USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume I > Part 32
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THE PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL. A number of prominent men connected with various Presbyterian churches united in an organiza- tion for the building and support of a hospital "for the purposes of affording medical and surgical aid and nursing to disabled persons, and to provide them while inmates of the hospital with the ministra- tion of the Gospel agreeable to the doctrine and form of the Pres- byterian church." Several large subscriptions were made, and those, together with a great number of minor ones, enabled the trustees to erect a building which for size, durability of structure and perfec- tion of its arrangement and details must insure to its projectors grateful recognition on the part of those to whom its benefits are accorded. The hospital is located on the corner of Wood and Congress streets, on a lot contributed by Rush Medical College, with which it is closely affiliated for clinical purposes, and the hospital staff is largely represented from the staff of Rush Medical College. It contains two hundred beds and its appointments are highly credit- able. In its medical and surgical service it is one of the representa- tive hospitals of the city. Its Training School for Nurses ranks with the best in the country.
MICHAEL REESE HOSPITAL. Under the supervision of the United Hebrew Charities a building for the care of patients was secured on the corner of LaSalle and Schiller streets in 1868. The building was destroyed by the Chicago fire. For ten years patients cared for by this society were lodged in the various hospitals in the city, but in 1880 the present hospital was organized and the building was lo- cated on the corner of Twenty-ninth street and Groveland avenue. It was named in honor of Mr. Michael Reese, who had bequeathed to
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it the sum of $50,000. To this the further sum of $75,000 was ob- tained by private subscriptions and a substantial plant completed at a cost of $125,000, with a capacity of one hundred and fifty beds. After twenty-five years it was decided to rebuild on the same ground, and the old hospital was entirely removed. The present magnificent structure occupying that place, having an ideal position on the lake shore, has just been completed at a cost of $750,000, with an equip- ment costing $250,000 more, so that the institution represents an ex- penditure of $1,000,000. It is provided with three hundred and sixty-two beds. It has provision for the education of one hundred and twenty-five nurses, eighty-five of whom are on duty and require three years' course of instruction. A large corps of distinguished physicians and surgeons constitute its staff.
WOMEN'S HOSPITAL. This hospital recalls the name of its found- ers, Drs. William H. Byford, A. Reeves Jackson and Mary H. Thompson. It is pleasantly located on the corner of Thirty-second street and Rhodes avenue. It was established in 1880, and has a capacity of forty-three beds. It is limited to the reception of ladies requiring surgical operation and after treatment. It is under the su- pervision of a large board of lady managers, who are prominent in society and who are liberal contributors toward its support. The following surgeons constitute the active staff : Drs. Henry T. By- ford, Franklin H. Martin, Bertha Van Hoosen, C. E. Paddock, Fred- erick A. Besley, William R. Cubbins, D. A. K. Steele, Joseph Brenne- man, George T. Ruggles and Mary J. Kearsley.
FIRST HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL. This hospital was opened by Dr. George F. Shipman at 20 East Kinzie street, in 1854. It was sustained by private subscriptions. The encouragement for its open- ing was derived from the fact that Mrs. Wright promised to con- tribute $1,000 a year towards its support. In 1855 a permanent or- ganization was effected by the creation of an executive board, of which Mr. J. H. Dunham was president, Dr. D. S. Smith, vice presi- dent, Dr. George F. Shipman, secretary. The attending physicians were Dr. George F. Shipman, Dr. D. S. Smith and R. Ludlam. The attending surgeons were Dr. H. W. K. Boardman and Dr. L. A. Douglas, with a number of prominent men as board of directors. The death of Mrs. Wright occurred the following year, and the amount promised by her could not be legally appropriated. The liberal con-
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tributions which were made by the physicians and their friends were not sufficient for its needs and would not warrant its continuance. On May 1, 1857, it was voted to close the hospital.
