History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc, Part 59

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344

USA > Maryland > Baltimore County > Baltimore City > History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc > Part 59

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Intemperance, delirium tremens and mania a potu do not appear in the mortality records until after the year 1820. This may be accounted for by the fact that these dis- eases were not recognized until the begin- ning of the nineteenth century. It is true Doctor Rush wrote on the subject of in- ebriety in the last century, but delirium tremens, as a disease, was first described by Doctor Sutton, of Kent, England, where it made its appearance during the wars of Napoleon, owing to the immense quantity of brandy smuggled across the channel.

In 1821 there were 29 deaths from intem- perance in Baltimore; 47 in 1822; 50 in 1836; yet, strange to say, there are but 42 deaths ascribed to this cause in the year 1883. No doubt Bright's disease, cirrhosis of the liver, asthenia, spanaemia, anaemia, neurasthenia, adymania, etc., are polite names for the old trouble. To show how unreliable as a rule statistics are, it may be stated here that, whilst ten times the quantity of alcohol is consumed now com- pared with the amount in 1832, yet the mortality report of 1896 shows but 27 deaths from intemperance.

There is one death recorded in 1821 from indigestion. This disease disappears for a great many years from the records, but makes its appearance in the last report of the Health Commissioner in 1883, when 6 deaths are laid to its charge.

Dyspepsia was recognized as a cause of death until 1875, and five deaths were at- tributed to it in 1849. There is one death from pemphigey in 1822, and one from yaws in 1827.

In 1824 there were two deaths from amenorrhoea, and one from Divine Provi- dence. A great deal was laid to the ac- count of Divine Providence in those days, as well as the visitation of God. My old preceptor, Dr. Samuel Annan, who was physician to the almshouse, incurred the displeasure of the Rev. Robert Brecken- ridge, a noted polemic of the time, who wrote a letter for the public journals, com- mencing thus: "Doctor Annan, by the vis- itation of God, physician to the alms- house," etc.

Deaths from the bites of spiders appear in the records of several years. There is one death from the "bite of a dog that was chained in the yard" mentioned in 1822.

After the year 1830 the names of diseases assume a more scientific character, though we still find one death from piles in 1836; one from phthisis, and two from spleen in 1840. In 1839 there was one death from the "sting of a wasp" and two from "affec- tion of the nerves;" one from constipation. In 1836 thirty-two cases of "sudden death" are found in the mortality statement of the year.

Suicide appears to be influenced by an epidemic wave. There were ten deaths from this cause in 1836; only six in 1871, and twenty-six are reported in 1883; forty- eight in 1896.

The reports of the cholera epidemic in 1832 are not very clear or explicit. The tables referred to in the beginning of this article give 853 as the number of deaths in

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

that year from this cause. Of the 853 deaths from cholera, 502 were white and 35I col- ored persons. This is a very singular cir- cumstance and worthy of examination.

The population in 1832 was 160,000, about one-fourth of the present number (1896). The number of inhabitants in 1883. when this investigation was concluded, was 320,000. In 1832, the year of cholera, strange to say, there was not a higher death rate than obtains at the present time. It is a remarkable fact that there was only one death reported from diarrhoea in that year. There were, however, 114 deaths from influenza and 40 from intemperance.

This term influenza must have been used in a very ambiguous way, for there are no deaths ascribed to it from this time until 1843, when nine deaths are given; four are again reported in 1849. In the old records mumps, hives, chicken-pox, quinsy and tic- dodeleloreux appear as causes of death. We have learned to control these ailments now, owing to the great advance of science.

Deaths from "cold water" are noted in the old reports, but in the year 1848, when a gentleman of classic acquirements was appointed to the Health Board we find the term changed to "haustae aquae frigidae." Diabetes did not appear as a cause of death until 1851.

From an examination of the mortality statistics of the city it is discovered that small-pox prevails as an endemic about every five years, and as an epidemic about every eight or ten years. There were 79 deaths in 1832 and 71 in 1834; 52 deaths in 1837, and 71 in 1838. It returns again in 1845-1846; again in 1850 and 1851; then in 1858, in which year there were 310 deaths. It reappeared in 1862, when there

were 252 fatal cases, and in 1863, when there were 436. In 1872, 896 persons died of small-pox. Since that time it has, owing to strict vaccination, entirely disappeared.

