History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 119

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 119

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Immediately after graduating, in May, 1838, he went to Europe, where he spent a year in visiting the different capitals of the Old World, and in pursuing

his studies in their various hospitals. In May, 1839, he returned home, and shortly thereafter wrote an article describing the church of Ste. Genevieve, in Paris, which was published in the Knickerbocker for 1840, and which displayed both literary and critical ability of a high order. In May, 1841, having ob- tained permission from the Secretary of War to that effect, he presented himself before the board convened in Philadelphia for the purpose of examining appli- cants for the post of assistant surgeon in the United States army. Twenty-two candidates presented them- selves, only fourteen of whom were admitted to an examination, and of this number six only were ap- proved. Dr. Holmes ranked third. On the 22d of August of the same year he received his commission, and immediately thereafter was ordered to Carlisle Barracks, where he entered upon his duties as assist- ant surgeon of the army.

From Carlisle he went to St. Peter's, where, how- ever, he only remained a short time, having been ordered to join the army in Florida during the exist- ence of the Seminole war. At the close of this war he was retained in that department until 1844, when he was ordered to Fort Preble, in Maine, and re- mained at that post until the succeeding year, when he was again ordered with the First Regiment of artil- lery to Florida, and was stationed at Fort Pinckney, near Pensacola. During his several residences in Florida, as in fact at other points where he was sta- tioned, he occupied his leisure time in investigating the geological character of the soil and in studying the climate and diseases of those regions. The re- sults of these investigations lie gave to the world through the medical periodicals of the country.

On the breaking out of the Mexican war he accom- panied the army first into Texas and afterwards into Mexico. His stay here, however, was of but short du- ration, for on the 28th of June, 1847, while at Point Isabel, Texas, he resigned his commission as assistant surgeon in the army on account of the death of his mother, which rendered his presence at home neces- sary. His withdrawal from the army was regretted by all the officers with whom he had been associated, and by whom he was highly esteemed.

In the spring of 1848 he came to St. Louis and commenced the practice of his profession, and in the fall of the same year was chosen Professor of Physi- ology and Medical Jurisprudence in the St. Louis Medical College, then the Medical Department of the St. Louis University. His first course of lectures was delivered during the winter of 1848 and 1849, and although but little time was allowed him for prep- aration prior to entering upon the important duties of

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his chair, he succeeded to the entire satisfaction of his colleagues and class, as is shown by the fact that at the close of the session a meeting of the students of the college was held, at which resolutions were adopted thanking him in the most complimentary terms for his able and instructive course of lectures on physiology, and expressing their high appreciation of his character as a man and his ability as a lecturer.

In the spring of 1849, prior to the breaking out of the cholera, he again sailed for Europe, where hc spent the summer in professional pursuits and espe- cially in the study of microscopy. While in London he procured one of Rosse's celebrated microscopes of high power, and on his return devoted himself with his accustomed zeal and industry to the study of mi- croscopic anatomy, with special reference to its bear- ings on physiology and pathology, in which depart- ment he acquired considerable expertness.

During the subsequent four years Dr. Holmes con- tinued to discharge the duties of his chair with marked ability and with great acceptance to those who at- tended on his instructions. . But his career of useful- ness was destined soon to be cut short. In the month of August, 1854, worn out by close application to study and by the extreme heat of the weather, he was suddenly seizcd, while walking on the street, with an attack of paralysis affecting the right side. After lingering for two years the powers of body and mind began to fail rapidly, and continued to do so until the 26th of June, 1856, when he died, in the forty-second year of his age. As a practitioner of medicine, Dr. Holmes was bold, original, and successful. While connected with the army in Florida he had an oppor- tunity of observing the malignant fevers of that cli- mate, and he was among the first to recommend and carry out the practice of administering large doses of quinine in this form of disease, a practice the success of which is now universally acknowledged.

