HX641 05547 R21 0.C43 .H99 Early medical Chicag RECAP le 3 James Kevins Early Medical Chicago 1?2/b,ef3 jm COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Open Knowledge Commons http://www.archive.org/details/earlymedicalchicOOhyde Early Medical Cmh(h a James Nevins .Hyde, A.M., M.D., £ have partially fallen backward. On the northern bank of the river, and directly in front of the fort, stood the residence of Mr. John Kinzie. It was a long, low building, with a piazza extending along its front, overlooking a broad, green space which stretched between it and the river. It was shaded by a row of Lombardy poplars in front, and two immense cotton- wood trees in the rear ; a fine and well-cultivated garden showing on one side, with dairy, stables and other out- houses adjacent. Still further to the north, stood a small but substantial building of hewed and squared logs, known as the Agency House. On either side of its two wings were the residences of the Government employees — blacksmiths and laborers — mostly half-breed Canadians, with an occasional Yankee among them. There was but one other building on the North Side, and that was at this- time vacant. It had been erected by a former resident, named Samuel Miller. On the southern bank of the river, between the fort and the point where the river divides, there was no dwell- ing house. The prairie here was low and wet — in the driest weather affording a poor foot-path for the pedes- trian, and often overflowed in the rise of the river water. Mrs. Kinzie states that a horseman who once made the trip had gotten his feet wet in the stirrups, and declared that he" would not give a sixpence for an acre of it." A muddy streamlet wound around from the present site of 13 the Tremont House, to join the river at the foot of State street. The projection of land between the north and south branches was variously known as "The Point," "The Forks," or " Wolf Point" — the latter term having been derived from the name of an old Indian chief. Here was a canoe ferry for the accommodation of passengers. The residence of Mark Beaubien, Jr. , distinguished by its additional upper story and bright blue window shut- ters, stood upon the Point, and was the admiration of the little community in consequence of these modern im- provements. Facing down the river from the west, was a small tavern, kept by Mr. Elijah Went worth, and near it lay several log cabins, occupied by Alexander Robinson, the half-breed Pottawatomie chief, his wife's connections, Billy Caldwell, the " Sau-ga-nash," and the wife of the latter, who was the daughter of " Nee- scot- nee-meg." Oholson Kercheval, a small trader, occupied one of these cabins, and, in close proximity, stood the school-house, a small log cabin, used occasionally as a place of pub- lic worship. Here, we learn that a reverend gentleman named Charles See did violence to the King's English on Sundays when opportunity offered. Some distance up the North Branch, was located the Clybourn residence, and an old building, erected some time before by a settler named Reuben E. Heacock, was still standing, at a point four miles distant up the South Branch. This house had some interest attaching to it, in consequence of its connection with the old Indian massacre. At the time to which we refer, the fort was occupied by two companies of soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant Hunter, in the absence of Major Fowle and Captain Scott. Lieutenant Furman had died during the preceding year. The subordinate officers were Lieuten- ants Engie and Foster. The Kinzie family then occupied the Agency House, and Post-Master Bailey was quartered in their residence. In the brief description above given are enumerated, 14 it is believed, all the buildings then erected, and all the residents occupying them, with the single exception of Dr. Harmon, to whom we hasten to give our attention. Elijah Dewey Harmon was born on the 20th day of August, 1782, in the town of Bennington, Vermont. After completing his education as far as possible in that place, he resorted to Manchester, in his native State, where he pursued the study of medicine in the office and under the direction of a noted practitioner of the place, named Swift. * At the expiration of the two or three years which were employed in acquiring a knowledge of his profession, he removed to Burlington, Vt., at the early age of twenty-five years, and began to practice medicine in connection with the business of a drug store, as was customary at that time.f Here he remained until the occurrence of the war of 1812, when he hastened to offer his services as a volunteer surgeon. Dr. Harmon,, during this period, had the distinguished honor of serv- ing as a surgeon on board the flag-ship of the gallant Commodore McDonough, in the battle of Plattsburgh, on the 11th day of September, 1814. If the terrific fire to which the Saratoga was exposed in that engagement be remembered, we may well believe that the doctor' s skill and courage must have been put to a severe test. At the close of the war, the doctor returned to Burling- ton, where he continued in civil practice with a success which contributed not only to his financial prosperity, but to the establishment of his reputation. In the year 1829, however, he suffered some pecuniary losses in con- sequence of his speculations connected with a marble quarry, and he determined, as many of his successors * The three medical schools of Vermont had not then been founded. Castleton Medical College was established in 1818 ; the Medical Depart- ment of the University of Vermont in 1822 ; and the Vermont Medical College in 1827. f I am indebted for these details to his son, still a resident of Chicago, Mr. I. D. Harmon. Unfortunately, most of the family documents were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire, and among them was the diploma of the University, which conferred upon the doctor his degree in medicine. 15 have done since then, to advance his fortunes in the far West. During that year, therefore, he spent several months in Jacksonville, 111., engaged in the selection of a suitable locality in which to settle. After returning to his native State and completing his arrangements for a final removal, he left a second time, and proceeded directly to Chicago, traveling on horseback from Detroit,, and arriving here in the fall of 1830. His family joined him in June of the succeeding year. It happened that Dr. J. B. Finley, the surgeon of the garrison, was, at this time, about to leave the post, and thus Dr. Harmon came to be at once installed in his position — he and his family taking up their residence in the fort, which then was held by two companies of United States troops. Little must have occurred to dis- turb the monotony of his new duties, until the succeed- ing spring, when the country became agitated again in consequence of the Black Hawk war. In May of the year 1832, cholera made its appearance upon the New England coast, and extended rapidly westward along the water courses of our northern frontier, one branch apparently diverging by way of the Hudson river to New York City. Five companies were at once hurried, in consequence of the exigencies of the time, from Fortress Monroe to Chicago, and traversed the entire distance of 1,800 miles in eighteen days, a transportation which was then considered unprecedented in rapidity, and which was really marvellous in view of the facilities then attainable. General Scott arrived with this detachment in a steamer,* on the eighth day of July, 1832, and, as might have been expected, cholera rapidly spread through his command, one man out of three being attacked, and many dying. It was then wisely decided to separate the two com- panies in the fort from those which had newly arrived, and thus, if possible, prevent the extension of the dis- * This vessel, the Sheldon Thompson, was the first steamer to visit Chicago, but it did not enter the harbor. 16 ease among the former. These two companies, according- ly, were encamped at a short distance from the stockade, and placed under the professional charge of Dr. Harmon. While . due allowance is, of course, to be made for the favorable circumstances in which this isolated detach- ment was placed, it certainly reflects great credit upon their surgeon, that among the men affected with cholera under his charge, but two or three deaths occurred. It maybe here remarked that the doctor attributed his suc- cess to the fact that he did not employ calomel in the treatment of the disease. Of the treatment employed in the fort, and its results, we shall have something to say hereafter. Some misunderstanding seems to have occurred at this time between General Scott and Dr. Harmon, in reference to the line of conduct pursued by the latter. The general, like a great many military men since his day, desired the surgeon to devote his attention exclusively to the companies under his care, while the good-hearted doctor could not but heed the demand for his services by civilians, and others not in the military service. Cer- tain it is that he endeared himself to the citizens of the little town by his conduct at this time, and we are not surprised to learn that after the epidemic had subsided, Gen. Scott and his command had pushed farther south, and the monotonous routine of garrison life had been endured for another year, that in the spring of 1832, Dr. Harmon, having secured the Kinzie house as a place of residence, removed to it with his family. Before concluding, however, the narrative of Dr. Harmon's military career, it is proper to mention the fact that he performed an amputation in the fort during the winter of 1832. This is certainly the first record that we possess of any capital operation in Chicago ; and it is probable that it was, in point of fact, the first surgical operation of any magnitude ever attempted in the place. A half-breed Canadian had frozen his feet, while engaged in the transportation of the mail on horseback from 17 Green Bay to Chicago.