History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 125

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

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however, still maintained its prestige and popularity, and though the classes in each were small, both col- leges labored with determined zeal and vigor to be foremost in the race for educational preferment. After the close of the second year, in 1871 the new college succumbed and closed its doors.

In the spring of 1872 another college sprang into existence styled the " St. Louis Homeopathic College of Medicine and Surgery ;" but it met with such feeble encouragement from the profession that the enterprise was abandoned before the lecture season opened.

From this time until 1880 the college was pros- perous and harmonious. At tlie close of the spring session of that year (1880) the managers of the insti- tution, for financial reasons, decided upon a change, and obtained a new charter and a new name, the " St. Louis College of Homeopathic Physicians and Sur- geons." This new enterprise, however, did not meet with the approval of all the profession, and accor- dingly some of the friends of the old college, under the leadership of Dr. William C. Richardson, issued an announcement for the next season, 1880-81, which contained a " Note to the Alumni and Profession," of which the following are extracts : "The faculty and board of trustees to whom were confided, a few years since, the interests and welfare of the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri saw fit at the close of the last course of lectures, for reasons best known to themselves, to abandon the name and prestige estab- lished during an honorable and praiseworthy career of over twenty years. They have organized an en- tirely new college, under a new name, ignoring the old, thus throwing the alumni out of an acknowledged Alma Mater." ... "It is now the intention of the present board, under a new charter, to perpetuate the record and maintain the good reputation of the old institution and its graduates." Accordingly the col- lege was re-established under its old name, and for two years both institutions were maintained.

The number of students in both colleges being about equal to and no more than the former classes of the old college, the faculties of both colleges, though they had become somewhat estranged, were finally convinced that, divided, neither college was likely to prosper. The union of the two faculties was therefore proposed and consummated, and the college, under the old name, the Homœopathic Med- ical College of Missouri, in the fall of 1882 com- menced the college term under more promising aus- pices and witlı better educational advantages than it had ever had during its long and eventful history. The following are the officers and faculty for the

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present year, 1882-83, viz .: C. W. Spalding, M.D., president ; S. B. Parsons, M.D., secretary ; William Collison, M.D., treasurer ; Philo G. Valentine, A.M., M.D., business manager. Honorary Board of Trus- tees, John M. Harney, John H. Crane, Azel B. How- ard, Gen. John W. Noble, Hon. E. O. Stanard, Hon. John B. Henderson, Right Rev. C. F. Robertson, D.D., Bishop of Missouri. Officers of Faculty, W. A. Edmonds, A.M., M.D., dean ; W. B. Morgan, A.M., M.D., registrar. Faculty of Medicine, W. A. Ed- monds, M.D., Professor of Diseases of Children, and dean ; C. W. Spalding, M.D., Professor of Physiology and Clinical Surgery; William C. Richardson, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology ; J. Martine Kershaw, M.D., Professor of Brain, Spinal, and Nervous Diseases ; James A. Campbell, M.D., Pro- fessor of Ophthalmology and Otology ; Philo G. Val- entine, M.D., Professor of Theory and Practice ; Adolph Ulemeyer, M.D., Professor of Materia Med- ica and Therapeutics ; W. John Harris, M.D., Pro- fessor of Clinical Medicine, Hygiene, and Sanitation ; Ircnæus D. Foulon, A.M., LL.B., Professor of Medical Jurisprudence ; J. T, Kent, A.M., M.D., Professor of Principles and Practice of Surgery ; W. B. Morgan, M.D., Professor of Anatomy and De. monstrator ; Lee H. Dowling, M.D., Professor of Chemistry and Toxicol- ogy. There have been upwards of three hundred and fifty graduates of this college since its organization.

THE MISSOURI SCHOOL OF MID- WIFERY was chartered in 1875. It holds two sessions yearly, each of twelve wecks' duration, and has a lying-in hospital attached, and a course for physicians desiring to pursue this specialty. The first president was Al- fred E. Reiss, M.D., now dead. He occupied the chair of obstetrics, and the same chair in the Homœopathic Medical College of Missouri. He graduated from the latter college in 1868, and went to Europe, where he spent three years in the Obstetrical Department of the University of Vienna, taking the highest honors. He then entered the Prussian armny as assistant sur- geon in the Franco-German war, was promoted to sur- geon, and had charge of the general hospital at Scdan, for the management of which he received acknowl- edgment and thanks from the eminent Dr. Bilroth. As a lecturer he had good command of language, and was altogether an excellent instructor.

