USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume II > Part 16
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Without much pretext for chronological sequence the following names, as belonging to this period, may be mentioned: John Nicoll practiced here nearly half a century, dying about the close of 1743 or at the beginning of 1744. Besides being a physician, he was an apothecary in business on Hanover Square, and from the newspapers it is learned that Dr. Ossac Dubois, a graduate of the University of Leyden, 1740, a native of the city, and executor of his estate, succeeded to his shop, and was not long his survivor.
Samuel Clossy, an Irish physician, who began his lectures to an anatomical class as early as 1764, and in 1767 became a professor of anatomy in King's College, was inclined, according to Dr. Francis, to "worship the rosy god." As an outspoken Democrat he was obnoxious to the British, who burlesqued him on the boards of the old John Street Theatre.
Rivington's "New York Loyal Gazette" contains many advertisements throwing much light on this epoch. We learn, for example, that "the King's Medicine Store was on the Old Slip Wharf;" that "nurses were needed for the prison hospitals;" that "a dark sorrel mare belonging to Mr. Brickell, Surgeon at Haerlem Hospital, was regretfully lost, also three cows belonging to the same hospital, each of them having bells with leather straps around their necks, on the inside of which were the following words, "Major General Tryon;" that "the Surgeoncy of an old Regiment of the Foot was to be sold;" that "Donald McLean, surgeon of the late 77th regiment, had just received a large importation of Genuine Drugs and Medicines," and many items of an inferential character that the wants of the invalid were not neglected. "Gaine's Universal Register or American & British Calendar," current series, gives the official roster of the army of occupation, and in its medical department, as superintendent of all the hospitals (Hessian included), appears the name of J. Mervin Nooth, and as medical purveyor that of
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Jonathan Mallet. Among the twenty-five physicians published in the first directory of 1786, perhaps the most prominent was Samuel Bard (died 1821), son of Dr. John Bard, who received his preliminary educa- tion in King's College, New York. He arrived in London in 1761, whence, after a one-year's residence, under the instruction of Dr. Alexander Russell, he removed to Edinburgh, and from its university obtained his degree on May 13, 1765. In the following year he became a professor of theory and practice of physic in Columbia College, and was also one of the founders of the New York Hospital, and retired as one of its visiting physicians in 1798. He wrote a paper on Angina Suffocativa in 1771, and a work on Obstetrics, the first published on this subject in America, 1807, besides some addresses. As the second president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, appointed in 1811, he continued until his death. Dr. Valentine Mott described him as "small in stature and hard-featured, but exemplary as a man and Christian." His manners are said to have been austere.
There was also Dr. J. Charlton, once in the British service, who is described as short in stature, with a florid face, of somewhat pompous manners, and fond of horseback exercise. He says of himself that he practiced physic here following 1762, and that he resided on Long Island five years of the war, and returned to the city in 1781. He had a fashionable clientele and is credited with having accumulated con- siderable means.
Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchell (died 1831) was the third son of Robert Mitchell, a Quaker farmer of English descent, and named for his maternal uncle, a practitioner of his native village, Paldome, North Hempstead, Long Island. He entered Edinburgh University in 1783.
Felix Pascalis Ouviere (died 1833), better known as Felix Pascalis, was born in Provence, France. At maturity he graduated at Mont- pelier, then emigrated to St. Domingo, where he remained until driven out by the blacks in the revolution of 1798, when he sailed for Phila- delphia. He subsequently settled in New York, where he died July 27, 1833. He wrote one of the best books on yellow fever ever pub- lished in this country, except that of Réné La Roche.
Nicholas Romayne (died 1817) was a fluent lecturer on the various branches of medicine, but being wealthy, was indifferent to the active duties of his profession.