In 1847, 1848 and 1849 there was an out- break of typhus. In the first mentioned 106 deaths were ascribed to ship fever. Ty- phoid fever first appears as a cause of death in 1851, when 71 persons died from it. From this time typhus disappears from the health reports until 1854, when there were 190 cases given and 95 of typhoid fever. There are three or four cases annually given, up to the year 1851, of "nervous fe- ver," but after that time it is not mentioned.

Cholera and yellow fever both prevailed to a limited extent in 1854, yet the health reports do not afford evidence of the fact. There are but two cases of cholera men- tioned and not a single one of yellow fever. The health officer of that year denies the existence of cholera. This denial is couched in such grand and beautiful language that I am constrained to give an extract: "Dur- ing the past summer the people of Balti- more were kept in a continuous state of ex- citement in consequence of the extensive cholera reports pouring in from almost every city and town in the Union, conse- quently every case of cholera morbus oc- curring from ordinary causes was magni- fied into cholera asphyxia," etc. He at- tributes this unhappy condition to the ig- norance of young Esculapians, whose am- bition far exceeds their knowledge, and he grievously deplores the loss of the "fall trade" to the city occasioned by their want of medical acumen." He then argues that inasmuch as there were but 95 more adult deaths in 1854, for the months of June, July, August and September, than for the

James &. Jaimella M. S.

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

same months in 1853, cholera could not possibly have prevailed. He reports, how- ever, 129 deaths from cholera morbus for the year; only 17 cases are reported in 1883. He also reports 395 deaths from cholera infantum, about the same number as reported in 1882, the population being about twice as large. As we attended cases of Asiatic cholera in Baltimore in 1854 the report of the Health Commissioner is nec- essarily inaccurate. One of the good re- sults of this outbreak was the destruction of the pig sties and the removal of the whole porcine tribe from the city, the possession of which they had maintained from its earliest foundation.

CITY GARBAGE SYSTEM.

In the same year, 1854, a new garbage system for the city was instituted. The Health Commissioner in his report of that year prefaces his remarks with the follow- ing heading:

" FAMILY INTIMACY WITH THE SYSTEM-A SYS- TEM OF MORALS ENFORCED."

" The garbage system may now be considered in complete and successful operation, indeed, such has been the intimacy cultivated between fami- lies and the system, that seldom are domestic ar- rangements made for the day without including in the catalogue the visit of the garbage man.

" An ample system of ethics has also been suc- cessfully engrafted upon the entire street cleaning department ; besides faithfulness and vigilance, strict sobriety is demanded, etc."

We very much fear that the street cleaning de- partment has deteriorated since 1854, and that a looser system of ethics now obtains.

As before mentioned, yellow fever pre- vailed in 1854 in an endemic form as in the previous year, but it does not appear in the health reports of those years; suppressed, no doubt, to save the "fall trade." The City Physician alludes to it, however, in a

mild form in his report for 1854. He says: "It is true that at one time, in August and September last, we were threatened with a lengthened visitation from that scourge of disease which was a type of yellow fever; but by precautionary measures immediately adopted by the Board, the disease did not spread beyond Will's Block and Philpot streets and Canton avenue, the same local- ity in which it had appeared the previous year." The number of cases was between forty and fifty, of which about one-half proved fatal. There were twenty-eight deaths from yellow fever in 1855 not re- ported. These were refugees from Norfolk who were seized with the malady after

reaching our city. Singular as it may seem, only one person attacked that year recov- ered, a little child. The Romans never re- port the death of strangers, fearing it may injure the reputation of the city; our health authorities in the past adopted the same prudent policy. In 1878 there was an out- break of yellow fever of the African type in the same locality.

This year, 1854, was a remarkable one, if we may judge by the report of interments; 106 persons died of casualty. It was in this year that the dreadful accident occurred on the Northern Central Railway, an accident that involved the lives of so many people. Seventy-one women died in child-bed. Sev- eral of our prominent physicians gave up practice for a time, on account of the preva- lence of puerpural fever.

There is but one single death reported from cholera between the years 1834 and 1866. The outbreak in 1866 occurred in October of that year. In Elbow Lane, in one square, twenty cases developed in two days among the negroes. The Board of

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Health at once took decisive measures. Every person, both sick and well, was re- moved to the quarantine grounds, the sick placed in the hospital, and others in the barracks. Not a single case occurred after the removal, either in the alley or among the removed persons. The disease was very malignant, for out of all those attacked only one recovered. Death frequently took place in twelve hours, the characteristic collapse coming on after one or two dis- charges from the bowels.