Dr. Wm. C. Richardson was the first secretary, and

is now president of the Missouri School of Midwifery, and also Professor of Diseases of Women and Children, which chair he also held in the Homeopathic College of Missouri. He graduated in the same class with Dr. Reiss. He was for several years editor of the obstetrical department of the Western Homoeopathic Observer, and was afterwards editor and proprietor of the Homoeopathic Courier. In 1876 he published a small treatise on " Cholera Infantum, and other Diseases of Children," and in 1878 a text-book on " Obstetrics," which has become a standard authority, not only in the medical schools of this country but of Europe. He is a fine, free, and ready speaker, and a very successful lecturer.

THE GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL was founded in 1857 by the Rev. Lewis E. Nollau, at that time pastor of St. Peter's Lutheran Church. It was opened in a modest way, occupying a small building which contained about seven rooms. For the first few years it was supported mainly through the per-

GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL.I

GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL.

sonal efforts of Rev. Mr. Nollau, aided by voluntary subscriptions principally from among the German population. Dr. E. A. Fellerer was the first phy- sician, and continued in charge until early in 1859, when Dr. T. G. Comstock was also appointed attend- ing physician. These two gentlemen were the medi- cal attendants until 1862. The hospital was first in- corporated in 1859, when a new hospital building was begun, the corner-stone being laid in August of that year and finished in 1861. The board of trustees, to whom the credit of erecting the new hospital was due, were Samuel Plant, Russell Scarritt, Francis Whittaker, Adolphus Meier, Frederick Bolte, Francis Hackemeier, and Rev. Louis E. Nollau. The patients

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were removed to the new quarters in March, 1861. The building is situated on Jefferson Avenue, at the head of O'Fallon Street, and is a fine edifice, capable of accommodating one hundred and sixty patients. It was scarcely opened when the civil war broke out. Soldiers wounded at the memorable capture of Camp Jackson, and many patients from the military camps, who at that time could not be accommodated in the military hospitals, werc admitted. In the fall of 1861 arrangements were made to care for a larger number of patients from the army for a reasonable compensation from the government. Afterwards the board of directors rented the building to the United States government for use as a military hospital for two years.

The hospital was originally intended for a charita- ble institution, and during the lifetime of Mr. Nollau this idea was carried out as far as practicable, but there being no permanent endowment for its support, it is now maintained in part by patients paying when they have the means, only a limited number being treated gratuitously. Mr. Nollau, the founder, died Feb. 6, 1869.

Besides the two physicians mentioned as having been connected with the institution since its organi- zation, Drs. Helmuth, Walker, Luyties, Gundelach, Franklin, Parsons, Campbell, and others have served at different periods as medical attendants. The hos- pital has a number of well-arranged rooms, where private patients may be treated in accordance with any practice and by physicians of their own selec- tion.

THE ST. LOUIS HOMEOPATHIC DISPENSARY was organized in 1864, and was opened in March, 1865, with the following officers, viz .: Dr. C. W. Spalding, president; Mrs. Dr. William Tod Hel- muth, treasurer; and Dr. E. C. Franklin, secretary. The board of trustees consisted of Drs. C. W. Spald- ing, E. C. Franklin, and T. J. Vastine, Mrs. T. G. Comstock, Mrs. W. T. Helmuth, Mrs. G. S. Walker, and Mrs. John T. Temple. A charter of incorpora- tion was procured from the Circuit Court in March, 1866, and a constitution and by-laws were adopted during the same month. Dr. S. B. Parsons was ap- pointed attending physician for the first year. In 1868, Dr. E. C. Franklin was appointed to the entire charge of the dispensary, the duties of which position he faithfully performed for a number of years. The dispensary has been carried on in the building of the Homœopathic Medical College of Missouri, and large numbers have been treated daily by the different members of the faculty. At this frec dispensary, during the college term, clinics are held daily, and

patients are examined and prescribed for before the classes.

THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL was organized by cer- tain benevolent ladies and gentlemen of St. Louis, with Dr. W. A. Edmonds at the head of the medical department.

