Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 68

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360

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Brooklyn Homeopathic Hospital, on March 15, 1873, with only ten beds ; and the first patient was re- ceived on the 3d of March following. Its officers were: CHAS. A. TOWNSEND, Pres .; DAVID M. STONE, Vice-Pres .; JOHN P. ATKINSON, Treas .; JAMES R. COWING, Sec'y; and W. W. GOODRICH, Counsel, with some twenty others of Brooklyn's first citizens as Trustees. Its medical staff consisted of ten physicians and three surgeons under the presidency of Doctor SUMNER. From the first the internal administration of the hospital was entrusted to Sister Mildred, whose high administrative powers and untiring zeal more than justified the anticipations of every friend of the enter- prise. In 1875, the annual Charity Balls were replaced by annual Fairs, held at the Academy of Music, and which socially, as well as financially, have proved uni- formly successful. Its success was complete from the first, and its prosperity so great that the enlarge- ment of the premises became a duty. In 1874-'75 an addition, 23 x 50 feet, four stories high, including base- ment, was made at one end, in which a children's ward of sixteen beds, was located; and, in five years more, (1880-'81), a wing, 102 x 25 feet, also four stories high, including basement, at the other. The Atlantic street Dispensary was transferred in 1875 to the first-named portion, where it is still carried on; presenting, as be- fore, seven departments, each with its corps (1, 2, or 3, according to the size of the clinique) of attending physicians or surgeons.

Adopting the more advanced ideas of the day, a Training School for Nurses was formed in 1879. It has achieved an enviable reputation, some of its gradu- ates being-among the foremost of that growing class of most useful women. Its number of students so far is twenty-two, of whom eight have graduated.

The esprit-du-corps of the medical staff provided and furnished an ambulance service complete; the services of which were accepted by the Board of Health. The wagon (most perfect in all its equipments, of the thrce employed in the city) was, together with horse, harness,

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

stable and fittings, quietly proeured (in 1880) by the physicians and friends of the hospital, at a cost of $2,000, and a further outlay of about $800 a year for maintenance. It is in telephonic communication with Police Headquarters, and is provided with a surgeon and assistant, appointed by the Board of Health, which has also assigned to it the Central District, a most import- ant and extensive field of service.

Associated with the hospital, for furthering its inter- ests, is a Ladies' Aid Society, consisting of sixty-eight of Brooklyn's best representatives, largely wives of the trustees. Its province is to conduct entertain- ments, fairs, etc., the proceeds of which are added to the voluntary contributions by which mainly the hos- pital is sustained.

To the first of January, 1883 (nine years and ten months), there have been admitted to the wards of the hospital 2,353 patients.

Dr. ALBERT E. SUMNER was the originator of this hospital, and its medical director until his death in 1882 ; C. A. TOWNSEND was its President ; the SISTER MILDRED its Lady Superintendent, and S. E. STILES, M. D., its Resident Physician from January, 1871, to 1884.

The government of the hospital is vested in forty- six trustees, the officers being still those named at its opening. (See above).

The hospital medical and surgical staff, under the presideney of Dr. W. M. L. FISKE, consists of thirteen physicians and seven surgeons.

The dispensary medical and surgical staff, under the superintendeney of Dr. C. L. BONNELL, consists of ten physicians and six surgeons.

ALBERT E. SUMNER, A. M., M. D., was born in Hartford, Conn., Nov. 28. 1840, his father being Hiram F. Sumner. a well-known and highly esteemed publisher of that city. Young Sumner entered Trinity College, Hartford, and com- pleted his studies at the New York University Medical Department. After graduation he became Physician to the Home for Incurables, New York city; served during the Civil War for eighteen months, as Surgeon in the United States Navy, and then associated himself with the late Dr. A. Cooke Hull, and rapidly gained success in his practice. He was, for a time, interne at St. Peter's Hospital; then became Medical Director of the Brooklyn Dispensary, out of which grew the Homeopathic Hospital, with which Dr. Sumner's name is imperishably connected as that of its originator. He was also identified with the Maternity; was a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy; of the New York State and the Kings County Homeopathic Medical Socie- ties; and a truster of the Homo opathic State Insane Asylum at Middletown, N. Y.

"As a physician he stood very high: as a diagnostician, he was clear and accurate; in prognosis, prompt and reliable; in treatment, self-reliant and very successful. But the real clue to his brilliant professional snecess was his buoyant, genial nature, which characterized each feature and move- ment, and inspired confidence and hope in every sick room which he entered.