As a medical writer he stood deservedly high. He was a frequent contributor to the pages of the American Journal of Medical Sciences and the St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, in which he published articles on the Climate and Discases of Florida and Texas, on Quinine, Malaria, and a number of other subjects, all of which showed him to be a close and faitlıful observer of nature, a bold and original thinker, and a clear and logical reasoner. His report, too, on Epidemic Erysipelas, read before the Ameri- can Medical Association at its meeting held in May, 1854, and published in the transactions for that year, exhibited marked ability, and attracted attention and called forth complimentary notices from critics at home and abroad.

But liis talent as a writer was not displayed in his contributions on medical subjects alone. In the domain of general literature, also, he has left behind many valuable evidences of the fertility of his intellect and the variety of his attainments. While in Europe, as well as after his return, he wrote frequently for the leading literary journals of the country ; among them may be mentioned the Knickerbocker, the New York Literary New World, the New York Mirror, the United States Gazette of Philadelphia, the Phila- delphia Inquirer, the North American of Philadel- phia, the Pittsburgh Advertiser, and the St. Louis Republican, all of whose pages were at different times adorned by his pen. Many of these contributions are worthy of special notice, particularly the following : " Beauty, a use of the Hair;" " Use of the Hair among the Ancients;" "The Birds of Florida ;" " Sketches of American Character," etc.

Dr. Louis Ch. Boislinière was born Sept. 2, 1816, on the island of Guadeloupe, W. I., of one of the oldest families of the islands. His father was a wealthy sugar-planter, and appreciating the value of a thorough education, he took his son to France in 1825 in order that he might have every advantage attainable. Here thirteen years were spent in scien- tific, classical, and legal studies at the most celebrated institutions of the day. He took a diploma as licen- tiate-in-law at the University of France, and returned to Guadeloupe in 1839, after the death of both parents. After spending some months there, and sub- sequently making an extensive journey throughı South America, he determined to leave the West Indies en- tirely and locate permanently in the United States. In 1842 he landed in New Orleans, but went almost immediately. to Lexington, where he received polite attention from Henry Clay's family, to whom he had brought letters of introduction. He spent some time in this place, acquainting himself with the lan- guage and customs of the country. He then went to Louisville and took charge of the classical institute there, and the school prospered under his direction.

In 1847 his attention was attracted by the advan- tages that seemed to be afforded to young men in St. Louis, and after due deliberation he removed here. He had continued in Kentucky his medical studies which he had commenced in France, and in 1848 he grad- uated in medicine in the Medical Department of the St. Louis University. He immediately entered into practice, and has remained here ever since. In 1853, Dr. Boislinière took part in establishing, under the auspices of the Sisters of Charity, the first lying-in hospital and foundling asylum founded in America, and he still keeps up liis connection with it.

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

In 1858 he was elected eoroner of St. Louis County, the first physician who held that offiee. He was re- eleeted to the position in 1860, but resigned in Decem- ber, 1861. In 1865 he was eleeted a member of the Anthropological Society of Paris. In 1870 he was eleeted to the Professorship of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in the St. Louis Medieal Col- lege. For a number of years he conducted a clinie for the diseases of women at the St. Louis (Sisters') Hospital, and now has a clinie at the St. Louis Med- ieal College Dispensary. He was elected for two suc- cessive years president of the St. Louis Obstetrical and Gynecological Society. In 1879 he received the degree of LL.D. from the St. Louis University. He has written a number of medieal and literary essays, which have appeared in various periodicals. In a ripe old age he retains the mental faculties and powers of his earlier manhood in full vigor, and is still busy as ever with the eare of a large and burden- some praetice.

Dr. F. Ernst Baumgarten was born Dee. 27, 1810, at Nordheim, kingdom of Hanover. He studied at Göttingen, and passed the State examination in sur- gery in 1831. He was appointed " mining surgeon," a government office, at Clausthal, the centre of the Harz Mountains mining districts. Later he went to the University of Jena, where he graduated in 1844. He edited a surgical journal, Zeitschrift für Chirurgen von Chirurgen, also an annual Chirurgische Alma- mack, and was permanent seeretary of the Society of North German Surgeons. While still engaged in writing a text-book of surgery, of which only one part was published (“ Lehrbuch d. primaer-meehan- ischen Krankheiten." 8vo. Osterode, 1843), he was pursuaded to emigrate to America in .1846. He practieed at Galveston until 1849, when he was in- dueed, by repeated attacks of yellow fever, from which he suffered there, to seek a home farther North. He came to St. Louis in May, 1849, where he soon acquired a large practice, chiefly medieal and obstet- rical. He was one of the founders and for many years the secretary and librarian of the German Medieal Society of St. Louis. He died Nov. 13, 1869, in consequence of injuries received by a fall from his buggy three days before.

