USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. VIII > Part 2
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In the language of Dr. E. H. Van Deusen, from whose brief but elegant biography, written for the American Journal of Insanity, I am indebted for several of the facts contained in this memoir:
" Dr. Beck has witnessed the adoption in this state, of a public system of education, elementary and collegiate, alike thorough and successful; and as the crowning effort in the field of his severest, yet most congenial labor, a State Library, which, for completeness of organization and beauty of arrangement, stands unrivaled, and for which, it may be remarked, the state of New York is almost entirely indebted to his extended and complete knowledge of the history of literature and science, in which he had no equal in this country, if indeed any- where."
Many years ago Dr. Beck became interested in the subject of a State Museum. In fact, while connected with the City Lyceum, established in the Albany Aca- demy, he was industriously accumulating and depositing every thing of which he could possess himself, relating to history or to natural science-a passion, which, it is well known, did not cease or abate, when his admission into the board of regents gave him a wider field for its exercise. To the State Library and the State Cabinet hereafter his time and talents were in no small degree directed ; and such was his zeal in behalf of these insti- tutions that he has not hesitated at times when the illib- eral policy of individual members of the legislature
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Obituary of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck.
hazarded the success of necessary appropriations, to give his personal pledge that the moneys should be judiciously applied, and by becoming, as it were, the endorser of the government, he has secured the recognition of the claims of these interests, and obtained the necessary supplies.
On the arrival of M. Vattemare in this country, Dr. Beck immediately saw the value of such a system of international exchange as was proposed, and became at once one of its warmest advocates; nor has he ever ceased to urge upon the successive legislatures the con- tinuance of the system ; and even upon his death-bed he entreated, as a personal favor, that his friends would not forget the claims of this subject, in which he had always felt so deep an interest. In a letter lately received, M. Vattemare writes-"The death of Dr. Beck-deprives me of the best and most faithful friend I ever had, as well as of the most enlightened and active co-operator in the noble cause to which my life is devoted. * * * I thought that with my friend all was gone; but the recollection of his solicitude for the system of exchange, as well as his paternal anxiety for the State Library- that glorious monument of his patriotism and high knowledge-revived my courage, and with it the hope that those kind friends I have yet among the regents of the university, and the recollection of the friendship of Dr. Beck for me, and of his association in my labors, would secure the continuation of their good will."
Outside of his own peculiar sphere of duties, no ob- ject of public interest was undertaken without finding in him a warm supporter. When the project of a uni- versity in the city of Albany was started, intended to supply in some measure, the scientific and literary wants of the whole United States, Dr. Beck, while seeing clearly all the difficulties and discouragements attending such a scheme, did not fail to recognize its practical bearings, and his views were liberal and comprehensive.
Of the American Association of Science he was an active member, and rendered it many services.
In obedience to those promptings of humanity which
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Obituary of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck.
seem in a great measure to have determined his course in life-laboring always most zealously for those who were least able to appreciate his services, or to recognize them-he read before this society in 1837, a paper on the statistics of the deaf and dumb, which had the effect to direct the attention of the public and of the legislators more fully to the condition and necessities of this unfortu- nate class, and the results of which may be seen in the establishment in the city of New York of a school for deaf mutes, unrivaled in the excellence of its system and in the perfection of its details.
By the act of its incorporation, in April, 1842, Dr. Beck was made one of the board of managers of the New York State Lunatic Asylum, situated at Utica; and he has been re-appointed by the governor and senate at the expiration of each successive triennial period. Upon the death of Mr. Munson, in 1854, he, although a non- resident member, was unanimously elected president of the board. This important institution, established and endowed by the state upon a scale of almost unparallel- ed munificence, is no doubt indebted largely to Dr. Beck, for his wise counsels and efficient personal aid, which he has at all times freely contributed.
Dr. Beck was also an occasional contributor to the pages of the American Journal of Insanity,* published at Utica, under the editorial management of Dr. Brig- ham, the late principal: and when, upon the death of
* In April, 1844, the first number of the American Journal of Insanity was issued from the press, occupying an entirely new field in the medical literature of this country. The generous motive which Jed Dr. Brigham, its founder and first editor, to assume, in addition to his onerous duties as superintendent of a large asylum, the labor and responsibility of its establishment, is well known to most of our readers. To many of his colleagues and professional friends he was largely indebted for encouragement in his undertaking, and for much valued and gratefully acknowledged assistance: among them, Dr. Beck, who, deeply interested in the attainment of the ends at which the Journal aimed, warmly seconded his efforts, and, amid many other engagements, found sufficient time to contribute frequently and ably to its pages. After Dr. Brigham's death, the managers of [Annals, viii.] . 3
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Obituary of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck.
