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 27

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 27

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MEMOIRS OF DECEASED PHYSICIANS.

suddenly and pushed through to a fatal termination rapidly-just one week. The disease was rheumatism of the heart. He died very suddenly, 'in the twinkling of an eye,' on the morning of Dec. 3, 1882. In his death this city has lost what can never be filled-his place in his profession, in the church, and society cannot be filled again by any one man."

JOHN S. COLEMAN, M. D., born in Richmond county, Ga., Oct. 10, 1837;

died in Augusta June 19, 1892. After an academic education obtained in Augusta, Ga., and Cantonsville, Md., he atended a course of lectures in the medi- cal department of the university of Virginia, and in March, 1857, received his degree of doctor of medicine from Jefferson Medical college, Philadelphia, Pa. As a reward for his meritorious examination for his degree in Jefferson Medical college he was given the position of resident physician in Blockly hospital, Phila- delphia. He was also clinical assistant to the chair of surgery in Jefferson Medical college. He subsequently served as resident physician in the Baltimore alms- house. After eighteen months of clinical experience subsequent to graduation in medicine he returned to Georgia, located in Lee county, and began the practice of medicine. At the outbreak of the Italian war in 1859, Dr. Coleman went to France with the distinguished Dr. Paul F. Eve, his uncle, with the purpose of entering the medical department of the French army. When he arrived in Paris the war had ended. He then remained in the French capital six months pursuing medical studies in the hospitals. Returning to his native land he located in Augusta and practiced medicine in all of its branches. During the late civil war he served as surgeon in the Confederate army, serving his country faithfully and honorably. He was at the time of his death a member of the Medical Association of Georgia, the American Medical association, the American Gynecological so- ciety and of the American Surgical association. He was not a frequent contributor to medical literature, but his writings stamped him as a strong man in his profession. His contributions to medical literature were papers on the following subjects: "The Multiple Wedge Principle in the Treatment of Urethral Stricture," "A Novel and Unique Lesion of the Integument of the Abdominal Wall," "Transverse Septum of the Vagina Obstructing Delivery," "Tincture of Iodine for Arresting Post-partum Hemorrhage," "Cases of Lithotomy," "Caesar- ian Section Necessitated by Hypertrophic Elongation of the Cervix with Delivery of a Live Child," "Bichloride of Mercury in the Treatment of Diphtheria." To Dr. Coleman belongs the credit of originating the multiple-wedge treatment of urethral stricture. Had he done nothing but this one piece of original work his life would have blessed mankind to a degree rarely equaled by the labors of one man. He was indefatigable in his professional work. Was always busy. If not engaged in attendance upon patients, he was to be found with his books, thus conversing with the savants of the profession. He was a student all his life. He was a highly accomplished physician, highly accomplished in all departments of medicine. The innate modesty of the man kept his accomplishments largely hidden from his brethren and friends. Enjoying a most intimate personal friend- ship with him for twenty years, I knew him to be highly skilled in his profession, yet I never once heard him boast of anything he had ever done. He discharged his professional duties through love to man and love to God. Neither fame nor money engaged his attention. In his ministry to the sick he was governed by a high sense of duty. To see man benefited by his labors was his greatest desire and highest reward. In professional and social life

"He walked attended

By a strong, abiding champion-conscience."

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No man had a higher sense of honor than did Dr. Coleman. His life exempli- fied the highest type of human nature. In every station in life he was a man of marked excellence. Full of energy, integrity, lofty principles and uncompro- mising honesty, strong in heart and rich in spirit, he commanded the confidence and love of all who knew him. He was truthful in word and action. He richly illustrated the saying of Lord Chesterfield: "It is truth that makes the success of the gentleman." He was considered eccentric. He was amenable to the charge. He deviated markedly from the usual methods and common standards of men-was peculiar. Peculiar in his courage to be scrupulously honest in speech and action; peculiar in always and under all circumstances, being what he really was, and never pretending to be what he was not; peculiar in his courageous honesty and resistance of temptation. He more scrupulously lived up to the exalted code of ethics of his profession than any man I ever knew. No consideration of any kind could induce him to be disloyal to this high code of laws. He rigidly adhered to the provisions of this code and required his brethren to do likewise. He steadfastly refused to consult or associate with any physician who violated the code of ethics, no matter how prominent he was in the profes- sion. Eccentric he unquestionably was, but his eccentricities always carried him in lines leading to most exalted manhood. Men who did not live up to Dr. Coleman's high standard could not, of course, understand him, and therefore regarded him as an extremist. In this age, when self-aggrandizement seems to be the aim and end of so many physicians, it is peculiarly refreshing to find a man like Dr. Coleman, who ignored selfishness and exerted all his faculties to the promotion of the welfare of mankind. He was a benevolent man, always doing some act of kindness to his patients and friends. In his ministrations to the sick he was thoroughly self-sacrificing, responding to their calls day or night when himself seriously ill. Repeatedly I remonstrated with him and told him he owed it to himself and his family to care more for his own condition and less for that of others. He invariably replied: "I cannot consider self when my patients need and call for my services." Animated by this exalted conception of duty, sacrifice of self for the welfare of others, he lived nobly, died honored and beloved by the community in which he lived. He died after a painful, lingering illness. He bore his affliction with that fortitude which characterized his whole life, and with the courage of the Christian soldier he meekly bowed to the summons of the angel of death.