Dr. Thomas O'Reilly was born in Virginia, County Cavan, Ireland, Feb. 11, 1827. He commenced the study of medicine in 1840, by apprenticeship to a druggist. He studied and attended lectures first at the Apothecaries' Hall, Dublin, and then at what was at that time called the Original School of Medicine, now the Ledwich School of Medicine. Next he served three years in the Meath Hospital as a

elinical elerk to the celebrated Dr. William Stokes. He graduated in London at the College of Surgeons in 1849, and eame to this country and to St. Louis in the same year. Arriving here in the midst of the epidemic of eholera, he immediately gained a large praetiee, and has been a busy practitioner ever sinee.

Dr. Adam Hammer was born in the Grand Duehy of Baden, Germany, Dee. 27, 1818, and received a thorough preliminary and medical education in the leading German universities, taking a special interest in mathematical studies. He was most thoroughly informed in all the literature of the profession. It was his ambition to be known as a surgeon, and above all things he abominated the practice of midwifery. He was an admirable diagnostician, and twice diag- nosticated in the living subject an occlusion of the coronary artery of the heart, and the diagnosis was confirmed by post-mortem examination. He per- formed a number of successful plastic operations, and in two eases removed an entire upper extremity, in- cluding the seapula. He came to St. Louis in 1848. He was an enthusiastic teacher. He organized the Humboldt Medical College, and through his personal influenee seeured the means to erect the building for that institution, which still stands on the corner of Soulard and Closey Streets. The college was broken up during his absence in Europe, and on his return he was offered a professorship in the Missouri Medical College, which he accepted. After a few years he re- turned to Europe, and died there Aug. 4, 1878.

Dr. Edward Montgomery was born at Ballymena, near Belfast, Ireland, Dee. 20, 1816. He received his preliminary education in Belfast, and graduated in medieine at the University of Edinburgh in 1838. He practiced medicine for about four years in his native town, but removed to the United States in 1842, and after spending some years in the South, settled in St. Louis in 1849. Here he has continued in the practice of medicine ever since, and has enjoyed a very large and profitable practice. He has been an active mem- ber of various medical societies and associations, hav- ing been president and vice-president of the St. Louis Medical Society, and of the State Medical Association. He has contributed papers on a variety of medical subjects to the medical journals. During the last few years he has withdrawn to some extent from practice on account of failing health, but he still attends a good many of his old familics, who prefer his adviee to that of any of the younger practitioners.

Dr. Benjamin Franklin Shumard, who died on the 14th of April, 1869, was esteemed as a physician, having, during the last years of his life, filled the chair of obstetrics in the Missouri Medical College, .

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

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and was far famed throughout the scientific world as a geologist and palcontologist. He was a corre- sponding or honorary member of many scientific asso- ciations in the United States and in Europe, and was honored and beloved at home as the president of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, an office to which he was re-clected at the beginning of the year, when his lingering illness had already taken away all hope that he would ever again personally preside over the meetings of that body.

Dr. Shumard was born at Lancaster, Pa., on the 24th of November, 1820. His father was a merchant, but he inherited his scientific tastes from his maternal grandfather, Mr. Getz, well known as an inventor, and who made delicate scales used in the Philadelphia Mint. His father afterwards moved to Cincinnati, and while living there, Dr. Shumard graduated at Oxford, Ohio, and returning to Philadelphia, he went through one course in the medical college of that city. His father then moved to Louisville, Ky., where young Shumard completed his medical studies in 1846. He then practiced for a short time in one of the interior towns of Kentucky, but subsequently re- moved to Louisville, where he devoted his leisure to the study of the fossils and shells in the adjacent county. He laid broad and deep, by arduous appli- cation, the foundations upon which his scientific repu- tation is built. His collection of organic remains was visited by Sir Charles Lyell and Edward De Ver- neuil when those distinguished savans were in Louis- ville, and the last named manifested his appreciation by the presentation of his magnificent work on the geology of Russia.