Medicine in the Nineteenth Century-The nineteenth century, remarks Dr. Shrady, so far as concerns medical science, may be characterized as tending toward investigation through the senses, and a concentrated devotion to certain branches. "There was also an increase in literary production; and a tendency toward pathological research as well as diagnostic precision. Owing to the military activity of the age and
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the disturbed affairs of Europe, surgery in popular estimation was making headway at the expense of medicine; expedients of a novel character were proposed and adopted, medicine meanwhile claiming its triumphs through Baconian methods in its finely divided specialties. Anatomy, greater facilities for its study being provided, and pathology, now pursued with more avidity, had the effect of producing a greater simplicity of treatment and much feebler reliance upon drugs. A greater belief in the self-limitation of certain diseases originated the practice of prevention by sanitation. Hygiene and causation thus came to be more assiduously cultivated at the expense of mere routine thera- peutics. Many of the set formulæ were relegated to oblivion, while really active agents in the more agreeable forms took their place. Bleed- ing, cupping, and blistering, however, held their own for about the first half of the century, although with a constant diminution in the ranks of their advocates. Sectarian schools began to spring up with somewhat acrimonious activity as the years rolled on, more especially in the matter of treatment, the chief battle-ground being the chemical agents as against the simpler products of the field. Samuel Christ, Fr. Hahnemann (died 1843), a German in Europe, with a transcen- dental system of symptoms and attenuated doses, made not a few converts even among the adherents of rational medicine. As a protest against over-medication, and in another sense an indirect reliance upon nature with strict limitations of diet, the comparatively few followers of the novel doctrine challenged in turn some of the absurdities which claimed a descent from medieval times. It would be unfair to say that no direct impress was made, or that all his adherents were charlatans. A little later on a botanical school, sometimes designated as the Eclectic, gained some prominence by reason of its fierce attacks upon the methods which had stood the test of long usage."
In the view of Dr. Shrady, probably the most noted surgeon at the beginning of the century, and the one most frequently quoted in the annals of the city, was Wright Post (died 1828), one of the first Ameri- can pupils of John Hunter, being one of a class of ten from different parts of the world. He became professor of surgery, and subsequently of anatomy, in Columbia College.
Another noted physician of the last years of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth was Dr. Valentine Seaman (died 1817), who was a native of Queens County, Long Island, and son of Willet Seaman, a mechant of New York. Dr. Seaman was a pupil of Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia. He was a Quaker doctor of New York, the first to institute clinical lectures in the New York Hospital.
As the century advanced and the population increased, with a more general diffusion of knowledge consequent upon the multiplication of domestic educational facilities, there arose fewer leaders of opinion
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or methods with a greater preponderance of individualism, comments Dr. Shrady. "Controversy began to pare down extravagances of state- ment and to reduce dogmas to the plane of the probable. Claims also began to be investigated and instruments of precision to be used, analogical parallels from the sister sciences were quoted, and what were once regarded as annexes, such as the business of the apothecary or profession of teacher, were discarded."
Around the earliest quarter of the century and beyond there were another number of physicians notable for one trait or achievement or another. There was for example Dr. John Griscom (died 1825), who, according to Dr. John W. Francis, "had only a log schoolhouse educa- tion, but by untiring industry and a rich sagacity overcame all obstacles to his improvement." For thirty years he was facile princeps of all other chemical philosophers familiar with the teachings of Davy, Murray, Gay-Lussac, and Thenard.
John Kearney Rodgers (died 1851) was a son of Dr. John R. B. Rodgers, an accomplished physician, and for a short time professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children in the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons in the early part of the century.
David L. Rodgers (died 1877), the recipient of much generous ad- miration on the part of Dr. Valentine Mott, his preceptor, and Dr. James R. Wood, was the first to practice, in injuries of the large joints, the tying of the large arteries to prevent inflammation. On September 14, 1829, he performed ovariotomy for the first time, so far as New York is concerned, the patient reporting a perfect recovery in person at his office six weeks afterwards.
Then there was Dr. John Neilson (died 1857) who entered Princeton College at the age of fifteen, and after being graduated, in 1794, took up the study of medicine in the city of New York, with Dr. Kearney Rodgers. He was devoted to his profession, had probably the largest practice among the physicians of that day, and scarcely ever left the city during the War of 1812, his duties, however, being confined to the troops of the city of New York.
