History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 58

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 58

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Harvard University might have been one of the chief musical educators and promoters of musical culture in New England, if not in the whole country -with the Harvard Musical Association as the secret power behind the throne; and Cambridge might, in time, have grown to be a sort of musical centre, in the sense that Oxford was for a long while in England. But this was not to be; at least, it was not to be so soon as, nor to the extent that, it otherwise might have been.

Of course, the city lived its own musical life in private, as other cities do; Cambridge has never lacked its fair share of music-lovers. Aud, if these went to Boston for their concerts, oratorios and operas, they made no little music among themselves in a quiet, unassuming way at home. But of such home-music little or no trace remains; it forms no part of history.

The University, however, did not forever remain obdurate to the claims of music to be regarded as a legitimate factor of education ; musical instruction of a sound and reputable, it rather limited sort, be- came in time obtainable at College, if it was not recognized as a part of the regular academie course. But a change was to come, and this change was brought on, more than by anything else, by the en- gagement, in 1863, of John K. Paiue as organist and musical instructor to the University, to succeed Levi P. Homer, deceased. Nothing could be more apt to bring the University to a due sense of what it owed to the art of music than the presence, in its own body of instructors, of this ardent, energetic, thor- oughly equipped and uncompromising musician. His position in the University must have been a pretty arduous one at first; at that time he was, musically speaking, an ultra-classicist, a determined Bachianer, and, as such, could look for little sympa- thy, much less for comprehension, from even those members of the Faculty who were inclined to be musical. But he, with some others behind him, left no stone unturned to enlarge the scope and empha- size the importance of musical instruction in the University. That old influence, which, years before, the Harvard Musical Association had sought in vain to bring to bear upon the University directly from with- out, now proved fruitful and efficacious when wielded within its own gates by this determined musician, who was, by the way, also a member of the Harvard Musical Association, and backed up energetically by other members. In 1873 Mr. Paine was appointed Adjunct Professor of Music, and in 1875 he was raised to a full professorship. This was the first chair of music ever created in an American Univer- sity. The dignity of the art was at last fully recog- nized by Harvard ; music was admitted as a regular elective study in the academic course, and high honors, Summi Honores, could be won in it. Thus was the original dream of the Harvard Musical Asso- ciation, that offshoot of the older Pierian Sodality,

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more than realized; and who shall say that the thoughts, efforts and impetus of the Association had not much to do with making its realization possible ?

But Professor Paine's influence has not been felt in the University only ; it has been active in the gen- eral musical life of Cambridge also. Since the erec- tion of the Sanders Theatre, in 1876, Cambridge has shown signs of an ever-increasing determination not to be wholly dependent on Boston for concerts. True, these concerts have been given by imported talent-the Listemann Quartet, the Thomas Orches- tra or (as of later years) the Boston Symphony Orches- tra-but the funds for their support have been raised in Cambridge itself. And among the foremost of those to whose zeal and energy the maintenance of these concerts has been due, Professor Paine has always been found. Now a regular series of orches- tral concerts in Sanders Theatre is as much a mat- ter of course, every winter, as it is in Boston itself.

CHAPTER IX.

CAMBRIDGE (Continued).

MEDICAL HISTORY.

BY HENRY O. MARCY, A.M., M.D., LL.D.

IN the formation of a new settlement, by people representing in a high degree the culture of the period, it is but natural to expect that the civilization represented by it would be a fair exponent of the times. This in an exceptional degree is true of the history of Cambridge, aud it finds its exponent in medicine, as well as in the other learned professions. Although in the early period of the settlement of Cambridge the practice of medicine was, in a con- siderable measure, associated with that of the clerical profession, the records of the colonists clearly show that they recognized the importance of a man specially trained as a surgeon, and to supply the need entered into an agreement with one John Pratt, who came from England and settled in Cambridge. He was un- doubtedly the first physician recognized as a " Doctor of Physick." It is recorded on a fly-leaf of the "Colony Records," vol. i., under date of March 5, 1628, that said Mr. Pratt came to Cambridge under an agreement with the "Company of Adventurers." A proposition being made to entertain a surgeon for the plantation, Mr. Pratt was propounded as an able man upon these conditions, namely,-"That £40 Ster- ling should be allowed him, viz., for his chest £25, the rest for his own salary the first year; provided he continue three years, the company to be at the charge of transporting his wife and a youth, to have £20 a year for the other two years, and to build him a house at the Company's charge, and to allot him one

