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PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW YORK HOSPITAL 
 
 EROM 1856 TO 1900* 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT F. WEIR, M.D., Hon. F.R.C.S., M.C.S.C. Paris, Hon. 
 
 F.A.C.S., etc. 
 
 Attending Surgeon 1876 to 1900; Consulting Surgeoti Thereafter. 
 
 I little thought, when as a lad I walked down Broadway and passed the 
 wide, park-like entrance of the New York Hospital opposite Pearl Street 
 with its tall iron railing and handsome iron gate opening into a broad avenue 
 lined on each side with a double row of splendid lofty elms, that a few years 
 later I should become one of its lesser officials. I had graduated the youngest 
 in my cla^s from the just established New York Free Academy and had started 
 a> a clerk with my father who was an apothecary in Grand Street. Dr. H. B. 
 Sands, who later achieved great eminence, was also the son of an apothecary 
 who carried on his business at Church's Pharmacy in the Bowery a few blocks 
 from our store. During the two or three years I was acting as a clerk, I 
 rose from taking down and putting up the store shutters to become quite 
 
 rt in the manufacture of tinctures, etc., and acquired, thanks to a pleas- 
 ing and diligent perusal of Wood and Bache's Dispensatory, quite a fair 
 knowledge of medicines and their actions on the human body. Perhaps this 
 training inclined me to tin- practice of medicine, but I have always been 
 convinced that two incidents determined my career. The first was the 
 
 ■ I obtained trom the painful ingrowing nail of ni\ great toe. It 
 
 plagued 11. e badlj for several months until m\ lather sent me one Saturday 
 
 * I tten f'.r tin- coming III tor; "I the New Ybrlf Hospital, and was 
 
 'I- Howard Townsi nd, President, in the numbei of 
 tin- II- Bulletin foi I in--. 1917. 
 
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 to the office of Dr. James R. Wood whom I had frequently seen in our store 
 and who was generally known by all the neighborhood as little Dr. Jimmy 
 Wood. His office was at the corner of East Broadway and Market Street 
 (and they were fashionable streets then). Here he held once a week a sort 
 of clinic for his numerous students. Thither I went in due time and was 
 ushered into his sanctum. He examined my stripped toe and while explaining 
 to the embryo medicos the nature of my trouble, slyly took up a pair of 
 pincers and quickly placing one jaw of this under the nail, clamped the upper 
 jaw to and pulled the nail out. I gave a jump and a wild yell, but it didn't 
 hurt as much as I thought it would, since the nail had been considerably 
 loosened by the prolonged inflammation and suppuration. I went home 
 relieved, and telling my father of it said, I'd like to be able to do like that. 
 This impression was a few months augmented when my father slipped on the 
 ice on the sidewalk and broke his leg. This fracture was called by Dr. 
 Wood, who had been sent for, a Pott's fracture at the ankle with consider- 
 able turning and dislocation of the foot outwards. With much gentleness 
 Dr. Wood raised and examined the foot, and then, with a sudden and strong 
 twist, forced the bones into place. The patient's pain was great, but 
 momentary, and a splint deftly applied allowed everything to progress 
 smoothly. 
 
 The next day I announced my firm determination to become a surgeon 
 and in brief was placed later by our family physician, Dr. Benjamin Ogden, 
 formerly resident physician of the Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane, in 
 the office of Dr. Gurdon Buck, who was then one of the surgeons of the 
 New York Hospital and also of St. Luke's Hospital. He received me as a 
 free pupil on condition that I was to assist him at his operations and dressings, 
 and to look after his city collections, and I later found out there was included, 
 when I became a senior pupil, the duty that I should quiz or instruct the junior 
 students in his office. Dr. Buck was a large man with a face somewhat 
 German in aspect, slow in action and in speech, but having a thoughtful 
 mind and fertile in surgical expedients. He was a very reticent person and, 
 though I remained with him nearly three years and was considered his 
 favorite among his eight or ten later pupils, yet when riding with him in his 
 buggy, which he drove himself, to see his patients or to go with him to the 
 hospital, he seldom spoke unless to reply to my inquiries, which were but 
 seldom made, for I was a shy youth. I remember driving with him from 
 ioth Street, where his office was, to St. Luke's Hospital in 54th Street, and 
 thence to the New York Hospital, in all a distance of six or seven miles, 
 during this time he never said a word to me. I respected and admired his 
 merits then and after, as a teacher, friend and colleague. 
 
 An occurrence during these student days brings even yet a smile to my 
 lips. I was giving ether to a private patient for Dr. Buck, in which the 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 
 
 desired degree of anaesthesia is recognized by the eyeball becoming insensitive. 
 Using this test I reported, "He is under it, Sir," when Dr. Buck commenced 
 to use his scalpel, but a cry from the patient and vigorous twitching of the 
 hands and face showed I was in error. Dr. Buck said, "More ether, Mr. 
 Weir." I poured in the inhaler more of the anaesthetic and in a few minutes 
 I said confidently, "He is ready now, Sir," but the first cut showed again 
 that the patient felt the surgeon. "Don't you know how to give ether yet?" 
 growled Dr. Buck. "Doctor," I said, "I have done as you directed me and 
 carried out your instructions by touching his eyeball from time to time and 
 he didn't wink at all." "Which eye did you touch?" he said. "The left one, 
 as usual." Said Dr. Buck, "I forgot to tell you that that was his glass eye!" 
 So far the paths that led me finally to the New York Hospital have been 
 somewhat indistinct, but they will now appear more plainly. Dr. Buck, 
 inquiring of me as to my progress at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
 where I had matriculated and whose lectures I attended, found that of 
 the first year's course, which comprised instruction in Chemistry, Materia 
 Medica. Physiology and Anatomy, I had, I thought, and he thought also, 
 enough knowledge of drugs gathered in my father's store, and of chemistry 
 from the course given at the Free Academy* by Prof. Wolcott Gibbs (after- 
 ward Professor of Chemistry at Harvard College), who inspired his students 
 greatly, to permit me to use the hours allotted to these studies for something 
 else. In a few days' time he said he had arranged it so that I could go each 
 morning for one or two hours to the New York Hospital and make the 
 morning rounds with the House Surgeon and his staff in the Second Surgical 
 Division of the Hospital. I went the next morning, therefore, to the hospital, 
 was introduced to the House Surgeon of the Division, Dr. J. H. Hinton, 
 whose term expired within two months of my entry, when Dr. Henry D. 
 Noyes became House Surgeon, with Dr. Robert Ray and Dr. L. B. Baylies 
 as the Senior and Junior Walkers as they were termed in those days. Dr. 
 Noyes later became a distinguished oculist and was a trusted surgeon at the 
 New York Eye and Far Infirmary. This was in 1856. The New York 
 Hospital at this time occupied the whole block between Worth and Duane 
 ets, excepting a fringe of stores, 100 feet deep, on Broadway, running on 
 each side from the hospital entrance to the corner — and extended back its 
 whole depth to Thomas Street. Originally started in 1769 by a medical 
 man, Dr. Bard, but not opened for patients until 1 79 1, the central building, 
 with its wide hall and two wings, was a finely proportioned building, three 
 Stories and attic in height, and built of a gray colored dark stone with 
 
 appropriate windows, and presented a decidedly artistic appearance, en- 
 
 cd bj the ivy, with which it was in greater part Covered. Its stoop was 
 
 ( College of the Citj of New '< 
 
PERSONAL REMXNTSCEN'CES 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 
 
 large, but modern in appearance, and was a place of resort to the young 
 men of the resident staff, three in number, viz : two surgical and one medical, 
 who. after the day's duties had ceased and the walkers had gone home, 
 gathered together to smoke and talk over the events of the day. At each end 
 of this building were wards for women, and also a large central room, on 
 the first floor, for the use of the Governors for their general or their com- 
 mittee meetings. 
 
 I remember this room particularly well, for on the sideboard in it there 
 was at all such meetings placed a generous supply of sandwiches and lemonade 
 for the Governors and Attending Surgeons, and sometimes the House 
 Surgeons, who might also be called upon for reports concerning their depart- 
 ments. Alas, the House Staff only occasionally were asked to partake of 
 these refreshments. Sometimes, it is true, after the meeting had adjourned, a 
 venturous subaltern would make a raid for the forage, but too often Peter, 
 the negro waiter, too promptly removed the remains. I shall later venture 
 to speak of some of the Governors whom the internes or House Staff saw 
 or met in the wards on their official inspecting rounds and learned to 
 appreciate their work by their efficiency and kindliness. The staff did not 
 care to know the Governors in their special room, as that generally meant 
 some reproof for an offence committed or of a duty forgotten. I was once haled 
 before them, it having been reported that I had climbed the. inner front gate, 
 after it was closed at night, John, the surly but efficient gatekeeper having 
 caught me in the act. My reprimand was not severe but sufficient, but I 
 always avoided the Governors' room if I could. Besides this inner railing 
 and gate, which was half-way up from Broadway to the hospital building, 
 there was an entrance on Duane Street, closed by a large wooden gate, with 
 a huge knocker, for entrance of supplies and injured patients coming by 
 carriage or cart, for there was no ambulance until years later. The old 
 porter who managed the night entrance was a character. He was called 
 Jimmy, but what other name he had I never knew — a dirty, unshaven and 
 unshorn Irishman, who was always laughing and joking, so that never any- 
 one grew angry with him. He also helped at times at the autopsies, in the 
 dead house, which adjoined the gate-house, from which he derived sundry 
 mild tip-;, as also did the House Staff, from the coroners and their assistants, 
 who were glad to have their help in this gruesome work. The road from 
 Duane Street ran to the entrance of the three hospital buildings and was 
 pa\ »-i| with the so-called Belgian pavement, that is to say, with small square 
 blocks of -tones laid endways. The noise made by entering carts and carriages 
 at night time was decidedly disturbing, it being heralded by the repeated 
 thundering- of the big iron knocker. The indoor night watchman in the 
 central building received the patient and, as with the day incoming patients, 
 
 made the usual record of identification, ami this concluded, notified the 
 
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 House Surgeon on duty, who assigned the injured person to the night ward 
 and in the morning following transferred the patient to his bed in the main 
 ward — thus avoiding disturbance at night time in the general ward. The 
 patients were visited by the House Surgeon or physician with their senior 
 and junior walkers each morning at half-past eight, when the necessary 
 examinations, prescriptions and dressings were made, except when the dress- 
 ings were important or lengthy. In such cases, they were postponed until 
 the end of the visit, after which the House Surgeon usually made the 
 first dressing after an operation, when this was not done by the Attending 
 Surgeon, and subsequently turned over the same to the senior walker, in 
 whose immediate province were left the cases of amputations, compound and 
 simple fractures and severe wounds. To the junior walker were left the 
 bandaging and strapping of ulcers, burns and the like. This latter officer, 
 Dr. Robert Ray, I assisted first by handing adhesive plaster, bandages, pins 
 and scissors as required, and as time passed, and I mastered the use of these 
 rudiments, I was allowed gradually to divide his work as he directed. 
 
 I have already described, poorly I fear, the main building with its 
 four wards — two female medical and two female surgical, though in my 
 description I omitted stating that over the Governors' room was another, a 
 very large one, used as a library, filled with racks for many, many medical 
 books and bound medical journals, foreign and native, which was under the 
 care and supervision of Dr. John L. Vandervoort, who was a stiff, severe, 
 spare man, who apparently had never joked in all his life, who nevertheless 
 had so well nursed his library on the scanty funds supplied him by the 
 Governors that at the period 1855-60 it was considered one of the best of its 
 kind in the country, comparing well with those of the New York Academy of 
 Medicine and of the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. This library, if 
 I may forestall my narrative, was eventually dismantled and dispersed when 
 the old hospital was surrendered and sold for business purposes in 1870. 
 This sale was followed by the purchase of a new site and a rebuilding 
 in its present locality in West Fifteenth Street, which was opened for patients 
 in 1877. The other wards of the hospital were situated in two buildings, 
 one, the older, was on the Worth Street side, a two-story and attic building, 
 was erected in the early part of the century and so unfitted for the modern care 
 of the sick that it was but seldom used, except for storage purposes or for 
 overflow patients from the other buildings. In my resident hospital time 
 there was frequently a negro ward in operation there. That ward I 
 remembered well, for I was very much puzzled once when I was House 
 Surgeon to correctly diagnose the trouble of an old darky who had a painful 
 swollen leg. I finally asked the House Surgeon of the other division, a Dr. 
 Bell from Virginia, to come over and see the patient. He glanced at the 
 negro and said at once, "He's got erysipelas." "Erysipelas," I" replied, "Why 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 
 
 then this leg should be redder than the other.'' "It is," he said, "in the 
 negro (nigger, he styled him), the more red he gets, the blacker he is." He 
 was right, only I didn't then know it. Dr. Bell left the hospital when I did 
 in i860 and went to Richmond, Virginia. I continued in New York, however, 
 until the Civil War had broken out, when I joined the 12th New York State 
 Militia as Assistant Surgeon vice Dr. Bell, who had resigned. In the haste of 
 departure to the front, I could not buy or have made the proper uniform. I 
 knew where Bell had lived in New York, and on going there found that he had 
 left sundry trunks behind, so I wired him (this was just before Virginia 
 seceded) and asked him to sell me his uniform, to which he consented. 
 
 Late in 1865, after the war, of course, was over, one day on the hospital 
 stoop I met him, just in from the South. I had heard that he had lost his 
 wife during the war, but when, I did not know, so after greeting him I said 
 a polite word or two of condolence, but he interrupted me with, "Oh, I've 
 got another one !" 
 
 The principal building was, however, the South or Marine Building, 
 which was situated, as one of its names indicates, on Duane Street, though 
 not opening into that street, as its entrance faced the south end of the main 
 building. It was a lofty, plain-looking granite, four-story and basement 
 structure, with high ceilings and a specially good (for those days) ventilating 
 apparatus. It had eight large wards, holding each twenty to twenty-five 
 patients, which ran on each of the four upper floors, the full length of the 
 building on each side of the broad main stairway. The lower floor was 
 divided into four small wards, one surgical for children, one medical for 
 children and old broken down pensioners of the hospital, and the third for 
 alcoholic patients. I don't remember the use of the fourth room on the floor, 
 but I think it must have been a supplementary storeroom or for the Assistant 
 Superintendent. The alcoholic ward was quite largely patronized. It had 
 adjoining it one or two padded rooms to prevent the patients injuring them- 
 selves when unruly or excited. It was sometimes the scene of ludicrous antics 
 on the part of its delirious inmates. Once when temporarily acting as House 
 Physician I found a man standing arched on his feet and outstretched hands 
 whirling round in one spot and wildly shouting, "Help, Help!" On inquiry 
 the nurse told me that the man thought the devil had hooked him in the seat 
 of hi- rrou>c]s and was trying to pull the patient up to him. A narcotic soon 
 relieved him, however. Another time I found a man standing solemnly on 
 a reversed pot de chambre, saying nothing hut smiling contentedly. If from 
 
 ie or In an intentional push, he was forced from his resting place, he 
 
 yells ot pain until lie regained his desired base ot support. It appeared 
 that he was an electrician and believed that he was surrounded by strong 
 
 trie currents and Ins onl} safety was In thus insulating himself. 
 Reverting to the description ot tin- Marine Building, I would further 
 
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 state that this building, with its fine operating room at its top, holding some 
 250 students (there was another operating room, larger and somewhat 
 antique on the top floor of the main building, I omitted to state) was largely 
 filled by injured and sick seamen, who obtained free treatment here, by virtue 
 of a financial arrangement with the U. S. Treasury Department. The 
 remaining building not yet described was a low two-storied stone affair that 
 backed up against the stores on Broadway between the Broadway entrance 
 and Duane Street. It was close to the Duane Street gate and adjoined the 
 deadhouse, and in it were kept, under the charge of a salaried medical officer 
 as curator, the numerous specimens derived from interesting operations and 
 post mortem examinations. Many of these were valuable in themselves, or as 
 interesting mementos of momentous epochs in surgery. It is said that the 
 unintentional exposure of some of these dried preparations to the view of 
 passers-by in Duane Street brought about, in 1788, a disturbance by which 
 several lives were lost before the "Doctor's Riot," as it was called, was 
 quelled by the militia. This pathological department was, after he had 
 passed through his house surgeonship, under charge of Dr. Ray as Curator, 
 and in my loose position of dresser, I often aided him in his preparations and 
 added somewhat to my knowledge of what had been done and sometimes 
 what should not have been done by the surgeons of the past and the present, 
 and finally in i860 succeeded him as Curator. As the fifth wheel to a coach 
 I tramped the wards of the hospital, picking up all the time useful bits of 
 knowledge and attending fairly well my various college lectures, and doing, 
 perfunctorily, I admit, my dissecting work for nearly two years, and had 
 begun my cramming up preparatory to entering upon my examination by the 
 Medical Board of the Hospital for the regular position of junior walker, 
 when I was laid up for many weeks by an attack of typhoid fever, contracted, 
 as Dr. Buck and Dr. Isaac Wood (a famous Quaker physician of those days) 
 said, during my hospital work, so I did not pass the Board of Examiners 
 until December, 1858, and was thenceforth truly on the hospital's list of 
 medical officers. Unluckily, by reason of my illness, my graduation as a 
 Doctor of Medicine was postponed to the commencement of the College of 
 Physicians and Surgeons in the spring of 1859. For my thesis (required to 
 be presented for graduation), I had selected the subject of cerebral hernia, 
 . having seen at the hospital and become interested in two cases of this rather 
 rare complication of fractures of the skull, and on Commencement night was 
 greatly dismayed to hear my name called out as the recipient of the first thesis 
 prize. I could not rise up I was so excited and did so only when Prof. 
 Joseph M. Smith of the Faculty called out, "Please stand up, Dr. Weir, your 
 modesty equals your merit." Aside from this distinction, so unexpected, 
 was the pleasing honorarium of fifty dollars — my first professional fee, so to 
 speak. By this time, April, 1859, I became a veritable junior walker. The 
 