HAHNEMANN HOSPITAL. This hospital is located in connection with Hahnemann College on grounds for college and hospital pur- poses, situated on Cottage Grove avenue, between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth streets. In honor of J. Y. Scammon it was first named the "Scammon Hospital," but later, at his suggestion, it was named Hahnemann Hospital. In its earlier history its expenses were met by private donations to which the college faculty and a number of influential men were liberal contributors. The net proceeds of a fair held in its interests amounted to $11,000. A bequest from Mrs. Phebe Smith added $10,000 more. Then came the munificent do- nation of $50,000 from Mrs. Caroline E. Haskell and a contribution of $5,000 by Mr. Hugh Riddle. The hospital has been the recipient of constant smaller amounts, which, in the aggregate. have enabled it to do a large and much-needed charitable work. The financial burden which, in all public hospitals not yet endowed, and which al- ways rests heavily upon a few individuals, has, in this instance, been happily largely lifted from those who bore the brunt by the munifi- cent bequest of $250,000 made by D. B. Shipman, who acquired a princely fortune in Chicago and gave to its citizens this perpetual token of his gracious remembrance. Monumental shafts in ceme- teries are fitting mementoes of those who only think of themselves, but a hospital is a perpetual expression of one's regard for his fellow- men. An addition to the hospital, giving it a capacity of two hundred beds, is rapidly approaching completion, in which all the comforts and conveniences of a modern, up-to-date hospital are assured, and in this connection the Training School for Nurses will find ample provision.
ALEXIAN BROTHERS HOSPITAL. This hospital was organized by the Alexian Brothers and located on the corner of Dearborn and Schiller streets in 1860. The accommodations were soon outgrown and the hospital was removed to a more commodious building on North Market street. Here it remained for three years, when the entire effects were swept away by the Chicago fire. Nothing re- mained but the brave souls of the Brothers who had inspired it. In 1872 the Chicago Relief and Aid Society came to their heip with a
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donation of $18,000 and this, in connection with generous donations from private individuals, enabled them to build the present structure, capable of accommodating about two hundred and fifty patients. The internal management and nursing are entirely under the con- trol of the Brothers, and none but male patients are admitted to the hospital. During the successive years the following have been among the leading members of the staff :
Consulting Surgeons-Truman W. Miller, Ernst Smith.
Attending Physicians-Rudolph Seiffert, Otto L. Schmidt, J. H. Hoelscher, F. W. Rohr, Jr., William S. Orth.
Attending Surgeons-Fernand Henrotin, J. B. Murphy, W. J. Wiswald.
Opthalmologic Surgeon-Casey A. Wood.
Neurologist-N. V. Clevenger.
The hospital is situated on the corner of Belden and Racine ave- nues. On an average 2,800 patients are received and treated annually.
ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPITAL. This hospital is situated at 360 Gar- field avenue. It was organized by the Sisters of Charity in 1860. Its first building was destroyed by the fire in 1871, but the present one, with its ample facilities, was erected on the same spot and has accommodations for two hundred and fifty patients, while provision is made for the care of the helpless who are needy, and a number of free beds have been contributed by generous donors. There are also fine accommodations for pay patients. It has always had the good fortune to secure the services of an unusually able staff of at- tending physicians and surgeons, among whom the following can be named: Dr. G. W. Reynolds and Dr. J. H. Chew, physicians; Dr. D. R. Brower, professor of mental and nervous diseases; Dr. John Bartlett, chief of the obstetrical department; Dr. Ephraim F. Ingalls, nose and throat diseases ; Dr. F. C. Holtz, diseases of the eye and ear.
Medical Societies.
