USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume I > Part 35
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It would be manifestly impossible to draw copiously from this
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mass of interesting and appreciative material, but the words of Dr. Nicholas Senn are fairly illustrative of its general tenor. "The name of Byron Robinson," he says, "as an original investigator is a familiar one in medical literature. For over two decades his contributions to the medical press have shed luster on American medicine, and have done much toward widening the scope of scientific medicine. Byron Robinson is a remarkable man in many ways. Success, in his case, attended merit. He is a splendid example of that army of physicians who, true to their vocations, are not content to practice medicine to earn a livelihood but who besides expend much of their time and money in the furtherance and development of the science of medicine. From the time of his graduation in medicine Byron Robinson has been a builder and a pathfinder. He cares little for the accumulation of wealth and outward appearances; his main ambition has been to contribute his liberal share to the enormous task of making medicine what it is destined to be-an exact science. His enthusiasm in the field of original research is boundless, and instead of waning after more than twenty years of hard unselfish work, if anything, is on the increase.
"All his writings breathe the same spirit of critical inquiry and thought. He is a leader in the hard working band in our profession who take an active part in unraveling the many mysteries which must be cleared before rational medicine triumphs over disease which now baffles our skill. From the very beginning of his professional career he has by word and example taught the great truth that the modern physician must be a scientist if it is his ambition to remain in the front rank of the most progressive of all professions. His life and work furnish a striking example of what the progressive physician should be, and which is well calculated to impress upon the younger members of the profession that, combined with science, medicine is the noblest of all professions; without science, the meanest of all trades.
"The amount of scientific work accomplished by Byron Robinson outside of a large and onerous gynecological and surgical practice is something phenomenal. No man in this or any other country has contributed more to medical literature in the same space of time. His writings are found in nearly every medical journal in the United States, and extracts of them, in foreign journals of many tongues
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which reach the remotest parts of the world. When I was in Adelaide. Australia, I became intimately acquainted with Professor Archibald Watson. One evening we discussed medical subjects, and among other things he said : 'There is one man in the United States whose writ- ings I always read, and his name is Byron Robinson.' Recently a prominent American physician visited a distinguished surgeon in Paris, and in conversation the latter made an allusion to a man in Chicago who in his estimation had made the most important contribution to the science of anatomy on this side of the Atlantic, and whose name for the moment he could not recall. The visitor mentioned several names, among them my own. 'No, no,' said the surgeon, whose mem- ory then lightened up and he said 'his name is Byron Robinson.' The abdomen and pelvis are the fields which Byron Robinson selected for his original investigations. He made no mistake in his choice of sub- jects for his life work.
"Dr. Robinson's additions to our knowledge of the structures of the biliary and pancreatic ducts, the utero-ovarian ( Robinson's circle ), the ureters (Robinson's three ureteral isthmuses), the great sympa- thetic nerve (abdominal brain), and the peritoneum, are of far-reach- ing scientific and practical value, and will have to be incorporated in forthcoming works on anatomy. That this has already been done is best shown in glancing over the pages of the best work on anatomy extant, which recently left the press; I refer to Da Costa's Gray's Anatomy, where Dr. Robinson's name appears no less than forty times. Such well merited recognition by such an eminent and scruti- nizing author as Professor Da Costa must certainly be a source of gratification to the subject of this sketch, and gratifying to his many friends. The amount of work Byron Robinson has performed can be best measured by his literary productions. He is the author of two volumes on practical intestinal surgery, four books on diverse gynecological subjects, a large volume on the peritoneum, and a 660- page book on "The Abdominal and Pelvic Brain." He has con- tributed to various medical journals 600 articles. He worked four years in obtaining material for his life-sized chart illustrating the sympathetic nerve. He spent a small fortune of hard-earned money for the illustrations which are incorporated in his writings for the better elucidation of the subjects of which they treat. How is it pos-
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sible for any one man to do the vast amount of work indicated by the above mentioned publication ?