DR. W. C. DANIEL, of Savannah, Ga. Dr. Daniel was one of the most dis- tinguished physicians in Georgia in his time. It is a matter of surprise and regret that it is at the present impossible to obtain data for a proper biography of so distinguished a medical man as he was. I have written to several prominent physicians of Savannah for the necessary information, but none of them could furnish it, nor could they refer me to any one from whom I could obtain it. I find in my library a book of 152 pages, entitled "Observations Upon the Autumnal Fevers of Savannah, Ga., by W. C. Daniel, M. D., 1826." This book was an important addition to the limited and inexact literature of malarial fevers at the date at which it was written. The treatise embraced the whole class of malarial fevers. Dr. Daniel's conception of the pathology and therapeutics of this class of fevers differed radically from the then practice of medicine. He combated the idea of malaria being an inflammatory disease, and condemned the practice of salivation, blood-letting, tartar emetic, etc. He contended that all the malarial fevers were diseases of debility, prostration, and that they were to be combatted by a tonic, supportive treatment. He applied sinapisms to the surface of the body, gave capsi-

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cum, quinine bark, serpentaria, and arsenic internally, in full and oft-repeated dose .. Where the fever was excessive he resorted to cold effusions, and in milder cases to 'sponging the body with warm water. The revulsive action of sinapisms and the beneficial, stimulant effect of capsicum, internally administered, were as fully ap- preciated by him as at the present day. And while the administration of arsenic seems to have for years fallen into "innocuous desuetude," Dr. Daniel insited upon its beneficial action in malarial fevers, and gave it in large doses. He insisted upon the efficacy of quinine bark in all types and grades of malarial fever. At that time his professional brethren in America insisted that bark was efficacious only in the intermittent type. He frequently gave it in doses of four ounces in twenty-four hours in severe cases, and two ounces where the disease was milder. He says: "] use it in every stage of the fever, whether of remission or exacerbation, with equal convenience. Once commenced, it is continued throughout the disease, in as large quantities as the stomach will receive; and it is mainly to this mode that ] attribute the very general success which has attended the use of it in my hands. 1 have used the sulphate of quinine, and with complete success. I have thought that the recoveries where that was used were not as speedy as by the use of the bark, and that the reaction of the system was not so vigorous. Whether it be the result of habit, I will not pretend to decide, but I do prefer the bark, and still habitually use it. I have been gratified to learn that some of our physicians who, in 1821, '22, '23, pronounced bark a poison, when used in our fevers, in 1824 declared that they could not dispense with sulph. quinine in their treatment. More recently (1825), some of our physicians complain that they are not so successful with the sulphate of quinine as the last year. The explanation of this will be found in the fact that the aid they received in their perplexities from this medicine induced them to over- estimate its virtues. I have recently, in a few cases, administered the bitter extract, prepared from the residuum remaining after making sulphate of quinine, as introduced by Dr. Jackson, of Philadelphia, and with complete success. In all respects, so far as a limited observation will allow me to judge, it has appeared equal in efficacy to the sulphate of quinine." Speaking of the method of giving quinine bark, he says: "The great virtues of the bark are chiefly to be derived when that article is administered in large quantities in a small space of time; and then, it is highly serviceable in the early and almost certain removal of fevers." While the pathology of malarial fevers and the modus operandi of anti-malarial agents were not as exactly known to Dr. Daniel as to his brethren of a later, and especially the present, day, yet, to his credit it must be said that he possessed knowledge of the power of anti-malarial remedies unknown to the profession at that time. That the practice of Dr. Daniel was radically different from that of the profession of his day is attested by the following extract from the introduction to his book: "That I feel solicitude for the fate that awaits these observations, it would be folly to deny. In this anxiety, however, there is but little that is selfish. Limited in my profes- sional views to a small town, where personal address is of more importance than higher qualifications, I feel that I shall be but little affected by the judgment which the medical public may pass upon my labors. I also know that, while I may be summarily condemned, what I may gain will be silently and slowly acquired. The revolution which I propose in the long-established opinions of a whole profes- sion, if ever achieved, must be the work of time. In medicine, as in religion, there is no standard by which matters of opinion can be measured in the sight of men; and in the one, as in the'other, much depends upon the faith of the parties. Hence, the bitterness of the controversies concerning either. I expect few converts among those who have long pursued the profession." Dr. Daniel then forcibly shows the necessity for southern medical colleges and southern medical literature, in the fol- lowing words: "It is to those who are to be the future physicians of the southern