hundred acres of ground ; but, if he stay but one year, then the company to be at charge of his bringing back to England, and he to leave his servant and the chest for the company's service." It is in evidence that he practiced with and sought the good of the set- tlement for some years, but becoming dissatisfied, he wrote a letter of complaint to a friend in England, because of which he was called sharply to account by the magistrate in November, 1685. It will be remem- bered that, at this time, Cambridge, the so-called New Towne, was the seat of government for the Colony, and the hope was expressed by Governor Dudley that men of ability might be attracted here by the advan- tages which the settlement offered. In 1683 Wood wrote that, "the inhabitants of the New Towne are most of them very rich and well stored with cattle of all sorts." The Courts, both general and particular, were held in Cambridge exclusively, until May, 1636, when they were removed to Boston. Although not germane to the history of medicine, this letter of John Pratt is of sufficient interest to refer to, some- what in detail. It is clearly evident that, then as now, the attractions to induce settlers were emphasized in glowing language, and that the deprivations and hardships incident to a new country oftentimes caused a longing to return to old England, and that this homesickness found expression in strong lan- guage of discontent. The original letter appears not to be in preservation, but it was deemed of sufficient importance, coming from such a source, to be taken notice of by the authorities, lest therefrom perma- nent harm should come to the colony. "At the Court of assistants," says Winthrop, November 3, 1635, "John Pratt, of Newtown, was questioned about the letter he wrote into England, wherein he affirmed divers things, which were untrue and were of ill-repute for the state of the country, as that here was nothing but rocks, and sands, and salt marshes, etc. He desired respite for his answer until the next morning ; then he gave it in writing, in which, by making his own interpretation of some passages and acknowledg- ing his error in others, he gave satisfaction." 1

The answer indicates clearly the purport of the letters in question and is on record as follows :2

"The answer of me, John Pratt, to such things as I hear and perceive objected against me, as offensive in my letter. First, generally, whatsoever I writ of the improbability or impossibility of subsistence for our- selves or our posterity without tempting God, or without extraordinary means, it was with these two regards : first, I did not mean that which . I said in respect of the whole country, or our whole patent in general, but only of that compass of ground wherein these towns are so thick set together ; and secondly, I supposed that they intended so to remain, because

1 Savage's "Winthrop," i. 173, 174; Paige's " History of Cambridge," p. 24.

2 Paige's " History of Cambridge," pp. 24-26.

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(upon conference with divers) I found that men did think it unreasonable that they or any should remove or disperse into other parts of the country ; and upou this ground I thought I could not subsist myself, nor the plantation, nor posterity. But I do acknowledge that, since my letter, there have been sundry places newly found, as Neweberry, Concord, and others which will afford good means of subsistence for men and beasts, in which and other such like new plantations, if the towns shall be fewer and the bounds larger than these are, I conceive they may live comfortably. The like I think of Conecticott, with the plantations there now in hand, and what I conceive so sufficient for myself, I conceive so sufficient also for my poster- ity. And concerning these towns here so thick planted, I conceive they may subsist in case that, besides the conveniences which they have already near hand, they do improve farms somewhat further off, and do also apply themselves to and do improve the trade of fishing and other trades. As concerning the intimation of the Commonwealth builded upon rocks, sands and salt marshes, I wish I had not made it, because it is construed contrary to my meaning, which I have before expressed. And whereas my letters do seem to extenuate the judgment of such as came before, as having more honesty than skill, they being scholars, citizens, tradesmen, etc., my meaning was not so general as the words do import ; for I had an eye only to those that had made larger reports into England of the country than I found to be true in the sense aforesaid. And whereas I may seem to imply that I had altered the minds or judgments of the body of the people, magistrates and others, I did not mean this in respect of the goodness or badness of the land in the whole plantation, but only in point of removal and spreading further into other parts, they afterwards conceiving it necessary that some should remove into other places, here and there, of more enlargement; and whereas I, seem to speak of all the magistrates and people, I did indeed mean only all those with whom I had any private speech about those things. And as for the barrenness of the sandy grounds, etc., I spake of them then as I con- ceived, but now, by experience of mine own, I find that such ground as before I accounted barren, yet, being manured and husbanded, doth bring forth more fruit than I did expect. As for the not prospering of the English grain upon this ground, I do since that time see that rye and oats have prospered better than I expected, but as for other kinds of grain, I do still question whether they will come to such perfection as in our native county from whence they came . . .

