
things. He was particu-
larly interested in all that he could
learn about the healing art.
He was entirely self-taught and he
learned from the Indians
about him, from the old women who
"were handy with the sick"
and from the medical books sanctioned by
law. He watched
closely, both the men who had studied at
the colleges and admin-
istered drugs according to the
prescriptions of the professors and
the less pretending, but more numerous
doctors, who practiced
what was called "Domestic
Medicine."
As a youngster it was his job to tend
the family geese and
this gave him time to study and observe
the plants. One of them
came to intrigue him very much and he
finally ate of its leaves
and became very ill and vomited a great
deal. This impressed
him profoundly. During the rest of his
boyhood his favorite
sport was inducing other youths to try
eating the leaves of lobelia
inflata. After he became a man and had a family he had abundant
opportunities for witnessing disease.
Disappointed in what he
came to regard as barbarous treatment by
"the legally constituted
guardians of the public health," he
formed his own concept of
disease and his own system of treatment.
The fundamental con-
cept of what later became Thomsonianism
was that inflammation
and fever were not a disease or an
enemy, that inflammation
healed and fever was a friend. He
arrived at this general prin-
ciple and reduced it to practice in his
own family. Five times
his own kin had been given over by the
doctors to die. His own
(332)
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58
333
results were far better for he reports,
"Exercising my own judg-
ment, I followed after them and relieved
my family every time."
From practicing in his family circle
with such success he was led
to practice among his neighbors. Finally
he set up an office, first
in Beverly, Massachusetts, later in
Boston, and he seems to have
acquired a large clientele and to have
practiced with great success.
In his Guide to Health he says,
"I attended all the 'fevers' peculiar
to our country, and always used fever as
a friend and it returned
the gratitude by saving the
patient." Others had discovered that
in milk cases fever is a friend but it
was left for Samuel Thom-
son to maintain this doctrine
consistently throughout. Not only
once a friend, but always a friend, was
his doctrine, and what is
more important, he reduced it to facts.
Professor Benjamin
Waterhouse, one of the original
professors of the Harvard Medi-
cal School, in his last years, compared
Samuel Thomson with
John Hunter:
Had John Hunter, whom I knew well, been
born and bred where
Samuel Thomson was, he would have been
just such another man; and had
Samuel Thomson been thrown into the same
society and association as
John Hunter, he would, in my opinion,
have been his equal, with
probably a wider range of thought; but
both are men of talent and orig-
inality of thought.1
There must have been something to this
opinion, even if
Waterhouse was in his dotage, because
one finds Samuel Latham
Mitchell of Philadelphia helping Thomson
to procure revised pat-
ents for his system of remedies, the
original patents having been
granted to Thomson in 1813.
After his system of healing was patented
he began to issue
handbills and to advertise in
newspapers. He would sell "the
rights" to his patent, limited to
practice on oneself, only on one's
family, on one's community, one's
township, one's county or one's
state, and finally, any place, any time.
"Thomsonianism" spread
like wildfire and became a popular fad,
especially in the western
and southern states. In 1820 Thomson
published his new Guide
to Health and the narrative of his life, both of which went
through
many editions, several of which were
printed here in Columbus.
1 Francis R. Packard, History of
Medicine in the United States (New York,
1931), II, 1237.
334
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
A goodly number of magazines sprang up,
several of which were
called Thomsonian Recorders. One
of the best of these was the
Thomsonian Recorder of Columbus. As Thomson went about
the country he placed his interests in
the hands of agents who
frequently promoted the sales by forming
"Friendly Botanic So-
cieties." His Ohio agent was a Horton Howard of Columbus,
the untimely death of whose daughter has
been described in the
paper on "Asiatic Cholera in
Columbus." As evidence of the
profitableness of all this, one finds
Samuel Thomson attempting
to secure judgment in local courts here
for $40,000 worth of roy-
alties which Howard had forgotten to
turn over to him.
The first number of the Thomsonian
Recorder dated Sep-
tember 15, 1832, included a call by Dr.
