



Produced by Irma pehar, Larry B. Harrison and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images from The Internet Archive:
American Libraries)









  FILSON CLUB PUBLICATIONS No. 20

  THE HISTORY
  OF
  The Medical Department
  OF
  Transylvania University

  BY
  DOCTOR ROBERT PETER

  Prepared for Publication by his Daughter, MISS JOHANNA PETER
  Member of The Filson Club

  Illustrated

  [Illustration: Publisher's Symbol.]

  LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
  JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY
  PRINTERS TO THE FILSON CLUB
  1905




  COPYRIGHTED BY
  THE FILSON CLUB
  and All Rights Reserved
  1905

[Illustration: DOCTOR ROBERT PETER.]




PREFACE


In preparing for publication the following sketch of the famous
Transylvania Medical Department and its professors, I have placed in
foot-notes, as far as practicable, my own additions to the text, so as
to avoid making any radical change in my father's manuscript.

Portions of the history may seem fragmentary; some of the lives of the
professors may be incomplete; some, no doubt, are insufficiently
noticed, but this is easily understood when it is considered that my
father wrote this narrative at irregular intervals of leisure in the
years from 1873 to 1878, when some of the professors were still living;
and that the writing was left by him in a yet uncompleted state and
lacking those finishing touches which no other hand could so well give.
In what I have done I have striven for accuracy. My father's
reminiscences will have due weight as coming from one most intimately
associated with Transylvania and her medical teachers--from the one
colleague of all the brilliant company who could best transcribe them.
The notice of Doctor Eberle I have copied from the _Transylvania Journal
of Medicine_ of 1838, as the nearest I could get to the estimation in
which he was held in the Transylvania School. The sketch of Doctor Bruce
is gathered mainly from obituaries by his colleagues. That of Doctor
Chipley--oftenest described, by those who knew him, as nature's
nobleman--was written by his daughter, Mrs. Boykin Jones, in answer to
my letter to her. I have added a few words about Doctor Marshall, and
Doctor Skillman, "the beloved physician," the last survivor of the
Transylvania Medical Faculty. And I have given as best I could a
description of the last declining years of Transylvania, with some
account of the Medical Hall and its ultimate fate. Any biography of
Doctor Peter, I fear, must be unsatisfactory unless written at length.
The brief summary of his life introductory to _The History of
Transylvania University_, published by The Filson Club in 1896, was
called "insufficient," "far too modest," etc. Such the story of a life
so long, so full, and so many-sided must ever be unless a volume be
devoted to it. In what I now say of my father I feel, even more than I
did then, that I can not do justice. It is a mere itinerary of a
life-journey. The same thing is true in varying degree of all the
Transylvania professors, and I repeat here what I said of the former
_History of Transylvania_--that all errors or faults must be ascribed to
my own insufficiency to cope with the subject.

Nevertheless, with all its shortcomings, this is a record not unworthy
of preservation, and while biographers point us to the fact that in
the United States Senate there sat at one and the same time no fewer
than _eight_ graduates of Transylvania University, including Jefferson
Davis, afterward President of the Southern Confederacy, the student of
these pages will remark that Transylvania's Medical Department had
already won as abundant laurels in the field of science.

My grateful acknowledgments are due, first and for many kindnesses, to
our invaluable President, Colonel Reuben T. Durrett, through whose
unfailing interest, literary judgment, and tactful encouragement so
many gems of Kentucky history have been preserved which otherwise had
perished, and to the many friends of old Transylvania who have bid me
Godspeed in my undertaking. I am indebted to Mrs. Thomas H. Clay for
letters and documents bearing upon my subject; to Miss Mary Mason
Brown for a copy of Jouett's admirable portrait of Doctor Brown which
hangs in the old Brown homestead at Frankfort; to Mrs. Lawrence Dade
Fitzhugh for data and the permission to use the beautiful portrait by
Jouett of her ancestor, Doctor Richardson; to Mrs. Sallie Overton
Bullock for the picture of Doctor Overton; to Mrs. Anderson Berry for
the picture of Doctor Cooke; to Mr. William Short, of Louisville, for
valuable suggestions and the fine likeness of Doctor Short; and to
Doctor A. M. Peter for some of the illustrations. The several
descendants of Doctor Ridgely to whom I applied have, without
exception, aided me most courteously and patiently in my search for a
picture of Doctor Ridgely: a search which I abandoned with the utmost
reluctance and with the feeling that his portrait, could I have found
it, must have adorned this history as his life had adorned the times
to which it belonged, and therefore be sadly missed from its place
with Doctor Brown. To Doctor John W. Whitney, who was prosector of
Surgery and Anatomy in the Transylvania Medical School in 1854-55, and
is now the sole surviving representative of that school, I am indebted
for a number of facts and suggestions.

                                              JOHANNA PETER.




INTRODUCTION


The late Doctor Robert Peter, one of the most distinguished analytical
chemists of his times, was a member of the Medical Faculty of
Transylvania University from 1833 to the time of the dissolution of
that institution, and afterward occupied chairs in the different
colleges into which Transylvania was merged. He was one of the most
active of the professors, and did as much as any one else to raise the
university to the lofty heights it attained as a school of literature,
law, and medicine. It occurred to him after the merger of the
Transylvania into the Kentucky University that an institution which
had led the way and done so much for literature, law, and medicine
should not be permitted to vanish and leave nothing but a name and
memory behind. He, therefore, went to work, after the weight of years
was gathering fast upon him, to write the history of Transylvania
University, and got his work almost finished in 1894, when death,
which alone could have arrested him in his undertaking, relieved him
of the task at the age of eighty-nine. His daughter, Miss Johanna
Peter, with filial affection worthy of so excellent a father, and
public spirit equal to the occasion, rightly estimating so good a work
if it should be published and put into the hands of the public,
undertook to prepare his manuscripts for publication. One of these
manuscripts prepared by her embraced the literary department of
Transylvania, and was published by The Filson Club in 1896 as its
eleventh publication. When this publication was made, it was
intimated, if not promised, that it would be followed in the near
future by one of the medical department. Miss Peter, therefore,
prepared this second manuscript of her father for publication, and The
Filson Club now presents it in the pages which follow as the twentieth
number in its regular annual series.

The medical department of the Transylvania University no longer
exists. Indeed, nothing of the Transylvania University exists except
its name. Its learned professors have gone the way of all flesh. The
last one of them recently went down to his grave. Its buildings have
been swept away by fire or have passed to other institutions with its
library and apparatus. Yet all of this renowned University has not
passed away. Its fame yet lives, and will not perish while the memory
of the living holds sacred the good deeds of predecessors. The
distinguished professors made Transylvania University famous, and
made history at the same time, and they themselves are now entitled to
a place in history. It is the purpose of The Filson Club, by this
publication, to assist in securing for them the place they deserve in
the memory of mankind. Doctor Peter, the author, was the fittest of
men to sketch these professors and to present life pictures of them.
His work, however, if it had remained in manuscript, as he left it,
would have been seen but by few, and could have done but little good.
In this twentieth publication of The Filson Club, the manuscript will
make its way to many and present them with likenesses of those who
devoted their lives to instructing the young of our land in the art of
administering to the sick and afflicted. The author knew all of his
contemporary professors, and the likeness which he has given of some
of them will be the ones by which they will be known in after years.
Pen pictures are sometimes as efficient as likenesses in oil, and the
characteristic of Doctor Peter's pictures is fidelity so executed that
they seem to be the originals standing in life before us. In a work
like this the essence of its history is biographic, and Doctor Peter
has made his work to consist chiefly of biographical sketches of those
who made Transylvania University what it was. He gives the leading
facts in the life of each of the professors he sketches, and
enumerates the other colleges in which they occupied chairs, and
gives the titles of the works they published either in book form or
magazine articles. He omits nothing in the sketch that is necessary in
forming a just idea of the character portrayed.

In the long career of Transylvania University she did not fail to make
enemies, but she made more friends than enemies to remember her. A few
of the living students and the many descendants of the deceased
professors and graduates now scattered broadcast over the land will be
glad to read what is here said of old Transylvania, and the work will
thus be widely known and read. All who see it will be thankful to
Doctor Peter for his manuscript, and to Miss Johanna Peter for
preparing it for the press, and to The Filson Club for publishing it.

There is in our nature something like the love of the relic which
makes us revere the memory of Transylvania University. Early in the
year 1799 a medical department was attached to this University which
was the first medical college in the great Mississippi Valley and the
second in the whole United States. The medical department of the
University of Pennsylvania antedated it, but it antedated all others
afterward established in any part of our vast domain. We can not, like
our English cousins, go back along the pathway of centuries to the
colleges of Oxford and Cambridge and revere them for their age; we
have nothing in our new country that partakes of such age. We are a
young people in a young country, and our Transylvania Medical College
was old enough from our standpoint to be crowned with hoary years. We
revere it as the first medical college on this side of the
Alleghanies. We revere it for the efforts it made to prepare our young
physicians to cope with the diseases that afflicted our people. We
revere it for the good name it gave our State in the fame it acquired.
We revere it for the success of Professor Brown in introducing
vaccination in advance of its discoverer, for the brilliant and
numerous operations in lithotomy by Professor Dudley, and for the
noble efforts of others of its professors in prolonging human life and
mitigating its pains. What it did in the day of its glory is set forth
in the pages which follow, and he who reads them will hardly doubt
that the medical department of Transylvania University is worthy of
the record here made for it.

                                  R. T. DURRETT,

                                       _President of The Filson Club_.




ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                        PAGE

  Doctor Robert Peter                         _Frontispiece_

  Doctor Samuel Brown                                      8

  Doctor Benjamin W. Dudley                               16

  Doctor James Overton                                    28

  Doctor William H. Richardson                            32

  Daniel Drake, M. D.                                     40

  Charles Caldwell, M. D.                                 48

  Doctor John Esten Cooke                                 64

  Doctor Charles Wilkins Short                            80

  Doctor Lunsford P. Yandell, Senior                      84

  Doctor James M. Bush                                   116

  Doctor Ethelbert L. Dudley                             132

  Doctor Henry Martyn Skillman                           144

  Transylvania University--Medical Hall                  156

  Absolom Driver                                         162




MEDICAL DEPARTMENT

OF

TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY


The history of medicine and of the earliest medical men in Kentucky
clusters around the name of TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY.

The State of Virginia, in 1780--when "Kan-tuck-ee" or "Kentuckee," as
this country was then called, was only a little-explored portion of
that State--placed eight thousand acres of escheated lands within that
county into the hands of thirteen trustees "for the purposes of a
public school or _seminary of learning_," that they "might at a future
day be a valuable fund for the maintenance and education of youth; it
being the interest of this Commonwealth always to promote and
encourage every design which might tend to the improvement of the mind
and the diffusion of knowledge, even amongst the most remote citizens,
whose situation a barbarous neighborhood and a savage intercourse
might otherwise render unfriendly to science."

Three years thereafter (1783), when Kentucky had become a _district_
of Virginia, the General Assembly, by a new amendatory Act, re-endowed
this "public school" with twelve thousand acres more of escheated
lands and gave to it all the privileges, powers, and immunities of
"any college or university in the State," under the name of
"_Transylvania Seminary_."

In the wild and sparsely settled country this seminary began a feeble
existence under the special fostering care and patronage of the
Presbyterians, who were then a leading religious body, aided by
individual subscriptions and by additional State endowments.

The Reverend James Mitchel, a Presbyterian minister, was its first
"_Grammar Master_," in 1785. In 1789 it was placed under the charge of
Mr. Isaac Wilson and located in Lexington, with no more than thirteen
pupils all told. The Reverend James Moore, educated for the
Presbyterian ministry but subsequently an Episcopalian and first
Rector of Christ Church, Lexington, was appointed "Director," or the
first acting President of the Transylvania Seminary, in 1791.[1] He
taught in his own house for want of a proper seminary building, with
the aid of a small library and collection of philosophical apparatus.
This library and apparatus had been donated by the Reverend John
Todd, of Virginia, who, with other influential Presbyterians, had been
mainly instrumental in procuring the charters and endowments from the
General Assembly of Virginia.

The offer of a lot of ground in the town of Lexington[2] to the
trustees of _Transylvania Seminary_, by a company of gentlemen calling
themselves the "_Transylvania Land Company_," induced the trustees to
permanently locate the seminary in that place in 1793. On that lot the
first school and college buildings were placed, and on it was
afterward erected the more commodious _University_ edifice in which
taught the learned and celebrated President, Doctor Horace Holley.
This first _University_ building was destroyed by fire May 9, 1829. In
later years (1879) this old "College lot" was beautified and improved
by tree-planting and otherwise by liberal citizens of Lexington, moved
by the efforts of Mr. H. H. Gratz, and designated first "Centennial
Park,"[3] and afterward "Gratz Park," in honor of Benjamin Gratz,
being not now utilized for special educational purposes.

With limited success the first "_Director_ of Transylvania Seminary"
taught in Lexington until 1794, when he was superseded by the election
by the Board of Trustees of Mr. Harry Toulmin as first President of
the Seminary.

This gentleman, a learned Unitarian minister of the school of Doctor
Priestly, and a native of England, resigned the Presidency in 1796,
and was Secretary of State of Kentucky under Governor Garrard. (See
_Collins' History of Kentucky_, volume 2, page 184.)

Intense feeling at the election of Mr. Toulmin on the part of the
leading Presbyterians, who claimed the Seminary as their own peculiar
institution, caused them to obtain in 1796 a charter from the
Legislature of Kentucky--now a State--for a new institution of
learning which they could more exclusively control. This was the
"Kentucky Academy," of which the Reverend James Blythe, of their
communion, was made President.[4]

On the establishment of the _Kentucky Academy_ by the dissatisfied
Presbyterians in 1796, an active rivalry between that school and
Transylvania Seminary operated to the injury of both institutions as
well as to the cause of education in general. Therefore, after two
years of separate existence these two institutions, with the consent
of the trustees of both, were united in 1798 by Act of the General
Assembly of Kentucky into one, "for the promotion of public good and
learning," under the title of _Transylvania University_. The
consolidation was made under the original laws which governed the
Transylvania Seminary as enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia.


TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY.

Under the act of consolidation of December 22, 1798, this University
was organized by the appointment of Reverend James Moore, of the
Episcopal Church, as first acting President, with a corps of
professors. And now, _for the first time_ in the Mississippi Valley,
was the effort made to establish a _medical college_.

Early in 1799, at the first meeting of the trustees of the new
Transylvania University,[5] they instituted "The _Medical Department_"
or _College_ of Transylvania--which subsequently became so prosperous
and so celebrated--by the appointment of Doctor Samuel Brown as
Professor of Chemistry, Anatomy, and Surgery, and Doctor Frederick
Ridgely as Professor of Materia Medica, Midwifery, and Practice of
Physic. Doctor Brown qualified as Professor October 26, 1799, and
Doctor Ridgely the following November.

Doctor Brown was authorized by the Board to import books and other
means of instruction for the use of the medical professors to the
amount of five hundred dollars[6]--a considerable sum in those
days--and he and his colleague were made salaried officers of the
University.

A Law College was also organized at this time in the University by the
appointment of Colonel George Nicholas, soldier of the Revolution and
member of the Virginia Convention, as Professor of Law and Politics.


DOCTOR SAMUEL BROWN,

The first Medical Professor of Transylvania University and of the great
Western country, was born in Augusta, or Rockbridge County, Virginia,
January 30, 1769, and died near Huntsville, Alabama, at the residence of
Colonel Thomas G. Percy, January 12, 1830. He was the son of Reverend
John Brown, a Presbyterian minister of great learning and piety, and
Margaret Preston--a woman of remarkable energy of character and vigor of
mind--second daughter of John Preston and Elizabeth Patton.[7] He was
the third of four distinguished brothers--Honorable John Brown,
Honorable James Brown, Doctor Samuel Brown, and Doctor Preston Brown.

After graduating at Carlisle College, Pennsylvania, where he had been
sent by his elder brother, he studied medicine for two years in
Edinburgh, Scotland. Doctor Hosack, of New York, and Doctor E.
McDowell, of Danville, Kentucky, were of the same class. Returning to
the United States, he commenced practice in Bladensburg, but soon
removed to Lexington, Kentucky, where he was made Professor of
Chemistry, Anatomy, and Surgery in Transylvania University in 1799, as
above stated. In 1806, he removed to Fort Adams, Mississippi, where he
married Miss Percy, of Alabama.[8] Afterward returning to Lexington he
was re-appointed in 1819 to a chair in the Medical Department of
Transylvania, that of Theory and Practice. Here he was a distinguished
colleague of Professors B. W. Dudley, Charles Caldwell, Daniel Drake,
William Richardson, and James Blythe until 1825, when he finally left
Kentucky.

Doctor Brown was a man of fine personal appearance and manners; an
accomplished scholar, gifted with a natural eloquence and humor that
made him one of the most fascinating lecturers of his day. Learned in
many branches, he was an enthusiast in his own profession, scrupulous
in regard to etiquette and exceedingly benevolent and liberal of his
time and services to the poor. Although active in scientific pursuits
he left no extensive work, and but a few detached writings to
perpetuate his fame.

[Illustration: DOCTOR SAMUEL BROWN.

From Jouett's Portrait at Frankfort.]

His name appears among those of the contributors to the _American
Philosophical Transactions_, and to the medical and scientific
periodicals of the day, both in this country and in Europe. In those
_Transactions_ and in _Bruce's Journal of Mineralogy_, etc., he
described a remarkably large nitre cavern on Crooked Creek in Madison
County (now Rockcastle County), Kentucky. In this and in a subsequent
communication in Volume I of _Silliman's Journal_ he described the
process of nitre manufacture in caves, and gave the best theory of its
formation, according to the science of the day. In various other
journals he described several interesting cases which occurred in his
own practice, and in the renowned _Medical Logic_, by the
distinguished Gilbert Blane, of London, Doctor Samuel Brown, of
Lexington, is quoted as authority for a certain scientific fact.
"To him we are indebted for the first introduction in the West of the
prophylactic use of the cow-pox. As early as 1802 he had vaccinated
upwards of five hundred persons, when in New York and Philadelphia
physicians were only just making their first experimental attempts.
The virus he used was taken from its original source, the teats of the
cow, and used in Lexington even before Jenner could gain the
confidence of the people of his own country."[9]

A curious anecdote, illustrating _progress_, was told of Doctor Samuel
Brown by his nephew, the late Orlando Brown, Esquire, of Frankfort, in
a letter to the present writer:

"I remember once when talking of calomel, he said he never would
forget the first dose of it he gave a patient. It was looked upon as
'the Hercules,' and he used it accordingly. The case was desperate and
he resolved to venture upon calomel and give a _strong dose_. He
accordingly weighed out with scrupulous accuracy _four grains_--gave
it to his patient, _and sat up all night to watch its effects_. The
man got well and the Doctor afterwards used calomel more freely."

What would he have thought of the heaping tablespoonful doses--quickly
repeated _pro re nata_--or the _pound of calomel_ taken in a day--and
survived--which characterized the cholera treatment of one of the
later Professors of Transylvania Medical School?


DOCTOR FREDERICK RIDGELY,

Of a well-known family in Maryland,[10] and one of the most celebrated
of the early physicians of the West, studied medicine in Delaware, and
attended medical lectures in Philadelphia.

He was appointed Surgeon to a rifle corps in Virginia when only
nineteen years of age, and served in different positions as Surgeon
throughout the Revolutionary War. He came to Kentucky in 1790, was
Surgeon-General in General Wayne's army in 1794, and after that
decisive campaign was ended returned to Kentucky in 1799 and was made
Professor of Materia Medica, Midwifery, and the Practice of Physic in
the same year in the Medical Department of Transylvania University at
the first organization of this department.

Widely known as a successful practitioner and a gentleman of great
benevolence, disinterestedness, and affability, he was also one of the
medical preceptors of Kentucky's distinguished surgeon, Benjamin W.
Dudley, and for many years gave active support to Transylvania
University as a member of the Board of Trustees. In 1799-1800, he
delivered to the small class of medical students then in attendance a
course of public instruction which did him much credit--a fact of
peculiar interest, "as it proves him to have been," with his able
colleague, Doctor Samuel Brown, "_the first who taught medicine by
lecture in Western America_." He died at the age of sixty-eight at
Dayton, Ohio, December 21, 1824.

These first medical professors in Transylvania University were no
doubt the first in the promotion of medical education in the West.
Medical and Law societies were soon established and were in active
operation--as we learn from the columns of the _Kentucky Gazette_,
published at the time. How many pupils they attracted and taught we
can not now definitely ascertain.

In 1801, the meager existing records of the University show a
reorganization, in which the Reverend James Moore--who had been
replaced in 1799 by a Presbyterian clergyman, the Reverend James
Welsh--was restored to the Presidency. "Doctor Frederick Ridgely was
made Professor of Medicine, and Doctor Walter Warfield was made
Professor of Midwifery, in addition to Doctor Samuel Brown." Doctor
Warfield, a physician of Lexington, did not long occupy this chair,
and appears not to have lectured in it.

In 1804, the Reverend James Blythe, D. D., of the Presbyterian church,
who had been President of _Kentucky Academy_, was made acting
President of _Transylvania University_, which position he held until
1816. He was subsequently, in 1817, under Doctor Holley's
administration, appointed Professor of Chemistry, etc., in the Medical
Department. This position he retained until, in 1831, he accepted the
Presidency of Hanover College, Indiana.

Doctor Blythe died in 1842, aged seventy-seven, having devoted his
life mainly to religion; having been one of the pioneers of the
Presbyterian church in Kentucky. He made no distinguished reputation
as a chemical professor in the Medical School, for chemistry in those
days had few advocates, but he did good service in the University as a
teacher of what was called "Natural Philosophy" in early times.

_The Medical College of Transylvania University_ seems not to have
attracted many students in this early period of its history, nor were
its means of instruction or its organization complete.

In 1805, Doctor James Fishback, D. D., was made Professor of the
Theory and Practice of Physic in this department.[11] He was
characterized as an eloquent, learned, though erratic divine; an able
writer; a physician in good practice; an influential lawyer, and an
upright man. He was the son of Jacob Fishback,[12] who came to
Kentucky from Virginia in 1783.

He resigned this chair in 1806, having given lectures to such small
medical classes as were present. In 1808, he was elected
Representative to the General Assembly of Kentucky. In 1813, he
published _The Philosophy of the Mind in Respect to Religion_, and, in
1834, _Essays and Dialogues on the Powers and Susceptibilities of the
Human Mind to Religion_. He was also preceptor in medicine, and for a
time partner in the practice, of the celebrated surgeon, Benjamin W.
Dudley. He died at an advanced age in 1854.

An effort was again made to organize a full Faculty and establish a
medical school in Transylvania University in the year 1809, when
Doctor Benjamin W. Dudley was appointed to the chair of Anatomy and
Physiology, Doctor Elisha Warfield to Surgery and Obstetrics, Joseph
Buchanan, A. M., to the Institutes of Medicine, and Doctor James
Overton to Materia Medica and Botany.[13] But Doctor Warfield
resigned in the same year, and Doctor Buchanan in 1810. The late Lewis
Rogers, M. D., of Louisville, thus mentioned Doctor Buchanan in his
inaugural address as President of the Kentucky State Medical Society
in 1873: "He died in Louisville in 1829: and I call up from the
memories of my boyhood with great distinctness his slender form,
massive head, and thoughtful, intellectual face. He was a man of great
and varied powers of mind. He was a mechanical, medical, and political
philosopher. His 'spiral' steam-boiler--the prototype of the exploding
and exploded tubular boiler--and his steam land-carriage were among
the wonders of the day. As a physician his papers attracted
distinguished notice from the medical _savants_ of Philadelphia, then
the center of medical science."

As a political writer he ably discussed the most weighty problems of the
times, he being editor of the _Louisville Focus_. Want of concentration
of his wonderful mind prevented him from becoming eminent in medicine as
in other pursuits which divided his mental powers.[14]

No systematic medical instruction seems to have resulted from this
imperfect organization of the Medical School in 1809, although
occasional lectures may have been delivered and private instruction
given.

Doctor Dudley, after having graduated in medicine in the University of
Pennsylvania, visited Europe in 1810, spending four years in Paris and
London in the arduous pursuit of medical and surgical information and
experience under the celebrated teachers of that day. Returning then
to Lexington he began a career as a practical surgeon and teacher, in
which his name became distinguished throughout the civilized world.


DOCTOR BENJAMIN WINSLOW DUDLEY

Was born in Spottsylvania County, Virginia, April 12, 1785. His
father, a leading Baptist minister in Kentucky, Ambrose Dudley, had
commanded a company in the Revolutionary War, and removed to the
neighborhood of Lexington, Kentucky, when his son Benjamin was little
more than a year old, and to that city in 1797. Here, reared with such
tuition as the schools of the day and the country afforded, Benjamin
was placed while yet very young under the medical tutelage of Doctor
Frederick Ridgely, then an eminent physician in large practice in
Lexington, under whose instruction his ardent taste for medical
knowledge was largely gratified. In the autumn of 1804 he went to the
Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, and was there
fellow-student with Daniel Drake, John Esten Cooke, and William H.
Richardson, his subsequent colleagues in the Medical Department of
Transylvania University.

Returning to Lexington at the close of the medical lectures at
Philadelphia, he engaged in the practice of physic and surgery with
Doctor Fishback during the spring and summer months of 1805. He returned
to the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in the fall,
receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine from that institution March,
1806, just two weeks before he was twenty-one years of age.

Desirous of perfecting his medical education in Europe, after a few
years' further practice in Lexington he descended the Ohio River on a
flatboat to New Orleans in 1810, just one year before the first
experimental steamboat was launched upon those waters. At New Orleans he
purchased a cargo of flour and sailed on a prosperous voyage to
Gibraltar, and after advantageously disposing of his cargo at that place
and at Lisbon, he made his way through Spain to Paris. After four years
spent in Europe zealously and industriously employing all the great
facilities of the hospitals, dissecting-rooms, and eminent instructors
of Paris and London, and after traveling six months in Italy and
Switzerland, he finally returned to Lexington in the summer of 1814,
conscious of innate powers and ardently devoted to his profession.

[Illustration: DOCTOR BENJAMIN W. DUDLEY.

From a Portrait by Jouett owned by Mrs. Robert Peter.]

Professor Dudley continued to lecture until 1850, when he resigned and
was appointed Professor Emeritus. Doctor James M. Bush succeeded him
in the chair of Anatomy, and Dudley's nephew, Ethelbert L. Dudley,
took that of Surgery, which he filled with great success.

A schedule of the succession of the Professors of this Medical School
will best illustrate the changes which occurred since 1819. (See
Schedule A.)

Professor B. W. Dudley remained in the regular performance of the
duties of his double chair--Anatomy and Surgery[15]--with the able
assistance of Doctor J. M. Bush, until 1844, when Doctor Bush was
regularly appointed Professor of Anatomy. Doctor Dudley, as above
mentioned, retained the chair of Surgery until 1850. In that year the
Medical Faculty intermitted the winter session in Lexington, with the
consent of the Trustees, in order to establish the "_Kentucky School
of Medicine_" in Louisville as a winter school, retaining the
Transylvania Medical College as a summer school. Doctor Dudley's last
course of lectures was delivered in the session of 1849-50.

Simultaneously with the resignation of his professorship, he withdrew
from his extensive practice and retired to his beautiful suburban
residence, "Fairlawn," in the vicinity of Lexington.[16] His death
occurred in Lexington on the twentieth of January, 1870, in the
eighty-fifth year of his age.

Doctor Dudley was an earnest and laborious practical man. His whole
time and energies were devoted to his profession, in which, like the
celebrated John Hunter--the one of his early preceptors Dudley most
admired--he sought instruction in the book of nature--in his
practice--rather than in the written archives of science.

As a teacher and lecturer he was admirably clear and impressive. While
no attempt at eloquence was ever made by him, and no early training or
later readings in the classics gave ornament to his style, his terse
and impressive sentences, as they were delivered apparently without
the slightest effort or premeditation as also without hesitation or
interruption, were the embodiment of the ideas to be conveyed, in the
most lucid and concise language. It seemed impossible to use fewer or
more appropriate words to convey to the least appreciative student the
subject to be taught.

This, with his great practical skill as a surgeon, his minute and
ready knowledge, his great experience, his unequaled success in his
numerous operations, his suavity and dignity of manner, the
magnanimity and liberality of his character, and his eminent
devotedness to his profession, made his students most earnest admirers
and followers and aided greatly in the establishment and maintenance
of our Medical College.

Although possessed of the firmest nerves, so that his hand never
faltered in the severest operation,[17] his sensibility was so keen
that he sometimes suffered from nervous prostration after the strain
was over. Many of his pupils no doubt recollect with what
feeling--manifested even by tears--he recited the sufferings and
dangers of a patient of his who was the subject of obstinate secondary
hemorrhage.

It was as a practical surgeon that Doctor Dudley justly attained a
world-wide reputation, and especially as a successful operator in
lithotomy. This operation he performed two hundred and twenty-five
times, without losing a single patient until after his one hundredth
operation, losing in the whole of his operations only about two per
cent. So celebrated had he become for this operation as early as 1827
that the _Kentucky Gazette_ for April 11, of that year, records that
he operated three times for stone in one day.

He always performed the lateral operation with the gorget, and never
until by previous preparation--by diet and medicine--he had brought
the system of his patient to a proper state.[18]

Then, with good nursing under his immediate direction in wholesome
private lodging, the incision healed up by the first intention.
Although the stone may have been so large that much effort was
required to withdraw it through the incision--sometimes even attended
with laceration--the patient was on his feet again in a surprisingly
short period of time. The Doctor justly attached great importance to
the preliminary constitutional preparation of his surgical patients.

A notice of two of his earliest operations of this kind is given in
the _Kentucky Gazette_ for Saturday, November 19, 1817. The one--the
first he performed in Lexington--on Mr. S. Owen, of that place, and
the other, "some time ago," on a little boy in Paris, Kentucky, which,
according to Doctor C. C. Graham--who was his pupil at that time--was
the first operation for stone performed by Doctor Dudley. He never
used lithotrity or seemed to approve of that operation.

Another surgical specialty was his great use of judicious and regulated
pressure by means of the roller bandage in the cure of abscesses, in the
control of inflammation, in the treatment of fractures, aneurisms, etc.
No surgeon probably ever used it so extensively or so successfully. Few,
even of his pupils, seemed to be able to apply it with the skill and
judgment which characterized their preceptor.

He was also an earnest advocate of the patient use of hot water--as
hot as could be borne--in the control of inflammation. Where other
surgeons resorted to poultices he applied hot water.