"In his daily intercourse with patients and friends, or even with strangers, brain and heart both seemed alert with sym- pathy, and instinct with courage. He possessed tact with- out dissimulation, and energy without rashness. Had be not been an admirable physician he would have been an ad- mirable politician of the better sort. Indeed, few physicians have so clear an idea as he had of the real dignity of their professional standing, and its power for promoting the best interests of society. Dr. Sumner was, in the best sense, a " society doctor," because he recognized not only the oppor- tunity, but the duty, which his profession imposed upon him to promote and mould all those various social influences which tend to the conservation and the welfare of the com- munity.

"It was this feeling, together with the natural genial im- pulse of his disposition, which made him foremost in every public improvement, and which linked his earnest labors as well as his name, with the fortunes of so many medical, literary and social institutions in Brooklyn. To all these novements, his "push," his indomitable pluck, his experience, and wide social acquaintance and influence, rendered him invaluable. When we look at the results-much of which could not have been accomplished without him-we can scarcely believe that they were compassed within a period of barely twenty years. That corner building, on Clinton and Joralemon streets, where he succeeded the lamented Hull-is, indeed, between the two, identified with nearly all the in- stitutions and enterprises which have beautified and adorned the city, within the past quarter of a century. Hull's man- tle, in this respect, fell worthily upon Sumner's shoulders. The traditions of the house were handed from one to the other. During both lives, it was the very cradle of Brook- lyn's later intellectual and social growth."

New Homeopathic Organizations .- The opening of its third decade demonstrated the hold Homeo- pathy had upon the publie mind, by the hearty interest of its advocates. In the year 1871, three of its noblest and most snecessful charities were initiated, viz .: the Brooklyn Maternity, the Homoeopathic Hospital, and the Brooklyn Nursery. Of the second we have just spoken; the first and third must needs have briefer, but not less interesting mention. They are each the work of ladies, and each is maintained and managed by ladies exclusively. Their names announce their re- speetive purposes.

The Brooklyn Maternity (first ealled "The Brook- Homeopathie Lying-in Asylum") was projected in 1870 to repress infanticide, by providing an asylum during confinement, and Homeopathie eare for the unfortunate and for the respectable poor as well. The unfortunate were to be restored, if possible, and to be helped to reeover their sense of self-respect. The success of the institution was beyond expectation. The enlarging numbers of patients demanded large accommodations, large means, and more co-workers. Such were the wisdom and assiduity of the ladies, and such is the munificent charity of Brooklyn, that their needs were supplied and their work sustained, aided by Dr. A. E. Sumner, who was their Medical Director, in addition to his great labors at the hospital. This first Board of officers consisted of Mrs. R. C. Moffat, Mrs. A. Burtis,

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

Mrs. C. E. Arbuckle, Mrs. W. T. Coole, Mrs. Tobias New, Miss M. A. Downs. In the second year they eft their three-story wooden premises, on the cor- ler of Lawrence and Willoughby streets, and bought he large double mansion, 46 and 48 Concord strect, where their inestimable labors have been wrought. In addition to the Lying-in, a Nursery (i. e. a baby board- ng) department became necessary; then, of necessity, . Childs' Hospital, that the sick might be properly iso- ated; and the ladies felt that the circle of their work vas completc. But no! It was soon scen and felt that he opportunity to establish a Training School for nonthly Nurses was too good to be overlooked, and great was the work, filled as were their hands already; ret their hearts were too large to forego the opportu- ty. So the

New York State Training School for Nurses, he first in America, was incorporated and insti- uted, a short time before Bellevue, in 1873. The statistics of the Maternity are marvelous; no public nstitution, and few private practitioners, have sur- passed them. Patients have been brought into its wards from the slums of the city, from the streets, n the very throes of labor, with discases variously complicating the condition that warranted their admis- sion; yet, out of 787 confinements (the whole number is shown by the twelfth annual report, 1883), there lave been but ten deaths, and not one during labor. Of its great successes in restoring the unfortunate, this is not the place to speak. From the Training School sixty capable and accomplished nurses have peen graduated, and their reputation is such that the school has no superior.

The administration of the Maternity has been by a board of forty lady managers. The office of First Directress has been filled by Mrs. R. C. MOFFAT (five years, Mrs. H. W. SAGE (three years), Mrs. GEORGE STANNARD (three years) ; Secretary, Mrs. TOBIAS NEW (seven years), Mrs. G. STANNARD (one year), Mrs. G. W. GILBERT (three years), and of Treasurer, Mrs. W. T. COOLE (two years), Mrs. ROBERT SHAW (nine years). The Medical Staff consisted of eight physi- cians, including a resident, all appointed annually. The present officers are Mrs. GEORGE STANNARD, First Di- rectress; Mrs. J. HOWARD, Second Directress; Mrs. N. Y. BEERS, Third Directress; Mrs. GEORGE W. GIL- BERT, Secretary; Mrs. ROBERT SHAW, Treasurer.