Samuel Thomson for a
"United States Thomsonian
Convention" of delegates from the
"Friendly Botanic Societies"
to meet in Columbus, Ohio, on the
seventeenth day of December, 1832. This
business of holding a
national convention was a new departure
in American politics and
a new movement in action among
medical men and marks the be-
ginning of pressure blocs in American
legislation. Dr. Thomson
had no thought of letting the convention
get out of hand. He
simply announced a desire to meet his
numerous friends and to
obtain from them a knowledge of what
they knew in regard to
medicinal plants, remedial procedures
and the general progress of
the cause of botanic medicine. Sometime
later he stated that
there was another purpose in calling
this convention and that was
to communicate further with his friends
in different parts of the
Union in reference to Asiatic cholera
and its proper treatment.
At the Columbus Convention were many
botanic physicians
who afterwards became prominent teachers
of the new doctrine.
Alva Curtis, at that time in Richmond,
Virginia, sent in a most
remarkable communication, setting forth
his almost unbelievable
success with Thomsonian procedures. Of 200 patients suffering
with Asiatic cholera, he had lost but
one; and several of them
had been in a state of collapse when he
had been called. The
others presented almost as good
testimony. The real message
from the convention which the public got
was that treatment of
OHIO MEDICAL
HISTORY, 1835-58 335
Asiatic cholera by physicians of the
dominant school had been
marked by an extraordinary number of
fatalities whereas that by
the Thomsonians resulted in almost
universal recoveries. It is
not known what effect this propaganda
had on the people of the
United States as a whole. It is known,
however, that the death
of three of the important proponents of
Thomsonianism in Co-
lumbus, including Dr. Howard, broke the
hold that physicians of
this school had on the citizens of
Columbus. Personally, the
writer believes that the appearance of
reformed botanics such as
Colonel Kilbourne's son-in-law, Dr.
Ichabod G. Jones, with their
forceful civic personalities, had more
to do with it. Such men
as Jones, as well as the advent of the
homeopaths, had more to do
with this change than the failures of
the Thomsonians.
The convention, however, gave great
encouragement to the
Thomsonian practitioners and the real
purpose of the convention
became apparent when resolutions were
presented and adopted in
respect to prospective medical
legislation in several states. This
new technique of concerted action
through national conventions,
produced results. The Legislature of
Ohio met in a few days
and repealed its Medical Act with
restrictions upon the practice;
the same year Alabama extended the same
rights to Thomsonian
practitioners as were enjoyed by other
physicians.
This period between 1835 and 1858 was a
time when the
emphasis was put upon the individual. It
has been designated as
the days of the rise of the common man.
Since both regular
medicine and the cults were resting upon
an empirical rather than
a scientific basis, one man's opinion
was as authoritative as an-
other's, and each citizen was entitled
to select for himself the
system of healing which he himself
thought best. The only au-
thority was that of the testimonial.
There were forceful char-
acters supporting each school of
healing, willing to offer strong
testimonials. It is little wonder then
that the legislature abolished
its restrictions upon the practice or
extended the privilege to many
of the schools of healing. So-called
regular schools of medicine
later grew into a scientific discipline
resting upon the histological
studies of disease made in the last
decade of this period. Once
336
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
this mass of scientific information led
men to discover the actual
causes of disease (bacteria), all the
cults, including the Physio-
Medic, were at a distinct loss to
compete.
The second convention was held in
Pittsburgh the following
October, and its success was well
summarized by Dr. H. Wood of
Columbus, who said,
So long as national conventions are well
attended and properly conducted
they will continue to be the most
powerful engine to advance our cause and
will enable us more successfully to
combat our enemies. Much good has
already been accomplished by them. Much
more remains to be done. Upon
them mainly depends the success of our
cause; and it is by them only that
we can maintain the concerted action so
necessary to affect any object.
With this the meeting effected a
permanent organization. One
of the next things to come up before the
convention was an at-
tempt to establish "A National
Thomsonian Infirmary." Balti-
more was picked as the city; a committee
was appointed to pro-
cure an Act of Incorporation from the
legislature in Maryland.
In due time a bill was prepared and
favorably received by the
House of Delegates. In the Maryland
Senate, however, it met
the full force of the hostile medical
profession. Dr. Curtis was
very enthusiastic about the possibility
of the Infirmary. Later
there were several of them opened and
one of them was headed
by Dr. Curtis in Columbus. Things went
along splendidly until
some of the members began to want to
express their own ideas.
They then began to resent the claims of
Dr. Thomson that he
should be the umpire of what is genuine
and what was heterodox
in the view of others. These dissensions
grew until at the 1838
convention in Philadelphia, when Dr.