OF THE NEW" YORK HOSPITAL 
 
 original House Staff of the Second Surgical Division, to which I had been 
 fastened by Dr. Buck, had finished their terms of service, each grade con- 
 tinuing eight months, and were replaced by Dr. G. A. Quinby as House 
 Surgeon, Dr. J. J. Hull as Senior Walker and myself as Junior Walker. Dr. 
 Quinby became one of the surgeons to St. Luke's Hospital, but marrying 
 wealth, he soon gave up practice, but while in the profession started a 
 brougham, on the rear panel of which he placed his initial Q, instead of, as 
 usual, on the door. Dr. Van Buren said that that was correct, as the queue 
 must always be worn in the rear. Dr. Hull, my immediate superior, became 
 later one of the surgeons at St. Luke's Hospital, and my successor in office, 
 Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa, then my Senior Walker, became a distinguished 
 aurist and the founder and head of the New York Post Graduate School 
 and Hospital. Dr. S. B. Tuthill, my Junior Walker, was a fine violinist and 
 the life of our social gatherings. He died shortly after leaving the hospital. 
 The attending surgeons at that time were Dr. Gurdon Buck, of whom 
 I have already spoken, and Dr. John Watson, a testy man with a large and 
 useless acquaintance of the fathers of medicine in their original language, 
 of whom I recall that during my interne service he, assisted by Dr. Markoe 
 (for with the two surgical divisions one of the surgeons on duty always 
 assisted the other one), operated for the removal of several large glandular 
 tumors from the neck. Dr. Watson had made a fine exposure of the 
 parts and had removed several of the enlarged glands, when a small vessel 
 was cut and as it spurted, Dr. Watson seized it with a clamp and told 
 Dr. Markoe to ligate it. Dr. Markoe, who admired a neat surgical dissec- 
 tion, said, "How finely you have cleaned that out, Dr. Watson," and made 
 "one or two more expressions of compliment. "Never mind that," said Wat- 
 son sharply, "Devil take it, will you or will you not tie that vessel, Dr. 
 Markoe?" Also a vestryman, like the other surgeon, Dr. Markoe said, "Devil 
 take it, I will," and made the demanded ligature. Dr. William H. Van 
 Buren, a large man of superb figure and elegant manners, and from whom the 
 staff learned much, was another attending surgeon ; so was Dr. T. M. Markoe, 
 a very pleasant gentleman, but who leaned strongly on Dr. Van Buren for 
 advice, and of whom Dr. H. B. Sands (a later member of the staff and a man 
 of distinction and ability) said that he had "crystallized early in life"; still 
 another was [)r. T. M. Halstead, a nephew of one of the Governors, a stout, 
 -.hort man of indifferent ability, but much loved by the House Staff for his 
 affability. As junior walker, my principal business, when he was on duty, was 
 to wipe frequentl) liis freely perspiring face and brow while he was operating. 
 Just before I began my interne service, Dr. Willard Parker was also 
 appointed Attending Surgeon. He resigned after a short service on account 
 f.t lu's immense private surgical work, lie was a tall, well-made man, very 
 ere< t, with frock coat always buttoned and a manner attractively magnetic. 
 
10 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 11 
 
 conjoined to a cheery Laugh that endeared him to vis all. He was always 
 pressed for time and hurried through the wards. He said to me once when 
 I. as House Surgeon, ushered him into the wards, that the by-laws required 
 him "to see every patient once a week," and then taking a deliberate stare 
 around the ward and without advancing farther, turned on his heel and went 
 out. Those six surgeons in the two surgical divisions were able only each 
 to have two months in the male and female surgical wards of the Main 
 Building and two months in the Marine Building, where the male patients, 
 principally seamen, were. As they annually allotted themselves the year's 
 work it was at times varied. To obtain the benefit of the surgery of both 
 sexes, the House Staff also changed from one building to the other every 
 four months. At that time the term of service of the House Staff was two 
 years — eight months in each grade. Later it was made six months in each 
 grade. 
 
 The Consulting Surgeons in 1859 were: Valentine Mott, facile princeps. 
 He was a particularly neat, elderly man, with a rosy, fine complexion, very 
 scantv white hair and short side whiskers, who frequently moved his lips 
 without speaking. He had been an attending surgeon of the hospital for 
 over twenty years and was then made a Consulting Surgeon. He was also the 
 Professor of Surgery at the recently established University Medical College. 
 He seldom engaged in private work, though I once saw him operate. It was 
 for a case of aneurism of the subclavian artery, which was so large that the 
 blood vessel between it and the heart could not be tied to promote the coagu- 
 lation of the blood in it and thus bring about a cure, and hence in the consulta- 
 tion held by Drs. Buck and Markoe, in whose charge the case was, with Dr. 
 Mott called in with them, it was decided to tie the blood vessel on the distal 
 side of the aneurism and in this way bring about the desired blood coagulation. 
 a poorer but the only way remaining for such cases. The family of the 
 patient chose Dr. Mott to operate and Dr. Buck took me with him to see 
 him do it. Dr. Mott said he would have to tie the vessel just below the 
 clavicle. They all agreed that that was the best and only thing to be done — 
 SO with the man etherized, instruments ready and arm stretched out to fully 
 expose the axilla and held steadily by Dr. A. B. Mott ("my son, Alexander," 
 as hi- father always called him, to show us, one said, that he came from, 
 bur !v, r ///> to him) — Dr. Valentine Mott, with one stroke, four inches 
 long, of his scalpel, cur through skin, fascia ami arterial sheath, exposed 
 tin- arterj in the middle of the axilla and tied ir within two minutes, a 
 wonderfully, brilliant operation, I said, as I walked awaj afterwards with 
 Dr. Markoe and I asked his opinion of it and of its probable result. He 
 said, and he was rit_dit as I learned In after experience, that the ligation was 
 too fat awaj to do an) good and was nor in the place agreed upon, and that it 
 wa- a ven dangerous exhibition ot a surgical tOUr de lone. '1 he patient was 
 
12 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 not improved by the surgery rendered and died a few weeks later from the 
 progress of the disease. 
 
 The other Consulting Surgeons were Dr. R. H. Hoffman, T. M. Chees- 
 man, A. H. Stevens and A. C. Post. Dr. Hoffman's surgical career was 
 unknown to the internes except in one instance which all the staff gossiped 
 about and told their successors in turn. It was based upon the fact that Dr. 
 Hoffman at one time in his life had been a naval surgeon. In a certain cruise 
 he injured one of his toes, which vexatiously grew painfully worse, so that in 
 his distress he amputated his own toe. This was in the days before anesthetics 
 were known. We all felt that the deed was heroic. I have only known one 
 thing to compare with this and that was where a physician operated on himself 
 for appendicitis. Here, however, he had the aid of cocaine, which made the 
 operation fairly painless. 
 
 Dr. Cheesman was for over thirty years one of the attending surgeons, 
 but the surgical history of the time does not show much evidence of his work. 
 He grew wealthy in his general practice, had a fine mansion in Fifth Avenue, 
 and was much interested in our endeavors to control the frequent cases of 
 pyaemia, etc., that occurred in our wards. He felt that it was due to infection 
 by the surgeon and often urged the staff to be more careful in the care of 
 their instruments, which he thought, might inoculate the operation wounds, 
 and said that he would leave a small legacy to the hospital, the income from 
 which should be devoted to the improved care of them, if that could be done. 
 Whether he did so or not I never heard, as a few years later we learned 
 definitely how to prevent germs getting into wounds, and that the instru- 
 ments were easily rendered aseptic, and that other agencies than these, as the 
 hands, clothes and dressings of the surgeon and of his assistants were more 
 likely to bring infection to a wound. Dr. Cheesman's personal appearance 
 was both striking and attractive. I remember him distinctly. He was a 
 large, solid-looking man with a big head, which looked larger than it was 
 from an abundant growth of long, white hair ; with this was a rosy com- 
 plexion and big chop and chin whiskers. He had a positive method of speaking 
 and his words generally commended attention. 
 
 Dr. Alexander H. Stevens was in appearance and surgical abilities a 
 strong contrast to Dr. Cheesman. Dr. Stevens, who was then President of the 
 College of Physicians and Surgeons, whose building was at that time in 
 Crosby Street, was a tall, thin, cadaveric looking man, lank and yellow, with 
 a pronounced seriousness of manner that invariably impressed the students. 
 He had been a noted surgeon and in some respects was considered a rival of 
 Mott. He was a brother to Mr. John A. Stevens, who was a Governor of 
 the hospital for over forty years. 
 
 Dr. Alfred C. Post, the last of our consulting surgeons, had served the 
 hospital as Attending Surgeon from 1836 to 1853, was a painstaking, learned 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 13 
 
 surgeon, of a spare habit, with a narrow face and clipped gray whiskers and 
 moustache. He had great precision in his speech and in his enunciation he 
 would unconsciously draw back the corners of his mouth so strongly as to 
 simulate an energetic smile. He was Professor of Clinical Surgery at the 
 University Medical College, where his method of speech and fondness for 
 words of Greek derivation at times amused the class. He was, however, 
 an excellent teacher. I ventured in later years to bait him once in a medical 
 society when presenting a patient whose thigh, crooked from a badly united 
 fracture, had been relieved and straightened by breaking the bone over again. 
 I announced it, with a sly glance at Dr. Post, as a case of dysmorphosteo- 
 diaclasis ( which literally meant dys— difficult, morpb — an abbreviation for 
 shape or form, osteo — derived from osteon, a bone, and diaclasis — a breaking 
 through, or a total meaning of breaking a bone for malposition). Dr. Post 
 rose to this and asked two or three times to have it repeated, then wrote it 
 down, thought over it several minutes, and expressed his gratification at such 
 a succinct description of the operation. I regret that I could not accept his 
 compliments and had to tell him that I had picked it up in a recent German 
 Medical Journal. His son, Dr. Geo. L. Post, was a classmate with me at 
 the Free Academy and afterwards rose to eminence as the founder of the 
 well-known Missionary Hospital at Beirut in Syria. But to return to our 
 Dr. Post, he was a regular attendant at the various medical societies of the 
 v." i r \ and had always a specimen of some kind in his coat tail pockets. Once 
 he presented the thigh of a chicken which he had found at his dinner and 
 which showed a marked swelling near its joint end. Finishing his descrip- 
 tion of it he said he could not determine its nature until after a microscopic 
 examination of it. "I can tell you now," said Dr. Metcalfe, "it is a '//^chon- 
 droma' " (enchondroma — a cartilaginous growth), which raised a, smile. 
 
 I must out of politeness, as well as from a desire to be complete in my 
 recollections of my interneship, mention briefly the medical officers. Recollect, 
 however, I beg my reader, that not serving under them prevented somewhat 
 my knowing them and their foibles as well as I knew the surgical staff. 
 
 The onl) Consulting Physician then was Thomas Cock, a Quaker, often de- 
 scribed as of large abilities, and he was seen by the staff but seldom and then only 
 at special consultations. Here I might remark that in i860 there were several 
 physicians in New York of marked ability who were Quakers, and that in the 
 Board of Governors not a few Quakers have been at various times enrolled 
 among their members — notabl) I recall the names of Mr. George Trimble and 
 Mr. Samuel WilletS. I think that Mr. Joseph Walker was also of this 
 rcli'_':»u~ sect. Dr. C01 k's colleague, Dr. F. U. Johnston, had died in iSsH, 
 
 ng ;i> attending physician twent} years — two years before I became 
 Junior Walker. Twentj to thirtj years, was about the average term of dutj 
 in the wards of the attending physicians and surgeons. The notable excep- 
 
14 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 tions to this were Dr. J. M. Smith, thirty-seven years as Attending Physician, 
 Dr. Gurdon Buck and Dr. T. M. Markoe, who each were forty years 
 Attending Surgeons. Having alluded to one of the medical staff, who had 
 passed beyond my ken, I want to speak of another physician to the hospital, 
 who left its service before my time, but, who in my later years, became one 
 of my best and respected friends. I refer to Dr. John T. Metcalfe,* now dead, 
 but then Professor of Medicine in the University Medical College. He was 
 not only an excellent physician and teacher, but by his kindly wit and 
 alluring ways became the most loved of all his fellows. He helped the young 
 doctor and cheered the older ones. He gave good dinners and invited all of 
 us who behaved themselves, as he said, to his table, which was always of the 
 best, even when the piece de resistance was corn beef and cabbage. (On 
 that occasion I tasted the best dish of this kind that I ever ate.) I would 
 like to quote at length some of his says, but space is wanting to do but little 
 in this line and moreover, I understand that his friend, Dr. Henry F. Walker, 
 has in preparation his biography, when Dr. Metcalfe's social qualities will 
 be amply represented. My only contribution in this direction, aside from 
 the incident I shall now narrate, I venture to add in a footnote to this page. 
 My anecdote of him is that later in life Dr. A. B. Ball and I had a medical 
 case in charge which had some doubtful surgical symptoms connected with it. 
 One evening the patient became worse and it was suggested by the family that 
 
 * Dr. Metcalfe was continually slipping in the envelopes of the friends to whom 
 he was writing little rhymed squibs on the quack medicines or medical follies of the 
 day. I happen to have preserved several of his verselets purporting to come from 
 physicians and others high in the public standing advocating the merits of the Hun- 
 yadi Janos Water, much used as a laxative many years ago. The first one purports 
 to come from Dr. Gerry Wynkoop, and reads: "Dr. Sherrywine Coope says of this 
 water — 
 
 "Is your Uncle constipated, 
 
 Or your Aunt or old Grandaddy? 
 If they want their primae viae cleared 
 Just give some Hunyadi." 
 
 The world-renowned ophthalmologist, Dr. C. Arrag New (C. R. Agnew), says: 
 
 "Oh, 'tis I'm the finished Oculist, 
 
 And Corney is my name ; 
 Just like the late C. Vanderbilt, 
 
 I'm not unknown to fame. 
 I'll cure you quicker'n wink, my boy, 
 
 And you'll say I oughter, 
 For now the only wash I use 
 
 Is pure Hunyad-I-Water." 
 
 Professor Henrid Raper (Henry Draper) says of it: 
 
 "Are you given to Astronomy? 
 
 Then just drink Hunyadi Janos. 
 Mar's satellite you may not find, 
 
 But sure vou'll find Uranus." 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 15 
 
 Dr. Metcalfe be sent for to aid us. This was done and he speedily appeared, 
 leaving, as we learned from him, a dinner party at his house. The patient 
 was visited and examined carefully and we retired to confer about the 
 diagnosis and treatment. Finally Dr. Metcalfe remarked, "Boys! this case 
 is yet obscure and is one for further and strict observation. We must watch 
 and pray. You remain here to watch and I'll go home and prry!" 
 
 The Attending Physicians were Dr. John H. Griscom, who had attained 
 a reputation as a sanitarian, but from what the medical internes said was 
 iess respected than the other physicians. Dr. H. D. Bulkley, another attend- 
 ing physician, was afterwards President of the Academy of Medicine. He 
 was a careful, painstaking man and largely interested in the treatment of 
 skin diseases in which he made a decided reputation. Of him Dr. Metcalfe 
 is quoted as saying that Bulkley was great on a pimple, but a boil was too 
 much for him. The ablest man of that staff was conceded to be Dr. T. F. 
 Cock, the son of the Consulting Physician, Dr. Thomas Cock. Dr. Joseph 
 M. Smith, the oldest of the Attending Physicians, who was appointed in 
 1829, was very much respected by all the staff. He had been Professor of 
 Medicine in the old College of Physicians and Surgeons, and wag in i860 
 the Professor of Materia Medica in the same college. His experience was a 
 large one, based on facts, but not on causes, for nearly all such were unknown 
 until Pasteur showed us that the cause of disease was largely of germ origin, 
 an explanation that, through Lister and many others since, has changed be- 
 yond realization our understanding of disease and our methods of cure. Dr. 
 Smith was always exceedingly neat in his appearance, and with his white, 
 scanty hair, smooth and red-veined face and gold-bowed spectacles, conjoined 
 to a dapper slight figure inclined to embonpoint, he attracted people to him. 
 I never saw him provoked or angry. He was very cautious in the use of 
 medicines and told me once not to give more than five grains of the iodide 
 ot potassium at a dose. The rest of the staff were using it in ten to thirty- 
 grain doses and at times even carried it to one ounce a day with benefit. He 
 died in 1866. At his funeral it was stated that he had excelled most Chris- 
 tians by reading the Bible from and to vnd thirty-four times, moreover, 
 the officiating clergyman added, practicing what he learned. 
 
 Shortly after I had penned these very imperfect descriptions of the 
 medical worthies of the hospital during ni\ early career there, I discovered 
 that there existed in the New York Acadenn ot Medicine a photograph taken 
 at the request ot Dr. Buck tor the purpose of u>iiiL r sundry of the figures in 
 the cutting ot the medal to he given by Dr. Harsen tor the best report of 
 the clinics of the New York Hospital. There had been two pictures made, 
 
 one in which I appeared In virtue ot being Curator, and another without 
 
 me, Dr. Watson having justlj objected to mj presence in the photograph as 
 
 rot belonging virtualU to the medical and surgical stall. However, no nunc 
 
16 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 Fig. 3 
 HARSEN PRIZE MEDAL 
 
 Second Photograph whence medal was made. 
 Left to right: 
 
 i. Dr. J. G Acheson 6 
 
 2. Dr. Fred Sturgis 7 
 
 3. Mr. C. H. Smith, student 8 
 
 4. Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa 9 
 
 Dr. Gordon Buck 
 Dr. B. Miller 
 Dr. Robert F. Weir 
 Mr. Alfred North 
 
 5. Dr. S. B. Tuthill 10. Mr. Norman Smith 
 
 This is the list as made conjointly by Drs. Weir and Roosa. 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 17 
 
 pictures were then or later taken, and the one in which I was proved to be 
 the better one was retained, with Dr. Weir blotted out. This photograph 
 is much faded, but from it, however, a cut has been made (see Fig. 2). 
 These photographs were not used after all for the Harsen medal, but two 
 others were taken subsequently, more suitable for the purpose. From the sec- 
 ond one of these the medal was made, and on the obverse side of it (Fig. 3) is 
 seen Dr. Buck, showing a surgical case to a group of students, as per list under 
 the print of the medal.* But the photograph from which this was 
 made I have not been able to Hnd. I have, however, secured the first 
 one** and the names of those who made up the group to whom Dr. Buck, 
 the central figure, is lecturing. They are: Drs. Acheson, Tuthill, Mr. 
 Darrach, the Superintendent, Drs. Hull, Weir, Buck, Fischer and C. D. 
 Smith. 
 
