The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 61

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II > Part 61

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GEORGE GILFILLAN, born in Ireland in 1797, early chose medi- cine as his field of labor, and began preparation for that study by acquiring a thorough classical education. Ere he could enter the Medical School at Glasgow, however, his father met with such severe business reverses as changed all the family plans. George, with an elder brother, came to America to begin the struggle for sustenance. Still following his predi- lection for the medical profession, George became a clerk in a drug store, situated on the corner of Sands and Jay streets, de- termining to remain there until he had accumulated sufficient means to permit study and graduation from the New York Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons. During the cholera epidemic of 1832 the physicians of Brooklyn were too few in number to hopefully combat the disease. Dr. George Gilfillan left the drug store, and though not yet a graduate, joined in the at- tempt to stay the plague. For his voluntary risk of life in this labor for others he received the public thanks of Drs. Wendell and Ball. His conduct brought him into prominence, and when he graduated two years later he at once entered upon a large practice. At first he located on the corner of Sands and Jay streets, later moving to the corner of Main and York streets, where he continued in practice almost till the close of his life. Dr. Gilfillan was a member of the Kings County Medical Society, and a life member of the Long Island Historical Society. He never married. He died in 1879 at the ripe age of 83 years.

It may not be amiss to pause for a moment and view the field and conditions of medical practice in the Brooklyn of 1841. Remsen street was not open be- yond Henry, and but two houses stood near its ter- mination. From the junction of Henry and Remsen streets an unbroken view over cultivated fields could be had as far as Washington street. The settled sec- tions of the city were about Fulton and Catherine ferries. Within this small area the First Presbyterian Church, Dr. Cox's, on Orange street; Second Presby- terian, Dr. Spencer's, on Clinton street; the First Bap- tist Church, in Nassau street; the First Reformed Church, a little west of the present location; the East Baptist, Dr. E. E. L. Taylor's, then at the corner of Barbarin (Lawrence) and Tillary, and a German church in Henry street, furnished spiritual consolation to the inhabitants; while their physical ills were attended to by Drs. Wen- dell, George Gilfillan, Rowland Willsher, Van Sin- deren, Rapelye, Garrison, Fanning, Hyde, F. W. Ost- rander, W. G. Hunt, King, Marvine, Mason, Cooke, McClellan and Benjamin. Not a single public build- ing existed, and the total population reached but five and twenty thousand.

CHARLES S. GOODRICH was born in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1802; graduated from the Pittsfield Medical College in 1827, and began practice in Troy, N. Y. Some years later he re- moved to Brooklyn. In 1847-'48-'49, and again in 1858-'59, he was connected with the Health Department, either as Health Officer or President. In 1853 he was appointed United States Consul at Lyons, France, by President Fillmore. On his return to America he again resumed active practice in Brooklyn, and remained engaged in his professional work till the outbreak of the war. He then went to the front as.sur- geon of 102d Regiment, New York Volunteers, and remained till the close of hostilities. After the war Dr. Goodrich never

resumed practice, but lived quietly in Brooklyn till his death in 1883. He was a member and at one time vice-president of the New York State Medical Society, but never joined the County Society.

CHARLES E. ISAACS, born in 1811, graduated from the Uni- versity of Maryland in 1832. Almost his first labor in profes- sional life was the medical oversight of the Cherokee tribe of Indians in their transfer across the Mississippi, a duty to which he was assigned by President Jackson. In 1841 he formed one of fifty candidates who sought admission into the United States Army Medical Staff. Of this number but six passed the examination, and Dr. Isaacs stood first among the six. He resigned from the service in 1845, and joined with Dr. Wm. H. Van Buren in establishing a private medical school in New York city. In 1847, he began private practice in Youngs- town, N. Y., with Dr. T. G. Catlin. Six months later he was ap- pointed Deputy Health Officer of Staten Island. but resigned the position within a month and returned to Dr. Catlin. In 1848 he was chosen Demonstrator of Anatomy to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, a position which he filled to his own honor and the great benefit of the school. In 1857 Dr. Isaacs removed to Brooklyn and there remained till his death in 1860. Shortly thereafter he delivered. by request, a course of lectures on surgical anatomy, at the Brooklyn City Hospital, which was received with great favor. He con. tributed many articles to medical and a few to general litera . ture; one on the " Structure and Function of the Kidneys" being translated and republished in France and Germany. He was an active member of the Kings County Medical So- ciety ; one of the founders and successively president and vice-president of the N. Y. Pathological Society : an active member of the N. Y. Academy of Medicine, and Consulting Surgeon to the Kings County Hospital. By the profession he was considered "the first living anatomist in the world." Malaria, the seeds of which were sown in his system during his army service, constantly crippled the energy and dimmed the brightness of what would otherwise have been a splendid professional life; but it did not diminish the sweetness of his most lovable disposition, nor the charms of a cultivated and refined mind.

