USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I > Part 24
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4 That this is no exaggerated sketch is manifest from the following certificate:
CLEVELAND, March 2d, 1815.
Personally appeared Alonzo Carter of Cleveland in said county before me and produced the scalp of a full grown wolf and being sworn according to Law is entitled to the sum of four dollars bounty from the state ..
State of Ohio, Cuyahoga County.
HORACE PERRY, Justice of the Peace.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
the names of Dupuytren, Delpech, Roux, Civiale, Lisfranc, Velpeau and Mal- gaigne became familiar to all students.
Whatever may have been the deficiencies of our pioneer physicians in the theory of medicine, in practical therapeutics they were vigorous and aggressive, and such sins as they displayed were certainly not sins of omission.5 Disease was regarded as a specific entity, within, but not a part of the patient, and to be ex- pelled by a vigorous bombardment with the whole arsenal of the materia medica. Bleeding, emetics, blisters, calomel, antimony, jalap, etc., were the trusty servants of the practitioner in his daily walk, and were employed with an unsparing hand, worthy almost of Rasori. Yet the patients, as a rule, recovered, much as they do today. Most of them enjoyed the advantage of a sound constitution, unim- paired by the vices of modern civilization, and beneficent Nature accepted the nauseous potions with a mild shrug of indifference, tightened her belt one more hole -- and fairly dragged the patient from the jaws of death and the doctor, for the most part to the glory of the doctor only.
A peculiar feature of the ethics of the profession in this early day was the frequency with which physicians accepted and occupied public positions of honor and trust, without the slightest derogation from their reputation as medical men and representatives of a noble art. Thus Dr. Long, as we have seen, was a trus- tee of the village, a county commissioner and president of the village corpora- tion; Dr. McIntosh kept a hotel; Dr. Seth Smith Handerson (1794-1844), in association with Noah Graves, laid out the village of Chagrin Falls in 1833, and, as sheriff of Cuyahoga county, in 1837, was prominent in the "Bridge War" of that period ; Dr. Bela B. Clark" was auditor of Medina county in 1820, and Dr. Joshua Mills was mayor of the city of Cleveland for two successive terms.
In like manner many physicians kept a store and advertised their wares with absolute freedom. Indeed, professional advertisements were an every day oc- currence in the newspapers, and reflected in no way upon the character of the advertiser. The doctor was looked upon primarily as a citizen, expected to bear his equal share in the burdens of the community in which he lived, and free to enjoy also all the advantages of his fellows.
On March 5, 1836, by act of the legislature of Ohio, Cleveland was incorpo- rated a city, and entered upon that career of success which has proved so gratify- ing to her citizens of the present day.
In the following year the first directory of the city was published, and fur- nishes much interesting information to the curious investigator of these early days. The city at this period contained twenty-seven regular physicians, the roll of whose names will, doubtless, prove of interest to their colleagues of the twen- tieth century. They were: Ackley, James L., Barrows, Ashel, Bradley, F. S., Brayton, C. D., Brown, Asa B., Clark, W. A., Congar, Horace, Cushing, Erastus, (1802-1893), Foote, Jonathan, Gay, Steven B., Hewitt, Morgan L., Hicks, Rob- ert, Inglehart, Smith, Johnstone, Robert, Kellogg, Burr, Long, David, McCosk,
5 We all delight to honor the man, who, as the phrase runs, "enjoys the courage of his convictions." This moral courage is, indeed, a most admirable quality-subjectively. Ob- jectively, to the general public, however, the quality of the convictions is at least of equal interest and importance.
6 He was an honorary M. D. of the Medical Department of Willoughby University in 1842.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
Charles, Mathivet, Pierre, Mendenhall, George, Mills, Joshua, Moore, T. M., Otis, W. F., St. John, Oran, Swain, John, Terry, Charles A., Underhill, Samuel, Walrath, Joseph.
Besides these we find: Bond, Wm. H .- Classified as a "botanic physician ;" Brag, William-"Indian doctor," but whether a specialist in herbs or venereal disease is not stated. Attention may be called to the appropriateness of his name ; Smith, 'A. D .- "Professor of phrenology."