 The photograph from which Fig. No. 4 has been made shows, in addi- 
 tion to the house staffs, the Superintendent and the apothecary, Mr. Darrach 
 and Mr. Johnson of that period, and is, I think, of sufficient historical in- 
 terest to warrant its insertion here. 
 
 The prize continued to be given for many years, attracting many students 
 to the hospital, until by consent of the Harsen heirs it was changed and, in 
 1892, the money was diverted to other purposes. Should I ever leave money 
 to an institution for any particular purpose, I should have provision made 
 that the bequest, if not used as directed, should lapse, and be given 
 to my oldest surviving female relative. A woman would make a strenuous 
 try for it. 
 
 I have ambled and rambled a long time, perhaps tiresomely, about the 
 doctors of the hospitals. I would now like to say here something about its 
 superintendents and apothecaries. Mr. Darrach, as I have intimated, 
 was not much liked by the internes; they didn't trust him, not that he 
 wasn't honest and faithful, but he was too religiously polite. He seemed 
 to be a good officer, however, but his successor, Mr. Robert Roberts, or 
 "Bob" Roberts as we all called him, for he smoked and joked with us, was 
 from our standpoint a more capable and likable official. Of the apothecaries, 
 Edward W. Johnson was a competent man, a good story teller and sang a song 
 well, and was an agreeable companion to the House Staffs in their little 
 jollifications. Mr. Rauschenberg, who succeeded him, was a superior man 
 
 ■ l)r. linfk had, in tin- interval between the two Harsen photographs, evolved his 
 now celebrated traction method of treating fractures of the thigh, ami hence pre- 
 ferred nol to Use the photograph now shown, which exhibited the old-lime method 
 
 ot treating such fractures. 
 
 '* In ih<- medal (engraved from the hist photograph) I appear ;is the House 
 Surgeon, holding the badge o\ that position, the hand case of instruments, the term 
 ,,t Dr. Hull, th<- previous House Surgeon, having then expired. 
 
18 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 In this photograph, loaned by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. J. J. Hull is 
 the House Surgeon. This is not the photograph from which the Harsen Prize Medals were 
 struck. In this photograph the old method of treating fractures is pictured. 
 
 Fig. 4 
 
 Left to right: Dr. James H. Little; Mr. Ed. W. Johnson, the apothecary; Dr. S. 
 Harris; Dr. F. J. Sturges; Mr. C. H. Smith; Dr. Henry F. Fisher; Dr. Gurdon Buck; Dr. 
 Robert F. Weir; Dr. J. J. Hull; Superintendent Darrach; Dr. S. B. Tuthill; and Dr. J. C. 
 Acheson, all being internes except Dr. Buck, the superintendent and the apothecary. 
 
 (One behind and between Sturges and Smith not recognized.) 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 19 
 
 not given to levity, and of much help in our variations of antiseptic materials. 
 After Mr. Roberts left the hospital, it had an unfortunate experience with a 
 medical superintendent, hoping to have here the success the Roosevelt Hospital 
 had in its medical superintendent, who was a very capable and tactful man, but 
 it didn't and he soon left. Then the New York Hospital Governors appointed 
 Mr. George P. Ludlam as Superintendent, who ably filled the position for 
 more than thirty years. He knew his business and did it. He was somewhat 
 positive and strict, but he generally was right In what he said and did. When 
 he was goaded by the sharp and sudden onset of a testy Governor, he never 
 showed it. I have seen him under fire and respected the man, as the Board 
 of Governors generally did also. 
 
 I shall wind up with a few words concerning the old nurses. The 
 principal figure in this department in the care of the sick and injured 
 is Old Black Aunty Robinson, who held sway, literally, in the top ward 
 of the main house, devoted then to female venereal patients. It needed 
 a firm and kindly soul, and such she had, to manage these derelicts, so 
 many of whom were strongly self-willed. Not infrequently would one 
 appear with looks above the average and then Aunty's sleepy looking 
 eyes would see a little too much attention to the patient given by the 
 House Surgeon or one of his staff, and then he and she would receive such 
 an admonition, so efficiently but kindly presented, that it was invariably 
 effectual. Aunty took pride in her position and thought it was part of her 
 work to look after the comforts of the House Surgeon of the first surgical 
 division, which was in the building where she was nurse. The House Staff 
 all liked her and always remembered her on Christmas and other holidays 
 and birthdays. Aunty, however, was not by far the oldest of the nurses. 
 Mr-. Jackson was that. The title of Mother Jackson was given to her on 
 account of her age and gentle dignity. She, in i860, was in charge of a 
 small ward, holding ten or twelve patients, on the ground floor of the Marine 
 Building. This contained usually some four or five paralytics and a few old 
 pensioners of the hospital. She was a frail, wrinkled old woman, nearly, if 
 not passed, seventy years, with a quickness of step, and occasionally of tongue, 
 that astonished people. She often gossiped of the past, and said proudly that 
 she had seen \)r. Buck as a tow-headed youth going through the wards 
 taking notes with a quill pen and a bottle of ink hung from a buttonhole of 
 hi-- coat. 
 
 Th<- ward opposite Mrs. Jackson's was of the same size and was 
 appropriated to the care of injured children, and was under the charge of 
 
 Mrs, Mac a- she was usually called. Children with medical diseases were 
 treated in the female medical ward, where a large stout nurse with a very 
 plea-ant, kind face that did not belie her character, was in charge. That was 
 Ml Beaslee. She and Mrs. McCullum were great friends. Mrs. Mac 
 
20 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 was the essence of cheerfulness and gentleness to her charges. Dr. Buck * 
 always spoke of her ward as that of "minor surgery." It was in her ward 
 that the first case of a fractured thigh was treated by the improved extension 
 method devised by Dr. Buck. I think with pleasure that I put on the straps, 
 pulleys and weights, as he then directed. This method of treatment spread, 
 I may say, all over the world and has held sway up to the present time as 
 one of the best for such injuries. 
 
 As for the male nurses, they were as their fellows of that day. Ordi- 
 narily of Irish extraction, with an intermixing occasionally of Swedish blood, 
 they carried out the directions as well as they were able. Fairly clean and 
 tolerably reliable, they did as well as could be expected when neither they 
 nor the doctors knew how wrongly each was unconsciously treating an injury. 
 The only exception I would in justice make was in favor of the male nurse 
 of Ward G of the Marine Building. He was neat, intelligent and reliable. 
 His name partially was William — the rest has gone from my memory. He 
 was no longer young and must have by now joined the great majority. 
 
 Of the other nurses and house servants, I remember nothing. I only 
 recall that there seemed to be a continued lot of scrubwomen about, who 
 were at all times and everywhere cleaning and sanding the wooden floors 
 that then prevailed. They made them as neat and white as the decks of a 
 man-of-war. 
 
 I have ranged in my lengthy pages from the heights occupied by the 
 Consulting Staff down to the level of the old-time nurses, but the distance 
 and rapidity of my fall will, I trust, in rebound carry me upwards again and 
 perhaps even to a higher level — so high, that I can now with propriety allude 
 to what is one of the hospital's chief distinctions. I refer to its very respect- 
 able and rather peculiar Board of Governors. Admirable in its business 
 procedure for over a century in which its members have been drawn from 
 what is best in our city's life, whether from the ranks of commerce, law or 
 inherited wealth, so well and wisely has it done its work that among all 
 citizens of note it is regarded as a high compliment to be chosen one of its 
 members. Not only is it enviable from this point of distinction, but many of 
 
 * Dr Buck had occasional witty attacks. One is worthy of note for itself and 
 for its sequel. He disapproved of the numerous specialties that were occupying 
 various parts of the body. He believed that there was much truth in Dr. Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes' definition of a specialist, as a person who had a vast amount 
 of useless information. On being asked by a young physician what specialty would 
 be a good one to follow, he said sarcastically, "Try the Umbilicus — nothing doing 
 there yet." On hearing his reply, it was gravely suggested that there were already 
 many Naval Surgeons. As I write this joke of Dr. Buck, my eye happened to catch 
 an advertisement in one of our just issued medical journals entitled "Cullen on the 
 Umbilicus and its Diseases" — in octavo of 775 pages — quite a comment on Dr. Buck's 
 remark. 
 
OF THE NEW YOEK HOSFITAL 21 
 
 the Governors were also of marked social weight, and ofter because they were 
 Governors of the New York Hospital. A Board that has existed nearly one 
 hundred and fifty years without any slur against its management is entitled 
 to heartfelt praise and admiration. They have another peculiarity which is 
 that there is a certain heredity attached to the office. Look at their annual 
 catalogues, which contain a list of the Governors and doctors since the 
 institution was started. You will be struck to find the Beekmans, for 
 instance, recorded as members for four generations (father, son, or other 
 relative, maybe), the Murrays for seven generations (or times), Kennedy and 
 many others two or three times, and so on. As you look over the hospital 
 reports your eye will naturally turn to its list of donors — that list is smaller 
 than one would expect, though many liberal gifts have been made. One word 
 further about this worthy Board — it is remarkable that but four physicians 
 have ever been made Governors. Two of these appointments were of London 
 physicians and were purely complimentary. One of the two remaining, a Dr. 
 Williamson, was elected in 1814, and of whom little is known. The fourth 
 was Dr. Wm. W. Hoppin, elected 1877, who died in 1913, and who was a 
 very efficient Governor. Of the earlier Governors that I have been most 
 intimately thrown with, socially and officially, I keenly remember several. 
 The first of all is Mr. George T. Trimble, who was President of the hospital 
 when I first went there. He spoke to me when he first saw me in the wards 
 in his usual kindly way, but when I told him that I had been a scholar in 
 the old Public School No. 7 in Chrystie Street, when he was president of the 
 Public School Board (afterward merged into the Board of Education of 
 New York City), he smiled upon me and with his hand laid upon my 
 shoulder wished me success in my profession. No better advisers and friends 
 did I have or helpers in our little disturbances at the hospital (with the 
 Superintendent, usually, for he was hard on the staff, but suave and 
 obsequious to the Governors), than Mr. Joseph Walker, the finest and 
 kindliest of them all, Mr. Philip Schuyler and Mr. William Turnbull, a 
 tower of mighty strength for defense against a certain new Governor, who 
 kept things alive by much faultfinding. With Mr. Turnbull were associated 
 in his endeavors to obviate medical explosions, Mr. Fordham Morris and 
 Mr. T. B. Wbolsey, and particularly Dr. W. W. Hoppin. At times there 
 seemed to crop out among the Governors a little of the feeling shown (but 
 much diluted) by Mr. dcIVyster in earlier years, when he, as Dr. Buck told 
 
 :iid to the Governors that the only way to treat the doctors of the hospital 
 Was to "keep their feet on their necks." 
 
 Onlj two or three ot the attending surgeons or physicians gave instruc- 
 tion (1860-70) to the few medical students that followed them through the 
 ward- on appointed days, generallj once a week. When a case required an 
 operation, a notice was sent, it time permitted, bul not regularly, to the 
 
22 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 then existing medical colleges, to be posted on their bulletin boards. Unless 
 the operation was of especial importance not many students appeared, except 
 on Saturday, when, as there were no lectures given in the afternoon, they 
 could more readily attend hospital clinics. The distance of the hospital from 
 the three colleges was considerable — the College of Physicians and Surgeons 
 was in Twenty-third Street, the University Medical College was in Four- 
 teenth Street, and the third college, now defunct and its name forgotten, 
 was in Thirteenth Street. This latter college had in its corps Dr. Carnochan, 
 a noted surgeon, and more important, the two Flints, father and son, who 
 subsequently joined themselves to the later born Bellevue Hospital Medical 
 College. The College of Physicians and Surgeons had only recently moved 
 from Crosby Street to its new location in Twenty-third Street where, in 
 spite of the activity of the contractors, their inauguration night arrived with 
 the last touches completed in only one of their several halls. The ceremonies 
 went off as advertised, but when the audience attempted to rise they couldn't, 
 being more or less fixed by the stickiness of the varnish on the benches. Dr. 
 Van Buren subsequently remarked that the speeches were too ornate and 
 that the audience would have preferred a plain unvarnished tale, but Dr. 
 Dalton, one of the speakers, said they listened with fixed attention. 
 
 The fame of the New York Hospital had steadily increased during the 
 last fifty years, due mainly to such surgical celebrities as Mott, Wright Post, 
 Stevens, Rodgers and others, and it was recognized by the profession at large 
 as the leading one in the country. In addition to the professional ability of 
 its staff, the hospital itself, by its locality and management, became the 
 recipient of nearly all the injured and diseased from the country adjacent for 
 over a hundred miles around the city. Cases arrived daily in carts, coaches 
 and trains from the neighboring villages and small towns, and often from 
 unwarrantable distances — for remember that the village hospital, that now 
 so much and so promptly relieves suffering, did not then exist. Sad it was, 
 however, that often a life was lost in this endeavor to reach the great medical 
 center. The building of the Erie Railroad, which required the construction 
 of the famous Bergen tunnel and its long continued blasting efforts, was asso- 
 ciated (in my interne service) with many mishaps and numerous injuries. 
 Also nearly all the acute surgery of the city, then with about 500,000 inhabi- 
 tants, came to the New York Hospital. 
 
 There were other places of refuge for them to go to, however. The 
 most notable of these was the old Bellevue Hospital, but its reputation for 
 the care of its patients was most unfavorable, and none but the very poorest 
 would consent to go there, but as the poor ye have always with you, it was 
 crowded and its medical wards were attractive to students for the numbers 
 of its fever cases, etc. The fame of the distinguished Drs. Alonzo Clark, 
 John T. Metcalfe and Austin Flint, Sr., was largely made in and justly 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 23 
 
 prized by this hospital for the poor of New York. There was also the 
 comparatively new St. Luke's Hospital at 54th Street and Fifth Avenue, 
 now the site of the University Club, and other buildings. Likewise there 
 existed in West nth Street, St. Vincent's Hospital, which, though small, 
 gave evidence by its church support of its destiny to become, as it now is, one 
 of the largest and best managed hospitals in the city, and at the least expense 
 too. There were a few other hospitals, mainly for special diseases, but for 
 acute surgery they did but little. 
 
 "With all its admirable staff, the practice of the New York Hospital, 
 looked at through the spectacles of today, was bad. Not bad contrasted with 
 other hospitals of that period, but bad from the ignorance that then existed 
 of the causes of diseases, the knowledge of which, even at this day, however 
 much enlightenment may have come to us, is yet not perfect. 
 
 The custom that existed when I was House Surgeon and where the 
 need of an operation arose, was somewhat like this — say, for an amputation 
 for a compound fracture, or an artery ligation for aneurism in the neck or 
 thigh or the like. The Attending Surgeon would direct the House Surgeon 
 to send out notices to all the physicians and surgeons of the hospital, includ- 
 ing the Consulting Staff, to appear the next day, or earlier if urgent and time 
 permitted, when the case would be presented to them for examination. 
 Thence going to the operating room, each one present, beginning with the 
 Senior Consulting Surgeon or physician (often approaching senility) was 
 asked in turn for his opinion. Often, when six or eight were present, there 
 was a great variety of views. No acting judgment was usually arrived at and 
 delay ensued. The folly of these polite meetings impressed me as a junior, 
 so much so, that in my subsequent life I shunted consultations as much as 
 possible, believing, for professional action that they should rarely exceed one 
 meeting ; or, if more, generally as a concession in private practice to the 
 formula urged, that the family would like to feel that everything had been 
 done for the departed. In hospital service I called in the colleague on duty 
 for the quickest counsel. Passing by this little explosion about consultants 
 and the delays thereby often occasioned, let us proceed to the operation itself 
 when it was determined on. The senior walker was expected to lay out the 
 possibly required instruments; they had been resting on a velvet lined shelf 
 or were bedded in velvet-lined slits in an adjoining closet. He would put 
 them on the table covered with a towel and then examine the operating table 
 and make inquiries of the nurse, who was at other times a ward nurse, about 
 thr sponges, which, having been washed out from a previous operation, had 
 been kept in a wooden pail of fresh water. I'ine, beautiful and soft looked 
 thcj when taken from the pad out of the water and placed in a basin for the 
 nurse or one of the walker-, to hand to the surgeon or to the House Surgeon 
 