* The doctor, assisted by his brother, tied the unfortunate man to a chair, applied a tourniquet to each lower extremity, and with the aid of the rusty instruments which he had transported on horse- back through sun and shower from Detroit to Chicago, removed one entire foot and a large portion of the other. Needless to say those were not the days of anaesthetics, and the invectives in mingled French and English, of the mail carrier's vocabulary, soon became audible to every one in the vicinity of the stockade. It is gratifying to note that the first recorded amputation in Chicago was crowned with a most satisfactory success. Dr. Harmon may properly be called the Father of Medicine in Chicago. For, in the removal and establish- ment of himself and his family in the Kinzie house, we find the first trace of the settlement of a civil practitioner in the community. His object in effecting this change was to engage in the practice of medicine — all other transactions having been made subordinate to this. A brief glance at his surroundings at this time might prove interesting. His office and residence combined was a cabin, whose floor and walls were constructed of hewn logs — the former, of course, innocent of carpets. It contained twelve rooms, lighted by small panes of glass, and heated by wood burned in stoves brought from Detroit. His food was largely bacon, transported from the valley of the Wabash in the now traditional i: prairie schooner," with lard as a substitute for butter — and an occasional slice of venison, or a wild turkey, as an entremets. His medicines he had brought with him from Vermont, together with the rusty instruments of which mention has been made. But his medical library — to his honor be it said — was the chief part of his arma- mentarium. It consisted of over one hundred volumes, and some of those have, without doubt, been enumerated in the foot note upon another page giving the list of * The winter of this year was unprecedentedly severe. There is abun- dant collateral evidence on this point. 18 works published in America before this date. How many of his successors have engaged in the practice of medicine, with far less provision for the refurnishing of the storehouse of professional science ! The doctor' s visits must have been made largely on foot ; as Beaubien is reported to have possessed the only vehicle on wheels to be found in the town,* and that judging from the description, must have greatly resembled the " one-hoss shay," so graphically delineated by another member of our profession. When he had occa- sion to cross the river, it was necessary to paddle himself over, in one of the dug-out canoes, which were generally tied in front of each residence, or resort to ' ' Wolf Point," where a canoe ferry offered merely the same facilities. Some idea may be formed of the general character of the doctor' s patients, from a criticism written by Latrobe in the autumn of 1833. f He describes "a doctor or two, two or three lawyers, a land agent and five or six hotel keepers ; these may be considered the stationary occu- pants and proprietors of the score of clap -board houses around you ; then, for the birds of passage, exclusive of he Pottawatomies, you have emigrants, speculators, horse dealers and stealers ; rogues of every description, white, black and red ; quarter-breeds and men of no breed at all ; dealers in pigs, poultry and potatoes ; creditors of Indians ; sharpers ; peddlers ; grog- sellers ; Indian agents, traders and contractors to supply the Post" — certainly not a highly encouraging picture of a clientele. Medical examinations for life-insurance, which have since proved a source of remuneration to the profession, were then unknown. It would appear from an article * It is said that the villagers, upon the arrival of this vehicle from the East, paid it distinguished honor, "turning out in procession and parading the streets." — Chicago Antiquities. No. 2. f Western Portraiture and Emigrants' Guide. Daniel S. Curtis. New York. 1852. 19 published during the ensuing year in a literary period- ical, not only that the general subject of life insurance was little understood in the West, but that the basis upon which policies were issued to the assured, was the statement of the applicant, endorsed by his family physician only/'* As for the fees given in remuneration of professional services, perhaps the less said upon the subject the better. But it is pleasant to note that a precedent had been established in the country, for the encouragement of the humble toilers on the Lake shore. Dr. McDowell had even then received fifteen hundred dollars for the performance of ovariotomyf — a reward which, consider- ing the scarcity of money and the price of labor and food, was fully equal to the famous fee paid Sir Astley Cooper by Mr. Hyatt, and only surpassed by the mu- nificent honorarium, given to a contemporary surgeon as recently reported in the secular press. Mrs. Kinzie describes the doctor as she used to see him, when she and her friends made little excursions on horse- back in the vicinity of their residence.:}: On one occasion he was engaged in superintending the construction of a sod fence near the lake, and planting fruit stones, with a view to a prospective garden and orchard, under the branches of the trees that arched overhead. "We usually stopped," she remarks, "for a little chat. The two favorite themes of the doctor were, horticulture and the certain future importance of Chicago. That it was destined to be a great city, was his unalterable conviction, and indeed, by this time, all forest and prairie as it was, we half began to believe it ourselves." " The glorious dreams of good Dr. Harmon," as they were called, produced a practical result in his case. In the spring of 1833, he secured by pre-emption, one hun- * See the Western. Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, 1834. Cincinnati, Ohio. f Lives of Eminent American Physicians and Surgeons ,of the 19th Century. S. D. Gross, M.D. Philadelphia. 1861. Page 228. X Opus cit. 20 dred and thirty acres of land lying next to the Lake and just south of what is now 16th street. In order to make good the title, he built a small log cabin upon this prop- erty, and resided there until the spring of 1834, when he left the State for Texas. To-day the doctor's farm is worth between five and six millions of dollars.* Had his sons possessed the same confidence in the future of Chicago as that felt by their father, they would now be enjoying the fruit of his wise providence. One of them, however, had been entrusted with a power of attorney for the sale of this property, and accordingly, contrary to the advice and counsel of its pre-emptor, it was sold for a sum which then seemed an enormous price for the land, but which was in fact • a paltry consideration for the magnificent squares which are now covered by elegant metropolitan residences. It is, however, somewhat grat- ifying to reflect that the most valuable residence prop- erty in Chicago, was once, in fee simple, the homestead of its earliest resident physician. Dr. Harmon died on the 3rd day of January, 1869, after having made several trips to Texas, where he not only engaged in the practice of medicine, but invested in real estate which has since greatly appreciated in value. It will be seen from what has preceded, that he was of an adventurous disposition — an essential element in the character of all successful pioneers. A recent histori- ographer has said that the early settlers of the West made the name adventurer forever respectable — and he has wisely spoken. Out of their loins came a common- wealth — most of its virtues are hereditary, and its vices have been chiefly acquired. Dr. Harmon, during his life, served not only as a Jus- tice of the Peace, but, in conjunction with Col. R. J. Hamilton and Mr. Russell E. Heacock, officiated in the first Board of School Commissioners, organized under the law. The Doctor's strong conviction of the immense prospective value of the land known as the School Sec- * This is the value as estimated by W. D. Kerfoot, Esq., of Chicago. 