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states, where the fevers of which I treat are habitual and destructive, that I would most earnestly appeal. To this hour the judgments of the southern physicians are chained to the desks of the northern schools. The latter complain of the undue influence which European doctrines exercise over the minds of the American phy- sicians. That is not more preposterous than the professional sovereignty of the north is over the south. No man feels a higher respect for the talents, learning, and industry of the medical gentlemen of the northern and middle states; no one is more gratified than myself, at the honorable competition which the northern medical schools hold with the munificently endowed institutions of the same kind in Europe. They certainly understand the diseases of their own climate much better than we of the south do. But in turn, something is due to our experience and observation in our appropriate diseases. The medical profession of the south is without character, and consequently respectability and reputation. These are to be obtained only by combination, the liberal patronage of our state legislatures, and by the erection of medical schools among us. The example set by the legisla- tures of Virginia and South Carolina are as commendable for their policy as laudable for their liberality." Not only was Dr. Daniel a highly accomplished general practitioner of medicine, but he was possessed of a genius for surgery, as is attested by the following original plan of treating fractures of the thigh. Dr. L. B. Grandy, of Atlanta, in a recent article in the Atlanta "Medical and Surgical Journal," entitled "The History of Medicine and Surgery in Georgia," says:

"The treatment of fracture of the thigh by the weight and pulley was first used in this country by Dr. Daniel, of Savannah, Ga. His first case occurred in 1819. To obtain continuous extension he folded a silk handkerchief securely around the patient's ankle and tied the ends across the sole of the foot. A cord and weight were then attached, and passed over a roller at the foot of the bed. A second case was similarly treated in 1824. The roller in this case was replaced by a pulley. Dr. Daniel describes his cases in the "American Journal of Medical Science" for August, 1829 .* His paper at once attracted the attention of Dr. Milton Antony, of Augusta, who "determined on adopting the method in the first case that should occur." In the "Southern Medical and Surgical Journal," October, 1836, Dr. Antony reports five cases, "all of which had been treated on the plan herein detailed and with like success." One of these cases was a man aged forty-six. Fracture in upper third thigh. "A short roller bandage was passed around the ankle and bottom of the foot where a string was attached, which, passing over the foot of the bed, suspended a piece of brick weighing about two and a half pounds. Short splints were applied also about the point of fracture. Patient was discharged cured in about six weeks. Dr. Antony dispensed with the pulley of Dr. Daniel, merely allowing the cord to suspend from the end of the mattress or table. Dr. Antony's opinion of this method was that "it establishes, in the most satisfactory manner, the propriety of a plan of management at once calculated to insure the best success with the simplest apparatus and the least distress." It will thus be seen that many years before the so-called "Buck's extension apparatus" was introduced into the New York hospital in 1852 every mechanical principle of that arrangement had been used and described by the above-named surgeons. The general teaching, therefore, that this method of treating fractures of the thigh was originally sug- gested by Dr. Gurdon Buck is wholly incorrect.

I.A. DUGAS, M. D., LL. D. In writing this biography of my venerable ' and beloved friend, Dr. L. A. Dugas, it is no part of my purpose or desire to attempt anything like fulsome laudation of the dead. Nor is this tribute pre-

* About 1831 Dr. Swift, of Pennsylvania, introduced adhesive plaster as a substitute for the silk handkerchief.

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MEMOIRS OF DECEASED PHYSICIANS.

sented with the hope of adding to the fame of him whose life was devoted to active, fruitful industry in usefulness to his fellow-man, governed by a single-mindedness to truth and unswerving fidelity to the discharge of every duty pertaining to his exalted position as a citizen, a much beloved and highly accomplished physician, a genuine philanthropist and a learned scientist. Dr. Dugas' fame is written in the annals of scientific medicine, and though dead he yet lives and exerts an influence upon men who are members of that profession which he did so much to advance and adorn. The purpose of this biography, as all biographies should be, is for instruction of the living, to inquire into his career to cminence and fame, and to explore the foundation on which he builded so wisely and grandly. In hini was a rare type of exalted manhood, and the study of his life should inspire the young men of our profession to emulate his character that they may participate in the royal honors which crown the work of the man who devotes himself to the advancement of his race.