 during the operation. Sometimes the surgeon and the assistants washed their 
 
24 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 hands previously — sometimes not — but they put on clean checked aprons or 
 gowns, and did not wear, as, up to many years later did the British surgeons, 
 old coats stained by the bloody daubs of previous operations. No, we did not 
 do as badly as that. We then usually washed the skin of the limb when an 
 amputation was to be done, as was frequently required for a compound frac- 
 ture of the leg or thigh, and for this we used the nice-looking sponges that 
 were filled with disease germs from previous operations which had been 
 quietly multiplying while resting in their pailful of water. Fingers, laden 
 with germs in large quantities on them or under the nails, were stuck into 
 the wounds we made and we further introduced (alas, all this was uncon- 
 sciously done) infectious and often fatal germs by the brilliant and apparently 
 clean instruments we employed. After we had done all this we tied blood 
 vessels with strings with long ends, so that we might pull them out when they 
 loosened themselves from the tied_ arteries, not knowing that they and the 
 stitches to close up the wound only allowed more germs to enter to the 
 depths of our operation wounds. Furthermore, we dressed our wound with 
 wax cerates kept in jars open to germ-laden dust, and smeared over lint with 
 foul spatulas and wiped off with surgically dirty (as we now say) towels. In 
 the wards it was worse— dressings were made with unwashed hands, wounds 
 were wiped by clean-looking but dangerous sponges, and disease germs were 
 then carried unknown from patient to patient by the doctor as well as the 
 nurse. The House Surgeon, with his soiled and well-worn instrument case, 
 was also a sorry carrier of infection. He equaled the Borgias. Were it not 
 that in our bodies we had a set of cells of which the most important were 
 the so-called white blood-corpuscles, the phagocytes of which Metchnikoff 
 discovered their function to be to destroy the noxious germs entering a 
 wound, the loss of life would have been much greater. Metchnikoff clearly 
 demonstrated that these cells swarmed from the blood-vessels at the infected 
 point, promptly ate them up (hence their name, phagocytes), digested them 
 and subsequently cast the remnants away. We do not wonder now why in 
 the surgical wards erysipelas was always rife and why that strange and 
 fearful disease called hospital gangrene appeared as a thick, grayish mould 
 over the wounds with an intense burning pain accompanied by high fever 
 and rapid loss of strength — a disease that so rapidly and so completely disap- 
 peared under the use of antiseptics or germ-killers that no chance later 
 occurred for its microscopical investigation or detection of the special germ 
 by which it is caused. Hence this particular germ and its nature remain 
 unidentified to this day. Besides these two serious and almost uncontrollable 
 complications of wounds and injuries, there was yet another, more serious and 
 terrible from our inability to cope with it — I mean pyaemia, or blood-poison- 
 ing, as it was then called. To go into a ward, for instance, and inquire, How 
 is Jones (with his week-old compound fracture) doing today? and have 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 
 
 the nurse say he had a chill this morning — to look at his wounded leg did 
 not help the diagnosis. There was nothing of the irregular blush of erysipelas 
 or of the gray coating of hospital gangrene to be seen. Later in the day, 
 or on the morrow, the report would be, Jones had another chill last night 
 and another one this morning about six o'clock. Then we knew what was 
 coming. The poor fellow's wound had become infected, as we said, which 
 infection, about which we then knew little or nothing, had passed into his 
 system and was setting up abscesses in his lungs, liver and other organs. 
 The issue in most cases was fatal. In 700 amputations that I had in the 
 military hospital under my charge, 1861-65, in only one case did I have 
 what was called primary union of the stump, that is to say, a stump entirely 
 free from infection of a mild or severe form. While looking back on the 
 many lives lost by our ignorance and by our well-intentioned, but poisonous 
 efforts, I do not regret this trying experience, for it presented in greater 
 brilliancy the good attained by the investigations and teachings of the 
 immortal Lister. Prior to his time, 1865-70, compound fractures of the 
 lower extremities produced a mortality of over 38% and in the major amputa- 
 tions involving the larger extremities the mortality was 28%. Contrast this 
 with the Listerian treatment of similar compound fractures, with a mortality 
 of but one death in 200 cases, and of similar amputations, where the death 
 rate was but 23/2%. Realize, too, that these results can now be attained by 
 the most junior intelligent tyro! Sir Spencer Wells received well-deserved 
 credit for adding 30,000 years of life to his patients by his brilliant operations 
 for ovarian tumors, but the outcome of Listerism has been epoch-making 
 in the history of the world, and its influence is still daily widening — embrac- 
 ing now not only the arrest or prevention of surgical infection, but by its 
 enlargement of direction has controlled many of the infections of other 
 diseases beyond the surgical ones. The prediction has been made, and with 
 justice, that within fifty years, and perhaps in less time than that, all the 
 present known germ diseases will have been analyzed and arrested ! Alas, 
 however, the millennium would not then be attained, for with this ability to 
 control and obviate our known diseases, we by that time shall have probably 
 uncovered and discovered new diseases, requiring perhaps other and yet 
 unknown methods of prevention or cure. 
 
 I pochs in surgery do not arrive frequently. The first one was developed 
 \i: Ambrose Pare in the sixteenth century, when he substituted the ligature 
 for the hot iron, in the arrest ot hemorrhage; the second one of importance in 
 time was that ot anaesthesia by Morton in 1S47; the third was the antiseptic 
 treatment of wounds In Lister in [865-7OJ ,nr fourth was the utilization 
 
 of the X-ray in medicine and SUrgerj In Roentgen in iS<)5. May the 
 
 twentieth centur) exceed 'lie nineteenth centurj in tins respect as well as in 
 others. 
 
2(3 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 Dr. Bull at the Chambers Street Hospital, and I at St. Luke's and the 
 Roosevelt Hospital had early used the antiseptic treatment, and I had, from 
 a larger opportunity, been able to test and confirm its efficacy, and therefore 
 had published frequent papers on that subject. When in London in 1884, I 
 embraced the occasion to be introduced to Lister by our Dr. Marion Sims, 
 who rather fulsomely presented me to him as the apostle of Listerism in 
 America — I could only make the small correction by saying that I was but a 
 disciple, not an apostle. Several years later Dr. Bull and I made the rounds 
 of the great hospitals in Europe to study the many improvements and simpli- 
 fications of Lister's method, and found that the principle of the germ treat- 
 ment remained unassailable. We saw and learned a good deal, but returned 
 with a conviction reaffirmed that American surgery occupied as high a level 
 as that of any country. Some surgeons in foreign lands knew more than 
 American surgeons did, but the dexterity and applicability of the latter more 
 than evened the two. 
 
 Shortly after leaving the New York Hospital in 1861 and going to the 
 war, I determined, as soon as I appreciated that the military contest would 
 last longer than the three months prophesied in its beginning, to enter the 
 U. S. Army Medical Corps, and went up for the required examination. 
 I was lucky enough to pass and came out the fifth in the long list, thinking 
 perhaps I might have done better had I had time, which I hadn't, to read up 
 for the trial. During the examination I thought my chance of passing was 
 gone when Dr. McDougal, a testy, stout, white-haired army surgeon, and 
 chairman of the board, asked me in sharp tones to give him the symptoms and 
 treatment of pneumonia. I enumerated them. "But," he said, "you have not 
 mentioned bloodletting — wouldn't you employ it?" "No," I replied, "I 
 wouldn't." "But, Doctor Weir, if I had pneumonia, wouldn't you bleed 
 me?" "No," I firmly said, "that day has gone by." "Then I wouldn't like 
 to have you for my doctor," retorted he. But his bark was worse than his bite. 
 I passed the board and was first assigned to the Second U. S. Cavalry just 
 up in Maryland from Texas, where it had been under the command of Col. 
 Robert E. Lee, who afterwards seceded with his state and became the great 
 soldier of the Confederacy. The commander of the regiment to whom I 
 was ordered to report was Col. George H. Thomas, later the celebrated 
 General Thomas — familiarly known by his trusted officers and soldiers as 
 "Pap Thomas." He and I received our commissions the same day, his as 
 brigadier-general and mine as assistant surgeon, and took together the oath 
 of allegiance customary on such occasions. As intimated on a previous page 
 (7), I was shortly after placed in charge of the U. S. A. General Hospital 
 at Frederick, Maryland, which, with its 3,000 beds, became the base hospital 
 of the battles of Sheridan and others in the Shenendoah Valley, of McClellan 
 at South Mountain and Antietam, and largely of the terrible fight at Gettys- 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 27 
 
 burg by Meade, and received official commendation of my work from the 
 Surgeon General. Twice during this period did the New York Hospital 
 appear on the scene in the persons of Drs. Buck, Post, Peters and Markoe, who, 
 sent by the sanitary commission, came to us after the Antietam and Monocacy 
 battles, and gave great help by their operations and advice. It was on one 
 of these visits that Dr. Buck became much interested in a disabled sol- 
 dier, Bergher, by name, who had been treated at his regimental camp for 
 an attack of pneumonia, for which he had been given large and repeated doses 
 of calomel, which induced a profuse salivation followed rapidly in his weak- 
 ened condition and as his lung trouble improved, by a rapid gangrene of 
 his mouth, worse on the left side, that progressed so fiercely that when he 
 arrived at the General Hospital we found that the whole left cheek in its 
 entire thickness, from the tooth edge of the lower jaw to just below the 
 lower lid, and from the masseter muscle transversely to and involving the left 
 side of the nose, had been destroyed and was a rotten mass. This, as it 
 melted away or was trimmed off by our scissors, revealed in addition that 
 most of the left upper jawbone was necrosed. This horrible deformity ap- 
 pealed to the Surgeon General who saw the case, and induced him subsequently 
 to cut out calomel from the supply list of the army, and also to Dr. Buck, who 
 had had a large experience in plastic surgery and in the remedying of severe 
 facial defects. Dr. Buck said he would like, if the patient were willing, to 
 have him sent, when he got his justly entitled discharge papers, to the New 
 York Hospital for the proposed surgical treatment. Thither, in due course of 
 time, did the man go, and by a series of operations during the course of several 
 months, Dr. Buck was able, by sliding skin from the neck, temple and lips, 
 together with dental aid, to replace the lost upper jawbone, to fill up the huge 
 gap with new flesh and restore the patient, though much necessarily scarred, 
 to an effective condition and not too offensive to a neighbor's eye. 
 
 A less severe and somewhat more amusing instance of Dr. Buck's plastic 
 surgery came to me several years later. A man who had totally lost his nose 
 from disease from which he had fully recovered, however, asked help for its 
 restoration. This Dr. Buck accomplished by taking a thick flap, going to the 
 bone, from the patient's forehead, and turned it downward so as to cover 
 the nasal gap whose edges had been vivified first by his scalpel, and to which 
 the flap was duly fastened In many stitches. In doing this, however, it is 
 
 -ary. of course (in order to have the skin side out), to twist a little 
 tin- base <>j tin- flesh which is at the root of the nose. This requires care, 
 and trouble often comes from the twist, as it may undul\ press the veins 
 slenderer than the arteries and so induce a venous congestion, and 0CCa- 
 sionalh sloughing of the Hap. This did occur in this instance, the con- 
 gestion, I mean, not the sloughing. Dr. Buck saved the congested Hap by 
 
 putting into pla\ the de\ ire suggested In a French Surgeon, who, finding 
 
28 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 that pricking the flap did not let out enough blood or that the prickholes 
 quickly were plugged by the coagulated blood, put one or two leeches at the 
 end of the flap, and so by renewal of these living suckers prevented the 
 threatened sloughing. To do this more thoroughly, Dr. Buck, finding that 
 each leech drew off about one to two drachms of blood, put two on the nose 
 flap. When the leeches had fairly taken hold, he cut off their tail ends, and thus 
 a steady drop of blood from this artificial vent was kept up for several hours 
 without cessation. By that time, Nature, by enlarging the veins or by accom- 
 modating herself to the twist pressure, allowed the circulation of the flap to be 
 carried on without risk. I saw this man a month later and noted an interest- 
 ing point while talking to him. A fly lighted on the end of his new nose and 
 I was surprised to see him rapidly try to dislodge it by slapping his forehead. 
 "Why do you do that? Why not hit the fly where it is, on the end of your 
 nose?" He said, laughing, that everything that touched the end of his nose he 
 felt on his forehead. A year later again I saw him and asked him about the fly 
 experience. "That's all right, now,", he said, "I learned in about six months 
 that any sensation like that meant the end of the nose and not the forehead." 
 A case of re-education. 
 
 Necessarily, from that time to 1865, I lost touch with the New York Hos- 
 pital until my resignation from the army and entrance into practice in my native 
 city, New York. I was soon appointed surgeon to St. Luke's Hospital and after- 
 wards was made one of the four original attending surgeons of the new and 
 well-equipped Roosevelt Hospital — my colleagues there being Drs. Markoe, 
 Sands and Mason. In 1867, on the resignation of Dr. Willard Parker, my 
 name was placed in nomination before the Board of Governors of the New 
 York Hospital. Dr. Krackowizer, a German surgeon, connected with the 
 German Hospital, had also been nominated. Finding that the majority of the 
 Surgical Board of the New York Hospital advocated Dr. Krackowizer's 
 appointment, and feeling that this candidate was my superior in experience 
 and ability, I withdrew my name and he received the appointment. Dr. 
 Buck censured me for my withdrawal as he felt assured of my success, and 
 my good friend, Mr. D. Colden Murray, Secretary of the Board, told me 
 that the Governors, from patriotic feeling, would have bestowed the prize to 
 me had I persisted. He said furthermore, what was particularly pleasing, 
 that he felt sure that I would get the next appointment, which I did, in 1875, 
 by the sudden death of the same Dr. Krackowizer, whose active service in 
 the hospital lasted but three years, as the old hospital in Broadway was sold 
 in 1870 and remained out of operation until 1876, when the new hospital 
 was opened in West Fifteenth Street. A small hospital for the relief of acute 
 injuries had, however, been maintained by the New York Hospital Govern- 
 ors under the title of the Chambers Street House of Relief. Established first 
 under the charge of Dr. C. B. Kelsey, this attained such importance to the 
 
OF THE NEW YOBK HOSPITAL 
 
 29 
 
 workers in the lower portion of the city as to demand the best talent available, 
 and I took pleasure, in 1875, in commending to certain of the important 
 Governors the desirability of placing Dr. W. T. Bull in charge. I speak 
 perhaps too strongly in saying that — it would be more to the point to say that 
 I joined with others in suggesting Dr. Bull's name for the place. He got it, 
 and there sained a reputation that spread over the country. While develop- 
 ing this efficient though small hospital and training his internes, who, as 
 we all did, admired the surgeon and loved the man, he met the chance that 
 fixed his fame. A man shot in the belly was brought in from a street fight. 
 
 F t g 5 
 
 DR. WILLIAM T. BULL 
 
 He was seen by Dr. Bull shortly afterwards and it was determined to 
 operate. If the bullet had perforated one or several loops of the bowels, 
 might How our and would, without fail, create a fatal inflammation. 
 Onl) twice before (by Kocher, of Heme, Switzerland, and In Kinloch, of 
 Charleston, S. C.) had any operation for the relief of a gunshot perforated 
 bowel been done, and though in each case a fatal result followed, the propriety 
 and possibility ot the operative procedure had been demonstrated. Dr. Bull 
 (Fig. s) opened the abdomen ot his patient and found eleven perforations by 
 the bullet and, \er\ fortunately, but ver\ little escape ot the faecal contents. 
 
30 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 Bull sewed up each wound, cleaned the soiled intestines, closed the abdominal 
 surgical incision, and the man got well. It is now a fairly common opera- 
 tion and usually a successful one — without it the injury is nearly always fatal. 
 My colleagues at the date of my addition to the staff of surgeons were 
 Drs. Buck, Markoe, previously alluded to, George A. Peters, H. B. Sands and 
 C. M. Allin. Of them the most eminent, and justly so, was Dr. Sands, 
 then, or a little later, the co-professor of surgery with Dr. Markoe in the 
 College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was also a partner of Dr. Willard 
 Parker in private practice. He was gifted with a remarkably correct judg- 
 
 Fig. G 
 
 DR. HENRY B. SANDS 
 
 ment and was a very expert operator and possessed the qualities that Lawson 
 Tait, a master of English surgery, told me marked a superior surgeon — 
 "Knowing when not to operate, and in operating, when to stop." He was 
 an excellent teacher — clear and definite in the points he wished to present — 
 and it was expected of him that he should become, as he did in his time, the 
 leading surgeon of this city. I have already spoken of Drs. Buck and Markoe. 
 Of the others not yet spoken of, one can only say that they were and were 
 not! 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 31 
 
 The hour was ripe for a great development of surgical activity — the 
 advent and perfection of the antiseptic treatment led rapidly to daring bold- 
 ness of work with such phenomenal success as to astonish everyone. The 
 scalpel and the saw invaded parts of the body hitherto forbidden them. The 
 skull was opened and tumors removed from the brain, and that mysterious 
 organ upheaved sufficiently to permit the nerves going from its base to be 
 severed (an operation due to Dr. Hartley, later one of the hospital surgeons). 
 The spine was also exposed and its growths taken away and the paralysis 
 relieved. The chest cavity, with the lungs and heart in full view, was safely 
 opened and treated surgically for abscesses or wounds. The abdomen was 
 everywhere invaded — kidneys opened — its stones removed. The spleen and 
 parts of the liver were taken away when necessary. The great abdominal 
 blood-vessels were tied when required w 7 ith but little risk. Joints were freely 
 opened, foreign bodies and growths removed without subsequent impairment 
 of function. These and many other important acts arose from Listerism. 
 Add to this the revelations of the X-rays which permitted one to see how the 
 heart, lungs and intestines acted and how the intestines continuously moved, 
 and foreign bodies in the soft or bony parts of the human frame to be easily 
 recognized and extracted. The zeal of our whole staff was stimulated in an 
 extraordinary manner which continued throughout the whole period of my 
 service at the hospital. During this time changes were made in the surgical 
 staff by the death or resignation of Drs. Buck, 1877, Peters, 1884, and Allin 
 and Sands, resigned 1882, who were succeeded by Dr. Bull in 1883, by L. A. 
 Stimson in 1888, by Frank Hartley in 1892 and Dr. F. A. Murray in 1893. 
 I was greatly pleased to have Dr. Hartley (Fig. 7) on the New York Hospital 
 staff. He had, as my house surgeon at Bellevue Hospital, when I was attend- 
 ing -urgeon there, early attracted my attention by his ability. He afterwards 
 was assistant and successor in the college to Dr. McBurney as instructor 
 in operative surgery. In this work, he as well as McBurney acquired the 
 ease and certainty of surgical technic that was so markedly shown in their 
 operations. He later became Dr. McBurney's assistant (and many said his 
 SUggestor) at the Roosevelt Hospital and when he resigned his position 
 there he accepted service in the New York Hospital. He was a quiet man, 
 bur the thoroughness of his work, with his quickness of mental action and his 
 good judgment, made him, as I think, the best surgeon on our staff or in the 
 lb- served twent) years with us, when he retired on account of ill health, 
 anil d:<-d in [913. With Dr. Sands' resignation and Dr. Bull's appointment 
 t hit of hospital history involving the New York Hospital and the 
 Roost ell Hospital which is worth narrating. There had been felt for a 
 number of years that the plan ot having six surgeons on duty with four 
 months' service in each ot the two divisions was not working satisfactorily 
 and that the time allotted to each surgeon was too short to earn out 
 
32 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 thoroughly any special plan or variation of treatment, and that the records 
 were frequently imperfect or worthless for surgical deductions. These and 
 other points led the staff to hope that the Governors would permit a reduc- 
 tion in the number of the medical officers. The announced intention of Dr. 
 Markoe's resignation, with the intimation that the Governors would listen 
 to our wishes, induced Dr. Sands to make the proposal to me, as each of us held 
 positions in both the New York and Roosevelt Hospitals, to resign my posi- 
 tion as surgeon at the Roosevelt and that he would in turn resign from the 
 
 Fig. 7 
 
 DR. FRANK HARTLEY 
 
 New York Hospital, the college, which was located opposite the Roosevelt 
 Hospital, preferring him to hold a hospital service there as nearest for the 
 convenience of the medical students. So each of us in 1883 did as agreed, 
 but the unexpected happened, as it usually does. The influence and the claims 
 of Dr. Bull's good work at the Chambers Street Hospital overcame the 
 support of our friends in the Board of Governors and he was appointed 
 to fill the vacancy caused by Dr. Sands' resignation. I was comforted a little 
 in acquiring such a reliable colleague, for he was assigned to my division. 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 33 
 
 Before passing on to further details in my hospital experience, I would say 
 that this idea of a prolonged hospital ward service under the charge of one, 
 or at the most, two medical or surgical officers, has gradually grown in 
 weight owing to the example of the Roosevelt Hospital, which from 1882 
 had had its surgical ward under the sole charge of Dr. Sands, who, on his 
 sudden death in his carriage in 1888 from cardiac trouble, was followed 
 similarly by Dr. McBurney from 1888 to 1900, and since then the direction 
 of that hospital in its surgical work has been continued in two divisions, each 
 with its surgeon and his assistants. Furthermore, at this writing, 191 7, the 
 New ^ ork Hospital surgical staff consists now of but two surgeons — one to 
 each surgical division. The other major hospitals in the city have followed this 
 satisfactory procedure, and each surgeon is liberally supplied with experienced 
 assistants. This is not only a wise, but the best way to accomplish the ends 
 of a hospital, viz.: to take good care of the sick and injured and to be centers 
 of medical education. 
 
