USA > New York > Oneida County > History of the Medical Society of Oneida County : from its organization, July, 1806, to July, 1878 > Part 1
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HISTORY
OF THE
MEDICAL SOCIETY
-OF-
ONEIDA COUNTY.
FROM ITS ORGANIZATION, JULY, 1806.
TO JULY, 1878.
BY D. G. THOMAS,
CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE, JULY, 1878.
SURGEON GEN'LS ET 365 LIBERTY
UTICA, N. Y. T J GRIFFITHS, PRINTER, EXCHANGE BUILDINGS. 1 878.
HISTORY
OF THE
MEDICAL SOCIETY
-OF-
ONEIDA COUNTY,
FROM ITS ORGANIZATION, JULY, 1806, TO JULY, 1878.
V
BY D. G. THOMAS,
CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE, JULY, IS78.
SURGEON GEN'LS OF CE
LIBRARY.
UTICA, N. Y. T. J. GRIFFITHS, PRINTER, EXCHANGE BUILDINGS. 187S. .
HISTORY*
OF THE
Medical Society of Oneida County.
Mr. President and Gentlemen :
By a resolution passed at the last annual meet- ing of this society, it becomes my duty as chairman of the committee then appointed, to present to you a history of the measures employed to found and develop a compact of medical men, legalized by State authority, to care for the interests of the medical profession in Oneida County. For this purpose it will be necessary to turn back to the preliminary steps taken by a few physicians in the counties of Saratoga, Washington and Montgomery, to understand the conditions or circumstances which led to the important movement. Those who witnessed the progressive settlement of the north- ern and western sections of the State, can easily understand how few young men in central New York could obtain the means necessary for an edu-
* At the Annual Meeting of the Medical Society of the County of Oneida, July, 1877, a committee of three was appointed to prepare a history of the Society from its organization in 1806. to the present time, July, 1878. Drs. Thomas, Guiteau and. Whaley were appointed to prepare and report such history.
cation, broad and comprehensive enough to be a good foundation for the study of medicine ; conse- quently a large proportion of those who were suc- cessful in obtaining a license were men of but little culture, and unused to the social amenities of life. Thus poorly qualified to discharge the duties which belonged to the profession, the struggle for busı- ness with them was a battle in which the grosser elements of humanity sought to gain a professional reputation, by arrogant boasting of the marvelous recoveries that had been made by the remedies they had administered.
But fortunately for the profession at large, there were some whose rare endowments enabled them to reach a high position in spite of all difficulties, while others more fortunate, had ample means to give them the necessary advantages, and thus se- cure a small army of competent and honorable prac- titioners. Most of them were men of marked ability, holding prominent positions not only in the town and county in which they lived, but some were leading and distinguished participants in the councils of the State. Such men as we have thus described were the founders of this society-men who were ornaments in social life, who adorned the medical profession, and with zealous enthusiasm engaged in every movement designed to benefit the profession at large, and to establish on an enduring basis the science of our noble calling.
In 1796 a series of articles were published in the newspapers of Saratoga, advocating the plan of har-
5
ing medical societies organized by law to advance the interests of medical science; and at the same time to be a safeguard against the impositions of empiricism. A society was formed to carry out the proposed measure; but for the want of interest in its projects and the discordant materials of which it was composed, the year of its birth was the grave of the premature effort. All movements either in social or professional life, that look like innovations on old and established customs, require time, discussion and thought, to educate the human mind to a full understanding of the scope and measure of such needed changes, and bring them to act in concert, and in good faith to establish the new principle of action.
Previous to the year 1806 the medical profession in this State had no shield of law to guide its ac- tions or protect its interests. The few practitioners who had become eminent in spite of the diffi- culties with which they were surrounded, had little power to elevate and dignify the pro- fession, without the aid of legal rights secured by law. What did it matter if in the old coun- try law had thrown its protecting arm around the profession, and given it a place among the kindred sciences, whilst here no legislative act had been invoked to guard its interests, and draw a line of separation between the pretending charlatan and the high-minded, honorable and conscientious physician ? It was during this period of dis- order, when law had no voice to proclaim the
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duties, or power to enforce the special rights of medical men, that a second and successful effort was made, to place the members of the profession under the restraints of law.