The Brooklyn Nursery, the third product of the same year (1871), sprang into existence by the de- termination of some earnest ladies who hopcd, under the greatly lessened infant mortality of pure Homeo- patlıic treatment, to found an asylum for "poor, desti- tute and friendless children not over three years of age." It provided a permanent home for these, and " a temporary home, where children can be placed by the day, week, or month," while their parents pursued their regular vocations. The exceeding charity of this

work speaks for itself. It enlisted at once a hearty body of workers, whose efforts have been sustained by liberal contributions pecuniarily, and by professional services from corps of sympathizing Homeopathic physicians. Its eleventh annual report presents the names of forty managing ladies, with Mrs. E. B. ROL- LINS, First Directress ; Mrs. D. HUSTACE, Treasurer ; and Mrs. H. F. ATEN, Secretary, and the names of ten physicians, who form the medical staff. No statistics are submitted in the annual report.

The Homeopathic Pharmacies .- The "mis- sionary " aid rendered by thesc in the extension of the new school is so great as to vie with that of the physi- cians themselves, and they cannot, on that account, be overlooked. They were established in the following order. It should be borne in mind that they are de- voted almost exclusively to the manufacture and sale of homeopathic medicines, etc., excluding the fancy arti- cles that form so large a portion of stock in the apothecaries' shops of the old school.

1. Mr. J. T. P. SMITH, in 1850, in Court street, near the City Hall. Although in other hands, it is still in existence.

2. Mr. L. H. SMITH, in 1868, opened the second at 106 Court street, and is now at 73, in the same street.

3. Mr. J. O. Noxon, like his predecessors, clinging close to the City Hall, opened the third pharmacy in 1869, under very favorable auspices, at 323 Washing- ton street. In May, 1873, he moved to 444 Fulton street, where he still conducts the largest homeopathic pharmacy in the county.

4-5. Two transient and unsuccessful efforts were made in 1875 by Mr. ST. CHARLES and by Mr. TILTON.

6. In the same year, 1875, Mr. SOMERS made a suc- cessful effort in the Eastern District, locating in Fourth street. He died in 1880, and the establishment was closed.

7. In 1876, Mr. C. T. HURLBURT, a Homeopathic pharmaceutist of New York, established a branch, also in Fourth street. This is still successfully maintained in the hands of Mr. P. J. HOYT.

The E. D. Homeopathic Dispensary Associa- tion provides for the Homeopathic poor of the Eastern District in a building constructed especially for its use at Nos. 194 and 196 South Third strect. The existence of this charity is mainly due to the efforts of the late Dr. WILLIAM WRIGHT, one of the first practitioners in this part of the city. He was ambitious for the extension of the school, and he felt that the poor of the Eastern District ought to have all the advantages that could be provided. The co-operation of his fellow practitioners and of some of Brooklyn's best citizens was scenred, and together in 1872, they succeeded in obtaining an organization March 6th, and an incorporation March 14th, 1872, with the following incorporators : William Wright, M. D., Samuel Godwin, Edward A. Jones, James Hall, S. C. Hanford, M. D., Silvester Tuttel,

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

James A. Bradley, Andrew B. Hodges, William H. Hanford, M. D., William M. L. Fiske, M. D., George Nichols, M. D., John Young, M. D., Carl von der Luhe, M. D., Mary C. Brown, M. D., Alice Boole Campbell, M. D., Augustus von der Luhe, M. D., James A. Falkner, Silas W. Brainerd, James H. Ward, M. D., Demas Strong.

The first officers were : William Wright, M. D., President; James A. Falkner, Secretary, and William E. Horwill, Treasurer. The dispensary is located in the elegant new building at 194 and 196 South Third street. Prosperity and a constantly enlarging area attended npon faithful and successful service; and, upon the completion of their present quarters, their former rooms were abandoned for their present quarters, erected specially for their use.

OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES : James Hall, Pres .; Hon. Demas Strong, George Nichols, M. D., Vice- Presidents; William E. Horwill, Treas .; Samuel S. Martin, Secy .; James Hall, Demas Strong, George Nichols, M. D., William E. Horwill, W. M. L. Fiske, M. D., Albert M. Kalbfleisch, George V. Tompkins, George L. A. Martin, George B. Hooton, Samuel S. Martin, E. C. Wads- worth, Trustees.