" And, as concerning that which I said, that the gos- pel would be as dear here as in England, I did it to this end, to put some, which intended to come hither only for outward commodity, to look for better grounds, ere they look this way. As for some grounds of my returning, which I concealed from my friends, for fear of doing hurt, I meant only some particular

occasions and apprehensions of mine own, not intend- ing to lay any secret blemish npon the State. And whereas I did express the danger of decaying here in our first love, etc., I did it only in regard of the mani- fold occasions and businesses which, here at first, we meet withal, by which I find in my own experience (and so, I think, do others also), how hard it is to keep our hearts in that holy frame which sometimes they were in where we had less to do in outward things, but not at all intending to impute it as neces- sary to our condition, much less as a fruit of our pre- cious liberties which we enjoy, which rather tend to the quickening of us, we improving the same as we ought.

"This, my answer (according with the inward consent and meaning of my heart), I do humbly commend to the favorable consideration and accept- ance of the Court, desiring in this, as in all things, to approve myself in a conscience void of offence towards God and man.

" JOHN PRATT."

His offence was pardoned and he continued to re- side in Cambridge for nearly ten years, when he sailed for England with Capt. Thomas Coytmore, and, to- gether with his wife was wrecked and drowned near the coast of Spain in December, 1646.

"This man was above sixty years old, an experi- enced surgeon, who had lived in New England many years, and was of the First Church at Cambridge, in Mr. Hooker's time, and had good practice and wanted nothing. But he had been long discontented, because his employment was not so profitable to himself as he desired, and it is like he feared lest he should fall into want in his old age, and therefore he would needs go back into England; for surgeons were then in great request there, occasioned by the war ; but God took him away childless."1

The dissatisfaction, of which the letter referred to, written by Surgeon Pratt, is an exponent, grew to such proportions that rival factions centred about the two great ecclesiastics of the day, Mr. Cotton, of Boston, and Mr. Hooker, of Cambridge, both in a measure physicians as well as clergymen, which resulted in Mr. Hooker, accompanied by more than fifty families, removing to Hartford, Conn. Of the original settlers, there are reported to have been but eleven families left, which gave little need of a practitioner of medi- cine in their midst.

The bitter persecution in England, to which the Puritans had been subjected, had caused them to fore- see the possibility of a removal to the New World, and a considerable number of their ministers had, on this account, studied medicine. These men formed a large proportion of the early physicians of the colony. As a rule, they had been liberally educated, and some of them are the authors of the first medical treatises

1 Savage's " Winthrop," v. i, p. 173 ; ii, p. 239.

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published in America. For the most part they prac- ticed only among the members of their own respective societies. During the period of the early settlement of the colonies few men were specially trained in the practice of physic, and medicine was distinctly an art rather than a science,-the period which preceded the teachings of Sydenham, under whose guidance the art of medicine may be said to have taken a new de- parture. The people believed in specifics, and reme- dies were prescribed as sovereign cures. Two schools of medical practice prevailed in Europe,-the one taught the use of vegetable substances alone; the other advised, for the most part, mineral compounds. The first of these schools styled themselves the Galen- ists, since they followed the teachings of Galen : the ancestry of the botanic doctor of the last generation, the eclectic of to-day.