The Board of Health took possession of the houses, destroyed all the clothing, fumigated and disinfected the whole neigh- borhood, and after ten days' absence al- lowed the people to return.

There are four deaths from cholera re- ported in 1877 and two in 1879. These must have been aggravated cases of cholera morbus, unless we recognize the de novo theory of disease.

In the year 1871, 184 died from old age. There were in the same year 142 deaths from dropsy and 165 from "dropsy in the head." There are only 74 deaths attributed to dropsy in 1883. In 1896, the past year, 4I cases of all forms of dropsy, general, cardiac and abdominal, are reported. Un- der the head of hydrocephalus 25 cases are · given in the same year. Three persons died of old age in 1896. In 1854, 13 died from dyspepsia, and 5 in 1883. This disease does not appear at all in the health report for 1896.

There were 15 fatal cases of sunstroke in1 1854; only 2 are reported for 1883; how- ever, 44 deaths are noted from this cause in 1872, which was a very hot year in Balti- more.

Epidemics from measles and whooping

cough occur periodically: 314 deaths from measles took place in 1852, and 297 from whooping cough in 1857. In 1883, twenty- seven years later, there were but 473 deaths from this disease. Debility seems to be a singular trouble. One death from this cause is found in the mortality report of 1851; 175 in 1854 and only 7 in 1883. This increased strength on the part of our popu- lation must be attributed to the generous use of iron, which is given on every occa- sion to everybody for curing every con- ceivable ailment.

Neuralgia is annually reported as a cause of death until 1875. There is one death, however, ascribed to it in 1877. Cases of death from child-birth are becoming less frequent, as only 14 are given in the report of 1883, and but 26 in this current year (1896).

The history of croup in this city is worthy of study. In 1848, when diphtheria was entirely unknown, there were 165 deaths from croup; 229 in 1855, and in 1860, 293. In this last mentioned year diphtheria first appeared. Seven deaths from it are re- ported that year, and no less than 707 in 1882. Croup, as a consequence, falls off in the death statements. We find only 201 deaths from this cause in the year 1883, and 32 reported for this year (1896).

Bright's disease was first recognized in Baltimore in 1859, when one single case is reported. There is no mention of this disease in 1870-71 ; in 1872 but 4 are given; 15 in 1873, and from this time the number has increased yearly until 1883, when 115 fatal cases are reported. Our latest record (1897) gives 228 deaths from this cause.

We much desire to know the name of the medical man who reported the first death

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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

from this dreadful scourge in 1869. He would rank as a modern medical Columbus. In the mortality tables of 1870 there are 1,079 deaths credited to "unknown infan- tile" and 144 to "unknown adult." In 1883 there are but 42 "unknown infantile" and 18 "adult."

Cerebro-spinal meningitis first appears as a cause of death in Baltimore in 1872. Dur- ing that year 53 fatal cases occurred; 49 in 1873, and 37 in 1874. In 1883 the number of deaths reported was 42, and for 1896, 32 are given.

Inanition as a cause of death is first men- tioned in 1893, when one death is given; there are no fatal cases from it in 1875, yet in 1876 no less than 152 are reported.

Uraemia first appears in 1874 and Addi- son's disease in 1875.

The ordinance establishing the Bureau of Vital Statistics went into operation in 1875, since which time the mortality reports have been more reliable and of a more scientific character. In 1875, the death nomenclature is increased by the addition of albuminuria, anaemia, anginapectoris, adenitis, asthenia, anasarca, asphyxia, embolism, entero-co- litis, pyaemia, progressive locomotor ataxy, septicaemia and other equally destroying terms.

Cirrhosis of the liver first makes its ap- pearance in this fruitful year. 1878 was also fertile in new names. There was one victim of melanaemia, one from otorrhoea and one from pemphigus.

Dyspepsia disappeared this year, but indi- gestion took its place, one death being re- ported from this cause. There is one death from "imperfect circulation" in 1877. It seems that this trouble is understated, as we are convinced that a large number of per- sons die from imperfect circulation.

In 1877 there is one death reported from "regurgitation;" one from coryza, and one from chlorosis.

Typho-malarial fever, now so common, is first mentioned in 1876, and malarial fe- ver in 1877.

A very amusing item which must not be overlooked is to be found in one of the reports, viz: "histeritis" in the male.