He was then appointed by Dr. David Dalc Owen assistant geologist in the United States govern- ment survey of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, for which he had been commissioned by the national gov- ernment in 1846. He remained in that survey until the fall of 1856. The published reports of this im- portant survey, in which Dr. Shumard took so promi- nent a part, will remain monuments of the industry, acquirements, and genius of their author. Besides his share in the publication of the reports, Dr. Shu- mard published a monograph, entitled “ Contributions to the Geology of Kentucky," which abounded in original observations, and which made his name fa- miliar to European gcologists. This work is con- stantly referred to by home and foreign writers on the fossils of America.

In 1850, Dr. Shumard was appointed by Dr. John Evans to aid him in a geological reconnoissance of the Territory of Oregon, of which he prepared the paleontological report. He spent eighteen months in

Oregon, and returned to Louisville in 1852, where he occupied nearly a year in making out the reports on paleontology for his brother, Dr. George Getz Shu- mard, who was employed under Capt. R. B. Marcy in the Red River exploration. In 1853, Dr. Shu- mard came to St. Louis, and was appointed assistant geologist and paleontologist of the Missouri Geo- logical Survey, under Professor Swallow. He labored here until the summer of 1858, when he was ap- pointed State geologist for Texas, and made a recon- noissance of almost the entire eastern and middle portions of that State, and had just got his speci- mens collected and arranged, when the war broke out, and he returned to St. Louis. In the survey of Texas, he found within the limits of that State the most complete series of geological formations to be found in any State in the Union, ranging as they do from the oldest paleozoic strata to the latest tertiary, and presenting an aggregate thickness estimated at not less than ten thousand feet. He succeeded in rescuing his library from Austin at the end of the war, but never returned to prosecute the survey.

Dr. S. T. Newman was born in Mississippi Nov. 30, 1816. His preliminary education was obtained in Augusta College, Kentucky, and he graduated in medicine at the Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., in 1839. He practiced medicine for five years at Amsterdam, Miss., and then removed to Richmond, Ky., where he lived until 1856, when he came to St. Louis. He identified himself at once with the St. Louis Medical Society, and in 1860 was elected presi- dent of that body.

Dr. T. L. Papin is a grandson of Laclede, who was the founder of St. Louis. He was born in St. Louis in January, 1825, and obtained his literary education here, and his medical education partly here and partly in Paris. He graduated from the Medical Department of the St. Louis University, and then went to Paris, where he pursued his studies some years longer. He has been a teacher of medicine all through his profes- sional life. In 1852 he was Professor of Clinical Medicine in the St. Louis Hospital, and in 1873 was appointed Professor of Clinical Gynecology in the Missouri Medical College, which position he resigned last year.

He has been the attending physician at all the Catholic asylums of various sorts, and was the origi- nator of St. John's Hospital. After that hospital was well established, he suggested to some of his friends who were connected with the Missouri Medi- cal College that they buy the property adjacent to the hospital and erect a new college building. This was done, and Dr. Papin was chosen president of the

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

Missouri College Building Association. In order to raise the money necessary for the building, he and Dr. Moore mortgaged their own property. The suc- cess of the effort, and the remarkable prosperity of the college since its removal, have been mentioned elsewhere. Dr. Papin justly feels that he contributed very largely to the success of the school, not only by carrying out the Building Association plans, but by the hospital facilities which he provided and seeured . for them. He is not now connected with the college, and only retains his gynecologieal elinie at the hos- pital, which is probably the most largely attended of any in the eity.