"To give an intelligent answer to this question one must know Byron Robinson, as well as his early history. He inherited a vigorous constitution and a fertile, active brain. He is a man of exemplary habits and has an innate love for work; social life, theaters and other amusements have no charm for him. From early youth he was in- flamed with the desire for learning. His path to the study of medi- cine was smoothed by a university education. After graduating in medicine from Rush Medical College, he began the practice of his profession in Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, in 1882. As a country doctor he commenced his experimental work, and it was then and there he laid the foundation of his future scientific career. Unaided by anyone, impelled by his indomitable energy and insatiable thirst for knowledge, he penetrated deeper and deeper into the mysteries of medicine and its allied sciences, until he felt the need of additional advantages to bet- ter prepare him for the coveted field of original research. Following this inclination he spent at three periods, three years in Europe, spending most of his time in Vienna, Berlin, Heidelberg, London and Birmingham, in the last named city as a private pupil of the late Law- son Tait. Of the many distinguished teachers whose clinics he at- tended and in whose laboratories he worked, he was most impressed by such men as Virchow, Karl Schroeder, Erb. Mendel, Bilroth, Kun- drat, Carl Braun, Schenck, Nothnagel, Jordan Lloyd and Lawson Tait. Soon after his second return from Europe he accepted the chair of anatomy in the Toledo Medical College, where he taught this funda- mental branch of medicine with signal success for two years. After living with Lawson Tait as a private pupil for six months he came to Chicago in 1891. He has taught anatomy for ten years in different medical institutions of Chicago. For thirteen years he has held the chair of gynecology and abdominal surgery in the Illinois Medical Col- lege. Anatomy and pathology have always had a fascination for Byron Robinson. To him anatomy is an open book. Since he came to Chicago he has performed 700 abdominal post mortem examina- tions, and made accurate records of their findings. He has studied comparative visceral anatomy in the slaughter house, where he ex- amined and studied the abdominal organs of 250 carcasses. If one of the wild animals in the zoological gardens of Lincoln Park die, Robin-
.
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son is one of the first to know it, and has made the post mortem and preserved interesting specimens for future study, usually before his colleagues knew that another day had been born. All this Byron Rob- inson has done, besides attending to a large private and hospital prac- tice. He is still in the prime of life, and his ardor for original investi- gation has not been dampened by the years of toil. His motto has been, and always will be : 'Nothing is so difficult but may be overcome by industry.'"
Little can be added to the above just and authoritative review of Dr. Robinson's professional and personal character by Dr. Senn, the character of whose life work inspires him with a strong fellow feel- ing, but a few facts may be presented to make the sketch complete. His parents, William and Mary Robinson, were born in England, and, coming to the United States in 1845, located on a farm near Mineral Point, central Wisconsin. Here Byron Robinson was born and reared, and, after living together for fifty years, his father and mother died on the old homestead. His early education was obtained in a log school house near home, and, after completing a course in the Mineral Point Seminary, he entered the University of Wisconsin, from which he graduated in 1878 with the degree of B. S. In 1879-80, while teaching in the high schools of Ashland and Black Earth, Wis- consin, he commenced the study of medicine, and graduated from Rush Medical College with his professional degree in 1882. He commenced practice, in the year named, at Grand Rapids, Wisconsin; continued for two years, and then went abroad for the first time, as narrated by Dr. Senn. In 1888 Dr. Robinson removed to Toledo, where he re- mained for two years, where, as professor of anatomy and clinical surgery, he first gained prominence as a practical anatomist and a clinical teacher. In 1891 he removed to Chicago, and was elected to the department of gynecology in the Post-Graduate School. At the present time, besides holding the chair of gynecology and abdominal surgery in Illinois Medical College, Byron Robinson is gynecologist to the Woman's Hospital and consulting gynecologist to the Mary Thompson Hospital for Women and Children.
In 1894 Byron Robinson was married to Dr. Lucy Waite, herself a skilful operator, a classic writer on medical and surgical subjects, and, for the past decade, head surgeon of the Mary Thompson Hos- pital. To her good judgment and practical professional assistance, in
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fact, the Doctor attributes much of his success and the final recogni- tion of his standing, so well set forth by Dr. Senn.