Thomson, in his annual ad-
dress, expressed displeasure with the
divisions that were spring-
ing up within the ranks of the
Thomsonian School and stated that
many who were reckoned as his followers
were transcending the
boundaries until they could hardly be
called his disciples. He
then gave a history of each of the
several conventions and the
difficulties which each had encountered
and closed with this sig-
nificant sentence: "With these
considerations and with no other
object than the permanent good of us
all, so far as my System of
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 337
Practice can contribute to that end, I
ask that this Convention
may be forever dissolved."
The Convention, however, did not adopt
the motion, and the
formal division which he had prophesied
took place. Dr. Alva
Curtis took the leadership in forming a
new organization styled
"The Independent Thomsonian Botanic
Society." Those who
stayed with the founder were organized
as the United States
Thomsonian Society. Dr. Curtis was elected president of the
Independents.
Dr. Alva Curtis, while living in New
Hampshire, had wit-
nessed in his own family the life of a
brother made miserable and
cut short by mercurial treatment. This
caused him to discard
the whole practice and embrace the
Botanic. By approximately
the same experience and same mental
processes he came to em-
brace Thomsonianism. He went on to
develop his own ideas and
thus to be read out of the orthodox
Thomsonian movement. He
took heat to be "the manifestation
for life, the cause of fever,
and cold an effect or obstruction, the
cause of diseases." His
agents were "lobelia, nervine,
slippery elm, cayenne, bayberry,
gum, myrrh and the like, with plenty of
water, of a temperature
suited to the cases, properly applied
and judiciously selected, as
to time, quality and manner. With all
the hygienic agencies
combined," these constituted
"the true healing art--the ne plus
ultra of medication."
"We may," he explained,
discover new means of carrying them out,
and new modes of application,
but the principles are the laws of man's
nature and they cannot "progress".
Let these be adopted and consistently
obeyed and no longer is there any
trouble about the secondary
"action" of the remedies for disease; no longer
is the physician compelled to guess at
the circumstances in which his "rem-
edies may be converted into
poisons", nor poisons made "innocent as
breast milk"; no longer, to
"lift his club and strike", nor "raise his gun and
fire at random". "Thus
multiplying diseases and increasing their mor-
tality". No longer must he
"grope without a clue like Homer's Cyclops
around his cave", but
"emancipated from the tyranny of the school
of physic" and guided by the true
Physio-Medical principles, he sees at
a glance the character and conditions of
disease, knows for a certainty
the means and processes by which it may
be routed, and goes to work
in a scientific manner, with the same
fixedness of a principle and cer-
338
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
tainty of success that he would bring to
bear upon the practices of any
other art derived from the principles of
its appropriate science. He cannot,
indeed, expect to prolong human life
forever, nor to reconstruct the organs
of the body that may have been fatally
marred; nor restore the function of
organs that are totally deprived of the
power to perform them; but he can
learn to restore that which is capable
of restoration and he is blameworthy
if he ever does anything to hasten
dissolution, or to entail upon his patient
any chronic malady.
Thus, some of the differences between
the Physio-Medical system and
all others, have been pointed out. It
has been shown that, first, it counts
irritation, fever, and inflammation as
so many modes of manifesting an in-
terruption of the free action of the
vital force,--of course, not disease, but a
sanative effort. Secondly, it never seeks to diminish the power to produce
the symptoms, but always to remove what
prevents an equilibrium of vital
action, whether that obstacle be a
positive substance, as in retained secretions
or excretions; or a mere condition, as
in cramp, tetanus, the contraction of
the surface in the incipient stages of
fever, etc.
The Physio-Medical science is not the
gift or invention of any man,
nor company, nor succession of men. It
is the eternal truth and good,
science and art of God and His inestimable and unequalled gift to all who
will thankfully receive it and properly
apply it.