HOMEOPATHIC SOCIETIES .- There are two organi- zations of homœopathic physicians in St. Louis which are specially worthy of mention, the Hahnemann Club and the St. Louis Society of Homoeopathic Phy- sicians and Surgeons. The former is intended for social as well as literary purposes. The latter, which is composed of physicians in the city and vicinity, clects its officers quarterly, except the secretary, who is elected annually. The present secretary is Dr. W. B. Morgan.

Of works by homœopathic practitioners we find the following from the pens of St. Louis physicians :

Helps to Hear. By James A. Campbell, M.D. 12mo, pp. 108. Chicago : Duncan & Brothers, 1882.

Diseases of Infants and Children. By W. A. Edmonds, M.D., etc. Svo, pp. 293. New York : Boericke & Tafel, 1881. Richardson's Obstetrics. By William C. Richardson, M.D.

Diseases of the Brain and Nervous System. By J. M. Kershaw, M.D.

A Complete Minor Surgery, the Practitioner's Vade-Mecum, including a Treatise on Venereal Diseases. By E. C. Frank- lin, M.D., 1882.

The St. Louis Clinical Review is the principal homœopathic journal of the city, edited by Dr. Philo G. Valentine.1

The Eclectic School of Medicine.2-Eclecticism as a distinctive branch of medical practice may be said to have first presented itself for public recognition in St. Louis with the incorporation of the American Medical College of St. Louis in May, 1873. The first session of the college was held in the fall of that year and the spring of 1874. The following gentle- men compose its board of trustees : J. S. Merrell, president; N. C. Hudson, vice- president ; Dr. P. D. Yost, secretary ; Dr. E. Younkin, treasurer; Dr. Al- bert Merrell, A. Sumner, Dr. W. V. Rutledge, Dr. John W. Thraillkill, Dr. George C. Pitzer, Dr. W. W. Houser, and B. H .· Dye, B.L. The faculty con- sists of the following members: George C. Pitzer, M.D., dean, Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine, and Clinical Lecturer at City Hospital and the College ; Albert Merrell, M.D., Professor of Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Toxicology, and Clinical

1 The writer of the foregoing outline of homeopathy in St. Louis is largely indebted to Vol. II. of "Transactions of the World's Homoeopathic Convention of 1876" for facts, as well as to various individuals for information furnished.

2 The material for this sketch was furnished by Dr. A. B. Merrell.

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Lecturer on Diseases of Children at the College; P. D. Yost, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, and Clinical Lecturer on Diseases of Women at the College; E. Younkin, M.D., Professor of Principles and Practice of Sur- gery and Clinical Surgery, and Clinical Lecturer on surgical cases at City Hospital and at the College ; W. V. Rutledge, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics ; T. B. Owens, M.D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology; John W. Thraillkill, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Otology, and Clinical Lecturer on Ophthalmic and Aural Surgery ; J. H. Wright, M.D., Professor of Microscopy and Histology ; B. H. Dye, B.L., Professor of Medical Jurisprudence.

Professor Thraillkill came to the city in 1861, and has enjoyed a lucrative practice up to within a year, when failing health compelled his retirement from active professional life. Professor Rutledge came to the city in 1868, and has been in active practice ever since. Professor Merrell moved to St. Louis from Cincinnati in 1871, and Professor Yost came at the time the college started. These gentlemen have been identified with the college since its foundation, and Professors Pitzer and Younkin joined them shortly after the first course of lectures.

The American Medical College has enjoyed uninter- rupted prosperity since its foundation, and its gradu- ates now number but a few less than three hundred and fifty. The college was first located on the south- east corner of Olive and Seventh Streets, afterwards at 913 Pine Street, and now occupies a building erected by the faculty expressly for the purpose at 310 North Eleventh Strect in 1878, the corner-stone having been laid July 15, 1878.

Among the practitioners of the eclectic school, Dr. John W. Thraillkill published in 1869 a small volume entitled " Essay on the Causes of Infant Mortality ;" and Dr. George C. Pitzer published last year one on " Electricity in Medicine and Surgery."

The Dental Profession.1-The early history of the dental profession in St. Louis is involved in consider- able obscurity. From the very nature of the calling, especially when St. Louis was in its infancy, it at- tracted but little public attention. The profession itself was only in embryo ; the individual members of which it was finally composed were only slowly gravi- tating towards each other, and had not as yet felt the effects of organization and associated action. But the spirit of inquiry had taken strong hold of the in-

dividual members, and where societies and associa- tions had been formed for mutual consultation and improvement they were stimulated to new exertions in the direction of dental progress. The enthusiasm of the leading members of the new profession knew no bounds. No specialty of the healing art had more earnest or more able seekers after truth in its ranks than this.