He was not ready with his pen; because, probably, of early neglect in
the practice of composition. What he wrote was mostly at the urgent
solicitation of his colleagues, and for the columns of _The
Transylvania Journal of Medicine_, a quarterly which first appeared in
Lexington February, 1828.[19] It was then edited by his colleagues,
Professors Cooke and Short; subsequently by Professor Yandell, then by
Professor Peter, more lately by Professor T. D. Mitchell, and lastly
by Professor Ethelbert L. Dudley.

In the first volume of this Journal appeared Doctor Dudley's first
paper, a most remarkable article, showing by cases in his practice
that epilepsy may be caused by pressure on the brain, the consequence
of fracture of the skull, and, as demonstrated by five successive
operations, might be cured by trephining, a fact and experience in
surgery then entirely new, for which Doctor Dudley is entitled to the
honor of discovery and demonstration.

In the same paper is communicated a novel and successful method of
treatment of _fungus cerebri_, by means of dried sponge compresses.
Doctor Dudley stated that by this means he had cured _fungus cerebri_
within the space of five days.

In a second paper, in the next number of this volume, he gives an
original and successful operation for hydrocele. In the fourth number
he began an extensive article on his peculiar uses of the roller
bandage in gunshot wounds, fractures, etc., which he continued through
several volumes of the Journal. In the second volume he had given an
interesting article on the use of the roller bandage in the treatment
of ulcers, contusions, lacerations, effusions, etc. In the fifth
volume he continued his remarks on epilepsy as treated by the
trephine. In volume sixth he published a record of his experience in
the treatment of Asiatic cholera in Lexington. In the ninth he
continued his observations on the bandage and its very successful
application in the treatment of fractures. A most interesting and
valuable article on _Calculous Diseases_ from his pen appeared in the
same volume, illustrating not only his great practical skill but his
courage and quick and clear judgment in cases of emergency. Volumes
ten and twelve contained reports of his operations in lithotomy;
volume eleven, a paper on _Fractures and Calculous Diseases_.

In the elegant and generally correct Memoir of Doctor Benjamin W.
Dudley, published by the late Lunsford P. Yandell, M. D., in the
_American Practitioner_, 1870, these are stated to be the only
writings of our late distinguished surgeon; but Doctor Dudley
subsequently published three elaborate and highly valuable surgical
papers, to wit:

1. _On the Treatment of Aneurism_, published in the _Transylvania
Journal of Medicine_, edited by Professor Ethelbert L. Dudley, July,
1849.

2. _On the Treatment of Gunshot Wounds._ Ibid., December, 1849.

3. _On the Treatment of Fractures by the Roller Bandage._ Ibid., 1850.

This journal was a bi-weekly publication, the successor of the old
_Transylvania Medical Journal_ above mentioned.

These were the latest productions of Doctor B. W. Dudley. Engaged as
he continually was in a daily round of engrossing surgical and medical
practice, lecturing twice a day in the Medical School during its
sessions, there was left to him but little time for the record or
promulgation of his ample experience by his pen.

As a medical practitioner also he was original. He was among the first
to discard the lancet in his treatment of disease. He used instead
small doses of tartar emetic, or more recently, of ipecacuanha
frequently repeated, with low diet; or cholagogue purgatives combined
with ipecacuanha, etc. He confined himself to but few medicines, but
in the application of these, and of diet and regimen, his clear and
correct judgment was usually apparent. Polypharmacy he despised. New
remedies were looked upon by him with incredulity and suspicion.
Quinine, iodine, and other novelties in his time never were accorded
approbation by him.

As a man and a citizen he was eminently liberal, charitable,
magnanimous, public-spirited, and energetic. He bound his friends to
him with the strongest ties and treated his hostile enemies--who were
few--with a cordial hatred. His sense of honor and personal dignity
was very delicate and high. No one so deeply despised a mean action.
No one so readily forgave an injury which was confessed.

An exemplification of his character was given in 1817-18. A difficulty
having originated between himself and Doctor Drake, in relation to the
resignation of the latter and some matters connected with a post-mortem
examination of an Irishman who had been killed in a quarrel, sharp
pamphlets passed between them and a challenge to mortal combat from
Dudley to Drake, which the latter declined, but which was vicariously
accepted by his next friend, Doctor William H. Richardson. A duel
resulted in which, at the first fire, Richardson was seriously wounded
in the groin by the ball of Dudley, severing the inguinal artery.
Richardson would have speedily bled to death--as it could not be
controlled by the tourniquet--but for the ready skill and magnanimity of
Dudley. He immediately asked permission of his adversary to arrest the
hemorrhage, and by the pressure with his thumb over the ilium gave time
for the application of the ligature by the surgeon of Richardson--thus
converting his deadly antagonist into a lifelong friend.

Notwithstanding Doctor Dudley had contributed tens of thousands to
public improvement and to private charities, and never regularly kept
accounts against his patients, he acquired a considerable fortune. His
latter days were passed in the society of his children and
grandchildren in the household of his son, the late William A. Dudley,
surrounded by all the comforts which a large competency and a devoted
family could provide. Thus, in the quiet of domestic retirement,
passed away the last days of a most active and eminently useful and
distinguished life.[20]

       *       *       *       *       *

The annals of the earlier efforts to establish medical education and a
medical college in connection with Transylvania University--the first
in the whole West and the second in the United States--are meager and
unsatisfactory.

As already stated, the first Medical Professors in this
University--Doctors Samuel Brown and Frederick Ridgely (1799)--no
doubt taught and lectured occasionally to such students as were
present. The files of the old _Kentucky Gazette_ show that Doctor
James Fishback, who was unanimously appointed to the chair of Theory
and Practice of Medicine in Transylvania in 1805, advertised to
lecture, and did probably lecture on these subjects. But he resigned
in 1806. Doctor James Overton, who had been appointed to the chair of
Materia Medica and Botany in 1809, said in his letter of acceptance
(on the occasion of his reappointment in the reorganization of the
Medical Faculty in 1817) that he "had engaged for some time in giving
lectures on Theory and Practice in this town," etc.

According to the best recollection of the late Doctor Coleman
Rogers--for a long time before his death a resident in Louisville--the
Medical College of Transylvania University was reorganized in 1815 by
the appointment of the following Faculty:

Doctor Benjamin W. Dudley, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery.

Doctor Coleman Rogers, adjunct to this chair.

Doctor James Overton, Theory and Practice.

Doctor William H. Richardson, Obstetrics, etc.

Doctor Thomas Cooper (Judge Cooper), of Pennsylvania, to the chair of
Chemistry, Mineralogy, etc.

Doctor James Blythe, then acting President of the University, was to
give chemical instruction. Doctor Cooper and Doctor Rogers did not
accept this appointment. According to Doctor Rogers' recollection a
regular course of lectures was not delivered by this Faculty, although
Doctors Dudley and Overton probably both lectured or taught "as they
previously had done."[21]

Doctor Dudley's own recollection, as detailed to the present writer,
was also that he and Doctor Overton, as well as Doctor Blythe,
lectured in 1815-16 to about twenty students, of whom the late Doctor
Ayres and the yet surviving Nestor of Transylvania graduates, Doctor
Christopher C. Graham, of Louisville--now almost a
centenarian[22]--were in attendance as pupils. Very little can now be
ascertained, from existing records, of the character of Professor
James Overton, M. D. Doctor Christopher C. Graham, in a recent letter
to the writer, gives some of his reminiscences of him in the following
language: "Doctor Overton was a small, black-eyed man, very
hypochondrical and sarcastic (notoriously so), and yet quite chatty,
humorous, and agreeable; telling his class many funny things.... He
was well educated for his day and plumed himself especially on his
Greek." Doctor Overton removed from Lexington to Nashville, Tennessee,
in 1818.[23]

[Illustration: DOCTOR JAMES OVERTON.

From a Portrait made in Philadelphia before 1815.]

The late Doctor Ayres, of Danville, and latterly of Lexington, informed
the writer that, in 1815, Doctor Dudley, having recently returned from
Europe, was invited by himself and other medical students to demonstrate
to them in anatomy and surgery. Learning _that he would lecture to them
if a class were formed_, they made up one of from twenty to twenty-five,
and Doctor Dudley lectured to them on anatomy and surgery in "Trotter's
Warehouse,"[24] a house situated on the south-east corner of Main and
Mill streets, opposite the site[25] of the old original Lexington
block-house. In the next winter, he recounts, he lectured to about fifty
or sixty students, some of whom were from Ohio. Doctors Overton and
Blythe, one or both, also lectured in both winters.

This may be said to be the real beginning of the successful career of
the Medical Department of Transylvania University, and of that of
Doctor Dudley as a medical professor.

The _Kentucky Gazette_ of March 10, 1817, contains a card published by
a committee of the medical students of Transylvania, signed David J.
Ayres, Thomas J. Garden, and Charles H. Warfield (committee of the
medical class), headed a "Tribute of Gratitude," in which they return
grateful thanks to their professors, Doctors B. W. Dudley, James
Overton, and the Reverend Doctor Blythe, for the ability, fidelity,
and perseverance with which they had taught. A further proof that a
medical session was held in the Transylvania School in 1816-17.

Many circumstances in these early times favored the establishment of a
medical college in Lexington. Not only had that city been recognized
for many years as a great center of public education for the whole
State--made so by the location in it of the State's University,
"Transylvania"--but it was also at that time the great metropolis of
the West. The country around it, though fast becoming settled and
improved by enterprising pioneers, had not as yet been provided with
roads, or good means of communication with older settlements. To
ascend the Ohio River and cross the Alleghany Mountains to
Philadelphia, where the only other medical school then existed, was a
tedious and laborious undertaking, not devoid of danger.

The celebrated French botanist, F. A. Michaux, who visited this country
in 1802, was obliged to walk most of the way over the mountains to
Pittsburg. Descending the Ohio River in a canoe and landing at Limestone
(now Maysville), he consumed two days and a half on horseback on his
journey from that place to Lexington, having been obliged to leave his
baggage behind. The late Professor Charles Caldwell records, in his
remarkable _Autobiography_, that as late as 1820, when he set out from
Lexington for Europe to purchase books and apparatus for the Medical
Department of Transylvania, he was compelled to travel from Lexington to
Maysville on horseback, with his baggage on a pack-horse conducted by a
servant on a third horse. "The animals were all powerful and active,"
but "so deep and adhesive was the mud that they did not reach
Maysville--only sixty miles distant--until an early hour on the fourth
day," although diligence on his part was not wanting. Students of this
region had to overcome very great difficulties when they set out in
search of instruction in the medical schools of Philadelphia.

On March 2, 1816, one thousand dollars were appropriated by the
Trustees of Transylvania and placed in the hands of Doctor Blythe and
John D. Clifford for the immediate purchase of chemical apparatus.
Doctor Blythe, who had been acting President of the University up to
this time, resigned and accepted the position of Professor of
Chemistry in the Medical Department.

In 1817 the Medical Faculty was further reorganized by the appointment
of the late celebrated, talented Doctor Daniel Drake to the chair of
Materia Medica and Medical Botany. The organization was then as follows:

Doctor Benjamin W. Dudley, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery.

Doctor James Overton, Professor of Theory and Practice.

Doctor Daniel Drake, Professor of Materia Medica and Medical Botany.

Doctor William H. Richardson, Professor of Obstetrics, etc.

Doctor James Blythe, Professor of Chemistry, etc.

Doctor Drake has stated that twenty pupils attended this course of
lectures, and the degree of M. D. was--for the first time in
Lexington--conferred on John Lawson McCullough of this city.

[Illustration: DOCTOR WILLIAM H. RICHARDSON.

From a Portrait by Jouett.]

Each professor lectured three times a week, and his ticket was fifteen
dollars. During this session ill feelings arose between Doctors Dudley
and Drake, leading to the duel between Doctors Dudley and
Richardson already described.[26]

Doctor Drake resigned his professorship and returned to Cincinnati at
the end of this session, returning subsequently in 1823 to occupy the
same chair, to resign it again in 1827. Professor Richardson did not
lecture this session. He, not having yet received the degree of M. D.,
was allowed to be absent.[27]


PROFESSOR WILLIAM HALL RICHARDSON

Taught in the Medical Department of Transylvania until the time of his
death in 1844, and was highly respected by his pupils as a practical
teacher in his especial chair, notwithstanding he had not the
advantage of early educational training. He was a man of great energy
and of many admirable traits of character. His pupil, the late Lewis
Rogers, M. D., in his address as President of the Kentucky State
Medical Society in 1873, thus spoke of his old preceptor and friend:

"Few men ever had nobler traits of character. He was warm-hearted,
brave, and a sincere friend. I knew him from my earliest boyhood, and
have passed away many happy and instructive hours at his magnificent
home in Fayette County.[28] His hospitality was profuse and elegant. I
listened to his public teachings as a professor with interest and
care, because I knew he taught the truth as far as he possessed it. He
was not scholarly or graceful and fluent as a lecturer, but he was
ardent and impressive, sufficiently learned in his special branch, and
had at his command a large stock of ripe experience. I honor his
memory beyond most men I have known."

In 1819, a new and brilliant era for the University, and for the
Medical Department of Transylvania, was inaugurated by the appointment
of Reverend Horace Holley, LL. D., to the Presidency of the
University. Doctor Samuel Brown was recalled to the chair of the
Theory and Practice of Medicine, which he retained until 1825. Doctor
Charles Caldwell was induced to remove from Philadelphia, where he had
an official connection with the University of Pennsylvania, and to
accept the chair of the Institutes of Medicine and Materia Medica
here, thus completing the organization with the existing professors,
Benjamin W. Dudley and William H. Richardson, and the election of
Reverend James Blythe to the chair of Chemistry. The celebrated
naturalist, C. S. Rafinesque, was advertised to lecture on Botany and
Natural History in this and the following year.[29]


CONSTANTINE SAMUEL RAFINESQUE,[30]

A naturalist, antiquarian, etc., who stated in 1836 "that in knowledge
he had been a botanist, naturalist, conchologist, zoologist,
geographer, esentographer, physiologist, historian, antiquary, poet,
philosopher, economist, and philanthropist; and by profession a
traveler, merchant, manufacturer, collector, improver, professor,
teacher, surveyor, draftsman, architect, engineer, author, editor,
bookseller, librarian, secretary, chancellor, etc."--and believed he
could have been any thing, as he "always succeeded in whatever he
undertook." This statement gives a key to his life, which was one of
great and untiring activity, as well as to his mental character, which
enabled him to acquire the reputation of being one of the most learned
men of his day. Born in Galata, Constantinople, the son of a merchant,
in 1784, after living in France and Italy he came to America in 1802,
returning to France in 1805, with a very large botanical collection.
Spending ten years in Sicily in making natural history collections and
writing various essays, he published in 1815 his _Analysis of Nature_.
The same year he sailed for America, but was wrecked on Long Island,
losing most of his collections and effects. Induced to come West from
Philadelphia by John D. Clifford, of Lexington, in 1818, he was
elected Professor of Botany and Natural History in Transylvania
University in 1819, lectured to the students in the Medical College,
was librarian, and taught French, Spanish, and Italian.[31] He also
traveled and made collections in botany, natural history, etc.,
publishing various papers and pamphlets and preparing materials for
his proposed great work, _Tellus, or the History of the Earth and
Mankind, Chiefly in America_, of which in ten years he had, he said,
prepared five thousand pages of manuscript and five hundred maps and
figures. An idea of what this work might have been may be gathered
from a remarkable essay--_Ancient History or Annals of
Kentucky_--which was published in 1824 as an introduction to
_Marshall's History of Kentucky_, in which, in twenty-eight small
octavo pages, he professes to give not only the migrations, changes,
filiations, annals, and descriptions of all the various tribes and
peoples which inhabited Kentucky since the creation of man, but gives
also a history of all the changes of geology and natural history,
according to his views and in accordance with Mosaic cosmogony,
substituting epochs for days, however. An essay which may be
characterized as a very terse and dry recital of numerous doubtful
statements, woven in a web of very audacious speculation. His success
as a teacher in Transylvania was not great. He died in Philadelphia
September 18, 1840, having published in 1836 his life, travels, and
researches in North America and Europe from 1802 to 1835, and several
small works on natural history, botany, etc.

A project inaugurated by Rafinesque while professor in Transylvania was
that of a botanic garden at Lexington called "The Botanical Garden of
Transylvania University." A company was chartered by Act of Legislature
January 7, 1824, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars,
five hundred shares of fifty dollars each. William H. Richardson,
President; Thomas Smith, Joseph Ficklin, John M. McCalla, Thomas L.
Caldwell, Directors; William A. Leavy, Treasurer; C. S. Rafinesque,
Secretary. Other members were William Leavy, senior, Elisha Warfield, J.
Harper, James W. Palmer, Horace Holley, Charles Caldwell, Benjamin W.
Dudley, Charles Humphreys, Gabriel Slaughter, Thomas Wallace, John
Roche, Charles Wilkins, Benjamin Gratz, Richard Higgins, John W. Hunt,
B. R. McIlvaine, Joseph Boswell, Samuel Brown, and Daniel Drake. We
gather from the prospectus (1824) that this garden was intended to be a
charming resort for the elite of Lexington, who were expected to stroll
at eve, perchance, through sylvan bowers; it was also to benefit farmers
and "the whole Western country" by supplying "the best kinds of fruit
trees and grape vines, mountain rice, madder, senna, opium, ginseng,
rhubarb, castor oil, new kinds of grain and pulse, etc." It was to be
valuable especially to the medical students of Transylvania by affording
opportunity to study the plants used in medicine. The single product of
opium, it was judged, could be made to cover the annual expense of the
garden. There was to be "a small but elegant building, with a portico,
green-house, aviaries, bowers, museum, library, and many other suitable
ornaments." Lectures and "practical demonstrations" were to be given
there in Botany, Agriculture, Horticulture, Domestic Economy, etc.
"Every individual admitted in the garden to hear a course of lectures"
to pay "at least one dollar." To these ends a lot was procured on the
south side of East Main Street,[32] within the city limits, and
gardening operations commenced; but the garden was not a success. Though
patronized for a time, as in duty bound, by its influential shareholders
and diligently strolled in by the friends, principally, of the medical
students, it was, after the departure from Lexington of Rafinesque,
finally pronounced to be nothing more than a weed-patch and abandoned
before any building was erected on it. In fact, from the testimony of
old citizens, it would appear that no improvements were ever made there
except the laying out of wide walks and the planting of various shrubs
and wild flowers, chiefly such as were common upon the highways in
Kentucky, but which unquestionably seemed remarkable to Rafinesque, who
viewed them with the eye of a botanist exclusively.

The organization of the Medical Faculty of 1819, already described,
remained unchanged until 1823, when Doctor Daniel Drake was recalled
to the chair of Materia Medica and Medical Botany, Doctor Caldwell
retaining that of the Institutes of Medicine. The chair of Chemistry
was also strengthened by the appointment of Doctor Robert Best[33] as
adjunct professor, who resigned, however, at the end of two years.
Doctor Drake was transferred in 1825 to the chair of Theory and
Practice on the resignation of Doctor Samuel Brown, and Doctor Charles
Wilkins Short was called to that vacated by Doctor Drake. Doctor Drake
resigned finally in 1826, to be replaced by Doctor John Esten Cooke.
We will not in this place note all the changes which occurred in the
Faculty up to the time of its dissolution, but will append them in the
form of a schedule. (See Schedule A.)


DANIEL DRAKE, M. D.

Born at Plainfield, New Jersey, October 20, 1785, and brought to Mason
County, Kentucky, in 1788, was, in 1800, the first medical student in
Cincinnati. He began to practice in 1804, when he was only nineteen
years old. He spent the winter of 1805-6 as a student in Philadelphia,
and the succeeding year in practice at his old home in Mayslick,
removing for life to Cincinnati in 1807.

[Illustration: DANIEL DRAKE, M. D.]

He was made Professor of Materia Medica and Medical Botany in
Transylvania University in 1817, but returned to Cincinnati to found
the Medical College of Ohio in 1818, from which, however, his
connection was suddenly severed, after a bitter controversy, May,
1822. He resumed a professorship at Lexington 1823-27, being Dean of
the Faculty, and declined a chair in the University of Virginia in
1830. He accepted one in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia,
1830-31, and again in the Medical College of Ohio in 1831-32. He
founded a new school as a department of Cincinnati College and taught
in it 1835-39; was professor in the Louisville Medical Institute
1839-49, and afterward accepted a chair in the Medical College again
in 1849-50. In 1827 he was editor of the _Western Medical and Physical
Journal_, etc., but his chief work is his _Treatise on the Principal
Diseases of the Interior Valley of America_, published in 1850--a
wonderful tribute to American medical science. His contributions to
scientific journals were numerous, and many of his medical lectures
and scientific and historical addresses have been published.[34] He
died at Cincinnati November 5, 1852, aged sixty-seven years.[35]

Doctor David W. Yandell says: "As a lecturer Doctor Drake had few
equals. He was never dull. His was an alert and masculine mind. His
words are full of vitality. His manner was earnest and impressive. His
eloquence was fervid." Soon after Doctor Yandell had entered the
practice of medicine Doctor Drake told him: "I have never seen a great
and permanent practice the foundations of which were not laid in the
hearts of the poor. Therefore cultivate the poor. If you need another
though sordid reason, the poor of to-day are the rich of to-morrow in
this country. The poor will be the most grateful of all your patients.
Lend a willing ear to all their calls."

       *       *       *       *       *

Such enthusiasm in the establishment of the Medical Department of
Transylvania existed at this time (1819) that liberal citizens of
Lexington freely subscribed money to the amount of more than three
thousand dollars to guarantee to Professors Caldwell and Brown each an
annual sum of a thousand dollars for three years, and this salary was
paid to them accordingly. Professor Caldwell visiting the Legislature of
Kentucky in 1820, induced that body to give five thousand dollars for
the express purpose of the purchase of books and apparatus for the
Medical College in Transylvania University, which, as declared in the
Act, was to remain "the property of the State of Kentucky."

Moreover, the city of Lexington at the same time loaned to the
college, for the same specified purpose, six thousand dollars,
reserving a lien on the books. This loan subsequently became a
donation. In addition many physicians of the South, of Kentucky, and
of Lexington made further subscriptions, making altogether a gross sum
of about thirteen thousand dollars, with which Professor Caldwell was
enabled to purchase in Europe, in 1820, the foundation of the library,
apparatus, and museum of the Medical Department.[36]

Again, in 1827, certain citizens of Lexington and medical professors,
forming a joint-stock company, furnished the means to build the first
Medical Hall for the special uses of this department, on which, until
1839, when a new Medical Hall was erected, the medical professors paid
an annual interest of six per cent on the cost. This old hall stood,
before it was destroyed by fire (in 1854, while being used as a City
Hall, etc.), on the site of the Lexington City Library, corner of
Market and Church streets. It is thus described in the _Transylvania
Journal of Medicine_, Volume I, 1828: "This building, a vignette view
of which is seen on the cover of this Journal, was erected by the
private munificence of citizens of Lexington during the last season.
The corner-stone was laid with Masonic ceremonies on the fifteenth day
of April, and the edifice was complete and in readiness for the
reception of the medical class at the commencement of the session the
first of November.

"In an excavation made in the corner-stone was deposited a glass
bottle enclosing a parchment roll on which were written the name of
the President of the United States, those of the heads of departments,
the Trustees of Transylvania University, the medical professors,
trustees of the town, officers of the Grand Lodge who assisted at the
ceremony, building committee, architect, etc. On a marble tablet over
the front door of the house is the following inscription:

              COLL. TRANSYL. MEDIC.
              FUND. A. D. MDCCCXVII.

"Though plain and unostentatious, the style of its architecture is
chaste and neat, its execution is solid and substantial, and its
interior arrangements are of the most convenient, comfortable, and
commodious kind.

"The basement story of the building is chiefly appropriated to the
chemical professorship and contains a lecture-room forty-five by fifty
feet in dimensions, in which the seats and lecturing stand are
arranged in the best manner for perfect vision, a lobby, an anti-room,
a chemical laboratory well supplied with all necessary apparatus, and
a dormitory for a resident pupil who acts as librarian.

"These in connection with the very handsome and commodious anatomical
amphitheater which was built during the preceding season, together
with its preparing- and dissecting-rooms, present a suit of
lecture-rooms, apartments, etc., not surpassed in point of excellence
of light for demonstration, or in ease, comfort, and convenience to
the pupil by any similar institution in America. The whole is situated
in a pleasant and central part of the town, easily accessible from
the chief boarding-houses in the worst weather."[37][38]

From the time of the reorganization in 1819, the classes in the
Medical College increased rapidly--from only twenty, with a single
graduate in 1817-18, to two hundred students and fifty-six graduates
in the session of 1823-24. A rapid increase in patronage almost
unparalleled in the history of medical schools, owing, no doubt,
largely to the great increasing demand for medical instruction in this
fast improving country and to the temporary extreme difficulty of the
journey to the great medical school of Philadelphia, but also to the
_eclat_ of the University under the administration of Doctor
Holley,[39] to the just fame of Doctor Dudley as a surgeon and medical
teacher, to the reputation of Doctor Samuel Brown as a popular and
cultivated physician and professor, and to the brilliant and popular
talents of Doctor Charles Caldwell.


DOCTOR CHARLES CALDWELL.

The association of this distinguished professor with the fortunes of
the Medical Department of Transylvania, which extended from 1819 to
1837, marked the era of its most rapid development, and embraced a
large portion of the time of its greatest prosperity.

The life, character, and writings of Doctor Caldwell are no doubt now
well known to the medical profession through the numerous biographical
notices which have appeared, especially those by the late Professor
Lunsford P. Yandell, M. D., in Lindley's _Medical Annals of
Tennessee_, and as amplified in the _Transactions_ of the Kentucky
State Medical Society in its twenty-first annual session in 1876, and
other published sketches. But it may also be studied in his somewhat
unfortunate _Autobiography_, which was published in Philadelphia in
1855, two years after his death, edited by the sister of his widow,
Miss Harriet W. Warner.

It is said of Titian, that when in his old age he took it into his
head to _improve_ some of his best pictures by retouching them, his
judicious pupils mixed his paints with olive oil so they would not dry
and could be easily washed off again, thus restraining him from
marring or destroying his finest works and his fame together.
Fortunate would it have been for the venerable Doctor Caldwell had
much of this senile production--written only seven or eight years
before his death--been canceled by a friendly hand. The too harsh
criticisms in which he indulged, which placed some of his late
colleagues sharply on the defensive and which also gave them powerful
weapons of offense, as well as defense, had then been suppressed!

On Page 315 of this autobiography he characterized the time-honored
maxim, "_De mortuis nil nisi bonum_," as "an ill-founded and dangerous
precept." Hence Doctor Yandell, whom he had denounced in this work in
the most opprobrious terms, felt justified in his notice of this
autobiography in his paper on the _Medical Literature of Kentucky_,
published in the _Transactions of the Kentucky State Medical Society_,
1876, Page 62, in the following terms: "It is not only egotistical and
vainglorious beyond anything, I believe, to be found in the English
language, but it is at the same time defamatory. The author holds
himself up to admiration on all occasions and everywhere from boyhood
to old age a very hero of romance." And literal quotations from the
unfortunate volume give support to these allegations.

[Illustration: CHARLES CALDWELL, M. D.]

Under the provocation of Doctor Caldwell's posthumous attack, Doctor
Yandell defended himself and retorted with the weapons which Doctor
Caldwell himself had supplied. But, in later years, not long before
his death, Doctor Yandell expressed to the writer, in a friendly
letter, something like regret that he had not in this case adhered
more closely to that maxim in relation to the dead, above quoted,
which Doctor Caldwell had condemned as "ill-founded and dangerous." It
must be admitted, however, that the provocation was great.[40]

Doctor Caldwell was born, the youngest son of a large family, May 14,
1772, in Caswell County, North Carolina, and died in Louisville July
9, 1853, in his eighty-third year. His parents had emigrated from
Ireland. His father--who was described by Doctor James Blythe, who
knew him, as "very poor, and very, very pious"--destined Charles for
the Presbyterian ministry. Accordingly he was measurably released from
the labor of the farm on which the family lived and was allowed to
pursue his studies in a solitary log hut which he had built for
himself for the purpose--"his books his chief companions."

He says he commenced to learn the ancient languages at twelve, and was
already principal of a literary academy at eighteen. He says further of
himself: "From an early period of my life I was actuated by a form of
ambition and a love of disquisition and mental contest, which not only
marked in me somewhat of a peculiarity of native mind and spirit, but
tended also to strengthen them." In his subsequent life he delighted in
debates, discussions, and mental contests. He acknowledges (Page 53) an
early propensity to array himself in argument "on the wrong side of the
question under consideration, in order the more certainly to produce
discussion by my advocacy of a paradox, and to make a show of my
ingenuity and ability in defense of error."

But, as he acknowledged, "this kind of gladiatorship began to blunt
his appreciation of truth as distinguished from error, and hence he
endeavored to restrain this impulse"--not always successfully, perhaps.

Although his taste and talents inclined him to the legal profession he
was induced to study medicine, somewhat against his own judgment. His
medical education was obtained in Philadelphia, in the Medical
Department of the University of Pennsylvania, then the only medical
college in America, which he entered in 1792, and from which he
graduated. While there he industriously employed his time and
faculties in study, debate, and discussion, and his pen in numerous
publications, the principal of which was a translation of Blumenbach's
_Elements of Physiology_--which he completed before graduation. He
managed to antagonize, amongst many others, his medical preceptor, the
celebrated Doctor Rush, much to his own detriment, as he in his
autobiography acknowledges.

In the following year, 1793, on the outbreak of the yellow fever in
Philadelphia, he distinguished himself by his courage and
self-sacrifice in voluntarily attending and nursing the sick. And
again, by his pen and otherwise, in theoretical discussions on the
origin of the pestilence.

According to his own representations and the testimony of his friends,
he was exceedingly methodical in his habits, dividing his time with
rigorous system; but we may well feel a little skeptical as to his
assertion that he "rarely slept more than four hours," and at one time
but three hours and a half. His mental activity and labor, however, in
his youth, must have been very great. Apart from his necessary studies
and his active and constant participation in the discussions of the
Medical Society, he delivered more public addresses, for the Society
and on other occasions, "than all the other members of the institution
united" (Page 254), besides employing his pen in numerous ephemeral
productions for the press.

In speaking of his early life in Philadelphia (Page 330) he says: "I was
a young man for the scenes in which I had acted; proud and ambitious
certainly, and probably not altogether untinctured with vanity.... In
truth it is hardly to be denied that, for a time at least, I was
somewhat spoiled [by the compliments paid him] on account of my
attributes and performances, both mental and corporal.... No wonder,
therefore, that I felt, or conceited I felt, a decided superiority to
most medical pupils, as well as the ordinary cast of young
physicians.... I certainly did both indulge and manifest it to the
extent, at times, of giving serious offense." This was not the worst.
His bold self-confidence and assertion having placed him in a position
of antagonism toward his friend and preceptor, Doctor Rush, as well as
toward other influential medical men of Philadelphia, defeated the great
ambition of his life--that of occupying the chair of the Institutes of
Medicine in the Medical College of the University of Pennsylvania.