The other school accepted the teachings of Paracel- sus and gave "chemical " medicines (so-called), mineral compounds, and a few of the most active vegetable ex- tracts. These men were frequently called chemists. The rivalry between the two schools was naturally a bitter one, but from each comes the name commonly ascribed to the apothecary, as druggist and chemist. The literature of the medical profession was scanty and consisted generally, in America, of certain limited facts concerning disease, together with a knowledge of certain drugs which were to be taken as a remedy for certain diseases. I quote as follows from the " Me- morial History of Boston " : " I had the privilege of ex- amining and reporting to the Massachusetts Historical Society on a paper of medical directions placed in my hands by the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, the president of the society. It is headed, 'For my worthy friend, Mr. Wintrop,' and signed 'Ed. Stafford.' Its date is 1643, and I was not able to decide whether it was intended for Governor John Winthrop, or for his son, the Governor of Connecticut. The list of remedies is made up principally of simples, or vegetable sub- stances; St. John's wort, black hellebore, great bryony root, the four great cold seeds, maiden-hair, fennel, parsley, witch-hazel, elder, clown's all-heal (stachys palustris), saffron, fox-glove, jalap, scammony, snake- root, are among these, many of them inert, some dan- gerous, if not carefully handled. Caranna, and taca- mahacca, two gums, of which it used to be said, ' Whatever the tacamahacca has not cured the caran- na will,' and Burgundy pitch are also enumerated. Of mineral substances, lime-water, salt, saltpetre, cro. cus metallorum (sulphuretted oxide of antimony) are mentioned. " A Wilde Catt's skin on ye place greived " is recommended for pains in the heart or limbs. More formidable to the imagination than any of these is, 'my black powder against ye plague, small-pox, purples, all sorts of feavers, poyson, either by way of prevention or after infections.' This is made by burning toads to charcoal and reducing this to powder. It belongs to that list of abominations which disgraced the old pharmacopcias, but which

have disappeared from the armamentarium of regular practitioners. As late, however, as the year 1789, Cullen had to censure Vogel for allowing burnt toads and swollen chicks to remain on his list of remedies.

" The Winthrops-to one of whom Dr. or Mr. Staf- ford's directions were given-assisted their fellow- citizens with medical counsel as well as in many other ways. The Governor of Connecticut, John Winthrop, treated a great number of medical cases in Hartford, and left a record of his practice extending from 1657 to 1669. This manuscript was also intrusted to me. I examined it very carefully and reported upon it in the lecture before the Massachusetts Medical Society to which I have already referred. From it we may get an idea of what was likely to be the kind of treat- ment to which our Boston predecessors would be sub- mitted. The excellent Governor seems to have been consulted by a great number of persons, to have had a wider circle of practice, it may be suspected, than many of those who called themselves doctors. The common diseases of all ages and both sexes appear to have come under his care. Measles and their conse- quences are at first most prominent, and fever and ague had often to be treated. He used the ordinary simples dear to mothers and nurses-elecampane, elder, wormwood, anise, and the rest ; and beside these certain mineral remedies. Of these, nitre (saltpetre) was his favorite. Another favorite prescription was spermaceti, which, like Hotspur's fop, he seems to have considered 'the sovereign'st thing on earth,' for inward bruises and often prescribes it after falls and similar in- juries. Other remedies were antimony, now and then a little iron, or sulphur, or calomel, rhubarb, jalap, horse-radish (which I remember Cullen recommends for hoarseness), guaiacum and the old mithridate or farrago, which, like so many foolish mixtures, owed all its real virtue to opium. He amused his patients with doses of coral and of amber, and sometimes gave them (let us hope without their knowing it) some of those unmentionable articles which insulted the senses and the stomachs of seventeenth and eighteenth century patients. One medicine which he very often pre- scribes he calls rubila. After long search I found this consisted of four grains of diaphoretic antimony, with twenty grains of nitre and a little salt of tin. I do not remember that the Governor ever mentions bleed- ing or blistering. Whether busy practitioners fonnd time to bleed their patients as readily as those who had little else to do might be questioned. One of my old friends told me that the Philadelphia doctors used to order blood letting more frequently than the Bos- ton ones, because there was in that city a set of profes- sional bleeders. .

" By the kindness of the late librarian of the Ameri- can Antiquarian Society I had placed in my hands a manuscript of Cotton Mather, entitled, 'The Angel of Bethesda, an essay upon the Common Maladies of Mankind, offering first the Sentiments of Piety,' etc., and 'a Collection of plain but Potent and Approved

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Remedies for the Maladies.' This starting-point is, of course, theological. 'Sickness is, in fact, Flagellum Dei pro peccatis Mundi.' The treatise is full of ped- antry, superstition, declamation and miscellaneous folly."1

John Winthrop, the founder of Boston and Gov- ernor of Massachusetts, was well versed in medicine, but his public services to the Colony were so marked that his minor ministrations among friends and neigh- bors are thrown into the back-ground. The venerable Cotton says of him, just before his death, that he had been "a Help for our Bodies by Physick, for our Es- tates by Law." 2

The Apostle Eliot, under date of September 4, 1647, writes to Mr. Shephard, the minister of Cam- bridge, and expresses the desire that, "Our young Students in Physick may be trained up better than yet they bee, who have onely theoreticall knowledge and are forced to fall to practice before ever they saw an Anatomy made, or duely trained up in making 'experiments,' for we never had but one Anatomy in the Country, which Mr. 'Giles Firmin' (now in England) did make and read upon very well, but no more of that now."

