The History of the Medical Department of Transylvania University Part 6

DOCTOR JOHN EBERLE[80]

Was a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and was a little over fifty years of age at the time of his decease. Born and educated among the Germans of Lancaster, he retained the peculiar accent and idiom of that people to the day of his death, as also their habits of industry and perseverance in favorite pursuits. At an early period of his history, Doctor Eberle was deeply involved in politics and for some time conducted a German political paper. Prior to his removal to Philadelphia, which occurred about the year 1818, he published several interesting papers in the _New York Medical Repository_ and other journals. Shortly after his settlement in Philadelphia, he became the editor of the _American Medical Recorder_, known throughout the country as one of our ablest periodicals. In 1822, his work on _Therapeutics and Materia Medica_ first appeared, after having encountered many obstacles that for a time seemed to preclude its publication. The author a.s.sured the writer of this notice that he failed in all his attempts to procure a publisher, who would give him anything for the copyright, until the person who finally became its proprietor offered two hundred and fifty dollars for the work. Being the first book of the author, he accepted the offer in the hope of being more successful in his subsequent undertakings.

In 1824, on the establishment of Jefferson Medical College, Doctor Eberle const.i.tuted one of its Faculty, and continued in the school until his removal to Cincinnati in 1831. While in Jefferson he taught the Theory and Practice, Materia Medica, and Obstetrics at different periods, and was also engaged as editor of the _American Medical Review_, a journal devoted especially to the interests of that school.

While in the Jefferson Faculty he published the first edition of his work on _Practice_, which, it is well known, has pa.s.sed through several editions, and unlike its predecessor yielded a handsome compensation to its author.

In 1831, Doctor Eberle was invited (in connection with Doctors Thomas D.

Mitch.e.l.l and George McClellan) by Doctor Drake, to unite in the formation of a new medical school at Cincinnati. In the winter of 1831-32, the deceased gave his first course of lectures in the West as Professor of Materia Medica and Medical Botany in the Medical College of Ohio, in which school he remained until the fall of 1837, when he became connected with the Medical Department of Transylvania. While in Cincinnati, he prepared his work on the _Diseases of Children_, for which the publishers gave him a fair compensation, and it is understood that he was engaged a year ago in getting ready for the press _A System of Midwifery_. That he was importuned by his publishers in Ohio to prepare such a work is known to the writer of this notice.

In addition to the publications of Doctor Eberle above named, there were others of less magnitude. Among these we name a small work of a botanical character, for young students; and it may be noticed here that botany was a favorite study with the deceased.

Doctor Eberle was not fond of the practice of his profession, or he might have become rich in its pursuit. He was devoted especially to books, and as a journalist he has not perhaps been equaled in the United States of America. In his deportment he was plain, una.s.suming, unostentatious; and his whole aspect was indicative of one who had long been a companion of the midnight lamp. Few there are in our profession whose labors have given them such extensive celebrity as fell to the lot of Professor Eberle. His _Practice of Physic_ is in almost every medical library in the West, and has been noticed with high commendation by foreign journalists. His death has left a chasm in the profession, and especially in the school of the West, that is greatly lamented.

Doctor Eberle died at Lexington, Kentucky, February 2, 1838, while filling the chair of the Theory and Practice of Medicine.

PROFESSOR THOMAS d.u.c.h.e MITCh.e.l.l, M. D.,

Was appointed from the Medical College of Ohio to the chair of Chemistry and Pharmacy in the Medical Department of Transylvania in 1837. He was transferred to that of Materia Medica and Medical Botany in the following year, Doctor Peter having been called to the chair of Chemistry, etc.

In consequence of the death of Professor John Eberle early in the session of 1837-38, Doctor Mitch.e.l.l was required to fill both this and his own chair during the session, an arduous duty which he performed faithfully and to the satisfaction of all parties.[81]

With equal ability and success he performed a similar double duty to the full satisfaction of his cla.s.ses in the winter of 1844-45, when, in consequence of the death of Professor William H. Richardson, the chair of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children became vacant.