Through the exertions of Dr. Stearns and a few medical men of Saratoga County a meeting was held at Ballston, the 7th of November, 1805, when William Patrick, John Stearns, and Grant Powell were appointed a committee to correspond with leading men in Washington and Montgomery coun- ties, to get the sanction of the Legislature of the State for organizing medical societies. The 7th day of January, 1806, a meeting of the medical men of the three counties was held, and a memorial to the State Legislature was adopted and signed. Dr. Asa Fitch, of Washington, John Stearns, of Sara- toga, and Alexander Sheldon, of Montgomery, were appointed a committee to present a memorial to the Legislature. This memorial asked the Legis- lature to give sanction to the societies formed in the three counties. Fortunately for the cause of science, Alexander Sheldon was chosen speaker, and gave the weight of his commanding position to the in- terests of the memorial. The committee assumed the responsibility, during the deliberations on this measure, of changing the original plan, and asking for a general law embracing the whole State instead of the three counties first named in the memorial. This memorial was presented to the Legislature on the 25th day of February, 1806, and referred to a committee, consisting of William Livingston and
Isaac Sargent of Washington, Gordon Hunting- ton, of Otsego; John Ely, of Green, and Joel Frost, of Westchester. The majority of this com- mittee were physicians deeply interested in the pro- posed measure, and they succeeded in maturing a bill for a general law of incorporation for the State. This bill was reported to the House and met with strong opposition, but finally passed both Houses and became the law of the State.
In accordance with the provisions of this act, a meeting of the physicians of Oneida County was called at Rome, July 1st, 1806, and the call was responded to by twenty-nine of the physicians of the county to organize the Oneida County Medical Society. Amos G. Hull was elected President ; Sewal Hopkins, Vice-President; David Hasbrouck, Secretary; Seth Hastings, Treasurer, and Caleb Sampson, delegate to the State Society. Francis Guiteau, Matthew Brown, Welcome Sayles, El- nathan Judd, and Sherman Bartholomew, Censors. The anniversary was fixed for the first Tuesday in July, to be held at Utica, and Seth Hastings, Sewal Hopkins, and Caleb Sampson were appointed to prepare by-laws for the society.
It is interesting to turn our thoughts back to the time when twenty-nine of the physicians of the county left their business and traveled over the bad roads of that early day fifteen and twenty miles to organize a medical society in conformity to the recent law of the State. It is difficult in these days of easy transit to realize the fatigue and
hardship they endured, or the professional enthu- siasm which urged them forward in the face of so many obstacles, to complete the task. The great impulse to their exertions lay in the unfolding of new principles of action, in bringing before them a new theater for the display of professional abil- ity; for now their rights were secured by law, and a line of demarkation was established by State authority, separating in a great measure the unquali- fied and the qualified medical practitioners. It has been my fortune to meet several of the men who were actors in this first meeting, and to know something of their character from personal observation. They Were men fitted for the times in which they lived, and not only the founders of this society, but most of their successors who enrolled their names among the zealous workers for its welfare, were men of mental acumen and unfaltering energy, who were devoted to the interests of their chosen profession, who labored faithfully for the relief of human suf- fering, and conscientiously for the welfare of the human family.
We will return from this digression, and resume the history of this society. The first meeting at Rome, held the first of July, adjourned to meet at Whitesboro the second day of September, eighteen hundred and six. The committee to prepare a code of by-laws not being ready to report, they were continued, to report at the annual meeting in July, 1507. At the annual meeting the committee re- ported a system of by-laws, which was adopted,
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and a farther new appointment of Drs. Hopkins, Sampson, Wolcott, Sayles, Capron, Francis Guiteau and Luther Guiteau was made to report a fee bill for the society. The character of the men who were appointed on this commission is sufficient to show they placed little value on the bread and butter side of the profession.