· Of the regular physicians in the foregoing list, several have been already men- tioned, but the following tribute to the character of the medical men of that day by an old and honored resident of the city, now gone to his reward, Judge James D. Cleveland, will, I am sure, awaken the hearty sympathy of our surviv- ing early settlers. Judge Cleveland says :
"The profession, too, was full of talented and faithful men. We regard the corps of physicians as worthy of great respect, for they were, between 1830 and 1860, educated, untiring and devoted to the people. There were Drs. Mills, Brat- ton and Long early in the field, and Dr. Terry and Dr. Cushing, courtly, polished men of the highest culture, and that splendid specimen of manly beauty and courage, Dr. Robert Johnstone, who fell in the prime of his life, a victim of shipfever, caught from a newly arrived immigrant. Then we cannot forget old Dr. Wheeler, the pioneer of the homeopathic school, and those splendid young surgeons, Drs. Elisha Sterling and Proctor Thayer."
As the population of the city in 1837 could not have much exceeded five thou- sand, it is manifest that the inhabitants suffered from no lack of medical advis- ers. The same proportion at the present day would yield us a medical faculty of two thousand, five hundred physicians !
In Ohio City were located only four physicians, towit : Hill, Christopher E., Huntington, W. T., Pearson, Amos, Sheldon, Benjamin.7
The druggists of the city were : Cushing & Clark, 46 Superior street ; Hander- son & Punderson, 73 Superior street; B. S. Lyman, 6 Water street; Colin S. McKenzie, 100 Superior street, Stickland & Gaylord, 30 Superior street.
All of these kept in stock not only drugs, but many groceries and other com- modities, such as tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, paints, oils, dyestuffs, etc., though the fancy goods, which load the counters of our drug stores of the present day, did not creep in until about the middle of the century.
The prescription business scarcely existed. Most physicians kept on hand their own supply of all but the rarer drugs and dispensed them to their patients. The modern requirement of utile cum dulci was absolutely unknown in practice, and the vilest tasting decoctions were swallowed with nothing more than a grim- ace of disgust. It was not until 1850 and later that the practice of writing pre- scriptions, to be purchased by the patient, came into common use. It is unnec- essary to add that the modern refinements of pharmacy are of a much later date.
Probably the trying experience of the recent epidemic of cholera had suggested to the city officials the necessity for hospital accommodations, and we, accordingly, read :
"The City hospital is situated upon Clinton street, in the easterly part of the city and upon the most elevated ground in it. The grounds connected with the
7 Mayor of Ohio City, 1850-52.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
hospital are about four acres, and consist of part of the land purchased at the public expense and occupied as a public cemetery. The hospital buildings, at present, consist of one structure, about seventy by thirty feet, and two stories high, fronting easterly. Its internal organization is well suited for the accommo- dation of its inmates, and its apartments kept in a manner creditable to the city.
"The hospital is under the control of the board of health-consisting of the mayor and three members of the city council, chosen from that body annually. The officers of the hospital, appointed by the board of health, are a superintend- ent, a hospital physician and a hospital warden, each of whom have a fixed sal- ary. The expenses of the institution are paid from the current revenues of the city, and for the present year are estimated at from four to five thousand dollars."
The Clinton street of that day was the later Brownell street (now Four- teenth street, Southeast), and the hospital was located upon the rear of the Erie street cemetery, which had been purchased by the village of Cleveland in 1826. Clinton street was then the eastern boundary of the city. It is manifest from this notice that the city enjoyed also at this time a regular board of health.
About the same distance from the Public Square, but in a northeasterly direc- tion and near the bank of the lake, stood the earliest sanatorium mentioned in the records of our city. This was the Spring Cottage, located on the border of a little clearing still covered with the stumps of the virgin forest and dignified with the title of Clinton park. A small stream of sulphureted water burst from the side of a ravine at this point on its way to the lake, and was popularly cred- ited with varied and manifold sanative virtues. Of this establishment the city directory of 1837-8 discourses as follows :
"The Spring Cottage and Bathing establishment is situated at the park, and contains commodious warm, cold and shower baths and refreshment rooms, to which there is a handsome pleasure garden attached. The whole has been fitted up with much skill and taste by Mr. William R. Richardson, and is decidedly a summer retreat from the bustle and cares of business, of no ordinary charac- ter, combining utility and gratification with pleasure. Mr. Richardson has just commenced running an omnibus between the business part of the city and the baths. This vehicle, we understand, is to leave Cleveland every hour for the accommodation of persons visiting the baths."
It is, doubtless, a mere coincidence, but, nevertheless, worth recording, that thirty years later the Wilson street hospital was organized upon almost the same ground, and developed ultimately into the magnificent Lakeside hospital of the present day.