Louis Alexander Dugas was born Jan. 3, 1806, in Washington, Wilkes Co., Ga., and was the son of Louis Rene Adrien Dugas de Vallon. The De Vallons were of French West Indian descent, immigrating from France some two genera- tions ago to St. Domingo, where they became wealthy planters. His father, although born in St. Domingo, resided constantly in Paris, where his ample for- tune enabled him to gratify his literary tastes; he was a gentleman of large and varied information, and had graduated in the law, besides acquiring great pro- ficiency in the sciences. His mother, Mary Pauline Bellumean de la Vincendiere, was a native of St. Domingo, where her parents had been wealthy planters for gen- erations, but always educated their children in Paris, and it was there she met M. de Vallon and married him in August, 1790. A gentleman of leisure and cul- tivated tastes-one of the old regime-had few inducements to remain in France in those troublous times, and accordingly M. de Vallon and his wife left for St. Domingo to settle on their plantation, where generations of their ancestors had preceded them. They had not long been there, however, before the revolution in the parent country extended itself to the colony, and resulted in the emancipation of the blacks, driving them, with an infant daughter and but slender pecuniary means, to seek refuge in the United States. They landed in Charleston in 1791, and in deference to the republican simplicity of the land of their adoption, dropped the "de Vallon" from their name and were henceforth simply Dugas. After about a year's residence in Georgetown, S. C., they removed to Newport, R. I., where they remained till 1801, when they removed to Fredericktown, Md. Three years in Maryland caused them to remove to Savannah, seeking a warmer climate, and in 1804 they settled in Washington, Wilkes Co., where Dr. L. A. Dugas was born, with a twin brother, Louis Charles, who was afterward a planter, and died in 1866. His father died in 1807, and in December, 1810, his mother, a most estima- ble and accomplished lady, removed to Augusta, established a female seminary, and was so successful as to educate her family and accumulate a competency. His mother educated her son until he was fifteen, with the exception of two or three quarters at the academy of Richmond county. She had the proud satis- faction of seeing the prosperity of her children, and died in 1854, being then eighty- three years of age. Dr. Dugas, in 1820, entered the office of Dr. Charles Lambert De Beauregard, a French emigre, to study medicine. Dr. Beauregard dying in 1822, he entered the office of Dr. John Dent and studied for two years. He then attended lectures in Baltimore, Md., and Philadelphia, and was graduated at the university of Maryland in March, 1827. The medical department of that university was then considered the best school in the country. He attended all the hospitals of these cities, and feeling the great responsibility of the practitioner, he resolved

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to perfect himself in the European schools. After some plantation practice and study in Georgia, he sailed, in 1828, for Europe, where he remained three years, during which he made himself thoroughly acquainted with England, France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, making Paris his headquarters. There he de- voted himself with persistent energies to his medical studies, devoting sixteen hours of each day to different branches of science, and so methodically arranging his time, alternating the severer with the more attractive branches of study, as to insure constant interest and avoid weariness.

During his sojourn abroad he began those habits of systematic, varied and diligent study which characterized him during his whole life. Thus we find him devoting the mornings to visiting hospitals and following the professors in their rounds through the wards, visiting patients, and making surgical operations, and attending the dead-house, closely watching post-mortem examinations. In the evenings he attended the full courses of lectures at the Sarbonne, of such talented professors as Gay Lussac and Thenard on chemistry, Pouillet on physics, Arago on astronomy, Cuvier, Blainville and Geoffrey St. Hilaire on natural history, Beaumont on geology, Magendie on physiology, Boyet, Roux and Velpeau on surgery, Dupuytren and Lesfranc on chemical surgery, Guersent on the dis- eases of children, Cousin on philosophy, Villemain on eloquence and criticism, and Guizot on the history of civilization. He also attended the lectures of such illustrious and prominent men as Baron Larrey, Dubois, Alibert, Biett, Lugol, Broussais, Audral, Louis, Chomel and Orfila. Having graduated from an Ameri- can college whose diploma was recognized in Europe he, upon exhibiting his diploma, had free access to all the medical colleges and hospitals. It was during his sojourn in Paris that he observed the revolution from Broussais' deteriorating treatment to the conservative plan of Audral and Louis, and he became an ardent supporter of the latter system. He also studied with interest Civiale's method of lithotrity, and successfully performed this operation four times after his return to America. The writer witnessed one of these operations in the hands of Dr. Dugas, and was charmed by the dexterity, success and coolness of the operator. With a mind stored with the useful and marvelous education which he had acquired in Europe, he set sail for America and returned to Augusta in June, 1831, and began the practice of medicine. In 1832 he, with Drs. Milton Anthony, Lewis D. Ford, John Dent, Paul F. Eve and Joseph A. Eve founded and organized the Medical College of Georgia (now the medical department of the university of Georgia). Dr. Dugas was elected professor of anatomy and physiology; a few years subse- quently he relinquished the chair of anatomy to Dr. George M. Newton, and became professor of physiology and pathological anatomy. This professorship he held until 1855, when he was elected to that of principles and practice of surgery, which chair he held until his resignation from the faculty in 1880.