 I have but little to add to this long and possibly tedious account of the 
 old hospital. I continued in its service until the year 1900. Up to about 
 1890, with the many improvements on the original antiseptic treatment of 
 Lister, most of these tending towards greater simplicity in its detail, converting 
 it into aseptic surgery — that is to say, we now kept germs out of wounds 
 instead of killing germs supposed to be in wounds — surgery advanced with 
 great rapidity, though sometimes irregularly. It was not an easy matter to 
 conduct an operation under these new principles of Lister, which demanded 
 the use of chemical materials, such as solutions of carbolic acid and, later, 
 corrosive sublimate, salicylic acid and many other recognized germicides. 
 To do it thoroughly required instruments to be immersed for a given time in 
 such solutions as might not injure them, and that the hands of the surgeon, 
 of his assistants and others should also be similarly disinfected. Sponges were 
 discarded and pads of loose gauze, to be only once employed and then thrown 
 away, came into use. Ligatures made of catgut duly sterilized were em- 
 ployed, as they could be left cut short and undisturbed about a vessel or in 
 the edges of a wound if used as sutures. With the gauze pads came a new 
 feature in our operative technique. Necessity required that these should be 
 dry to preserve their absorbent power on the obscuring or escaping blood. 
 It was soon found that nearly every noxious germ was killed by a tem- 
 perature above iys J . So in came the principle of dry or moist heat in our 
 work. Pads, bandages, dressings, instruments, towels, sheets, all were ren- 
 dered sterile 1>V heat, and for the nurses' and surgeons' hands and the oper- 
 ative area came various disinfections from carbolic acid to chlorine and 
 
 iodine, and, finally, rubber gloves or coverings were resorted to with or with- 
 out previous moist disinfection. To carrj this all out required careful train- 
 ing ;hi'I long practice. For considerable time I had in my operations at the 
 
34 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 New York Hospital one of the interne's work as an overseer to look out for 
 errors in the antiseptic management. He was to call out loudly when an 
 error occurred, and either he or I rectified the error, which was usually the 
 incautious touching of some non-sterilized thing or to pick up something that 
 had fallen to the floor. Once when I was operating on a brain tumor case, 
 with a large attendance of students and noted surgeons, for this was among 
 the first of such operations done in this country, I was horrified to hear the 
 watcher's voice sing out, "Error, Dr. Weir!" I stopped and learned that as 
 the day was dark, the electric light reflector above my head was unpleasantly 
 warm and I had reached up my hand and pushed it up higher. The audience 
 laughed at me, but it served as a text to show them need of constant care, 
 and also to reiterate, as Dr. Hunt, of Philadelphia, had said, that antiseptic 
 surgery was not cocksure surgery. That was twenty years ago, but even 
 now at this writing, when improvements and simple procedure in operative 
 work have steadily advanced, no surgeon that I know of can yet show statis- 
 tically a record of a large number of wounds made by him germ-free through- 
 out their course. Mishaps from 2 to 3 per cent are to be expected, but 
 they are generally of a trifling character, but the "nigger is there in the 
 fence." In most of these cases the infecting germs develop from the skin 
 adjacent to the primary wound or result from a perforation of the protecting 
 rubber glove. 
 
 I had, when Dr. Percy R. Bolton was my House Surgeon in 1891, who 
 afterward became, in 1900, one of the surgeons of the New York Hospital, 
 a good many infections following my operations, in spite of my own and 
 his care (for he showed then the qualifications that subsequently became 
 prominent in his later work and marked him as a surgeon of great ability). 
 We did improve in our results, but something was wrong and it was not dis- 
 closed until he made the proposition to me to let him be the only person 
 to hand me the various things required at an operation. Consenting, he 
 arranged that everything, duly sterilized, was placed on small tables near 
 him, so he could reach for them himself, hand me the desired instruments — 
 knife, retractor or what-not, ligatures, sutures, pad or bandages. In short, 
 nothing touched me but the things he passed me. Soiled things went on 
 or into a special receptacle. All this made the work, which continued a 
 month, a little slower, but the outcome was so satisfactory and so sur- 
 prising to the staff and most instructive to us all and particularly to the 
 operating room nurses, that a new spirit of carefulness and thorough- 
 ness was infused into us all. Certainly in my long and active profes- 
 sional life I never had a more satisfactory period of labor than that of 
 the twelve years of my hospital work, from 1888 to 1900. I should like 
 to live it over again, for with the many scientific facts that were brought to 
 light there was attained a precision of action and a wealth of results. These 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 35 
 
 gave surgeons everywhere intense satisfaction and pleasure for the work's 
 self. My own labors were accomplished with the assistance of the best staff 
 of internes I ever had, and my experience in that grade of assistants has been 
 large, for I have held service besides in the Roosevelt, St. Luke's, Bellevue 
 and other similar institutions in this city — I intentionally emphasize my com- 
 mendation of their work. They were enthusiastic — I was also; they ques- 
 tioned me on every occasion and I questioned them, gathering their opinions 
 on this or that. I told them often and truthfully that I gained as much from 
 them as they got from me. They were eager to hunt up and settle disputed 
 points and worked like Trojans. Their worth has not been exaggerated by 
 me — the proof is their subsequent success in life, for out of the twenty-six 
 house surgeons who were with me from 1888 to 1900, ten have achieved 
 appointments as surgeons in the various hospitals of this great city. Three 
 of them are surgeons or assistant surgeons in the New York Hospital. Do 
 you wonder that I was proud of them all? With such assistants and with 
 such zeal as we all felt it will readily be comprehended that the teaching at 
 our clinics, and by the demonstrations of the benefits of antiseptic and aseptic 
 surgery and of the many new and perfected operations with the regular 
 exhibition of the after results of the surgical treatment, should attract stu- 
 dents to our amphitheatres and wards. 
 
 My clinic day was Saturday — Dr. Bull, who was on duty with me, 
 choosing Thursday for his clinic day. The other surgeons mutually ar- 
 ranged their own clinic days. It was not until about 1886 that my endeav- 
 ors were followed by much of an attendance, but perhaps owing to the 
 circumstances of my being then appointed Professor of Clinical Surgery at the 
 College of Physicians and Surgeons and making clinical teaching more 
 thorough, I succeeded in attracting the medical students to come the long 
 distance from 59th Street to 15th Street. But come they did, and soon, 
 by care in grouping my operative cases when possible, and of carefully 
 showing their progress from week to week, conjoined with short, clearly- 
 put explanations of the pathological and physiological changes which pre- 
 sented themselves before and after an operation, I secured at length a 
 larL'c and constant attendance, not only of students, at whose minds I aimed, 
 but also of noted surgeons from all parts of the country to see what Drs. 
 Weir and Hull were doing, just as I did when I was traveling, when I went, 
 tor instance, to Mayo's and Murphy's clinics in Rochester and Chicago. This 
 clinical teaching, while fascinating to the witnesses present, is not always the 
 best for tin- Students. It docs not occupy fully their time, for while the 
 operation is in progress, often there is little to be seen, or the surgeon is 
 busy and Jays bul little (the less, the better, as later we found that one 
 .ant talk without ejecting little spats of spittle which often infected a 
 
 wound, and the surgeon therefore nowadays covers his mouth with a cur- 
 
36 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 tain of gauze and by gestures or prearranged signals obtains from the assistants 
 or nurses what he wants), or his assistants often get in the way. Hence, 
 newer and better methods began about 1898 to come into vogue, whereby the 
 students in small groups attended the surgeons in their rounds in their 
 wards and in the operating rooms, and in turn they witnessed and performed 
 similar operations on living animals (for each college since that time has 
 had an animal clinic for this as well as for beneficent purposes). In conse- 
 quence the large general surgical clinics have much waned in importance. 
 
 Of these large clinics which I have been portraying, there were several 
 others in the city, the chief of which was that held at Bellevue every Sat- 
 urday. This clinic was conducted by the same Dr. Wood (little Jimmy 
 Wood) who first introduced me to surgery (see page 1). He was a showy 
 surgeon — very dexterous and very quick in his surgical work. He loved the 
 limelights. If he could do an operation rapidly he enjoyed the applause that 
 followed. In the early days of my pupilage he used to fill the big amphi- 
 theatre at Bellevue, holding nearly a thousand students, and do a number 
 of operations while the first row of students and the unemployed assistants 
 held their watches open in hand. Once I was present when he invited a 
 distinguished English surgeon to operate before the class and to do an ampu- 
 tation of the thigh for a tubercular knee joint. The surgeon guest made a 
 few concise remarks and did his work carefully, tying the vessels, and ended 
 by closing the stump with suture and applying the necessary bandage, all this 
 occupying over half an hour. Then a similar case was brought for Dr. Wood 
 to perform a similar operation. Flash ! Flash ! went the amputating knife. 
 "Saw," said the surgeon, and rasp, rasp, the leg was off, two or three big 
 vessels tied, a towel put over the stump and the patient rolled out; time, three 
 and one-half minutes! Dr. Wood beamed. The next week I asked one 
 of the house surgeons how the patients got along. He said, the English- 
 man's is doing nicely — Dr. Wood's died the same night from hemorrhage! 
 While he was a man of large surgical experience, he was an illiterate one. 
 He told the class once that in private practice they must be careful in their 
 behavior, for, he continued, you must always remember that the eyes of the 
 vox populi are upon you. He also remarked at another clinic that whenever 
 the prefix peri was used it meant inflammation, as, for instance, he continued, 
 pericarditis meant inflammation of the heart, as peritonitis meant inflamma- 
 tion of the bowels! With all his oddities, he was much liked by his fellows 
 and his followers. He never did a mean thing or said a nasty word of 
 anyone. 
 
 McBurney held another weekly clinic at the Roosevelt Hospital, more 
 attractive to graduates than to students, but well attended. I was surprised 
 one day, on going into my bank to get a check cashed, to hear the teller say: 
 "Dr. Weir, that was an interesting clinic you gave us last Saturday." "What 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 37 
 
 do you know about that, young man?" I said. "Why, several of us clerks 
 go regularly every Saturday to your or Dr. Wood's clinic at Bellevue." I 
 left surprised, but arranged that only those showing their student cards and 
 physicians would thereafter be allowed to enter the operating theatre. The 
 rapid increase in the size and business of the great metropolis naturally aug- 
 mented also the sickness and injuries of its population, and thanks to the 
 management of the City Fathers and to private donations, hospitals had 
 increased largely in number and in size. In 191 5 there were in New York 
 City proper eighty-four hospitals and infirmaries, of which twenty were gen- 
 eral hospitals of large size and had over one hundred beds each. Dispen- 
 saries of various kinds and often for special diseases were started, and made 
 the city a medical as well as a financial center, and new medical colleges 
 were opened, enlarged or improved. The great change in this last respect 
 was the crystallization of the idea that students should early and frequently 
 be brought into close and continued observation of the patients shown them 
 either in hospital wards or in dispensary clinics. To meet this want, exten- 
 sive outdoor departments were established and connected with many of the 
 large hospitals and colleges, and thus offered opportunities for medical in- 
 struction as well as medical care. As previously stated, the function of a 
 modern hospital is not only to care for the sick and injured, but also to show 
 others, students and nurses, how this is to be done. It has become generally 
 felt that the hospital and college should have more intimate connections one 
 with the other. Where means sufficient exist they should be under one 
 directory board, but as this millennial picture can only be seldom realized, 
 the endeavor should be to make the two hearts beat as one as far as pos- 
 sible. As in the college are gathered the best exponents of medical thought 
 and experience, it is felt that the hospital and college should jointly appoint 
 the medical officers of the Hospital and the Out-Patient Departments. With 
 hospital appointments made in this manner, salaries for special work or 
 analysis might be required, for which the college should pro rata contribute. 
 These imperfect ideas have been growing stronger each decade, and our 
 medical colleges strive either to own a hospital, which they rarely accom- 
 plish, or they attempted affiliations of a less strength with existing hospitals. 
 In this endeavor, the Bellevue Medical College, with its neighbor, the 
 I niversity Medical College, formerly in East Fourteenth Street, managed to 
 secure flu- majority oi the Bellevue Hospital and Dispensary appointments. 
 The College of Physicians and Surgeons, now moved to West Fifty-ninth 
 Street, opposite to the Roosevelt Hospital, effected a temporary alliance with 
 
 that hospital, this union being later more decidedly effected with the Pres- 
 
 byterian Hospital. Finally, the Cornell University, which had recently estab- 
 lished its medical college in this city, made efforts for a similar conjunc- 
 tion, and some thought these mighl be directed toward the New York I Ins- 
 
38 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 pital — a suggestion that seemed to be corroborated by the appointment of 
 Dr. L. A. Stimson in 1888, of the staff of that college, to be an Attending 
 Surgeon at the New York Hospital. Dr. Stimson was also appointed at the 
 same time as the Surgeon of the House of Relief. 
 
 This digression has been purposely made, as it bears on my final service 
 at the New York Hospital. Early in the year 1900, without a word of 
 conference or intimation, I was notified by the hospital superintendent that 
 the executive committee of the hospital, a small committee of five gov- 
 ernors who met weekly partially to relieve the general board of its larger 
 work, had directed that the Saturday clinic should hereafter be divided and 
 every other week be conducted by Dr. Stimson. I moreover found that on 
 the first coming Saturday, when I attempted to exhibit cases (not to oper- 
 ate) at an hour not occupied for clinic purposes, I was further informed by 
 the chairman of this committee himself that no teaching or operation could 
 be done by me publicly on the day that Dr. Stimson held his clinic, and 
 vice versa. This naturally broke up my clinic, since to show cases only 
 every two weeks after the operation had been witnessed destroyed the proper 
 continuity of teaching. 
 
 I did not think of aught but the injustice of both the deed and its man- 
 ner. I regret now that I had not gone to the governors at their next full 
 meeting and put the position as I saw it before them. I therefore submitted 
 to the injunction, but naturally was restive under it. The reasons for this 
 action were evident to those acquainted with the medical politics of that day> 
 which need not now be amplified. Had a request been made to me by any 
 of the other surgeons to share the Saturday clinic with them, I would have 
 gladly tried to meet their wishes. It would not have been difficult to arrange 
 a workable plan. Relief, however, came unexpectedly and satisfactorily to 
 me. Dr. McBurney, whose name is so indissolubly joined to the successful 
 surgical treatment of appendicitis, had suddenly resigned his position at the 
 Roosevelt Hospital, and Dr. Bull and myself, each of us being a co-professor 
 of surgery in the college opposite the hospital, were asked to further the 
 teaching of the students, who lost much time in going to and from the New 
 York Hospital, by taking charge of the surgical service of the Roosevelt 
 Hospital. This was particularly pleasing to Dr. Bull and myself, for by 
 this arrangement we each would have continuous service, a condition aimed 
 at and lost at the New York Hospital, and also an assistant to help in the 
 ward service and to take charge of our wards in our vacation periods. This 
 offer was accepted by both of us, and resulted in our sending in our resigna- 
 tions to the New York Hospital Board, which were duly accepted, and 
 entering upon our new duties at the Roosevelt Hospital in the spring of 1900. 
 
 See Appendix B. 
 
OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 39 
 
 At the next meeting of the New York Hospital Governors I was made 
 a Consulting Surgeon, a position that I yet hold. 
 