Since anatomy is the old name for a skeleton, Mr. Firmin may be considered to date as the first medical lecturer of America. He excited an interest in the subject to such a degree, that at the session of the General Court, October, 1647, just following the date of Eliot's letter they resolved, "We conceive it very necessary ye such as studies physick, or chirur- gery, may have liberty to reade anotomy and to anoto- mize once in foure yeares some malefacto in case there be such as the Courte shall allow of."3 Mr. Firmin studied at the University of Cambridge and was learned in medicine. After a time he moved to Ipswich, where he was known as a physician ; subse- quently, however, he studied theology, returned to England and was ordained, settled as a rector, but continued to practice medicine.

Charles Chauncy, that stern Puritan, president of Harvard College, and also Leonard Hoar, who suc- ceeded him, were regular graduates of medicine at Cambridge, in England. Chauncy left six sons, all of whom were educated at Harvard College and became preachers. "They had," says Cotton Mather, "an Eminent skill in 'Physick' added unto their other Accomplishments; which, like 'him' (their father), they used for the 'Good' of many; as, indeed, it is well known that until Two Hundred Years ago ' Physick in England' was no Profession distinct from Divinity."4

John Rogers, the fifth president of the college, was also a practitioner of medicine. Hoar was the first

president who was a graduate of the institution, but Rogers was an earlier graduate, who became its pres- ident afterwards. Elisha Cooke was a prominent physician, as also a politician. He graduated at Harvard in the class of 1657, being one of the first-na- tives of the town that studied medicine.

In the notes of the period of the early settlement of Cambridge there is little comment made upon the prevailing diseases as the causes of death. Yellow fever occurred in Boston in 1649, having been intro- duced from ships arriving from the West Indies. A strict quarantine was established by order of the Gen- eral Court on March 16th, prohibiting the landing of persons or goods from such vessels. No further san- itary regulations were adopted until October, 1665, when a warrant was issued by the General Court, or- dering vessels coming from England to be placed in quarantine. This was on account of the "plague" existing in London at that time, but was repealed two years afterward, owing to the disappearance of the disease. These two orders, adopted to meet the emergencies, comprise the whole legislation of the seventeenth century so far as it relates to quarantine in Massachusetts. The quarantine grounds were near the Castle. In 1693 the yellow fever was brought to Boston from the Barbadoes, but few of the citizens of Boston and vicinity were affected by it. It was re- corded in the winter of 1650 that "the Lord was pleased to inflict us with coughs, agues and fevers."

"Under date of 1671, this summer many were vis- ited with ague and fever, and again in September of the next year agues and fevers prevailed, mostly among us about the bay." 5

John Josselyn writes in September, 1671, of finding the inhabitants exceedingly afflicted with the fever, ague and bloody flux.

In 1721, with the exception of Dr. William Doug- lass, there was not a single practitioner of Boston who was a regular graduated physician. He died in Oc- tober, 1752, having passed his whole professional life in Boston, where he had much influence as a physi- cian. Small-pox prevailed in 1721 more extensively and fatally than ever in Boston and its vicinity. A statement of results was made officially in the Boston News Letter : " Boston, Feb. 24, 1721-2. By the Se- lectmen. The number of persons visited with the small-pox since its coming into town in April last having been inquired into by direction from the Se- lectmen amounts to 5889, 844 of whom died," October recording the exceptional mortality of 411. There is no record of the extent of this scourge in Cambridge, but references to it are found in the New England Courant for November, December, January. Under January 22, 1722, it is stated, "On Friday last the General Assembly of this Province met at Cambridge. There not being a sufficient number to make a house on Wednesday, to which day they were before pro-

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 58

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034