ALBERT WRIGHT, M. D., born in Cambridge, Washington county, N. Y., April 14. 1804, and died December, 1874, was one of a farmer's nine children; pursued his medical studies under Dr. Jonathan Dow, of White Creek, and graduated from the Vermont Academy of Medicine, in 1831. Until 1849, he practiced according to the methods of the old school, mostly in Granville, N. Y., and then, removing to New York city, took up Homeopathy under the friendly direction of Dr. John F'. Gray and other pioneer practitioners of that school. He shortly removed to Williamsburgh; was one of the original incorporators of the Kings County HomoPo- pathic Medical Society, in 1857, of which he was president in 1860 and 1866, and which he frequently represented in the State Society. He was an uncompromising believer in Homeopathy; yet, by virtue of his dignity and honesty of purpose, commanded the respectful recognition of his pro- fessional neighbors of the old school. He was an eminently religious man, a Presbyterian; but always unostentatious and uncontroversial.

The Brooklyn Woman's Homeopathic Hos- pital and Dispensary, the latest Homeopathic char- ity, is at 534 Myrtle avere. Opened in June, 1881, as a " Woman's Dispensary," but enlarged and incor- porated under the above title in April, 1883. Though yet in its earlier stages it has treated 2,180 patients during the last year, and will prove its claim to the confi- dence and liberal support of the public by the faithful- ness and the success of its work. Its special plea for favor rests in that it is the only institution where women (and children) can be treated exclusively by women, female physicians only being allowed. It was pro- jected by Dr. AasEs C. VICTOR, whose efforts were supported by Drs. ALICE B. CAMPBELL, IDA B. HUNT, GEORGIA A. CASSIDY, HELENA S. LASSEN, MARY C. and HARRIET E. BROWN, and FANNY R. CODDINGTON.

These physicians have called to their aid an efficient board of managers, also ladies, whose officers are Mesdames D. L. EVERITT, Pres .; C. A. GREENE, Vice- Pres .; E. SMITHI, Secy., and W. H. DAKIN, Treas.

The Literature of Homeopathy. - Brooklyn's contributions have been such as to show both profes. sional scholarship and practical usefulness. The mono- graphs of Dr. P. P. WELLS, on Routine in Medicine, Diarrhoa, Dysentery, Rheumatism, Pneumonia, In- termittent Fever, Typhoid Fever, What is Hom ro- pathy ? and Scarlet Fever, rank deservedly high in the profession. The last two have been translated into German and Italian, and enjoy an Europcan reputa- tion. Besides thesc are numerous minor Essays, Prov- ings, Dissertations, etc., etc., from his pen, that have welcome place in the magazines of the school. Dr. BRYANT'S Pocket Manual, UNDERWOOD's Diseases of Childhood, and Therapeutics, and his Materia Medica of Differential Potency. Dr. MINTON'S Domestic Physician ; Uterine Therapeutics, and Homo opathic Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children (quarterly); SEARLE'S A New Form of Ver- vous Disease, with an Essay on Erythroxylon Coca.

The above are some of the publications thus far; but Lectures, Reports, Communications, Essays, Provings, Dissertations, etc., etc., all the various forms of medical utterances, of various authorship, are presented in pam- phlet form or in magazine articles too numerous for men- tion. With so numerous and so respectable a laity, with charitable institutions so varied and so creditable, it is easy to infer that Homeopathy has advanced in accept- ance and favor with the public so as to be in all respects socially, as well as legally, the peer of the rival school. The obloquy and acrimony with which it was formerly regarded are wholly things of the past. In private life there are mutual courtesies and tolerance such as ob- tain between gentlemen of differing religious creeds. In public life the Homeopathist is as readily appointed to office, if his claims be as well supported, as his rival. In some of our semi-public charities, notably in the Home for Consumptives and in the service of the Sea- side Home, physicians of both schools work side by side, the patient being allowed to select under whose care he will place himself.