When informed by Doctor Rush (Page 290, autobiography) that although
his friends spoke in flattering terms of "your talents, attainments,
and powers in lecturing and instruction ... they are reluctant to
recommend you to the Board of Trustees in the light of a professor,"
he indignantly declared that "if the door of the University of
Pennsylvania was thus closed to him he would soon occupy a chair
equally honorable with that of Doctor Rush in some other school." And
he shortly thereafter was induced to push his fortunes in the great
and growing West.

Coming to Lexington with his shining and commanding talents, his
determination to conquer success, and the brilliant reputation he then
had as an independent writer and lecturer; to become associated with
the yet more brilliant President Holley, and the already well-known
and appreciated medical teachers, Doctors Dudley and Brown; at an
auspicious time when the rapidly improving country felt the want of
medical instruction at home--the rapid success of the Medical
Department of Transylvania (to which he materially contributed by his
able efforts before the public) might well excuse him in his
belief[41] that he had come to Lexington to be the "_premier of the
school_,"[42] that he had come to train and induct his colleagues ("a
most miserable Faculty," he calls them) into efficiency and fame, and
that the success of medical education in Lexington was due mainly to
his individual efforts. Candor obliges us to admit, however, that
there is some truth in the statement of the late Professor Yandell, in
the memoir above quoted. Doctor Yandell was a student in the Medical
Department of Transylvania in 1823, and a most ardent admirer of the
brilliant talents of Professor Caldwell, yet he found that both
Professors Dudley and Drake were more popular with the students, as
teachers, than he. He says (Page 56): "Students, in truth, generally
turned listlessly away from his polished discourses on Sympathy,
Phrenology,[43] the Vital Principle, and other kindred themes, and
hurried off to the lectures on Materia Medica and Anatomy."[44]

In short, Doctor Caldwell excelled in the brilliant discussion of
speculative and theoretical subjects. The extent of his positive
knowledge, as remarked by Doctor Yandell, was greater in superficial
area than in depth; whilst in the terse and lucid exposition of
definite facts, which characterized the instruction of Professor
Dudley, the student felt he was acquiring knowledge which not only was
real but was of practical utility.

The history of the _rise and fall_ of this school of medicine is
illustrated in the detailed list of its classes and graduates as shown
in the annexed _Schedule B_.

The total number of students in the Medical School of Transylvania
during the term of its existence was, as far as can now be ascertained,
more than six thousand four hundred (6,456); the total number of its
medical graduates eighteen hundred and eighty-one (1,881).[45] During
the late civil war the commodious Medical Hall of Transylvania, built in
1839 by the munificence of the city of Lexington, and which had been
seized by the United States Government for use as a United States
General Hospital, was destroyed by fire while occupied for that
purpose.[46] But the medical library,[47] apparatus and museum, etc.,
were mainly preserved, and are now in the custody of the Curators of
Kentucky University, with which institution old Transylvania University
was consolidated in 1865, "all the trusts and conditions" of her
property being preserved in the Act of Consolidation.

The Medical Department may yet be resuscitated when in the course of
events our city again becomes an eligible site for modern medical
instruction, and when special means can be obtained properly to equip
and re-establish it on a basis suited to the existing times.

The gradual decline of this school, like its rapid rise, was due
greatly to the changing conditions of the country. When, shortly after
1812, steamboat navigation began to manifest its superiority and
influence on the channels of commerce, population and business
deserted measurably the interior routes and locations and transferred
themselves to the river valleys and neighborhoods. Gradually during
this change--notwithstanding the talents, ability, and fame of our
Brown, Dudley, Caldwell, Cooke, Short, Yandell, Bartlett, Mitchell,
Smith, and others, and the generous support of the city--the school
declined; more especially because of the establishment of rival
colleges at more eligible points, in growing and populous cities.
Lexington lost its pre-eminence as the "_Metropolis of the Western
Country_," and Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and other places
which had been villages supplied with her manufactures, rapidly became
great cities; while she declined from a population of about eight
thousand in 1814, down to a little over four thousand in 1820, with an
immense loss to her citizens in the value of her property and the
destruction of her industries. In this year (1820) the population of
Cincinnati, which in 1810 had been only two thousand, three hundred
and twenty, had risen to nine thousand, six hundred and forty-four;
and in 1830, when the population of Lexington was yet only five
thousand, six hundred and sixty-two, that of Cincinnati was
twenty-four thousand, eight hundred and thirty-one. When the present
writer came to Lexington in 1832 the population had remained nearly
the same, and an era of decrepitude and decline of all her industries
still prevailed. Lexington had not yet finished her first railroad.

This railroad, the "Lexington & Ohio," was begun in 1831 and completed
as far as Frankfort--twenty-eight miles--in 1835. It was composed of
stone sills laid side by side, with a dressed surface on the portion
upon which the wheels were to run. The cars resembled an old pattern
of street car and were drawn by horses.

The imposing ceremony of laying the first "stone sill" took place on
Water Street, October 21, 1831, "amid a vast throng of people." Indeed,
it was made a very great occasion, which might have been marked with
still greater pomp and circumstance, as the newspapers inform us, had
"more notice been given beforehand." As it was, a large procession,
civic and military, was formed, marshaled by General Leslie Combs, the
renowned "boy-captain of 1812," assisted by handsome James B. Coleman.
Three military companies, including "Hunt's Artillery" and "Captain
Neet's Rifle Guards," were on parade with a fine military band playing
"Yankee Doodle," "Hail, Columbia," and other patriotic airs.
Major-General Pendleton and staff, on horseback, led the march. Governor
Metcalfe and Reverend Nathan H. Hall supported the orator of the day.
The Trustees of the town, the President and Directors of the railroad,
the President and all the officers and Trustees of Transylvania
University, and all the societies of the University and of the town,
were in line. "At eleven o'clock," says the _Lexington Reporter_, "the
three military companies which formed the escort marched from the place
of rendezvous to the college lawn, where they were met by the various
societies and individuals. For many years we have not witnessed such a
pageant, and never a more interesting.

"The procession first moved in a circle around the lawn where it was
formed, at which time the bells in the various churches in town
commenced a merry peal which continued till the procession reached the
place where the ceremony was performed. The military escort then
formed a hollow square, within which the whole civic procession was
enclosed. Thousands of anxious and delighted spectators were on the
outside, among whom we were gratified to see a large concourse of
ladies, for whose accommodation the marshal had directed the adjacent
market-house to be appropriated.

"Doctor Caldwell then delivered a highly interesting and appropriate
address.

"A Federal salute was fired at sunrise, and seven guns when the first
stone sill was laid, indicating the seven sections of the road under
contract."

Doctor Caldwell spoke in polished and eloquent phrase of the
advantages accruing to Lexington and the whole adjacent country from
the establishment of this road. He prophesied also great benefit to
Louisville therefrom.

We learn from the same old newspaper that Doctor Caldwell was
announced to deliver a lecture, a few evenings later, at the first
meeting of the "Lexington Lyceum," at the court house. The subject of
the lecture was "The Moral and Incidental Influences of Railroads."
"Ladies and strangers" were invited to attend.

But in later days, in competition with the steamboat, the newer and
swifter mode of transportation--the railroad--has been gradually but
surely restoring to the inland regions, and to Lexington, their lost
prosperity. Our city has steadily risen to about seventeen thousand
(1873), with a good prospect of a further increase of prosperity and
population as railroads centering here may be extended. Then may we
hope to put into active operation once more our time-honored Medical
College, and to attract to it a creditable number of students. More
particularly if, with the co-operation of the more enlightened members
of our profession, an effort be faithfully made in the renovated
college to bring about the much-needed reform in medical education,
the necessity for which is now generally recognized. So that the mere
fact of a student attending two courses of lectures, with other
somewhat easy requisitions, may not entitle him to the degree of
Doctor of Medicine, as has been too frequently the case amongst
competing medical colleges. That full preparation and training, in a
sufficient period of time, shall be required of the candidates into
whose hands the health and lives of communities are to be committed.
On such a basis--when our city may have acquired increased facilities
for clinical instruction, and when anatomical studies will not be
cramped for want of means of demonstration--the old Medical College of
Transylvania may revive under the wing of a people's educational
institution such as Transylvania is and always was--a "_State
University_."

Difficulties in the procurement of a sufficient supply of material for
anatomical instruction, coupled with the demand for clinical teaching
which was beginning to be urged by the profession, forced themselves
on the attention of the Medical Faculty of Transylvania before the
year 1836-37. But in that year a determined effort was made,
engineered and led by Professor Caldwell, to remove the Medical
College to Louisville, that city having been induced by the earnest
and eloquent appeals of Caldwell to offer it a large bonus. But for
the early withdrawal of Doctor Dudley from this promising scheme,
toward which he was at first inclined--because mainly of his
difficulties in the supply of anatomical material--it would have been
successful. But Doctor Dudley finally declined to remove, much to the
mortification of Doctor Caldwell, who, in his last valedictory to the
graduates of 1837, indulged in a very bitter impersonal-personal
tirade against deception and mendacity, aimed at Doctor Dudley--not
saying openly to his colleague "thou art the man"--but hoping "the cap
would fit him" and find its place. The Trustees of the University, of
course, and influential citizens, violently opposed the proposed
change. Doctor Caldwell was arraigned before the Board on charges
preferred by Doctor Dudley, the principal of which was that he had
been engaged in the enterprise of originating a rival medical college
in Louisville while he was yet a professor in the Transylvania College
and under oath to support it. Doctor Caldwell, disdaining to answer
the summons of the Board, was, after a long and full investigation of
the evidence, dismissed from his chair in Transylvania. The Medical
Faculty was then dissolved and reorganized.[48]

Doctors Cooke and Yandell, and finally Doctor Short, joined Doctor
Caldwell to aid in the establishment of the _Louisville Medical
Institute_. Professors Dudley and Richardson and the assistant
professors, Bush and Peter, remained in Lexington. The celebrated
Professor John Eberle was called to the chair of Theory and Practice,
but he died shortly after the delivery of his introductory lecture.
Professor Thomas D. Mitchell was appointed to the chair of Chemistry,
etc., and Doctor James C. Cross to that of the Institutes of
Medicine.[49]


DOCTOR JOHN ESTEN COOKE

Removed from Virginia in 1827 to fill the chair of the Theory and
Practice of Medicine in Transylvania University, which had just been
vacated by Doctor Drake. He had already acquired a high reputation as
a practitioner of medicine; he had published an able essay on autumnal
fever in the _Medical Recorder_ for 1824, and had in the same year
produced the first volume of his very remarkable _Treatise on
Pathology and Therapeutics_, the second volume of which he published
in Lexington in 1828. The promised third volume, which was to complete
the work, never appeared. He remained in Transylvania Medical School
until 1837, when, under the leadership of Doctor Caldwell, he with
Doctor Yandell, removed to Louisville to engage in originating a new
medical college, the "_Louisville Medical Institute_." In this and in
its successor, the "_Medical Department of the Louisville
University_," he remained until a few years before his death, which
occurred on his farm on the Ohio River above Louisville, October 19,
1853, in the seventy-first year of his age.

[Illustration: DOCTOR JOHN ESTEN COOKE.

From a Photograph.]

Doctor Cooke was in many respects a remarkable man, who acquired a
widespread reputation in this country, especially in the Mississippi
Valley. His fame was mainly built on his celebrated theory of the
universal origin of disease, which was, that disease was caused by
cold or malaria. That especially it commenced in weakened action of
the heart, resulting in _congestion of the vena cava_, its branches
and capillary distribution, and that fever was but the reaction of the
vital force to overcome this condition, which unrelieved would result
in death. According to him, all autumnal and malarial fevers were but
variations of one diseased condition, and even those fearful scourges
the plague, cholera, yellow fever, dysentery, etc., were simply varied
forms and conditions of congestion of the _vena cava_.

To destroy this many-headed hydra--while he would use cold water to
reduce too great febrile excitement and even sometimes give antimonial
wine[50]--his main reliance was on blood-letting and cholagogue
purgatives, as he believed it was by increasing the secretion of the
liver and causing it to pour out consistent "black bile" that the
venous congestion was to be relieved and the patient cured.

Amongst all these remedies calomel was his chief reliance, and was
given by him in doses not measured by the balance but by the effect
they produced; so that in the latter days of practice--notably during
the epidemic of cholera in Lexington in 1833--he absolutely resorted
to tablespoonful doses of this mercurial, repeated _pro re nata_;
actually giving about _one pound_ in one day to a young patient,
without fatal result.

Two cases may be quoted from his own paper in the _Transylvania
Medical Journal_, and from Doctor Yandell's _Memoir of Doctor Cooke_
in the _American Practitioner_ for July, 1875. "William Douglass, a
student of theology, nineteen years of age, took a tablespoonful
(about two ounces) every six hours for three days in succession,
having taken the same quantity the evening before; in all, thirteen
tablespoonfuls. He was in collapse when he took the first dose. On the
third morning after beginning this treatment his discharges were found
to have become thick and green, and Doctor Cooke thought he would have
recovered but for the indiscretion of his attendant, who had him to
walk across a large room from one bed to another more than once.
Hiccough came on, the patient became delirious, and died on the sixth
day. But another patient recovered about this time under similar
treatment, and still lives, I believe--a useful Episcopal clergyman,
and an illustration of the extent to which calomel may be employed in
some diseases without injury to health. Mr. Brittan, a young
theological student, took a tablespoonful of calomel soon after having
had several copious watery discharges. He was advised to repeat the
dose every six hours, until the watery discharges ceased. He took,
that day, four and on the next, three of these doses; the discharges
not ceasing until some time after the seventh dose had been taken. He
took, moreover, three similar doses during the same time--having
thrown up three. The _repeated doses_ were given immediately after the
regular ones were thrown up. Bilious discharges appeared on the
evening of the second day, and were kept up by tincture of aloes and
occasionally pills of aloes and rhubarb for a week. The patient was
somewhat salivated, but recovered. I saw him a number of years
afterwards in perfect health."

Doctor Yandell asserts in this memoir that in this "extraordinary
practice, Doctor Cooke was not less successful in the treatment of
cholera than his medical brethren in Lexington." But the fact was that
none were very successful and that as many as fifty died in a day of a
population of a little over six thousand.[51] The writer recollects
that Doctor Cooke only practiced in the earlier period of this famous
epidemic, having been disabled by a fall in attempting, in his hurry
to attend a professional call, to put on his coat while running down
stairs.

In another case of cholera which occurred at this time, as the present
writer was informed by the intelligent and truthful brother of the
young lady patient of Doctor Cooke, these large tablespoonful doses
passed through the bowels apparently unchanged, being discharged in
lumps as large as pullets' eggs, without being even dissolved. This
patient did not recover.

Calomel is well known to be practically insoluble in pure water at the
common temperature. It is decomposed to a certain extent by the action
of light, or by a moderate heat in the presence of water, and
especially by the aid of acids of various kinds, and by certain salts
such as alkaline and other soluble chlorides--especially potassium,
sodium, and ammonium chlorides.

In all these cases of partial decomposition some of the mercurous
chloride--the calomel--is changed into soluble mercuric chloride and
metallic mercury. This decomposition is supposed to result from the
action of the alkaline chlorides and the chloro-hydric and other acids
of the gastric juice when calomel is taken into the stomach under
ordinary circumstances. It is believed that the activity of the
calomel depends mainly on the amount of this decomposition which takes
place in the body.

Especially does this partial decomposition of calomel into corrosive
sublimate occur, to a great extent, when it is mixed in water with
sal-ammoniac (ammonium chloride), as has been experienced in cases of
poisoning by the administration of even moderate doses of calomel
which had been mixed with this salt. In an experiment by the present
writer in which three tenths of a gram of calomel and one and two
tenths of a gram of sal-ammoniac with ten grams of water were allowed
to react at the common temperature for twenty-four hours, as much as
0.019 of a gram of corrosive sublimate was found.

No doubt these facts throw much light on the very irregular action of
calomel in different persons and under various conditions, in doses
which may be very small or very large. We can easily understand how,
when the stomach secretes no gastric juice and when the salts of the
blood have been greatly reduced in quantity by watery purging as in
cholera, the calomel may pass through the alimentary canal unchanged,
insoluble and inactive, or exert a doubtful topical action only.

The present writer's own experience--when he was a medical student,
and when fully impressed by the sincere and logical teachings of
Doctor Cooke, who, however halting and hesitating may have been his
manner or unadorned his style of lecturing, always commanded the fixed
attention and highest respect of his pupils--soon opened his eyes to
the faults in the theory of the professor.

On one occasion, having been brought into a somewhat febrile condition
by fatigue in a botanical excursion in hot weather, and having full
faith in the statements of Doctor Cooke to the effect that calomel was
of all antifebrile remedies the best, and that while a small dose of
calomel might prove irritating _a good large dose_ "would sometimes
act like an opiate," he took a one drachm dose in full confidence. But
instead of the soothing, curative effect he had been led to expect,
vomiting and severe irritation of the stomach resulted, so much so
that no food but boiled milk could be tolerated for a week or so
afterward. Shaken in his faith by his first experience, but not yet
convinced of the error of the doctrine of his respected preceptor, the
second trial of a drachm dose on a similar occasion completely
satisfied him that something wrong had crept into the theory and
practice of the honored professor.

Doctor Cooke's only fear in his heroic use of calomel was that it
would salivate. But for this untoward influence, he said, one might
do almost anything with it. That this substance which, in cases of
cholera, he administered so largely with no signs of irritation or
salivation, until the patient was in a convalescent state, should
sometimes in much smaller doses prove an irritant poison, he did not
understand. A quotation from Doctor Yandell's _Memoir_, Page 7,
illustrates this: "In some cases of fever Doctor Cooke administered a
drachm of calomel at a dose, and repeated it until the patient had
taken in twenty-four hours as much as two hundred and forty grains. A
young lady was thus treated in 1826. After this quantity had been
given she seemed much relieved, but to avert the danger of salivation
he thought it prudent to administer jalap and cream of tartar. At
night they were thrown up, without producing any purgative effect. She
then took a drachm of calomel, and repeated it until she had taken
five doses in the course of the night and morning, with the same fine
effect in producing abundant bilious discharges, and a remarkably good
effect on the symptoms generally." Still uneasy about ptyalism, he
gave her cream of tartar all day, but at night it was thrown up as
before, without moving the bowels. "My fears of the consequence of
giving the only medicine which offered any prospect of saving her," he
adds, "held my hand, and she continued to vomit till death relieved
her. I reproached myself on her account afterward, and felt conscious
that fear of a remote and uncertain evil had induced me to stand and
see her die without doing all I might have done. I was convinced she
would not have died had the calomel been continued."

After she had thus taken more than an ounce of calomel he honestly
believed that he had not given her enough of this medicine! Entirely
ignoring the action of the cream of tartar in bringing this substance
partly into the condition of a soluble irritant poison!

To convince myself of this decomposing action of cream of tartar on
calomel, I placed about a drachm of calomel in each of two small
beaker glasses. In the one I put pure distilled water, in the other I
added to the water about a drachm of cream of tartar. Heating them to
about blood heat and allowing them to stand for a few hours, I
filtered both liquids from the undissolved calomel. Ammonium sulphide,
added to the filtered fluids, threw down from that which contained the
cream of tartar a sensible amount of dark mercurial sulphide, while
that which contained pure water gave no notable reaction. Evidently
the cream of tartar had caused the decomposition of some of the
insoluble calomel and had produced a soluble mercurial compound. All
soluble compounds of mercury are active poisons in small doses,
while, as was fully proven by Doctor Cooke's extraordinary practice
with this substance, pure unchanged calomel is one of the most
insoluble substances. Consequently it sometimes proved harmless in
very large doses, as was the case when the copious watery discharges
of cholera had removed most of the salts of the blood.

The Doctor took no note of possible agencies which might make his
master remedy occasionally poisonous, and scouted the careful practice
of some of the older physicians in causing their patients to abstain
from the use of common salt while taking calomel, a recommendation
based upon valid experience, no doubt, which science has verified.

The Doctor rose to two ounces, or tablespoonful doses, during the
prevalence of Asiatic cholera in Lexington, but he did not confine
this treatment to that fearful disease. The present writer has
preserved one of the last of his mammoth doses--one of a dozen of the
same weight (about an ounce)--which he prescribed for a medical
student of the session of 1836-37, the subject of pneumonia, and who
took eleven such doses in regular succession before he died.

In Doctor Cooke's earlier practice, and in the treatment of less
severe cases, he relied greatly on his famous pills--well known in the
region of Lexington as "Cooke's Pills"--composed of equal parts of
calomel, aloes, and rhubarb; or on tincture of aloes and the lancet,
with the occasional use of a few other remedies. These constituted his
sole armament with which to encounter disease. For he was a man of the
strictest and most earnest honesty, sincerity, and zeal, and withal so
wedded to his logical convictions that he would at any time have died
a martyr to his well-matured beliefs. Indeed, according to the
testimony of his friend, the late Lunsford P. Yandell, he seems thus
to have been to some extent a martyr to his own theory and practice.

On Page 22 of Doctor Yandell's _Memoir of Doctor Cooke_, we are
informed that "his practice on himself was of the same heroic
character that he pursued with his patients. He bled himself at once
copiously and repeated the operation again and again as symptoms
appeared to him to demand it, at the same time keeping up purgation
with calomel. Exposed as he was on his farm, these attacks became
frequent and his constitution, naturally enfeebled by increasing
years, at length gave way under them."

Again, on Page 27 of the same _Memoir_, Doctor Yandell says: "The
perfect sincerity with which he held his opinions was evinced by his
carrying out his practice in his own case. On one occasion this was
near costing him his life. He was seized with intermittent fever, on
his farm near Louisville in the fall of 1844, and for several days
took his pills--composed of calomel, rhubarb, and aloes--in the
confident belief that they would arrest the disease; but the chills
continued to recur with an increasing tendency to congestion until at
last his case became alarming. His old friend, General Mercer, of
Virginia, who happened to be on a visit to him at the time, called on
me and gave me an account of his situation, asking me to visit him.
Doctor Cooke was reluctant to take quinine, but finally consented and
was relieved, and afterward, I believe, used the remedy in his practice."

A characteristic anecdote is recorded of him in _Collins' History of
Kentucky_. "One Sunday morning, waiting on some of his family to get
ready for church--the Methodist church, of which he and they were
members--he picked up a discourse by the Reverend Doctor Chapman, then
Episcopal clergyman of Lexington. The argument for the Old Church of
England attracted his attention. He perused and studied it fully, sent
for all the available authorities on the subject; studied them with
such effect that at once he changed his communion to the Episcopal
Church and was ever after a rigid and zealous pillar to that church,
and an industrious student of the writings of the theological fathers."

His logic, on which he based his medical theory and practice, is most
elaborately set forth in his only large work, already mentioned--_A
Treatise of Pathology and Therapeutics_--and was tersely summed up by
a most zealous believer and pupil of his[52] as follows: "If all
diseases result from congestion of the _vena cava_, and if calomel is
the best and most reliable remedy, what is the use of applying to any
other means?"

Because of its simplicity and its apparently logical basis, the system
of Doctor Cooke was very attractive to students of medicine. If
true--and they could not doubt it--it was a great new discovery of a
royal road to medical practice which avoided all the drudgery over
pathology, chemistry, the materia medica and therapeutics of the old
school. All ordinary diseases were a unit produced by a common cause,
and calomel was the principal panacea!

But alas! the logical system of Doctor Cooke, like many other
beautiful and well-laid superstructures, failed in this essential
thing--_the foundation on which it was raised was not true_.

Logical minds too often willingly lay down or accept assumptions, or
uncertain facts, as axioms, and are satisfied if the deductions from
these are logically accurate and perfect. Doctor Cooke, in a slow and
laborious way, took infinite pains to build up his logical
superstructure. The writer recollects his illustration of logical
connections, by means of certain pieces of wood united by strings;
and, notwithstanding his unadorned style and slow and hesitating
manner, his students--carried away by his well-known truthfulness,
sincerity, and earnest zeal, and incapable of judging for themselves
of the validity of his premises--accepted his doctrine as a new
revelation and were almost unanimously his ardent followers until
experience or more ample knowledge opened their eyes to its faults.

Before he removed from Transylvania School to the new one in
Louisville in 1837, severe criticisms of his teachings had been
published. Indeed it had begun to be believed by some that these
teachings were marring the prosperity of that old college. Soon after
his removal to Louisville, we are told by Doctor Yandell, "the current
which from the first had set in against his theory and practice grew
every year more formidable" until "assailed on all sides, and from
within as well as from without, his theory steadily lost ground, his
practice grew more unpopular and his influence as a teacher visibly
declined from the day he began to lecture in Louisville."[53] So that
in 1843 he was, on petition of the students, retired on a three years'
pension of two thousand dollars per annum.

Besides the two volumes of his _Pathology and Therapeutics_ he
published a small work on _Autumnal Diseases_, and a number of medical
papers in _The Transylvania Journal of Medicine_, of which he was one
of the original editors. The congestive theory of disease had its
short day, like many others which have floated like bubbles on the
stream of medical progress. We remember it as one of the curiosities
of medical literature.[54]


DOCTOR CHARLES WILKINS SHORT

Was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, at "Greenfields," October 6,
1794. He connected himself with the Medical Department of Transylvania
University in 1825. He had been called by the Trustees in a previous
year to the chair of Materia Medica and Medical Botany, but did not at
once accept.

Doctor Short was a most upright, conscientious, modest, undemonstrative
gentleman of great delicacy of feeling. He was a most zealous and
industrious botanist, and was possessed of artistic tastes and ability.

One of his greatest pleasures was in his extensive herbarium, rich
with the native plants of Kentucky collected by himself, as well as
with those from other regions obtained by the exchange of specimens
with the various botanists of the world, with whom he corresponded
individually and extensively. He, in conjunction with Professors H. H.
Eaton, H. A. Griswold, and R. Peter, contributed to the _Transylvania
Journal of Medicine_ several papers on the plants of Kentucky,[55] and
wrote for that periodical several papers on this subject and on
medical topics, as well as numerous obituary notices of medical men.
He was not the author of any large treatise.

In addition to his notices and catalogues of Kentucky plants he
published in the _Transylvania Medical Journal_:

"Instructions for Gathering and Preservation of Plants in Herbaria."

"Botanical Bibliography." 1835.

"A Brief Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Cholera
Asphyxia." 1835.

"A Sketch of the Progress of Botany in Western America."

In 1845, he wrote "Observations of the Botany of Illinois," published
in the _Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery_.

In the early volumes of the _Transylvania Journal_ also appeared his
notices of two remarkable cases which occurred in Lexington. One, of
supposed _spontaneous combustion of the human body_, and the other of
_paralysis of the kidneys_.

At his death his vast collection of botanical specimens, in the
formation of which he took such delight, and to which he had devoted
so great a portion of his life, was bequeathed to the Smithsonian
Institution at Washington, but there was no appropriate place there in
which to display so large a collection. It is now in possession of the
Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia. During his life no less
than five of the distinguished botanists of the age honored his name
by attaching it to six new genera and species of plants.

[Illustration: DOCTOR CHARLES WILKINS SHORT.]

His lectures to the medical students on Materia Medica and Medical
Botany he always read from his manuscript, which detracted somewhat
from his impressiveness. He was too modest to trust himself to oral
discourses.[56] Yet his pupils were always closely attentive and
respectful, holding him and his teachings in high esteem.[57]

He was Dean of the Medical Faculty in Transylvania for about ten years.

For some years he was co-editor of the _Transylvania Journal of
Medicine_ with Doctor Cooke. This quarterly they founded in Lexington
in 1828.

Doctor Short severed his connection with the Transylvania Medical
School in 1838 to be allied with Doctors Caldwell, Cooke, and Yandell
in the Medical Institute of Louisville,[58] in which he remained until
1849, when his colleagues elected him Emeritus Professor of Materia
Medica and Botany. He died at his beautiful country residence,
"Hayfield," near Louisville, on March 7, 1863, aged sixty-nine years.

Doctor Short's father was Peyton Short, who came to Kentucky from
Surry County, Virginia, and whose mother was Elizabeth, daughter of
Sir William Skipwith, Baronet. His mother was Mary, daughter of John
Cleves Symmes, formerly of Long Island, who filled various offices of
honor and trust in Cincinnati. His sister was the wife of Doctor
Benjamin Winslow Dudley. His brother was the late Judge John Cleves
Short, of North Bend, Ohio. He married Mary Henry Churchill, only
daughter of Armistead and Jane Henry Churchill. Of his six
children--one son and five daughters--all were prosperous in life.

The early education of Doctor Short was in the school of the celebrated
Joshua Fry, and, in 1810, he graduated with honor in the Academical
Department of Transylvania University, beginning soon afterward the
study of medicine with his uncle, Professor Frederick Ridgely. He
repaired to Philadelphia in 1813 and became a private pupil of Doctor
Casper Wistar, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania,
in which university Doctor Short received the degree of Doctor of
Medicine in the spring of 1815, returning shortly after to Kentucky.
Doctor Short was a consistent member of the Presbyterian church.[59]


PROFESSOR LUNSFORD PITTS YANDELL, SENIOR, M. D.

Was called to the chair of Chemistry and Pharmacy in the Medical
Department of Transylvania University, March 16, 1831.[60] He had
attended the course of lectures in that school in 1822-23, having
previously acquired a good general and classical education in the
Bradley Academy, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and having studied medicine
some time with his father, Doctor Wilson Yandell, a physician of high
standing.

While attending the lectures in the Transylvania Medical College he
became favorably known as a young man of industry, good attainments,
and ability, and of popular manners. Especially was he a favorite
pupil of Professor Charles Caldwell, who became his ardent friend, and
through whose active influence, mainly, he was called in 1831--after
he had received the degree of M. D. from the University of
Maryland--to occupy the Chemical chair in the Transylvania School.

Although he had been a good and apt scholar in his preliminary
education, he had never devoted especial attention to chemistry,
which at that time, notwithstanding the neglect or opposition of the
older medical teachers--notably the ridicule of Professor Caldwell and
others--was beginning to be recognized as an essential element of a
good medical education.

This want of special training and experience in this branch of science
on his part naturally caused opposition to his appointment to this
chair, which was allayed by making the late Hezekiah Hulbert Eaton, A.
M., professor adjunct to the Chemical chair, and giving him one third
of the tuition fees.