Dr. Brigham, in 1850, the management of the Journal fell into the bands of the board, Dr. Beck was chosen its editor, a place which he continued to hold "until the close of the last volume, when advancing years and more imperative duties compelled him to relinquish his edito- rial connection."
Of the chief labor of Dr. Beck's life, and of that which has made his name illustrious wherever science and literature are cultivated, it still remains to speak. I allude to his work on Medical Jurisprudence, and which no less reflects honor upon us as Americans, upon this city of his adoption, and upon you, gentlemen, who were his associates and fellow-members in this society. From how early a period in his life the subject of this work occupied his attention we may infer from the fol- lowing brief extracts from letters written to his uncle, the Rev. J. B. Romeyn. The first is dated in 1813: " Permit me to press upon you the obtaining of one or the other of the French authors on legal medicine. . It
has long been a favorite idea with me to prepare a work of that subject, and should I be enabled to procure Fo- dere or Mahon, my design may be completed." The second is dated June 30, 1814, and was addressed to his uncle at Lisbon, Portugal: "As the communication is now open between Great Britain and France, you will doubt- less be enabled to procure the books I wished. Dulan advertised them some years since."
On this topic I find ready at my hand nearly all that it is necessary to say, in a biographical notice of the author, contained in the first volume of an elegant pub- .
the State Lunatic Asylum, aware of the importance, to a specialty, of a periodical devoted to its advancement and interest, assumed the entire responsibility of its publication, and, by their unanimous request, induced Dr. Beck to edit the ensuing volume. He gave his consent, hoping at the close of the year to be relieved of a care which, with his other numerous duties, was a heavy tax; but, in the absence of any other arrangement, he continued to conduct it until the close of the last volume, when "advancing years and more im- perative duties" compelled him to relinquish his editorial connection.
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Obituary of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck.
cation, entitled The National Portrait Gallery of Distin- guished Americans, issued at New York in the year 1834, under the auspices of the American Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1823, Dr. Beck published his work 'entitled Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, in two volumes, oc- tavo; which at the time, attracted great attention, and has since continued a standard work on the subject of which it treats. The science of medical jurisprudence is one of great interest and importance. It treats of all those questions, in which the testimony of a medical man may be required before courts of justice, and from the nature of many of the questions, it is obvious that their discussion requires the widest range of medical and scientific knowledge. Although deeply studied in Italy, France and Germany, this science had scarcely attracted any attention either in this country or in England, pre- vious to the publication of the work of Dr. Beck. To him is certainly due the high credit, not merely of rous- ing public attention to an important and neglected subject, but also of presenting a work upon it which will probably never be entirely superseded. In foreign countries its merits have been duly appreciated and magnanimously acknowledged. The Edinburg Medical and Surgical Journal says of it, vol. xxii, p. 179 (1824): "We under- take this task with the greater pleasure on the present occasion, that we shall have to throw aside, for the first time on medico-legal subjects, the character of the austere critic. It has been our misfortune to handle with some freedom, almost all previous works on the subject. And we have been induced to handle them more freely than many may have thought was called for, because we apprehend that all early works on medical jurisprudence, especially of the systematic kind, should be viewed with peculiar jealousy by every one interested in its progress. For as it is now circumstanced, languishing still in its infancy, and struggling against the supineness, indiffer- ence and prejudices of those who ought to be its most zealous protectors, no greater mischief could happen than that systematic treatises should pass without warning
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Obituary of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck.
into the hands of the public, which, however meritorious, are nevertheless, not on a level with its state of advance- ment, and do not present an expanded view of its general spirit and practical applications. At length, however, the English language may boast, that it is possessed of a general work on medical jurisprudence, which will not only stand comparison with the best of the kind that the continent has produced, but which may also be referred to by every medical jurist as a monument worthy of his science, and as a criterion by which he is willing that its interest and utility should be tried. Under the unas- suming title of Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, Doctor Beck has presented us with a comprehensive sys- tem, which embraces almost every valuable fact or doc- trine relating to it. Each of its diversified departments has been investigated so minutely, that few cases can occur in practice, on which it will be necessary to seek elsewhere for further information. At the same time by studying succinctness and shunning those verbose orato- rical details with which other writers, and particularly those of France abound, he has succeeded in rendering his treatise comprehensive within a singularly moderate compass. We may securely assert, that a work on the subject is not to be found in any language, which displays so much patient and discriminating research, with so . little of the mere ostentation of learning. The opinions expressed both on general principles and on the particu- lar questions which have occurred in courts of law, are given clearly and judiciously. There are few occasions, even where the points at issue are difficult and obscure, on which persons of skill and experience will be disposed to differ materially with him."
In the various medical colleges of Great Britain, there has been, we believe, no text book on medical jurispru- dence positively adopted; but we have been informed that Dr. Beck's work has been for years recommended to students by professors. In 1828, it was translated into German, at Weimar, and has been favorably received in various parts of the continent of Europe.