Valentine Mott (died 1865), pupil of Cooper, Abernethy, and Bell, filled the chair of Surgery in Columbia College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in Rutgers Medical College and the New York University Medical College. According to Professor Gross, of Philadelphia, "no surgeon, living or dead, ever tied so many vessels or so successfully for the cure of aneurism, the relief of injury, or the arrest of morbid growths."
Dr. Willard Parker in 1839, after a return from Europe, settled in New York, having been appointed lecturer on surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Probably no surgeon enjoyed a wider reputa- tion for success, or became more popular.
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Another noted figure in the medical world in the earlier part of the last century was Alonzo Clark (died 1887), who occupied the chair of Pathology and Materia Medica in the Burlington (Vermont) Medical College. His long connection with the College of Physicians and Surgeons began in 1848, and no single teacher probably contributed so much to its general reputation.
Austin Flint (died 1886), the great rival of Alonzo Clark, in 1861 became one of the physicians to Bellevue Hospital, and at the same time professor of the principles and practice of medicine in the college attached, which he held until his death. Dr. Flint attained many honors. His book on "Clinical Education" was long regarded as an authority.
Other noted local physicians during the central years of the last century were Gunning S. Bedford (died 1870) ; John Hoskins Griscom, son of Dr. John Griscom, a native of New York, who distinguished himself as a sanitarian, gave popular lectures on chemistry, and fought out many reforms in connection with the treatment of emigrants on shipboard; J. Marion Sims (died 1883), who developed certain delicate surgical procedures, and was mainly instrumental in establishing the Woman's Hospital ; Dr. Gurdon Buck (died 1877), a native of New York City, an M. D. of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, a hospital surgeon who improved the methods of treating fractures of the thigh by weight-and-pulley extension; James Rushmore Wood (died 1882), identified with Bellevue Hospital, where his Saturday afternoon clinics became a feature.
Modern Institutions for Sick-We have in the foregoing sketches sought to give the reader an idea of the background that lay behind the medical world in The Bronx. That purpose has involved some descriptions of the development of medical theory and practice, and some description of the rise of institutions connected with the care of the health of the community and of the men who had the care of that health both immediately above and immediately below the Harlem. It remains for us therefore to tell of some of the institutions having the care of the public health in The Bronx at the present time. Some of these organizations, whose origin is quite modern, have already been dealt with up to a recent period.
Bronx Tuberculosis and Health Committee-Among the later and more highly developed organizations is The Bronx Committee of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association, which is situated at No. 448 East Tremont Avenue. The latest annual report says of the activities of the Committee: "Seven regular meetings of The Bronx Tuberculosis and Health Committee were held during 1925, with an average attendance of five at each meeting.
"1. Social Service : 291 new cases came to the attention of the Com-
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mittee during the year and 265 old cases remained under care. The new cases were referred by private physicians, Board members, church- es, the Board of Child Welfare, Fordham Clinic, Catholic Charities, American Red Cross, Social Service Departments of The Bronx Hospi- tals, public and parochial schools, Bronx firms, Nursing Services of Henry Street Settlement, the Attendance Bureau, Registrar's office, Tuberculosis Associations outside of the city, Bronx Federation for Social Service, School Nurses, St. Vincent de Paul Society, The Bronx Social Service Exchange, the Catholic Big Brothers, Health Department, Fordham University, private individuals, personal application at office, through Seal Sale publicity, advertising in our cards, articles in 'The Bronx Home News,' etc. During the year, 578 visits were paid to the homes, 504 conferences were held at the office. There were 1,655 telephone conferences on patients, 594 letters were written, and 306 . visits paid to other agencies. A hundred and ninety-nine patients were referred to clinics, 36 to private physicians, 91 to sanatoriums, 68 for convalescent care, 130 for employment, 53 for hospital care and 162 to other social agencies.
"2. Summer Outings: Approximately 400 children were examined by various private physicians and by the Board of Health this summer at the request of The Bronx Tuberculosis Committee. The private physicians were very generous in offering their services to give these examinations. A number of heart conditions were discovered and the children were referred to heart clinics. One case of tuberculosis was discovered and the child was afterwards admitted to a tuberculosis institution. A number of physical defects were brought to the attention of the mothers of these children with the request that these be corrected. A number of defective tonsils were removed and dental attention was secured. Approximately 250 children were sent to the country for ten days to three weeks. Because of the fact that it is very difficult to secure vacancies for boys for summer vacations, a number of vacan- cies were secured at camps where small fees are charged, such as the camp run by Princeton College Students and that managed by the Boys' Club. Many of the mothers were quite willing to pay the small amount required, about $3.00 per week, to have their boys go to these camps.