21 tion, led him here also to strenuously oppose its sale. In this matter, as in the disposition of his own property, his judgment was overruled by others, and but forty thousand dollars were for this reason realized from the sale of six hundred and forty acres of land, the value of which to-day is more than fifty millions of dollars. In person, Dr. Harmon possessed a commanding fig- ure, and his features were such as proclaimed at a glance both his parentage and his profession. There were the strong outlines of the New England face, with the beard shaven in the manner adopted by the profession in France — a face whose like is often seen in the portraits of the heroes of the Revolution. There were, besides, the evidences of broad culture, high attainments and wide experience — the traits of one, whose mental horizon is not bounded by the definitions of other men. He was also a gentleman having a generous, whole-hearted dis- position. One of the streets of our city still bears his name. The profession have little need to be ashamed of their first civil representative in Chicago. In order to a correct understanding of this narrative, it is now necessary to retrace our steps to the old fort, which we left at the time of the exodus of Dr. Harmon and his family. In response to my inquiries (for the answers to which I am greatly indebted to Assistant Surgeon John S. Billings, U. S. A., now of the Surgeon General's Office,) it is made clear that there is no record of any medical officer stationed at the fort, prior to the time of Assis- tant Surgeon S. Gr. J. DeCamp, of New Jersey. Of Dr. Yan Voorhees and Dr. J. B. Finley, no information can be obtained at the War Department. Dr. DeCamp was appointed Assistant Surgeon, October 10, 1823; promoted Surgeon, December 1, 1833 ; retired in 1862, and died at Saratoga Springs, New York, September 8, 1871. As it is he who makes the official report of the cholera cases in the fort, during the prevalence of the epidemic,* * Statistical Report on the Sickness and Mortality in the Army of the United States, prepared under the direction of Thomas Lawson, M.D. 22 it seems probable that it was he who was present and responsible for the treatment and its results. According to this report, two hundred cases were admitted into hospital in the course of six or seven days, out of the entire force of one thousand, fifty-eight of which termi- nated fatally. All the cases were treated by calomel and blood-letting, and, according to Surgeon DeCamp, this proved so efficacious in his hands, that he regarded the disease as "robbed of its terrors" (!). He inclines to the opinion that the disease was contagious, in consequence of the fact that severa] citizens of " the village" died of cholera, although, prior to the arrival of the steamer, no case had occurred, either in the fort or the village. He notes the predisposition to the disease, evident in those of intemperate habits. The table which is appended in a note,* is compiled from reports of each quarter of the year, published in the volume referred to above. Although it is a return from a military garrison, it is interesting as it is probably the first contribution to vital statistics ever prepared in Chicago. The inhabitants of the little town did not soon forget Washington, 1840. This appears to he the first of the brilliant series of publications issued from the Surgeon General's office ; and I am indebted for this, also, to the kindness of Assistant Surgeon John S.Billings, U. S. Army. * Abstract exhibiting principal diseases at Fort Dearborn for ten years: Years 1829. 1830. 90 1831. 1833. 1834. 91 1835. 96 1836. Totals. Mean Strength 91 92 104 104 668 Diseases: Intermittent Fever.. 17 18 15 1 8 22 3 10 1 12 15 1 1 1 9 19 1 32 2 19 5 31 2 136 26 2 Diseases of Respiratory Organs.. 11 30 2 16 19 4 12 10 69 22 84 3 3 i 2 10 14 53 5 10 4 20 137 23 42 1 15 2 7 14 8 15 89 809 Diseases of Brain and Nervous System.. Rheumatic Affections 9 3 3 10 7 9 41 11 26 51 7 Wounds and Injuries Ebriety All other Diseases - 57 128 29 5 2 90 Totals 118 119 30 193 185 160 93S The post was unoccupied during the year 1832, and abandoned in 1840. 23 the ravages of the epidemic which had visited them. After a year had elapsed, the boatman who paddled up the river in his dug-out canoe, could perceive the ends of the bark coffins* projecting from the sand hills on the right bank, and even occasionally note their exposed contents. The next medical incumbent at the fort was Dr. Philip Maxwell, f who was born at Guilford, Windham county, Vt, on the 3d of April, 1799. He studied medicine with Dr. Knott of New York City, but took his degree in one of the Medical Universities of his native State.:}: He com- menced the practice of his profession in Sackett's Harbor, New York, but temporarily abandoned it when elected a member of the State Legislature. In the year 1832, he was appointed an Assistant Surgeon in the U. S. Army, and was first placed on duty in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was ordered to report at Fort Dearborn on the 3rd day of February, 1833, and arrived here on the 15th of the next month, remaining until official orders were received for the discontinuance of the post, on the 28th of December, 1836. During the time in which he was on duty in camp at Wisconsin, he was so impressed with the beauty of the country in the neighborhood of Geneva Lake, that he subsequently purchased the entire township, and it is now the seat of the elegant homestead of his family descendants. He was promoted to the Surgeoncy, July 7, 1838, and subsequently served with Gen. Zachary Taylor, at Baton Rouge, and on the St. John's river in Florida. Like Dr. Harmon, he also became a civil practitioner in Chicago after resigning his commission, and from 1845 to 1855, was in partnership * These are erroneously reported as " uncoffined," in The History of Illinois from 1673 to 1873, by Alexander Davisson and Bernard Stuv6, Springfield, 111. , 1874. It is probably true, however, that the sepulture was often as hasty and informal as there described f The information given above has been obtained through the kindness of his son-in-law, Mr. J. C Walter, of Chicago. X The names of these institutions, with the date of their foundation, will be found in a note upon page 14. 24 with Dr. Brockholst McVickar, who is still engaged in the practice of medicine in this city. Dr. Maxwell had such a physique as One can admire to-day in some of the older of our army officers. He was straight and portly in figure, six feet and two inches in height, two hundred and seventy-five pounds in weight. For all this, according to Mr. B. F. Taylor, who has drawn several pictures of early Chicago in his graphic and entertaining style. " his step was as light as that of a wisp of a girl." Judge Caton still remembers his appearance in the year 1836, when engaged in dancing at a ball dressed in full regimentals with epaulets. On this occasion his partner was one of the servant-maids of his host. Whether this occurred through inadver- tence or in consequence of the well-known scarcity of ladies in the early days on the frontier, may not perhaps be determined. Hoffman is also supposed to refer to Dr. Maxwell in his characteristic account of one of the first balls given in Chicago, when he describes "the golden aiguilette of a handsome surgeon, flapping in unison with the glass beads upon a scrawny neck of fifty."* Dr. Maxwell died on the 5 th of November, 1859, aged 60 years. His name will ever be honored in Chicago as the' second in its line of medical succession ; and his portrait may still be seen with those of the twelve gen- tlemen who are counted among its oldest residents. "f Lono- before Dr. Maxwell settled in private practice, the development of the town had induced other physi- cians to engage in professional business within its limits. This development, however, was at first feeble and pro- tracted. At the time of the sale of land by the commis- sioners in 1880, the town lots, eighty by one hundred * Winter in the West. Charles Fenno Hoffman. 1834. f This picture was taken by the photographer, A. Hesler, in 1856. It includes the faces of Wm. B. Ogden, the first mayor of Chicago, J. H. Kinzie, Mark Beaubien, Geo. W. Dole, Jacob Russell, B. W. Raymond, G. S. Hubbard, Jno. P. Chapin, Philip Maxwell, Wm. B. Egan, and others. 