DAVID A. GORTON, M. D., was born in the town of May. field, Fulton county, New York, November 22d, 1532. He Is a son of John and Joanna (Sheldon) Gorton, and descended ou his father's side from Samuel Gorton, the first settler of Warwick, R. I., and on his mother's side from John Rogers, the martyr. illustrious progenitors who have a record in liis tory, and to whom the world is largely indebted for its civil and religious liberty. Samuel Gorton was born in Gorton. England, about 1600, and was self-educated to a more than ordinary degree. Prior to 1636, when he settled in Boston. Mass., he was a clothier in London. He became involvel in controversy on religions questions, removed to Plymouth and became a preacher; and. though bred in the church of ling. land, soon developed such radical views that a charge of

Pey tuely yours DA. John M.F

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

heresy was brought against him, and he was banished from the colony. With a few followers, he went to Rhode Island, then recently settled by exiles from Massachusetts Bay, but soon got into trouble for opinion's sake, and found an asylum with Roger Williams in Providence, about 1641. We do not propose fully to enter into the career of the elder Gorton, but simply to say that his sense of justice and fair play, the rights of man involving the relations of the religious sects, and, in turn, their relations with their Indian neighbors, kept him busy with disputations with his puritanical neighbors in the Massachusetts colony. So inflexible was his purpose and so zealous was he of his rights to an independent judg- ment, that he was frequently brought in conflict with the authorities, civil and religious; was tried for heresy at Boston, and came near suffering martyrdom for opinion's sake. His latter years were spent in peace and quiet, and he had lived to realize all the rights, civil and religious, for which he had contended.

It may not be uninteresting, also, to note in this connection that the elder Gorton discharged many important civil offices, and, on Sundays, used to preach to the colonists and Indians. He died in Rhode Island in the latter part of 1677. During his active career he wrote and published many con- troversial works, among them the following : "Simplicity's Defence against Seven-headed Policy;" " An Incorruptible key composed of the CX Psalme;" "Salt-marsh returned from the Dead;" " An Antidote again the common Plague of the World," and "Certain copies of Letters ;" and at his death left an unfinished commentary on a part of the Gospel of St. Matthew. His life by J. M. Mackie, in Sparks' American Biography, is an interesting and valuable contribution to our early history. John Rogers, the martyr, was born about 1500; was a graduate from Cambridge and became an English clergyman, and later assisted Tyndale and Coverdale in trans- lating the Scriptures into English, translating the Apocrypha unaided, and correcting the whole for the press. He was the author of a number of theological works. His career was full of vicissitudes, incident to the unsettled religious status of the time; and finally, having incurred the hostility of the Catholics, he was, after much persecution and long imprison- ment, burned at the stake at Smithfield, February 4th, 1555. Several of his grandchildren removed to the American colo- nies and from one of these is Dr. Gorton descended.

Dr. Gorton was reared on his father's farm in Fulton Co., N. Y'., and attended such public schools as were then in vogue in that section. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to his uncle, John Sheldon, to learn the trade of carriage-maker; but, becoming dissatisfied with his prospect of success in a mechanical career, he ran away, two years later; and not long afterwards began to gratify an inclination he had for some time felt to become a physician by studying medicine, reading without a perceptor for two or three years. At the age of twenty he entered, as a student, the office of Dr. Charles W. Adams, an old school practioner at New Wood- stock, Madison county, N. Y., where he remained about four years, acquiring a knowledge of Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacy, old-school Therapeuties and Chemistry. Becoming skeptical of the scientific position of old-school Therapeutics, while observing the effect of its medication in his tutor's practice, he began the investigation of other methods. About this time he made the acquaintance of Dr. R. T. Trall, of New York, who was waging a relentless warfare against the old school of physic, and began a course of study under his direc- tion. At the age of twenty-four he entered, as a student, the New York Hygeic-Therapeutic College, which had been founded by Dr. Trall, and which had just received its charter from the Legislature, and was graduated therefrom in 1858. It

is worthy of note that this institution was the first medical institution in this country to open its doors to women on the same terms as to men; and its faculty the first to openly espouse the cause of medical education for woman, and fight for her position and advantages in the hospitals of New York, Dr. Gorton became associated with Dr. Trall in this work, and in the year of his graduation, 1858, was appointed Pro- fessor of Chemistry and Physics, a position which he filled for two years, during which time he was also House Physician to the Infirmary in connection with the College, Curator of the College and Secretary of its faculty. During this period, he wrote much, and spoke often in defense of hygienic medi- cation, and concerning the evils of drug medication. The study of Hahnemann's Organon of Medicine led him to the adoption of Homœopathy in 1860; and to his resignation from his position in the New York Hygeic-Therapeutic College early in that year. Soon afterward he removed to Newburgh, N. Y., and took a practice there, then recently vacated by Dr. Carroll Dunham. There he engaged in active work, meanwhile diligently studying the Homœopathic Materia Medica and the practice of that system. During his resi- dence in Newburgh, he began, under tutors, a study of the classics, and ancient and modern languages, continuing until 1869, when he removed to Brooklyn.

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Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 68

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : Munsell Number of Pages: 1360

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360