He was appointed to that chair. He was also Dean of the Faculty in the Transylvania School from 1839 to 1846.

Doctor Mitch.e.l.l was born in Philadelphia in 1791, in which city for three generations his ancestors resided. He died in the same city May 13, 1865, in his seventy-fourth year, having heroically performed his duties as Professor almost up to the time of his death, although he was a constant sufferer from painful neuralgic disease of the stomach, at times almost unendurable. His early education was in Quaker schools, the best in those times in that city, and in the University of Pennsylvania. After a year spent in a drug store and chemical laboratory he became office pupil of the late Doctor Parrish, and, after attendance on three full courses of medical lectures in the Medical Department of the University, he graduated in medicine. His thesis "On Acidification and Combustion" was published in the Memoirs of the Columbian Medical Society. His mind and pen always in active operation, he published papers in _c.o.xe's Medical Museum_, _New York Medical Repository_, _Duane's Portfolio_, and other periodicals.

Early in 1812, he was appointed Professor of Vegetable and Animal Physiology in Saint John's Lutheran College, and, in the following year, as Lazaretto Physician, which office he held for three years. In 1819, he published a duodecimo volume on Medical Chemistry. From 1822 to 1831, he was actively engaged in medical practice at Frankford, near Philadelphia. In 1826, he founded a Total Abstinence Temperance Society, to the tenets of which he rigidly adhered during the whole of his life, deprecating the use of alcohol, even in the preparation of the tinctures of the apothecary. He was also a strict Presbyterian. In 1826, the honorary degree of A. M. was conferred on him by the Trustees of Princeton College, New Jersey.

In the winter of 1830-31, he was called to the chair of Chemistry in the Miami University, and in the following summer to the same chair in the Medical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati, which was soon thereafter amalgamated with the Miami School, where he remained until called to the same chair in the Medical Department of Transylvania University in 1837. He was transferred, as before mentioned, in the following year to the chair of Materia Medica, Doctor Peter having been called to that of Chemistry, etc. Here Doctor Mitch.e.l.l continued until the end of the session of 1848-49.

In the summer of 1847, the Philadelphia College of Medicine held its first session, and Doctor Mitch.e.l.l filled in it the chair of Theory and Practice, Obstetrics, and Medical Jurisprudence. In March, 1849, resigning his chair in the Transylvania School, he joined himself with the Philadelphia College with a view to a permanent connection.

Declining tempting offers from medical schools in Missouri and Tennessee, he, in 1852, resigned his chair in Philadelphia and accepted that of Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville. He performed the duties of that professors.h.i.+p to the satisfaction of all parties until 1854, when he resigned on account of ill health and returned to his native city.

Recovering, in a measure, his health, he was chosen, without any movement on his part, to fill the chair of Materia Medica and General Therapeutics in Jefferson Medical School of Philadelphia. This chair he occupied up to the year of his death.

Doctor Mitch.e.l.l was an able and indefatigable writer and author.

Without recurring to his earlier writings, he published in 1832 an octavo volume of five hundred and fifty-three pages, _On Chemical Philosophy_, on the basis of _The Elements of Chemistry_, by Doctor Reid, of Edinburgh. In the same year he produced his _Hints to Students_, and acted as co-editor of the _Western Medical Gazette_ with Professors Eberle and Staughton; contributed papers to the _New York Repository_, _Philadelphia Museum_, _Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery_, _Western Medical Recorder_, _Western Lancet_, _American Medical Recorder_, _American Review_, _North American Medical and Surgical Journal_, _Transylvania Medical Journal_,[82] _New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal_, _Esculapian Register_, etc.

In 1850, he published an octavo volume of seven hundred and fifty pages _On Materia Medica_, also an edition of _Eberle on the Diseases of Children_, to which he added notes and a sequel of some two hundred pages. He also wrote a volume of six hundred pages _On the Fevers of the United States_, which he did not publish.

