USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 2 > Part 13
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the quill, or clamp, suture, using the simple interrupted metallic suture, as Mettauer had done, but with a button or shield, which enabled him to secure the sutures firmly, and, at the same time, pro- tect the parts from the poisonous urine. With this arrangement, coupled with the preparatory treatment devised by him, he announced almost uniform success in the most complicated cases, publishing his cases. Others who tested the matter in practice corroborated his claims. In his " Silver Sutures in Surgery " (1857), Sims charged that Bozeman was grasping after laurels which belonged on Sims's brow. He acknowledged that none of his followers had realized the success with his clamp suture claimed by himself, but he attributed it to lack of skill. Nevertheless, in the same address, he announced his own abandonment of the clamp suture and the adoption of the sim- ple interrupted metallic suture. But since Mettauer and others had preceded him here, he claimed that his merit lay in the introduction of the silver wire as a suture in surgery. But here, again, priority must be denied. The credit belongs to Dr. II. D. Levert, of Mobile, Ala., who, in a treatise published in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, in May, 1829, announced the results of experiments upon animals with sutures of silk, hemp, gold, silver, platinum, lead, etc. The advantage of the silver wire in surgery was here set forth. More- over, in a letter in the Lancet, for November 21, 1834, M. Gosset, of London, announced his successful use of wire, gilded with silver, as a simple interrupted suture secured by twisting, in a case of vesico- vaginal fistula. " His paper," says Dr. Emmet, " as clearly defines the advantages of the metallic sutures as if given in the words of Dr. Sims himself" (Id., p. 817). Moreover, Dr. Sims's early claims of success with his clamp suture have been impugned. One of the cases which he had thought cured-that of his own servant -- proved not to be so, the cure in this case being subsequently accomplished by Dr. Bozeman. The slave-girl, "Amarcha," mentioned in Dr. Sims's " Story of My Life," as one of the patients originally cured by him, was never cured, according to the written statement of her former owner, seen by the writer of these lines. The facts in the other cases are un. known, as Dr. Sims did not record the cases. Dr. Sims's published statements also show that he resorted to kolpokleisis for some time, in the complicated cases which Dr. Bozeman had learned to cure. In his " Silver Sutures in Surgery," Dr. Sims mentions three cases in which he resorted to the expedient of kolpokleisis to secure continence of urine, while he mentions seven others in letters published in the Virginia Monthly Stethoscope and Medical Reporter. This was the identical practice of Professor Gustav Simon, and such an authority as Dr. Emmet says of it, that " no greater mistake can be made in surgery," and that even " incurable cases are better without the re- tentive power when gained by Simon's methods " (Id .. p. 836). Yet this was Sims's method in at least ten cases, between December 10.
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1855, and June 24, 1856, a little more than six months! But the really revolutionary feature in the treatment of vesico-vaginal fistula consisted in the practice originated by Dr. Bozeman. of freely dividing cicatricial bands and dilating the vagina for the purpose of relieving the tension of the tissues before attempting to close the fistula. This it was which actually brought under the control of the surgeon these dread disorders, and without it, the methods of Sims and of all others were almost equally unavailing in all except the simple cases, of a small fistula without complications. Dr. Bozeman's preparatory treat- ment so diminished the resistance that the simple interrupted metallic suture was capable of holding the parts until union was effected; and, with this advantage, the form of suture employed became a second- ary matter. While himself abroad, exhibiting his method, in the London Medical Times and Gazette for November 27, 1858, Dr. Boze- man emphasized the fact that failures were always liable " unless the preparatory treatment is carried to the extent of complete dilatation of the vaginal canal before attempting closure of the fistula." The Register of the Woman's Hospital shows that it was subsequent to this, in the latter part of December, 1858, that Dr. Sims introduced this gradual preparatory treatment, with his new form of suture, --- the simple interrupted silver suture, with a modification of the Boze- man suture adjuster, but with the Bozeman button omitted. - On January 24. 1859, in the case of Mary MeL., for the first time Dr. Sims combined incisions with the use of his glass plug. On the other hand, all must concede that Dr. Sims's success in organizing the Woman's Hospital was a principal factor in gaining for the department of gyne- cology in general the prominence which it has since attained. For this, for his skill as a gynecologist, and for the publication of his " Uterine Surgery," he deserves full credit. But it is plain that his claim of having perfected the treatment for vesico-vaginal fistula was premature, and that the actual accomplishment of this was the work of another, who began as his follower. Yet it was largely in virtue of his mistaken claim that Dr. Sims obtained the Woman's Hospital. And since he adopted the expedient of kolpokleisis, contemporaneous- ly with Dr. Simon, of Heidelberg, it is evident that his inability really to solve the problem which he had claimed to have solved would have soon become apparent, had not the work of Dr. Bozeman been pub- lished in the nick of time. Dr. Sims had the merit of promptly adopt- ing modifications of Dr. Bozeman's methods, and the demerit of appro- priating the credit to himself.