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Obituary of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck.
It is not alone the physician and the jurist who are indebted to Dr. Beck for this essential work; but it has proved to the general reader, we believe invariably, a fund of interesting information; and we will venture to say that no one has ever risen from its perusal without experiencing an agreeable surprise, that a subject so uninviting in its title, should afford so much amusement.
We will only add, that the work has already passed through five American, and four London, besides the German edition. In the preface to the first London edition which was published as early as 1825, with notes by Dr. Wm. Dunlap, the editor says: "We do not claim for the present work the meed of a faultless performance, but we fear not to challenge a comparison of it with any of the English works in scientific accuracy, philosophical plainness and precision of style, extent of research, gen- uine scholarship and erudition, pointedness of illustra- tion, and copiousness of detail and reference to original documents."
Says a bibliographer, in a notice of the German edi- tion, "Among the numerous and unequivocal evidences of the very high estimation in which Dr. Beck's Elements of Jurisprudence are held by the profession in Europe, their translation into the German language must be regarded as the most flattering and decisive indication of their true value. In no country has this interesting and varied science been prosecuted with such unabated zeal, or have so much learning and research been elicited on its several curious topics, as in Germany. From the time of Zachias, indeed, to the present day, it has been the favorite object of study with German physicians, and their opinions of the merits of any treatise on the subject are therefore entitled to the highest weight and the most respectful consideration. Proud are we, therefore, to see them prize the performance of our learned country- man so high as to deem it worthy of transfusion into their vernacular tongue. In his native language his work is as yet without a parallel."
Although the two volumes originally comprised more
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than 2000 pages octavo, yet to each successive American edition he did not fail to add largely from his apparently inexhaustible stores of knowledge and research. Nor even here did his labors cease, but he continued to con- tribute almost to the period of his death to one or more of the medical or scientific journals of the country, such additional facts or discoveries as from time to time came to his knowledge. In the American Journal of Medical Science, edited by Dr. Hays, may be found many of his most valuable papers.
Says a distinguished writer for that periodical, in reviewing the tenth edition of his Medical Jurisprudence: "The pages of this journal, for many years past, have borne constant evidence of the untiring and invaluable research of Dr. Beck, whose observations and extracts from foreign and domestic sources have filled that por- tion of it devoted to medical jurisprudence; and the writer of the present notice bears his testimony to the same effect; for, having taken much interest in the subject, and consequently had occasion to examine the journals, he found it impossible to furnish a single nov- elty to this department in which he had not been anticî- pated by Dr. Beck."
Nor is there perhaps, any testimony more pertinent as to the rank occupied by Dr. Beck in the literary and scientific world, than the large number of societies, both abroad and at home, which conferred upon him either honorary or active memberships.
Dr. Beck enjoyed during his life, almost uninterrupted health, the result, we suspect, of a good natural consti- tution, and of temperate, regular, and, so far at least as his literary pursuits would permit, active habits.
The following account of his last illness and of the autopsy, is too interesting to admit of abridgment, and I shall make no apology for its introduction. It was furnished at my request by his attending physician, Dr. S. D. Willard, of this city, who visited him from the earliest stage of his illness, and whose personal care and devotion, as well as that of Dr. Hun, who was called in
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Obituary of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck.
counsel, toward the close of his life, was most faithful, unremitting, and far exceeding all claims of professional duty.
" Dr. Beck suffered from an attack of indigestion in the early part of January, 1854. It was at a time when he was busily engaged in his official duties, and although he placed himself under medical treatment, and was visited twice daily by his physician, he did not allow himself, as I remember, to be deterred from going to his office for a single day. He recovered from this attack in two weeks, and with the exception of a slight paroxysm of gout, he enjoyed nearly his usual health during the remainder of the year.
In February, 1855, he was again taken ill, and the symptoms with which his illness began were precisely similar to those of the year previous. The weather was intensely cold, and he was induced on account of it to remain at home for a few days, though he was quite unwilling to admit the necessity of such a regimen. The symptoms did not yield as readily as they had dono before ; he experienced great uneasiness about the stom- ach and bowels; his appetite not only failed, but he felt nausea at the very mention of either food or medicine ; he complained greatly of weakness, but was almost invariably invigorated by his sleep at night. He was so much better at the end of a fortnight as to go out, and this he con- tinued to do nearly every day, utterly regardless of the weather, and appeared to be daily gaining strength until the last of March, when the symptoms returned upon him, as violent as they had been at first; but they again yielded after a week or ten days, and with the exception of his not having regained his strength, he appeared for a little time nearly recovered. We looked forward to the return of mild weather with confident expectation that his health would be restored. During the month of May he was daily at his office, and continued his labors and researches with his accustomed untiring industry. About the first of June he visited his daughter, Mrs. Van Cortlandt, at Croton, and while there he had a recurrence
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Obituary of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck.