DE WITT CLINTON ENOS was born in Madison county, N. Y., in 1820. Obtaining his preliminary education at the De Ruyter Institute, he began the study of medicine with Dr. James Whitford, of De Ruyter, and graduated from the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1845. For a time he practiced in New York City, but removed to Brooklyn in 1849. Dr. Enos was one of the Visiting Surgeons to the Brooklyn City Hospital and held the chair of Anatomy at the Long Island College Hospital. He was a member of the Kings County Medical Society, and was president of that body in 1863. He was also a member of the New York Academy of Medicine and of the N. Y. Pathological Society. He wrote a number of monographs, chiefly on surgical topics. His death occurred December 14, 1868, from obstruction of the coronary arter- ies.

RICHARD CRESSON STILES was born in Philadelphia, in 1830; took the degree of A.B. at Yale, in 1851, and three years later that of M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. In Eu- rope he continued his studies for three years longer. On his return to this country he was elected to the chair of Physi- ology in the University of Vermont, and shortly after to the same chair in the Berkshire Medical College at Pittsfield, Mass. In the term of 1861, '62, he was lecturer on Physiology

890

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

at the N. Y. College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1862 he entered the army as a surgical volunteer, and was assigned to the charge of the military general hospital at Pittsburg, Penn. The next year he joined Hancock's corps in the Army of the Potomac as Surgeon-in-Chief of Caldwell's Division. In 1864 he came to Brooklyn and was appointed Resident Physician to the Kings County Hospital, which position he held till 1366, when he was appointed at first Registrar of Vital Statistics, and, later, Sanitary Superintendent for the Brooklyn District of the Metropolitan Health Department. He remained in the Health Office till the Metropolitan Board was abolished by the Legislature of 1870. While there he called public attention particularly to the defective ventila- tion of Public buildings, such as schools, theaters, etc., and especially to the condition of tenement house hygiene, uniting with Rev. Dr. Bellows, Dr. Elisha Harris, and Dr. Stephen Smith, of New York, in the agitation of this sub- ject. Entering with his usual ability into the investigation of the Texas cattle disease, his discovery of the parasite which caused that malady gave him a widespread scientific reputation; and Professor Hallier, of Jena, named the fungus Coniothecium Stilesianum, in honor of the discoverer. Like many others, Dr. Stiles overworked himself, and shortly after leaving the Health Department his constitution yielded to the undue strain which had been put upon it. Efforts to re- lieve his ills proved fruitless, and he died at Chester, in his native State, in 1873. at the untimely age of forty-three years.

N. GERHARD HUTCHISON, M. D., was born in Marshall, Saline county, Mo., June 3d, 1853. He was the son of Dr. Joseph C. Hutchison and Mrs. Susan B. Hutchison of Brook- lyn, N. Y. His grandfather, on his father's side, was Dr. Nathaniel Hutchison, of Booneville, Mo., and on his mother's side, the Rev. Amzi Benedict, whose wife was the daughter of Gen. Solomon Cowles, of Farmington, Conn. His preparatory studies were pursued in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, and at Stuttgart, in Germany, where he was fitted for, and entered into, the Real Schule. After his return, in 1871, he was a private pupil of Prof. Plymp- ton, of the Polytechnic Institute, and in 1872 he began the study of medicine in his father's office.

In the spring of 1873, he attended the course of lectures given in the Long Island College, and in the autumn of that year entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, where he graduated in 1875, and received liis diploma of Doctor of Medicine. After graduation he was for a short period one of the Assistant Physicians in Kings County Hospital, at Flatbush, L. I. He, also, in 1874, made two voyages, as an assistant surgeon, on board of one of the steamers of the White Star Line, from New York to Liverpool.