The placid current of medical activity in our youthful city was stirred into un- wonted energy in 1839 by the meeting in Cleveland of the Ohio State Medical convention, under the presidency of Dr. S. P. Hildreth, of Marietta. Most of the physicians of the city were present at the meeting and became members of the convention, and Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, then a representative of Trumbull county, but subsequently a distinguished teacher and physician of Cleveland, was elected president of the convention for the ensuing year. Dr. George Men- denhall, a rising young physician of Cleveland, was chosen recording secretary. Much was contributed to the success of the occasion by the admirable address of
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
the retiring president, Dr. Hildreth, on the climatology and epidemiology of southern Ohio.
The influence of this meeting of the convention upon the physicians, and even the laity, of Cleveland deserves special emphasis. It broadened the horizon of their thoughts, replaced their previous isolation by a feeling of sympathy and kin- ship with other towns and cities of the state, and awakened a zeal and emulation in the pursuit of science, which brought forth abundant fruit in the near future. In this way, doubtless, it contributed not a little to the next step in the medical progress of our city-the organization of the Cleveland Medical college, the med- ical department of Western Reserve University.
Six medical colleges had been organized in Ohio prior to the year 1843, to wit: The Medical College of Ohio, organized at Cincinnati, in 1819; The Medical Department of Ohio university (eclectic), Worthington, Ohio, organ- ized 1832; The Cincinnati Medical college, Cincinnati, organized 1834; The Med- ical Department of Willoughby university, Willoughby, Ohio, organized 1834; The American Medical college (eclectic), Cincinnati, Ohio, organized in 1839; The Botanico-Medical college of Ohio, Cincinnati, organized 1840.
Of these, The Medical Department of Willoughby university, so intimately connected with the origin of the Cleveland Medical college, deserves a word of notice.
The little town of Willoughby in these early days, with a population of per- haps one thousand, five hundred inhabitants, was distinguished for the intelli- gence and energy of its citizens, and enjoyed the unusual advantages of a circu- lating library, a lyceum and debating society, in which historical, political, literary and scientific questions were discussed with zeal and ability. Very naturally there soon developed a desire for even better facilities for education, and in 1834 it was proposed to organize an institution, to be known as "The Willoughby Uni- versity of Lake Erie," to include all the educational departments of a complete university. This ambitious plan advanced so far as the election of the officers of the university and the organization of a medical department.
The other departments of the proposed university seem never to have materi- alized, but the medical college in 1835-6 contained twenty-three students, and conferred the degree of M. D. upon five young men. A hard struggle for success followed, complicated by dissensions among the trustees and faculty, and in 1843 it became evident that a change of location was absolutely necessary to preserve the organization.
A "Circular and Catalogue of the Officers, Professors and Students of Wil- loughby University. Session of 1841-1842," happily affords us interesting in- formation relative to the school at this period.
President, Nehemiah 'Allen ; secretary, Jonathan Lapham.
Officers of the medical department : president, Hon. Ralph Granger ; secretary and dean, J. Lang Cassels, M. D .; Amasa Trowbridge, M. D., professor of sur- gery; Horace A. Ackley, M. D., professor of special and pathological anatomy and physiology ; J. Lang Cassels, M. D., professor of chemistry; John Delama- ter, M. D.,8 professor of materia medica, general pathology and obstetrics ; Jared
8 Dr. Delamater's letter of acceptance of his chair is published in the circular, and bears date "Willoughby, January 11, 1842."
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P. Kirtland, M. D., professor of the theory and practice of physics ; E. M. Clark, demonstrator of anatomy.
The medical school at this time contained fifty-seven students, of whom, rather singularly, one only-Mr. Blakesly, a student in the office of Ackley & Hewitt, of Cleveland-was from Cleveland. The graduates of the preceding year (1841) numbered seven.
The medical course began on the first Wednesday in November, and continued sixteen weeks. Five lectures were delivered daily, except on Saturday, when the lectures were limited to three. The fees were twelve dollars for the ticket of each professor except the teacher of materia medica and obstetrics, whose ticket cost thirteen dollars. The matriculation fee was five dollars, and the graduating fee twenty dollars.
Board and lodging were announced at one dollar and a quarter to two dollars per week.
The requirements for graduation were the age of twenty-one years, a period of study covering three years, and two courses of medical lectures, of which one must be taken in the Willoughby college.
The following textbooks were recommended : surgery, Samuel Cooper's First Lines, or Velpeau's Surgery ; practice, McIntosh or Eberle; anatomy and path- ology, Bell's Anatomy, the London or Dublin Dissector, Magendie's or Dungli- son's Physiology and Mayo's Pathology; obstetrics, Burns or Blundell; chem- istry, Turner or Beck; materia medica, Beck's Murray.