The earliest regular practitioner of whom any record remains is Dr. Paul, who published the follow- ing card in the Missouri Gazette of Dec. 21, 1809 :

" A well-bred surgcon dentist, Dr. Paul, has the honor of informing his friends in particular, and the public in general, that he is prepared to practice in all the branches belonging to his profession, viz., ex- tracting, cleaning, plugging, and strengthening the teeth, also making artificial ones."

On the 28th of December, 1830, Dr. D. T. Evans informed " the citizens of St. Louis and its vicinity that he has established himself in this place for the purpose of devoting himself to the practice of dental surgery."

When Dr. Isaiah Forbes settled in St. Louis in 1837 there were ten dentists in the city, including Dr. Forbes. Most of these, however, secm to have been transient practitioners, as the next year found them all gone but three, Dr. Forbes, Dr. Edward Hale, Sr., and Dr. B. B. Brown. Drs. Halc and Brown both remained long enough to build up lucra- tive practices. These three dentists were the only ones who achieved any considerable degree of success in the next seven years, and in them the dental fra- ternity were well represented. Affable and courteous in their deportment, skillful in all that pertained to dental operations, and warmly attached to the calling which they had chosen, they exerted a benign influ- ence upon the future of the profession, which has rcached down to this day. Dr. Brown left for Cali- fornia in 1849, during the gold mania, and died in Sacramento about 1875. Dr. Hale became known as one of the best practitioners in the Mississippi valley, and remained in practice till about 1864, when failing health compelled him to give up his profession, and a few years afterwards he died in New Jersey. About 1840 Dr. A. M. Leslie located in St. Louis. Although a dentist, he had also been trained as a gold-beater, and he soon turned his attention to making gold foil. Not long afterwards he established a dental depot, having purchased a small stock of goods in the dental line which had been sent out to St. Louis from Troy, N. Y. That was the beginning of the extensive establishment long known in the entire West as A. M. Leslie & Co.'s Dental and Surgical Depot, which has but re-

1 This sketch of the dental profession of St. Louis was pre- pared by Dr. Homer Judd, of Upper Alton, Ill.

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

cently been transferred to the St. Louis Dental Man- ufacturing Company. Alexander Heburn established a dental depot in St. Louis in 1877 or 1878, and the St. Louis Dental Manufacturing Company has the consolidated stocks of the two former companies, making one of the largest dental establishments in the West. Between 1840 and 1845 the number of dentists in the city was increased by the arrival of Drs. Aaron Blake, Isaac Comstock, J. S. Clark, and Edgerly, and in the next few years Dr. Potts, Dr. Samuel B. Fithian, Dr. H. J. McKellops, Dr. C. W. Spalding, and a little later Dr. H. E. Peebles and Dr. Dunham. Many others in the mean time had made more or less persistent efforts to establish themselves, but failing to meet with sufficient encour- agement sought other fields of labor. Drs. Potts, Blake, Comstock, Peebles, Edgerly, Dunham, Barron, and Clark have all passed away, while Drs. McKellops, Spalding, and Forbes are still practicing their profes- sion in St. Louis. These were for the most part men of sterling worth, and it was to a great extent through their efforts, and especially through their liberal and enlightened views as regards the amenities and re- sponsibilities of professional life, that the St. Louis dentists came to be held in so high repute among their confrères in the profession throughout the United States. Among them, Dr. John S. Clark was some- what prominent in the advocacy of new methods of practice. If not the first who made use of rolled cylinders of gold foil for filling teeth, he was certainly entitled to the credit of bringing the new method into general use and carrying it up to a high degree of perfection, but he conferred a much greater boon upon the profession by his investigations in relation to the treatment of tecth with dead pulps. He claimed that he first made use of barbed broaches for the removal of dead and decaying pulps, and for carrying disin- fecting agents into the pulp canals, thus preparing them for being filled in such manner as to avoid sub- sequent inflammation and formation of alveolar ab- scess. Dr. Clark spent several years in New Orleans, where he published a dental journal, but subsequently returned to St. Louis, where he died in 1866. Dr. Forbes is at this time the oldest practitioner in the city, having been identified with nearly all of the beneficent and progressive efforts of the profession for forty-six years. He had constructed, upon plans fur- nished by himself, a dental chair in 1838, which is still in existence, and which shows unmistaken evi- dences of constructive ability, and adaptation to the purposes for which it was intended. It is now in possession of Dr. Fisher, on Washington Avenue.