Professor Eaton was a young man of fine attainments and thorough
practical training in chemistry and natural science generally; a
graduate of Rensselaer Institute of Troy, New York, under the
administration of his father, the celebrated Amos Eaton.[61]

Adjunct Professor Eaton died of consumption at the age of
twenty-three, before the end of the first year; but during the short
term of his service he had, by his industry and practical knowledge,
greatly improved the means of instruction in the Chemical Department
by a complete reorganization of the laboratory and the procurement of
much new apparatus, etc.[62]

[Illustration: DOCTOR LUNSFORD P. YANDELL, SENIOR.]

After the death of Professor Eaton, August 16, 1832, the present
writer, then residing in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, who had also been a
student in the Rensselaer Institute and consequently known to
Professor Eaton, was persuaded by the late Reverend Benjamin Orr Peers
to visit Lexington, Kentucky, to deliver a course of chemical lectures
in the Eclectic Institute, of which Mr. Peers was principal and of
which young Professor Eaton had been a professor. During this course,
in 1832, the writer was induced by Professor Yandell, by private
arrangement, to assist him in his next course of lectures to the
medical students of Transylvania and to commence the regular study of
medicine with a view to graduation.

Under this arrangement, which continued until the disruption of the
Medical Faculty in 1837, Doctor Yandell, in his usual able and
brilliant manner, delivered the chemical lectures to the students,
while to the writer was committed the preparation and performance of
the demonstrative experimental part.

On his removal to Louisville in 1837, to join in the establishment of
the rival school, the Louisville Medical Institute, Doctor Yandell
taught in the combined chairs of Chemistry and Materia Medica, never
failing ably and impressively to perform this arduous duty. Not
having any particular taste for so severe a study as practical
chemistry, although no one was more impressed with the philosophical
beauty and wide practical value of the science, he naturally sought a
transfer to a chair more congenial with his tastes and the character
of his mind than that of chemistry. This, circumstances prevented
until, in 1849, the Trustees of the school--having come to the
conclusion that Professor Caldwell had become superannuated--placed
Doctor Yandell in the chair of Physiology, for which subject he had a
decided taste. This change procured him the animosity of his whilom
friend, Doctor Caldwell, who, in his rather unfortunate
_Autobiography_ written in his last declining years, indulged in much
bitter denunciation of his late colleague. It is much to the credit of
Doctor Yandell that, although when this angry publication was fresh
from the press he retaliated by showing in ample quotations from the
_Autobiography_ some of the weak points in Doctor Caldwell's
character, he was disposed in following years, as the writer knows, to
extend over these weaknesses the mantle of kindness.

Doctor Yandell occupied this chair of Physiology with great credit until
he resigned, in 1859, to accept a chair in the Medical School of
Memphis, Tennessee. During the Civil War he devoted himself to hospital
service. In 1862, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of
Memphis, and in 1864 was ordained pastor of the Dancyville Presbyterian
church. He resigned his pastorship in 1867, and returned to Louisville
to resume the practice of medicine, which he had never entirely
abandoned during the whole of his professional life.

While resident in Lexington he was for some years sole editor of the
_Transylvania Journal of Medicine_, to which he contributed several
able papers. In Louisville he was editor for some time of the _Western
Journal of Medicine and Surgery_, in both cases filling the editorial
chair with characteristic activity and ability. He was always a
contributor to the medical literature of his day in numerous papers,
especially in biographical sketches and obituary memoirs of medical
men of Kentucky and Tennessee, a more complete collection of which he
was said to be preparing at the time of his last illness. He held a
facile pen; few writers of our times have produced more classical and
graceful essays. As a public speaker and lecturer he was ever
impressive, graceful, and chaste. His social qualities made him always
welcome and prominent in all public assemblies of his medical
brethren. In 1872, he was elected President of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Louisville, and at the time of his death he
was President of the Medical Society of Kentucky. His decease
occurred February 4, 1878, in the seventy-third year of his age.


DOCTOR ROBERT PETER,

Though of foreign birth, came of that same class of British ancestry
which has given the United States her representative Americans,
Virginia her great men, our own State her typical Kentuckians. Born at
Launceston, Cornwall, January 21, 1805, he was a member of the Peter
family of Devon and Essex, which produced in former times the
remarkable Sir William Peter or Petre, to which has been ascribed the
noted Hugh Peter or Peters, and from which collaterally are descended
the present Lords Bathurst and Petre. Robert Peter came to America
with his parents, Robert and Johanna Dawe Peter, and their six other
children, when twelve years old, landing at Baltimore and later
settling at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The father, it seems, succeeded
in none of his money-making enterprises in the new country, and Robert
had early to support himself and to contribute something to the
maintenance of the family. He was placed in Charles Avery's wholesale
drug store at Pittsburg and there received a first-rate business
education, while diligently cultivating his decided taste for
chemistry. In 1828, he became a naturalized citizen of the United
States. The same year, after attending one session (by especial
request) at the Rensselaer Institute Scientific School at Troy, New
York, he acquired the title of "Lecturer on the Natural Sciences,"[63]
and delivered a course of chemical lectures to a small class in
Pittsburg, was a member of the Hesperian Society and contributed to
its organ, _The Hesperus_, numerous papers, scientific, literary, and
poetical. In 1829, as member of the Pittsburg Philosophical Society,
he gave a course of lectures on the Natural Sciences before that
Society. In 1830-31, he lectured on Chemistry in the Western
University of Pennsylvania. In 1832, he came to Lexington, Kentucky,
somewhat reluctantly, at the urgent insistence of Reverend Benjamin O.
Peers, to be associated with him in the proprietorship of his
"Eclectic Institute," at that place, and to deliver a course of
lectures in the Institute.[64]

While thus engaged, Professor Peter was induced by Doctor Yandell,
Professor of Chemistry, to accept the duties of adjunct to the chair
of Chemistry, a position made vacant by the death of Professor H. H.
Eaton, August 16, 1832.

On March 16, 1833, he was unanimously elected to the chair of
Chemistry in Morrison College, Transylvania University, being
installed on the occasion of the dedication of that college, November
4, 1833, when the oath of office was administered to Mr. Peers as
Proctor of Morrison College and President _pro tem._ of the
University. Professor Peter then studied medicine in Transylvania,
receiving his diploma March 18, 1834. He was present during the
terrible epidemic of cholera in Lexington in 1833, and with Doctor
Yandell attended the first case--that of a Mr. Henry. Though a
successful practitioner, Doctor Peter, like Doctor Short, had a
distaste for the life of a physician, and soon retired to more
congenial scientific labors. On October 6, 1835, he married Frances
Paca, eldest daughter of Major William S. Dallam. In 1838,[65] he was
elected to the chair of Chemistry and Pharmacy in Transylvania Medical
Department, and, until the close of the school in 1857, was honorably
connected with it. From 1847 to the end, in 1857, he was chosen Dean
of the Faculty, being Librarian as well. In 1839, with Doctor James M.
Bush, Doctor Peter spent most of the summer in London and Paris
purchasing books, apparatus, and other means of instruction for the
Medical Department.[66] After hearing numerous lectures by famous
doctors, and after visiting the model hospitals, etc., of the day, he
writes to his wife (Paris, June 27, 1839): "We can have as great men
[in Lexington] as either of those cities [London and Paris], and
neither of them contains a man as eminent in surgery as Doctor
Dudley"; and from London, August 11, 1839: "We have bought a great
many fine books and a great deal of excellent apparatus and anatomical
and other models. Transylvania will shine. No other institution in our
part of the world will be able to compare with her in the means of
instruction. In fact, I have seen none in Europe that is more
completely prepared to teach _modern_ medicine."[67]

Daguerre, in 1839, had just published the process of his wonderful
art, and it constituted perhaps the greatest novelty in Paris at the
time of the sojourn there of Doctor Bush and Doctor Peter; so along
with the apparatus for Transylvania was brought to Lexington a
daguerreotype outfit which surely must have been the first ever seen
in that city, if not the first ever used in the West. This primitive
camera and its accompaniments, which Doctor Peter showed to his
classes many years after, can still be found, it is supposed, among
the old Transylvania possessions preserved at the Kentucky University.

On his return from Europe Doctor Peter engaged in much valuable
chemical research for the benefit of medical science, notably his
examinations of calculi, published in 1846.[68] He also, in 1846,
experimented with the then newly discovered explosive, gun-cotton, and
with pyroxyline made from paper and other materials. His chemical
research and teachings all were now and invariably along practical
lines. Leaving theory to others, his own endeavors were in
anticipation of useful results in practice. Quick to adopt new views
when properly sustained by facts, he was highly appreciative of
improved methods, a trait strikingly displayed when, in his old age,
the most radical changes revolutionized the methods of chemical work.
Laying aside the long-familiar doctrines, practiced since his
far-distant youth, he took up the new with an ease--even
alacrity--hardly excelled by contemporary chemists of a younger
generation. In his early days he experimented much with
electricity--then little understood. He gave much attention to
geology, mineralogy, zoology, and botany. Associated with Doctor
Charles W. Short and Professor Henry A. Griswold, he made important
botanical explorations.[69] His fine herbarium, including specimens
exchanged for with leading European botanists, he gave in after years
to the Kentucky State Agricultural and Mechanical College. Doctor
Lewis Rogers, in his address as President to the Kentucky State
Medical Society, 1878, says: "In the interesting departments of Botany
and Chemistry, Doctor Charles Wilkins Short and Doctor Peter are known
throughout the scientific world. As teachers, the modest, almost
shrinking manner, the seemingly acerb dignity, and Addisonian style of
the one and the lucid expositions and brilliant illustrations of the
other, must be remembered by all who ever listened to them." In
1850-53, Doctor Peter filled with distinction the chair of Chemistry
in the newly founded Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, since
so successful. On October 19, 1853, at the third meeting of the
Kentucky Medical Society at Lexington, he proposed to memorialize the
legislature in regard to the establishment of a Geological Survey of
Kentucky. Accordingly, he prepared such a memorial (in connection with
his "Report on the Relation of Forms of Disease to the Geological
Formation of a Region"), accompanied by a geological map,  by
himself.[70] In consequence of this memorial, which was unanimously
sanctioned by the several agricultural societies of the State, the
first Geological Survey of Kentucky--which was also the first large
State enterprise of the kind undertaken in the West--was begun in
1854, under the able and experienced direction of Doctor David Dale
Owen. While chemist to this survey, Doctor Peter demonstrated what
previously he had sturdily maintained and ably argued--that by soil
analysis could be determined the elements necessary to increase and
preserve the fertility of soils.[71] He was probably the first in
America to apply quantitative and qualitative analysis in this
manner--certainly the first to apply it to any great extent. He proved
by numerous analyses that chemical analysis as practiced by him was
capable of showing the deterioration of soils by long cultivation. He
did this by comparing the composition of the virgin soil with that of
soil taken from a near-by old field.[72] The amount of chemical work
accomplished by Doctor Peter in the Kentucky Survey seems wellnigh
impossible when it is considered that at the same time he lectured
daily six times a week in two colleges--never omitting to prepare
experiments in illustration of his subject. Some Eastern chemists were
actually disposed to dispute the facts. One of these asserted that "no
chemist could make more than one soil analysis in less than a month."
Doctor Owen says in this regard: "Without a knowledge of the peculiar
circumstances under which the work was performed, the amount of Doctor
Peter's chemical labor during the last six years, as chemical
assistant to the Survey of Kentucky, might appear incredible, for he
has, in fact, performed a greater number of _reliable_, _detailed_,
_practically useful_ analyses of soils than any living
chemist"[73]--which comes with authority, for Doctor Owen, a man not
given to exaggeration, was in position to view the whole field, and as
Director fully and faithfully informed himself as to what was going on
all over the world in matters relating to his department. Doctor Owen
said no chemists in this country had thought proper to turn their
special attention to soil analysis, but that Doctor Peter, with the
help of only one assistant to do the more mechanical part of the work,
had in six years of the survey made one thousand, one hundred and
twenty-six quantitative analyses, three hundred and seventy-five of
which were of soils in which, on an average, twelve different
substances were determined. In addition to this and the preparation of
his own chemical report, Doctor Peter personally supervised the
publication of the four royal 8vo volumes of this Survey, reading and
correcting all proof and adding an obituary biographical sketch of his
friend Doctor Owen, whose death, November 13, 1860, had terminated the
survey. Before arrangements could be made to continue this important
public work the Civil War intervened, putting a stop to all such
beneficent pursuits. Doctor Peter unhesitatingly and warmly upheld his
adopted country against secession. Unable to take the field with his
friend, Ethelbert Dudley, he promptly fell into the ranks of Dudley's
Home Guards, shoulder to shoulder with Benjamin Gratz, Madison C.
Johnson, David A. Sayre, and other such fellow-citizens.[74] He was
appointed Acting Assistant Surgeon in charge of Military Hospitals at
Lexington, Kentucky, being most of the time senior surgeon in charge,
quickly bringing his hospitals to a high state of order and
efficiency. It was this gift of reducing to system, combined with
untiring energy and diligence, which in his long life tended to make
all his work both rapid and successful. Thus he carried on
simultaneously numbers of analyses with immense saving of time, while
other chemists went through each operation separately--making his
results almost beyond belief. When, after the war, the survey was
resumed under Professor N. S. Shaler, Doctor Peter prepared three
chemical reports of his analytical work, 1873-78. A total of four
hundred and seventy-seven pages, containing eight hundred and
seventy-one analyses.

In the survey continued under the late John R. Procter, he prepared
six reports, five of which were published, covering five hundred and
eighty-eight pages, describing nine hundred and seventy-seven
analyses--a total of one thousand, eight hundred and forty-eight
published analyses. The sixth report--the ninth of the new
survey--made to Procter, was not published for the lack of funds, and
the manuscript seems to have been lost. The analyses, of which there
are about four hundred, will be published, however, by the present
able director of the newly resumed Geological Survey, Professor C. J.
Norwood, in as nearly the original form as can be restored from the
records. Thus, with the one assistant, Doctor Peter made for the new
survey about two thousand, two hundred and fifty analyses. Besides
which, during his active life in Lexington, he had at all times
considerable practice as consulting and analytical chemist, making for
individuals many analyses not included in the above. As a toxicologist
he had a high reputation, and his expert testimony usually carried the
day in cases wherein he was called. At the time of the First Kentucky
Survey, under Doctor Owen, Doctor Peter had also contributed to the
second report of a Geological Reconnoissance of the Southern and
Middle Counties of Arkansas, made during the years 1859 and 1860, an
octavo volume of four hundred and thirty-three pages, in which he
gives the history of two hundred and seventy-one chemical analyses
made by himself of soils, subsoils, under-clays, nitre-earths, etc.,
of Arkansas, with remarks in one hundred and twenty-five pages of
report. At the same time he made chemical analyses of thirty-three
soils, subsoils, etc., of the State of Indiana for the survey of that
State begun by Doctor D. D. Owen and continued, on Doctor Owen's
death, by his brother, Colonel Richard Owen. It will be seen by
reference to the Kentucky Geological Reports that Doctor Peter was the
first, or among the first, to point out the fact that the lower
Silurian limestones always contain a notable quantity of phosphates,
and that this circumstance in part accounts for the richness of our
bluegrass soils[75]--facts which he brought to the attention of the
agricultural public as early as April, 1849, in the _Albany
Cultivator_, of New York.

He was apparently the first to show that some of the upper layers of
the Trenton limestone are remarkably rich in phosphates, as shown by
his analyses published in the reports cited.

In 1865, when in accordance with Honorable John B. Bowman's lofty
educational plans Kentucky University was removed to Lexington, was
united with Transylvania, and included the State Agricultural and
Mechanical College, Doctor Peter occupied the chair of Chemistry and
Experimental Philosophy in the new University, lecturing daily in two
colleges, having declined the Presidency of the Agricultural and
Mechanical College, which was offered him by Regent Bowman. At this
period he devoted his every energy of mind and body to assist in the
upbuilding of what he fondly hoped would be the great educational
institution of the West and South; for the training especially of
Kentucky's youth of every rank and creed, and for the benefit of all
men of all nations who sought knowledge.[76] He accepted and
accomplished, it was said at the time, the work of three average men.
On the separation of the State College from the Kentucky University,
after a bitter sectarian controversy in which he manfully defended the
Transylvania trusts--little understood by some of the
controversialists--he remained with the State College at the head of
the Chemical Department.[77]

In 1887, Doctor Peter was made Emeritus Professor of Chemistry in the
State College. It would be of interest to give a detailed account of
Doctor Peter's writings, but this must of necessity be reserved for a
more extended biography. He was an easy, practical, and prolific
writer on a large range of subjects. Deeply interested in agriculture
and horticulture, he prepared many able treatises for journals of
these branches. He experimented for himself in the culture of fruits
and flowers--notably in grape-culture and wine-making. In 1867-68, he
assisted in editing the _Farmer's Home Journal_, a weekly published at
Lexington, Kentucky, and until its discontinuance--well in the
seventies--he contributed many articles. He was sole editor of the
tenth volume of the _Transylvania Journal of Medicine_, and in the
preceding and following volumes published a number of contributions on
medical and scientific themes. He took an active part with his pen in
the controversy which arose on the attempted removal to Louisville of
the Transylvania Medical School by some of the Transylvania professors
and the establishment at Louisville of the "Medical Institute" as a
rival school.[78] Like Doctor B. W. Dudley, Doctor Peter, under a
misapprehension of the facts, was at first inclined to sanction the
removal of the medical school to Louisville, for he says in a
"Narrative" of the controversy published in the _Lexington
Intelligencer_, July 7, 1837: "I was in favor of the removal of the
Transylvania Medical School when I believed it was to be done with the
consent of its legal guardians, and with the certainty of very liberal
endowments, which would increase its means of instruction; but when
the bubble burst--when it was found that the name of Transylvania, the
oath of office--_principle_, in fact, were all to be sacrificed to the
splendid scheme--I drew back." And from listening to Doctor Caldwell's
flattering offers of emoluments in Louisville--even to the promise
that Doctor Peter should have the superintendence of the erection of
the chemical laboratory--he joined Dudley in maintaining the
Transylvania School at Lexington, vigorously defending Dudley, and
himself also, against the attacks of the Caldwell faction. In the
midst of the general hostility, Doctor Peter became antagonistic to
his former friend, Doctor Yandell--indeed, bitter was the strife on
all hands. But in after years, when the better part of half a century
had rolled between, Doctor Peter, on the friendly advance of Doctor
Yandell, forgot the vindictive feeling of the past and a
correspondence both pleasant and profitable sprung up between the two
old men, which was maintained until the death of Doctor Yandell.
Doctor Yandell confessed that in the heat of contention he had said
much which afterward he fain would recall. And it is readily to be
credited that others felt the same when time was given for calm and
dispassionate reflection.

Doctor Peter at all times wrote much on education, much on politics
and the questions of the day. Beside lectures to his classes, he gave
by request many public lectures on various topics. Possessing no
especial gift of voice or enunciation, he was not an orator, though as
a lecturer uniformly popular; never dry, though full of information;
sometimes humorous, but ever dignified. He never neglected, where
appropriate, to illustrate his subject with experiments, frequently
new and always skillfully performed. His rapidity and sureness of
manipulation were nearly that of the prestidigitator, and were the
boast and admiration of his pupils. But with this complete mastery of
science there was no corresponding lack of business ability. More than
once he was offered civic honors--vainly, however. Once he agreed to
act as City Councilman, but summarily resigned because the Council
unjustly denied to respectable  citizens the right to establish
a public school for <DW64>s in Lexington--a refusal we can not
understand to-day. He was ever ready to give time, labor, and money to
public education and improvement; ready instantly to take up his pen
on all questions affecting the welfare of the community in which he
lived, regardless of applause, yet valuing the approval of the wise
and good. His modesty was inherent. He utterly abhorred ostentation.
Yet no citizen was better known, or could more surely rely upon the
love and respect of his fellows--respect secured by thorough
truthfulness and honesty of purpose--the "courage of his convictions"
which never left him. He retained his activity of mind and body, his
youthful appearance, his cheerfulness of spirit, up to a very short
time before his death, which took place at "Winton," eight miles from
Lexington, in the eighty-ninth year of his age, April 26, 1894. He
had, as he had often wished, "worn out rather than rusted out."

Perhaps the words of his colleague of more than twenty years make the
best summary of his life and character: "Intense devotion to physical
science and work of the laboratory, purity of speech and modesty of
manner, fidelity to all duties, domestic, professional, and civic,
fidelity to settled convictions and principles; above all, his long
and illustrious career in educating so many thousands of the young,
and in setting before them a model so worthy of their imitation and
remembrance; these were the traits, this was the service that crowned
his busy life of nearly ninety years with honor, admiration, and
renown."


PROFESSOR JAMES CONQUEST CROSS, M. D.

Born in the vicinity of Lexington, Kentucky, was early distinguished
for superior natural energy and mental ability. He was a graduate of
Transylvania and most ambitious to take place as member of its
Faculty. Appointed to the chair of Institutes of Medicine in 1837,
having been called from the Medical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati,
where he held a professorship, he occupied the position in Lexington
until 1843-44, and died a few years thereafter. He was Dean of the
Medical Faculty in 1838.

Doctor Cross contributed several papers to the medical journals, but
wrote no large work. He was distinguished for readiness and brilliancy
rather than for solidity. His strong ambition and self-confidence,
with his considerable abilities and extensive reading, gave promise of
a most distinguished career, which unhappily a certain want of mental
ballast measurably prevented.[79]


DOCTOR JOHN EBERLE[80]

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

In 1824, on the establishment of Jefferson Medical College, Doctor
Eberle constituted one of its Faculty, and continued in the school
until his removal to Cincinnati in 1831. While in Jefferson he taught
the Theory and Practice, Materia Medica, and Obstetrics at different
periods, and was also engaged as editor of the _American Medical
Review_, a journal devoted especially to the interests of that school.
While in the Jefferson Faculty he published the first edition of his
work on _Practice_, which, it is well known, has passed through
several editions, and unlike its predecessor yielded a handsome
compensation to its author.

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

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

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

       *       *       *       *       *

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


PROFESSOR THOMAS DUCHE MITCHELL, M. D.,

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

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

With equal ability and success he performed a similar double duty to
the full satisfaction of his classes in the winter of 1844-45, when,
in consequence of the death of Professor William H. Richardson, the
chair of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children became vacant.
He was appointed to that chair. He was also Dean of the Faculty in the
Transylvania School from 1839 to 1846.

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

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

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

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

Declining tempting offers from medical schools in Missouri and
Tennessee, he, in 1852, resigned his chair in Philadelphia and
accepted that of Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Kentucky
School of Medicine at Louisville. He performed the duties of that
professorship to the satisfaction of all parties until 1854, when he
resigned on account of ill health and returned to his native city.
Recovering, in a measure, his health, he was chosen, without any
movement on his part, to fill the chair of Materia Medica and General
Therapeutics in Jefferson Medical School of Philadelphia. This chair
he occupied up to the year of his death.

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

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

Doctor Mitchell was a clear and impressive lecturer, a most industrious
student even in his latter days, a learned, classical, and scientific
scholar and a most rigidly upright and conscientious gentleman.[83]


JAMES MILLS BUSH, M. D.,

A native of Kentucky,[84] born in Frankfort May, 1808, graduated as A.
B. in Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, and began the study of
medicine and surgery in the office of the celebrated Doctor Alban
Goldsmith, Louisville, Kentucky. He removed to Lexington in 1830-31,
to attend the medical lectures in Transylvania University, and to
become a private pupil of its renowned surgeon, Professor Benjamin W.
Dudley. To Doctor Dudley he became personally attached by sentiments
of affection and esteem, which were warmly returned by his eminent
preceptor; so that, when young Bush received the honor of the degree
of Doctor of Medicine in 1833, Doctor Dudley immediately appointed
him his demonstrator and prosector in Anatomy and Surgery, to which
branches of medical science and art Doctor Bush was ardently devoted.

This responsible office he filled with eminent ability and success
until 1837, when he was officially made Adjunct Professor of Anatomy
and Surgery to his distinguished colleague and friend, Doctor Dudley.
He occupied this honorable position to the great satisfaction of all
concerned until the year 1844, when he became the Professor of
Anatomy, Doctor Dudley retaining the chair of Surgery. In the chair of
Anatomy he continued until the dissolution of the Transylvania Medical
School in 1857.

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

Doctor Bush was ever a most conscientious and ardent laborer in his
profession, and, during the lifetime of his preceptor, Doctor Dudley,
was his constant associate and assistant as well in the medical school
as in his medical and surgical practice. On the retirement of that
distinguished surgeon and professor, his mantle fell upon Doctor Bush.
In the language of his friend, the late Doctor Lewis Rogers, in 1873:
"When Doctor Dudley retired from teaching, Doctor Bush was appointed
to the vacant chair. When Doctor Dudley retired from the field of his
brilliant achievements as a surgeon Doctor Bush had the rare courage
to take possession of it. No higher tribute can be paid to him than to
say that he has since held possession without a successful rival."

[Illustration: DOCTOR JAMES M. BUSH.

From a Photograph by Mullen.]

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

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

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

1. A short report of a case of epilepsy, produced in a <DW64> girl by
blows of the windlass of a well on the parietal bone, which was
entirely and speedily cured under the preliminary treatment by Doctor
Dudley of mercurial purgatives and low diet, preparatory to the use
of the trephine, which, as is well known, had been used with great
success by Doctor Dudley in such cases.

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

3. A more extended paper, entitled "Remarks on Mechanical Pressure
Applied by Means of the Bandage; Illustrated by a Variety of Cases."
In which the mode of application and _modus operandi_ are most clearly
given, and illustrated by many interesting cases, mostly from the
surgical practice of Doctor Dudley.

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

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

6. "Interesting Autopsy." On the body of a <DW64> man who had been the
subject of sudden falling fits, and was under treatment for disease of
the chest. The autopsy disclosed hypertrophy of the right side of the
heart, and a most remarkable course and lengthening of the colon.

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

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

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

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


NATHAN RYNO SMITH, M. D.,

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

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

In the winter of 1825-26, he attended the medical lectures in the
University of Pennsylvania, with a view to improvement in his profession
and in the art of teaching in it. While there he was invited by the late
celebrated surgeon, George McClellan--to whom he had become favorably
known--to take the chair of Anatomy in the new Jefferson Medical
College, which McClellan and other members of the profession were
engaged in organizing. This situation he occupied with success for two
years, leaving it then to accept the chair of Anatomy in the School of
Medicine of the University of Maryland in Baltimore, which had been
vacated by Professor Granville Sharpe Pattison, in 1827. In Baltimore he
soon acquired an extensive medical and surgical practice. On the death
of Professor John B. Davidge he was transferred to the chair of Surgery.
In the language of his biographer and colleague, Samuel C. Chew, M. D.:
"In Baltimore he found a congenial home and when, at the age of
fourscore, he was laid to rest among us, his name had been for a whole
lifetime a household word throughout our State."

When, in 1838, he accepted the inducement offered him by the Medical
Faculty of Transylvania University to occupy the chair of the Theory
and Practice of Medicine in their college at Lexington, Kentucky,[88]
during the four months of the winter course of lectures, he did not
abandon his residence in Baltimore, but at the close of each session
returned to his professional work in that city. It was there
especially, as a professor and practitioner of surgery, that his
life-work was done.

Doctor Smith was a man of remarkable mental activity, "acuteness of
perception and extraordinary power of adaptation to circumstances as
they might arise, promptness of action and untiring industry.... And
yet with his great gifts there was about him a remarkable simplicity
of character and a transparent ingenuousness which was as incapable of
affectation as of falsehood."

His forte was Surgery, yet his lectures here on the Theory and
Practice of Medicine were exceedingly clear and instructive. One
little peculiarity of his may be noticed. He never lectured without a
small whalebone rod or pointer. Without this in his hand he seemed to
fear the loss of continuity of his ideas. As remarked by his
biographer, "his wand must always be at hand, for, like the magician's
divining-rod, it seemed to have some mystic connection with the
exercise of his powers."

Early in his professional life he published his work on the _Anatomy
of the Arteries_, and, in his later days, his work on _Fractures of
the Lower Extremities_. He was engaged in the preparation of a work on
surgery at the time of his death. His inventive genius, which was
remarkable, was exhibited in several improvements of the instruments
and apparatus of surgery, especially in his lithotome. In the practice
of his son--Professor Alan P. Smith--in a series of fifty-two
consecutive cases, without a single death, he used his father's
lithotome in all but six cases. This great success he attributed
mainly to the instrument. Another valuable improvement was his
"anterior splint."

Doctor Smith died on the third of July, 1877, a few weeks after the
completion of his eightieth year, full of honors. "He has left behind
him a record of a great surgeon, a brave and true citizen and
magnanimous gentleman."


ELISHA BARTLETT, M. D., ETC.

Born in Smithfield, Rhode Island, October 6, 1804. His parents, Otis
and Waite Bartlett, were highly respectable members of the "Society of
Friends." Their son, whose early education was under the auspices of
this Society, possessed all the unostentatious virtues which
characterized that sect. At the "Friends' Institution" in New York,
under the celebrated teacher, Jacob Willett, he obtained a highly
finished classical education. He subsequently attended medical
lectures in Boston and Providence and graduated as M. D. at Brown
University, Providence, in 1826. Soon after graduation he spent a year
pursuing medical studies under distinguished professors in Paris,
France, and in classical Italy.

In 1836, he was elected as the first mayor of the town of Lowell; was
re-elected at the end of his first term, and afterward, in 1840, was
honored by election to the Legislature of Massachusetts. A _statesman_
and not a _politician_, he soon abandoned political life for the more
congenial one of a medical teacher.

[89]"In 1828, he was offered the chair of Anatomy in the Medical
School at Woodstock, Vermont, which honor he declined.

"In 1832, he was appointed to a Professorship in the Medical School at
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which he held for several years. He also
held a chair one year in the Medical Department of Dartmouth College,
and for one year in Baltimore.

"In 1841, he was called to the chair of Theory and Practice of
Medicine in the Medical Department of Transylvania University, which
he occupied for three years with ability and success."[90]

After a visit to Europe he again returned, in 1846,[91] to the
Transylvania Medical College, teaching in the same chair for another
three years.

"He subsequently delivered a course of medical lectures in the Medical
School at Louisville, giving also summer lectures at Woodstock,
Vermont, and other places--his instruction being highly appreciated
by his colleagues and most acceptable to his students.

"At length he was called to an important professorship in the College
of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. Here he continued for three
years, when, compelled by failing health, he abandoned the position to
retire to his paternal acres in Smithfield--to die, after a long and
lingering illness, on July 19, 1855."

His disease--partial paralysis of the lower extremities, with
torturing neuralgia and finally softening of the brain, the result of
lead poisoning, caused--as he believed, and as he informed the
writer--by the use of water which had passed for a considerable
distance through leaden pipes.