In the summer of 1875, he opened an office in Brooklyn, and began the practice of medicine. He was soon ap- pointed Attending Surgeon to the Brooklyn Orthopedic In- firmary, Assistant Surgeon to St. Peter's Hospital, and also Assistant Surgeon to the Twenty-third Regiment.

His success as a practitioner was speedily assured. He evinced great enthusiasm for the profession of his choice; gave himself to the study of his cases; published a very creditable essay upon one of them, and was distinguishing himself by energy and fidelity.

His last patient was a child suffering from diphtheria, upon whom he performed the operation of tracheotomy. He bestowed upon the case constant attention, and was unremitting in his watchfulness night and day. Con- tracting the disease, however, himself, he experienced it in its most aggravated form; and after four days of intense

suffering, he died on the 10th day of April, 1877. Just before the last, he called for tracheotomy, in the last words he ever spoke, and it was performed for him by Dr. Rush- more, in the hope of affording him temporary relief.

The funeral services, held at his father's residence, on the 12th of April, were conducted by his pastor, the Rev. Wm. Ives Budington, D. D .; and the interment took place in Greenwood on the samo day.

His grave is on Southwood avenue, at the intersection cf Oakwood and Dell avenues. The headstone bears the in- scription, " Faithful unto death."

CHARLES H. GIBERSON was born at Bath, New Brunswick, in 1838. He studied at the country school at his home; later at the Florence school at Woodstock, the Seminary at Fred- eric.on, and the training school at St. Johns. At the age of sixteen years he was engaged in teaching, and continued that occupation at intervals during his studies. In 1857, he began the study of dentistry, and received a diploma from a Boston dental college.

Having long been interested in medical science, he began the study of that subject with Dr. Hiram Dow, of Frederic- ton, and graduated from the University of Vermont in the spring of 1861. On coming to New York to continue his studies, he was appointed one of the staff of Charity Hospi- tal, and served in that institution till his appointment as Assistant Surgeon in the United States Navy in October, 1861. Dr. Giberson remained in the navy seven years, serving through the civil war, during three years of which he was with Farragut's squadron on the Mississippi.

In November, 1868, he resigned his position and began the practice of his profession in Brooklyn. For a time, Dr. Gib- erson served in the out-door department of the Long Island College Hospital, and subsequently, for several years, on the surgical staff of St. Mary's Hospital for Women. In 1876, he was appointed Attending Surgeon to the Brooklyn City Hospital, and held that position till his death. He was one of the founders, the first president, and many years Secre- tary of the Brooklyn Pathological Society, and the first meeting of that body was held in his office.

In 1972, he was orator of the Kings County Medical So- ciety at its semi-centennial anniversary. For four years he was delegate from the Kings County Medical Society to the New York State Medical Society, and in 1878 was elected a permanent member of the latter. He contributed many articles to medical literature, on both surgical and medical topics.

On the evening of April 14, 1879, he was stricken with peritonitis, and died from that disease five days later.

It is not alone, however, by the labors of its individ- ual members that the Kings County Society has progressed in the nobler duties of an advancing profession. As a body, it has accomplished much for the furtherance of scientific aims and charitable deeds.

The Society's Medical Library and Publica- tions .- In September 1867, a committee, composed of Drs. C. L. Mitchell, J. C. Hutchison, J. T. Conkling, S. Fleet Speir and W. W. Reese, reported a resolution favoring the creation of a public reference library of medical literature, by the purchase of standard medi- cal works, on condition that the Long Island Histori- cal Society add a similar amount to the fund and assume the charge of the nucleus thus formed-phy- sicians desirous of availing themselves of its benefits

891

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

to become members of the society. Through the efforts mainly of Drs. Enos, Mitchell and Reese, this plan was adopted. $1,000 was collected and, with a similar amount from the Historical Society, expended in the purchase of medical works. In 1869, Mrs. D. C. Enos, the widow of Dr. De Witt C. Enos, who had died suddenly at the close of 1868, gave her late husband's library, consisting of 815 bound and 74 nnbound volumes, together with a number of pamphlets, to the Medical Department of the library, which by 1870, had increased to 1570 volumes. Apart from this collection, the Society had for years held some books as the nucleus of a frec medical library; but the effort to increase the number was not pushed with vigor, till four or five years ago. At that time the work was begun in earnest ; subscription lists were circulated among the members for their aid ; the appeal was generously answered, and a goodly number of books and journals were bought. In 1878, Dr. Samuel Hart gave his library to the Society, and added materially to the collection. The exchange list of the Proceedings is also of excellent aid ; the most valuable medical jour- nals are constantly on file and open for reference to members of the society, and are in constantly increasing use by a large number of readers.