25 and sixty feet, sold for between forty and sixty dollars. In the year 1832. the assessment for taxes amounted to but $357.78 ; and the first public improvement was an estray pen, erected on the site of the present Court House at an expense of twelve dollars. Not many vessels had , entered the harbor, since the schooner Marengo, foremost of a mighty fleet, floated into the river from Detroit in 1831. * It was not indeed till the year 1834, that one could see any arrangement of houses in such an order as to form a street. And yet, at that date, there was a marked increase in the population, according to the figures given in a Gazetteer of the State, then published, f It was estimated that there were one thousand inhabitants of the town — an increase of nearly eight hundred since the preceding year. There were "three houses for public worship, an academy, an infant and other schools, twenty-five or thirty stores, some of them doing a large business, several taverns, and a printing office, "t Of the physicians who succeeded those heretofore noticed, space forbids much more than a passing mention. In an address delivered before the Rock River Medical Society, at the time of its organization, § Dr. Josiah C. Goodhue spoke as follows: "Dr. Harmon was tbe pioneer among the medical faculty of this corner of Illinois ; Dr. Kimberly was the second ; then came Dr. Jno. T. Temple ; Dr. Clark next ; Drs. Egan, Eldridge and myself soon followed, at about the same time. This brings us to the spring of 1834, when a perfect flood of emigration poured in, and with it a sprinkling of doctors. Prior to 1840, nine-tenths of all the physicians who had located themselves in this region, had done so with reference to pursuing agriculture, and with the avowed intention of abandoning medical practice ; most * See Reynolds' Sketches, op. cit. f A Gazetteer of Illinois ; J. M. Peck, Jacksonville, 1834. % The Chicago Democrat — established by Jobn Calhoun. § Illinois and Indiana Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, p. 260. 26 of whom, either from the necessities of the case, or from finding more truth than poetry in pounding out rails, resumed their profession and divided their attention between farming and medicine." In the last sentence, Dr. Goodhue of course refers chiefly to practitioners settling in that part of the country where the Rock • River Medical Society proposed to hold jurisdiction. Of the physicians named above, only one is now living, Dr. Eldridge, who resides at Naperville, 111. ; but all were more or less known to many of the citizens of Chicago who have survived them. Dr. Jno. T. Temple, who removed to the city in 1833, was a graduate of Middlebury College, Castleton, Vt., (Dec. 29, 1830), and seems for a time to have done duty as a volunteer sur- geon of the garrison. So far as is known, he should be credited with the performance of the first autopsy made in the city, as well as with the rendition of the first medico- legal testimony in court. An Irishman had been indicted for murder ; and Dr. Temple was summoned to make a post-mortem examination of the victim. The ease with which he separated by a few skillful touches of his knife, the bones concerned in the sterno- clavicular articulation, is still remembered by those who witnessed the unu- sual spectacle. The attorney for the defense, however, on this occasion, succeeded in proving that his client had been guilty of manslaughter, and in securing his acquittal on the ground that he was innocent of murder as charged in the indictment ! In comparing the two professions, as they here appear in their representatives, it may be fairly inferred that the anatomical knowledge of the expert was more than equal to the legal acumen of the judge ! Dr. Temple, soon after, secured a contract from the Postmaster General, Amos Kendall, for carrying the mail between Chicago and Ottawa. He obtained an elegant, thorough-brace post carriage from Detroit, which was shipped to this port via the lakes, and, on the 1st of January, 1834, drove the first mail coach with his own 27 hand from this city to the end of the route for which he had received a contract. On this first trip, lie was ac- companied by the Hon. Jno. D. Caton, to whom I am greatly indebted for many of these details. The demand for this accommodation could not then have been very great, as there was no mail matter for transportation in the bag carried on this first trip ! * Dr. William Bradshaw Egan was born "on the banks of the beautiful Lake of Killarney," September 28, 1808, and was the second cousin of Daniel 0' Connell, whose name has already appeared in these pages. His medical studies were begun with Dr. McGuire, a surgeon in the Lancashire collieries, but were also pursued in London and in the Dublin Lying-in-Hospital, f After his arrival in this country, he was licensed as a physician by the Medical Board of the State of New Jersey, in the spring of 1830, and began his professional career in Newark and New York, having been associated in the latter city, with Prof. McNeven and Dr. Busche. Here also he was married to Miss Emeline M. Babbatt, who accompanied him to Chicago in the fall of 1833. In the year 1846, he purchased for three dollars per acre, the beautiful prop- erty in the West Division of the city, comprising three and one-half acres, which is to-day the residence of his family ; and also laid out his farm — Egandale Park, on the Lake Shore, about six miles distant from the Court House. At one time he was also in possession of the land upon which the Tremont House now stands. During the sessions of 1853-1:, he was a member of the lower house of the State Legislature ; and also during his life- time served as recorder of the city and county. Dr. Egan was, as has been often remarked, a perfect specimen of the "fine old Irish gentleman." He had a noble presence and a commanding figure ; but that which especially attracted his associates, was his exuberant * Dr. Temple is said to be now living in St. Louis, and engaged in homoeopathic praciice. f Chicago Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3 ; May, 1857. 28 fancy, his sparkling wit and his keen perception and graphic delineation of the ludicrous. He not only established an excellent professional repu- ation in Chicago, but was much esteemed socially ; not more so, however, than his wife, whose graces of person and character were the admiration of the circle in which they both moved. Mr. Joseph Grant Wilson, in some sketches recently published in Appleton' s Journal, de- scribes the doctor, as he once appeared after the girth of his saddle had given way during a wolf hunt, and his full-blooded Kentucky racer had left him: "standing on the prairie, a large fur cap on his head, an enormous Scotch plaid cloak (purchased at the ' store ' of Mr. Gr. S. Hubbard) belted around his Brobdignagian waist, and shod with buffalo overshoes." It is of Dr. Egan that the story is told which has lately been revived and gone the rounds of the medical press. He had engaged extensively in the purchase and sale of real estate, the conditions of transfer at that day being generally de- pendent on what was known as "canal time." It is said that the doctor having been, on one occasion, asked by a lady who was his patient, how she should take the medicine ordered for her, the response was : "a quarter down and the balance in one, two and three years" ! At the time of the first breaking of ground for the con- struction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, on the 4th of July, 1836, Dr. Egan was selected to deliver the ora- tion ; and this is only one of several evidences of his great popularity. We find the beauty of his garden and his genial hospitality extolled in complimentary terms in a work which appeared a few days before the date of his death. * This event occurred in 1856. Dr. Josiah C. G-oodhue came to Chicago directly from Canada, but was the son of an American physician, the first president of the Berkshire County Medical College, * Summer "Rambles in the West. Mrs. Ellet. New York. 1853. 29 of Pittsfield, Mass.* He enjoyed a very large and lucrative practice while residing in this city, but subse- quently removed to Rockford, 111., where he died later in consequence of an accident. Drs. Stuart and Lord were among the physicians first succeeding those enu- merated above — the former having enjoyed the reputa- tion of being the Beau Brummel of the profession, and the latter having distinguished himself by securing a patent for a labor-saving pill machine. Dr. John H. Foster came to Chicago in 1835, and died here on the 18th day of May, 1874. It would be unjust in this connection to leave unmen- tioned the name of the first druggist in Chicago. Mr. Philo Carpenter was a native of Massachusetts, born on the 27th day of February, 1805. In the year 1827, he commenced the study of medicine which he prosecuted for two or three years under the direction of Dr. Amatus Robbins, of Troy, New York. He arrived in Chicago in the month of July, 1832, just at the time when the cholera- stricken troops under the command of Gen Scott, had been transported to the fort. Mr. Carpenter had abandoned his medical studies in order to pursue the more congenial business of an apothecary, but in the present emergency, he attended many cases of cholera, and rendered an assistance which was very highly appreciated. Soon after, he opened a drug and general store in a small log cabin near the eastern end of the present Lake Street bridge, from which, as his business increased, he removed into a more pretentious frame building. In the spring of 1833, Dr. Edmund Stoughton Kimberly, of Troy, N. Y., alluded to in Dr. Goodhue's address, in company with Mr. Peter Pruyne, opened a second druggists' establishment. Dr. Kimberly was registered in the year 1833, among those who voted for the incorporation of the town. He died at his late * Extracts from Journal of Rev. Jeremiah Porter ; recently published in the Chicago Times. 