The beautiful and sterling traits of the character of Doctor Bartlett
are most happily portrayed by the distinguished medical professor and
poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, in the _Boston Medical and Surgical
Journal_, August 16, 1855, from which we make a few extracts, viz:

"Hardly any American physician was more widely known to his
countrymen, or more favorably considered abroad, where his writings
had carried his name. His personal graces were known to a less
extensive circle of admiring friends.... To them it is easy to recall
his ever-welcome and gracious presence. On his expanded forehead no
one could fail to trace the impress of a large and calm
intelligence.... A man so full of life will rarely be found so gentle
and quiet in all his ways.... The same qualities which fitted him for
a public speaker naturally gave him signal success as a teacher. Had
he possessed nothing but his clearness and eloquence of language and
elocution, he could hardly have failed to find a popular welcome....
He had a manner at once impressive and pleasing, a lucid order which
kept the attention and intelligence of the slowest hearer, and
attractions of a personal character always esteemed and beloved by
students.... Yet few suspected him of giving utterance in rhythmical
shape to his thoughts or feelings. It was only when his failing limbs
could bear him no longer, as conscious existence slowly retreated from
the palsied nerves, that he revealed himself freely in truest and
tenderest form of expression. We knew he was dying by slow degrees,
and we heard from him from time to time, or saw him always serene and
always hopeful while hope could have a place in his earthly future ...
when to the friends he loved there came, as a farewell gift, ... a
little book with a few songs in it--songs with his whole warm heart in
them--they knew that his hour was come, and their tears fell fast as
they read the loving thoughts that he had clothed in words of beauty
and melody.

"Among the memorials of departed friendships we treasure the little
book of 'songs,' entitled _Simple Settings in Verse for Six Portraits
from Mr. Dickens' Gallery_, Boston, 1855--his last present, as it was
his last production."


DOCTOR LOTAN G. WATSON,

Of North Carolina, filled the chair of Theory and Practice in
Transylvania in the sessions of 1844 and 1845 only. He came highly
recommended as a physician of extensive practice of not less than
twenty years. "A gentleman of undoubted talents. He has the reputation
of bringing to his cases a great affluence of resource and fertility
of expedient, regulated by a judgment discriminative and safe. He
writes with facility and elegance, and converses with fluency,
animation, and impressiveness. He thinks clearly and communicates his
ideas with facility and a corresponding clearness." Extract from
letter of Senator W. P. Mangum, of North Carolina.


LEONIDAS M. LAWSON, M. D.,

Who filled the chair of General and Pathological Anatomy and
Physiology in the Medical Department of Transylvania University from
1843 to 1846, inclusive, was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky,
September 10, 1812. He had received his medical degree from this same
department of Transylvania in 1837.

He was engaged in Cincinnati in private practice, giving clinical
instruction in the hospital and editing his recently established
medical periodical, _The Western Lancet_--of which he was sole
originator and proprietor--when he was called to the newly established
chair of General and Pathological Anatomy and Physiology in the
Transylvania Medical Department, in which he had graduated.

Here he taught with great success until called to the chair of Materia
Medica and General Pathology in the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati
in 1847. During the vacation months of 1845, he spent seven months in
a visit to Europe, and especially in clinical studies in Guy's
Hospital, London, with great advantage to himself.

Doctor Lawson continued to teach from this chair until the death of
Professor J. P. Harrison, whom he succeeded in that of the Principles
and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine, in the same college in
1852. He was appointed Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine
in the Kentucky School of Medicine in Louisville in 1854, but accepted a
call to the same chair in the Medical College of Ohio, Cincinnati, in
1857. He filled the chair of Clinical Medicine in the University of
Louisiana, New Orleans, in 1860, but returned in consequence of the
Civil War to the Medical College of Ohio the following year, in which
college he remained until his death, January 21, 1864.

He founded the _Western Lancet_, and was its sole editor and
proprietor from 1842 up to the time of his decease. He also edited
_Hope's Morbid Anatomy_, 1844, and published a treatise on the
_Practical Treatment of Phthisis Pulmonalis_ in 1861.

Doctor Lawson was a lover of his profession and a most indefatigable
worker and student. Remarkably lucid and impressive in his oral
teachings, and methodical in his laborious professional and editorial
occupations, he was a modest but self-possessed, undemonstrative
gentleman of high probity and personal merit. The world at large did
not fully appreciate his value, or that of his labors.

His daughter, Miss Louisa Lawson, studied sculpture as a profession,
and as an artist is well known.


ETHELBERT LUDLOW DUDLEY, M. D.,

Nephew of the late distinguished surgeon, Benjamin W. Dudley, was his
private pupil for many years. He graduated in the Medical Department
of Transylvania University with distinguished honor in 1842, after
having attended three full courses of instruction in that department.
His first course of medical lectures was in the winter of 1838-39. It
was the first session in which the present writer occupied the chair
of Chemistry and Pharmacy, and well he remembers the assiduous
attention of his pupil; his avidity in the acquisition of knowledge
and his unusual ability to retain it. Distrusting yet his own
attainments and desirous of more thorough training before taking upon
himself the responsible and arduous offices of a practitioner, he,
under the immediate charge of his uncle, then in active practice,
attended two other full courses of medical lectures (sessions 1842-43
and 1843-44) as resident graduate. During this period he sometimes
officiated as prosector to his distinguished kinsman.[92]

[Illustration: DOCTOR ETHELBERT L. DUDLEY.

From a Photograph.]

Before the next following session, Doctor Ethelbert L. Dudley was
appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy in the place of Doctor James M.
Bush, who had been promoted to the chair of Anatomy. This responsible
office he filled until called to the chair of General and Pathological
Anatomy in 1847-48.

From the origin of this medical school Professor Benjamin W. Dudley
had taught in the combined chair of Anatomy and Surgery, blending the
two in a manner most instructive and practical.[93] In 1837, he
accepted Doctor James M. Bush as adjunct to the combined
professorship, and in 1844, Doctor Bush having been appointed
Professor of Anatomy, the elder Dudley restricted himself to the chair
of the Principles of Surgery.

In the summer of 1846, Doctor Ethelbert L. Dudley was appointed to
deliver a course of lectures on Comparative Anatomy. This duty he
performed to the highest satisfaction of all concerned; and when,
almost at the beginning of the next regular session (1847-48), he was
called to the chair of Anatomy and Physiology, he successfully
encountered the great labor of preparing and delivering a new course
of lectures on these subjects. At the same time he also discharged the
arduous duties of Demonstrator of Anatomy--duties more onerous in this
school, in our small inland city, than in most other medical colleges.
No one in the whole school accomplished half the work which he
mastered. No task seemed too great for his young and ardent energies.

In 1849, he originated and took upon himself the sole charge as editor
of the _Transylvania Medical Journal_, a new series of the old
_Transylvania Journal of Medicine_. He published three volumes in
three successive years, aided only occasionally by some of his
colleagues. In the spring of 1850, he visited Europe for professional
improvement, making many friends; amongst the distinguished medical
men of England particularly. Immediately on his return from Europe, in
the autumn of that year, the present writer announced to him, in the
city of New York, his appointment to the chair of Descriptive Anatomy
and Histology in the Kentucky School of Medicine. This was a new
school which some of the physicians of Louisville and professors of
the Lexington school were about to establish in the former city, to
which place students of medicine from the South and West were
beginning to flock, to the neglect somewhat of the time-honored
Transylvania school, in which it was proposed to continue medical
instruction in summer sessions.

This appointment he accepted, joining in the preliminary October
course of lectures and aiding greatly by his talents and energy in
building up that institution. Transferred in the following year to the
chair of Surgery in the Transylvania summer school, on the retirement
of his uncle from active professional life, he continued to teach with
distinguished ability in the position made illustrious by his
predecessor, until the close of the school shortly before the outbreak
of our Civil War.

In the second year of the Kentucky School of Medicine, he was
transferred to the chair of Surgical Anatomy and Operative Surgery, and
accordingly gave the surgical-clinical instruction in the Marine
Hospital of Louisville to the combined classes of the two medical
schools of that city during the session of 1851-52. A course which was a
decided success for the young professor and surgeon, and which helped to
place him at once on the elevated position as a professional man and a
gentleman which he maintained to the day of his death and to which few
men, of his age especially, ever are fortunate enough to attain.[94]

After another successful session in this school he, with the other
Transylvania professors, resigned and returned permanently to
Lexington, resuming his practice there and his duties in the renewed
winter sessions of the Transylvania Medical Department.

As a practitioner, especially of surgery, Doctor E. L. Dudley always
commanded the highest respect and admiration of his colleagues as well
as the confidence and affections of his patients. Singularly unselfish
and always willing to devote himself fully to his profession, his
patients and his friends, few men had the power so quickly and so
firmly to bind others to him with the ties of affection.

With nerves as of steel, clear eye, quick judgment and answering hand,
combined with the kind feelings of a woman and a fullness of
professional knowledge rarely surpassed, his short career as a
surgeon--all too brief!--was yet a brilliant one. Had his life been
spared to him the name of Dudley had achieved a yet higher distinction
in the annals of surgery.

At the outbreak of our Civil War, Doctor Dudley's loyal attachment to
the nation and his love of country caused him to take an active part
against the rebellion. While the fate of Kentucky hung yet in the
balance of a professed neutrality, he was actively instrumental in
organizing a battalion of "Home Guards," of which he was at once
appointed Commandant--an organization which greatly helped to prevent
the precipitation of our State into the war for secession.[95]

Obtaining authority to organize a regiment of volunteers for active
service, of which he was Colonel, preferring this active position to
the less belligerent one of Medical Director which was proffered him,
he left Lexington with his command for the southern part of the State.
There, exhausted by the continued labors and exposures of his
combined offices of colonel, surgeon and physician to his men (which
he would not commit to another), he fell a victim to typhoid fever on
February 20, 1862, at the age of forty-four. His remains, brought to
Lexington, were received with public honors and were followed to the
cemetery by a long procession of sorrowing friends.


SAMUEL ANNAN, M. D.,

Was born at Philadelphia, Pa., in the year 1800--a descendant of
Scotch ancestors. He graduated as M. D. at the Edinburgh University in
1820. His thesis, entitled _De Appoplexia Sanguinia_, is in the
library of the Medical and Surgical Faculty of Maryland. He was
licentiate of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland in 1822,
being then ex-President of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh.

From 1827 to 1834, he ably occupied the chair of Anatomy and
Physiology in the Medical Department of Washington University at
Baltimore, Maryland. From 1838 to 1845, he was physician to the
Baltimore Alms-house. In 1846, he was called to the chair of
Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in the Medical
Department of Transylvania University, a position which he occupied
with great ability until, in 1849, he was transferred to the chair of
Theory and Practice of Medicine in the same institution, in which he
gave general satisfaction until 1854, when he resigned that position.

During the years 1853-57, he was Superintendent to the Insane Asylum
at Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He became surgeon to the Confederate States
Army at the outbreak of our Civil War in 1861, maintaining that
position until 1864. In 1866, he was surgeon to the steamship
"Carroll" of the Liverpool line, from April to November. He died at
Baltimore, January 19, 1868.

Doctor Annan was a person of great activity of mind and body, of high
intelligence and probity of character. In the course of his active
life and practice in his profession he found time to contribute many
valuable articles to the medical journals, of which we quote the
following, viz:

"Cases of Bronchotomy." Maryland Medical Recorder, Vol. VII, p. 42. 1823.

"On the Surgical Anatomy of Hernia." Ibid., Vol. III, p. 529. 1829.

"On Polypus Nasi." Ibid., No. 3, p. 655. 1830.

"On the Use of Wine in Fevers." Ibid., p. 279. 1831.

"Address to the Graduates of Washington University." 1834.

"New Views of Certain Dislocations." American Journal of Medical
Science, Vol. XVIII, p. 376. 1836.

"On the Treatment of Prolapsus Ani." Ibid., p. 334. 1836.

"On Spinal Irritation and Inflammation." Ibid., Vol. XX, p. 85. 1837.

"On Cases in the Baltimore Alms-house." Ibid., Vol. XXII, p. 378. 1838.

"On Wind Contusions." American Medical Journal, Vol. II, pp. 3, 133,
and 213. 1838.

"On Cases in the Baltimore Alms-house." Journal of Medical Science, Vol.
XXIV, p. 316; and Journal of Medical Science, Vol. XXV, p. 32. 1839.

"On Cases in the Baltimore Alms-house." Medical and Surgical Journal,
pp. 322 and 338. 1840.

"Lecture at Opening of Kentucky School of Medicine." 1850.

"On Fracture of the Skull." American Medical Record, No. 3, Vol. II,
p. 449.

"Case of Laceration of the Ileum from External Injury." American
Journal of Medical Science, p. 287. 1838.

For most of the facts contained in this brief sketch of the active
life of Doctor Annan we are indebted to the kindness of Doctor Oscar
J. Coskery, of Baltimore.

NOTE.--In 1850, Doctor Annan accepted the chair of Pathology and
Practice of Medicine in the new Kentucky School of Medicine in
Louisville, which position he occupied for two years with great
ability, when he resigned to return to his native city.

In 1849, when Doctor Annan was transferred to the chair of Theory and
Practice, the chair of Obstetrics was filled by Doctor William M.
Boling, of Montgomery, Alabama, for one session. Doctor Boling had
taught in the Memphis Medical School of Tennessee, and was "favorably
known in the South as a good practitioner, an able medical writer, and
an excellent teacher."


PROFESSOR HENRY M. BULLITT

Occupied the chair of Materia Medica and Medical Botany with ability
during the session of 1849-50, after which, with the aid of some of
his Transylvania associates, he established the "Kentucky School of
Medicine," which still maintains a prosperous condition.

"Doctor Bullitt commenced the study of medicine at seventeen years of
age, in the office of Doctor Coleman Rogers, senior, of Louisville,
entering the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania as a
pupil, and graduating with high honor in 1838. Returning to
Louisville, he began the practice of medicine in partnership with
Doctor Joshua B. Flint, thus continuing for many years, their office
being the headquarters of the prominent physicians of this city.

"Doctor Bullitt passed the year 1845 in Europe, where he took
advantage of every opportunity of advancing in medical knowledge. He
returned liberally equipped with the good fruits of his sojourn
abroad. In 1846, he was elected a professor in the St. Louis Medical
College and lectured there in 1846-47 and 1847-48. In 1849, he was
elected to the chair of Materia Medica, etc., in Transylvania
University.... In 1850, he was mainly instrumental in the
establishment of the Kentucky School of Medicine in Louisville, aided
by 'prominent members of the Faculty of Transylvania.'

"In 1866, he was elected to the chair of Theory and Practice in the
University of Louisville, and, in 1867, was transferred to that of
Physiology. In 1868, he established the Louisville Medical College,
with which he remained during the several years of his professional
life, his increasing deafness greatly marring his social and
professional enjoyments.

"Doctor Bullitt was an able writer on professional subjects.... He
held, successively, chairs in five medical schools," in all with great
ability.

"In 1866, he was elected Health Officer of the city of Louisville,"
which office he most ably filled.... "Doctor Bullitt was one of the
ablest Health Officers the city ever possessed," and was author of
many papers of "great merit in numerous medical journals. His great
affliction, deafness, was all that prevented him from taking the
foremost position among medical practitioners, teachers, and writers.
But he bore the misfortune with singular equanimity and fortitude."

Doctor Bullitt died on the seventh of January, 1880, after a number of
weeks' confinement to his bed with Bright's disease.

       *       *       *       *       *

The greater part of this brief sketch of the life of Doctor Bullitt is
copied from an able obituary notice published in the _Louisville
Journal_ at the time of his death.


HENRY MARTYN SKILLMAN, M. D.,

Youngest child of Thomas T. and Elizabeth Farrar Skillman, born
September 4, 1824, at Lexington, Kentucky, was educated in
Transylvania University. He spent two or three years in the drug and
apothecary business in Lexington, and commenced the study of medicine
and surgery in 1844, graduating as Doctor of Medicine, etc., in 1847.
He was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical Department of
Transylvania University in 1848. In 1851, he was appointed Professor
of General and Pathological Anatomy and Physiology, which position he
occupied with skill and success until the close of the Medical College
in 1857. Since that time he has devoted himself to the duties of his
profession in medicine and surgery, being "one of the most skillful,
successful, and accomplished physicians in Kentucky," and "having
inherited the admirable qualities of his parents, is one of the most
honorable and useful citizens of Lexington."[96]

Since the above was written, the gentle and busy life of this last
surviving member of the Transylvania Medical Faculty came suddenly to
a close at his home in Lexington, March 21, 1902, at a quarter past
four o'clock in the afternoon, apparently without warning. Only two
hours previously, handsome and smiling and dignified as usual, he had
visited a patient, and he expected in a few hours to resume his
professional rounds when the last summons came.

[Illustration: DOCTOR HENRY MARTYN SKILLMAN.

From a Photograph by Mullen.]

It is hardly possible for a man to depart this life without leaving an
enemy, but if Doctor Skillman, in his fifty-four years of active
professional life, had made even a few enemies they hesitated to
declare themselves. His own nature was to see good in others; their
defects were not made prominent by him. As he spoke no evil, so
nothing but good was said of him. But with his amiable, benevolent,
compromising disposition there was no trace of weakness. Strict in
professional etiquette, immovable in principle, he repelled with
gentle but irresistible firmness every effort to shake his integrity.
The loveliness of his character and personality is best portrayed in
"Luke, the Beloved Physician," a tribute paid, on his death,
editorially in the _Lexington Herald_ by Kentucky's favorite orator
and statesman, every word of which is as true as it is well-chosen and
beautiful. Doctor Skillman held numerous offices of trust; was
elected, in 1869, President of Kentucky State Medical Society and, in
1889, the first President of Lexington and Fayette County Medical
Society, and was at the time of his death the oldest practicing
physician in Lexington, having seen that city grow from eight thousand
to thirty thousand inhabitants. It is claimed that he was the first
physician to administer chloroform there. For two years during the
Civil War he was contract surgeon for the Government.

Doctor Skillman's father, Thomas T. Skillman, a native of New Jersey,
came to Lexington in 1809, and soon founded there the largest
publishing house in the Mississippi Valley, the name of T. T. Skillman
on the title page of a work being a guarantee of its excellence and
fitness for the family circle. In 1823, an edition of several thousand
copies of the entire Bible was published by Mr. Skillman from
stereotype plates sent from New York by the American Bible Society. He
founded the _Evangelical Recorder and Western Review_, afterward
edited by Reverend John Breckinridge, the young and talented pastor of
"the McChord Church"; also the _Western Luminary_, in 1824, the first
religious paper issued in the West.

Doctor Skillman married, October 30, 1851, Margaret, daughter of
Matthew T. Scott, President of the Northern Bank of Kentucky. Of their
children only one is living, Henry Martyn Skillman, of the Lexington
Security Trust and Safety Vault Company.


SAMUEL M. LETCHER, M. D.,

Of a prominent Kentucky family, also a graduate of the Medical
Department of Transylvania University who had won distinction in his
profession in Lexington, was called to the chair of Professor of
Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in that school in 1851,
and performed the duties of that chair with ability and success until
the close of the Medical College in Lexington in 1857. During the
Civil War he was placed in charge of a United States General Hospital
in Lexington, a position which he held for some time, giving great
satisfaction. He died February 1, 1863, in Lexington, Kentucky.


JOHN ROWAN ALLEN, M. D.,

Who was Superintendent of the Eastern Lunatic Asylum at Lexington,[97]
Kentucky, and who first introduced there the moral treatment of the
insane instead of forcible means, was appointed Professor of Materia
Medica and Botany in 1851, and performed the duties of this chair with
great ability until the end of the session of 1855, when he resigned
that position.


DOCTOR WILLIAM STOUT CHIPLEY

Was born in Lexington, Kentucky, October 18, 1810, the only son of
Reverend Stephen and Amelia Stout Chipley, the forefathers of both of
whom were pioneers of Lexington. Doctor Chipley was graduated at
Transylvania in 1832, with marked honor. Not a great while after his
graduation he took issue with Doctor Benjamin Dudley, the oldest and
most renowned practitioner of the State--or indeed of the whole
country. Doctor Dudley had published a treatise upon the treatment of
a special disease. Doctor Chipley took an opposite view, expressing
himself most boldly and brilliantly. His article was published in an
advanced medical journal and copied widely. Chipley received
widespread encomiums. Indeed, he came off with raised banner, and his
colors have never since been furled. His success was progressive this
article exemplifying his determination when convinced he was right.
Later he went to Columbus, Georgia, feeling assured it was a fine
opening for a young practitioner, and so it proved. He was soon
launched into an almost phenomenal practice, extending across the
Chattahoochee River into Alabama to the Indian nation, where his
wonderful magnetism was felt to such a degree that he won the
confidence--even friendship--of these savages. He would be detained
days at a time ministering to them--a tribe, too, by no means regarded
as friendly to the whites. In April, 1837, he married in Columbus,
Georgia, Elizabeth Fanning, niece and adopted daughter of Colonel
James Fanning, of Alamo fame. Doctor Chipley was at one time Mayor of
Columbus, and made a brilliant reputation as an executive officer. At
the entreaties of his mother and father, who were quite advanced in
age, he turned a deaf ear to the opposition of his legion of friends
in Columbus and returned to Lexington, Kentucky, where it seemed a
flourishing practice did but await him. He was a very successful
Professor of Transylvania in the chair of Theory and Practice of
Medicine, from 1854 to 1857, inclusive. As a lecturer he had a
wonderful flow of language. The possessor of a perfect voice and
delivery, he chained the attention of all listeners. Often have I
heard his patients say his sunshiny presence, his gentle, sympathetic
touch in the sick-room, dulled pain and was better than drugs. He was
a brilliant and forceful writer, the author of many medical works and
the writer of numerous articles published in medical journals of the
highest note. One small book of his gave him much notoriety. Chief
Justice George Robertson, of Lexington, regarded it of such high worth
that he gave fifteen hundred dollars to have it published and placed
as a healthful guide in certain schools for boys. It was in 1855 that
he took charge of the Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum at Lexington.
This proved a wide field for the development of the most astonishing
tact and management of individuals. The attendants greatly admired him
and yielded without question to his dictation. Gentle as a woman,
adamantine after a decision, never acting hastily, maturing a subject
before deciding--these characteristics were shown on all occasions
where it pertained to the comfort of the poor creatures under his
care. During his fifteen or sixteen years of most successful
management of this institution, he made many radical changes for the
amelioration of the condition of these unfortunates. Winter after
winter he haunted the legislative halls in behalf of the Asylum,
spending his own personal means most lavishly to meet this
end--presenting one bill after another, which sooner or later were
always honored. His enthusiasm and faithfulness carried conviction
with them. When he took charge of the Asylum he found it a
conglomerate mass--many from other States there--incurables,
epileptics, idiots--all huddled together. He went carefully over the
records and proceeded to institute a thorough weeding. First he
notified the governors of the respective States to send for their own
insane, giving them a stated time of grace, and telling them that if
the call was not honored he would send the patients to their doors by
one of his own attendants, which he did in several instances. This
systematizing was a great step forward. The next thing he did was to
induce the State to erect an institution for idiots, believing there
were few born who were not capable of receiving some degree of
cultivation. In time a home was built at Frankfort, the result proving
his great wisdom. It was a matter of wonderment to see these poor
creatures developing from a driveling state of nonentity into some
capacity for the enjoyment of life, and even to a degree of
usefulness. There were but few incapable of being taught some
employment which rendered their life more than a mere existence, akin
alone to the lower animals. To have succeeded in this was enough to
mark any man's life. His philanthropy never slept. Then, through his
direct intervention, the Asylum at Anchorage for incurables was
erected; all these changes making room for those who stood a chance of
being cured instead of their being turned, for the lack of room, from
the sheltering care which might restore them. I think his influence
was brought to bear upon the advisability of an institution for the
deaf and dumb, which culminated in the home made for them in Danville.
I think it was in or about the year 1857 he went to Europe, absolutely
for the purpose of gaining an insight into better ways and means of
the treatment of the insane and the construction of the buildings
which were their homes. Though there was such an emptying of the old
Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum building, it soon became altogether
insufficient to meet the demands. Applications poured in, and soon,
after a hard-fought battle, the legislature made an appropriation to
add to the old building, and promptly there was under construction a
building which, when finished, for comfort and in a sanitary way was
unequaled. This, years after his death, was destroyed by fire, and
when rebuilt, I understand, was modeled after the old plan. He was his
own architect, his whole heart and being merged in a desire to have
all as nearly perfect as possible, developing thus a new talent. He
always had in view a private asylum of his own. This purpose was
crystallized when it became apparent that politics would govern the
State institutions, though in opposition to all that was humane. He
resigned December, 1869. He purchased "Duncannon," the beautiful
Duncan home near Lexington. The site selected, lumber on the place,
all plans formulated, having gained such advanced ideas from his long
and successful experience he hoped to have an ideal shelter for those
who preferred private treatment. On December 9, 1871, at eleven
o'clock at night, snow on the ground, standing with his family and
several whom even then he had under his charge around him, after
barely escaping with their lives, he saw the "Duncannon" mansion
reduced to ashes. This disaster crippled his efforts to the degree
that he was forced to forego that which if carried through would have
proven a monument to his memory of no small magnitude. He then rented
a house in Lexington, where he had some patients under his charge,
with a private attendant who had won many laurels in this capacity.
Doctor Chipley was frequently called upon, even in other States, to
decide in the courts as a specialist in insanity. He had a great
number under his private treatment in their own homes, of whom the
world never knew. He had innumerable offers of positions, but none
seemed to appeal to him so much as one at College Hill, near
Cincinnati, Ohio. He accepted this offer. His success here proved a
very decided one, redeeming the institution from great financial
stress and opening up astonishing possibilities. He had four
sons--only one now living (1903)--and one daughter (the present
writer). He left many friends in Lexington who were ever beckoning him
back, and to the last he hoped to return where his heart was. But
after only a few years of service at College Hill he contracted a cold
from which he never recovered. He died February 11, 1880. Invitations
had been issued for a reunion in honor of his aged mother, who was
ninety-seven the day he died. A train was to be chartered and
Lexington friends were to come. He has left a memory of his gathered
laurels and honored name more precious than the gems of the universe.

                                        EMILY CHIPLEY JONES.


DOCTOR JAMES MORRISON BRUCE

Was a son[98] of John Bruce, a Scottish gentleman associated with
Colonel James Morrison and Benjamin Gratz in the manufacture of hemp
at Lexington, Kentucky, and was born at that place in 1822. After
completing a collegiate education, he studied medicine with Doctor
Benjamin W. Dudley, taking the degree of M. D. in Transylvania in
1843. He then spent three years in France, studying in the principal
hospitals at Paris under the most eminent instructors. In 1846, he
returned to Lexington to begin the practice of his profession. He was
elected to the chair of Demonstrator of Anatomy in Transylvania
Medical Department in 1850, continuing therein until the cessation of
the school in 1857. Doctor Bruce's intrinsic merit was fully
appreciated by his colleagues, who had great affection for him, but
his excessively shrinking nature withheld him from taking the
prominent position with the public to which his ability and learning
entitled him. In truth, his chief characteristic was his modest,
amiable, and retiring disposition. His specialty in medicine was
eruptive disease. In the treatment of smallpox his professional
brethren conceded him the highest place. For many years he was
continuously elected City Physician, and holding this office he died,
January 31, 1881, the sudden ending of his useful and kindly life
being largely due to the exposure he so constantly and bravely
encountered in his visits to the suffering poor during an unusually
severe and trying winter. Says a fellow-physician,[99] "It was then
that the great and good qualities of our friend and co-laborer, Doctor
Bruce, shone pre-eminently. It was at a time when poverty and distress
appealed to him that his great-heartedness, his forgetfulness of self,
and his proficient medical skill forced itself before that public
attention from which at all other times it timidly shrunk." Doctor
Bruce married, in 1847, Miss Elizabeth Norton. Of his children Miss
Elizabeth Bruce and Mrs. Charlotte B. Davis, of Lexington, survive him.


DOCTOR ALEXANDER KEITH MARSHALL,

Born February 11, 1808, performed the duties of the chair of Materia
Medica in 1856. He had received a classical education from his father,
the celebrated Doctor Louis Marshall, of "Buck Pond"; studied medicine
with Doctor Ephraim McDowell, and completed his medical course at
Transylvania. He was a handsome man, a forcible speaker, a prominent
politician and Odd Fellow, and a member of Congress in 1855. He died
at the home of his son, Louis, near Lexington, April, 28, 1884.[100]


BENJAMIN P. DRAKE, M. D.,

A graduate of Transylvania Medical Department in 1830, occupied the
chair of Materia Medica in the last year of the school in 1857.

       *       *       *       *       *

During the last two years of the Medical Department of Transylvania
University the Faculty were:

Ethelbert L. Dudley, Surgery.

James M. Bush, Anatomy.

William S. Chipley, Theory and Practice.

Samuel M. Letcher, Obstetrics, etc.

Henry M. Skillman, Physiology and Institutes of Medicine.

Alexander K. Marshall, Materia Medica and Botany, 1856.

Benjamin P. Drake, Materia Medica and Botany, 1857.

Robert Peter, Chemistry and Pharmacy; Dean.

[Illustration: TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY--MEDICAL HALL.

Built in 1839--Burned in 1863.]

From 1850 until the end in 1857, the existence of the school seems to
have been an heroic struggle against fate. In spite of the fine Medical
Hall, alluded to on the day of its dedication (November 2, 1840) by
President Robert Davidson,[101] as "colossal in size and surpassing in
architectural beauty," in spite of liberal endowments and "costly and
complete apparatus, superior to any in the valley of the Mississippi,
and not surpassed, if equaled, by any on the continent,"[102] the school
languished. Notwithstanding the efforts of zealous Trustees and generous
citizens, notwithstanding the diligence of an able Faculty, the classes
steadily decreased from year to year until, in 1857, with only nine
graduates, the Faculty in despair disbanded, and the time-honored
Medical Department of Transylvania University was no more.

Two factors more than all else (except as before mentioned, the
impossibility of securing sufficient material for clinical
instruction) had contributed to its demise--the retirement of Doctor
Dudley in 1850, and the difficulty that existed in establishing the
needed railroads throughout the State. The latter cause had been
operating unfavorably and with increasing effect almost ever since the
introduction of steam transportation.

Enlightened thinkers had early recognized and urged the vital
importance of railroads for Kentucky, and especially for Lexington and
Transylvania, and had bravely advanced to conquer the difficulties of
the situation, but with only discouragement and pecuniary loss for
many years. The peculiar topography of the State, the constant
alternation of hill and valley, the numerous streams, the hardness of
the rock to be penetrated, made the building of railways very
expensive, and capital was wanting. The wealth of Central Kentucky was
in the soil, not in the purse, and without communication with the
markets of the world this wealth was unavailable. In this manner
enterprise was checked and Lexington sank into an apathetic state. It
is true she had secured the distinction of having the first railroad
in the West and the second in the United States,[103] but for years it
only led to Frankfort, an interior town but twenty-eight miles
distant. It was not until 1851 that it connected with Louisville.