The foregong brings the mortality rec- ords up to the year 1883 and will be found nearly correct.

1896.

The report of the Health Department for 1896 affords some interesting statements. The number of deaths from all causes is given as 9,919. The annual death rate per 1,000 is stated as being 19.60.

Annual death rate per 1,000 white popu- lation, 17.66.

Annual death rate per 1,000 colored pop- ulation, 30.76.

Annual death rate per 1,000, total, 19.60.

There are many new causes of disease given in this report. Adynaemia (cidy- namia is no doubt meant) claims 2 victims; adernitis, I; athernoma, I; chorosis, I; dentition, 68; indigestion, II; ichorrhaemia, I; leucaemia, 6; lymphadenoma, 2; neu- rasthenia, 7; noma, I ; pemphigus, I ; salpin- gitis, I ; stomatitis, 2; synovitis, I; spondy- litis, I; scorbutus, I; varicella, I; worms, I.

Appendicitis, which did not appear in the earlier health reports of the city, proved fa- tal in 25 cases in 1896.

CONCLUSION.

WHAT BALTIMORE PHYSICIANS HAVE DONE IN THE PAST.

The labors of the medical men of Bal- timore are well worthy of remembrance. According to Quinan's Annals they estab-

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lished and maintained at their own expense for years the only inoculating hospital in America (1769); they employed vaccina- tion in Baltimore in 1800; they introduced into Maryland and extended thence over the whole United States the practice of vac- cination: they established the first vaccine institution in the United States (1802) ; they secured the passage of the first State law in the United States for the gratuitous dis- tribution of vaccine matter (1809); they founded the fourth medical college in the United States (1807); they published the third medical journal in the United States (1808); they established the first college of dentistry in the world (1839) and published the first entirely original work in America on dentistry (Chapin Harris, 1839); they were the first in the United States to pub- lish a systematic treatise on diseases of the eye (George Frick, 1824); they were the first in the United States to produce an original and systematic treatise on Ameri- can Natural History (I. D. Godman, 1831); they were among the first in the United States to publish a systematic treatise on materia medica (Zollicoffer's, 1819); they were the first in the United States to pub- lishi a thesis advocating the propriety and practicability of ovariotomy (Dr. James Coke, 1804); they were the first in the United States to tie the gluteal artery for aneurism (I. B. Davidge); they were the first in the United States to perform myo-

tomy by subcutaneous incisions (N. R. Smith, 1828); they were the first in Amer- ica to successfully tie both carotids at a short interval in the same subject (W. D. Macgill, 1823); they were the first in the world to ligate the common iliac artery (Gibson, 1812); they were the first in the world to divide the recti muscles of the eye for strabismus (W. Gibson, 1822, seventeen years before Diffenbach); they were the first in America (if not in advance of Great Britain also) in extirpating the entire paro- tid gland (I. B. Davidge, 1823); they were among the first in the United States to re- move the entire lower jaws for osteosarcoma (Baxley, 1839); they have furnished the best lithotome the world possesses (N. R. Smith's, 1831); they have furnished the best apparatus yet invented for fracture of the lower extremity (Smith's Anterior Splint); they were the first in America to excise the cervix uteri (H. G. Jameson, 1823); they were the first to show that the dumb-bell crystals in the urine were not (as taught by Bird) peculiar to oxalate of lime (Charles Frick, 1850); they were the first in the world to successfully perform the caesarean section twice on the same subject, with safety to both mother and child in each operation (W. Gibson, 1834, 1827).

The foregoing record is but a part of the medical achievements of the physicians and surgeons of Baltimore.

CHAPTER XV. BALTIMORE THE CRADLE OF DENTISTRY AND THE DENTAL PROFESSION.

TO-DAY STOMATOLOGISTS, NOT DENTISTS, ARE GRADUATED.

By RICHARD GRADY, M. D., D. D. S.

Though attention to the teeth as a spec- ialty seems to have had some recognition, even in ancient times, it was left for the nineteenth century to develop for dentistry anything like a position of credit as a de- partment of surgery. The blacksmith, the barber and the watchmaker are remembered by many still living, as the only persons to whom the sufferer from an aching tooth could apply with hope of relief; and the pro- cess was one of muscularity rather than dex- terity or scientific method.