It was the period of compulsory statutes
and the whole
country was falling under the first of a
series of American class
legislation. Curtis, fond of controversy, entered the field with
tongue and pen and his communications
with the first convention
of Thomsonians in Columbus attracted
attention to him and his
address at the Second National
Convention. His work on behalf
of the National Thomsonian Infirmary and
more particularly at
the Third National Convention of
Thomsonians in Baltimore
aroused nation-wide attention. The proprietors of the Thom-
sonian Recorder in Columbus invited him to come here to be the
editor. This gave him a chance to enter
into controversy with the
faculty at the Reformed Medical College
at Worthington with
the orthodox Thomsonians and their
beloved founder as well as
with homeopathics and what one must call
"regulars" because at
this time the regular physicians were by
no means the dominant
school in Columbus practice. Curtis was
not content merely to
beat his opponents in controversy. He
believed firmly that no
system of healing could maintain itself
without schools of in-
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58
339
struction and he was determined that he
would establish such a
school and thereby insure the permanency
of the things he stood
for. The founder, Dr. Samuel Thomson,
being himself an un-
educated man, was afraid to subject his
system to the regimenta-
tion of the regularly established
college curriculum. He frankly
didn't believe that the healing art was
that complicated and with
all due respect to modern deans one can
see there was a good deal
then and possibly now in what he thought
about this matter.
In 1835, Alva Curtis began to instruct
students in his own
house and followed this effort by an
application to the General
Assembly for an Act of Incorporation.
Alexander Wilder says,
"His adversaries opposed him by
artifice and calumny but they
found him able to beat them at every
point, to rebut every objec-
tion, and certain to win friends and
supporters in every conflict."
At one session the House of
Representatives passed the measure
and at the next session the Senate
enacted it, with only a few
negative votes. (Under these circumstances the Governor had
no veto.) The "Literary and
Botanical Medical Institute of Ohio"
was then incorporated on the ninth day
of March, 1839, with the
powers of a university. Its medical
department was opened in
Columbus in the ensuing autumn under the
imposing title: "The
College of Physicians and
Surgeons." Thus the citizens of Co-
lumbus were honored with the parent
school of botanic medicine.
When Dr. Curtis began his College of
Physicians and Sur-
geons, Dr. Samuel Thomson deprecated his
conduct as being a
virtual apostasy, but the Independent
Thomsonian Society had
been formed. Dr. Curtis was made its
first president. In many
respects Dr. Curtis did not differ from
Dr. Thomson. He in-
sisted upon his own authority and right
to judge and often lec-
tured his associates magisterially for
what he considered their
derelictions. While he insisted upon
establishing his own col-
lege, he was very hostile to the
establishment of others, insisting
that too many such institutions would
defeat their own purpose.
In 1846, after one of his orations on this question, he
actually
proposed that all the other schools
should all sell all of their prop-
erty and merge into one strong
institution and very generously
offered himself to be the chancellor.
340
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Dr. Frederick C. Waite has given the
history of the Worces-
ter Medical School which opened near
Worcester, Massa-
chusetts, in March, 1846. The success of
this school and the
controversies of its militant head, Dr.
Calvin Newton, aroused
Dr. Alva Curtis to announce his purpose
to establish a rival col-
lege in Boston. He addressed a letter to
Dr. Newton "couched in
terms at once discourteous, magisterial
and overbearing." He
belabored him for having taken the name
of "eclectic" for his
school and journal, charging that he did
this with a purpose to
attract to him the followers of Dr.
Wooster Beach. He demanded
that the college at Worcester should be
united "in less than 30
days with the one he was about to
establish in Boston." Dr.
Newton rebuked Curtis for his
ill-breeding and vulgarity adding
a remark which was significant alike for
Dr. Curtis and Dr.
Beach: "Each of these gentlemen has
had the means of knowing
our position and each seems equally
offended that we do not call
him Master." When the
controversy that raged around the Wor-
cester School was finally settled,
however, Curtis found himself
professor of the theory and practice of
Medicine, a chair which
he did not accept nor did he go ahead
with the formation of a
rival school. Dr. Curtis did take a
chair in the Metropolitan
Medical College which was the
Physio-Medico school founded
in New York City in 1857 by Dr. Joseph
D. Friend, who had
obtained a charter from the legislature
for that purpose, but since
this is not concerned with Dr. Curtis'
activities in Columbus there
will be no digression in that direction.
The history of the Botanic Medical
College of Ohio was, as
might be expected from its founder,
somewhat checkered. The
institution was removed in 1841 by
legislative permission from
Columbus to Cincinnati. In 1851 the
charter was again amended,
the scientific and literary departments
were set up in a distinct
corporation and Dr. Curtis kept sole
charge of these. The medi-
cal department became the physiopathic
college of Ohio. In 1859
the Physio-Medical Institute was
organized and existed as such
until it was finally suspended in 1885.