BOZEMAN, NATHAN, was born near Greenville. Butler County, Ala., March 26, 1825, the son of Nathan Bozeman and Harriet, daugh- ter of Captain Nathaniel Knotts, a patriot officer in the Revolution. His paternal grandfather. Joseph Bozeman, a native of Bladen County, North Carolina, of Dutch descent, was also a patriot soldier in the
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Revolution. Dr. Bozeman attended the public schools, was prepared for college, and in 1848 was graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Louisville, having also been a private pupil of Dr. Samuel D. Gross, Professor of Surgery in the University. Subsequent to his graduation, as assistant to Professor Gross, Dr. Bozeman admin- istered chloroform in an operation of ovariotomy by Professor Henry Miller, of Louisville, the first successful one under anesthesia in the United States. Dr. Bozeman began practice in Montgomery, Ala., where Dr. J. Marion Sims then resided and practiced, and in June, 1849, the very month in which Sims perfected his treatment of vesico. vaginal fistula with the clamp suture. Dr. Bozeman assisted in some of Dr. Sims's operations, their relations being very friendly. As stated by Dr. Sims, in " The Story of My Life," death stared him in the face from chronic diarrhea. He had found that the water and climate of New York agreed with him, and he was enabled to remove thither in 1853 through the assistance of Dr. Bozeman, who pur- chased his residence at Dr. Sims's own valuation, $10,000, agreeing to pay interest on this sum at eight per cent., semi-annually. The income thus received sustained Dr. Sims while making his start in New York. In recognition of the service, he announced a partnership with Dr. Bozeman during the three months before he removed with his family from Montgomery, Ala., to New York City. In his autobiogra- phy Sims states that at this time he initiated Dr. Bozeman in his own method of treating vesico-vaginal fistula. In fact, Dr. Bozeman bo- gan as an enthusiastic follower of Sims. In his original publication of his method, in January, 1852, Sims attributed his success to the form of suture used by him, a form of the metallic quill suture, which he styled the " clamp suture." " This suture is far preferable to any- thing before suggested for the purpose," was Sims's original claim. " Its introduction dates from June, 1849, since which time I have had comparatively little trouble in the treatment of the great majority of cases of vesico-vaginal fistula." Between May, 1853, and May, 1855, Dr. Bozeman employed the Sims's method and clamp suture in eight cases of vesico-vaginal fistula, and was successful in two cases. These two were of a simple character, without loss of tissue. He published full accounts of them, giving Dr. Sims credit in the terms of an enthu- siastic pupil. (See New Orleans Medical and Surgical JJournal, for May, 1854, and the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, for August. 1855.) A letter from Sims to Bozeman subsequent to these publica- tions is interesting as showing (1) the cordial relations then existing between the two men. (2) Sims's estimate of Dr. Bozeman's skill in the use of Sims's own method and clamp suture, and (3) the recognition by Sims that in one of these cases Bozeman had succeeded where there was a complication with which not even Sims himself had there- tofore been successful. The original of this letter, dated November 6, 1855, was examined by the writer. It contains the following: " I am
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under great obligations, and science is under lasting obligations to you, for your beautiful, successful operation for vesico-vaginal fistula, complicated by laceration of the cervix uteri. Yours is the first suc- cessful operation of the kind on record. Four or five weeks ago I per- formed just such an operation as yours, and with the same happy re- sult. Previously to seeing the report of your case, I had some fears as to the success of the operation, but you drove them all away, and I operated with the utmost confidence of success. I am proud of your achievement. You wield a moral power that will place you before the