Of Doctor Dudley's influence upon the medical school Doctor David W.
Yandell truly says:[104] "The history of the Medical Department of
Transylvania University--its rise, its success, its decline, its
disappearance from the list of medical colleges--would practically
cover Doctor Dudley's career, and would form a most interesting chapter
in the development of medical teaching in the Southwest. But it must
suffice me here to say that Doctor Dudley created the medical department
of the institution and directed its policy. Its students regarded him
from the beginning as the foremost man in the Faculty. That he had
colleagues whose mental endowments were superior to his he himself at
all times freely admitted. He is said to have laid no claim to either
oratorical power or professional erudition. He was not a logician, he
was not brilliant, and his deliverances were spiced with neither humor
nor wit. And yet, says one of his biographers, in ability to enchain the
students' attention, to impress them with the value of his instructions
and his greatness as a teacher, he bore off the palm from all the gifted
men who at various periods taught at his side."

But although these two would appear to be the more obvious reasons for
the decline of the Medical Department of Transylvania, we can by no
means ignore the injurious effect of rival medical colleges growing up
at points more accessible and more progressive than Lexington could
possibly be without rapid transit of some sort to make her own
peculiar advantages available. Nor can we overlook the evil
consequences of the opposition systematically shown to the
Transylvania Medical School by the faction originating in the attempt
to disorganize the institution in 1837.

However, in reviewing all these influences, the prosperity of
Lexington to-day (1904), her rapid growth, her increasing enterprise,
her vigorous trade, the flourishing condition of her colleges and
seminaries--all of which has come to her since the completion of the
railroads centering in her--abundantly prove that this communication,
above everything else, was her indispensable requirement.

While the medical school was closed in 1857, the Academical Department
of Transylvania University continued to be conducted at the Morrison
College as a State Normal School,[105] under the Presidency of the
distinguished Doctor Lewis W. Green, D. D., but was soon to be
disorganized, after only two years of usefulness, on account of a
supposed unconstitutionality. Thus Transylvania was again humbled to a
low estate in educational distinction. Lexington herself was suffering
an era of banishment, as we may say, for without proper railroad
connections she was excluded from progress and rendered inaccessible
to both labor and capital. The financial prosperity of her citizens
was not such as to warrant the lavish hospitality formerly shown to
strangers within her gates, and especially to the students in
Transylvania. The enterprising individuals who remained to her were
not sufficient in numbers to dispel by their most strenuous exertions
the lethargy which had fallen upon the place.

Such was the state of affairs immediately preceding the Civil War. The
immense Medical Hall had reverted to the city and was deserted, save
the laboratory in which was still being busily conducted the chemical
work of the first Geological Survey of Kentucky; and save perhaps one
of the smaller rooms, rented to a lodger. The survey had just received
a sudden check in the death of the lamented Doctor Owen when the war
still further darkened the prospect, during which, as a matter of
course, the resumption of the survey was out of the question. The
Morrison College was almost immediately appropriated by the United
States Government for a general hospital, and, some time after, the
Medical Hall, which as before mentioned was utterly destroyed by
fire[106] during its occupation by the sick soldiers. The
conflagration originated, it appeared, from a defective flue of a
temporary frame kitchen, built adjoining.[107]

The corner-stone of this Medical Hall had been laid July 4, 1839;
Robert Wickliffe, junior, the well-beloved, making the address. It was
dedicated November 2, 1840. Of Grecian architecture, massive and
without ornamentation, it contained three great lecture rooms, with
ample provision for light and ventilation. The amphitheatre was
immediately below the cupola, being by this means lighted from above.
There were three other large apartments--for the library, the
anatomical museum, and for other medical teaching. Smaller rooms
accommodated the laboratory, Faculty room, janitor's room, etc.
Besides which were long halls or galleries utilized for natural
history collections, museums of zoology, ornithology, geology, etc.,
as also for apparatus of divers sorts. The costly and complete
chemical apparatus was well displayed and conveniently arranged in the
immense lecture room for that department.

[Illustration: ABSOLOM DRIVER.

For many years Janitor at the Medical Hall of Transylvania
University.]

In the spacious lecture-room in the front of the building many
fashionable and distinguished audiences had assembled on various
occasions, not only to hear the gifted incumbent professors in due
discourse of introductory or valedictory, but to be charmed with
concerts by Ole Bull, Strakosch, Adelina Patti--who sang there on her
first tour in this country--and other celebrities of the period. There
the learned Guyot had instructed in geology; there unique "Tom
Marshall" had uniquely delivered a unique course of lectures on
History. Over the rostrum hung the portrait of Doctor Samuel
Brown--the first medical professor. This lecture hall was lighted for
evening assemblages, from the sides mostly, by "scounches," as they
were called by the "ole Virginny" <DW64> janitor. This factotum,
"Absolom Driver," is unforgotten by any whose path some time ran
parallel with his. For many years the keeper of the Medical Hall, his
zeal and vigilance were unimpeachable, his dignified solemnity on
state occasions unsurpassed. Contemptuous of letters--except for
doctors--and with unshakable prejudice against "book learnin' for
<DW65>s," he was faithful in trusts with the matchless fidelity of the
dog. "Bad boys"--the problem of philosophers and ordinary folk in all
ages--was one of easy solution by "Uncle Absolom" with a bent nail at
the end of a long pole. Charged upon with _elan_ with this
unprecedented weapon, accompanied by an ominous war-cry, no truant
could withstand, even though the artfully strewn broken bottles on
the high back fence had been successfully outflanked. "Robbers" had
their everlasting antidote at hand in the peculiarly uncanny, long,
"one-barreled shotgun" with curious lock, which stood in the corner of
the Faculty room. Nobody ever heard it "go off," but the mystery of it
was what appalled one. Happily "Uncle Absolom's" death was nearly
coeval with the closing of the medical school. To have witnessed the
burning of his sacred temple, the Medical Hall, after all his "keer,"
would have broken his heart indeed.

And now, bidding adieu to the shades of the grand old Transylvania
Medical Department, conjured from the past by one now numbered with
them, may the earnest wish be permitted with hope of realization, that
some other hand with cunning in such craft will unveil to us the
portraits of that bygone throng of brilliant men which constituted and
which were the exponents of the honored Transylvania Law School.




APPENDIX


SCHEDULE A.

SUCCESSION OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSORS IN THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY, FROM 1799 TO 1857, INCLUSIVE.

  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  -----+--------------------+-------------+------------+------------+
       |        |           |Theory and   |Institutes, |            |
  Year.|Surgery.| Anatomy.  |Practice of  |Physiology, |Obstretics, |
       |        |           |Medicine.    |    etc.    |    etc.    |
  -----+--------------------+-------------+------------+------------+
  1799 | Samuel | Samuel    |  Fred'ck    |            |  Fred'ck   |
       | Brown  | Brown     |  Ridgely    |            |  Ridgely   |
  1805 |        |           |   James     |            |            |
       |        |           |  Fishback   |            |            |
  1809 |  B. W. |  B. W.    |   James     |J. Buchanan |            |
       | Dudley | Dudley    |  Overton    |            |            |
  1815 |   "    |   "       |     "       |            |   W. H.    |
       |        |           |             |            |Richardson  |
  1817 |   "    |   "       |             |            |     "      |
  1818 |   "    |   "       |     "       |            |     "      |
  1819 |   "    |   "       |Saumel Brown |   Chas.    |     "      |
       |        |           |             | Caldwell   |            |
  1820 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1821 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1822 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1823 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1824 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1825 |   "    |   "       |Daniel Drake |     "      |     "      |
  1826 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1827 |   "    |   "       | J. E. Cooke |     "      |     "      |
  1828 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1829 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1830 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1831 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
       |        |           |             |            |            |
  1832 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1833 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1834 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1835 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1836 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1837 |   "    |   "       |John Eberle  |J. C. Cross |     "      |
       |        |           |             |            |            |
  1838 |[A]"    |   "       |N. R. Smith  |     "      |     "      |
       |        |           |             |            |            |
  1839 |[A]"    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1840 |[A]"    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1841 |[A]"    |   "       |   Elisha    |     "      |     "      |
       |        |           |  Bartlett   |            |            |
  1842 |[A]"    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1843 |[A]"    |   "       |     "       |L. M. Lawson|     "      |
  1844 |   "    |J. M. Bush |  L. Watson  |     "      |     "      |
  1845 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |   T. D.    |
       |        |           |             |            |  Mitchell  |
  1846 |   "    |   "       |   Elisha    |     "      |   Samuel   |
       |        |           |  Bartlett   |     "      |   Annan    |
  1847 |   "    |   "       |     "       |E. L. Dudley|     "      |
  1848 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1849 |   "    |   "       |Samuel Annan |     "      |W. M. Boling|
  1850 |No winte|r session  | of the Medi |cal College.|            |
  1851 |  E. L. |J. M. Bush |Samuel Annan |   H. M.    |   S. M.    |
       | Dudley |           |             | Skillman   |  Letcher   |
  1852 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1853 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1854 |   "    |   "       |W. S. Chipley|     "      |     "      |
  1855 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  1856 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
       |        |           |             |            |            |
  1857 |   "    |   "       |     "       |     "      |     "      |
  -------------------------------------------------------------------

[Footnote A: J. M. Bush, adjunct.]

[Footnote B: R. Best, adjunct.]

[Footnote C: H. H. Eaton, adjunct.]

[Footnote D: R. Peter, assistant.]


SCHEDULE A. (Continued)

SUCCESSION OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSORS IN THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY, FROM 1799 TO 1857, INCLUSIVE.

  -----------------------------------------
  -----+------------+---------+------------
       |   Materia  |Chemistry|Demonstrator
  Year.|   Medica,  |   and   |     of
       |Botany, etc.|Pharmacy.|   Anatomy.
  -----+------------+---------+------------
  1799 |            |  Samuel |
       |            |  Brown  |
  1805 |            |         |
       |            |         |
  1809 |            |         |
       |            |         |
  1815 |            |  James  |
       |            | Blythe  |
  1817 |Daniel Drake|    "    |
  1818 |            |    "    |
  1819 |    Chas.   |    "    |
       |  Caldwell  |         |
  1820 |      "     |    "    |
  1821 |      "     |    "    |
  1822 |      "     |    "    |
  1823 |Daniel Drake|[B] "    |
  1824 |      "     |[B] "    |
  1825 |      "     |[B] "    |
  1826 | C. W. Short|         |
  1827 |      "     |         |
  1828 |      "     |         |
  1829 |      "     |         |
  1830 |      "     |         |
  1831 |      "     |[C] L. P.|
       |            | Yandell |
  1832 |      "     |[D] "    |
  1833 |      "     |[D] "    |
  1834 |      "     |[D] "    |
  1835 |      "     |[D] "    |
  1836 |      "     |[D] "    |
  1837 |      "     |   T. D. |
       |            | Mitchell|
  1838 |    T. D.   |  Robert |
       |  Mitchell  |  Peter  |
  1839 |      "     |    "    |
  1840 |      "     |    "    |
  1841 |      "     |    "    |
       |            |         |
  1842 |      "     |    "    |
  1843 |      "     |    "    |
  1844 |      "     |    "    |
  1845 |      "     |    "    |
       |            |         |
  1846 |      "     |    "    |
       |            |         |
  1847 |      "     |    "    |
  1848 |      "     |    "    |
  1849 |H.M. Bullitt|    "    |
  1850 |            |         |
  1851 |J. R. Allen |  Robert |J. M. Bruce
       |            |   Peter |      "
  1852 |      "     |    "    |      "
  1853 |      "     |    "    |      "
  1854 |      "     |    "    |      "
  1855 |      "     |    "    |      "
  1856 |    A. K.   |    "    |      "
       |   Marshall |         |
  1857 | B. P. Drake|    "    |      "
  -----------------------------------------

[Footnote A: J. M. Bush, adjunct.]

[Footnote B: R. Best, adjunct.]

[Footnote C: H. H. Eaton, adjunct.]

[Footnote D: R. Peter, assistant.]


SCHEDULE B

OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY FOR THIRTY-NINE
YEARS.

  -----------------------------------
  -----------+-----------+-----------
  Year.      |   Pupils. | Graduates.
  1817-18    |      20   |      1
  1819-20    |      37   |      7
  1820-21    |      93   |     14
  1821-22    |     138   |     37
  1822-23    |     171   |     51
  1823-24    |     200   |     46
  1824-25    |     234   |     56
  1825-26    |     281   |     65
  1826-27    |     190   |     53
  1827-28    |     152   |     53
  1828-29    |     206   |     40
  1829-30    |     199   |     72
  1830-31    |     210   |     54
  1831-32    |     215   |     74
  1832-33    |     222   |     69
  1833-34    |     262   |     66
  1834-35    |     259   |     83
  1835-36    |     262   |     75
  1836-37    |     242   |     78
  1837-38    |     227   |     84
  1838-39    |     211   |     51
  1839-40    |     257   |     62
  1840-41    |     254   |     64
  1841-42    |     271   |     57
  1842-43    |     204   |     60
  1843-44    |     214   |     59
  1844-45    |     156   |     38
  1845-46    |     171   |     64
  1846-47    |     205   |     68
  1847-48    |     169   |     53
  1848-49    |     120   |     49
  1849-50    |      92   |     35
  1850-[E]51 |      50   |     21
  [F]1851-52 |      50   |     23
  [F]1853    |      51   |     19
  [F]1854    |      53   |     31
  [G]1855    |      38   |     29
  [H]1855-56 |      38   |     11
  [H]1856-57 |      32   |      9
             +-----------+-----------
  Totals     |   6,456   |  1,881
  -----------------------------------

[Footnote E: Doctor Dudley resigned at the end of this session.]

[Footnote F: Spring and summer session.]

[Footnote G: Summer and winter session.]

[Footnote H: Winter session.]

Thus the records show that in thirty-nine years of the existence of
the Medical Department of Transylvania University it taught six
thousand four hundred and fifty-six pupils and conferred the degree of
Doctor of Medicine on one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one of
that number. The late Professor Thomas D. Mitchell, in speaking of its
record, made the following remark: "That for its vigorous prosperity
and the rapid increase of its classes, the medical school of
Transylvania is without a parallel. Certainly in the United States
there is nothing comparable to it. This is the highest eulogy the
institution can receive. The most eloquent and forcible language in
praise of it would be spiritless and feeble contrasted with the power
of the foregoing figures."


SCHEDULE OF THE SEVERAL ENDOWMENTS OF TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY.

  ========================================================================
  Date of |                  |                      |
  Donation|                  |Character of          | Conditions Under
  or      |                  |Donations or          | Which they
  Grant.  |Donors.           |Grants.               | were Given.
  --------+------------------+----------------------+---------------------
          |                  |                      |
  1780    |State of Virginia |8,000 acres escheated |For the purposes
          |                  |  lands in Kentucky,  |  of a "Public
          |                  |  value unknown       |  School" or seminary
          |                  |                      |  of learning in
          |                  |                      |  Kentucky.
          |                  |                      |
  1783    |State of Virginia |12,000 acres escheated|For the purposes
          |                  |  lands in Kentucky,  |  of a "Public
          |                  |  value unknown       |  School" or seminary
          |                  |                      |  of learning in
          |                  |                      |  Kentucky.
          |                  |                      |
  1783    |Individuals       |Books, etc., value not|For the purposes
          |                  |  known               |  of a "Public
          |                  |                      |  School" or seminary
          |                  |                      |  of learning in
          |                  |                      |  Kentucky.
          |                  |                      |
  1784    |Reverend John Todd|Small library and     |"As an encouragement
          |                  |  apparatus           |  to science."
          |                  |                      |
  1787    |State of Virginia |One sixth surveyors'  |For the public
          |                  |  fees in Kentucky    |  school, etc.
          |                  |                      |
  1791    |State of Virginia |A lottery grant to    |To establish
          |                  |  raise money         |  the school.
          |                  |                      |
  1792-3  |Transylvania Land |Lot in Lexington      |For the permanent
          |  Co.             |  (5 acres)           |  site of the
          |                  |                      |  Seminary.
          |                  |                      |
  1795-8  |State of Kentucky |12,000 acres of land, |
          |                  |  6,000 acres to      |
          |                  |  Kentucky Academy and|
          |                  |  6,000 acres to the  |
          |                  |  Seminary            |
          |                  |                      |
  1794-5  |Individuals in    |$14,000 in money and  |Promotion of science,
          |  various parts   |  books and apparatus |  learning, and
          |  and States      |                      |  virtue.
          |                  |                      |
  1804    |State of Kentucky |A lottery grant       |To build a Medical
          |                  |                      |  College.
          |                  |                      |
  1819    |State of Kentucky |Bonus of F. & M. Bank,|To aid the
          |                  |  $3,000              |  University.
          |                  |                      |
  1820    |State of Kentucky |$5,000 in paper       |To Medical College
          |                  |                      |  for library, etc.
          |                  |                      |
  1820    |City of Lexington |$6,000 in paper       |To Medical College
          |                  |                      |  for library, etc.
          |                  |                      |
  1820    |State of Kentucky |Half profits of       |
          |                  |  Commercial Bank,    |
          |                  |  $20,000 in paper, 2 |
          |                  |  per cent on auction |To aid the
          |                  |  sales to law library|  University.
          |                  |                      |
  1822    |Citizens of       |$4,832                |To aid the Medical
          |  Lexington       |                      |  Department.
          |                  |                      |
  1823    |Colonel James     |$20,000 in money      |To found a "Morrison"
          |  Morrison        |                      |  professorship or
          |                  |                      |  library.
          |                  |                      |
  1823    |Colonel James     |$50,000 residuary     |To erect a "Morrison
          |  Morrison        |   estate             |  College."
          |                  |                      |
  1823    |State of Kentucky |A lottery grant       |To build a medical
          |                  |                      |college at Lexington.
          |                  |                      |
  1827    |Citizens and city |$3,000 per annum, the |To pay salaries of
  to 1829 |  of Lexington    |  city giving $500    |  President and
          |                  |                      |  professors of the
          |                  |                      |  University.
          |                  |                      |
  1827    |Citizens and city |Insurance policy for  |                                                                                           |
  to 1829 |  of Lexington    |  $10,000 on the      |
          |                  |  burned University   |
          |                  |  edifice             |
          |                  |                      |
  1830    |W. C. C. Claiborne|$50                   |To help build the
          |                  |                      |  above.
          |                  |                      |
  1839    |City of Lexington |$70,000 to build new  |On condition to elect
          |                  |  medical college,    |  Trustees and send
          |                  |  enlarge library,    |  free scholarships.
          |                  |  etc.                |
          |                  |                      |
  1839    |Transylvania      |About $35,000         |To endow Morrison
          |  Institute       |                      |  College, etc.
          |                  |                      |
  1839    |Citizens of       |$3000                 |To purchase a lot
          |  Lexington       |                      |  for the site of the
          |                  |                      |  Medical College.
          |                  |                      |
  1839    |                  |                      |
  to 1850 |Medical professors|Residuary debt on new |
          |                  |  Medical College in  |
          |                  |  lieu of rent        |
          |                  |                      |
  1855-6  |State of Kentucky |$12,000 per annum for |Support of Normal
          |                  |  two years           |  College in
          |                  |                      |  Transylvania
          |                  |                      |  University.
          |                  |                      |
  1834    |His Britannic     |Numerous old legal    |
          |  majesty         |  record books        |
  --------+------------------+----------------------+---------------------

Many other persons, as Honorable Edward Everett, Mr. Swan, of France,
etc., have at various times made valuable contributions to the
Library.




INDEX


     * Before figures means that the reference is to a foot-note on
     the pages indicated.

                                                                  PAGE

  Academical Department of Transylvania in 1857                    160

  Account rendered of books, etc., purchased by Doctors Bush
          and Peter                                                *91

  Act endowing Transylvania University                               1

  Allen, Doctor John Rowan                                        *147

  Allen, Doctor John R., notice of                                 147

  Allen, Doctor John R., in Transylvania Medical School            147

  Allen, Reverend R. T. P.                                        *133

  Anderson, Reverend W. H.                                        *133

  Anecdote of Doctor Samuel Brown                                    9

  Anecdote of Doctor E. L. Dudley                                 *137

  Anecdote of Doctor John Esten Cooke                               75

  Anecdote illustrating progress                                     9

  Anecdote of Titian                                                47

  Annan, Doctor Samuel                                            *115
    Biographical sketch of                                         138
    At Baltimore Alms-house                                        138
    At Hopkinsville Asylum                                         139
    At Washington University                                       138
    Born                                                           138
    Character of                                                   139
    Degree of M. D.                                                138
    Honors conferred upon                                          138
    In the Civil War                                               139
    In Kentucky School of Medicine                                 141
    Professor in Transylvania                                 138, 139
    Resigns from Transylvania                                      139
    Surgeon on steamship                                           139
    Writings of                                               139, 140

  Apparatus, purchase of by Doctors Peter and Bush              90, 91

  Appropriation for purchase of apparatus                           31

  Attractive logic of Doctor Cooke                                  76

  Avery, Charles                                                    88

  Ayres, David J., M. D.                                        29, 30


  Bartlett, Doctor Elisha                                57, 120, *132
    Biographical sketch of                                         125
    As a poet                                                      129
    At Baltimore                                                   126
    At Dartmouth                                                   126
    At Transylvania                                                126
    At Woodstock Medical School                                    126
    Beautiful character of                               127, 128, 129
    Born                                                           125
    Death of                                                       128
    Degree of M. D.                                                125
    Early education of                                             125
    Goes to the Legislature                                        125
    In College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York                127
    In Medical School at Louisville                                126
    Letter of resignation                                         *126
    Mayor of Lowell                                                125
    Poisoned by lead                                               127
    Studies in Europe                                              125

  Bartlett, Doctor John                                           *115

  Bartlett, Otis                                                   125

  Bartlett, Waite                                                  125

  Barry, Honorable William T.                                      *35

  Bascom, Reverend H. B.                                          *132

  Beginning of success of the Medical Department                    29

  Best, Doctor Robert                                               40

  Best, Doctor Robert, died                                        *40

  Biographical sketch of Doctor Samuel Annan                       138
    Doctor Elisha Bartlett                                         125
    Doctor Samuel Brown                                              6
    Doctor J. M. Bruce                                             154
    Doctor H. M. Bullitt                                           141
    Doctor Joseph Buchanan                                          14
    Doctor J. M. Bush                                              114
    Doctor Charles Caldwell                                         47
    Doctor W. S. Chipley                                           147
    Doctor J. E. Cooke                                              64
    Doctor James C. Cross                                          105
    Doctor B. W. Dudley                                             15
    Doctor E. L. Dudley                                            132
    Doctor Daniel Drake                                             40
    Doctor John Eberle                                             106
    Doctor Leonidas Lawson                                         130
    Doctor S. M. Letcher                                           146
    Doctor A. K. Marshall                                          155
    Doctor T. D. Mitchell                                          109
    Doctor Robert Peter                                             88
    Doctor William H. Richardson                                    33
    Doctor Frederick Ridgely                                        10
    Doctor Charles W. Short                                         78
    Doctor H. M. Skillman                                          143
    Doctor Nathan R. Smith                                         120
    Doctor Lunsford P. Yandell                                      83

  Bishop, Reverend Robert H.                                       *35

  Blane, Gilbert                                                     8

  Blythe, Reverend James              4, 7, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 35
    Acting President of Transylvania University                     12
    Appointed Professor of Chemistry in Medical Department          12
    Died                                                            12
    President of Kentucky Academy                                    4
    Resigns                                                         12

  Bodley, Thomas                                                   *46

  Boling, Doctor William M.                                        141

  Boswell, Joseph                                                   38

  Botanic Garden Company, stockholders                              38

  Bowman, Honorable John B.                              99, 100, *100

  Bradford, John                                                4, *46

  Breckinridge, Lieutenant Ethelbert D.                           *137

  Breckinridge, Reverend John                                      146

  Breckinridge, Ensign J. Cabell                                  *137

  Breckinridge, General Joseph C.                                 *137

  Breckinridge, Doctor Robert J.                                  *160

  Brilliant era for Transylvania Medical School                     34

  Brittan, Mr., case of                                             67

  Bronston, Honorable C. J.                                       *160

  Brown, Honorable John                                              7

  Brown, Reverend John                                               6

  Brown, John Mason                                                 *7

  Brown, Orlando                                                     9

  Brown, Doctor Preston                                              7

  Brown, Doctor Samuel           4, 7, 26, 34, 35, 38, 43, 46, 57, 163
    Biographical sketch of                                           6
    Anecdote of                                                      9
    Born                                                             6
    Died                                                             6
    Introduces cow-pox                                               9
    Imports books, etc., for Transylvania                            6
    Personal appearance                                              8
    Vaccination introduced by                                        4
    Writings of                                                      8

  Bruce, Benjamin Gratz                                           *154

  Bruce, James M., biographical sketch of                          154
    Character of                                              154, 155
    Children of                                                    155
    Degree of M. D.                                                155
    Demonstrator of Anatomy in Transylvania                        154
    Education of                                                   154
    Parentage of                                                   154
    Studies in Europe                                              154

  Bruce, Colonel Saunders D.                                      *154

  Bruce, William Wallace                                          *154

  Bull, Ole                                                        163

  Bullitt, Doctor Henry M.                                        *115
    Biographical sketch of                                         141
    As Health Officer                                              143
    As writer                                                      142
    Death of                                                       143
    Education of                                              141, 142
    Establishes Kentucky School of Medicine                   141, 142
    Goes to Europe                                                 142
    Founds Louisville Medical College                              142
    In University of Louisville                                    142
    In St. Louis Medical College                                   142
    In Transylvania Medical School                            141, 142

  Bullock, Mrs. Waller O.                                          *28

  Buchanan, Doctor Joseph                                           13
    In politics                                                     14
    Sketch of                                                       14
    Resigns                                                         14

  Burning of first University building                               3

  Burning of New Medical Hall                                  55, 161

  Burning of Old Medical Hall                                       44

  Bush, Benjamin Dudley                                            119

  Bush, Doctor James M.                 17, 63, 90, *91, 92, *115, 163
    Biographical sketch of                                         114
    As a teacher                                                   117
    Born                                                           114
    Character in his profession                                    116
    Children of                                                    119
    Death of                                                  119, 120
    Degree of A. B.                                                114
    Degree of M. D.                                                114
    In Kentucky School of Medicine                                 115
    Parentage of                                                  *114
    Married                                                        119
    Opinion of Doctor Rogers on                                    116
    Professor of Anatomy                                            17
    Professor Adjunct in Transylvania                              115
    Removed to Lexington                                           114
    Writings of                                          117, 118, 119

  Bush, Miss Nannie M.                                            *119

  Bush, Captain Thomas J.                                         *119


  Caldwell, Doctor Charles          7, 31, 34, 35, 38, 40, 43, 46, 57,
                                      64, 81, *82, 83, 84, 86, 87, 102
    Biographical sketch of                                          47
    Address on the L. & O. R. R.                                    60
    Address at Lexington Lyceum                                     60
    Antagonizes Doctor Rush                                     50, 51
    At University of Pennsylvania                                   50
    Born                                                            49
    Compares Transylvania with Philadelphia school                  55
    Dean of Faculty                                                 53
    Described by Doctor Gross                                      *54
    Died                                                            49
    Dismissed from Transylvania                                 62, 53
    Early life in Philadelphia                                  51, 52
    Effort to remove school to Louisville                       61, 62
    Extracts from autobiography of                  49, 50, 51, 52, 53
    Induces Legislature to give money                               43
    Mental activity of                                              51
    Parentage of                                                    49
    Sets out for Europe                                             31
    Yellow fever in Philadelphia                                    51

  Caldwell, Thomas L.                                               38

  Calomel, experience of Doctor Peter                           69, 70
    Experiment with, by Doctor Peter                            72, 73
    Irregular action of                                             69
    Mammoth dose of Doctor Cooke                                    73
    Properties of                                               68, 69

  Calvert, Doctor William Jeptha                                  *123

  Causes of the decline of the Medical Department              57, 157

  "Captain Neet's Rifle Guards"                                     58

  Centenary of Lexington                                            *3

  Centennial Park                                                    3

  Ceremonies on laying the first "stone sill" of
          L. & O. R. R.                                     58, 59, 60

  Chapman, George T.                                               *46

  Chapman, Reverend Doctor                                          75

  Chemical work of Doctor Peter                                 95, 96

  Chew, Doctor Samuel C.                                           122

  Chipley, Amelia Stout                                            147

  Chipley, Doctor William S.                                       156
    Biographical sketch of                                         147
    Advocates Deaf and Dumb Asylum                                 151
    As a lecturer                                                  149
    As a specialist                                                153
    As a writer                                                    149
    Asylum burnt                                                   152
    At College Hill                                                153
    Burning of "Duncannon"                                         152
    Death of                                                       153
    Establishes asylum at Anchorage                                151
    Goes to Columbus, Georgia                                      148
    Goes to Europe                                                 151
    Graduates in Transylvania                                 147, 148
    Marries                                                        148
    Mayor of Columbus                                         148, 149
    Parentage of                                                   147
    Practices among Indians                                        148
    Private asylum at Lexington                                    153
    Professor in Transylvania                                      149
    Purchases "Duncannon"                                          152
    Return to Lexington                                            149
    Takes charge of Lunatic Asylum                                 149
    Takes issue with Doctor Dudley                                 148
    Work for idiots                                           150, 151
    Work for Lunatic Asylum                                   149, 150

  Chipley, Reverend Stephen                                        147

  Cholera of 1833                                      66, 67, *67, 73

  Cholera of 1833, number of deaths                                *67

  Churchill, Armistead                                              82

  Churchill, Jane Henry                                             82

  Churchill, Mary Henry                                             82

  Citizens of Lexington subscribe to Medical Department             42

  Clifford, John D.                                                 31

  Coit, Reverend Thomas W.                                         *83

  Coleman, James B.                                                 58

  Coleman, Nicholas D.                                             *35

  Combs, General Leslie                                             58

  Completion of Lexington & Ohio Railroad                           58

  Consolidation of the Transylvania and Kentucky Universities       56

  Consolidation of the Transylvania Seminary and Kentucky
          Academy                                                    5

  Cooke, Doctor John Esten                              15, 21, 40, 57
    Biographical sketch of                                          64
    As a lecturer                                                   77
    Cases from the practice of                          66, 67, 68, 71
    Character, by Doctor Yandell                                   *78
    Characteristic anecdote of                                      75
    "Cooke's pills"                                             73, 74
    Died                                                        64, 65
    In cholera of 1833                                          66, 67
    In Louisville                                               77, 78
    In Transylvania Medical School                                  64
    Fame of                                                         64
    Logic of                                                        76
    Mammoth doses of calomel                                        73
    Method of making antimonial wine                               *65
    Only fear of calomel                                        70, 71
    Removed to Louisville                                           64
    Removal from Virginia                                           64
    Retired on pension                                              78
    Sincerity of opinions                                       74, 75
    Universal theory of disease                                     76
    Use of calomel                                              65, 66
    Writings of                                                 64, 78