In 1834 Dr. Dugas again visited Europe, having been sent by the Medical College of Georgia with $6,000 to purchase a library and museum for that insti- tution. Having an acquaintance with Parisian collectors he was enabled to pur- chase a fine museum, with many rare specimens, and a valuable library, embracing many rare books. During this visit to Paris he was elected a member of the Geological Society of France. He returned to Augusta in the fall of 1834, and began the general practice of medicine, devoting more special attention to surgery. In 1851 he again visited Europe and traveled extensively over the continent, visiting the world's fair at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London. In 1851 he became the editor of the "Southern Medical and Surgical Journal,' published in Augusta. During his editorial management, which lasted for seven years, this journal was noted for its high order of medical journalism, and continued nu-

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merous and voluminous contributions from the pen of its illustrious editor. Dr. Dugas was a medical philosopher. His genius was of that high and rare order which qualified him for thorough investigation and elucidation of abstruse ques- tions in all the multiform departments of medicine. A mere glance at the list of his contributions to medical literature will show the versatility of his genius. Most of these papers are to be found in the volumes of the "Southern Medical and Surgical Journal." The remainder appear in the "New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal," the "Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal," the transactions of the American Medical association, the transactions of the Medical association of Georgia, and transactions of the International Medical congress. It is impossible to enter into an examination of the numerous and voluminous medical writings of Dr. Dugas, nor can a brief synopsis of each of them be presented. This grand man, constantly engaged in an arduous practice of medicine and surgery, published to the profession 127 medical papers, exclusive of a large number of translations of valuable current medical literature. Many of his papers contain original views on the subjects discussed, and some of them record original discoveries made by him. It would be an injustice to the dead to fail on the present occasion to call attention to the following subjects: Dr. Dugas was unquestionably the first physician in our state, and I believe in the union, to call the attention of the profession and municipal authorities to the portability of the poison of yellow fever in railroad cars, and to advocate the breaking of bulk of freight and change of cars from an infected city before reaching one free of the disease. He pointed out the absolute impossibility of thoroughly ventilating box cars by leaving the doors open, and warned municipal authorities of the great danger of the then prevalent practice of depending on this method of railroad sanitary supervision. In demonstration of the justice of this claim I cite his position before the Medical Society of Augusta in 1839, and an article from his pen to be found in the Augusta "Constitutionalist" of Feb. 12, 1855. It is proper to add in this connection that when the entire medical faculty of Augusta claimed the local origin of yellow fever in our city in the epidemic of 1839, Dr. Dugas was the only physician who dissented from this view. He claimed then, and to the day of his death, that the disease was imported into Augusta by freight and railroad cars from Charleston, S. C. When the science of surgery knew no certain method for diagnosticating dislocations of the shoulder joint, it was the mind of Dr. Dugas, ever fruitful in investigation and diagnosis, which gave to the profes- sion a method grand in its simplicity and never-failing in certainty, by which the merest tyro in surgery could say with unerring accuracy if or not the shoulder joint was dislocated. Dr. Dugas says of his method: "If the fingers of the injured limb can be placed by the patient or by the surgeon upon the sound shoulder, while the elbow touches the thorax, there can be no dislocation; and if this cannot be done there must be a dislocation. In other words, it is physically impossible to bring the elbow in contact with the sternum or front of the thorax if there be a dislocation; and the inability to do this is proof positive of the existence of dislocation, inasmuch as no other injury of the shoulder joint can induce this inability." This applies to all forms of dislocations of the shoulder joint. The last medical paper from the pen of the deceased may be justly styled the crowning work of his life, and was destined to revolutionize the practice of surgeons in treating penetrating wounds of the abdomen. While the deceased was the most eminentlv conservative surgeon I ever knew, he was, when the occasion demanded it, as bold as any surgeon that ever lived. Hence we find him in 1876 at the international medical congress at Philadelphia, before the section on surgery, where the most brilliant surgeons of the whole world were congregated, saying

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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 27

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