eyes of your professional brethren exactly as you deserve to stand. Persevere in your straightforward, high, and honorable course, and no human effort can prevent you from reaching both fame and fortune. I do not know any man of your age in our whole coun- try so fortunately circumstanced as you are at this moment." This is a powerful commentary upon Sims's preposterous claims, and outra- geous insinuations against Bozeman, in his "Silver Sutures in Sur- gery " (1858). But while Dr. Bozeman had cured two cases by Sims's method, he had failed in six cases. In one of these six cases, where there was a double fistula complicated with cicatricial contractions, he had devised and introduced his gradual preparatory treatment. After several weeks of this, he applied the clamp suture, March 23, 1855. But the tissues ulcerated and the chuups cut out. He then perceived that the poisonous urine prevented the union of the tissues. To rem- edy this, he abandoned the clamp, or modified quill suture, of Sims, and combined his own device of a supporting and protecting shield, or button, with the simple interrupted metallic suture, with its inde- pendent action, which had been employed by Mettauer. He substi- tuted silver wire for the lead wire used by Mettauer, while his protect- ing button was an improvement upon the methods of both Mettauer and Gosset. His first application of the new suture, on May 12. 1855. was in one of the six cases in which he had failed with the clamp suture after three trials. The button suture effected a cure on the first appli- cation. In fact, he now cured every case. In the Louisville Review. May 1, 1856, he gave details of the first seven cases under the new method in his " Remarks on Vesico-Vaginal Fistula, with an account of a New Mode of Suture, and seven successful operations." The edi- tors of the Reriei justly said at the time: " Dr. Bozeman now stands before the world as the most successful operator for the disease in ques- tion that the profession has yet produced." Operators who had been unsuccessful by the method of Sims, reported success by the method of Bozeman. Baker Brown succeeded with the button suture in his first operation, October 15, 1856 ( London Medical Times and Gaselle. November 15, 1856), and " observed that this method of operation had convinced him that cases hitherto intractable to treatment would be found to be curable by this operation." Before the Georgia State Medical Society, April 8, 1857. Dr. Kollock, of Savannah, said : " Nine
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operations by suture were performed, seven by the clamp suture of Dr. Sims, and the other two by the button suture of Dr. Bozeman. The clamp suture failed in every instance to effect cure -- even in the two cases which seemed as favorable for its success as could be desired." But he announced complete success with Bozeman's suture. Even Dr. Sims, as he tells us in his " Silver Sutures in Surgery," aban- doned the clamp suture twelve days after the publication of Bozeman's button-suture method, with gradual preparatory treatment. Fifty- four days later he adopted the simple interrupted silver-wire suture, with Bozeman's suture adjuster, slightly modified,-dispensing with the shield. In the North American Medico-Chirurgical Review, for July and November, 1857, Dr. Bozeman published accounts of fifteen new cases, involving twenty-four operations, twenty-one of which had suc- ceeded at the first trial. In three cases additional operations were nec- essary, and these proved success- ful. In this group, vesico-uterine, urethro-vaginal and urethro-vesico- vaginal fistulæ were included. Valuable as was the shield or but- ton, still more so was Dr. Boze- man's method of gradual prepara- tory treatment - for overcoming cicatricial contractions of the vaginal passage. The impor- tance of this was not so soon appreciated by the profession, how- ever .. In June, 1858, Dr. Bozeman visited Europe, operating for vesi- co-vaginal fistula in the hospitals of London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Paris. In a letter he insisted upon gradual preparatory treatment NATHAN BOZEMAN, M.D. with an emphasis which led Dr.