"3. Fordham Clinic: Approximately $2,600 was again appropriated for the Fordham Clinic. Dr. Jacob Segal was made chief of the clinic and the two doctors who had previously been attending were retained as his assistants. From the first of January, 1926, the city was asked to take over the clinic and the nurses' salary was assumed by Bellevue and Allied hospitals. During 1925, the total number of patients treated at the Fordham Clinic were 820, of which 820 patients, 150 were tubercu- lous and 670 were non-tuberculous. There were remaining under the
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care of the clinic on January 1, 1926, 310 cases, made up of 43 tubercu- lous and 267 non-tuberculous. During 1925, 409 new patients were examined at the clinic, in addition to sixty-seven who were re-admitted. The total attendance at the Fordham Clinic during the year shows 1,380 visits to the clinic, and 420 were by children under sixteen years of age. In addition, the nurse paid 818 calls to or on behalf of said patients at the homes. According to preliminary figures furnished by the Bureau of Records of the New York State Department of Health in 1925, 630 deaths of residents of The Bronx in 1925 were reported against 521 in 1924, indicating the growing problem that tuberculosis is in the Borough of The Bronx. The Bureau of Preventable Diseases of the Department of Health, also, reported that during 1925, 1,417 new cases of tuberculosis were registered. On January 1, 1926, there were 4,209 people suffering from tuberculosis in the Borough of The Bronx.
"4. Health Lectures and Motion Pictures : 234 lectures and moving pictures were shown in The Bronx during 1925. A course of lectures was given at the Bronx Young Men's Christian Association and courses of lectures were given on diets, etc., by the nutrition worker of The Bronx Committee.
"5. Distribution of Literature and Posters: An attempt was made during 1925 to have, during a certain period of the year, a campaign which would be appropriate for the season. During the month of November, a campaign was undertaken and over 100,000 pieces of literature were distributed to schools, churches, social agencies, fraternal organizations and clubs, hospital social service departments, etc. An open-window campaign is planned early in 1926. In addition to the 100,000 distribution of pamphlets on Colds, 17,629 other pieces of litera- ture were distributed, such as, the pamphlets issued by the New York State Department of Health, 'What You Should Know About Tuberculo- sis,' the Health for the Family series which were widely distributed by the Henry Street nurses, the exercise pamphlet, the series of Baldridge posters and the poster especially appropriate to school children. A copy of this latter poster was sent to the principal of each public and parochial school in The Bronx asking them if they wished other copies. Also, a miniature of the Baldridge poster was sent to the principal with the same request. In addition, 643 copies of diets arranged by Miss Bertha Holman were distributed by various social agencies and by the Henry Street nurses.
"6. Poster Contest : A poster contest was conducted in the parochial schools and in the high schools and approximately six hundred posters were made by the children. Prizes were given for these and later ex- hibits of the posters were held in one of the parochial schools and in The Bronx Woman's Club. Later, during the May Day Celebration,
SETON HOSPITAL, RIVERDALE
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the posters were exhibited in the New York Telephone Company win- dows and also in the windows of the New York Edison Company.
"7. Health Book Shelves: Throughout the year, the various libraries in The Bronx were urged to advertise health bookshelves and books were borrowed for this purpose from the National Health Council Li- brary and loaned to the district libraries for periods of three weeks. Health posters were given to the libraries to help advertise these book- shelves.
"8. Rate Map: A rate map showing the death rate from tuberculosis in the various sections of The Bronx was prepared by the Statistical Service and copies of this map were distributed to the various social agencies so that they might in their work intensify their campaigns for good health in the sections which showed a particularly high death rate from tuberculosis.
"9. Information Service: Many interesting questions have come to the Committee during the year. The majority of the requests have been for sanatorium care and other information about where physical examinations could be secured.