Dr. C. W. Spalding reached St. Louis April 4,

1849. He was an earnest advocate of the use of cylinders in filling teeth, and had for a long time a lucrative practice ; was for several years a professor in the Ohio College of Dental Surgeons at Cincinnati, and was president for one year of the American Dental Association during its early history.

Dr. McKellops was energetic and tireless in his efforts to attain a high position as an operator, and at an early period of his professional career acquired an enviable reputation among his St. Louis associates, which gradually extended throughout the United States.

He has been for many years an active member of the American Association, of which he has been elected president. Although Dr. McKellops was closely associated with the group which has just been considered, he is no less closely identified with the next group, which comprises the active members of which the profession is now composed.

The period from 1840 to 1865 was one during which were wrought many changes of the most vital character in the dental profession, and in no other place were these changes more marked than in St. Louis. Before the commencement of this period dentists were to a great extent unassociated, and, as an almost necessary consequence, selfish and reticent, each one claiming that he was in possession of the . knowledge which enabled him to perform many im- portant operations which others could not perform. Operating-rooms and laboratories were closed with the most sedulous care against all intruders, lest some less enlightened practitioner should avail himself of the opportunity of inspecting instruments, and perhaps also gain some knowledge of methods of manipu- lation, and thus become more formidable as a com- petitor in business.

The St. Louis dentists, almost to a man, discarded these narrow and unprofessional views, and no body of practitioners in any country exerted a greater in- fluence in bringing about those radical changes which resulted in a complete revolution in sentiment and practice throughout the whole profession. Organ- ization into associations, thereby bringing the mem- bers into closer relationship with one another, aided these beneficent movements, and the formation in 1850 of the St. Louis Dental Society was an impor- tant step in the development of the profession.

This society was organized with Dr. Dunham as presiding officer, and has ever since numbered among its members the leading practitioners of the city. In 1858 the American Dental Review was established by A. M. Leslie, and was edited by C. W. Spalding, Isaiah Forbes, and Henry E. Peebles. The Review

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was at first a quarterly, and did good work until 1863. It was conducted with ability, and exerted a powerful influence for good upon the mass of the profession. For about a quarter of a century the standing of the dental fraternity was determined by those who have been already mentioned, but about 1865 the influence of a younger class of practitioners began to be felt, which has steadily increased as the years have passed by. Of these some have attained a degree of ex- cellence and skill in their operations which cannot be surpassed by any other operators wherever found, and although the number of those who have reached the goal which is nearest to perfection is small, it is not relatively smaller than in the most favored cities of this or any other country. At the commencement of this epoch in the history of the profession, or shortly afterwards, socicties of dentists had been formed in nearly all of the States and cities in the Union, the members of which met at stated periods, when every practitioner freely imparted what he had gained by experience and observation to his fellow-members, in the true spirit of professional fraternity. The St. Louis dentists took an active part not only in the city and State societies, but also in the American Associ- ation, the Western and Mississippi valley societies, and the State associations of the neighboring States. The Missouri State Association was organized in 1865 in St. Louis, principally through the efforts of St. Louis dentists, and it is still wielding a great in- fluence for good upon the profession through the State.

The Missouri Dental College, of St. Louis, was organized in July, 1866, chartered the following month, and reincorporated April 21, 1881. The pres- ent officers arc H. H. Mudd, president ; A. H. Ful- ler, secretary ; G. Baumgarten, treasurer. The loca- tion of the college .is on the northeast corner of Seventh and Myrtle Streets, in the building of tlic St. Louis Medical College, and the infirmary is situ- ated on the adjoining lots on Myrtle Street. The plan of organization in this school differed somewhat from that of other dental schools in that it was more closely connected with the medical system of education, the students being required to take the regular medical course of the St. Louis Medical College, so far as the chairs of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, materia medica, and surgery were concerned, while the peculiar training which was necessary to fit them for the special practice of dentistry was furnished by a corps of pro- fessors and demonstrators who were dental practi- tioners.

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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 125

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