Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 26

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166

USA > Georgia > Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II > Part 26

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HENRY FRAZER CAMPBELL, M. D. The subject of this sketch was born in Savannah, Ga., Feb. 10, 1824; died in Augusta, Ga. His father, James Colgan Campbell, was born in County Antrim, Ireland. His mother was Mary R. (Eve) Campbell, the only daughter of Joseph Eve, and a sister of Dr. Joseph A. Eve, of Augusta. After having received an academic education he began the study of medicine at the age of fifteen, and in March, 1842, when eighteen years of age, was graduated M. D. from the Medical college of Georgia-now the medical department of the university of Georgia. Immediately after graduating in med- icine he established himself in the practice of his profession in Augusta, Ga., where he continued to reside and practice, with an exception of the period of time from 1862 to 1865, when he was engaged in the military service of the Con- federate states at Richmond, Va .; and 1867-68, when he resided in New Orleans, La., and filled the chair of professor of surgery in the New Orleans School of Medicine. Francis Bacon said: "I hold every man a debtor to his profession, from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavor themselves by way of amends to be a help and ornament thereunto.". Let us inquire how Dr. Campbell discharged this duty to his profession. From 1842 to 1854 he filled the position of assistant demon- strator of anatomy in the Medical college of Georgia; from 1854 to 1857 was professor of comparative and microscopical anatomy; 1857-67 was professor of anatomy; in 1867-68 was professor of surgery in New Orleans School of Med-

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icine, and clinical lecturer in Charity hospital, New Orleans, La. In the fall of 1868 the Medical college of Georgia created the chair of operative surgery and invited Dr. Campbell to return from New Orleans to Augusta and accept the professorship thus created. Dr. Campbell complied with this request and filled the chair of operative surgery and gynecology until 1881, when Dr. L. A. Dugas resigned the chair of principles and practice of surgery, and Dr. Campbell was elected professor of principles and practice of surgery and gynecology. During the late war he was medical director of the Georgia military hospitals at Rich- mond, Va., and a member of the army medical examining board of the Confederate states; he was a member of the American Medical association, was vice-president in 1858 and at the meeting in Washington, D. C., in 1884 was unanimously elected president; was a member of the Medical association of Georgia, and elected its president in 1871; a member of the American Public Health association, and vice- president in 1880; a member and one of the founders of the American Gyneco- logical society; a member and vice-president of the American surgical associa- tion; president Augusta Library and Medical society in 1878; a corresponding member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, elected 1858; cor- responding member of the Imperial Academy of Medicine of St. Petersburg, Russia, elected 1860; elected in 1878 foreign corresponding member of the Royal Medical society of Sweden; member of the state board of health of Georgia; elected member of Abingdon Academy of Medicine, Virginia, in 1879; elected in 1882 an honorary member of the American Academy of Medicine. In the history of the profession few men have had so many honors conferred upon them. He is the only Georgian who was ever elected president of the American Medical association. The presidency of this association is the highest honor which can be conferred on an American physician.

The following list presents the more important professional contributions which have emanated from the pen of Dr. Campbell: "Observations on Cutan- eous Diseases;" "Infantile Paroxysmal Convulsions, Their Identity with Intermit- tent Fever, and Their Treatment with Quinine;" "Dentition in Producing Disease (Reflex-secretory or Vaso-motor Action);" "Epideinic Dengue Fever;" "Law Governing the Distribution of Striped and Unstriped Muscular Fiber;" "Injuries to the Cranium in Their Relation to Consciousness;" "Bilateral Lith- otomy;" "Unusual Form of Fever and Dysentery;" "Report on Surgery;" "The Nature of Typhoid Fever;" "The Sympathetic Nerve in Reflex Phenomena a Question of Priority of Announcement with M. Claud Bernard;" "Strangulated Ventral Hernia During Pregnancy;" "Clinical Lecture on Traumatic Tetanus;" "Meckel's Ganglion;" "Classification of Febrile Diseases by the Nervous System:" "The Nervous System in Febrile Diseases, Excito-secretory or Reflex 'Vaso- motor' Action, the Basis of Their Phenomena;" "The Secretory and Excito-secre- tory System;" "Caffeine as an Antidote to Opium;" "A New 'Ready Method,' Artificial Respiration in the Sitting Posture;" "Croup, a Paroxysmal Neurosis, Its Treatment with Quinine;" "The Effect of Caffeine Upon the Muscular Sys- tem;" "The Georgia Military Hospitals of Richmond;" "Traumatic Hemorrhages and the Arteries;" etc; a chapter in the Confederate Manual of Military Surgery, I vol. 12mo, p. 297, Richmond, 1863 (in this chapter the principle of ligating the main arterial trunk of a limb, for the cure of inflammation, and for gangrene, is announced); "The Hunterian Ligation of Arteries in Destructive Inflamma- tion;" "Inflammation ;" "Position ;" "Position, Pneumatic Pressure, and Mechan- ical Appliance in Uterine Displacement;" "Registration and Sanitation ;" "Blood- letting in Puerperal Eclampsia;" "Railroad Transportation of Disease Germs;" (yellow and dengue fever in the south in 1839, 1850, 1854, and 1876) report of