Another of the Society's methods of advaneing medi- cal thought is the monthly publication of the papers read and discussed in that body. This work was agi- tated by some of the most active members as early as 1875, and took form by the issue of the first number of the Proceedings in March, 1879. From the start, its cir- culation has been 1,000 copies, and its exchange list now numbers 122 journals. On March 3d, 1870, a party of medical men met at the office of one of their number, to consider the advisability of organizing a Pathological Society. With the idea of securing the co-operation of the Kings County Medical Society, the then President of that organization, Dr. R. C. Stiles, was requested to announce the intention at the next regular meeting and to invite all interested to join in a meeting to be held in the rooms of the Board of Health, then in the County Court-house on March 22, 1870. Eleven physicians met on the 22d, and resolved to organize as the Pathological Section of the Medical Society. The meetings of the Society were held in various places ; at the office of Dr. Charles Giberson, one of its founders, at Dr. R. C. Stiles' office, and later at the Eye and Ear Hospital. Its transactions were at first published in the N. Y. Medical Journal ; for a time after its origin they were published in the Proceedings ; then for a time they had no regular publication ; but at present are again published in the Proceedings. " The section now has a membership of eighty and a finc pathological museum which is stored in the Long Island College Hospital. ¿ The Annals of Anatomy and Surgery is a monthly journal, devoted to Surgery and Surgical Anatomy, edited and published by Drs. L. S. Pilcher

and G. R. Fowler. It was established under the title of The Annals of the Anatomical and Surgical Society, in January, 1880, for the purpose of recording the scien- tific work of the Anatomical and Surgical Society of Brooklyn, an association then active but now nearly defunct; but in 1881 it was transferred to its present editors.

While thus steadily advancing the scientific study of medicine, the Society had found time for other good deeds. On the 24th of April, 1861, it resolved to render gratuitous professional services to the families of vol- unteers in the service during their absence, and this duty was faithfully observed during the four years that followed, and, to the widows and orphans of volunteers, for a still longer period. After the second battle of Bull Run, a number of the most eminent members of the profession volunteered to go to the front and ren- der the professional services so much needed at that time. When Chicago was swept by the fire of 1871, the Kings County Medical Society raised $1,338 for the relief of the medical men of that afflicted city, by the voluntary subscriptions of its members ; again, in 1878, when many of our southern cities were stricken by the yellow fever epidemic, the society raised $547 for the relief of the families of medical men who were among its victims. At its foundation, the society had nine members ; at the last annual meeting, three hundred and sixty active members, and now nearly fonr hundred.

The Epidemics which have visited Kings County .- Brief mention has already been made of the early epidemics that brought death to some of the inhabi- tants and terror to all residents in the County; it remains to dwell more fully on the topic. As early as 1680, small-pox was introduced into the province of New York and swept off many colonists. Time and time again it re-appeared, till, in 1739, the disease was so prevalent that the Provincial Assembly adjourned, first to Greenwich village, and later sine die, to avoid spread- ing the contagion. In 1702 a new disease, described as similar to the plague and believed to have been yel- low fever, was brought to New York in a vessel from St. Thomas, and this malady gained such a firm hold, that official action by Governor Geo. Clinton, placing vessels from southern ports in quarantine became ne- cessary in 1743. In 1755 and 1769 a disease called Angina, was prevalent on Long Island. It was not until 1804, however, that a systematic record was kept of epidemic diseases. In that year, yellow fever was introduced into Kings county, the first case occurring on August 22d. Seventeen were stricken with the disease, and of these six died. Again yellow fever gained a hold in the county in 1809. The population of Brooklyn, when its force was spent at that time, was 4,500. The disease lasted during the greater part of three months; twenty-eight died from the fever and none of these exceeded thirty years of age.