30 residence in Lake County, Illinois, Oct. 25, 1874, aged 72 years. Without pausing to comment further upon the history of the medical gentlemen who rapidly succeeded those already mentioned, I hasten to present a brief sketch of the remarkable man, who, perhaps to a greater extent than any of his professional peers in Chicago, achieved a national reputation. Through the kindness of the Hon. Edward Huntington, of Rome, N. Y., I have ob- tained access to some notes prepared on the subject by Calvert Comstock, Esq., from which the subjoined details have been in part supplied. Daniel Brainard was born on the fifteenth day of May, 1812, in the town of Western,* Oneida Co., K Y. His father, Jepthai Brainard, f was a farmer in comfort- able pecuniary circumstances and of excellent character, while his mother was a most exemplary woman, whose influence was deeply impressed upon her children, and doubtless did much in awakening the genius and inspiring the aims of the son in his early life. He was given a good common school and academic education, which laid the foundation for that exact and exhaustive method of investigation which characterized his subse- quent professional studies. Having chosen the profes- sion of medicine, he entered the office of Dr. Harold H. Pope, a distinguished physician and surgeon of Rome, N. Y., pursuing his studies also in Whitesboro, and New York City, and obtaining his degree of Jefferson College, Philadelphia, Pa., in the year 1834. * In some biographical notices, the place of his birth is erroneously- stated to be Whitesboro, in the same county. | In a Genealogy of the Brainard Family by the late Bev. David D. Field, 1857, it appears that the first individual who bore the name in America, was a Daniel Brainard, of Haddam, Ct. (1662). But, according to Mr. Hurlbut, in whose possession the volume is, in spite of the indus- trious labors of Mr. Field, the materials it contains are so wretchedly arranged, misplaced and mystified, that the work is of comparatively little value ; and it is almost impossible to trace with any clearness the line of ancestry, from the records there given. 31 During this preparatory career he delivered some lectures of a scientific character in Fairfield, N. Y., and in the course of the two years succeeding his admission to the profession, he delivered another series of lectures on anatomy and physiology in the Oneida Institute. He commenced the practice of medicine in Whitesboro, IN". Y., whither his family had removed from the farm in Western, on account of the educational advan- tages afforded in the former place. Here he remained for some two years in partnership with Dr. R. S. Sykes,* a gentleman who had directed his medical studies before his departure from the village. Henry H. Hurlbut, Esq., of Chicago, who has kindly furnished several facts of interest in this connection,- informs 'me that he was recently shown by a lady a small quarto volume which affords a glimpse of the literary annals of the little village. It is the record of proceedings of the "Mseonian Circle" — composed of young ladies and gentlemen — and contains the sig- nature of Dr. Brainard as an officer of the Club in the autumn of 1 834. Among the names of members appears that also of Miss F. M. Berry, the authoress of the " Widow Bedott Papers." Soon after this, Dr. Brainard determined to remove to the West. His advent and earliest history in Chicago, are best described in the language of the Hon. J. D. Caton, to whom I have already had occasion to express my obligations for valuable aid in the preparation of this sketch : " About the first of September, 1835, Dr. Brainard rode up to my office, wearing pretty seedy clothes and mounted on a little Indian pony. He reported that he was nearly out of funds, and asked my advice as to the propriety of commencing practice here. We had been professional students together in Rome, N". Y., when he was in the office of Dr. Pope there. I knew him to have been an ambitious and studious young man, * Dr. Sykes is said to be now living in Chicago, aged 80 years. 32 of great firmness and ability, and did not donbt that the three years since I had seen him, had been profitably spent in acquiring a knowledge of his profession. I advised him to go to the Indian camp where the Potta- wattomies were gathered, preparatory to starting for their new location west of the Mississippi river, sell his pony, take a desk or rather a little table in my office, and put his shingle by the side of the door, promising to aid him as best I could in building up a business. During the first year, the doctor s practice did not enter those circles of which he was most ambitious. Indeed it was mostly confined to the poorest of the population, and he anxiously looked for a door which should give him admission to a better class of patients. While he an- swered every call, whether there was a prospect of remu- neration or not, * he felt that he was qualified to attend those who were able to pay him liberally for his ser- vices. At length the door was opened. A schooner was wrecked south of the town, on which were a man and his wife, who escaped with barely their clothes on their backs. They were rather simple people, and be- longed to the lowest walks of life. They started for the country on foot, begging their way, and, when distant some twelve miles, encountered a party of men with a drove of horses, one of whom pretended he was a sheriff, and arrested them for improper purposes. When they were set at liberty, they returned to the town, and came to me for legal advice, the woman being about five months advanced in pregnancy. I commenced a suit for the redress of their grievances, and the doctor took an active interest in their welfare. He procured for them a small house on the North Side, and made personal appeals to all the ladies in the neighborhood, for provision for their needs. Mrs. John H. Kinzie become particu- larly interested in their case, and paid frequent visits to the cabin with other ladies. The nervous system of the * Dr. J. W. Freer informs me that this was true of Dr. Brainard in the height of his prosperity. 33 woman had been greatly shattered, and a miscarriage was constantly apprehended. The doctor was unremitting in his attentions, and finally carried her through her confinement with marked success, exhibiting to the- ladies who had taken so much interest in the patient, a fine living child. This was the long desired opportu- nity, and it did not fail to produce its results. Dr. Brainard immediately became famous. His disinterested sympathy, his goodness of heart, his skillful treatment and his marked success, were now the subject of comment in all circles. At 6 my request, Dr. G-oodhue also visited the woman — as I desired to secure his addi- tional testimony in the case — and he too became very favorably impressed with the talents and acquirements of the young practitioner, and extended to him a helping and efficient hand. "During the winter of 1837-38, Dr. Brainard first com- municated to me his project looking to the foundation of Rush College. "In 1838, a laborer on the canal near Lockport, frac- tured his thigh, and before union had been completely- effected, he came to Chicago on foot, where he found himself unable to walk further and quite destitute. He was taken to the poor-house where he rapidly grew worse, the limb becoming excessively cedematous. A council of physicians was summoned, consisting of Drs. Brainard, Maxwell, Groodhue, Egan, and perhaps one or two others. All were agreed as to the necessity of ampu- tation, but, while Brainard insisted that the operation should be performed at the hip joint, the others urged that removal below the trochanters would answer equally well. The patient was about twenty-three years of age, had an excellent physique, and was, so far as known, of good habits. The operation was assigned to Brainard, and Goodhue was entrusted with the control of the fem- oral artery, as it emerges from the pelvis. This he was to accomplish with his thumbs ; and he had as good thumbs as any man I ever knew. The moment the 34 amputation was effected, Brainard passed one finger into the medullary cavity, and brought out upon it a portion of the medulla which, in the process of disorganization, had become black. As he exhibited it he looked at Goodhue, who simply nodded his head. Not a word was spoken by any one 'but the patient, and what he said no one knew. Brainard instantly took up the knife and again amputated, this time at the joint, after which the wound was dressed. The double operation occupied but a very short time. " In about one month