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state board of health of Georgia, 1876; "Pneumatic Self-replacement in Disloca- tions, of the Gravid and Non-gravid Uterus;" "Calculi in the Bladder After the Cure of Vesico-vaginal Fistula ;" "The Neuro-dynamic Etiology and Pathology of Urinary Calculus;" "Arterial Ligation in the Treatment of Traumatic Inflamma- tion and Gangrene;" "Strictures of the Oesophagus, Their Nature and Treatment;" "Rectal Alimentation in the Nausea and Inanition of Pregnancy." Any sketch omitting to mention the discovery of the excito-secretory system of nerves by Dr. Campbell would do him great injustice. Three years after his discovery the great English physiologist, Marshall Hall, announced through the "London Lancet" that he had discovered this system. Upon reading Dr. Hall's paper Dr. Campbell promptly presented him with copies of his publication several years preceding that of Dr. Hall. Dr. Hall immediately by letter to Dr. Campbell and through the medical press withdrew his claim and awarded the credit to Dr. Campbell. He said: "It would be unjust to deny that Dr. Campbell has the merit of having first called attention to the excito-secretory system, in the year 1850, and that he imposed this very designation in 1853. So far, Dr. Campbell's claims are undeni- able, and we would say palman qui meruit ferat." An examination of the vast number of contributions which he has made to medical science attests the versa- tility of his genius, and points to the enthusiasm of the scientist. As a general practitioner of medicine Dr. Campbell was a careful and accurate diagnostician, and treated his cases with a discriminating judgment which was well nigh unerring. At the bedside he was tender, sympathetic and attentive. He sat with his patients by the hour, and unweariedly ministered to their ills of mind and body. Like St. Luke he was the "beloved physician." He was friend as well as physician -- as all true physicians are. Dr. Campbell was a great surgeon. Great surgeons are rare productions. This country is full of mechanical surgeons-men ready and eager to cut and slash into almost every organ of the human body, yet lamentably ignorant of that conservatism which knows and relies upon the recuperative powers of nature aided by enlightened therapeutics. Dr. Campbell was a great surgeon not only in the dextrous use of instruments, but in conserva- tism, and thereby frequently saved limbs and organs of the body which would have been sacrificed by the surgical jobber. Among the great surgeons of America he was regarded as the peer of the greatest of them. In the year book of the American Surgical association some of its ablest papers are from the pen of Dr. Campbell. He was eminent as a gynecologist. In the American Gynecological society he held high official position, and contributed to its volumes several of its ablest and most instructive papers. He was an eminent sanitarian, a member of the American Public Health association, held the office of vice-president, and contributed able papers to the volumes of its transactions. Great as he unques- tionably was in all departments of medicine, he was greatest as a medical teacher. He was cast in the mold in which great instructors are born. I have sat under almost every one of the most renowned medical teachers in America, and give it as my opinion that in this field Dr. Campbell had few equals, and no superiors in this country. His marvelously inquisitive and acquisitive mind, coupled with his great ability as an original thinker, constituted him a profound medical philos- opher. His mind was a vast encyclopedia of medicine in all its branches. He was perfectly familiar with all medical questions as to their historical, anatomical, physiological, pathological, clinical and therapeutical aspects. He was in no sense a mere theorist-he was intensely practical. In the lecture room he was fluent of speech, and the natural ease and simplicity of manner, the clearness and direct- ness, the earnestness, the animation with which he lectured evidenced the fact that he sought to impress the minds of the students with the importance of the great