(See preceding sketch. )
Sims and others to take the hint. . Like Dr. Simon, of Heidelberg, having failed
to see that the functions of the organs could be preserved in nearly every case by preparatory treatment. Dr. Sims had been resorting to kolpokleisis to secure continence of urine. He now abandoned this. substantially adopting the Bozeman method in every feature except the shield. The register of the Woman's Hospital shows he also fre- quently adopted the shield in complicated cases. In 1859, Dr. Boze- man established a private hospital for women in New Orleans. In 1861 he became Attending Surgeon to Charity Hospital in that city. He published accounts of his cases in Europe and of later cases in America, together with the record of successful application of the but- ton suture to varicose veins. In 1861 he successfully performed an original operation-Kolpo-cystotomy- for drainage in a case of
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chronic cystitis and ulceration of the bladder. He participated in the first battle of Bull Run as Surgeon in the Confederate Army, sub- sequently serving on the Medical Examining Board. In 1866 he re- moved to New York City, two years later establishing a private hos- pital for women. He successfully performed an original operation for uretero-vaginal fistula in 1870, and one for recto-utero-vaginal fis- tula in 1871. He published several pamphlets in controversy with Dr. Simon, who was still practicing kolpokleisis, carrying many in Europe with him. In 1874-77. Dr. Bozeman was in Europe demon- strating the superiority of his method over kolpokleisis at the Uni- versity of Heidelberg in 1874, at the General Hospital in Vienna in 1875, and at the Hospital Beaujon, Paris, in 1876. From February, 1878, until his resignation eleven years later, he was Surgeon to the Woman's Hospital of this city. He devised a system of preparatory treatment for the operation of ovariotomy. On December 2, 1881. he removed a eyst of the pancreas weighing 203 pounds, the first successful case on record ( Medical Record, January, 1882). In 1885 he converted a vesico-uterine fistula, attended by loss of tissue, into a vesico-utero-vaginal fistula, which he cured, preserving the normal outlet of the uterus. This had not been done before. The following year he cured a young man who had suffered for twenty years from a recto-urethro-vesical fistula. In November, 1886, in a case in which he performed kolpo-cystotomy to drain the bladder and give it physio- logical rest, he invented his vesico-vaginal drain. The same year, by means of preparatory treatment, he cured a case where vesico-vaginal fistula was complicated by almost complete laceration of the perineum, loss of the vaginal portion of the cervix uteri, partial incarceration of the latter in the bladder so as to obstruct the mouth of the left ureter, pyonephrosis and septic poisoning. By means of incisions and his drain he exhibited the mouth of the ureter, dilated it, completely ca- theterized it, and irrigated the pelvis of the kidney which was filled with pus. When the diseased kidney was cured, the fistula was closed (Truns., 9th Int. Med. Cong., 1887, vol. ii.). Another remarkable case is recorded in his " Chronic Pyelitis successfully treated by Kolpo- uretero-cystotomy, Irrigation of the Pelvis of the Kidney and Intra- vaginal Drainage " (American Journal of Medical Sciences, March and April, 1888). He contributed a historical study of the early history of ovariotomy by the long incision (about 200 pages, octavo) to the " Biography of Ephraim MeDowell, M.D." ( 1890). He has published numerous monographs, which can not be referred to here. In 1891 the University of Alabama conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws ..
BOZEMAN, NATHAN GROSS, son of Dr. Nathan Bozeman, of this city, and, like his father, a specialist in gynecology, was born in Montgomery, Ala., February 13, 1836, attended Manhattan College,
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New York City; Seton Hall College, South Orange, N. J., schools in Morristown, N. J., and Baltimore, Md .; between 1873 and 1877 stud- ied at Coburg, Germany, Vevay, Switzerland, and Paris; was gradu- ated from the Academic Department of the University of Virginia in 1877; from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University in 1882, and in 1885 was graduated from the College of Physicians and Sur- geons of this city. He became one of the House Staff of the Woman's Hospital through competitive examination, and during the last year of his term acted as House Surgeon. In 1888 he became Assistant Attending Surgeon to the Woman's Hospital, Outdoor Visiting Phy- sician to the French Hospital, and Instructor in the Post-Graduate Medical School. At the present time he is Visiting Gynecologist to St. Francis's Hospital, Jersey City, and to St. Mary's Hospital, Hobo- ken, and Consulting Gynecologist to the Bayonne City Hospital. He has contributed to medical jour- nals and has developed an original method of applying continuous irrigation for drainage after cer- tain surgical operations. He is a member of the New York State Medical Association, the New York County Medical Association, the New York County Medical Society, the Woman's Hospital Medical So- ciety, and the Physicians' Mutual Aid Association. He married, in 1889, Marion, daughter of the late Colonel John G. MeHenry, of Mad- ison, Ga. He is himself also of NATHAN GROSS BOZEMAN, M.D Southern stock. His great-grand- father, Joseph Bozeman, of Dutch descent, was a prominent citizen of Bladen County, South Carolina, and a Revolutionary soldier. His mother was a daughter of Rev. B. B. Lamar, one of the founders of Macon, Ga., and granddaughter of John Lamar, of Huguenot descent, who served under Marion and Pickens in the Revolution, participated at Eutaw, Cowpens, and the siege of Augusta, and was thrice wounded.