Lucy Waite, A. B., M. D., has been known for many years as a skilful and successful surgeon and a deep and indefatigable investi- LUCY WAITE. gator. In the latter capacity she has made some notable additions to the literature of the profession. Dr. Waite comes of a hardy and intellectual family, on both her mother's and father's side. Her maternal an- cestors were the Van Valkenburghs, a substantial Dutch family of the Netherlands. Of those who settled in Canada and New York not a few were descended from former residents of the historic Ghent. They were staunch supporters of the Revolution, several of them holding high positions in New York commands. Her grand- father, Dr. Daniel D. Waite, was one of the pioneer physicians of the city, being among the early presidents of the Chicago Medical Society.
The Doctor is a native of Chicago, a daughter of ex-Judge Bur- lingame and Catherine (Van Valkenburgh) Waite, her mother having been a native of Canada, a graduate of Oberlin College, and, while a resident of Chicago, founder of the widely known Hyde Park Seminary. She is a lawyer and former publisher of the Chicago Law Times. At the International Council of Women, held at Washing- ton in 1888, Mrs. Catherine Waite was elected president of the Woman's International Bar Association, and both as a writer and a pioneer lawyer among women she achieved national fame.
The father, Burlingame Waite, was a New Yorker, and had prac- ticed in Chicago for years before President Lincoln (in 1862) ap- pointed him judge of the Supreme Court of Utah. In 1865 he resigned this office after making a national record in the various complications between the supreme judiciary and the Mormon church. In the year mentioned Judge Waite became district attorney for the territory of Idaho, but returned to Chicago in the following year and now resides here and at the age of 84 retains his mental and physical vigor and is actively engaged in his literary work. Judge Waite has an international reputation among scholars as the author of "The Christian Religion to the Year 200."
Dr. Waite is head surgeon and medical superintendent of the Mary Thompson Hospital for Women and Children, a position she
Lucy Wait
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has held for ten years. She fitted herself for such a position through years of training both in this country and in Europe. When she decided to devote herself to surgical work she went to Europe and took up the special branches of gynecology and abdominal surgery. After two years spent in the clinics of Vienna and Paris she returned to America and continued her studies in the post-graduate medical schools in this country. Dr. Waite is a graduate of the Chicago Uni- versity. In 1880 she took the degree of B. A. in the old University and later her degree was re-enacted by the new University. In 1883 she took a medical degree from the Hahnemann Medical College and later from the Harvey Medical School of Chicago. During the two years spent in Europe she was under the personal tuition of Carl Braun, Spaeth and Pavlik in Vienna, and Péan, Pozzi and Doléris in Paris. She is a good German and French scholar, having been obliged to master these languages while prosecuting her studies abroad.
In 1894 Dr. Waite was married to Dr. Byron Robinson. She is at present clinical professor of gynecology (extra mural) in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Waite conducts one of the largest gynecological clinics in the city, which she uses to the best advantage in teaching this branch to the women students of the college. She is a member of the American Medical Association and of the Chicago Medical Society.
Philip Schuyler Doane, M. D., has the honor of having been associated for a number of years with one of the most eminent
PHILIP S. gynecological surgeons in the country, the late Dr. DOANE. Fernand Henrotin, thus placing the seal of his high authority upon the skill and scholarship of the younger practitioner. Dr. Doane is a native of Illinois, born at Oak Park on the 16th of August, 1868, being the son of Thomas H. and Mary Warren ( Kellogg) Doane. His advanced education in literary and scientific branches was obtained in the Oak Park High School and at Phillips Exeter Academy, his graduation from the latter occur- ring in 1892.
Dr. Doane's medical education was acquired at Rush Medical Col- lege, Chicago, from which he graduated in 1895 with the degree of M. D. Afterward he served for eigliteen months, in 1895-7, as interne at the Presbyterian Hospital, and the three months following
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were spent in the service of the State Board of Health in the main- tenance of the quarantine against yellow fever at Cairo, Illinois. In the fall of 1897 he began practice on the north side, Chicago, and shortly afterward became associated with Dr. Henrotin, as stated. The five years thus passed were spent in the performance of surgical and gynecological work in the various hospitals of the city. He was also for four years on the surgical staff of Cook County Hospital, and has been attending surgeon at the Central Free Dispensary and instructor in surgery at Rush Medical College. He has contributed interesting and valuable monographs on surgical subjects to standard periodical literature, and is a well known member of the American Medical Association, State and Chicago Medical societies, and the Physicians' Club of Chicago.