the wound had very nearly healed, only a granulating surface of about three-fourths of an inch in length at the upper corner discharged a healthy pus. I was present the last time the wound was dressed, and expected to see the patient speedily discharged as cured. But that night secondary haemorrhage occurred, a large portion of the wound was opened afresh, and the patient died almost immediately. At the post mortem section, an enormous mass of osseous tubercles was removed from the lungs, liver and heart, and a large, bony neoplasm was found attached to the pelvic bones, and surrounding the femoral artery, so that the mouth of the latter remained patulous. A similar deposit, three inches in diameter, had been found about the fractured femur, and when this was sawn through, the line of demarcation between the neoplasm and the true bone was dis- tinctly discernible. " The operation was regarded as a success, and it com- pletely established Dr. Brainard' s reputation as a surgeon." There can be but little doubt that a number of ampu- tations at the hip joint must have been performed in this country before the date of the operation thus graphically described by Judge Caton, but it is certain that we have records of only two or three of these at the most. In a recent letter, President J. W. Freer, of Rush College, informs me that the case referred to, was one of enchon- droma of the femur, and that the specimen it furnished, 35 -adorned the museum of the College until the destruction of the latter by fire. Some time after Dr. Brainard's arrival in Chicago, he filled the editorial chair of the Chicago Democrat, to which the Hon. John Wentworth succeeded. In the year 1839, Dr. Brainard visited Paris, where he remained for about two years engaged in perfecting him- self in the details of professional service, availing himself of the advantages offered in the medical institutions of that city, and laboring with great assiduity. On his return, he delivered a course of medical lectures in St. Louis, and soon after perfected his plans for the estab- lishment and permanent foundation of Rush Medical College. The success which attended the efforts of him- self and his associates, not only in this direction but in the publication of the periodical, of which the present Medical Journal and Examinee is the direct and legit- imate descendant, is too well known to the profession at large to require comment. Dr. Brainard revisited Paris in 1852, when he was accompanied by his wife. It was at this time that he obtained permission to prosecute his researches on the subject of poisoned wounds by the aid of experiments upon the reptiles in the Jardin des Plantes. He was then made an honorary member of the Societe de Chirurgie of Paris, and of the Medical Society of the Canton of Geneva. In the year 1854, he gained the prize offered by the St. Louis Medical Society for the presen- tation of his paper on the Treatment of Ununited Frac- tures — the method he then proposed having since received the endorsement of the entire profession. A short time before his death he spent a day in Rome, N". Y., with his life-long friend, Mr. Comstock, pleas- antly recounting the incidents of his foreign travel, expressing the greatest interest in the prosecution of his work connected with his lectures in the College, and anticipating a return to Europe for a third visit with a view to a still more extended course of investigations. 36 At the same time he seemed to be impressed with a feel- ing that he had not much longer to live. In a few weeks- from this date, his friend *in Rome received the tele- graphic announcement of his death. He died of cholera,, in the old Sherman Honse of Chicago, on the 10th day of October, 1866, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. Dr. Brainard was a master of many of the collateral branches of medical science. He was a botanist and geologist. He excelled also in literature, and his contri- butions to medical periodicals are many of them master- pieces of terse, vigorous and lucid expression. A gen- eration of men who never looked in his face are yet familiar with his features. He was tall and vigorous in frame, with a large, finely-shaped head, and keen, pene- trating eyes. He seemed indeed to possess the three qualities which were considered in the 16th century to be the prerequisites of a good surgeon, viz.: "the eye of a hawk, the hand of a woman, and the heart of a lion." Dr. Brainard' s name is graven ineff'aceably upon the annals of American Surgery. His successors may well emulate his indomitable perseverance in the face of apparently overwhelming obstacles, his unflagging in- dustry, and the acquisition of the science and skill which perforce spring from these high qualities. In the Lakeside Annual Directory for 1875-6, is repro- duced mfac simile the first Directory ever issued in Chicago, dated 1839 — the original having been obtained through the courtesy of Henry H. Hurlbut, Esq. By referring to this, it will be seen that Dr. Brainard 1 s name occurs with those of Drs. S. B. Gray and Betts, as constituting a Board of Health. This Board, it is un- necessary to say, was not organized under any such law as that which provfdes for the Board of Health as now constituted. Dr. Charles V. Dyer is there registered as City Physician — he had removed to the city three years before, in 1835. Besides these, the Directory contains the names of Dr. Jno. Brinkerhoff, Dr. Clarke, Dr. Levi D. Boone, Dr. Eldridge, Dr. Edmund S. Kimberly, Dr. 37 Merrick, Dr. Post, and Dr. J. Jay Stuart. Drs. Brinker- hoff, Betts, Post and Stuart, are known to be now dead, besides those whose decease has been heretofore noted in these pages. Dr. Boone, whose name appears in the list, deserves more than a passing mention. He is the grand nephew of the great Kentucky pioneer, Daniel Boone, and was born on the 8th of December, 1808. He studied medicine in the Transylvania University, came to Illinois in 1829, and, having volunteered as a private in the Black Hawk war, was finally promoted to the Surgeoncy of the 2nd Regiment, 3rd Brigade, Col. Jacob Frye. Dr. Boone came to Chicago in 1836, and still resides here, though he is now gradually withdrawing from the business incidental to the management of his estate.* The charter for the incorporation of Rush College was obtained from the Legislature in 1837, and was the first instrument issued for a similar purpose to any educa- tional institution in the State of Illinois. The first building occupied by the Faculty was erected in the year 1844, after the designs of Mr. Van Osdel. A pass- ably well- executed cut of this structure was given in the City Directory of the ensuing year.f The names of Professors are thus given : Daniel Brainard, M.D., Pro- fessor of Surgery ; Austin Flint, M.D., Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Medicine ; G. N. Fitch, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children ; J. V. Z. Blaney, M.D., Professor of Chemistry * The Directory from which these names have been transcribed was, as might be expected, a very incomplete affair. Mr. Fergus, an early resident of Chicago, has, with considerable labor, compiled a tolerably complete list of the business men of the town in 1839, in which are to be found the following additional names, designated as "doctors" : Zimon P. Haven, Richard Murphy, William Russell, D. S. Smith, John Mark Smith, Simeon Willard. f Business Advertiser and General Directory of the City of Chicago, 1845-6. J. W. Norris. This volume is in the valuable collecfton of Mr Cooke, of Messrs. Keen, Cooke & Co., publishers of the Chicago Medical . Journal and Examiner, and I am under obligations to him for the .lac simile shown on next page, of the cut of the old Rush College. 