THOMAS, THEODORE GAILLARD, was graduated from the Medical College of the State of South Carolina in 1852, and studied at the Lying-in Asylum in Dublin in 1854, and at the hospitals of Paris from 1854 to 1856. From 1855 to 1860 he was Attending Physician of Demilt Dispensary in this city ( diseases of the skin). During the
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same period he was Lecturer on Obstetrics in the University of the City of New York. From 1863 to 1865 he was Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, while he was Professor of the same from 1865 to 1879. He was Professor of Diseases of Women in the same institution from 1879 to 1889. He was Visiting Physician to Bellevue Hospital from 1859 to 1871, having been an Interne of the same in 1853, and was Visiting Physician to the Charity Hospital from 1860 to 1866, to the New York State Woman's Hospital from 1864 to 1870, to the Strangers' Hospital in 1871 and 1872, to Roosevelt Hos- pital from 1871 to 1881, and to the Maternity Hospital from 1878 to 1880. He was Consulting Physician to St. Mary's Female Hospital, Brooklyn, from 1869 to 1884, and to St. Francis's Hospital, Jersey City, from 1870 to 1880, while he has been Consulting Physician to the Woman's Hospital since 1870, to the Nursery and Child's Hospital since 1871, to the New York Infirmary for Women and Children since 1871, to the New York Foundling Asylum since 1880, and to the French Hospital since 1SS1. He was President of the New York Obstetrical Society in 1866, and in 1869 was President of the Medical Society of the County of New York. He was Secretary of the New York Academy of Medicine from 1859 to 1861, and was its Vice-Presi- dent from 1878 to 1881. His-well-known " Practical Treatise on Dis- eases of Women " reached its fifth edition in 1SS0. He has several times operated successfully for inversion of the uterus by an incision through the abdominal wall, so as to reach the constricted os uteri from above and apply a dilating force. He has advocated the removal of fibrous growths from the uterus and tumors by enucleation. In 1878 he advocated the use of Kibbee's fever-cot as a means of applying cold to the body so as to reduce the high temperature during ovari- otomy. In February, 1870, he removed an ovarian tumor from Doug- las's cul-de-sac by making an incision in the septum. drawing the tumor into the vagina, and there separating it from its attachments ( AAmeri- can Journal of Medical Sciences, April, 1870). He has invented a wire curette or scraper, a serrated scoop, or spoon-saw, and a trocar for tap- ping ovarian cysts.
BARROWS, CHARLE'S CLIFFORD, was graduated from the Uni- versity of Virginia in 1879, in 1880 was graduated from the Univer- sity of the City of New York, and was, for eighteen months, Interne at Bellevue Hospital. He then entered the United States Army as Assistant Surgeon with the rank of First Lieutenant. For five years he served under General Crook in the Apache campaigns, was with the detachment which captured the famous chief, Geronimo, and as medical officer on General Crook's staff, was in charge of five hundred prisoners from Geronimo's band who were conveyed to
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Fort Marion at St. Augustine, Fla. Resigning his commission in 1887, he began the practice of medicine in New York City in partnership with Dr. William M. Polk, son of General Leo- nidas Polk, and has made a specialty of gynecology and ob- stetrics. He is Assistant Gynecologist to Bellevue Hospital, and Instructor in Gynecology in the University of the City of New York. He has been President of the Alumni Association of Bellevue Hos- pital, is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and a Fellow of the Obstetrical Society, and is a member of the Clinical Society, the County Medical Society, the Physicians' Mutual Aid Association, the Century, Calumet, and Democratic clubs, the Sons of the Revolution, and the Southern Society. He married, in 1886, Hettie Curtis, of San Francisco, and has a daughter and a son --- David Nye Barrows. Born in JJackson, Miss., June 5, 1857, Dr. Barrows is the son of David Nve Barrows and Caroline Elizabeth Moseley. His father, a prominent lawyer, was Assistant Treasurer of the Confederacy during the Civil War. His great-grandfather, Cap- tain Nye, was a member of the Massachusetts General Court, com- manded a company in the Massa- chusetts line during the Revolu- tion, and distinguished himself at the battle of Fair Haven, Septem- ber 14, 1778. Dr. Barrows descends from JJohn Barrows, who emi- grated from England to Salem, CHARLES CLIFFORD BARROWS, M.D. Mass., in 1637, and traced descent from Thomas Barrows, Master of the Rolls in London in 1483; from Henry Barrows, the Martyr, 1592. and from Richard Barrows, whose bronze tablet, dated 1605, is in the church at Winthrop, England.
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