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truths he presented to them. So accurate and fascinating were his descriptive facul- ties that even upon subjects which students regarded as dry and irksome- anatomy for example-he awakened interest and a desire for knowledge. He was easy of access by the students. The door of his private room was never closed to those who sought his assistance. After his lecture hour was over he lingered with the students who crowded around him plying him with questions. With cordiality and kindness, a face radiant with smiles and happiness-he answered their questions, and thus convinced them that he felt a personal interest in every one of them. In consequence of his considerate attention to them they loved him -called him "Uncle Henry," and ever delighted to hear the bell ring which sum- moned them to his lecture room. 'In the quiz room he had the rare faculty of so formulating questions as to suggest the answers to the class. As a medical teacher he was not only an educator of medical students, but was an instructor of medical teachers. Whenever and wherever Dr. Campbell appeared before his profes- sional brethren, whether in city, state, national or international societies-as he often did-he commanded the highest respect and closest attention of everybody present. In medical councils he was regarded as an oracle. He charmed his brethren by his marvelous genius in all questions in medical science. I have often sat with him in national medical societies and have seen him hold hundreds of the ablest physicians in America spell-bound by his fascinating, eloquent, bril- liant discussions. No citizen of this grand old state ever added greater luster to the name and fame of Georgia than did Henry F. Campbell. The admiration and love of the medical profession of this country for Dr. Campbell exceeded anything I ever witnessed. Whenever I have gone to meetings of state or national medical associations, meeting physicians from all parts of the commonwealth, and from all sections of this vast nation, almost invariably the first question asked was: "Is Henry Campbell here?" If he was in attendance they sought him and paid their respects. If absent they charged me to convey some message of loving remem- brance of him. By the princely men of the profession he was regarded as a prince. Yet he was simple and artless, utterly devoid of affectation or egotism, and was cordial and respectful in his bearing toward the humblest member of the profession. Often observing his bearing toward his brethren of all classes I have been lost in admiration of his unbounded courtesy. Throughout his long and laborious life Dr. Campbell was emphatically the young doctors' friend. He cheerfully responded to their frequent and unreasonable demands upon his time and skill, and did it so willingly and cordially that his younger brethren felt at liberty to call for his aid when they needed it.

It requires a great and good man to unselfishly serve his younger brethren as he did. It requires a great soul to willingly help his competitors to fame as did Dr. Campbell. The small man treats his brethien with neglect or secret opposi- tion when they enter into competition with him. Not so with Dr. Campbell. He seemed to delight in the success of his juniors, and though they occasionally suc- ceeded to practice which had been his, he was as kind and cordial to them as ever. When called in consultation with his brethren he treated them with that courtesy which always marks the gentleman. To his honor be it said he care- fully refrained from word or act which would reflect upon their reputation, and higher and better still he never "damned them with faint praise" as the small man is wont to do. As a consequence of his considerate and just treatment of his brethren they all loved him devotedly, and trusted him implicitly. I knew Dr. Campbell as thoroughly well as anyone save those of his immediate household. A more genial, companionable, noble-hearted man never lived. But few men ever possessed as many virtues and so few foibles. There was nothing small about