38 and Pharmacy; Jno. McLean, M.D., Professor of Ma- teria Meclica and Therapeutics ; and W. B. Herrick y M.D., Professor of Anatomy. Dr. Herrick became sub- sequently the first President of the Illinois State Medical Societv. The Fikst Bush Medical College. (1844). Under the heading of "Physicians and Surgeons" are enrolled twenty-eight names. In addition to three of the professors named above, who were residents of the city, are to be found the names of William Allen, H. H. Beardsly, L. D. Boone. Jno. Brinkerhoff, S. S. Cornell, A. W. Davisson, C. H. Duck, C. V. Dyer, J. W. Eldridge, M. L. Knapp, Philip Maxwell, Aaron Pitney, D. S. Smith, and J. J. Stuart. The name of. C. H. Duck is accompanied by letters, which purport that the gentleman was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London; and a card, dis- played in larger type beneath, advertises his gratuitous treatment of the indigent sick and lame, on Mondays.. Wednesdays and Saturdays. This Duck appears to ex- 39 press himself in the inarticulateness of a quack. What a commentary is here on the public proclamation of pro- fessional merit, and that willingness to aid the needy, which should be the signet and seal of every true char- acter, whether of the physician or the layman ! The New Edipice of Rush Medical College now in Process or Erection. name of the man who appended the imposing letters to his title, has sunk into an obscurity which is interesting only to the antiquarian, while the modest and unpreten- tious youth, who entered Chicago riding on an Indian pony, has added to his name a lustre which no title could intensify. The name of D. S. Smith is also accompanied by a card which indicates his faith in the doctrines of homoeopathy. The first number of the Illinois Medical and Surgical 40 -Journal was issued in April, 1844, under the editorial management of James V. Z. Blaney, A.M., M.D. Its reading matter is contained in one form of sixteen pages, just one-sixth the size of the Medical Jouenal a:nt> Examiner, as now published. The very modest intro- ductory sets forth a fair ground for its raison d'etre. "We have around us three large States : Indiana, Mich- igan and Illinois — and two extensive territories : Wiscon- sin and Iowa — filled with medical men of the highest intelligence and most praiseworthy enterprise, and not a single medical journal has been previously issued in all this vast Northwestern region. ' ' The number contains an original contribution from Dr. Brainard, on the treatment of false anchylosis by extension, illustrated by a very ■creditable wood cut ; a brief summary of progress in practical medicine, which contains extracts from the 2d "Vol. of Pereira's Materia Medica and Therapeutics, the 8th No. of Braithwaite's Retrospect, and the American Journal for January, 1844 ; and Bibliographical Notices of a Dissector by Erasmus Wilson, and An Anatomical Atlas, by H. H. Smith, M.D. ; to both of these reviews Dr. Brainard' s initials are appended. There are but two items of general intelligence, both clipped from the Med- ical News.* The first meeting with a view to the establishment of the Chicago Medical College, was held in the office of Drs. David Rutter and Ralph N. Isham, on the 12th day of March, 1859. f Drs. Hosmer A. Johnson and Ed- mund Andrews were then present, together with the gentlemen first named. After a temporary organization had been effected, it was determined to organize a Med- * This volume is in the possession of Dr. J. Adams Allen, who has been so long identified with the fortunes of this Journal. For a history of the thorny reverses out of which has been plucked its flower of success, con- sult Dr. Allen's interesting sketch in the January No. for 1874. f History of the Chicago Medical College — An Introductory Lecture to the College Session of 1870-71. H. A. Johnson, A.M., M.D., Chicago, 1870. 41 ical Faculty, on the basis of a proposition made by the trustees of the Lind University, and an agreement ■ to "that effect was signed, both by the Executive Committee of the University and by the physicians who were there assembled. The first faculty of the new medical school was consti- tuted as follows : David Rutter, M.D., Emeritus Profes- sor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children ; H. A. Johnson, M.D., Professor of Physiology and Histology; E. Andrews, M.D., Professor of the Princi- ples and Practice of Surgery; R. N. Isham, M.D., Professor of Surgical Anatomy and the Operations of Surgery ; N. S. Davis, M.D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine ; W. H. Byford, M.D., Pro- fessor of Midwifery and Diseases of Women and Child- ren ; J. H. Hollister, M.D., Professor of Physiology and Histology ; Dr. Mahla, Professor of Chemistry ; M. K. Taylor, M.D., Professor of General Pathology and Pub- lic Hygiene ; Titus DeVille, M.D., Professor of Descrip- tive Anatomy ; and H. Gh Spafford, Esq. , Professor of Medical Jurisprudence. The first course of lectures was given in Lind' s Block, on Market, between Randolph and Lake streets, the class consisting of but thirty-three members, of whom nine received, at the commencement exercises, the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In the summer of 1863, arrange- ments were perfected for the erection of the building on the corner of State and Twenty-second streets, which was occupied by the Chicago Medical College up to the time of its removal, in 1870, to the present elegant and commodious structure on the corner of Prairie avenue and Twenty- sixth street, in close proximity to Mercy Hospital. During the previous year, this institution had Ibecome the Medical Department of the Northwestern University. On the 25th day of April, 1868, the Faculty arranged the curriculum of the College, so that three consecutive courses of lectures should be given, with a separate 42 group of studies for each of the three years of pupilage. The honor which is due the Chicago Medical College for the inauguration of this scheme has been persistently ignored by some of the Medical Schools in the East. It is cer- tainly gratifying to note that this step in the direction of that reform in medical education which is now felt to be imperatively demanded, was first taken in Chicago. It is- now a matter of record, and the impartial historian who- shall write the history of medicine in the United States, cannot fail to do justice, in this particular, to the young- claimant of the West. The Chicago Medical College Building. The medical board of Mercy Hospital is constituted by the faculty of the adjacent college. The first named institution originated in consequence of a charter obtained from the State legislature, by Dr. John Evans and others, for the establishment of the "Illinois General Hospital of the Lakes." This instrument named Dr. Evans and Judges Dickey and Skinner as Trustees. Nothing, how- ever, had been accomplished toward raising funds or establishing the hospital until the summer of 1850, when Prof. N. S. Davis gave a course of six lectures on the sanitary condition of the city, and the means for its im- provement ; notice having been previously given that the- 43 proceeds would be devoted to hospital purposes. One? hundred dollars were thus realized ; and this sum was subsequently increased by the donations of a few private individuals. Twelve beds were at once purchased and placed in the old Lake House Hotel. The hospital was then opened for the accommodation of patients, nominally under the supervision of the trus- tees named above, Prof. Davis having charge of the medical, and Prof. Brainard, of the surgical patients. The beds were well filled and supplied the means for daily clinical instruction during the fall and winter of 1850-1. It was placed in charge of the Sisters of Mercy in the spring of 1851, who enlarged its accommodations, and subsequently changed its name to Mercy Hospital. The elegant edifice which they now possess, is capable of accommodating five hundred patients ; and it may be added that from the date of the leasing of the old apart- ments containing twelve beds, to the present — a term of twenty-five years — Prof. N. S. Davis has continuously done service in its wards, as a physician and clinical teacher. The purpose of this sketch, though but imperfectly fulfilled, has been accomplished, so far as to call attention to the character and circumstances of the early medical practitioners of Chicago. Many of those who im- mediately succeeded them are still living in our midst, and retain a recollection of events that have transpired in their time, which it would be vain to attempt to record in these pages. I conclude with a brief outline of events connected with the organization of the County Hospital, located in this city, not only because it is at present the largest of our public charities, but also because the recent erection of a new building for its accommodation^ seems to mark an era in its history. During the cholera epidemic of 1854-5, the city author- ities established a cholera hospital on the corner of 18th and Arnold streets — the precise location of the building now occupied as a county hospital. The frame build- 44 nigs then erected were cheaply built, and intended simply to meet immediate necessities. Dr. Brock. McVickar, who was then the City Physician, began at once to urge the Board of Health to erect a permanent oity hospital. His importunity caused a movement to take form, which resulted in the erection of the city hospital building, which is at present used for a county nospital. When completed, in the summer of 1856, the medical staff, as organized by the Board of Health, was consti- tuted of two bodies — the so-called Allopathic and Homoe- opathic Boards — the former consisting of Drs. Geo. K. Amerman, De Laskie Miller, Jos. P. Ross, Geo. Schloet- -zer, Ralph ~N. Isham, and Wm. Wagner. The members of the regular profession held an indignation meeting soon after, in consequence of the mongrel character of this organization ; and the newly appointed medical staff also held several meetings. Hon. Jno. Wentworth, then Mayor of Chicago, and ex-officio member of the Board -of Health, also endeavored to organize a board of reputa- ble practitioners, but failed in the effort. It then became evident that, the cholera epidemic hav- ing