Although it is reported that a medical society was formed in the village of Chicago as early as 1836, no authentic records have been preserved, and it was not until 1850 that the first permanent society was organized. During the spring of that year the call was made to consider the question of forming a medical society. The profession
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was very fully represented at the meeting and Rush College was specially active in the movement, being represented by Drs. Brainard. Blaney, Herrick and Davis. Among others, we note the presence of Drs. Boone, Mc Vickar, Bird, Max-Meyers, McArthur and a num- ber of the older physicians. At this preliminary meeting a commit- tee was appointed to draft a constitution and by-laws, which were adopted a week later. It took the name of the Chicago Medical So- ciety, on which Dr. Daniel Boone was made president. There was not entire harmony in the society. A number of members withdrew, and a quorum for the transaction of business could seldom be se- cured. The minority, faithfully maintaining regular meetings, finally took the matter in hand, and leaving the organization to such result as might follow, organized the Cook County Medical Society with a view of enlisting the co-operation of prominent physicians in the county not residents of the city. From this time on new members who were yet to become prominent, were occasionally being added to the society, and as the former city society had lapsed into desuetude by reason of the great preponderance of city physicians in the meet- ing of the Cook County Society, it seemed desirable to resume the old name, and so, by unanimous vote, it again took the name of the Chicago Medical Society in 1858. From the first it had been the leading medical society in the northwest, and at present it is believed to be, from the number of its members, the largest medical society in the world ; so large, indeed, as to require sub-divisions into a num- ber of sections, representative of the various specialties. Later the expansion of the city has been such as to require branch organiza- tions with local officers and independent meetings, all of the branches being subordinate to the central society. According to the reports these branches are well attended and doing efficient work, bringing to their help, by invitation, speakers of repute from other associate branches. At stated periods the branches are all massed in general assembly, and men of special renown, both in this country and abroad. are invited to address this assembly.
Health Department.
When Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837, one section of the act required "the appointment annually of three commissioners to constitute a Board of Health." In May of that year those appointed
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to constitute such board were Dr. John W. Eldredge, A. N. Fuller- ton and D. Cox. Dr. Daniel Brainard was appointed as the first city physician. Dr. E. S. Kimberly was his successor in 1838-41. Dr. John W. Eldredge, from 1841-43. The following are the names and dates of those who succeeded as city physician: Dr. William B. Ea- gan, 1843-45; Dr. Philip Maxwell, 1845-47; Dr. Henry S. Huber, 1847-49; Dr. L. D. Boone, 1849-52; Dr. A. D. Palmer, 1852; Dr. B. McVickar, 1853-55; Dr. I. P. Lynn, 1855-57; Dr. Gerhard Paoli, 1857-59; Dr. William Wagner, 1859-60. At this date the office of health officer was vacated by the common council, and for two years the city was without the services of a duly appointed physician. In December, 1861, Dr. Lucien Cheeny was appointed to that position and served until 1864, when Charles S. Perry, a policeman, was de- tailed as health officer. In 1867 a board of health was organized, composed as follows: Dr. William Wagner, Dr. H. A. Johnson, Dr. J. H. Ratich, William Giles, A. B. Reynolds, Samuel Hoard and John B. Rice, mayor, ex-officio. They appointed Dr. J. H. Rauch sanitary superintendent, and Dr. H. S. Hahn, city physician. Dr. H. A. Johnson was made president of the board, and he, with Dr. J. H. Rauch, continued to serve through the period of the Chicago fire and until 1874. Dr. Benjamin C. Miller succeeded Dr. Rauch and served from 1874 until 1876. In 1876 the common council abolished the board of health and reorganized the health department. They cre- ated the office of commissioner of health, the appointee to act as chief officer, with provision for a corps of assistants. Dr. Oscar C. DeWolf was the first to be appointed to that office in January, 1877. Dr. J. S. Knox was his assistant and Dr. H. B. Wright was registrar of vital statistics. Dr. DeWolf held the office of commissioner of health for ten years, and to him largely we are indebted for the admirable man- ner in which his department was organized. Dr. Swayne Wicker- sham held the office for three years and was succeeded in 1890 by Dr. John D. Ware. It should by no means be forgotten that while special honor attaches to him who holds position of chief, the onus of the work falls upon those who stand behind the guns. Citizens little realize the debt they owe to those who stamp out contagious dis- eases and prevent the consumption of millions of pounds of impure food. It is a matter of regret that city politics have so much to do with the administration of the health department and the office of
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commissioner of health with each incoming administration being filled by some political favorite. To illustrate, Dr. J. D. Ware held this office for two years; Dr. Reynolds succeeded for two years; then again a change and William Kerr, not a physician, was appointed to succeed him. Such was the turn in the political tide that Dr. R. A. Reynolds was again appointed and held the position for eight years. Another change in the administration brought Dr. Whalen to that position for two years, when, with the present mayor and council in power, the present incumbent is Dr. W. A. Evans. The sub-division of the health department is as follows:
First-Control of contagious diseases. Second-Laboratory de- partment, examination of meats; inspection of meats, fruits, vege- tables, water supplies; bacteriological work. Third-Vital statis- tics; registration of births and deaths. Fourth-Sanitary depart- ment ; plumbing, sewerage and sanitary condition of premises.