At the meeting held the 12th of January, 1808, at Judge Ostrom's, in the village of Utica, the fee bill was adopted as reported by the commission. There was nothing peculiar in the fee bill. The prices were graduated for the times, and a liberal niargin allowed to meet the necessities of individu- al patients. Doctors Sampson, Hopkins, Francis Guiteau and Luther Guiteau were appointed to de- liver dissertations on typhus fever at the anniver- sary meeting in July. At this meeting strong res- olutions were passed against illegal practitioners. It is very evident that we have not the advantage of that law which bound them to the legal enact- ments so recently passed; for now the State in its great liberality has legalized almost every kind of medical practitioners. Amasa Trowbrige was ad- mitted to membership at this meeting, and the next year asked for a letter to the Jefferson County So- ciety. He located in Watertown, and became the leading surgeon of that section of the State. The meeting held the thirtieth of July, 1810, closed the first period of its existence. Since its organization in 1806, covering a period of four years, it had held seven meetings, adopted a code of by-laws, formed
10
a fee bill to regulate the prices in the county, and established a representation to the State Society. Ten new members had been admitted, making thir- ty-seven in the aggregate, to guard the interests of the profession. We have no means, of course, to determine what causes led to the suspension of its regular meetings.
The enthusiasm which first led the physicians of the county to organize and found this society, had in some measure been burned out, while the dis- tance to be traveled, with the loss of time and the fatigue to be endured, would seem good reasons for this apathy. But it was not destined long to slumber. The noble impulses which were fostered in the free intercourse of men engaged in the same pursuit for four years, called for renewed exertions, and after a three years rest the society awoke from its dreamless sleep and became a leader in the medical army of the State. On the establishment of its regular meetings, the men who had joined and those who united in the few succeeding years, gave the society a prominent place in the medical meet- ings of the State.
A meeting had been called for July 6, 1813, and a good representation of the leading physicians of the county responded to the call, and re-organized the meetings, by electing the regular officers of the so- ciety. A committee was appointed to devise means for establishing a library, and the number of mem- bers necessary to form a quorum was reduced to seven. Recomendations for the purchase of books
11
and adopting a plan for the use of the library were the more important results of this meeting.
In 1814, January 6, the semi-annual meeting was held at Utica, when a circular from the State Medical Society was presented asking the co-opera- tion of this society at the present Legislature, for a change in the State law; but as the report of the committee to whom it was referred has not been preserved, nor the circular itself, we are left in ig- norance of the objects sought to be obtained.
Rules regulating the use of books from the li- brary, and the annual tax of $1.50 per head were adopted. The annual meeting in July was the first in which the Treasurer's report was presented in due form, and passed through the hands of an auditing committee, and the first in which members were fined for non-attendance. The fine was one dollar, and no professional engagements would be allowed to cancel the debt.
In 1810 a circular from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and from Columbia College, offering students free access to the lectures had been re- ceived, and a committee appointed to mature the plan of examinations for such students as desired the aid of their liberality ; but in the three years suspension of its meetings both the committee and its objects were lost sight of. In 1814 a plan for organizing the library department and drawing books was adopted, and a catalogue of the books to be purchased and the periodicals to be secured for its use by the society, seems to be one of the
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most important results of this year. In 1817 Amos G. Hull's truss for the cure of hernia had been patented, and the Secretary of this society was di- rected to give him a certificate of recommendation for his patent. Dr. Hull was then President of this society, and delegate to the State Medical So- ciety. This official action seems to be a strange commentary on the stringent measures before taken by the society for violation of its code of medical ethics. The fee bill was changed so as to conform to the State Medieal Society. An effort was now
on foot to get a pharmacopea of the United States, and this society engaged in the plan and gave its influence to the measure in 1819. The initiation fee was now established at one dollar per annum, and the Vice-President' to give an address at the semi-annual meeting. Typhus fever seems to have been epidemie for several years, and some of the most prominent men in the profession had been designated to prepare articles for the benefit of the society. Dr. Luther Guiteau was the only one of the five appointed to the duty who responded to the call, and his dissertation has not been preserved. The society should now be rich in manuscripts of addresses and dissertations covering a period of seventy-two years, in which the changes in disease induced by the transition from a newly settled condition of the country to a higher state of cul- ture and civilization would have been portrayed. A fine of five dollars had been imposed for neglect- ing to read dissertations when appointed, and in