 This was also a remarkable year to me, for in it I received the highest 
 compliment in my career. I was made, with three other American surgeons 
 — Dr. Keen, of Philadelphia, Dr. Halstead, of Baltimore, and Dr. Warren, 
 of Boston — an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Eng- 
 land. This was the first time such authority had been given to this ven- 
 erable and venerated society. To celebrate its one hundredth anniversary, 
 Parliament had recently granted them the privilege, which before did not 
 exist, of bestowing fifty Honorary Fellowships. Three or four were selected 
 from each prominent nation, and the honors were personally given in Lon- 
 don, 1900, with great pomp and ceremony. The Prince of Wales and the 
 Prime Minister Salisbury were likewise similarly decorated. 
 
 Though not a reminiscence of the New York Hospital, I may add that 
 I continued at work until 1906 at the Roosevelt Hospital, when I resigned 
 that position. This act, with the resignation of my professorship in the Col- 
 lege in 1903, was the finish of my professional career. The students then 
 presented me with a silver loving cup appropriately inscribed, together with 
 an address that touched me deeply.* In 1907 I retired from general practice 
 and devoted several years to the pleasure of travel, in which in previous 
 summers I could only indulge in my vacation periods. In 1895 I mar- 
 ried Mrs. Mary B. Alden, who was as earnest a traveler as myself, and 
 now free from all cares, we journeyed widely. We visited what was best 
 in all the various continents save South America. Our longest trips were 
 twice around the world, which included side expeditions to Burma, Siam, 
 Java and the Philippines. Travel being finally cut off by waning strength, 
 I turned to horticulture for comfort and occupation at Lake George, New 
 York, in the summer, and at Nassau, Bahamas, with its delightful climate, 
 in the winter. I take great pleasure in the cultivation of my flowers and 
 rejoice when they excel those of my neighbors and mourn when they do not, 
 nor yet having killed all of the old Adam that exists in most of us. In 
 1910 1 was complimented h\ m\ former hospital colleagues and house sur- 
 geons, 'ait run- hundred in number, bj a public dinner at the University 
 Club, when Or. Abbe, presiding, bestowed on me an elegant silver cup with 
 a loving inscription engraved on it.** 
 
 My only connection now with m\ hospital lite is the holding of the 
 complimentarj office oi Consulting Surgeon, not only to the New York Hos- 
 pital, hut also to the Roosevelt and St. Vincent's Hospitals, having resigned 
 
 similar positions at St. Luke's and the Ruptured and Crippled and the General 
 
 . E. 
 
 1 ■ i ; 1 II. 
 
40 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 Memorial Hospitals, also at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and 
 several other lesser institutions. And as still an officer of the Medical Re- 
 serve Corps since the Spanish War, I hope yet to be, in case of need, of 
 some service to my country in any of her trials. 
 
 The very pleasing task given me by Mr. Howard Townsend, the Presi- 
 dent of the New York Hospital, is done. He generously allowed me a large 
 liberty in space and expression in its completion. This I have perhaps too 
 extensively availed myself of, and also with the garrulity of age (now nearly 
 eighty) have occupied too much time and space that must seem to others to 
 be ill spent. But I can end fitly with the quotation from one of our child- 
 hood's poems: 
 
 " View me not with a critic's eye. 
 But pass my imperfections by." 
 
CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS* 
 
 By Robert F. Weir, 
 Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A., 1861-1865 
 
 On page 7 of my Reminiscences of the New York Hospital I described 
 how when the Civil War broke out in 1 861 I hastily and unexpectedly obtained 
 a uniform, and a few days after the firing on Fort Sumter in April of that 
 year, I had joined the 12th N. Y. State Militia as an assistant surgeon, and 
 with that regiment went to the war. 
 
 I marched down Broadway with Guthrie's "Commentaries on Military 
 Surgery" under my coat and my pockets filled with emergency medicines and 
 bandages. It was Sunday, just as the church services were over; the streets 
 were jammed, with the crowds showing greater and more intense enthusiasm 
 than is being manifested in our present war with Germany. Besides my own 
 regiment were three others going to Washington via Annapolis, as the 
 Seventh Regiment, which preceded us, was then fighting its way through 
 Baltimore, so we were to get to Washington by a different route. From 
 
 the great crowd we all had greetings and good wishes from friends, and I 
 w;is most impressed as we passed Grace Church to see Miss Beekman, daugh- 
 ter of one of the Hospital Governors, and whom I knew but slightly, rush 
 through the ranks to me and with tears rolling down her cheeks bid me a hearty 
 "Godspeed." The next day saw us at Annapolis and started for a cross- 
 country march to Washington. A very hard trip it was for green infantry, 
 and especially tor the privates with their heavy knapsacks. We officers had 
 scant fare, and only a few of us picked up a dinner at a farmhouse of ham 
 and eggs, for which the hostess charged us five dollars each. One bit of 
 relief came in rhc-n. One of our dinner party of five had carried from Ann- 
 apolis a bottle of champagne which a friend had given him, and when on our 
 renewed march we stopped for a few minutes he said, "Let's drink this up; 
 I'm tired carrying it." So out came our tin cups, but the champagne refused 
 to be opened; our penknives would nor answer, so one of them took m\ brand- 
 
 *The •■ recollection and the appendix ;uv not properlj a pari of the Reminiscences of 
 the New York Ho pita! publi bed in 1 1n i r Bulletin bui have been permitted by the Presidenl 
 of the Hospital to be added to a limited number of thai Bulletin for the purpose of a private 
 and personal distribution to the family and Intimate friends of the writer, The narrowing 
 of this publication is a permissible reason for the admission into print of the possibly too 
 laudatory pagi found in 1 > j » - appendix R. F. \V. 
 
42 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 new gilt dress sword, drew it and neatly cracked off the neck of the bottle 
 and lost but little of the precious hot fluid. My sword in the next four years 
 was only used for an occasional formal salute. 
 
 The following day we got to Washington and were located in hastily 
 erected wooden barracks just back of Willard's Hotel, and the regiment early 
 thereafter put through a course of drilling by its very efficient Colonel, Dan 
 Butterfield, who was afterward made Chief of Staff to the Army of the 
 Potomac under General McClellan. Shortly afterward President Lincoln 
 summoned to him the officers of the regiment, as he did of the other volunteer 
 regiments stationed in the city. We were received in the semi-private room 
 on the second floor of the White House and were ranged in two rows, the 
 officers of higher rank in the front row and those of lesser rank in the rear, 
 and a space of three feet between them. Mr. Lincoln addressed the Colonel 
 with a little speech of a few moments' duration, the purport of which I lost 
 nearly all because of a ridiculous incident which occurred. Little Tad Lin- 
 coln, who was about ten or twelve years of age, had marched between the 
 two rows of the officers and stopped in front of me, just behind the Colonel, 
 who wore a very broad and gaudy gilt shoulder-strap to hold up his sword 
 belt. The boy was attracted by this, and in a moment had wet his fingers 
 on his tongue and began smearing them over the Colonel's shoulder-strap. 
 I shook my finger at him, whereupon he bent his head and butted me in the 
 stomach, which doubled me up, and when I rose I saw him at the end of the 
 row with his thumb at his nose and fingers wriggling. I confess I rejoiced 
 for a moment when I heard in later years that he had caught smallpox. 
 
 This was not the only time I saw Lincoln. He came to Frederick, 
 Maryland, where I was subsequently stationed when Hooker was relieved 
 from his command prior to its march under Meade towards Gettysburg, 
 when I was presented to him, a tall, ungainly figure on horseback, and later 
 again, and the most memorable of all, I stood within twenty feet of him when, 
 after Gettysburg, he delivered his memorable address — so noble and in such 
 fitting words that a copy is now framed at Oxford as the finest extant 
 specimen of the English language. Our regiment finally went into the 
 field, but I had, by August, 1861, left them to become an assistant surgeon 
 in the United States Army. I passed the Board and was first assigned to 
 the Second U. S. Cavalry, just up in Maryland from Texas, where it had 
 been under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, who afterwards seceded 
 with his State and became the great soldier of the Confederacy. The com- 
 mander of the regiment to whom I was ordered to report was Colonel George 
 H. Thomas, later the celebrated General Thomas, familiarly known by his 
 trusted officers and soldiers as "Pap Thomas." He and I received our com- 
 missions the same day, his as brigadier-general and mine as assistant surgeon, 
 and took together the oath of allegiance customary on such occasions. 
 
AND APPENDICES 43 
 
 I learned two things aside from my medical duties in this my first intro- 
 duction to the regular army life that proved serviceable. The first was the 
 art of mixing drinks and the second was a lesson in gambling. This sounds 
 demoralizing. I was told within a day or two of my joining the regiment 
 that "Pills" was always their toddy mixer, so, regularly at 4 o'clock in the 
 afternoon one jorum of hot Scotch whiskey was I compelled to make, and 
 again after dinner sundry rounds of the same for the various members of 
 the mess. Other drinks were often called for, and I was duly instructed 
 in their manufacture. I often slipped off to bed by nine o'clock if I could, 
 but was not always successful. I rarely consumed more than my one drink, 
 but in after life I was often complimented on the tastefulness of my spirituous 
 combinations. The gambling question was strongly impressed on me in this 
 way. Remember, however, that I had never earned up to any more than a 
 hundred dollars and that my parents' allowance to me had always been 
 rather restricted. So when after three months' waiting the paymaster arrived 
 and distributed to all of us our pay in gold, hilarity ensued. Soon the $20 
 gold pieces were being tossed up for heads or tails, with double and quit as a 
 caution. I, a green 'un, was jeered into the game, and in less time than it 
 takes to write of it had lost $200, nearly two months pay, and was quite "sick" 
 of the fun and tried to retire, but one of the older officers engaged in the 
 game — for all were at it — said, "Don't give up, Pills; it's sure to be your 
 turn," and so it was. Then good fortune came my way and I was glad to get 
 up and leave. Unused to liberal money, its possible rapid loss influenced me 
 for many years, and I've been thankfully content since with the joys of a ten- 
 cent poker game and the like. The lesson I had proved a good one. 
 
 Stonewall Jackson was at this time raiding, often successfully, up and 
 down the Shenandoah Valley, and my military experience was inaugurated 
 when I went on duty with General Thomas and his escort towards Win- 
 chester, Virginia. The road was supposed to be free from the enemy, but 
 suddenly a sound of gunfire was heard with the noise of flying bullets, which 
 made me "duck" in spite of myself. Much mortified, I looked around and 
 found General Thomas ducking in the same manner. He saw my action 
 and said, "Don't be ashamed, Doctor; though I've been in many fights, I 
 can't help it for two or three times; then you get used to it and don't mind it. 
 And after all," lie concluded, "it is so foolish, for when you hear the 'ping' 
 the bullet has gone by you." The attack ended as suddenly as it began. 
 General Banks' (who succeeded the rather inefficient General Patterson, who 
 commanded the Department of the Shenandoah) headquarters were soon 
 thereafter established tor the winter at Frederick, Maryland, hut 1 had had a 
 little further experience in a skirmish at Martinsburg, Va., and as a medical 
 relief oili<e r - to General Stone at Ball Bluff, when he had been repulsed in 
 his unsuccessful attempt to cross the Potomac at that point. 1 1 is loss was 
 
44 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 great and the unsatisfactory action of the volunteers in his forces, under the 
 command of a political colonel, was very marked. I arrived the morning 
 after the fight and reported to the commanding officer's tent and turned over 
 my supplies. A few minutes later I was requested to join the General at 
 his breakfast with his aides. A sadder time I never spent. Beyond the few 
 words that politeness demanded, General Stone was plunged in the deepest 
 distress, which was unbroken by his aides. I was glad when he arose and thus 
 allowed me to make my exit. My heart went out in pity to him. He was 
 an able officer, and his fellows said he never recovered from this blow to his 
 ambitions. 
 
 General Banks' medical director at first assigned me to Battery F of 
 the U. S. Fourth Artillery, commanded by Captain Clement Best. The 
 command was a small one, with only three or four officers to it, but every- 
 thing was done in the best military style. I reported to him and was assigned 
 a tent and a striker — that is to say, an enlisted man to look after my things 
 and my comfort generally and to strike my tent when camp was moved, whence 
 the name. Bugler Molloy he was called, and his duty was to sound the 
 calls to the various duties of the day. I found that sick call was at seven 
 o'clock in the morning in the winter. This came rather hard to me, and 
 after a week of the so-called beneficent early rising I told Molloy not to 
 sound the sick call until 7:30. Oh, what a row I got into! The officer of 
 the day demanded of the sergeant why he was behind time, and he got at 
 Molloy, and Molloy saved himself by telling of my order. Hence I in turn 
 received a command to report to the Captain, who told me sharply that he was 
 the only one who could give such directions, and that existing orders would 
 he continued. So I got up thereafter at seven o'clock and dosed the men as 
 required. 
 
 Captain Best, who afterward became Colonel of the same regiment, was 
 usually followed in winters, or at other times if the probabilities of a pro- 
 longed camp obtained, by his wife, a large, stout and very pleasant woman, 
 who took charge of his tent and his things, and particularly supervised our 
 service mess, greatly to our advantage. The Captain one day at dinner stood 
 up and said that he had in several ways rather roughly handled "Pills," as 
 all the army officers called the assistant surgeons (calling a full surgeon 
 "Doctor" or "Major"), but he must now take all back and publicly acknowl- 
 edge his skill, "for," he continued, "three days ago I was suffering from chills, 
 etcetera, for which he (Pills) gave me remedies which have restored me 
 promptly to health. If you don't believe this, here are the pills he prescribed." 
 and he pulled them out of his vest pocket and rattled them on the table. The 
 only doubt, he added, was that if so powerfully efficacious when carried on 
 his person, they might have proved dangerous when carried in his person ! 
 
 Soon after this I was summoned to the Department Medical Director's 
 
AND APPENDICES 45 
 
 office to receive orders to take charge of a small hospital of about one hundred 
 beds, on what was called Braddock Hill, at Frederick, Maryland, where in 
 the previous century and before the Revolutionary War there had been 
 erected for General Braddock and his troops stone barracks of considerable 
 size and situated in a large, grassy enclosure. He, his officers and troops 
 occupied these buildings and grounds the winter before he made his fatal 
 advance to the French Fort Duquesne, a fight that disgraced Braddock, but 
 gave renown to Colonel Washington. This hospital now contained a large 
 number of Wisconsin soldiers, afflicted with a serious epidemic of measles 
 which had a large mortality. From some source the Medical Director heard 
 that I was a New York Hospital graduate, and he thereupon put me in 
 charge of this hospital with several good assistants. I was quickly enabled 
 by cleanliness, fresh air, by open-hearth fires and good diet, to terminate the 
 mortality rate of those in the hospital, and the suggestions of the Medical 
 Director to clean up the outlying field camps by substituting mattresses for 
 the loose, moldy straw used for bedding soon stopped the further development 
 of such cases. But the Medical Director told me I seemed to know how to 
 run a hospital better than the surgeon who had preceded me. If I did, it was 
 only owing to my persistent curiosity as House Surgeon at the New York 
 Hospital, where, in addition to my surgical knowledge, I had acquired, by 
 its exercise and by virtue of poking around, a good deal of information as to 
 the cooking, ventilation, etc., etc. This knowledge I had put to good use 
 in my military hospital work. This work was hard and incessant, except in 
 winter, when military action was in abeyance. 
 
 I u as not allowed to go back to my military camp, but was kept at the 
 hospital until the following Spring of 1862, when great military activity 
 arose in this section of the country, and the hospital increased in size by the 
 addition of numerous single-storied wide pavilions of wood, holding each 
 from forty to fifty patients. The Sisters of Charity from Emmetsburg nearby 
 offered their intelligent services and were thankfully accepted by me. They 
 wen- faithful, kind to the patients and cleanly, and were unsurpassed by the 
 ordinal*; female nurses obtained haphazard. They, however, never equaled 
 in skill and training the hospital nurse of today. The growth of this hospital 
 was due mainly to its being the nearest one to the battle grounds of the 
 Shenandoah Vallej and to the fields of South Mountain, Antietam and to 
 Gettysburg (partially). It rose to the capacity of 3,000 patients and my 
 assistants increased to twenty-five in number, exclusive of some six or eight 
 Medical C adets, as certain selected young graduates and undergraduates were 
 called. In the medical staff were men who subsequentlj became well known 
 
 in their profession, such as Dr. W. W. Keen, who came with me as an 
 
 ng Assistanl Surgeon, i. e., a civil, paid ^- 1 ilt<< >• i with a temporary rank, 
 who later passed the examination as Assistant Surgeon oi the I . S. Army, 
 
46 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 but before his commission arrived left me to join with Dr. S. Weir Mitchell 
 in the starting of a hospital in Philadelphia for the treatment of military 
 injury of nerves, and who has since risen to the top rank in the medical 
 profession of the United States. Dr. George L. Porter, an Assistant Sur- 
 geon in the U. S. Army, was also with me. He achieved eminence and 
 is still living at Bridgeport, Conn. Dr. A. B. Ball, later one of the phy- 
 sicians of the New York Hospital (1882-1905), and Dr. David Magie, 
 subsequently noted physicians in New York, were also on my staff. A 
 laughable incident happened to one of these Assistant Surgeons, a Dr. Golds- 
 borough. Our occasional outbreaks of smallpox were treated in a small 
 enclosure just outside the main hospital grounds, where in addition to a small 
 ward was a sleeping room for the doctors, who were allotted a week's duty 
 in turn, medicines and food for the patients and physician being carried to 
 a shed nearby the door. This Dr. Goldsborough sought me and asked that 
 his eventuated turn of duty in this hospital be changed, giving as his excuse, 
 with some hesitation, that he was courting a girl in the town and that he 
 feared ill fortune might result if she knew he was on duty in the smallpox 
 hospital. He had secured an exchange with one of the staff, but required 
 my assent to this procedure. I smiled and granted his request. The Sunday 
 following he was seen in full uniform en route with his inamorata to one 
 of the small churches in the neighborhood. Two days later he said he was 
 ready to go to the smallpox hospital, and from one of his associates it was 
 learned that the rupture in his affairs had arisen in a ridiculous way. In the 
 little church the collection was taken up in a bag with a long handle, which 
 was thrust to the depth of the pew and slowly withdrawn to the aisle to 
 accommodate the various donors. When the inward pass of the bag took 
 place Dr. Goldsborough thrust his hand in his pocket to get a good sized 
 piece of silver as a contribution ; he found that he had only one large, old- 
 fashioned copper cent. This he tried, as the bag reached him next the aisle, 
 to drop unobtrusively into it, when alas, some joggle threw the coin outside 
 the bag and it slipped with much noise to the floor of the broad aisle, where 
 instead of quietly reposing it gyrated around several times, attracting a good 
 deal of attention, and particularly that of his lass, who gave him the cold 
 shoulder for his stinginess, and, as he said, dropped him entirely. 
 