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him. He was considerate and generous in thought, speech and act toward every- body. He had less resentment and more charity toward the small men who attempted to wrong him than any man I ever knew. I never saw him angered at any time or with anybody. He was noted for his bright, joyous disposition. He was one of the most learned men in general literature whom I ever met. He was perfectly familiar with ancient and modern classics, and fascinated learned men by his profound and eloquent discussions thereon. In social life he was one of the most charming of men. As a Christian, Dr. Campbell was a strong man if we measure him by David's standard of manhood. When David was upon his dying bed he called his son Solomon and said: "I go the way of all the earth; be thou strong therefore and show thyself a man." David then tells Solomon how to show himself a man-"Keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies." Dr. Campbell was a royal, Godly man. His position as a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian church fully attests his exalted Christian character. As there is a profound philosophy in medicine, so also is there a profound philosophy in religion, and his great mind had penetrated deeply into it. He fully understood that "men as men can reach no higher than the Son of God, the perfect head and pattern of mankind." When abstruse theological questions were presented to him for solution and he found reason unable to explain them, he set reason behind him, and with the simplicity of a little child he answered them with the great, manly answer: "My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary." A man like Dr. Campbell-the embodiment of excellence in every station-exemplifying human nature in its highest and best estate-commanded as he richly merited the unstinted homage of all who knew him. I do not speak merely of the homage paid him because of his wonderful intellectuality. Intellect of high order was but one of his possessions. He had that which adorned intellect and made it more resplendent-exalted character. While intellectual development of high order always elicits human admiration, exalted character always commands uni- versal respect and love. Intellect, worldly riches, power, do not make the man- it is the possession of a loving, manly, royal heart-honest, truthful, dutiful, full of the meekness of goodness-that makes the man. Such a man was Dr. Camp- bell. He lived not for himself alone. He steadfastly and consistently discharged his duty toward God and his fellow-man and industriously cultivated all the facul- ties which God had given him the better to enable him to discharge the full measure of his duty. Of him it may be said:

"His life was gentle: and the elements So mixed in him that nature might stand up, And say to all the world: this was a man."

No man had a loftier conception of the grandeur of his profession than did Dr. Campbell. No man was ever more truly "The Good Samaritan." No man ever practiced the high and sacred duties of his exalted vocation with greater appreci- ation of its responsibilities. Language is inadequate to make known the richness of blessings which daily crown with joy unspeakable an active, well-spent life, in giving health to man. The true physician finds real joy in his work only as it affords him the rich consciousness that he is laboring in the ante-chamber of a more glorious existence, by humbly walking in the footsteps of the "Great Phy- sician." He realizes that the life on earth, with its conflicts, its joys, its sorrows, its bitter disappointments, no less than its noblest and grandest achievements, is but a training school wherein he may be fitted and qualified for the higher and more resplendent life in the city of gold. That he has no abiding city here, but

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merely occupies it as a camping ground wherein he is tented for a few years to be trained in his earthly work the better to qualify him for the higher and nobler duties which await him in that kingdom whose maker and builder is God --- whose happiness and glory human language is inadequate to portray. He ever remembers that as a physician his daily life should be such that as his work was like that of the "Great Physician," his purpose in following the healing art should be, as far as possible to human nature, as noble, as pure, as unselfish as his. Thus the highest development of Christian character came to Dr. Campbell through the avenue of his daily vocation. With a man whose daily life had been such as Dr. Campbell's-spent in loving, tender, unselfish, unwearied ministrations at the bedside of the sick and wounded-who forgot all and labored only to do the work of his Master through love to God and love to man-a man who made it the law of his life to wrong no one, and as far as possible to do good to every one with whom he came in contact, certainly it is not claiming too much to say that this man constantly dwelt in the ante-chamber of heaven, that when his soul winged its flight into eternity it was but a step from earth to heaven. To Dr. Campbell -- good Samaritan that he was-death had no terrors, for he knew that the transi- tion from earth to heaven was but divesturc of that which was mortal. As he fell on sleep the eye of faith in God had transformed the King of Terrors into an angel of light and mercy, whose hallowed mission it was to transport his soul to regions of everlasting, unspeakable joy. To the good man

"There is no death. The stars go down To rise upon some fairer shore; And bright in Heaven's jeweled crown They shine forevermore.

"There is no death! An angel form Walks o'er the earth with silent tread; He bears our best-loved things away, And then we call them dead.

"He leaves our hearts all desolate, He plucks our fairest, sweetest flowers, Transplanted into bliss, they now Adorn immortal bowers.

"Born unto that undying life, They leave us but to come again; With joy we welcome them-the same, Except in sin and pain.

"And ever near ns, though unseen, The dear, immortal spirits tread; For all the boundless universe Is life-there is no dead."