Doctor Mitch.e.l.l was a clear and impressive lecturer, a most industrious student even in his latter days, a learned, cla.s.sical, and scientific scholar and a most rigidly upright and conscientious gentleman.[83]

JAMES MILLS BUSH, M. D.,

A native of Kentucky,[84] born in Frankfort May, 1808, graduated as A.

B. in Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, and began the study of medicine and surgery in the office of the celebrated Doctor Alban Goldsmith, Louisville, Kentucky. He removed to Lexington in 1830-31, to attend the medical lectures in Transylvania University, and to become a private pupil of its renowned surgeon, Professor Benjamin W.

Dudley. To Doctor Dudley he became personally attached by sentiments of affection and esteem, which were warmly returned by his eminent preceptor; so that, when young Bush received the honor of the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1833, Doctor Dudley immediately appointed him his demonstrator and prosector in Anatomy and Surgery, to which branches of medical science and art Doctor Bush was ardently devoted.

This responsible office he filled with eminent ability and success until 1837, when he was officially made Adjunct Professor of Anatomy and Surgery to his distinguished colleague and friend, Doctor Dudley.

He occupied this honorable position to the great satisfaction of all concerned until the year 1844, when he became the Professor of Anatomy, Doctor Dudley retaining the chair of Surgery. In the chair of Anatomy he continued until the dissolution of the Transylvania Medical School in 1857.

In the meanwhile this school, in 1850, had been changed from a winter to a summer school; Doctor Bush, with some of his colleagues and some physicians of Louisville, having thought proper to establish the Kentucky School of Medicine[85] in Louisville as a winter school. In this latter college Doctor Bush remained for three sessions--giving thus two full courses of lectures per annum--when he and his Lexington colleagues, resigning from the Louisville school, returned to that of Lexington, re-establis.h.i.+ng a winter session.[86]

Doctor Bush was ever a most conscientious and ardent laborer in his profession, and, during the lifetime of his preceptor, Doctor Dudley, was his constant a.s.sociate and a.s.sistant as well in the medical school as in his medical and surgical practice. On the retirement of that distinguished surgeon and professor, his mantle fell upon Doctor Bush.

In the language of his friend, the late Doctor Lewis Rogers, in 1873: "When Doctor Dudley retired from teaching, Doctor Bush was appointed to the vacant chair. When Doctor Dudley retired from the field of his brilliant achievements as a surgeon Doctor Bush had the rare courage to take possession of it. No higher tribute can be paid to him than to say that he has since held possession without a successful rival."

[Ill.u.s.tration: DOCTOR JAMES M. BUSH.

From a Photograph by Mullen.]

Most ably and successfully did he thus maintain himself as one fit to follow in the footsteps of our great surgeon. His sterling qualities as a man, his most kind and endearing manners as a physician, his great skill and experience in anatomy and surgery, which had been as well the pleasure as the devoted labor of his life; his remarkable accuracy of eye, the more acute because of congenital myopia, his delicacy of hand and unswerving nerve in the use of instruments in the most difficult operations, endeared him to his patients and won the respect and admiration of his medical brethren.

Doctor Bush was a lucid and impressive teacher of his peculiar branch of medical art and science, and always attached his pupils strongly to him as an honored preceptor and friend.

During his active lifetime, spent chiefly in acquiring and putting in practice the rare professional skill which distinguished him, he gave but little time to the use of his pen. Hence he left no large book as the record of his experience. His princ.i.p.al writings were published, in 1837, in the tenth volume of the _Transylvania Journal of Medicine_, and these were written for that journal on the solicitation of the present writer, who edited that volume. They consist of:

1. A short report of a case of epilepsy, produced in a negro girl by blows of the windla.s.s of a well on the parietal bone, which was entirely and speedily cured under the preliminary treatment by Doctor Dudley of mercurial purgatives and low diet, preparatory to the use of the trephine, which, as is well known, had been used with great success by Doctor Dudley in such cases.