Such has been the efficiency of the labors of the health depart- ment for several years, that the death rate has been less per thousand than that of any other city of over 500,000 inhabitants, of which there are official records, either in this country or abroad, being only thir- teen and a fraction per thousand inhabitants.
Biographical Sketches.
John Hamilcar Hollister, author of the Medical History of Chi- cago, published in this volume, is the oldest practicing physician of
JOHN H. Chicago, having been actively identified with the HOLLISTER. profession for fifty-one years, and in his time has known all the great figures in the profession in this city, both in the earlier years and since. Dr. Hollister was born at Riga, Monroe county, New York, August 5, 1824, was graduated from the Rochester Collegiate Institute in 1842, studied medicine at the Berkshire Medical College, from which he received the degree of M. D. in 1847, and began practice in Chicago in 1855. He was con- nected with the faculty of the present school of medicine of the North- western University when it was known as Lind University and the Chicago Medical College. He was a trustee and professor in the school from 1859 to 1895, and since then has been professor emeritus. He was physician to Mercy Hospital 1866 to 1896 (now emeritus), has been a member of the American Medical Association since 1858,
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is a member, ex-president and for twenty years was treasurer of the Illinois State Medical Society, was editor of the Journal of the Ameri- can Medical Association for two years, and for eight years one of its trustees. Dr. Hollister was married, January 2, 1849, to Miss Jennette Windiate, of Drayton Plains, Michigan. Their only child is the wife of Dr. Franklin H. Martin of Chicago.
In the death of Nicholas Senn, on the 2nd of January, 1908, the modern world not only lost one of its great surgeons, but a strong and tender character of ceaseless activity, NICHOLAS SENN, 'whose like, take him all in all, as doctor, citizen M. D., LL. D. and man, we will not soon look upon again. His passing away was the cause of profound grief to men and women of all classes and conditions, and drew forth expressions of affection for him as a man and recognition of him as a scientist and surgeon such as Europe, Asia and America have seldom, if ever, before proffered to a citizen of the new world.
As a surgical operator, Dr. Senn was undoubtedly one of the greatest of all times; but his fame far outstripped these limitations. He made the clinics in his profession the basis of a far-reaching original investigation, and brought the study of bacteriology into the field of surgery in such a manner as to wonderfully decrease the fatalities incident either to operations, or injuries received on the field of battle. The deductions drawn by an unusually vigorous and scientific mind from a professional experience as varied as it was broad, added rich stores to the literature of pathology and operative surgery. Personally, he not only made invaluable contribu- tions to the standard literature of his profession, but was the means of giving to the west one of the rarest and most valuable of libraries, covering the entire range of medical science. Although a man of compact and powerful physique, the labors which he performed were so prodigious and unceasing as to wear out the human machine before its time, and it was laid away to rest after having performed a remarkable part in the work of the world during his life of sixty- three years and two months.
Dr. Senn was a native of the picturesque canton of St. Gallen, or St. Gall, in northeastern Switzerland, where he was born of humble parents on the 3Ist of October, 1844. When he was eight years of age the family came to the United States and settled in
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Washington county, Wisconsin, where he obtained a preliminary education, finishing his academic studies in the schools of Fond du Lac. He afterward taught for several years, but in 1864, before he had attained his majority, commenced his medical studies in the office of Dr. E. Munk, of that city. In 1866 he entered the Chicago Medical College, and, graduating therefrom in the spring of 1868, commenced his interneship of eighteen months in Cook County Hos- pital.
In 1869, after his marriage to Miss Aurelia Meuhlhauser, Dr. Senn removed to Ashford, Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, and com- menced private practice not many miles from the locality where he had acquired his first medical training. In 1874 he abandoned coun- try practice and settled in Milwaukee, that state, soon afterward being appointed attending physician to the Milwaukee Hospital, and later, as his reputation extended, attending or consulting surgeon to nearly all the important charities of the city and county. He also served as surgeon general of the state of Wisconsin.