subsided, and the city being charged merely with the care of those affected with contagious and infectious diseases, there were no patients for whom the city was obliged to provide ! The care of the sick poor, both of the city and county, devolved upon the latter. Thus the building remained unoccupied for a year or two. In 1858, Drs. Geo. K. Amerman and J. P. Ross asso- ciated themselves with four other medical gentlemen, and leased the building from the city authorities, for the pur- pose of conducting therein a public hospital for the sick. They also secured a contract for the care of the sick poor ■of the county. The medical board was composed of the gentlemen already named in the first board, with the addition of Drs. Daniel Brainard and S. C. Blake, and the exception of Drs. Isham and Wagner. Clinical Instruction was at once given by these gentlemen for eight 45 months in the year, chiefly to the students of Rush Col- lege, and continued till the summer of 1863. At that date the hospital was taken by the Government authorities: — Chicago having been made a military post during the War of the Rebellion, and Drs. Ross and Am- erman were placed in charge of the hospital on contract service, under the control of the surgeon of the post, Dr. Brock. McVickar. In the course of a few months, the institution was changed into a Government Hospital for the Eye and Ear, and placed in charge of Dr. Jos. Hil- dreth, in whose care it remained till the close of the war- It was then named the DeMarr Eye and Ear Hospital. Drs. Ross and Amerman at once actively interested themselves in the re-establishment of the hospital. On looking over the field, they became convinced not only that the county authorities would look with favor upon the organization of a county hospital, but also that, in order to compass the end, it would be necessary for one of- them to become a politician. Dr. Amerman accord- ingly secured his election as a Supervisor, and, in 1866, the first year of his service as such, he inaugurated and organized the Cook County Hospital, for the care of the indigent poor, and for the clinical instruction of medical students. During this same year, Dr. Amerman was obliged to relinquish his official position, on account of ill health, and Dr. J. P. Ross was at once elected to fill the vacancy, as Supervisor and Chairman of the Hospital Committee. The duties incident to this position he con- tinued to discharge for the two succeeding years. All this was undertaken for the sole purpose of perma- nently establishing and perpetuating the institution. It is therefore evident that to Dr. J. P. Ross and his old friend and colleague, Dr. G. K. Amerman, is solely due the honor of conducting to a successful issue, the plans for the development of this great municipal charity. The names of other public institutions and charities of Chicago, in which the profession of the city is inter- 46 ested, together with the date of the establishment of each, are appended in a note.* The medical profession of Chicago enters upon this centennial year of national existence, with the names of three hundred and sixty-six physicians and surgeons enrolled upon its register. Man}^ of these are both hon- orable and honored. Of the record made in the past they need not be ashamed; in much that has been ac- complished they feel a just pride. At the same time the experiences of the last forty years have taught them the sources of their weakness and therefore of their danger. If they have learned anything it is this, that to be conscious of deficiency and danger is to acquire the alphabet of knowledge — that to render any body of men a living power in a community, it is needful that each individual member of it should exert a wise, wholesome and weighty influence in the circle where he moves. They look, therefore, rather to their inherent capabilities than to any legislative or other source, for growth in reputation and authority. Already a tendency has been developed, for the crystallization of this power and authority, about certain defined centres. That this process is destined to continue until its stand- ards are elevated, its code admired and respected, and its * Chicago Medical Society, 1836 ; Chicago Protestant Orphan Asylum, 1849 ; Mercy Hospital, 1850 ; Illinois State Medical Society, 1850 ; Saint Joseph's Orphan Asylum, 1819 ; Chicago Academy of Sciences, 1857 ; House of the Good Shepherd, 1859 ; Home for the Friendless, 1859 ; Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, 1858 ; Chicago College of Pharmacy, 1859 ; Chicago Eelief and Aid Society, 1857 ; Nursery and Half Orphan Asylum, 1860 ; St. George's Benevolent Society, 1860 ; St. Luke's Hospital, 1863 ; Old People's Home, 1865 ; Erring Woman's Refuge, 1865 ; Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, 1865 ; Alexian Brothers' Hospital, 1860 ; Central Dispensary, 1867 ; St. Joseph's Hospital, 1S69 ; Washingtonian Home, 1867 ; Uhlich Evangelical Lutheran Association, 1869 ; State Microscopical Society, 1869 ; Woman's Hospital Medical College, 1870 ; Woman's Hospital State of Illinois, 1871; Cook County Department of Public Charities, 1872; Foundlings' Home, 1871; Chicago Society of Physicians and Surgeons, 1S72 ; Chicago Medico-Historical Society, 1874 ; Chicago Medical Press Association, 1874 ; Orphan Girls' Home, 1874. 47 accidental excrescences removed, no one can doubt. Then and only then will it become as fair and as forcible in the view of the public, as in the vision of its most ardent representatives. he Chicago Medical Journal i AND EX AM I N ER.. Editor: WILLIAM H. BYFORD, A.M., M.D. AssociATi: Editors: JAMES H. ETHERIDGE, M.D. ; NORMAN BRIDGE, M.D. . J AS. N EVENS HYDE, A.M.. M.D. ; FERD. C. HO.TZ, M.D. Published under the auspices < f the. Chicago Medical Press Association. Issued Twelve 'limes a Year. TEHMS — Four Dollars per amiinn in advance — Postage Free. The Chicago Medical Journal and Examiner is an entirely new Journal, the union of two journals, posse.^sfrig in a high degree respectability and influence, which have been published in Chicago for a number of years, .viz. : '' The Chicago . Medical Journal ".and " The Chicago Medical Examiner." About a year since a few medical gentlemen conceived the. idea of starting another Journal, which should.have no bias toward -any institution" or party ; one in which all members of. the profession could unite their energies for the advance- ment of medicalscienee. With this view the enterprise which finally led. to the -union of the two existing Journals was inaugurated, together with the. organization of ajoint'stock company, to be entitled " The Chicago Medical Press Association," for the purpose of pub- lishing a Medical Journal, and the establishment of a Medical Library and Read- ing Rooms for the. benefit of the members of the Association. The organization being completed, the Journals were united under the name of tie Chicago Medical Journal and Examiner, and. the Mtdical Press Association is responsible for its editorial management. The Excernt Department of " The Medical Journal and Examiner "will be an exceedingly -interesting and profitable one. Reports from the various Hospitals and Societies of Chicago will appear upon our pages in such a way as to make them a mirror of the practice of our industri- ous and accomplished corps of teachers and investigators. Correspondence from many of the great cities of this country and Europe will be an important feature. The Departments of Original Communications, Reports of Societies, Summary of Progress, Translations, Clinical Reports of Hospitals and Private Practice, will be leading features of the Medical Journal and Examiner. It will be observed that The Chicago Medical Journal and Examiner is enlarged by the addition of another form Of sixteen pages, summing up, in all, ninety-six page's ; making, Git the end of the year, a volume of eleven hundred and fifty-two pages. Its capacity will be still further increased by reducing the type of thirty- two pages to brevier. These two changes will be equivalent to the addition of about twenty pages such as we have; had. While the publishers have thus liberally ventured upon the internal improvement of the Journal and Examiner, they intend to spare no pains -or expense in the mechanical execution of the work connected with its publication, to make it attractive in appearance. There are many Medical Journals published in the United States, all of which would be valuable to any physician. Take them all if you are able to do so, but if you can afford only one, by all means secure The Chicago Medical Journal and Examiner. W. B. KEEN, COOKE & CO., Publishers, 113 and 115 Stale Street, Chicago. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIE! This book is due on the date indicated below, or at the expiration of a definite period after the date of borrowing, as provided by the rules of the Library or by special ar- rangement with the Librarian in charge. DATE BORROWED DATE DUE DATE BORROWED DATE DUE I C26I1 140IH 100