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1820 the Treasurer was directed to enforce collec- tion. The semi-annual meeting of 1821, and the annual meeting in July, the same year, failed for want of a quorum. A few of the medical men of the society met at Whitesboro, on the 18th of October, 1821, and appointed a committee of three to revise the by-laws, and report to the semi-annual meeting in 1822. The result was a more thorough and perfect system of rules to regulate the action of the society than had ever before been adopted. For several years after the meeting in 1822, but few changes were made in the society, and only the usual appropriations to the State Society and the delegate were made. The society was now enter- ing upon a period of prosperity, a library had been established, with frequent appropriations to increase the number of its volumes and periodicals, and es- tablish a fund for a prize essay. At the annual
meeting in July, 1825, the award was given to Luther Guiteau in answer to the question what constitutes fever. This essay has been preserved, and is in the hands of the society. At the meeting in 1826 preliminary steps were taken to found a lunatic assylum for the county, with or without a hospital. There was another revision of the by- laws in 1828, and a committee appointed to confer with the trustees of Hamilton College for the pur- pose of forming a medical branch under the auspices of the County Society. In 1824 Robert C. Wood was admitted to membership, who be- came distinguished as Surgeon-General of the army
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in Mexico with General Taylor, and James Douglass, founder of a private lunatic asylum at Quebec. In 1829 a committee was appointed to consider the subject of a medical journal, and a voluminous re- port on the subject of intemperance was offered to the different papers of the county for publication. A revision in the form of the diploma of the coun- ty was reported this year, and adopted.
An effort was made in 1830 to have the general law of the State for the organization of County Medical Societies repealed ; and the society prompt- ly called a special meeting, and sent forward a re- monstrance. At this meeting Andrew P. Moore made his charges against Dr. Newell Smith for criminal operations on his wife, and for unlawful intimacy connected therewith, covering a period of about eighteen months. Special meetings were held to hear the report of committees, and to ob- tain evidence, which resulted in his expulsion from the society in October, 1832.
At the semi-annual meeting, in 1834, Dr. C. B. Coventry introduced a preamble and resolutions, praying the State Legislature to pass a special act for building an asylum for the benefit of the insane poor of the State. He urged the necessity, especial- ly on the State Society, and through them on the Legislature, and the massive walls and fluted columns of the State Asylum in our city will stand a lasting monument of his philanthropic spirit, until it crumbles into dust from the ravages of time.
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At the annual meeting, in 1836, Dr. Blair, Presi- dent, gave an address on the changes that had followed the epidemics of 1793, 1812 and 1832, and their influence on the character of disease in this section of the State. An address before the society in 1838, by Theodore Pomeroy, describing the fatal epidemic of puerperal fever which prevailed in the winter of thirty or thirty-one, with all its practical teachings, has been lost. The prize essay of Dr. Luther Guiteau, on typhus fever, the important changes that followed the fearful epidemics de- scribed by Dr. Blair, and the more limited, but equally distressing scourge, in the ratio of its vic- tims, in the reported cases of Dr. Pomeroy ; all of them connected with interesting periods of medical history, and described by living witnesses, now leave only a blank leaf for us to study, instead of the lessons of experience. These are only a tithe of what has been lost by not having a proper systen of preservation for the important papers that have become the property of the society.
In 1839 a committee was appointed to ascertain the number of insane and of idiots in the county. An effort was made to abolish the power of county societies to examine students and grant diplomas, which raised an opposition quite as strong as the one a few years before, to have the medical laws of the State repealed.
In 1843 a valuable acquisition was made to the membership of the society by the admission of Dr. Amariah .Brigham, Superintendent of the Lunatic
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Asylum. He came to Utica, to take charge of this institution, from the Hartford Retreat for the In sane, with a reputation securely established for this department of medical science, and a name for intellectual gifts that had few rivals.