"10. Publicity : The work of the Committee or various phases of it have been published throughout the year in 'The Bronx Home News,' The Bronx Section of the 'Journal,' the bulletin of The Bronx Board of Trade, The Bronx County Medical Society bulletin and the bulletin of the New York Tuberculosis Association. During the Christmas Seal Sale, very generous publicity was given especially by The Bronx Section of the 'New York Evening Journal.' Front page editorials were in two or three editions, supplemented by cartoons.
"11. Tuberculosis Lecture for Physicians: Dr. Allen K. Krause, of Johns Hopkins University, gave another lecture before The Bronx County Medical Society on 'The History of Tuberculosis and Its Re- lation to General Medicine.' This lecture was paid for by The Bronx Committee. Dr. Krause's three lectures last year, and the lecture during 1925, were so much appreciated by the Medical Society, that they made him an honorary member of the association.
"12. Change of Name: Because of the fact that in its educational work, the Tuberculosis Association stressed the prevention of disease and the building up of good health, it finally decided that it would be more accurate to describe the work of the Association as Tubercu- losis and Health Association, and at the same time the New York Heart Association joined forces with the Tuberculosis Association as well as the New York Dental Committee which had formerly been a part of the Dispensary Development Committee of New York Acad- emy of Medicine.
"13. Nutrition Work: A series of lectures have been given by the nutrition worker of The Bronx Committee to the Henry Street nurses
Bronx-87
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in the five Bronx centers. In addition, a course has just been under- taken at the Child Welfare Clinic at the Hebrew Infants' Home, Miss Holman, the nutrition worker, had addressed various meetings of the Parent Teachers' associations, Mothers' clubs, and church organizations. She has in addition prepared a series of diet sheets, one pre-natal and one for children for the first year, from one to two hours and from two to six years. These have been approved by Dr. Lobenstein, Dr. Alfred Hess, and also by the Children's Committee of the New York Tuberculosis Association. They are now being printed by the Asso- ciation and distributed in all the three boroughs. Miss Holman is at present preparing diets for school children which will probably be printed by the Association also and distributed widely among school children.
"Outside Activities : The Secretary acted as Chairman of the Health Section of the New York State Conference of Charities and Corrections, and developed a program on Health Education with the State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Matthias Nicoll, presiding, and Dr. C. E. A. Winslow, of Yale University, discussing the need for health education; Mr. Homer Folks, of the State Charities Aid Association, Dr. E. George Paine, New York University, and Dr. Mary Crawford of the Federal Reserve Bank, discussing methods of Health Education in relation to social agencies, schools and industry, and Dr. Haven Emerson, speaking on the topic of individual health education. In addi- tion the Secretary has acted as Chairman of the New York City Chapter of the American Association and is a member of the Advisory Com- mittee of the United Hebrew Charities."
United States Veterans Bureau of The Bronx-This hospital, situated at No. 130 West Kingsbridge Road, is officially designated as the United States Veterans' Hospital, Bronx, New York, formerly called United States Veterans' Hospital No. 81. It is operated by the United States Veterans' Bureau of which General Frank T. Hines is the present director, and Dr. E. C. Crossman, the medical director. This hospital was formerly the property of the Roman Catholic Asylum of New York City, and was purchased by the United States Government in 1921 for the sum of $2,775,000 for use as a hospital for ex-service patients suffer- ing from mental and nervous disorders, including neuro-surgical diseases. After the purchase of the buildings by the government, very extensive alterations were made in order to prepare it for use as a hospital for neuropsychiatric patients.
The buildings occupied by patients, which are constructed of brick, concrete, and steel, are three in number, Building No. 1, or the main building, accommodating 508 patients ; Building No. 2, 237, and Building No. 3, which is used for the care of disturbed mental patients, has a
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census of forty-three. The government spent about $750,000 to make these buildings as adequate as possible for the care and treatment of psychiatric and neuro-surgical patients. Accommodations for 125 addi- tional patients are also being made by the transfer of nurses, now occu- pying a ward in the institution, to a building located outside of the reservation.
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