Dr. Doane was married January 1, 1903, to Miss Helen Pullman Stewart, daughter of Graeme Stewart, and their two children are Helen Stewart and Graeme Stewart Doane. The family residence is at No. 541 North State street, and the down-town office in the Venetian building, 34 Washington street. Dr. Doane is identified with the Chicago, University, Saddle and Cycle and South Shore Country Clubs. He is a Republican in politics and a Presbyterian in religion.
Alexander Hugh Ferguson, M. D., is one of that brilliant and substantial body of Canadians who, within the past twenty years,
ALEXANDER have constituted such an invaluable addition to the H. FERGUSON. surgery and medical education of the United States. He was born in Ontario county, Canada, on the 27th of February, 1853; his parents were Alexander and Ann (McFadyen) Ferguson ; his paternal ancestors being the famous Fer- gusons of Argyleshire, the first family name in Scotland, whose his- tory goes back to the dim periods of time. In this genealogical fact the Doctor takes a just pride, and as he himself can read and speak the Gaelic tongue he is able to follow the family records back to the period of legends and myths to about 300 B. C.
Dr. Ferguson moved to Manitoba in 1874, when he was twenty- one years of age, having already obtained a good education in the common schools and at Rockwood Academy. After coming to the western province he pursued a course and also taught in the Mani- toba College, and later went to Toronto, where he attended the Uni-
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versity in that city and the Trinity Medical School. In 1881 he graduated as Fellow by examination from the latter institution, also as medalist, and received the degrees of M. B. from Toronto Uni- versity and M. D. and C. M. from Trinity University. He also enjoyed post-graduate training in New York, Glasgow, London and Berlin, receiving instructions in surgery, bacteriology and pathology.
He first located for practice at Buffalo, New York, and in 1882 left a promising field in that city to locate in Winnipeg, at the request of an aged mother. In the same year he was appointed registrar of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, and in 1883 he took the initiative in founding the Manitoba Medical College, which he was instrumental in establishing as a high standard among the educational institutions of the Dominion. The Doctor held the chair of physiology and histology for three years, and in 1886 he assumed the professorship of surgery. In this educational position and as an operator, he soon gained a wide reputation. He was also a member of the staff of the Winnipeg General Hospital, surgeon-in- chief of the St. Boniface Hospital, and performed the major opera- tions at the Brandon and Morden hospitals. During this period he was chosen first president of the Manitoba branch (pioneer) of the British Medical Association. In 1894, having been elected to the chair of surgery of the Chicago Post-Graduate Medical School, he prepared to leave the field in which he had attained such professional leadership. His departure was referred to by the press and the people as a "public calamity," and a farewell address from the faculty of the Manitoba Medical College speaks of him in these terms: "As professor of surgery you have not only commanded the admiration and regard of your associate professors, but also the veneration and loyal esteem of your students. Your operative work in hospital and private practice has challenged the keenest attention of the medical profession of this country and has reflected the highest honor on yourself and credit upon the medical profession of Canada."
In June, 1894, Dr. Ferguson assumed the chair of surgery at the Chicago Post-Graduate School, and he has held the professorship continuously with professional ability and manly honor. In 1900 he was elected professor of clinical surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons (University of Illinois), and still holds the position. He is also president and chief surgeon of the Chicago Hospital (in
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which he has over three-fourths interest), and is otherwise identified with the surgical service of hospitals.