Wishing to still further broaden his theoretical and clinical knowl- edge, in 1878 Dr. Senn went abroad and pursued special courses in the University of Munich, Germany, graduating therefrom in the following year. Upon his return to this country he was elected by the faculty of Rush Medical College, Chicago, to the chair of the principles of surgery and surgical pathology, and the acceptance of this honor induced him to remove to this city. In 1884-7 hie served as professor of surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons (now the Medical School of the University of Illinois), and for the succeeding three years held the chair of the principles of surgery. In 1890 he was elected professor of practical and clin- ical surgery at Rush Medical College, and occupied the chair at the time of his death. He was also professor of surgery at the Chicago Polyclinic; professorial lecturer on military surgery at the University of Chicago; attending surgeon at the Presbyterian Hos- pital, and surgeon-in-chief of St. Joseph's Hospital, with which insti- ution he was identified for eighteen years and where he performed a large part of his private work. As institutions, Rush Medical College and St. Joseph's Hospital especially, felt the loss of Dr. Senn's faith- ful and strong support, personally, and also of his invaluable profes- sional services. The deceased was a member of all the leading
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medical and surgical societies of the state and nation; had been presi- dent of the American Medical Association and the American Surgi- cal Association; was a life member of the German Congress of Sur- geons ; a corresponding member of the Harveian Society of London, and an honorary member of the Edinburgh Medical. Society. In 1890 he was chosen as an American delegate to the International Medical Congress which met at Berlin, and in 1897 to the Moscow congress, while in 1901 he again went abroad as one of the most distinguished delegates from the United States to the International Red Cross conference, which met at St. Petersburg.
In 1894, through the generosity and public enterprise of Dr. Senn, there was installed in the Newberry library of Chicago, the great historical and scientific collection of books relating to medi- cine, which had been brought together as the result of half a cen- tury's labors on the part of Dr. William Baum, late professor of surgery in the University of Göttingen and one of the founders of the German Congress of Surgeons. This splendid library of more than seven thousand volumes was donated in addition to the large collections which he had already given. By the terms of the princely gift, they were to be known as the Senn Collection, were to be kept together on the shelves, retained as a library in their entirety, and separately catalogued. Dr. Senn's wife has the credit of making the original suggestion that the collection be transferred to the mas- sive walls of the Newberry library for safe keeping.
In the domain of military surgery Dr. Senn reached world-wide eminence. His career in this specialty was inaugurated early in his professional life by his service as surgeon general of the state of Wisconsin. He was appointed surgeon general of the National Guard of Illinois, which he held at the time of his death, and in 189I was one of the prime movers in the organization of the Asso- ciation of Military Surgeons of the National Guard of the United States. Of this national body he was elected president. It was founded by about fifty surgeons of the National Guard, representing fifteen states, who in the year named met in Chicago and perfected an organization. Before its first year it had reached a membership of over two hundred, and from the date of its inception Dr. Senn was foremost in calling attention to the true province of the military surgeon in modern warfare. The keynote of his position is given
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in these words, taken from an eloquent address which he delivered before the association in April, 1892: "More ingenuity has been displayed of late years in perfecting firearms and in the invention of machines for wholesale destruction of life than in devising ways and means for saving the lives of those seriously wounded. It is our duty as military surgeons to counteract as far as we can the horrors of war, by devising life-saving operations and by protecting the injured against the dangers incident to traumatic infection. Anti- septic and aseptic surgery must be made more simple than it is now, in order that we may reap from them equal blessings in military as in civil practice." Dr. Senn's published investigations, especially his work on "Surgical Bacteriology," have gone far toward bringing about this humanitarian purpose, whose desirability has been doubly emphasized by the fatalities of the Spanish-American and Russo- Japanese wars. In both these conflicts he bore a leading part as a surgeon and an original investigator of international authority. In May, 1898, he was appointed chief surgeon of the Sixth Army Corps, with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the United States Vol- unteers, and chief of the operating staff with the American army in the field.
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