of some of his unpleasant symptoms, though they were less severe than in preceding attacks. His visit at Croton was brief, and he returned again to pursue his labors beyond the measure of his strength. At length he yielded to the solicitations of his friends to make his summer visit to Lake George a few weeks earlier than usual, and this in the belief that total relaxation would prove of the desired benefit to him. Here, however, he indulged less in the social pleasures and rural sports than had for many years been his practice. Occasionally he went out on the lake for fish, and once he joined a party that had arranged to dine on a rock about five miles down the lake. He went and returned in a row boat, and though much fatigued, bore the exertion better than could have been expected. [August 29.] His very nature gave him a keen relish for such pleasures, but he now united in them with reluctance. He became averse to exercise, and much of his time was passed with his friends on the piazza of the hotel, or in his own room, reperusing some favorite volume. Scarcely a week passed without the return of some of his annoying symptoms, and notwith- standing he thought himself getting better, he was becoming weaker and losing flesh. He returned from
Lake George on the 7th September. His journey home greatly fatigued him, and he found himself obliged to send for his physician the next day. Medication almost uniformly brought him present relief, but it did not serve to eradicate the morbid condition to which his system had become subjected. He continued to go to the State Library until the 15th September, when he left it for the last time.
Until the present there was, to my mind, no positive indications of other than functional derangement in his case. He was very weak, and had not only lost his full, portly habit, but had become greatly emaciated. His appetite, at times, was good, but not uniformly so. The food he took did not appear to assimilate with and nourish his body, although it was generally well digested. He retired early, slept quietly, and maintained his fixed
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habit of rising at five or six o'clock in the morning. He had not, thus far, suffered any severe pain during the progress of his illness; the recurrence of nausea gave him great uneasiness, and he complained likewise of lassitude and debility, but not of pain.
For several years he had, at times, been afflicted with paroxysms of dyspnœa, and he assured me that the pul- sations of his heart had "always been irregular." Since he had become so feeble, these had increased to such an extent as to indicate that they were occasioned by disease of the heart-but they lacked essentially some of the peculiarities which would be expected in advanced disease of that organ.
It was at this time that Dr. Hun, who had seen him at intervals while visiting other members of the family, united with me in regular attendance. So great a change had taken place in his appearance, that it now became manifest that the disease was making rapid inroads upon his remaining strength, and was advancing to a fatal termination.
The doctor consented to remain quiet for a few days; it was without a realization of his own feebleness. He consented, not because he admitted the necessity of quietude, but because his physicians positively enjoined it. He still looked forward, one week after another, to the time when he should be able to resume his duties, and appointed several days when he hoped to go out; But, when the time came, he felt that his strength was insufficient for the effort, and consented readily to abide the advice of his attendants and friends.
During these weeks of confinement, he was uniformly cheerful, and looked on the bright side of his own case. He seldom complained of pain, and was rather unwilling to admit that he suffered any. He rarely inquired par- ticularly about the nature of his disease, nor did he evince anxiety about the manner in which it might ter- minate. Thus he continued until late in October, when, upon the suggestion of his daughters, he consented to an arrangement for a consultation with Dr. Willard Parker,
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. of New York, who had been the physician of his brother, Dr. John B. Beck, and who is likewise a warm personal friend of the family.
The evening before Dr. Parker came (October 24), he spoke more freely of himself than he had previously done. It was conclusive to me then, that the character of his malady had not escaped his own careful observation. He said to me: " I don't altogether give up my own case yet, but I have lived long enough to wear out my consti- tution-and whatever is the result, I must be content." These were the first words indicating that he regarded his condition critical. The next morning he was visited by Dr. Parker, together with Dr. Hun and myself. He received us with great composure and cheerfulness, and made a clear, full statement of his case, speaking of himself as if he was not the person interested in the examination.
After the consultation, we returned to his room, and Dr. Parker taking his seat by him kindly said: "Now, Doctor, we have asked you a great many questions, are there any you would like to ask us?" His reply was strictly characteristic of himself as a man of few words. He did not seek to evade the result of this investigation, but arrived at once at the conclusion, by a single ques- tion, that covered the whole subject: "Can you get me well ?" Dr. Parker told him that we were unable to detect organic disease, but there was a suspension in the process of assimilation, his food digested, but did not assimilate ; "The engine," said he, "you have, but the fuel fails to make it work." Again he asked : "Can you get in fuel that will ?" The answers to these pointed inquiries were necessarily of a negative character; to which he replied : "You make out my case very unfa- vorably." In the afternoon of the same day, I found him cheerful, without having been fatigued by the morn- ing interview, and he expressed some confidence in the efficacy of the nitro-muriatic acid sponge bath which was suggested by Dr. Parker.
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