The college building is said to be of brick, sixty feet square and consisting of three stories and a basement. It contained three lecture rooms, five professor's rooms, a dissecting room twenty by one hundred feet, a general museum forty by sixty feet, an anatomical museum, a library, etc.
On the whole the faculty and plant presented a very attractive appearance for that early day.
Drs. John Delamater, Jared P. Kirtland and J. Lang Cassels, at that time members of the medical faculty, advocated the removal of the college to Cleveland. The remainder of the faculty favored Columbus. Happily, at this time, certain prominent citizens of Cleveland invited the faculty of the Willoughby Medical college to locate the institution in this city, promising to give land for the purpose and financial aid in the building of a college building. Mrs. Delamater, Kirtland and Cassels at once resigned their chairs in the Willoughby institution, came to Cleveland and organized the Cleveland Medical college. In order to avoid the delay of waiting for a charter, the new college was organized as the Medical Department of the Western Reserve college, a prosperous institution founded in Hudson, Ohio, in 1826. The remaining professors of the Willoughby college, after a short struggle to maintain their organization, removed to Columbus, and the college was merged into the Starling Medical college, founded in 1847.
We learn again from Dr. Reeve that :
"For a year or two after the transfer of the college to Cleveland there was a vigorous fight made by the Willoughby school to attract students from the city. 'A four mule team paraded the streets, and students were carried gratis to the village, where every attention was paid them."
Dr. David H. Beckwith
1
Dr. C. D. Williams
Dr. J. C. Sanders DISTINGUISHED HOMEOPATHIC PHYSICIANS
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
The earliest sessions of the Cleveland Medical college were held in the Farm- ers' block, corner of Prospect and Ontario streets and the first class was graduated in 1844. It was not, however, until the fall of 1846 or the spring of 1847 that the college building on the corner of St. Clair and Erie streets was fully completed and occupied for purposes of instruction.
It was within the walls of this old Farmers' block that occurred the first ad- ministration of ether for surgical anaesthesia in northern Ohio. Dr. Reeve, who was himself a witness, describes the case as follows :
"It was an amputation of the leg, and although the patient shouted and struggled, making it a difficult task for Professor Ackley, he averred later that he had not suffered. The quality of the ether was not at that time perfect. This must have been in the fall of 1846, or in the winter following."
As Morton's demonstration of the safety and reliability of ether anaesthesia was first made in the Massachusetts general hospital, on October 16, 1846, it will be seen how rapidly the news of the improvement spread among the profes- sion, and how eagerly it was utilized in all sections of the country. The original faculty of the Cleveland Medical college was constituted as follows: John Dela- mater, M. D. (1787-1867), professor of midwifery and diseases of women and children; Jared P. Kirtland, M. D. (1793-1877), professor of the theory and practice of medicine; Horace A. Ackley, M. D. (1815-1859), professor of sur- gery; John Lang Cassels, M. D. (1808-1879), professor of materia medica; Noah Worcester, M. D.9 (1812-1847), professor of physical diagnosis and dis- eases of the skin; Samuel St. John, M. D. (1813-1876), professor of chemistry ; Jacob J. Delamater, M. D., lecturer on physiology.
Personal biography is not within the scope of this paper,10 but of this medical faculty, as a whole, it may be fairly said that it was the best balanced faculty west of the Alleghenies, and in many respects rivaled those of the more famous medical institutions of the older and larger cities of the eastern coast. In the absence of the facilities furnished by large and well appointed hospitals, clini- cal teaching in the Cleveland Medical college was, of course, defective, but this deficiency was minimized by the use of dispensary and private work on the part of the teachers, until proper hospital advantages were, in due time, developed and utilized. The new college was a success from its very inception, and its popularity may be judged from the following statistics of its first few years.
No.
Attendance Graduates
1843-44
67
16
1844-45
109
25
1845-46
160
53
1846-47
.216
53
1847-48
240
65
The old college building served the purposes of the institution until 1887, when, through the munificence of Mr. John L. Woods, a new and elaborate
9 So far as my knowledge extends, Dr. Worcester was the first formal professor of phys- ical diagnosis west of the Alleghenies. He held this chair in the Medical College of Ohio during the session of 1842-43, and in the Cleveland Medical College, 1843-47. In the latter college he was succeeded by Dr. Jared P. Kirtland.