G EORGE FRANKLIN COOPER, M. D. The subject of this notice was born in Wilkes county, Ga., July 31, 1825. His father was a large planter and a Baptist preacher. When three years old Dr. Cooper moved with his father's family to Harris county, in this state. He received his education at the academy in Harris county. Beginning the study of medicine, he took his first course of lectures in Transylvania university, Kentucky, and his second course at Jefferson Medical college, Philadelphia, Pa., from which college he graduated in March, 1845. He began the practice of medicine at Perry, Houston Co., Ga., in 1846. In 1847 he returned to Philadelphia to perfect his medical education. He remained in Phila- delphia during 1847 and a portion of 1848. In 1850 he entered Charity hospital at New Orleans. After remaining a year in this vast hospital, he, with a mind stored

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with the rare experience thus obtained, returned to Perry, Ga., and began the active practice of medicine. He practiced his profession at Perry until 1854, when he removed to Americus, Ga. Dr. S. B. Hawkins, who kindly furnished most of the data from which this tribute is written, says: "Here he practiced his profession successfully, and occupied a pre-eminently high stand in that noble calling, until 1856, when he relinquished the practice of medicine and commenced preaching, serving the Baptist churches of Americus, Albany, and Dalton acceptably and ably as pastor. In 1874 he resigned the pastorate and practiced medicine two years. He then preached a couple of years. Since then he has been regularly in the practice of medicine. It is needless to say to you, and to the medical profession at large, that Dr. Cooper was a strong man in his profession, a power in the church, and wielded an influence in society that few men possessed." Among the medical contributions of Dr. Cooper, we mention the following: "Diseases of Perry, Houston County, and Vicinity; Its Climate, Geology, etc .; " "Diet in Disease;" "Vaginismus with En- larged Hymen;" "Retroflexion of the Uterus;" "Vesico-Vaginal Fistula;" "Vera- trum Viride;" "Sanitary Conditions of Prisons." This last paper was read before the board of health of the state of Georgia, and published in the first annual report of that board. This paper richly demonstrates that its author loved all mankind. For the friendless criminal-while detesting the crime committed-he remembered that he was yet a brother, and that the law of kindness was the door to the heart of the criminal. Dr. Cooper realized the fact that "man's inhumanity to man" was nowhere so forcibly demonstrated as in the treatment of criminals confined within prison walls. He, therefore, began an investigation of the sanitary condition of the various jails in Georgia. He pointed out needed reforms in a number of these prisons. Upon the general management of prisons he said: "Those who have prisons in charge should be required to use them, and thus save the inmates from discomfort and disease. It would not be transcending the work of this board to suggest to the authorities of the state to adopt a simple and safe plan, to which henceforth the several counties should be required to conform, the hygienic arrangements of which will secure the health of prisoners, having in view at least the several points of healthful location, adequate capacity of rooms, abundant supply of air and water, speedy and effectual disposition of excreta. Kindness, coupled with wholesome moral influences, should by no means be neglected. With proper discipline, moral and religious instruction should be provided for every prison; for with our moral improvement comes the improvement of our health-and this will, for stronger reasons, apply to those who are imprisoned." Dr. Cooper was one of the most distinguished members of the Medical association of Georgia. There was scarcely a year but what he was chairman of some committee of this body. He had, perhaps, been more often selected as a delegate from this association to the American Medical association than any other within its mem- bership. He had faithfully served the offices of corresponding secretary and vice- president of this association. During the late war he held the distinguished position of surgeon of Lawton's brigade, and afterward was made surgeon in charge of the hospitals at Macon, Ga. When the board of health of the state of Georgia was organized, Dr. Cooper was selected from the number of distinguished physicians in the third congressional district for membership in that board. In this, as in all positions in which he was placed, he discharged the full measure of duty to his fellow-man. Our deceased brother was active in forwarding the work of public education. He had for years served with marked ability as president of the board of education of Americus. He was a member of the last constitutional convention of Georgia, and at the time of his death a member of the American Public Health association. Dr. Hawkins says: "Dr. Cooper was a fine specimen of physical manhood; enjoyed fine health up to the date of his last illness, which ushered in

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Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 26

Author: Publication date: 1859 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association Number of Pages: 1166

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166