892

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

As early as 1822, the Board of Trustees of Brooklyn village passed an ordinance imposing a fine of $25 upon any one who should bring a sick person into the city limits, without a written permit from the Presi- dent of the Board; or who failed to report to him within six hours of its outbreak any sickness of a transient guest, within Brooklyn, from August 1st to Novem- ber 1st. In spite of this, the summer of 1823 brought another outbreak of yellow fever; and, in the population of some 8,000, nineteen were taken sick, and ten died of the disease. The year following (1824), the Legisla- ture passed an act establishing a Health Department, and under it, as has already been mentioned, J. G. T. Hunt was appointed Health Officer, at an annual salary of $200. No epidemic attacked the city from 1823 till 1832. In the latter year, Asiatic cholera made its appearance in the early part of July, and lasted for fourteen weeks, reaching its climax during the third week. The number of deaths from the disease was 274 in a population of 17,000. Cholera occurred again dur- ing the summer of 1849, beginning early in June. It lasted seventeen weeks, reaching its climax during the tenth week, and swept off 650, out of a population of 90,000. Once again in 1854, this dread epidemic made its periodical appearance in Brooklyn, the first case oc- curring on May 29th, in the 5th Ward, at 255 John street. It lasted three and twenty weeks, reached its height on the ninth week, and swept away 678 people out of a population of 150,000. During this epidemic a chol- era hospital was opened on Lafayette Avenue, under the charge of Dr. J. C. Hutchison ; 170 patients were ad- mitted to it, and of these 97 died. In all these epi- demics of cholera, the highest death rate was in adults, between thirty and forty years of age. In 1856, yellow fever again appeared in Kings county, brought prob- ably by infected material thrown overboard from the fever-stricken ships lying at anchor in quarantine, from within a few yards of Long Island, across to the Staten Island shore. Its ravages were confined almost entirely to the 8th Ward and the Bay Ridge Shore to Fort Hamilton ; seventy-four people were attacked within the limits of Brooklyn, and of these thirty-nine died. It was in combatting this epidemic, that Drs. Dubois and Crane of New Utrecht lost their lives.

From 1824 to 1866, the Department of Health existed as created by the legislative act of the former year. In 1866, the Metropolitan Health Department was cre- ated and Brooklyn was made a district; but this system was too cumbrous to be effective, and it was abolished by the Legislature of 1870. Since that time, the city of Brooklyn has been under the care of its own Health Department in all sanitary matters. i

Among the medical men connected with the Health Department since the time of Dr. IIunt, have been Drs. Chas. S. Goodrich, Matthew Wendell, T. L. Mason, J. T. Conkling, R. Cresson Stiles, Henry R. Stiles, James Crane, Andrew Otterson, and J. II. Raymond.

Of the living physicians who have aided medical pro- gress in this county, only brief mention can be'made ; and in selecting from the many eminent names the few that can be noticed, we must be guided entirely by the services they have rendered, and the honors they have received.

SAMUEL G. ARMOUR, was born in Washington county, Pa. He graduated from Franklin College, Ohio, in 1839, winning a distinguished competitive honor in that institution, while quite young. He received the title of LL. D., from that in- stitution in 1872. He completed his medical studies at the Missouri Medical College of St. Louis. In 1847, soon after his graduation, he delivered a special course of lectures on Physiology, at the Rush Medical College in Chicago; and, since then has been a professor in the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati, the Missouri Medical College, the University of Michigan, and now holds the chair of "Principles and Prac- tice of Medicine" at the Long Island College Hospital, cf which he is Dean of Faculty. In the course of a busy pro- fessional life, Dr. Armour has found leisure to contribute many valuable papers to medical literature, and ranks very high both as a writer, lecturer and practitioner.

DANIEL AYRES, a native of New York, after taking the degree of A. B. at Princeton College, graduated from the Medical Department of the New York University in 1843. After serving a term on the house staff of Bellevue Hospital, he removed to Brooklyn in 1845. He was one of the founders of the Brooklyn City Hospital, and was a visit- ing surgeon at that institution, from 1846 to 1853. With others he joined in the organization of the Long Island College Hospital, and was, until 1882, Professor of Surgical Pathology and Clinical Surgery there. During the Civil War, Dr. Ayres served as a medical director or corps surgeon. In 1870, he was appointed consulting surgeon to St. Peter's Hospital; and is, at present, one of the incorporators of the Seney Hospital. In 1856, the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him hy Wes- leyan University.

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 61

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co Number of Pages: 1345

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345