It was not until within the present century that sulphuric ether, nitrous oxide gas, chloroform and a number of other general anaesthetics, were discovered. To practi- tioners of dentistry, the discovery or appli- cation of such properties in ether and ni- trous oxide is due.

In 1837 the first dental lectures in Amer- ica were delivered in the University of Maryland by Dr. Horace H. Hayden, one of the earliest practitioners of dentistry in Bal- timore. Doctor Hayden was the first to rec- ognize the necessity of systematizing the knowledge collected by individual experi- ence, and as early as 1817 endeavored un- successfully to form an Association of American Dentists. He practiced in Balti- more from 1804 to 1843.

It will probably be news to most persons

to know that Baltimore has the distinction of having instituted the first dental college in the world, and of having originated the degree of D. D. S., Doctor of Dental Sur- gery, now used in all parts of Europe and wherever modern science has gained recog- nition throughout the world. Yes, such is the case. For many years the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery was the only in- stitution of its kind in the world. It was chartered in 1839 by an act of the Legisla- ture of the State of Maryland with this fac- ulty: H. H. Hayden, M. D., Professor of Physiology and Pathology; A. W. Baxley, M. D., Professor of Anatomy ; C. A. Harris, M. D., Professor of the Theory and Practice of Dentistry ; and Thomas E. Bond, M. D., Professor of Therapeutics.

For this reason Baltimore may be said to be the cradle of dentistry and the dental pro- fession. Perhaps of no other (equal) pro- fession can it be said, as of dentistry, that its evolution is embraced within the span of one human life. There are men living to- day who were in practice in the time of its humble beginnings.

It is a pleasing record for the medical pro- fession to look back on and see that all en- gaged in this movement were graduates in medicine (the medical portion of the faculty being graduates of the University of Mary-

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land). The practical inauguration of the new college presented a difficulty well known in America, where professors often outnumbered students. At length five legit- imate students of dentistry were found to covet the honor of the new title D. D. S., and the first course of instruction was given in the winter of 1840-41. The didactic lec- tures were delivered in a small room pub- licly situated, but the teaching of practical anatomy demanded privacy, and other pru- dential considerations also suggested the use for that purpose of a secluded stable loft, the prejudice of the community against dissection having shown itself some years before, when a mob demolished an anatomi- cal building on the site now occupied by the Hotel Rennert. It was not the first time that the modest place of a manger became the scene of an event leading to infinite re- sults. And looking to the vast achieve- ments in dental science following the stable- loft beginning, the statement of the fact may encourage others.

Doctor Bond, in his valedictory address to the graduates of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, at its first commencement, March, 1841, says: "You have been taught that Dental Surgery is not a mere art sep- arate from, and independent of, general medicine : but that it is an important branch of the science of cure. Your knowledge has been based on extensive and accurate anatomical investigation. You have seen and traced out the exquisitely beautiful ma- chinery by which the organism is every- where knit together. You have learned the secrets of nervous communication, and studied the simple, yet admirable, arrange- ment by which nutrition is drawn by each part from the common receptacle of

strength. You have also carefully exam- ined the phenomena of health and disease, as they are manifested in the dental arch, its connections and relations. Your attention has been particularly directed to the effect of irritation on the general health, and you have seen how readily organs apparently unconnected and independent may be in- volved in mutual disease. You have been taught to regard the human body as a com- plete whole, united in all its parts, and per- vaded everywhere by strong and active sym- pathies ; and your principles of practice have been carefully formed on a sound knowl- edge of general medicine."

The progress made from that time in this country is phenomenal. From the record of but one practicing dentist here prior to the war for American independence, the list has grown rapidly, till to-day we have more than fifteen thousand dentists, and still they come by hundreds a year, as graduates from nearly sixty dental colleges and dental de- partments of universities throughout the Union.

Most of the States have passed dental laws: Alabama was the first, as early as 1841. Maryland passed a dental law in 1884, and the following having been recom- mended by the practitioners in the State "as eminently qualified to discharge the duties devolving upon a Board of Dental Examin- ers," were then appointed by Governor Mc- Lane the first Board, and all of them have been re-appointed at times since by succeed- ing Governors of Maryland: E. P. Keech, M. D., D. D. S., President, Baltimore ; C. E. Duck, D. D. S., Baltimore; T. S. Waters, D. D. S., Baltimore; Edward Nelson, D. D. S., Frederick; Richard Grady, M. D., D. D. S., Secretary, Baltimore. Much has been done

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Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1344

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344