 My New York Hospital "stunts" helped me in my hospital duties greatly. 
 Daily inspections of everything culinary and medical by the Medical Officer 
 of the day and by myself and staff every Sunday held cleanliness and proper 
 ventilation with warmth up to the highest level, and the maintenance of com- 
 plete medical and surgical histories, with due preparation of all interesting 
 specimens and daily reports of cases requiring medical or other consultation, 
 kept all busy, with such an effect that the Medical Inspectors in their 
 rounds would speak well of the U. S. Army General Hospital at Frederick, 
 
AND APPENDICES 47 
 
 Maryland, and the Surgeon-General himself, in his less frequent visits, was 
 kind enough to commend our efforts in an official letter from his office.* I 
 remained on duty here until the end of the war, when I resigned my com- 
 mission and returned to New York to build up a practice. 
 
 Before going on further, I should like to say a w T ord about this Surgeon- 
 General, who was Dr. William A. Hammond. He was an Assistant Surgeon, 
 U. S. A., and was elevated by reason of his executive ability to the position of 
 the army's chief medical officer and had performed his duties, we juniors all 
 thought, ably and promptly, and in spite of the subsequent successful attack 
 on him by the arrogant but able Secretary of War Stanton, which cost Ham- 
 mond his position, he was respected for what he had done for the Medical 
 Department of the Army. 
 
 After his dismissal from the service, Hammond went to New York and 
 engaged in practice and made a rapid success in the specialty of brain and 
 nerve disorders. In the excitement that followed the homicidal wounding 
 of President Garfield he, with many other medical men who were interviewed 
 by the besieging reporters, strongly expressed the view that the published 
 bulletins on the President's case showed the existence of retained pus and 
 that an exit for it ought, if possible, to be effected. One morning I received 
 a note from Hammond in which he said he had just been interviewed by a 
 Mr. Thompson from the State Department at Washington, who informed 
 him that at a Cabinet meeting held last night it had been determined to 
 change the President's physicians, and that he had been sent to ask him to 
 take charge and proceed at once to Washington. Furthermore, he was re- 
 quested to bring with him a reliable surgeon who should be experienced in 
 gunshot wounds. Would I go with him? If so, would I meet him at the 
 Jersey City Ferry, this side, at three o'clock? I replied affirmatively and at 
 the hour appointed was at the ferry with my instrument and suit case, 
 and found Dr. Hammond there waiting for Mr. Thompson, who was 
 behindhand. Time passed and no Thompson. We waited until after the 
 next train for Washington had left, hut did not see the Government Agent. 
 During the waiting, naturally I plied Dr. Hammond with the usual ques- 
 tion^, as to Thompson's appearance, and what he said, etc., etc. Among the 
 details thus elicited was one that immediately attracted my attention. It 
 appears that as the agent was about leaving, he said he must hurry, as he wished 
 to stop at the Second National Hank to get a check cashed. Dr. Hammond 
 told him that if tin- check was not a large one, he might he able to save his 
 time and cash it for him. "I shall only want about twenty-five dollars," and 
 dn-w a check tor that amount, which Dr. Hammond cashed. 
 
 So I said, "Dr. Hammond, I think jve had better stop at tin's hank as 
 
 ■. uptown and inquire about the check." We dill so, and the answer 
 
 Appendix \ 
 
48 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 by the paying teller was, "No account here." Hammond was much mortified, 
 as I was also, at this hoax, and begged that I would keep the matter quiet. 
 This I have done, and until now have never made any public allusion to the 
 matter. 
 
 While in the field I had been for a short time on a board of which there 
 were many started, to winnow out the unworthy ones of the many regimental 
 medical officers. Many queer and ridiculous answers were given to our 
 questions. Drs. Hammond and Letterman, Medical Directors of the Army 
 of the Potomac, constituted, with another whose name I forget, the Board 
 of Examiners, stationed at Washington. After five or six doctors had been 
 before them, Dr. Hammond said, "Letterman, I notice that one of your 
 regular questions, presumed to test the man's literary intelligence, is, 'Who 
 wrote the Book of Job?' I think that's a pretty tough one, and though I 
 claim to have a fair literary intelligence, I'll be hanged if I know who did 
 write it." Letterman replied, with a twinkling eye, "I don't know either, 
 Hammond; I'm trying to find out." 
 
 Maryland was invaded in this part twice, and each time I was made a 
 prisoner and was threatened the last time (Earley's invasion) with a trip to 
 the Libby prison at Richmond, Va. The first time occurred when Lee's 
 army swarmed across the Potomac, to be checked by the battles at South 
 Mountain and at Antietam. We had been forewarned, and nearly all my 
 extra stores had been concealed or destroyed, and all movable patients shipped 
 to Baltimore when the enemy arrived. Stonewall Jackson's men camped in the 
 hospital grounds, having made a march of twenty-four miles, and I couldn't 
 help complimenting one of the officers on their sturdy appearance. He 
 answered only, "You don't know how much we have done and how many 
 we have lost to have such fellows." I might have had trouble, but in one of 
 the Louisiana regiments I recognized a medical friend, who said when I 
 hoped to be allowed to stay and care for my northern soldiers, "Don't you 
 worry about that, I'll fix it." In about an hour he returned with an order 
 putting him in charge of the hospital, with southern doctors for southern 
 patients and myself and my assistants for the northern sick and wounded. 
 
 This condition of affairs lasted but a few days, when we learned that 
 the United States troops were en route under McClellan and would probably 
 be in Frederick in forty-eight hours. The next day the soldiers of Lee, 
 tramping westward all the day long, passed in close column with few stops 
 through Patrick Street, which led towards South Mountain and Antietam. 
 I was standing within fifty feet of a spot that was soon to become noted by 
 reason of Whittier's poem of "Barbara Frietche." No such incident occurred 
 as was given in that wonderful poem, no volley was fired or attempted to be 
 fired at her, nor did Stonewall Jackson's troops pass her door, for they turned 
 two to three hundred feet short of her house and into another road to avoid 
 
AND APPENDICES 49 
 
 the crest of the main road. Barbara, however, did exist — she was an old 
 woman almost if not in her dotage, who sat at an upper window looking at 
 the passing troops and held a small toy American flag in her hand, which did 
 not attract any special notice. 
 
 Our soldiers got in the next morning, things had quieted down and I 
 had gone, as had become rather habitual with me, to the house of Miss 
 Maria Washington McPherson, one of the belles of the place and to whom 
 I was subsequently married. She was a great-great-grandniece of George 
 Washington in the line of his brother Samuel. (I've never found out 
 that this progenitor of my wife had any special merit except, as I learned 
 later, that he had been the husband of five wives, and that on his decease he 
 was placed so as to be surrounded by their remains.) Miss McPherson was 
 also by her Todd relatives in Kentucky a great-grandniece of the famous 
 Dolly Madison, and at the Centennial ball given in New York in 1876 she 
 was selected as the representative of the Washington family. I know I shall 
 be pardoned for these allusions to this charming woman.* 
 
 While I was, as I said, at Miss McPherson's house playing a game of 
 euchre with her parents — for I had been told that who would the daughter 
 win, must with the parents first begin — the game was interrupted by the 
 entrance of my chief hospital steward, who said, "Doctor, General Mc- 
 Clellan wants to see you." "What do you mean, steward?" I said. Draw- 
 ing himself to his full height and with a formal salute, he said, "Dr. Weir, 
 Major-General McClellan desires your immediate presence at the hospital." 
 Thereupon I went and found the Commanding General and his Medical 
 Director, Dr. Letterman. The General in a few words asked me how many 
 beds I had. I told him, and he said, "That is not enough — I expect a battle 
 with the enemy tomorrow at South Mountain Pass, and possibly further on. 
 I direct you to secure accommodation for 3,000 to 5,000 (looking then at 
 Dr. Letterman, who nodded) wounded." I saluted and left, followed by 
 Dr. Letterman, who directed me to take possession of all the churches, except 
 one Protestant and one Catholic one, and all the hotels and schools that I 
 needed. He further wired Baltimore to send me all the necessary beds, 
 bedding and supplies. With my assistants and steward, how I did hustle that 
 night and the next. With gangs of carpenters, floors were laid on the tops 
 of all the church pews, stoves for cooking put in, etc., etc. By night time 
 some 4..01H) beds were ready. I he only hitch I had was bettering a volunteer 
 Brigade Surgeon, whose rank was higher than mine. He refused to be under 
 me, but when I told him, Learning that he was a Catholic, that if he would 
 take charge ol the Seminary belonging to them, which I had occupied as a 
 
 hospital, I wouldn't bother him nor he me until an officer who ranked us 
 
 * be died in Milan, ttal) in [900, while we were <ni our usual vacation travel, leaving 
 a daughter, now Mrs. Alice Wa hington La Montagne. 
 
50 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 both might arrive. He had been at some time past in the regular army, was 
 a good surgeon and aside from this episode did not interfere with me. 
 
 Thirty-six hours after my interview with General McClellan the wounded 
 began to pour in from the battle at South Mountain, some fifteen miles dis- 
 tant. They were, of course, the mobile ones, and most were shipped by train 
 to Baltimore. A few days later came the large battle of Antietam. All 
 the hospitals were filled to overflowing, operations of various kinds were 
 going on from dawn to bedtime. In every operating room I placed a head 
 surgeon, not always for the operation, but for the final decision. The Sanitary 
 and Christian Commissions, particularly the former, rendered most efficient 
 help in materials and men, particularly with the excellent selection of pro- 
 fessional men, such as I have already spoken of — Drs. Buck, Post, Peters 
 and others from Philadelphia and Boston as well. Dr. Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes I also saw. He was hunting for his wounded son. Not finding 
 him at Frederick, I assisted his advance to the front, where his son was. As 
 time went on the town hospitals were gradually closed up and one by one 
 the severe patients transferred to the General Hospital and the lighter ones 
 to Baltimore, and in the course of two to four weeks the emptying of the 
 cases necessarily held in the camp and field hospital took place. I found by 
 that time that I had over 150 gunshot fractures of the thigh and some 75 
 wounds of the knee joint in my wards. In spite of the liberal incisions made 
 in these suppurating joints or the many suppurating pockets, the complications 
 of erysipelas, hospital gangrene and pyaemia kept up, conjoined with frequent 
 secondary hemorrhage from a damaged or sloughing artery. All this begat 
 a heavy mortality. The best surgical work of the camp hospitals was ren- 
 dered by Dr. J. W. S. Gouley,* of the regular army, and his patients showed 
 well his care when they got to our wards. 
 
 The only wound dressings that approached unwittingly to antisepticism 
 were the balsam of peru and solutions of corrosive sublimate, the first a 
 mild and uncertain germicide and used freely on wounds, particularly when 
 they were granulating, it being supposed to favor cicatrization, and the latter 
 was reserved for injecting into slow-healing wound tracks or sinuses — for 
 which it often acted very well, though we did not then know it was one of 
 our present most potent germicides. Of course we then did not know any- 
 thing about germicides. It was only late in 1864 and in 1865 that rumors 
 of the excellent action of carbolic acid reached us, and the medical purveyors 
 sent us a mixture of earth impregnated slightly with carbolic acid, which 
 was so messy and troublesome that no earnest trial was ever made of it. 
 
 The phrase "secondary hemorrhage" brings to mind how a "skulker" 
 
 * Dr. Gouley was later Surgeon to the Bellevue and St. Vincent's Hospitals, and is yet 
 living in New York at a greatly advanced age. 
 
AND APPENDICES 51 
 
 was foiled in his malingering efforts to get a discharge. He entered our 
 hospital voiceless from a recent sore throat, but was otherwise in good con- 
 dition. After a while he was used, as many slightly disabled soldiers were, 
 as an orderly or assistant in the wards and did the work well. But after 
 six or eight weeks of this duty, he demanded his discharge from the service 
 and was ordered before our examining board, who held up his case, suspecting 
 he might be shamming, and had him carefully w r atched day and night. Even 
 the heroic remedy advised by Dr. George Suckley, U. S. A. (House Surgeon 
 at the New York Hospital, 1854), °f blistering the spine in sections its full 
 length, beginning at the neck and reaching in time to the buttocks, was tried 
 without result. I even had him etherized, thinking that in entering or re- 
 covering from his anaesthesia he might speak, but he didn't. I directed, 
 therefore, his papers to be made out and to be ready for me to sign and for- 
 ward the next day to the Adjutant-General's office at Washington, when the 
 man's fat fell in the fire most unexpectedly and in this way. Each of my 
 assistants acted in turn as medical officer of the day and waited and slept in 
 his clothes after his ward work was done in the room devoted to that purpose. 
 The suspected man was a nurse in Dr. Paullin's ward. Dr. Shimer's name 
 was up as the medical officer of the day and his name was duly displayed out- 
 side the door, but this evening Dr. Shimer had asked Paullin to take his place 
 while he went to the town to attend a dance. The stage being now arranged, 
 the catastrophe follows. About one o'clock the medical officer of the day's 
 room was burst open and this nurse entered, screaming in a loud voice, 
 "Doctor, Doctor, come over to Ward N at once; Jenkins is bleeding to 
 death!" Paullin, as he jumped up, said, "I'll be right over, but I'm glad 
 you've got your voice back." The detected man was returned to his regiment 
 the next day. 
 
 Since the above was written and discursive jottings were, as I thought, 
 finished, I had the opportunity of meeting the Alumni of the New York Hos- 
 pital at their last annual dinner (1917), when I had the great pleasure of 
 renewing my youth with their glad and affectionate greetings. I sat during 
 the repast between Dr. Turnure, one of my former house surgeons, and Dr. 
 Pool, one of Dr. Hull's former house surgeons, and both of them now attend- 
 ing surgeons of the New York Hospital. Most enjoyable was their conver- 
 sation and narration of joint reminiscences. ( )f the many things touched 
 upon each particular!) recalled interesting memories. Dr. Turnure particu- 
 larly recalled to me the hopes thai tailed me after a particularly success- 
 ful operation which maj be considered as an adjunct to the plastic ones that 
 I have spoken of in connection with Dr. Buck's surgical work, as narrated 
 in in\ reminiscences (page 27). Dr. Turnure 's corpse reviver was, that 1 
 had been consulted when in mj active period ot work In a wealthy Hebrew 
 whose principal question was, could I straighten his nose and give him, as 
 
52 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 he said, a Christian nose without scarring his face. I said it could be done, 
 and so he submitted to etherization, under which, after the plan of Dr. Roe, 
 of Rochester, N. Y., I separated through the nostrils the skin from the car- 
 tilage and bones of the nose and by the same route was able to pare off enough 
 of the cartilage to bring the nasal curved line to a straight one. Not satisfied, 
 the patient a short time afterward asked to have the width of the nose dimin- 
 ished. This also was effected without perceptible scar, thanks to using the 
 natural lines at the junction of the nose with the cheeks. Still another 
 operation was demanded — to overcome the turned-out full lips. By taking 
 out a transverse piece on the inside of the lips I drew the lips inward along 
 their edges, much to the patient's and my own satisfaction. I was compelled, 
 however, at his next request, to admit that I could do nothing to change the 
 character of his large, reddish-brown eyes, so characteristic of his race. He ex- 
 pressed his thanks largely and paid his bill in the same way, and was about to 
 go away when I asked how he managed to escape the queries of his family and 
 friends during the two or three weeks that were required for the doing and 
 completing of these several operations. He said he told them he had been all 
 this time nominally at Washington. I further inquired, and in this I had a 
 strong personal reason, for as I looked on the successful change in his features 
 I could not but feel that a large and lucrative specialty was opening to me, so 
 as I said I inquired what his family and friends thought of his face. Here he 
 dashed all my hopes to the ground when he said with a sly laugh, "I tell 
 them it all happened while I was away by being thrown from my horse and 
 landing on my face and that this pushed my nose straight!" 
 
 Dr. Pool said that when he was a medical student he attended the first 
 surgical lecture which I delivered in the College of Physicians and Surgeons 
 in 1892. He alluded to one point in that lecture which was on the changes 
 that might follow the simple cut of a razor in shaving, which opened up a 
 large chapter of surgical pathology, which he said I delivered con amove. He 
 said he remembered I had in illustration of the help afforded by a rag or the 
 like held against the little wound in arresting the bleeding by mechanically 
 promoting coagulation of the blood ; that I told them that my father kept all 
 his old summer furry high hats (1 840-50) for this particular purpose — that 
 is to say, for pulling out a bit of the fur and pressing it against the bleeding 
 spot. It was such a novelty to Dr. Pool that he never forgot it. 
 
AND APPENDICES 53 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 (See page 47) 
 
 Surgeon-General's Office 
 
 Washington City, July 16, 1862. 
 
 Sir — I am directed by the Surgeon-General to express to you his gratifi- 
 cation at hearing the many encomiums bestowed upon the hospital under your 
 charge. These praises, referring both to the police and good order of the 
 hospital, and also to the general good management by yourself, have reached 
 this Department, not only through irresponsible and therefore unreliable 
 sources, but through the official reports of its authorized inspectors. Early 
 after your entry into the service you were placed in a position of trust and 
 responsibility, and you have not belied the judgment of this Department when 
 selecting you, first, for one of its members, and afterwards, to fill one of its 
 most important positions. The Surgeon-General believes and trusts that the 
 industry and ability which you have already displayed you will continue to 
 manifest and develop to the credit of the corps of which he has the honor to 
 be the head. 
 