Dr. James C. Nidelet 1 is descended from some of the most noted pioneer families of Missouri. His grandfather, the well-known Gen. Bernard Pratte, was born in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., and was educated at the Sulsipitian College, Montreal (Canada) ; and re- turning to St. Louis, married Emilie I. Labadie, a native of the town, and daughter of Sylvester Labadie and Pélagie Chouteau. His father, Stephen F. Nide- let, of French extraction and a native of San Domingo, arrived in Philadelphia when but seven years old, and ultimately became a member of the prominent silk house of Chapman & Nidelet. While visiting St. Louis he met and married on Aug. 12, 1826, Celeste E., daughter of the Gen. Pratte above mentioned. He returned with his wife to Philadelphia, where, on the 15th of January, 1834, James C. Nidelet was born.

Young Nidelet aequired his early education in Phil- adelphia, at the classical school of John D. Bryant, a famous instructor in that city. In 1844 he was taken by his parents to St. Louis, where his father spent the rest of his life, dying in 1856, after having won the respeet of a large circle of friends. His widow is yet living, a sprightly and well-preserved lady of seventy-three years. In her day she was one of the belles of St. Louis, and, despite the lapse of years, her recollections of pioneer times are very distinct and interesting.

James C. Nidelet attended the St. Louis University for a year or two, and in 1847 and 1848 St. Mary's College, Emmittsburg, Md. In 1849 he entered St. Louis University again, and spent five years there, but left in 1853 while on the point of graduating. He then prepared for the Military Academy at West Point, but failing to receive an appointment as eadet, applied himself to the study of medicine. His first tuition was obtained in the praetieal experience of a drug store, and for three years he was employed in the well-known houses of Bacon, Hyde & Co. and

Barnard, Adams & Co. He then attended the St. Louis Medical College, under . Dr. C. A. Pope, and the Missouri Medical College, under Dr. Joseph N. McDowell. He graduated in 1860, and began the practice of medieine.

In December, 1861, he joined the Confederate army, and served as chief surgcon under Gens. Price, Maury, and Forney in the Army of East Tennessee and Mississippi. During the last year of the war he was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department. His service embraced four years of desperate and bloody warfare, and he was in every engagement in which his army corps participated. Among the most memorable of these confliets may be mentioned those attending the capture of Vieksburg, and the sanguin- ary fields of Corinth, Big Black, Iuka, and the famous retreat from Hatchie. During all this period of ex- posure to the dangers and privations ineident to the war, Dr. Nidelet was never wounded and never lost a day from sickness, his splendid constitution carry- ing him safely through trials to which weaker natures would have sueeumbed. He was always to be found where the danger was greatest, and where there was the greatest need of the prompt assistance of the surgeon. His composure amid the storms of shot and shell and the awful distraetions of the battle- field was proverbial, and repeatedly won the eom- mendation of his superiors.

Frequently, with the din of conflict raging about him, he performed operations that would have made many a hospital practitioner famous. His four years' service in the war gave him a praetieally unlimited experience in every branch of surgery, especially that appertaining to the treatment of gunshot-wounds, and in July, 1865, he returned to St. Louis rich in knowl- edge of the surgeon's art but extremely poor in purse. The " Drake Constitution," which was then in foree, forbade him to practice medicine, because he could not take the oath, and at one time, while struggling against adverse fortune, he was on the point of leaving for the Pacific coast. During the winter of 1865-66, however, he formed an engagement with his old Alma Mater, the Missouri Medical College, and assisted in gathering the scattered faculty- together once more. In the winter of 1866-67 the college was reopened, and as Professor of Anatomy he was for four or five years engaged in his favorite pursuit of teaching med- ieine. He had large elasses, and contributed materi- ally towards bringing the historic old institution into popular favor again. He then engaged in the private praetiee of medieine with distinguished suceess.

In 1875-76, Dr. Nidelet was appointed poliee eom- missioner, and for two of the four years of his term

1 Contributed by F. H. Burgess.

James C. Nidelek

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

was vice-president of the board. He signalized his administration by a determined effort to suppress the lottery business, which then flourished without let or hindrance in St. Louis, and such suecess crowned his labors that more than fifty dealers were convicted and fined. As a consequence he incurred the hostility of the " lottery ring," and charges of corruption were made against him. His indietment was sought at the hands of several successive grand juries, but he was accorded a most scarehing investigation, which resulted in the utter failure of his enemies to make even a plausible case of official misconduct against him.

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 119

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358