10 See chapter on biography.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
building, supplying abundant room and all modern facilities for medical instruc- tion, was placed at the disposal of the faculty and has since been materially en- larged and improved.
The Cleveland Academy of Natural Science, organized November 24, 1845, under the auspices and presidency of Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, deserves mention in this connection also. Though in no respect devoted to the cultivation of med- ical subjects, many of our physicians were members of this academy and con- tributed not a little to its reputation as a scientific body. Dr. Kirtland was the first naturalist to discover and demonstrate the sexual character of the naiads, and Dr. Theodatus Garlick (1805-1884), a partner of Dr. Ackley, was the earliest scientist in the United States to practise the artificial propagation of fish.
Among the prominent members of the medical profession, who were also members of the Cleveland Academy of Natural Science, we mention : Jared P. Kirtland, Charles A. Terry, Jehu Brainerd, Erastus Cushing, C. D. Brayton, J. J. Delamater, John S. Newberry, Samuel St. John, Horace A. Ackley, Elisha Sterling, Thos. G. Cleveland, Theodatus Garlick, J. Lang Cassels.
About 1860 this society seems to have fallen into a condition of inanition, if it did not really cease to exist. In 1869, however, chiefly through the enthu- siasm of Dr. Elisha Sterling (1825-1891) it was revived as the Kirtland Society of the Natural Sciences, which maintained an organization until 1881. Among the medical members of the latter society we notice the names of: Jared P. Kirtland, Proctor Thayer, John Bennitt, Theodatus Garlick, John E. Darby, Lymam Little, Alleyn Maynard, John S. Newberry, Elisha Sterling.
The organization in 1846 of the Ohio State Medical society, which, in 1851, absorbed the preceding Ohio Medical convention, and became thenceforward its lineal successor, served still further to promote the solidarity of medical in- terests in the state, and to stimulate the mutual association of its widely scattered physicians. Cleveland medical men have always been prominent in the councils of the State Medical society and upon the roster of its presidents we find the following honored names of former or present colleagues: Jared P. Kirtland, 1848-49; Horace A. Ackley, 1852-53; Leander Firestone (1819-1888), 1859-60; Gustav C. E. Weber, 1864-65; Henry J. Herrick (1833-1901), 1874-75; W. J. Scott (1822-1896), 1877-78; Dudley P. Allen, 1892-93 ; W. H. Humiston, 1897-98.
The Ohio State Medical society also held its annual meeting in Cleveland in the years 1852, 1870, 1880, 1883, 1897 and 1904.
The simple attractions of the old Spring cottage in Clinton park were entirely eclipsed in 1849 by the more elaborate and artificial charms of The Cleveland Water Cure Establishment, a hydropathic sanitarium established on Sawtell avenue, about a quarter of a mile south of Kinsman street (now Woodland avenue). The location of this institution was in the center of twenty-six acres of native forest, where (according to the advertisement)
"The ever living springs are bubbling up from hill and dale in copious profu- sion, to please the weary, comfort the distressed and give health to many a sufferer."
The manager and proprietor of this charming sanitarium was Dr. T. T. Seelye,
195
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
and board, medical advice and the ordinary attendance of nurses was offered to the public on the extremely moderate terms of eight dollars per week.
For its day and generation The Cleveland Water Cure Establishment was, doubtless, one of the best of its class, and the institution enjoyed a well merited popularity far down into the second half of the nineteenth century.
Late in the winter of 1848, a steamer infected with Asiatic cholera was per- mitted to land in New Orleans without the usual precautions of quarantine, and a few days later the dread disease made its appearance upon the streets of that city. During the early spring of 1849 the scourge ascended the Mississippi and its tributaries and ravaged St. Louis, Cincinnati and other cities of the west. On the great lakes, Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo were visited in April and May, and the citizens of Cleveland were naturally greatly alarmed. Accordingly, on May 26, 1849, the board of health, consisting of Messrs. A. Seymour, William Case and John Gill, considered it wise to issue a card declaring the city entirely free from infectious diseases, including cholera. About ten days later the board pub- lished a long letter of advice, issued by the board of consulting physicians of Bos- ton to the citizens of that city, and setting forth the regimen of life best adapted to maintain health in the presence of Asiatic cholera. This letter was also spe- cifically endorsed by the names of Drs. John Delamater, Charles D. Brayton, William Mayer, John Wheeler and Erastus Cushing, who styled themselves The Medical Council of the Board of Health.
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