2. Report of a case of insidious inflammation of the pia mater, complicated with pleuritis--with the autopsy.

3. A more extended paper, ent.i.tled "Remarks on Mechanical Pressure Applied by Means of the Bandage; Ill.u.s.trated by a Variety of Cases."

In which the mode of application and _modus operandi_ are most clearly given, and ill.u.s.trated by many interesting cases, mostly from the surgical practice of Doctor Dudley.

4. "Dissection of an Idiot's Brain." The subject--a female twenty-five years of age--had been born idiotic, blind, deaf, and dumb; the head was very small, and the brain on dissection was found to weigh only twenty ounces, and to have large serous cavities in the coronal portions of the cerebral hemispheres. The anatomy of the eyes was perfect, but there was no nervous connection between the optic nerve and the _thalami nervorum opticorum_.

5. A short notice of three operations of lithotomy, performed on May 31, 1837, by Doctor Dudley, with his a.s.sistance.

6. "Interesting Autopsy." On the body of a negro man who had been the subject of sudden falling fits, and was under treatment for disease of the chest. The autopsy disclosed hypertrophy of the right side of the heart, and a most remarkable course and lengthening of the colon.

7. "Observations on the Operation of Lithotomy, Ill.u.s.trated by Cases from the Practice of Professor B. W. Dudley." An extensive and lucid description of the method of operation and the remarkably successful experience of Doctor Dudley in this part of his practice, giving report of one hundred and fifty-two successful cases up to that time.

In addition, the Doctor contributed an occasional bibliographical review or notice. And these seem to be the whole of his published professional writings.

Doctor Bush was married, in 1835, to Miss Charlotte James, of Chillicothe. Of their three children the eldest, Benjamin Dudley, was a young man of remarkable promise as a surgeon and physician when he was cut off, an event which cast a gloom over the remaining days of the life of his father. Few young men of his age had ever attained such proficiency or developed such sterling qualities.[87]

The death of Doctor Bush, which took place on February 14, 1875, was followed by general and unusual manifestations of respect and regret, not only on the part of the members of the profession, but by the people of the city at large. Few citizens were more extensively known, loved, and honored in life or followed to the grave by a greater concourse of mourning friends.

NATHAN RYNO SMITH, M. D.,

Was called from his residence in Baltimore, Maryland, to the chair of Theory and Practice of Medicine in Transylvania in the year 1838. He resigned the chair and returned to that city in 1840, having delivered three annual courses of lectures here. He was succeeded in this chair by Doctor Elisha Bartlett.

Doctor Smith was born May 21, 1797, in the town of Cornish, New Hamps.h.i.+re, where his father, Nathan Smith--afterward Professor of Physic and Surgery in Yale College--had been for ten years in the practice of his profession. In a brief sketch of his father, Doctor Smith unconsciously drew the outlines of his own character. "In the practice of surgery," he said, "Professor Smith displayed an original and inventive mind. His friends claim for him the establishment of scientific principles and the invention of resources in practice which will stand as lasting monuments of a mind fertile in expedients and unshackled by the dogmas of the schools." The father, at the age of twenty-four, after an early life of industry and adventure in the then new country, had been so impressed and attracted by witnessing a surgical operation that he at once devoted himself to surgery and medicine, and with such ardor and success that for forty years succeeding he was a distinguished member and teacher in his profession. The son, with much the same natural bent of mind, after receiving his early education at Dartmouth and graduating at Yale in 1817--spending a year and a half in Virginia as a cla.s.sical tutor--began the study of medicine in Yale, where his father was Professor of Physic and Surgery. He there received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, in 1823. He began practice in Burlington, Vermont, in 1824. In 1825, he was appointed Professor of Surgery and Anatomy in the University of Vermont, the Medical Department of which was organized princ.i.p.ally by his exertions, aided by his father.