He is ex-president of the Western Surgical and Gynecological Association, the Tri-State Medical Association and of the Chicago Medical Society, and also enjoys membership in the American Med- - ical Association, British Medical Association, corresponding member of the Urological Society of France; member of the Chicago Gyn- ecological Society, Chicago Neurological Society, Chicago Urological Society, Chicago Surgical Society, International Surgical Society, Military Tract Medical Association, American Surgical Association and American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ; Wayne County Medical Society (Detroit) and Michigan State Medical Soci- ety enrolled him as an honorary member. Dr. Ferguson's reputation has attracted the attention of the profession and people from ocean to ocean and from the Gulf of Mexico to within his native land on the north, and to many places within these confines he has been many times called in consultation and to operate.
Since coming to Chicago, Dr. Ferguson has both broadened and strengthened his Canadian reputation; in fact, such an authority as The American Journal of Surgery refers to him as "the most clean and clever operator on the western continent." There is hardly a major operation on the body which he has not repeatedly performed, while his work on hydatids of the liver has been the most extensive and notable of any man in America. He has also invented many valu- able surgical instruments and originated several surgical procedures which are decided advances beyond the methods formerly in vogue. He is the author of many valuable papers on operative surgery, and in the course of his varied work has developed not only eminent skill and acquired deep learning, but has gathered the fine virtues of humanity. His last work is a book entitled "Modern Operation in Hernia," which is so well received that a second edition was called for in six months by the publishers. One of the latest honors to be bestowed upon him for his eminence in the science and art of surgery was the decoration of Commander of the Order of Christ, presented by the lately assassinated King Carlos of Portugal in the fall of 1906, soon after the meeting of the International Medical Congress at Lisbon. While there are a few chevaliers of this order in America, so far Dr. Ferguson is the only one to have received the higher title of Com-
t
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mander. In 1907 the Royal Geographical Society made him, accom- panied by its decoration, a corresponding member.
In his fraternal and social relations he is a member of the St. Andrew's Society, the South Shore Country Club, the Press Club, the University Club and Scottish Rite Freemasonry, thirty-second degree.
The above sketch of Dr. Ferguson does not at all mention all the tokens of distinction tendered to him. It is worthy of notice that when the late Count Creighton of Omaha, Nebraska, donated a new college building for medical education, Dr. Ferguson was chosen to deliver the opening address of the Creighton Medical College. In 1903 he delivered the address on Surgery before the Canadian Med- ical Association, at London, Ontario. A similar honor was shown to him by the Minnesota State Medical Association in Minneapolis, where in 1904 he gave the oration on Surgery before that distin- guished body.
The Doctor's wife, to whom he was married April 5, 1882, was formerly Sarah J. Thomas, and their children are Ivan H. and Alexander D. Ferguson.
Daniel Nathan Eisendrath, A. B., M. D., a leading surgeon of the modern school, thoroughly educated, has come to be a skilful operator through his large private practice and his
DANIEL N. continuous connection with several of the city hos-
EISENDRATH. pitals. He was born in Chicago, the son of Nathan and Helena (Fellheimer ) Eisendrath, and mastered the elementary branches by attending its public schools. In 1889 he completed his higher training in literature and the sciences by graduating from the famous Johns Hopkins University, of Baltimore, with the degree of A. B. He returned to Chicago and entered the Northwestern Uni- versity Medical School, which, upon the completion of his course in 1891, conferred upon him the degree of M. D.
Upon competitive examination Dr. Eisendrath was appointed to an interneship in the Cook County Hospital, and for eighteen months between 1891 and 1893 received the benefit of the broad experience in medicine and surgery which attaches to the duties of this position, if conscientiously performed. Before entering the actual field of practice he studied in the famous European centers of learning and clinics for a period of two and a half years. He then returned to
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Chicago, and since 1895 has been exclusively engaged in the practice of surgery.
Dr. Eisendrath is attending surgeon to the Cook County and the Michael Reese hospitals, and adjunct professor of surgery in the medical department of the University of Illinois ( formerly the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons). His other professional connec- tions are further indicated by his membership in the American Med- ical Association, the Illinois State Medical Society and the Chicago Medical Society. He was married February 15, 1898, to Miss Maude Rosenbaum, and is the father of one child, Richard Rosenbaum Eisendrath. The Doctor's social side, apart from his pronounced domesticity, is illustrated by his identification with the Standard and the Illinois Athletic Clubs.
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