  Cooper, Doctor Thomas                                             27

  Cow-pox introduced                                                 9

  Criticism of Doctor Caldwell by Doctor Yandell                    48

  Cross, Doctor James Conquest                               106, *132
    Biographical sketch of                                         105
    Born                                                           105
    Character of                                                   106
    Dean of the Faculty                                            105
    Dismissed from Transylvania                                    105
    Made medical professor                                          63
    Professor in Transylvania                                      105
    Writings of                                                    105

  Daguerre's wonderful discovery                                    91

  Dallam, Major William S.                                          90

  Dallam, Frances Paca                                              90

  Davidge, Professor John B.                                       122

  Davidson, Reverend Robert                                        157

  Decline of the Transylvania Medical Department                   157
    Causes of                                                       57

  Dedication of Morrison College                                    90

  Description of New Medical Hall                             162, 163

  Description of Old Medical Hall                                   44

  Difficulty of travel in early times                               31

  Difficulty of procuring anatomical material                       61

  Director, first, of Transylvania Seminary                          3

  Donation of Reverend John Todd                                  2, 3

  Donations of physicians of Lexington, etc.                        43

  Douglass, William, case of                                        66

  Driver, Absolom                                             163, 164

  Drake, Doctor B. P.                                              156

  Drake, Doctor Daniel                              7, 15, 32, 38, 107
    Biographical sketch of                                          40
    Advice to young practitioners                                   42
    Born                                                            40
    Died                                                            42
    Founds school in Cincinnati                                     41
    Gross's description of                                     *42, 54
    In Louisville Medical Institute                                 41
    In Medical College of Ohio                                      41
    In Philadelphia                                                 41
    Professor in Transylvania                                       41
    Resigns                                                         33
    Resigns from Transylvania                                       41
    Writings of                                                     41
    Yandell's description of                                        42

  Dudley, Ambrose                                                   15

  Dudley, Doctor Benjamin W.       7, 11, 13, 27, 29, 30, 32, 35, *35,
                                 38, 46, 53, 54, 57, 82, *82, 91, 102,
                                  114, 115, *115, 117, 118, 119, *132,
                                              *133, 156, 157, 158, 159
    Biographical sketch of                                          15
    Appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology                   13
    As citizen                                                      24
    As medical practitioner                                         24
    As surgeon                                                      19
    As a teacher                                                    18
    As a writer                                                     21
    Born                                                            15
    Character of                                                    18
    Contracts poison                                               *26
    Death of                                                   18, *26
    Duel with Richardson                                            25
    Elected President _pro tem._ of Transylvania University         21
    Exemplification of character                                    24
    Influence on Medical Department                           158, 159
    First papers of                                                 21
    Last lectures of                                                17
    Last productions of                                             23
    Liberality of                                                   25
    Made Emeritus                                                   17
    Memoir of, by Yandell                                           23
    Notice of two operations                                        20
    Operations for lithotomy                                        19
    Papers in _Journal of Medicine_                                 22
    Preparation of patients                                         20
    Receives degree of M. D.                                        16
    Recollections of school of 1815                                 27
    Removal of Medical Department to Louisville                     62
    Removes to Lexington                                            15
    Resigns                                                         17
    Roller bandage                                                  20
    Sensibility of                                                  19
    Studies in Europe                                           15, 16
    Treatment for _fungus cerebri_                                  22
    Use of hot water                                                21
    Withdraws from practice                                         17

  Dudley, Ethelbert L.                            17, 21, 23, 96, *115
    Biographical sketch of                                         132
    As editor                                                      134
    As medical student                                             132
    As practitioner                                                136
    Death of                                                       138
    Degree of M. D.                                                132
    Demonstrator of Anatomy                                        133
    Endearing attributes of                                        136
    Energy of                                                 133, 134
    In the Civil War                                               137
    Incident of Civil War                                         *137
    In Kentucky School of Medicine                            134, 135
    Raises regiment                                                137
    Resigns from Kentucky School of Medicine                       136
    Teaches at Marine Hospital                                     135
    Visits Europe                                                  134

  Dudley, Scott                                                   *137

  Dudley, Reverend Thomas P.                                       *26

  Dudley, William A.                                                25

  Duncan, General                                                 *110


  Early advantages of Lexington                                     30

  Eaton, Amos                                                       84

  Eaton, A. M., Hezekiah Hulbert                  79, *79, 84, 89, *89
    Character of                                                    84
    Death of                                                        85

  Eaton, General William                                           *84

  Eberle, Doctor John                                   109, *110, 113
    Biographical sketch of                                         106
    Appearance and character of                                    108
    As practitioner                                                108
    Botanical work of                                              108
    Called to Transylvania                                          63
    Death of                                                   63, 109
    Difficulties as author                                    106, 107
    Early education and birth                                      106
    Founds Medical School in Cincinnati, Ohio                      107
    Professor in Jefferson Medical College                         107
    Professor in Medical College of Ohio                           108
    Professor in Transylvania Medical Department                   108
    Writings of                                          106, 107, 108

  Eclectic Institute                                           89, *89

  Editors of _Transylvania Journal of Medicine_                     21

  Effort to remove Medical School to Louisville                 61, 62

  End of Transylvania Medical Department                           157

  Epilepsy, cause of                                                21

  Epilepsy, cure by Doctor Dudley                               21, 22

  Era of depression in Lexington                              160, 161

  Everett, Edward                                             *46, 168


  Faculty, first, of Kentucky School of Medicine                  *115

  Faculty of Transylvania University in 1821                       *35

  Faculty of Transylvania University under the Methodists,
          1842                                                    *132

  Fanning, Elizabeth                                               148

  Fanning, Colonel James                                           148

  Ficklin, Joseph                                                   38

  Final dispersion of Medical Faculty                              157

  First acting President of Transylvania Seminary                    2

  First Faculty of Kentucky School of Medicine                    *115

  First Medical College in the Mississippi Valley                    5

  First meeting of Trustees of Transylvania University               5

  First "Director" of Transylvania Seminary                          3

  First effort to establish a Medical College                        5

  First geological survey of Kentucky                               94

  First Grammar Master of Transylvania Seminary                      2

  First lecture room of Medical Department                          29

  First medical graduate                                            32

  First medical lectures                                            29

  First Medical Professors in Transylvania University            6, 26

  First newspaper in the West                                        4

  First operation of lithotomy by Doctor Dudley                     20

  First President of Transylvania Seminary                           4

  First railroad in United States                                 *158

  First Rector of Christ Church                                      2

  First site of Transylvania University                            *97

  First University building burned                                   3

  Fishback, Jacob                                                   13

  Fishback, Doctor James                                    16, 26, 46
    Appointed Professor in Medical Department                       12
    Character of                                                    13
    Death of                                                        13
    Legislator                                                      13
    Trustee in Transylvania                                        *13
    Writings of                                                     13

  Flint, Doctor Joshua B.                                    *115, 142

  Fry, Joshua                                                       82


  Garden, botanic                                                   38

  Garden, Thomas J.                                                 30

  Garrard, Governor                                                  4

  Geological survey of Kentucky begun                               94

  Geological survey resumed                                         98

  Goldsmith, Doctor Alban                                          114

  Government appropriation for rents and destruction of
          Transylvania University property                        *162

  Graham, Doctor Christopher C.                 *17, 20, *27, 28, *133
    Adventures as medical student                                  *33
    Reminiscences of                                                28

  Gratz, Benjamin                                  3, 38, 46, 97, *109

  Gratz, H. H.                                                       3

  Gratz Park                                                         3

  Green, Doctor Lewis W.                                           160

  Griswold, Henry A.                                       79, *89, 93

  Gross, Doctor S. D.                                    *42, *54, *81

  Guyot, Professor                                                 163


  Hall, Reverend Nathan H.                                    59, *106

  Hall, Doctor William                                             *76

  Harkness, L. V.                                                  *34

  Harper, J.                                                        38

  Harrison, Professor J. P.                                        130

  Hesperian Society                                                 89

  Higgins, Richard                                                  38

  Holley, Doctor Horace                3, 34, *35, 38, 46, *46, 53, 97

  Holmes, Doctor Oliver Wendell, on Doctor Bartlett                127

  Home Guard                                          96, 97, *97, 137

  Hosack, Doctor                                                     7

  Humphreys, Charles                                           38, *46

  Hunt's Artillery                                                  58

  Hunt, John W.                                                 38, 46

  Hunter, John                                                      18

  Huntingdon, Doctor, extracts from address of                     126


  Influence of rival schools on Transylvania Medical
          Department                                               159

  Influence of Doctor Dudley on Transylvania Medical
          Department                                          158, 159

  Inoculation for smallpox                                           4
    Great hazard in                                                  4

  Ill feeling between Doctors Dudley and Richardson                 32


  Jackson, President                                                29

  James, Miss Charlotte                                            119

  Janitor of Medical Hall                                          163

  Jenkins, John F.                                                 *35

  Jenner, Doctor                                                     9

  Johnson, Honorable Madison C.                                97, *97

  Joint stock company to build first Medical Hall                   43

  Journey to Philadelphia, difficulty of                            31


  Kemp, Reverend J. L.                                            *133

  Kentucky Academy                                               4, 12
    Rivalry with Transylvania Seminary                               5
    United with Transylvania Seminary                                5

  _Kentucky Gazette_                            *4, 11, 19, 20, 26, 30

  Kentucky School of Medicine                             17, 134, 135

  Kentucky School of Medicine as winter school                     115

  Kentucky School of Medicine, first Faculty of                   *115

  Kentucky University controversy                                  100

  Kentucky University removed to Lexington                          99

  Kentucky University united with Transylvania University      99, 100


  Law College established                                            6

  Lawrence, Mr. Byrem                                              *94

  Lawson, Doctor Leonidas, biographical sketch of                  130
    As practitioner                                                131
    Graduate in Transylvania                                       130
    In Kentucky School of Medicine                                 131
    In University of Louisiana                                     131
    Practice in Cincinnati                                         130
    Professor in Ohio Medical College                         130, 131
    Professor in Transylvania                                      130
    Writings of                                               130, 131

  Lawson, Miss Louisa                                              131

  Leavy, William                                               38, *46

  Leavy, William A.                                                 38

  Letcher, Doctor Samuel M.                                        156
    Biographical sketch of                                         146
    Death of                                                       147
    In Civil War                                                   147
    Professor in Transylvania Medical Department                   146

  Letter of Doctor Mitchell to Benjamin Gratz                109, *110

  Lexington & Ohio Railroad begun                                   58

  Lexington & Ohio Railroad completed                               58

  Lexington, early advantages of                                    30

  Lexington endows Transylvania University with $70,000            *56

  Lexington, population of                                      57, 58

  _Lexington Reporter_                                         *43, 59

  Light, George C.                                                 *46

  Loan, city of Lexington to Medical College                        43

  Location of Botanic Garden                                       *39

  Lofty aims of John B. Bowman                                    *100

  Lynch, Reverend Thomas H.                                       *133


  Mangum, Senator W. P.                                            129

  Marshall, Doctor Alexander K., biographical sketch of            155
    Education of                                                   155
    Death of                                                       156

  Marshall, Honorable Thomas A.                                   *133

  "Marshall, Tom"                                                  163

  Marshall, Doctor Louis                                           155

  McCalla, John M.                                                  38

  McClellan, Doctor George                               107, 121, 122

  McCoun, Reverend B. H.                                          *133

  McCullough, John Lawson                                           32

  McDowell, Doctor Ephraim                                      7, 155

  McIlvaine, B. R.                                                  38

  Medical Class of 1815                                             29

  Medical College established                                        5

  Medical Department of Transylvania University, Causes of
          decline                                              57, 157

  Medical Department of Transylvania University first
          instituted                                                 5

  Medical Faculty of Transylvania University intermits
          winter session in Lexington                               17

  Medical Faculty of Transylvania University of 1815                27

  Medical Faculty of Transylvania University in 1856-57            156

  Medical Hall, New, burned                                    55, 161

  Medical Hall, Old, burned                                         44

  Medical Hall deserted                                            161

  Medical Hall taken for United States Hospital                    161

  Medical Institute                                                102

  Medical School of Transylvania University as a summer
          school                                                   115

  Medical School of Transylvania University in 1809                 13

  Megowan, Joseph                                                  *29

  Memorial of Doctor Peter to Legislature                          *94

  Mercer, General                                                   75

  Merrick, Reverend Wright                                        *133

  Metcalfe, Governor                                                59

  Michaux, F. A.                                                    31

  Mitchel, Reverend James                                            2

  Mitchell, Doctor Thomas D.                21, 57, 63, 107, *133, 167
    Biographical sketch of                                         109
    As a lecturer                                            114, *114
    At Frankford, Pa.                                              111
    Born                                                           110
    Called to Transylvania                                         112
    Dean of Faculty                                                110
    Death of                                                       110
    Degree of A. M.                                                111
    Degree of M. D.                                                109
    Describes Medical School                                       *63
    Early education of                                             110
    Fills two chairs                                          109, 110
    Fortitude of                                                   110
    Founds total abstinence society                                111
    Lazaretto physician                                           *109
    Leaves Transylvania                                            112
    Letter to Benjamin Gratz                                       109
    Professor in Jefferson Medical School                          113
    Professor in Kentucky School of Medicine                       112
    Professor in Medical College of Ohio                           112
    Professor in Philadelphia College of Medicine                  112
    Professor in St. John's Lutheran College                       111
    Professor in Transylvania Medical Department                   109
    Resigns from Kentucky School of Medicine                       112
    Writings of                                                    111
    Yellow fever                                                  *109

  Moore, Reverend James                                              2
    Appointed president of Transylvania University                   5
    Restored to presidency of Transylvania University               11

  Morehead, Charles D.                                             *35

  "Morgan's Rifles"                                                *97

  Morrison College, dedication of                                   90
    Taken for United States Hospital                               161

  Morrison, Colonel James                                          154


  New Medical Hall burned                                      55, 161
    Corner-stone laid                                              162
    Dedicated                                                      162
    Description of                                            162, 163
    Erected                                                         44
    Purchase of lot for                                            *56
    Reverts to city                                                *56
    Used as United States Hospital                                  55

  Nicholas, Colonel George                                           6

  Norwood, C. J.                                                    98


  Old Medical Hall burned                                           44
    Corner-stone laid   44                                          44
    Description of                                                  44

  Opposition to Transylvania Medical Department                    160

  Organization of Medical Faculty in 1809                           13
    In 1817                                                         32

  Origin of Transylvania Seminary                                    2

  Origin of Transylvania University                                  1

  Owen, Doctor David Dale                                  94, 99, 161
    Death of                                                        96
    Describes Doctor Peter's laboratory                            *95
    On Doctor Peter's chemical work                                 95
    Owen, Colonel Richard                                           99

  Overton, Doctor James                             26, 27, 29, 30, 32
    Education of                                                   *28
    Professor of Materia Medica and Botany                          13
    Removed from Lexington                                          28
    Sketch of, by Mrs. Bullock                                     *28


  Palmer, James W.                                                  38

  Parrish, Doctor                                                  111

  Patti, Adelina                                                   163

  Pattison, Professor Granville Sharpe                             122

  Patton, Elizabeth                                                  7

  Paxton, W. M.                                                   *156

  Peers, Reverend B. O.                               *83, 85, 89, *89

  Pendleton, Major-General                                          59

  Percy, Thomas G.                                                   6

  Permanent location of Transylvania Seminary                        3

  Peter, Doctor Robert           21, 63, 79, 109, 112, *115, *133, 156
    Biographical sketch of                                          88
    Ancestry                                                        88
    Analyses in new geological survey                               98
    Analyses in survey of Arkansas                                  99
    Analyses in survey of Indiana                                   99
    Analyses of Trenton limestone                                   99
    Antagonistic to Doctor Yandell                            102, 103
    Appearance of                                                  104
    As army surgeon                                                 97
    As botanist                                                     93
    As city councilman                                             104
    As editor                                                      101
    As experimental chemist                                   103, 104
    As lecturer                                                    103
    As practitioner                                                 90
    As teacher                                                      93
    As toxicologist                                                 98
    As writer                                                      101
    Assists Doctor Yandell                                          89
    At Rensselaer School                                       89, *89
    Attacked by Louisville controversialists                      *102
    Born                                                            88
    Brings first daguerreotype outfit to Lexington                  92
    Comes to America                                                88
    Comes to Lexington                                              89
    Character, by a colleague                                      104
    Character of his teachings                                      92
    Cholera of 1833                                                 90
    Controversy on the removal of the school to
          Louisville                                          101, 102
    Dean of the Faculty                                             90
    Degree of M. D.                                                 90
    Death of                                                       104
    Discovery of phosphates                                         99
    Donates apparatus                                              *90
    Early education                                                 88
    Emeritus Professor                                             101
    Examination of calculi                                          92
    Experiments with gun-cotton, etc.                               92
    Extracts from letters of                                        91
    Herbarium                                                       93
    In agriculture and horticulture                                101
    In Arkansas geological survey                               98, 99
    Inaugurates the Kentucky Geological Survey                      94
    In Civil War                                                96, 97
    In the Eclectic Institute                                       89
    In the Kentucky Geological Survey           94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99
    Lectures at Pittsburg                                           89
    Marries                                                         90
    Naturalized                                                 88, 89
    Professor in Kentucky University                               100
    Professor in Kentucky School of Medicine                        93
    Professor in Transylvania Medical Department                    90
    Proves the importance of soil analysis                      94, 95
    Purchases apparatus in Europe                               90, 91
    Reconciliation with Doctor Yandell                             103
    Religious views                                          100, *101
    Retires from medical practice                                   90
    Unanimously elected to chair in Morrison College                90
    Views on Louisville controversy                                102

  Petre, Sir William                                                88

  Population of Lexington, fluctuation in                       57, 58

  Powell, Doctor Llewellyn                                        *115

  Preliminary preparation of patients by Doctor Dudley          19, 20

  Present prosperity of Lexington                                  160

  Present whereabouts of medical library and apparatus              56

  Presbyterian patronage of Transylvania Seminary                    2

  President of Kentucky Academy                                      4

  Preston family, memoranda of                                      *7

  Preston, John                                                      7

  Preston, Margaret                                                  7

  Priestly, Doctor                                                   4

  Primitive daguerreotype apparatus                             91, 92

  Procter, John R.                                              97, 98

  Purchase of lot for New Medical Hall                             *56


  Qualifications of medical students of 1838                        63


  Rafinesque, Professor C. S.                                  *35, 38
    Biographical sketch of                                          35
    Born                                                            36
    Botanic Garden                                                  37
    Comes to Lexington                                              36
    His estimation of himself                                       35
    Professor in Transylvania University                            36
    Writings of                                                     37

  Railroads in Kentucky, difficulty in obtaining                   158

  Railroads, effect on Lexington                                61, 62

  Railroad, first in the West                                      158

  Ranck, G. W.                                                     *29

  Rapid increase of classes                                         46

  Remains of the medical library                                   *56

  Reid, Doctor, of Edinburgh                                       113

  Reorganization of Medical Faculty in 1815                         27
    In 1817                                                         27
    In 1823                                                         40
    In 1837                                                         63

  Richardson, Doctor William H.                7, 16, 27, 32, 35, *35,
                                                      38, 63, 110, 132
    Biographical sketch of                                          33
    Character of                                                33, 34
    Death of                                                        33
    Duel with Doctor Dudley                                         25
    Home of                                                         34

  Ridgely, Doctor Frederick                                 15, 26, 82
    Biographical sketch                                             10
    As army surgeon                                                 10
    Born                                                           *10
    Character of                                                    10
    Death of                                                        11
    First lectures                                                  11
    First professor in Transylvania Medical Department               6
    Made Professor in Transylvania Medical Department               11

  Robertson, Honorable George                                *133, 149

  Roche, John P.                                               *35, 38

  Rogers, Doctor Coleman                                       27, 141

  Rogers, Doctor Lewis                                     14, 33, 116
    On Doctors Short and Peter                                      93

  Roller bandage, use of by Dudley                                  20

  Rush, Doctor                                        51, 52, 53, *110


  Sayre, David A.                                              97, *97

  Scott, Sir Walter                                                *46

  Second geological survey of Kentucky                              97

  Shaler, Professor N. S.                                           97

  Short, Doctor Charles W.                         21, 40, 57, *79, 93
    Biographical sketch of                                          78
    As church member                                                82
    As a lecturer                                               80, 81
    As a teacher                                                    93
    Born                                                            78
    Character of                                                78, 79
    Dean of Faculty                                                 81
    Death of                                                        81
    Description of, by Doctor Gross                                *81
    Description of, by Professor Miller                            *80
    Early education of                                              82
    Editor of _Transylvania Journal of Medicine_                    81
    Emeritus Professor                                              81
    His herbarium                                               79, 80
    Honored by botanists                                            80
    Influence on Kentucky Medical Institute                        *81
    Leaves Transylvania                                             81
    Marries                                                         82
    Parentage of                                                81, 82
    President _pro tem._ of Transylvania                           *82
    Professor in Medical Institute                             81, *82
    Professor in Transylvania                                       78
    Received degree of M. D.                                        82
    Two remarkable cases                                            80
    Writings of                                                 79, 80

  Short, John Cleves                                                82

  Short, Peyton                                                     81

  Skillman, Doctor Henry M.                                        156
    Biographical sketch of                                         143
    Character of                                              144, 145
    Death of                                                       144
    Degree of M. D.                                           143, 144
    Early education                                                143
    In Civil War                                                   145
    Marries                                                        146
    Offices of trust                                               145
    Professor in Transylvania                                      144

  Skillman, Elizabeth Farrar                                       143

  Skillman, Thomas T.                                              143
    Sketch of                                                 145, 146

  Skipwith, Sir William, baronet                                    82

  Slaughter, Gabriel                                                38

  Smallpox, notice of inoculation for                                4

  Smith, Doctor Alan P.                                            124

  Smith, Doctor Nathan R.                                           57
    Biographical sketch of                                         120
    As a lecturer                                                  124
    As a surgeon                                                   124
    As a teacher                                                   124
    At University of Pennsylvania                             121, 122
    Born                                                           120
    Called to Transylvania                                         120
    Early education                                                121
    Estimation in which he was held                                122
    Letter of resignation                                   *122, *123
    Letter of Transylvania Faculty                                *123
    Mental gifts                                                   123
    Professor in Transylvania Medical Department              122, 123
    Professor in University of Maryland                            122
    Professor in University of Vermont                             121
    Resigned                                                       120
    Sketch of his father                                      120, 121
    Writings and inventions                                        124

  Smith, Thomas                                                     38

  Staughton, Professor                                             113

  Stockholders of the Botanic Garden                                38

  Strakosch, Maurice                                               163

  Students in Medical Department, total number of                   55

  Superior apparatus of Transylvania Medical Department            157

  Superiority of library of Transylvania Medical Department        *91

  Swan, Mr.                                                        168

  Symmes, John Cleves                                               82


  Table of students, graduates of Medical Department
          (1819-34)                                                *55

  "The Botanical Garden" of Transylvania University                 38

  Theobalds, Doctor Samuel                                        *147

  Thomas, Doctor Philip                                            *10

  Thornbury, Doctor Philip                                        *115

  Titian, anecdote of                                               47

  Todd, Reverend John                                                3

  Todd, Doctor L. B.                                         *136, 155

  Total number of students in Medical Department                    55

  Total number of graduates in Medical Department                   55

  Toulmin, Mr. Harry, first President of Transylvania
          University                                                 4
    Opposition to                                                    4

  Transylvania the best-endowed medical school in America         *122

  Transylvania Faculty in 1842                                    *132

  Transylvania Institute                                           *56

  Transylvania _Journal of Medicine_, editors of                    21

  Transylvania _Journal of Medicine_, first appearance of           21

  Transylvania Land Company                                          3

  Transylvania Medical Library                                     *91

  Transylvania Medical School in 1809                               13

  Transylvania merged into Kentucky University                 99, 100

  Transylvania Seminary                                              2
    First "Director"                                                 3
    First President                                                  4
    Presbyterian patronage of                                        2
    Rivalry with Kentucky Academy                                    5
    United with Kentucky Academy                                     5

  Transylvania University                                            5
    First meeting of Trustees of                                     5
    Medical department established                                   5
    Origin of                                                        1

  Tribute of thanks, 1817                                           30

  Trotter, James                                                   *46

  "Trotter's Warehouse"                                             29

  Trustees of Transylvania University in 1828                      *46


  Unparalleled growth of Transylvania University Medical
          School                                                   167


  Vaccination introduced by Doctor Brown                             9


  Wallace, Thomas                                                   38

  Warfield, Charles H.                                              30

  Warfield, Doctor Elisha                                  13, 38, *46
    Resigns                                                         14

  Warfield, Doctor Walter                                           11

  Warner, Miss Harriot                                              47

  Watson, Doctor Lotan G.                                         *126
    Sketch of                                                      129
    Character of                                                   129
    Professor in Transylvania Medical Department                   129

  Welsh, Reverend James                                             11

  Wickliffe, Robert, junior                                        162

  Wilkins, Charles                                             38, *46

  Willett, Jacob                                                   125

  Wilson, Mr. Isaac                                                  2

  Winter, Elisha I.                                                *46

  Wistar, Doctor Caspar                                             82

  Woods, Reverend Alva, D. D.                                       21
    Installed as President                                          46

  Woolley, Honorable A. K.                                        *133


  Yandell, Doctor Lunsford P.                      21, 23, 47, 48, 53,
                                                   57, 63, 64, 66, 77,
                                                           89, 90, 158
    Biographical sketch of                                          83
    As editor and writer                                            87
    Called to Chemical Chair in Transylvania                        83
    Character of                                                    83
    Character of Doctor Cooke, by                                  *78
    Criticises Doctor Caldwell                                      48
    Death of                                                        88
    During Civil War                                                86
    Early education                                                 83
    Forgives Doctor Caldwell                                        49
    Goes to Memphis                                                 86
    Ordained Presbyterian minister                                  87
    President of College Physicians and Surgeons                    87
    President of Medical Society                                87, 88
    Professor in Medical Institute                              85, 86
    Professor in Transylvania                                       83
    Removes to Louisville                                           85
    Succeeds Doctor Caldwell                                        86
    Resigns from Louisville school                                  86

  Yandell, Doctor Wilson                                            83




Footnotes


[Footnote 1: April 11, 1791. See Records of Transylvania University.]

[Footnote 2: Out lot No. 6.]

[Footnote 3: In honor of the Centenary of Lexington, celebrated April
2, 1879.]

[Footnote 4: An interesting notice of "_Inoculation for Smallpox_," in
1794, is to be found in the files of the old _Kentucky Gazette_, a
paper published by John Bradford, in Lexington, August 11, 1787--the
first newspaper published west of the Alleghany mountains. This notice
appeared in that paper January 4, 1794, as follows: "On Thursday last
the inhabitants of this place began the inoculation of smallpox and
have agreed to continue until the fifteenth, after which they are
determined to cease. They have appointed a committee to draw up a
remonstrance to the court of Fayette County requesting that the order
of that court granting liberty to the inhabitants of said county to
inoculate may be rescinded, so far as respects the town of Lexington,
after that date." The _Gazette_ for the first of February following
has this significant statement, illustrating the great hazard of this
primitive operation, viz: "That the smallpox had been very fatal
within the three weeks past in the town and vicinity under
inoculation, that at least _one out of fifteen died_ who had been
inoculated, and very few children had recovered." Vaccination was
introduced here by Professor Samuel Brown, M. D., at quite an early
period, as we shall see further on.]

[Footnote 5: Lexington, January 8, 1799. (See Records of Transylvania
University, Volume 1.)]

[Footnote 6: December 11, 1799. (See Records of Transylvania
University.)]

[Footnote 7: "Memoranda of the Preston Family," by John Mason Brown,
Page 20.]

[Footnote 8: See "Memoranda of the Preston Family," Page 37, for his
descendants.]

[Footnote 9: Quoted from an introductory lecture to the winter course
in the Medical Department of Transylvania University, delivered by the
present writer (Doctor Robert Peter) November 5, 1854.]

[Footnote 10: Doctor Ridgely was born on Elkridge, Anne Arundel
County, Maryland, May 25, 1757, and studied medicine under Doctor
Philip Thomas, of almost unrivaled reputation. (Doctor C. W. Short.)]

[Footnote 11: Doctor James Fishback resigned as Trustee and qualified
as Medical Professor November 4, 1805. (See Records.)]

[Footnote 12: Jacob Fishback was a Trustee of Transylvania in 1801 and
up to 1807. (See Records.)]

[Footnote 13: See Records of Transylvania University, 1809.]

[Footnote 14: An able biographical sketch of him by his son, Joseph
Buchanan, also celebrated, was published in _Collins' History of
Kentucky_, first edition.]

[Footnote 15: According to Doctor C. C. Graham he held that these two
chairs should be inseparable.]

[Footnote 16: Now the site of the golf links at the termination of
North Broadway.]

[Footnote 17: This was before the use of anesthetics in surgery, it
must be remembered.]

[Footnote 18: Did he not, in this preliminary preparation of his
surgical patients, unwittingly render them safe from the microbes of
disease, thus practically securing for them the benefits of more
modern scientific discovery?]

[Footnote 19: March 28, 1828, Doctor Dudley was elected President, _pro
tem._, in the interval between the unanimous election of Reverend Alva
Woods, D. D., February 7, 1828, and his installation October 13, 1828.]

[Footnote 20: "He contracted poison in performing a surgical
operation, from which he suffered greatly and never recovered. He died
suddenly after about two hours of illness, at a quarter to one on
Thursday morning, January 20, 1870, of apoplexy. In his relations of
son, husband, father, master and friend it is believed he has left no
better man." (Extract from a short obituary by his brother, Reverend
Thomas P. Dudley.)]

[Footnote 21: Doctor C. C. Graham says: "What few private students
there were in Lexington went from shop to shop (at that day so called)
and got three only, Dudley, Richardson, and eccentric Overton to give
us a talk." (Letter to Doctor Peter.)]

[Footnote 22: Since dead as more than a centenarian.]