In 1846 an effort was made to increase the use- fulness and interests of the society by dividing it into sections, so as to have two dissertations at each meeting. In the following year a new measure was proposed, that of quarterly meetings, but at that time so few of the members became zealous workmen, that after a very few efforts to keep them up, the plan failed, and the quarterlies died a natural death. The stated times for the regular meetings had been fixed on the first Tuesday of July and January. It was so often that they oc- curred on New Year's day and the Fourth of July, that a resolution was carried in 1848, changing the time to the second Tuesday in each month. The society had now for a few years been losing in its strength and importance ; no steps that had been taken to regain its former prestige had been suc- cessful, and a dark and portentous cloud shrouded it in gloom and threatened its destruction. The annual attendance ranged from eight to sixteen, and in 1851 but one dollar and ninety-three cents was in the treasury, with outstanding bills of in- debtedness to large amounts. Special notices were sent to all the practising physicians, and strong ap- peals were made through individual efforts to arouse the members to a proper sense of the dan-
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ger of its extinction. In 1853 a new treasurer was elected, who had been a strong advocate for en- forcing collections, and within one week after his appointment, four of the prominent dilinquents in different parts of the county had been sued. Of course strong opposition was roused to the measure, and every available means of defence were set up to avoid payment. A few lessons in the sale and costs of collecting under an execution seemed to be a good argument in favor of attending the meet- ings and paying without further trouble. The So- ciety's tax had been repealed, its fines remitted, and the initiation fee of three dollars abolished, to bring back the recreant members, but it had all been to no use.
The State law was so amended in 1853 that it gave the same number of delegates to the State so- ciety as we had of members to the Legislature. The influence of the new measures for collecting the an- nual tax became manifest in the increased attend- ance, and its improved treasury, so that in 1855 the new system of by-laws had been printed, and the semi-centennial year dawned on a renovated soci- ety, again starting on a career of prosperity, which gave promise of better days to come.
At the semi-annual meeting of January 7, 1856, a resolution was passed ordering a semi-centennial celebration for the annual meeting, to be held the eighth of July, in the city of Utica. A committee of seven was appointed to organize a plan of ac- tion, and to establish such measures as would most
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certainly carry forward the cherished wish of its members, and in this public union of the medical men of this county, acknowledge the great obliga- tions we owed to the heroes of 1806. The address of welcome to the guests by the chairman of the committee of arrangements, will give some idea of the spirit and enthusiasm with which this call for a semi-centennial anniversary was hailed by the medi- cal men of the county: "Gentlemen, fifty years have just passed, the first of this month, since twenty-nine of the medical men of the county of Oneida, met at Rome, and organized the Oneida County Medical Society. At the semi-annual meet- ing of the society, held at Rome, the 8th day of January, 1856, a committee was appointed to make the necessary arrangements for holding a semi-cen- tennial celebration. They have fixed on this day and this place, for the interesting ceremonies. In behalf of that committee, gentlemen, I welcome you to this hall ; not as strangers, but as brethren ; fellow-laborers in the same calling; members of one and the same noble profession. Yes, gentle- men, we have come here to-day to commemorate an important professional movement ; to do honor to the founders of this society, and to extend to the survivors of that noble band a cordial greeting. At that time there were but two of the original founders left. They were escorted to their places of honor, at the well loaded tables, by Dr. Coven- try and Dr. McCall, where, with the members of the profession of this and adjoining counties, with
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the invited guests, they gave ample assurance of their ability to enjoy the pleasure of this social union, and to contrast its poor and meager ad- vent with the prestige of this its crowning hour. Men eminent on the bench and at the bar, the Mayor and Common Council of the city, distinguished representatives of the press, and citizens of social position and character, all united in giving promi- nence to this anniversary meeting of the medical men of Oneida county.
At the time of the annual meeting, in July, 1857, a portion of the Lunatic Asylum was destroyed by fire. Dr. Bagg offered a resolution of sympathy with the officers and managers of the institution, which was passed unanimously. (Those who believed it was caused by the negligence of the active officers of the asylum, were willing to give them this mark of consideration while suffering from such a fearful calamity.) It can be said to the praise of the management, that no inmate was injured in this fiery ordeal, but a young and promising physician lost his life in vain efforts to save this monument of pride to the citizens of Utica. This year a res- olution was passed to divide the life of the society into five periods of ten years each, and all who had died in each of the ten years, whose biographies had not been written, should be cared for by the indi- viduals appointed for each period. Dr. McCall was appointed for the first, Dr. Coventry for the second, Dr. Barrows for the third, Dr. Bagg for the fourth, and Dr. Thomas for the fifth. We never
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