 Very respectfully your obedient servant. 
 
 By order, 
 
 Asst. Surgeon R. F. Weir, U. S. A., 
 General Hospital, Frederick, Md. 
 
 Jos. R. Smith, 
 Asst. Surg., JJ. S. A. 
 
54 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 (See page 38) 
 
 THE SOCIETY OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL 
 No. 8 West i6th Street 
 
 New York, May 2, 1900. 
 Robert F. Weir, M.D., 
 37 West 33RD Street. 
 
 Dear Doctor: 
 
 I beg to inform you that at a meeting of the Board of Governors of 
 the Society of the New York Hospital, held the 1st instant, your commu- 
 nication, tendering your resignation as Attending Surgeon to the Hospital, 
 was duly laid before them, whereupon, on motion, the following resolution 
 was adopted: 
 
 Resolved, That the resignation of Dr. Robert F. Weir as Attending 
 Surgeon to the Hospital is hereby duly received and accepted, with the thanks 
 of the Board of Governors for his long, faithful and distinguished services 
 rendered to the Hospital. 
 
 I have the honor to remain, 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Henry W. Crane, Secretary. 
 
AND. APPENDICES 55 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 (See page 38) 
 
 William Warner Hoppin 
 Trinity Building, No. iii Broadway 
 
 New York, May 3, 1900. 
 My Dear Dr. Weir: 
 
 Although I was not able to be present at the meeting of the Board of 
 Governors of the New York Hospital yesterday, I am told that your resigna- 
 tion was presented and accepted. 
 
 I cannot allow such an occasion as this to pass without expressing to you 
 as an individual my sincere appreciation of the splendid work that you have 
 done while Attending Surgeon at the Hospital, and of your untiring devotion 
 to its interests. 
 
 \ ou have reached a position in the profession which entitles you to well- 
 earned rest, but I understand that this is not to be the case, but that in an- 
 other institution you are to continue in active hospital practice, not only as 
 surgeon but as instructor. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Doctor, with sentiments of sincere esteem, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Wm. W. Hoppin. 
 
56 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 APPENDIX D 
 
 On the occasion of the presentation of the required portrait of the 
 retiring President of the New York Academy of Medicine, in 1902, Dr. 
 Joseph D. Bryant, one of its former presidents, made the following remarks: 
 
 Mr. President and Fellows of the Academy: It is, indeed, a welcome 
 privilege for me to be permitted to speak of a friend on an occasion of this 
 kind. Under these circumstances one is inclined to tell of the professional 
 attainments of the friend, and under all proper surroundings one should 
 declare the friend's loyal adherence to probity and to his own friends, speak- 
 ing also of his kind and genial nature, ever shedding its sunshine, without 
 shadows, on all who came within the sphere of his influence. If our entire 
 profession were here this evening, it would be a supererogation on my part 
 to recite the achievements of our much-respected Fellow in the field of his 
 choice. For along the pathway of surgical endeavor, both at home and 
 abroad, for nearly a quarter of a century are frequently noted well-recog- 
 nized and enduring evidences of Dr. Weir's thoughtful and beneficent labors. 
 His teachings, his writings and his practical illustrations in surgery have 
 ever been constructive, and his ideas of surgical problems and of surgical 
 policies are both wise and refreshing. Fitting, indeed, is it that this excellent 
 likeness of our friend should be made fast to the wall of this institution, 
 nearby to the portraits of those who were pioneers in the Art which our 
 esteemed Fellow so aptly graces — Valentine Mott, Van Buren, Hamilton 
 and Wood. While we gladly do him honor here at this time, let us not be 
 unmindful of the fact that already he has been highly honored abroad. It 
 is not at all strange, I think, that one who has attained well-grounded emi- 
 nence in a special field of thought or effort, requiring for the purpose earnest 
 actions based on honest conceptions, should be alike loyal to wholesome prin- 
 ciples and to wholesome friends. If this be true, then Dr. Weir's attributes 
 in these respects are but the logical heritage of an honest heart. His genial 
 greeting, his warm friendly grasp of the hand, and his frequent verbal con- 
 ceits are like unto summer showers, delightful and refreshing, serving equally 
 to lighten his own burdens and to lessen the stress of those of his Fellows. 
 Were he here at this minute, might he not properly exclaim, "In speaking 
 of Dr. Weir, please, Sir, do not longer wear-y the indulgent listeners." 
 Therefore, heeding this imaginative admonition, I will humbly request, 
 
AND APPENDICES 57 
 
 through you, Mr. President, that the Fellows of the Academy accept this 
 likeness of the late President, Dr. Robert F. Weir, and place it where it will 
 ever be an earnest to all whose worthy ambition may prompt them to emulate 
 the many virtues of him whom this work of art so well portrays. 
 
58 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 APPENDIX E 
 
 (See page 39) 
 
 This gift, a large, silver, two-handled loving cup, was presented by the 
 spokesman of the class, Mr. F. Coerr, in a short speech of an elegance in 
 diction and phrasing that much resembled the style of Lincoln. The fol- 
 lowing were its words: 
 
 Professor Weir: 
 
 We, your students of this school, asked you to come here today that you 
 might receive at our hands and in our presence a reminder of our good-will 
 toward you. 
 
 It is not for ourselves we would speak, but also for the many hundreds 
 who before us were your scholars, and who, were theirs the opportunity, today 
 would gladly do as we. We would ask you not to look upon this gift as 
 in any way the measure of our regard, but rather simply as a token of the 
 deep respect and true affection in which we hold you. And this with reason: 
 for nations other than ours and other tongues know you and have done you 
 honor. Our own country knows you and honors you ; and you have been 
 pleased to be her servant, a good citizen, a good soldier, in times of peace, in 
 times of war. 
 
 In your profession you have stood in high places, but in none more hon- 
 orable than that of teacher. We have been your students, and this we cannot 
 soon forget. 
 
 Our feeling for you is one of envy of your skill — of wonder at your ex- 
 perience — of respect for the teacher — of affection for the man. 
 
 Doctor Weir, it is that you may sometimes recall that we, your scholars, 
 have held you thus, that we ask you to take this, our gift. 
 
AND APPENDICES 59 
 
 APPENDIX F 
 
 (See page 39) 
 
 COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
 
 Medical Department of Columbia University 
 New York 
 
 Resolutions Adopted by the Faculty at their Meeting Held Monday, 
 
 May 25th, 1903. 
 
 At a meeting, held on May the twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred and three, 
 •of the Faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Medical 
 Department of Columbia University, in the City or New York, it was 
 unanimously 
 
 Resolved, That this Faculty desires hereby to express its great apprecia- 
 tion of the eminent services rendered to his medical alma mater by 
 
 ROBERT FULTON WEIR, M.D., 
 
 a graduate of this College in the Class of eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, 
 and an officer of the said College for the past thirty-six years. 
 
 Twenty years ago Dr. Weir was appointed Professor of Clinical Surgery; 
 and ten years ago he was called, as Professor of Surgery, to the seat in this 
 Faculty from which he has lately intimated his wish to retire. 
 
 Dr. Weir's distinguished career as a teacher has been coupled with a 
 career no less distinguished as a private and public practitioner of Surgery. 
 He was tor twenty-seven years Visiting Surgeon to the New York Hospital, 
 and he has held the same office at St. Luke's Hospital, the Hcllevue Hospital 
 and the Roosevelt Hospital. 
 
 His colleagues on each side of the Atlantic have borne witness to his 
 high professional repute In electing him President of the New York Academy 
 <,] Medicine, Presidenl ot the American Surgical Association, and Honorary 
 Fellow of the Royal College ot Surgeons oi London. 
 
 01 Dr. Weir's colleagues in this FacultJ manj have enjoyed the benefit 
 of his teaching, and all unite in this proffer of sincere respecf and hearty thanks. 
 
GO CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 Resolved, That the foregoing resolution be entered at large in the minutes 
 of this meeting, and that a copy thereof be engrossed, signed by the President 
 of the University and by the other members of this Faculty, and presented to 
 Dr. Weir. 
 
 Signatures: Nicholas Murray Butler, LL.D., President of the Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 James W. McLane, M.D., Dean. 
 
 John G. Curtis, M.D., Prof, of Physiology. 
 
 George M. Tuttle, M.D., Prof, of Gynecology. 
 
 George L. Peabody, M.D., Prof, of Materia Medica and 
 Therapeutics. 
 
 William T. Bull, M.D., Prof, of Surgery. 
 
 M. Allen Starr, M.D., Prof, of Diseases of the Mind and 
 Nervous System. 
 
 George S. Huntington, M.D., Prof, of Anatomy. 
 
 T. Mitchell Prudden, M.D., Prof, of Pathology. 
 
 Edwin B. Cragin, M.D., Prof, of Obstetrics. 
 
 Walter B. James, M.D., Prof, of Practice of Medicine. 
 
AND APPENDICES 61 
 
 APPENDIX G 
 
 Dr. J. B. Murphy 
 Reliance Building, ioo State Street 
 
 Chicago, May 31, 1909. 
 
 Dr. Robert F. Weir, 
 
 30 West 50th Street, New York City, N. Y. 
 
 My Dear Doctor Ji'tir: 
 
 It pleased me immensely to get your charming letter of May 25th. You 
 have always been so generous and encouraging to me in my work. Your life 
 has been an inspiration to every man in the surgical field. The zeal, scien- 
 tific spirit and persistence of your labor would make a splendid model for 
 aspirants in the medical profession. I am happy that this last procedure * 
 meets with your approbation, and I hope to get a case in the near future in 
 which the limb can be actually saved, as the technic is easily completed on 
 the lines you reasoned out so many years ago. I greatly appreciate the spirit 
 of your letter. 
 
 Looking forward to the pleasure of seeing you at the American Surgical 
 Association in Philadelphia the latter part of the week, and with expressions 
 of esteem, I am. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 J. B. Murphy. 
 
 For surgically relieving a thrombosed artery. — R. I'. \V. 
 
62 
 
 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 APPENDIX H 
 
 ittttwr ia 
 
 Br. Robert f. Wtix 
 
 an ii'aturftag, Imrnlwr tlj? tentlj 
 (§ttt» ttymxmnb ttitt? Jjimorefc ana ten 
 
 Ittteratij (Eltth 
 
AND APPENDICES 63 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 Some two years ago Dr. Edward Souchon, of New Orleans, addressed 
 a circular to the various surgeons in this country asking from them details 
 as to the number and kind of surgical procedures or operations that they had 
 originated. His collected information has, however, not yet been published. 
 It was with some mortification that my answer to his queries was sent. For 
 with an experience of nearly fifty years in hospital or private surgical work 
 I was able to enumerate only a few examples that I believed of my own 
 generating. There is excluded from this small list the improvements in 
 technic and care that results from enlarged experience and acquaintance with 
 the work and result of other surgeons. Indeed, it frequently happens, from 
 an investigation of the printed records, that one's own baby had an unex- 
 pected father, and even now I am prepared to accept such a revelation in 
 respect to my own claims, in spite of a diligent searching in the literature 
 of our profession on this point. 
 
 I find, on overhauling records, principally set forth in the History 
 of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, under the editorship of Dr. 
 John Shrady, that I am credited with nearly one hundred articles or papers 
 on surgical subjects, of which the titles are there given. Of these the major 
 portion has passed into oblivion or been dwarfed in a short notice or 
 accepted as a statement not necessarily original in our surgical works. Sev- 
 eral might be cited as being descriptions of first operations of their 'kind done 
 in America but of foreign origin. This was only due to the zeal and thor- 
 oughness of my own reading ami familiarity with the specialty of surgery 
 abroad — a something that was held in common to those of us who zealously 
 scanned the journals in that department. These are passed by and only ref- 
 erence is given to those furnished in accordance with Dr. Souchon's request 
 and a- beforehand alluded to. They are as follows: 
 
 i. A Description and Treatment of [ntratympanitic Vascular Tumors 
 with ;i Pulsating Intact Drum. American Journal of Otology, 1X79. 
 
 2. Ununited Fracture of the Long Handle of the Malleus. Rosa, 
 Diseases r >t tin- Ear, 1 SSS. (I was Aural Surgeon at that period at the 
 New York Eye ami Ear Infirmary.) 
 
 <. On Traumati' Aneurism ot the Vertebral Arter) Cured by Com- 
 pression. Archives <>i Medicine, April, 1SS4. 
 
64 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 4. On Sacrematous Tumors of the Knee Joint. Medical Record, 
 June 26, 1886. 
 
 5. On Laparotomy for Preparation of the Appendix Vermiformis 15 
 Hours After the Onset of Acute Symptoms — Recovery. New York Medi- 
 cal Journal, April 27, 1889. (This was the first of such operations per- 
 formed at an early stage.) 
 
 6. Gastrotherapy — for Diminishing the Size of the Dilated Stomach. 
 Medical Journal, July 9, 1892. 
 
 7. A Unique Derangement of the Knee Joint Demanding Surgical 
 Interference (i. e., a synovial folding on the under surface of the patella, caus- 
 ing painful and difficult flexion). New York Medical Journal, July 16, 
 1892. 
 
 8. On the Replacement of a Depressed Fracture of the Malar Bone. 
 (By opening the antrum and forcing up through this the depressed bone to 
 its proper level.) Medical Record, March 6, 1897. 
 
 9. On the Surgical Treatment of the Sliding Hernias of the Ccecum 
 or Sigmoid Flexure. Medical Record, April 2, 1900. 
 
 10. An Improved Operation for Acute Appendicitis or for Quiescent 
 Cases with Complications. (Known as Weir's Extension of the Gridiron 
 Incision.) Medical News, Feb. 17, 1900. 
 
 11. On a New Use for a Useless Appendix in the Treatment of Ob- 
 stinate Colitis. (Fixing it at the skin level and through its opened tip wash- 
 ing out the diseased colon.) Medical Record, Aug. 9, 1902. 
 
 ERRATA 
 
 Insert in Item 4 — Sarcomatous for Sacrematous 
 Insert in Item 5 — Perforation for Preparation 
 Insert in Item 6 — Gastrorrhaphy for Gastrotherapy 
 
AND APPENDICES 65 
 
 APPENDIX J 
 
 Dr. Carl Beck, of New York, dedicated his Clinical Description of the 
 Roentgen Rays, 1902, as follows: 
 
 Viro per illustri atque celeberrimo. 
 Decoris artes Chirurgia? Americanae 
 
 Dr. Robert F. Weir 
 dedicit primam descriptonem clinicam 
 de radiis Rontgeni 
 Novis Eboracis Aprilis Quint 1902 — Autor 
 
 Dr. George E. Brewer, of New York, in his admirable "Text-Bcok on 
 Surgery," 1903, made the following dedication: 
 
 To 
 
 Robert F. Weir, M.D., Hon. F.R.C.S., Eng., 
 
 Professor of Surgery, Columbia University, Etc., 
 
 A Master of Surgery, A Scholarly Teacher, a Successful 
 
 Practitioner, My Honored Chief and 
 
 Valued Friend, 
 
 This Volume Is Affectionately Dedicated 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR 
 
66 CIVIL WAR RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 APPENDIX K 
 
 Honors and Appointments 
 Hospitals : 
 
 Attending Surgeon, St. Luke's Hospital 
 
 Attending Surgeon, Roosevelt Hospital 187 1 -1900, 1900- 
 
 Attending Surgeon, N. Y. Hospital 1876- 
 
 Attending Surgeon, Bellevue Hospital 1881- 
 
 Attending Surgeon, St. Luke's Hospital 1865, 
 
 Attending Surgeon, N. Y. Eye and Ear Infirmary 1870- 
 
 Consulting Surgeon, N. Y. Cancer Hospital 
 
 Consulting Surgeon, N. Y. Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled. . 
 
 Consulting Surgeon, French Hospital 
 
 Consulting Surgeon, St. Vincent's Hospital 
 
 Consulting Surgeon, N. Y. Institute for the Blind 
 
 Consulting Surgeon, N. Y. Hospital 
 
 Consulting Surgeon, N. Y. State Hospital for Crippled and De- 
 formed Children 
 
 Consulting Surgeon, Roosevelt Hospital 
 
 Colleges: 
 
 Professor Surgery, Women's Medical College 
 
 Professor Clinical Surgery, College Physicians and Surgeons 
 
 Professor Clinical Surgery, N. Y. Post-Graduate School 
 
 Professor Surgery, College Physicians and Surgeons 
 
 Societies : 
 
 Therapeutical Society, Vice-President 
 
 Practitioners' Society, President 
 
 N. Y. Surgical Society, President 
 
 N. Y. Academy of Med'cine, Vice-President, 1884; President. . . . 
 
 Medical Society Greater New York, President 
 
 American Surgical Association, President 
 
 Clubs : 
 
 University Club, N. Y 
 
 St. Nicholas Society 
 
 Century Club, N. Y 
 
AND APPENDICES 67 
 
 Other Honors: 
 
 Member of the N. Y. Medical and Surgical Society 1875 
 
 Membre Correspondant Societe de Chirurgie, Paris 1893 
 
 Fellow College Physicians, Philadelphia 1894 
 
 Fellow Philadelphia Academy of Surgery 1898 
 
 Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons, England 1900 
 
 Honorary Fellow, American College of Surgery 1915 
 
 Physician, St. Nicholas Society 1908 
 
 Chevalier of the Order of Bolivar * 1890 
 
 And many others of lesser importance. 
 
 * Of this a few words may be noted. The distinction was given me by reason of a suc- 
 cessful extirpation of a cancerous tongue from a noted Vice-President of Venezuela. He 
 was a small man with a soft, pleasant voice and gentle manners. On asking his secretary 
 how so mild and inoffensive a man achieved such distinction in so well-known turbulent a 
 country as Venezuela — he snorted: "Inoffensive you call him. Do you know how he secured 
 his election as its Vice-President? No! I'll tell you: he met his two competitors at a din- 
 ner and shot both of them!" 
 
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