[Footnote 23: His great niece, Mrs. Waller O. Bullock, in speaking of
the portrait of Doctor Overton, the only one extant, says: "It was
done in Philadelphia just as he was completing his medical course, and
I think it must have been soon after that he entered upon his work at
Transylvania. He took a post-graduate course at Paris, France, and was
considered one of the most brilliant men of his day. He had great
command of language and his conversation sparkled with wit and humor,
nor was he less happy with his pen. On one occasion the city of
Nashville offered a handsome prize for the best essay on some disputed
medical point; no one was barred; doctors of all ages entered the
lists, and Uncle James--though an old man--bore off the honors. In
cultivated elegant society he was at his best, and when distinguished
foreigners visited President Jackson at the Hermitage it always
devolved on Doctor Overton to do the agreeable, his command of French
peculiarly fitting him for this post. He early left Kentucky to make
his home in Tennessee, where he practiced his profession for many
years, dying at an advanced age."]

[Footnote 24: "When the first medical lectures were delivered in our
city a room was rented for the purpose on Main Street. At the time of
the reorganization in 1819 a commodious apartment in the upper story
of the large building (on Short Street) now occupied (1854) by the
Branch Bank of Kentucky, then as a tavern, was temporarily fitted up
as a lecture-room, and Doctor Dudley lectured in his own rooms back of
his office ... (on Mill Street, east side, a little above Church
Street). The rapid increase of the class soon induced Doctor Dudley to
enlarge his accommodation by the erection of a very commodious
amphitheatre, in which he lectured until 1839-40, when the new hall
was built (corner of Broadway and Second)." (Lecture of Doctor Peter
to Medical Department, November 6, 1854.)]

[Footnote 25: According to G. W. Ranck's _History of Lexington_.]

[Footnote 26: Doctor C. C. Graham relates, in reference to student
life about this time: "Dead bodies at that day were not articles of
commerce, so we, the students, had to disinter them; and we once had a
battle, so published in the newspapers, at the old Baptist
graveyard--the Battle of the Graveyard, so-called--when taking up the
Irishman that caused the duel (between Dudley and Richardson). We were
taken prisoners by an armed guard and hauled up to the court-house for
trial, but there was no law to make the dead private property, so the
declaration of Scripture that from dust we came and unto dust we must
return let us off by paying one cent damages for taking that much clay
or soil. At another time, near Nicholasville, we were pursued when
making our way to our horses hitched outside an orchard fence, and one
ball of several fired lodged in the subject, on my back." (Letter of
Doctor Graham.)]

[Footnote 27: It seems Doctor Drake had obtained an honorary degree
for Richardson.]

[Footnote 28: "Caneland," which now forms a beautiful portion of L. V.
Harkness' Walnut Hall Stock Farm, where the old house still stands,
with Richardson's name on the brass knocker of the front door.]

[Footnote 29: The full Faculty of Transylvania, published 1821, was:
President, Reverend Horace Holley, A. M., A. A. S.; Honorable William T.
Barry, LL. D., Professor of Law; Charles Caldwell, M. D., Dean,
Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and teacher of Materia Medica,
with a private class in Medical Jurisprudence; Samuel Brown, M. D.,
Theory and Practice; Benjamin W. Dudley, M. D., Anatomy and Surgery;
William H. Richardson, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and
Children; Reverend James Blythe, D. D., Professor of Chemistry; Reverend
Robert H. Bishop, A. M., Natural Philosophy, Geography, Chronology, and
History, giving with the President instruction in the voluntary
theological class; John Roche, A. M., Ancient Languages and secretary of
Faculty; John F. Jenkins, A. B., Professor of Mathematics and Librarian;
Constantine S. Rafinesque, Professor of Natural History and Botany and
teacher of the Modern Languages; Nicholas D. Coleman, A. B., and Charles
S. Morehead, A. B., tutors of the Preparatory Department.]

[Footnote 30: For Rafinesque see _Life of Rafinesque_, by R. Ellsworth
Call, published by The Filson Club, 1895.]

[Footnote 31: We find the announcement in a local newspaper of
November 19, 1819, that the inauguration of the medical professors and
Professors Rafinesque and Bradford took place "at the Episcopal
Meeting House on yesterday" with music, etc.]

[Footnote 32: "A fine lot of nine and three quarters acres belonging
to Mr. Joseph Megowan, at the rate of one hundred dollars in specie
per acre, with a small rent of two dollars and fifty cents per acre
until paid."]

[Footnote 33: Doctor Best, a graduate of Transylvania Medical
Department in 1826, died at Lexington, Kentucky, September, 1830, aged
about forty-five years.]

[Footnote 34: Of Doctor Drake, Doctor S. D. Gross says: "Emphatically
a self-made man, he possessed genius of a superior order and
successfully coped with his colleagues for the highest place in the
school (Transylvania). Of all the medical teachers I have ever known
he was, all things considered, one of the most able, captivating, and
impressive. There was an earnestness, a fiery zeal about him in the
lecture-room which encircled him, as it were, with a halo of glory."
(Autobiographical sketch of Doctor Short, Page 10.)]

[Footnote 35: Mostly from _Collins' History of Kentucky_, second
edition.]

[Footnote 36: _Lexington Reporter_, March 5, 1821: "$17,000 are to be
expended in Europe this year for the Medical Department. Doctor
Caldwell (the agent) is already on his way. $5,000 only is the gift of
the Legislature, while $6,000 rest upon the responsibility of
Lexington alone and $6,000 upon that of _six individuals_ in the town
who have generously stepped forward in this manner to anticipate the
too cautious bounty of the Legislature."]

[Footnote 37: The oration at the laying of the corner-stone was made
by William T. Barry. The Trustees of Transylvania at that time were
John Bradford, Thomas Bodley, Charles Humphreys, Benjamin Gratz,
Elisha Warfield, James Fishback, John W. Hunt, James Trotter, Elisha
I. Winter, George T. Chapman, William Leavy, Charles Wilkins, and
George C. Light.]

[Footnote 38: The same year, October 13, 1828: "The Board joined in a
procession to the Episcopal Church, where the Reverend Alva Woods, D.
D., was publicly installed as President of the Transylvania
University." One thousand copies of his inaugural address to be
printed for the Board.]

[Footnote 39: Edward Everett, in a letter of introduction to Sir
Walter Scott presented to Mr. Holley when intending to visit Europe,
says of him: "As a philosopher, a scholar, and a gentleman he has left
no superior in America."]

[Footnote 40: See Pages 405-7, Autobiography of Doctor Charles Caldwell.]

[Footnote 41: See Autobiography.]

[Footnote 42: He was Dean of the Faculty.]

[Footnote 43: It has been said that Doctor Caldwell was the first
person of note to take up the study of Phrenology in this country.]

[Footnote 44: Of Doctor Caldwell, Doctor Gross says: "A more majestic
figure on the rostrum could hardly be imagined. Tall and erect in
person, with a noble head and a piercing black eye, he was the _beau
ideal_ of an elegant, entertaining, and accomplished lecturer. He was
eloquent, but too artificial, for he had cultivated elocution too much
before the mirror." (Autobiographical sketch of Doctor C. W. Short,
Page 10.)]

[Footnote 45: Doctor Caldwell says (1834): "This institution has been
in operation _fourteen_ years.... According to its record book its
classes and the degrees conferred by it have been as follows:

   Years.        Number of      Number of
                  Pupils.        Degrees.
  1819-20           37              7
  1820-1            93             13
  1821-2           138             37
  1822-3           171             51
  1823-4           200             47
  1824-5           234             57
  1825-6           281             65
  1826-7           190             53
  1827-8           152             53
  1828-9           206             40
  1829-30          199             81
  1830-1           210             52
  1831-2           215             74
  1832-3           222             69
  1833-4           262
                 -----            ---
  Total          2,810            699

"It is believed from this view of it that for its vigorous prosperity
and the rapid increase of its classes, the Medical School of
Transylvania is without a parallel. Certainly in the United States
there is nothing comparable to it. At the commencement of the present
century, when the Medical School of Philadelphia had been in operation
about forty years, it did not number more, we believe, than 200
pupils. It now contains about 400--rumor says a few more. In
_thirty-three_ years, then, that school has added about 200 to its
classes, while _in less than half that time_ the school of
Transylvania has _formed_ a class of 262. This is the highest eulogy
the institution can receive." (Doctor Caldwell to Lexington Medical
Society, 1834, "On the Impolicy of Multiplying Schools of Medicine.")]

[Footnote 46: At the time of the formation of the "Transylvania
Institute" (February 20, 1839), under articles of agreement between
the city of Lexington and the Trustees of Transylvania University (see
Deed Book No. 17, Page 42, office Fayette County Court), the city
endowed the University with seventy thousand dollars; forty-five
thousand dollars was to build a new medical hall and provide
additional library and apparatus for the same, five thousand dollars
for the Law Department, and twenty thousand dollars for Morrison
College, securing permanent scholarships in each college. In
consequence of a want of harmony in the Board of Trustees as to the
location of the proposed medical hall, the medical professors and
their friends felt obliged to purchase a lot (corner of Broadway and
Second Street, where Doctor Bush's residence was afterward built) at a
cost of five thousand dollars, although there was abundant space on
the University grounds. This lot, to purchase which citizens
contributed three thousand dollars of the five thousand, was given in
trust to the University--but, by an unauthorized clause in the deed of
conveyance, the lot and the medical hall erected on it at a cost of
about thirty-five thousand dollars reverted to the city about 1860. On
this building, which was burned during the Civil War, the medical
professors also paid out of their own incomes the surplus cost over
thirty thousand dollars which had been provided by the city. The
medical professors also each contributed annually to the medical
library, etc., ten dollars.]

[Footnote 47: There remain of this library five thousand, six hundred
and eighty-four volumes; pamphlets and medical journals, seven hundred
and fifty-four; bound volumes of theses, one hundred and thirty-eight,
at Kentucky University.]

[Footnote 48: In the session following this disintegration of the
school Doctor Thomas D. Mitchell says, in his Historical Catalogue of
the Medical School, 1838: "Notwithstanding the great pecuniary
embarrassments of the country and the peculiar circumstances
accompanying the late disorganization, the number of pupils fell short
but fifteen of the previous session."]

[Footnote 49: Doctor Mitchell at this time says: "The entire course of
lectures in this school costs the sum of _one hundred and five
dollars_. In addition the matriculation fee, which entitles the pupil
to use of the very extensive library, is _five dollars_. The
dissecting ticket is _ten dollars_, and may be taken or omitted at
pleasure." The qualifications for candidates for the degree of Doctor
of Medicine: "The persons offering must be 21 years of age and must
have been engaged in the study of medicine during three years. Two
full courses of lectures in a chartered medical school (the last of
which in this institution) are also requisite. But persons who exhibit
satisfactory proof of having been engaged in reputable practice for
the space of four years may be candidates by attending one course of
lectures, which must be in this school. Each candidate is required to
exhibit all his tickets to the Dean before his name can be enrolled.
The fee for graduation is $20." (See Doctor Mitchell's Historical
Catalogue, 1838.)]

[Footnote 50: This, with a strange prejudice against novelties, he
recommended to be made by putting an indefinite quantity of glass of
antimony in a bottle with wine, to digest for an uncertain period,
adding more wine as the contents were withdrawn for use.]

[Footnote 51: "From June 1 to August 1, 502 died." (_Collins' History
of Kentucky._)]

[Footnote 52: The late William Hall, M. D., for a long time editor of
_Hall's Journal of Health_, of New York.]

[Footnote 53: Memoir, Page 21.]

[Footnote 54: Doctor L. P. Yandell, senior, says of Doctor Cooke in
his biography: "Dr. Cooke was one of the few men who might have been
safely trusted to write his autobiography. He would have reviewed his
career with a truthfulness, a modesty, a candor that would have
exalted his character in the eyes of men. His works will be read by
the curious for a long time to come, and will always be read with
advantage by the earnest student."]

[Footnote 55: _Notices of Western Botany and Conchology_, by Doctor C.
W. Short and H. H. Eaton, A. M., published in _Transylvania Journal of
Medicine_, 1831.]

[Footnote 56: Professor Henry Miller, of Louisville, says of Doctor
Short: "As a lecturer Dr. Short's style was chaste, concise, and
classical, and his manner always grave and dignified. His lectures
were always carefully and fully written and read in the lecture room
with a good voice and correct emphasis. He never made the least
attempt at display nor set a clap-trap in all his life."]

[Footnote 57: Doctor Gross says: "In stature Dr. Short was of medium
height, well proportioned, with light hair and complexion, blue eyes,
and an ample forehead. His features when lighted up by a smile were
radiant with goodness and beneficence. In manner he was graceful,
calm, and dignified; so much so that one coming into his presence for
the first time might have supposed him to be haughty and ascetic;
such, however, was not the case."]

[Footnote 58: Doctor David W. Yandell thus writes of Doctor Short as
connected with the Medical Institute of Louisville: "Dr. Short was a
most valuable officer. His high scientific attainment, the soundness
of his judgment, high dignity and urbanity of manner, his amiable
temper and blameless life added character and weight to the
institution. Botany was his favorite pursuit. He found the flora of
this region (Louisville) virgin and unknown, and so collected,
arranged, and classified it that his successors in this field have
been able to change nothing and to add but little to his work."]

[Footnote 59: We see in the records of the Trustees of Transylvania
University that on March 17, 1832, Doctor Short was elected President
_pro tem._ of Transylvania University "during the pleasure of the
Board," but there is no mention of his acceptance. The fact is,
Professors Short, Caldwell, and Dudley acted alternately as President
_pro tem._ on public occasions and in signing diplomas, etc., until a
President could be elected. The Reverend B. O. Peers was inaugurated
President _pro tem._, 1833, and the Reverend Thomas W. Coit, an
eminent Episcopalian divine from New England, was installed as
President in 1835.]

[Footnote 60: The resignation of his predecessor, Doctor Blythe, took
place March 16, 1831. (See Records of Transylvania University.)]

[Footnote 61: One of his ancestors was General William Eaton, the hero
of Derne.]

[Footnote 62: In the chemical course of lectures the subject of
Electricity was given up to him entirely. He lectured on it as well as
performed the experiments.]

[Footnote 63: In the catalogue of the Rensselaer School, 1828, appears
in the list of undergraduates, "Robert Peter, Pittsburg, Pa., Lecturer
on the Experimental and Demonstrative Sciences, Druggist."]

[Footnote 64: This "Eclectic Institute" occupied the "colonial"
residence on Second Street, now forming a part of the Hagerman Female
College. Mr. Peers, H. A. Griswold, and H. H. Eaton were already
associated.]

[Footnote 65: Doctor Mitchell says (1838): "Dr. Peter added to the
Chemical Department several powerful galvanic batteries and a fine
collection of apparatus recently procured from the East, making the
laboratory more complete than it ever has been before." (Historical
Catalogue, 1838.)]

[Footnote 66: Of the books, apparatus, etc., purchased in Europe by
Doctor Peter we find the following account rendered on March 25, 1839:
"Books and plates, six thousand dollars; chemical apparatus, two
thousand five hundred dollars; preparations for anatomy and surgery,
one thousand five hundred dollars; models for obstetrics, five hundred
dollars; specimens for materia medica and therapeutics and drawing,
five hundred dollars. A total of eleven thousand dollars."]

[Footnote 67: "A very large addition was made to library, museum, and
apparatus by extensive purchases in Europe (selected by Dr. Bush and
myself), bringing the former collection up to 8,000 volumes and making
the latter equal, if not superior, to any in the United States."
(Introductory lecture of Doctor Peter to Medical Department, 1854.)]

[Footnote 68: See _Western Lancet_, Volume V, 1846.]

[Footnote 69: See _Transylvania Journal of Medicine_, Volumes VI and
VII.]

[Footnote 70: The memorial was written entirely by Doctor Peter, the
map was mostly copied from one published about that time by a Mr.
Byrem Lawrence, who traveled and lectured on Geology in Kentucky and
who subsequently went to Arkansas and made observations on its
Geology, etc., and, as the writer believes, died there.]

[Footnote 71: See _Kentucky Geological Survey_, Volume I, N. S., Page
143.]

[Footnote 72: See Volume I, N. S., Page 143.]

[Footnote 73: Doctor Owen says: "The principal operating room in which
Dr. P. made his analyses is 15 feet square, the working and balance
tables stand within three feet of each other, and the furnace, sand,
and water baths three feet from the former, so that one or two steps
suffice to reach all important parts of the different operations in
their various stages of progression. The reagents constantly in use
... in a case resting on the working table within arm's reach of the
operator, and his recording desk in a drawer of the same table." This
laboratory was in the north-west corner of the Medical Hall, corner
of Broadway and Second Street. Doctor Owen, zealous to defend Doctor
Peter, explains further that the latter was aided by a more than
common physical as well as mental aptitude. Doctor Peter took no part
in this defense save to extend to the skeptics an invitation to visit
his laboratory and examine his manner of working.]

[Footnote 74: I must acknowledge that the expression "shoulder to
shoulder" is a mere figure of speech as regards "Uncle Davy" Sayre,
for he usually attended the drills in a buggy in subservience to his
gout, being thereby rendered immune from the consequences suffered by
his dignified compatriots of sundry knots tied, by youthful humorists,
in the long grass of the classic "little college lot," the favorite
drill ground of the Home Guard, as it had been of Morgan's Rifles and
other military companies. This "college lot" was none other than the
original "out lot No. 6," the first seat of Transylvania, and was the
identical spot whereon had taught the immortal Holley. Madison C.
Johnson was "conspicuous" for his sky-blue blouse of fine material,
which stood forth in the ranks of common dark blue cotton, and must
have been a mark for the enemy had the celebrated battle for the arms
hereinafter mentioned ever taken place.]

[Footnote 75: See _Kentucky Geological Survey_, Volume IV, N. S.,
Pages 18, 65, and 66; also Volume III, N. S., Page 391.]

[Footnote 76: Mr. Bowman says, in a letter to Doctor Peter, April 20,
1876: "If my life is spared I will work on until by national and State
aid, if not denominational, I will lay broad and deep the
_foundations_ of a great, free, liberal, unsectarian university for
all classes and professions of this people and abreast with the
advanced curriculum of the best institutions of our century."]

[Footnote 77: In the heat of contest Doctor Peter's adversaries did
not hesitate to call him an infidel and an atheist. It was the worst
they could say, but not strictly in conformity with the facts. He was
not a church member. He had been baptized in the Church of England,
always kept a pew in the Episcopal Church, and as a young man taught
in the Episcopal Sunday-school. The spectacle, in so many instances,
of the impediment to educational progress by narrowness and bigotry in
churches had given him an indifference--not disguised--to _sectarian_
religion. He never molested the religious tenets of others. He
constantly declared that education should be free to _all_ men,
irrespective of creed.]

[Footnote 78: Antagonists in this controversy, powerless to assail him
as a scientist and teacher, characterized him as a person of low
origin and brutal manners. He ignored this attack, it being his custom
never to lean upon ancestors--to look forward rather than back,
holding to the homely but truly American saying that "every tub must
stand on its own bottom." But in truth he was of excellent English
family and a descendant of that powerful "Arundel" who in the days of
the Conquest was master of twenty-eight lordships. His manners passed
muster among old-fashioned Kentucky gentlemen.]

[Footnote 79: Doctor Cross was appointed to a chair in the Transylvania
Medical Faculty by the influence of Reverend Nathan H. Hall, a trustee,
and against the judgment of other members of the Board.]

[Footnote 80: From the _Transylvania Journal of Medicine_, Volume XI,
1838.]

[Footnote 81: Letter of Doctor Mitchell to Benjamin Gratz, February 7,
1838: " ... I graduated in 1812. In 1813 was appointed by the Governor
of Pa. to the office of Lazaretto Physician of the Port of Phila, which
post I held until 1816, when indisposition compelled me to resign. I
then had opportunity of becoming acquainted with the Southern fevers,
particularly the yellow fever of N. Orleans and the West Indies. For 17
years after I was actively engaged in practice, and may refer to
Eberle's _Therapeutics_ for his opinion of me as a medical man, at a
time when I was not personally acquainted with him. The journals of
those times contain many medical papers furnished by me, as examination
will show. In 1831 my name was before the Trustees of Jefferson Medical
College for the chair of Materia Medica vacated by the resignation of
Dr. Eberle, and I would have been appointed, as I have since been
informed by Gen. Duncan, one of the Trustees, if I had not agreed to
join with Dr. Eberle a new faculty at Cincinnati. If any object that a
Prof'r of Chemistry can not make a good Prof'r of Theory and Practice, I
have only to refer to the case of the celebrated Dr. Rush, who passed
directly from Chemistry to Theory and Practice, as the published records
of the University of Penna. will show."]

[Footnote 82: He was sole editor of this journal in the latter years
of its existence.]

[Footnote 83: Doctor Mitchell was an exceedingly rapid speaker. With
difficulty could those unused to this peculiarity follow his swift
flow of language and ideas. But once accustomed, his pupils liked this
better than the more deliberate speech of other professors. He never
failed to impress upon students the importance of a not too hasty
diagnosis, the _premonitory_ symptoms of widely differing diseases
being nearly identical; whereas treatment proper for one disease might
result fatally if applied to another.]

[Footnote 84: Doctor Bush's mother was Miss Palmer, sister of the wife
of Governor Adair. His grandparents, Philip and Mary Bush, came to
America from Germany and settled at Winchester, Virginia, 1750.]

[Footnote 85: The first Faculty of the Kentucky School of Medicine at
Louisville: Benjamin W. Dudley, M. D., Emeritus Professor of Anatomy
and Surgery; Robert Peter, M. D., Medical Chemistry and Toxicology;
Samuel Annan, M. D., Pathology and Practice of Medicine; Joshua B.
Flint, M. D., Principles and Practice of Surgery; Ethelbert L. Dudley,
M. D., Descriptive Anatomy and Histology; Llewellyn Powell, Obstetrics
and Diseases of Women and Children; James M. Bush, M. D., Surgical
Anatomy and Operative Surgery; Henry M. Bullitt, Physiology and
Materia Medica; Philip Thornbury, M. D., and John Bartlett, M. D.,
Demonstrators of Anatomy.]

[Footnote 86: That this arrangement met with much opposition among
citizens of Lexington will be seen by a perusal of the _Kentucky
Statesman_ and other Lexington newspapers of the day. A hand-bill was
also issued February 1, 1850, calling a "public meeting" in order to
discuss more "fairly" the various aspects of the question.]

[Footnote 87: Doctor Bush's other children are Captain Thomas J. Bush
and Miss Nannie M. Bush, of Lexington, Kentucky.]

[Footnote 88: Extract from Doctor Smith's letter of resignation, January
7, 1841: " ... By the influence of the reputation and efficient
exertions of the present Faculty and by the munificence of the citizens
of Lexington, the Medical Department of Transylvania is now placed upon
a foundation which renders its position perfectly secure. Its friends
may, without fear of contradiction, pronounce it to be decidedly the
best endowed medical school in America. Its patronage and the emoluments
of its chairs are second to those of but one, and there are none to be
associated with which I should consider it a higher honor. Under these
circumstances my resignation can not exercise the least injurious
influence upon its prosperity. The chair will immediately command the
services of some one whose labors will be more efficient than mine. You
will please, dear sir, convey to the members of the Faculty assurance of
my great respect and affectionate consideration.

                        "Yours most truly,     N. R. SMITH."

Letter to Doctor Smith from the Faculty: "Dear Sir: The receipt of
your communication informing us that circumstances beyond your control
would oblige you to resign the chair of the Theory and Practice of
Medicine in the Medical Department of Transylvania University at the
end of the present session, renders some expression of sentiment on
our part both just and appropriate. Permit us, therefore, to assure
you that we receive the information of your intended resignation with
regret, and that nothing would have afforded us more gratification
than the certainty of your continuance among us as a fellow-citizen
and colleague. The intercourse which has existed between us for the
three years during which we have been associated has been of the most
harmonious and pleasant character, and the ability with which you have
performed the duties of your chair increases the reluctance with which
we give up the expectations of a longer co-operation with you under
the auspices of Transylvania University. With the most sincere wishes
for your continued increase in fame and prosperity, we remain your
friends and colleagues.

                  THE MEDICAL FACULTY OF TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY.

                                            "ROBERT PETER, _Dean_."

(From _History of Medical Department of Transylvania University and
its Faculty_, by William Jeptha Calvert, M. D.)]

[Footnote 89: Extracts from Doctor Huntington's address to the
Middlesex North District Medical Society, 1856.]

[Footnote 90: Extract from the letter of resignation of Professor
Bartlett, Lowell, Massachusetts, April 5, 1844: "It is unnecessary for
me to go now into the considerations which lead me to this step any
further than to say that they are connected _wholly_ with motives of a
domestic character and with the strong desire which I have long
cherished and expressed of being settled in one of the Eastern cities.
The only pain which the step costs me being occasioned by my
separation from my present colleagues which it involves, and the
dissolution of the professional and social relationship, to myself of
the most amicable and agreeable character."]

[Footnote 91: During the absence of Doctor Bartlett his chair was
filled by Doctor Lotan G. Watson, of North Carolina.]

[Footnote 92: In 1842 the Transylvania University had been placed
under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with a Faculty
as follows: Reverend H. B. Bascom, D. D., Acting President and
Morrison Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy; Benjamin W.
Dudley, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Surgery; James C. Cross, M.
D., Professor of Institutes and Medical Jurisprudence; Elisha
Bartlett, M. D., Professor of Theory and Practice; William H.
Richardson, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and
Children; Thomas D. Mitchell, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and
Therapeutics; Robert Peter, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and
Pharmacy; James M. Bush, M. D., Adjunct Professor of Anatomy and
Surgery; Honorable George Robertson, LL. D., Professor of
Constitutional Law, Equity, and the Law of Comity; Honorable Thomas A.
Marshall, LL. D., Law of Pleading, Evidence, and Contract; Honorable
A. K. Woolley, LL. D., Professor of Elementary Principles of Common
Law, National and Commercial Law; Reverend R. T. P. Allen, A. M.,
Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Civil Engineering;
Reverend B. H. McCoun, A. M., Professor of Ancient Languages and
Literature; Reverend W. H. Anderson, A. M., Professor of English
Literature; Reverend J. L. Kemp, A. M., Adjunct Professor of
Mathematics, Preparatory Department; Reverend Thomas H. Lynch, A. M.,
Adjunct Professor of Languages, Preparatory Department; ----, Principal
of the Junior Section of the Preparatory Department.

N. B.--The Reverend Wright Merrick was appointed to the above
vacancy.]

[Footnote 93: Doctor C. C. Graham said that Doctor Dudley tenaciously
held that these two chairs should always be combined.]

[Footnote 94: Doctor L. B. Todd calls him "that knightly Bayard of
Kentucky Surgery."]

[Footnote 95: An incident well told by his son-in-law, General Joseph
C. Breckinridge, is characteristic of Dudley. When, during the Civil
War, a struggle was imminent between the secessionists and the Home
Guard for possession of a large shipment of arms and ammunition sent
into Kentucky by the United States Government for the arming of Union
soldiers and citizens, Dudley, fearing the Home Guard at Lexington
would be overpowered and the munitions captured on arrival, sent as a
trusty messenger to General Nelson, at Camp Dick Robinson, to ask for
troops--a midnight journey of twenty miles through a hostile
country--his only son, Scott Dudley, a youth scarcely seventeen. He
saddled the horse and armed the boy himself, at dead of night, the
better to insure secrecy, for in his own household were foes. This
mission was successful. (See speech of General Joseph C. Breckinridge,
United States Army, at the reunion of the Army of the Cumberland,
Chattanooga, October 10, 1900.) Ensign J. Cabell Breckinridge, United
States Navy, the first life lost on the threshold of the Spanish War,
and Lieutenant Ethelbert D. Breckinridge, seriously wounded almost at
the very instant that his General, the well-beloved Lawton, fell
beside him in the Philippines, were grandsons of Doctor Dudley.]

[Footnote 96: Quoted from the _Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky_,
etc., of 1878.]

[Footnote 97: We learn from old announcements, etc., that, as early as
1830, the Medical Faculty of Transylvania University offered their
services gratuitously to the Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum, through
Samuel Theobalds, M. D., and that, in 1845, Doctor John R. Allen was
to deliver clinical lectures to the medical class, at the Lunatic
Asylum every Saturday.]

[Footnote 98: Other sons were William Wallace, Benjamin Gratz, and
Colonel Saunders D. Bruce.]

[Footnote 99: Doctor L. B. Todd.]

[Footnote 100: See _The Marshall Family_, by W. M. Paxton, 1885.]

[Footnote 101: Address at Morrison College on being inaugurated
President of Transylvania University.]

[Footnote 102: Doctor Peter's introductory lecture to the Medical
Class, November, 1842.]

[Footnote 103: The first railroad was the Baltimore & Ohio, chartered
March, 1827, but not completed to the Ohio until 1853--twenty-six years.]

[Footnote 104: _Pioneer Surgery in Kentucky._]

[Footnote 105: "In 1856, the Trustees of Morrison College came to the
legislature of Kentucky and offered all the buildings, the library,
the apparatus, and grounds, which were valued at over two hundred
thousand dollars, if the State would take it and establish a Normal
School." ... Speech of Honorable C. J. Bronston on the Agricultural
and Mechanical College tax. The idea of a Normal School originated
with Doctor Robert J. Breckinridge several years before.]

[Footnote 106: May 22, 1863. _Collins' History of Kentucky._]

[Footnote 107: From the report of the Treasurer of the University,
1871, it is gathered that after long and persistent effort on his part
while in Washington there was secured from the Government the sum of
twenty-five thousand dollars "for the rents and damages to the medical
college and other Transylvania property during the war," nearly one
half of which was claimed and recovered from the University by the
city of Lexington on the plea that the Medical Hall had been abandoned.]




[Transcriber's Note:


* The footnotes have been moved to the end of the book with the exception
of the footnotes for tables.

* Footnote 19: Added period after "_tem_" in "elected President, _pro
tem_".

* Footnote 88: Added period after "prosperity" in "influence upon its
prosperity".

* Pg 148 "His success was progressive this article exemplifying"
retained as printed.

* Pg 173 Added comma after "117" in "Writings of 117".

* Pg 173 Removed comma after "Charles," in "Caldwell, Doctor Charles,".

* Pg 174 Added comma after "51" in "autobiography of 49, 50, 51".

* Pg 174 Added comma after "69" in "experience of Doctor Peter 69 70".

* Pg 177 Removed comma after "W," in "Dudley, Doctor Benjamin W,".

* Pg 180 Removed comma after "1842," in "University under the
Methodists, 1842,".

* Pg 184 Removed comma after "instituted," in "Transylvania University
first instituted,".

* Pg 186 Added comma after "94" in "Owen, Doctor David Dale 94".

* Pg 193 Added comma after "Winter" in "Winter Elisha I".

* Pg 193 Removed comma after "P.," in "Yandell, Doctor Lunsford P.,".

* Otherwise, archaic and inconsistent spelling and hyphenation retained.]





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of the Medical Department
of Transylvania University, by Robert Peter

*** 