USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 29
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During his absence from Cincinnati, the editorial charge of the Lancet-Clinic was given to Drs. J. C. Oliver and L. S. Colter. In 1892, Dr. Culbertson re- turned to this city. Failing health induced Dr. Culbertson to hand over the editorship in 1904, to Dr. Mark A. Brown, who conducted it until the latter part of 1906. In 1907, the present holders, "The Lancet-Clinic Publishing Company," acquired the property.
Homeopathic journalism in Cincinnati began in 1851, when Drs. B. Ehr- man, Adam Miller, and G. W. Bigler established the Cincinnati Journal of Homeopathy. In 1852 Joseph H. Pulte and H. P. Gatchell undertook the pub- lication of the American Magazine of Homeopathy and Hydropathy. Neither journal was long-lived.
In 1864 The American Homeopathist made its appearance under the editorial management of Charles Cropper. In 1868 it was merged into the Ohio Medical and Surgical Reporter. Dr. T. P. Wilson was editor. In 1873 Dr. Wilson undertook the publication of the Cincinnati Medical Advance, which was moved in 1886 to Ann Arbor, Mich., and continued under the title of the Ann Arbor Medical Advance. The Pulte Quarterly was started in 1890 by Dr. Thomas M. Stewart. It was a college journal. It ran through three and a half volumes.
ECLECTIC JOURNALS.
The beginning of Eclectic journalism in Cincinnati was coincident with the founding of the Eclectic Medical Institute. When Thomas V. Morrow came to Cincinnati in 1842 he brought with him the Western Medical Reformer, which had been published for a number of years at Worthington, Ohio, by the faculty of the Worthington Medical School, the predecessor of the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical Institute. In 1845 the name was changed to the Eclectic Medical Jour- nal. It is still issued every month. Its editors have been the teachers of the institute.
The Cincinnati Herald of Health was issued by Drs. John King and J. C. Thomas in 1854. It did not survive the first year.
The secessionists who founded the American Medical College in the Cin- cinnati College building in opposition to the Eclectic Medical Institute, started a monthly, the American Medical Journal. It was edited by Dr. T. J. Wright. It began in 1856, and lasted until the end of 1857, when it was merged into the College Journal of Medical Science, which the faculty of the Eclectic College of Medicine had published monthly in 1856 and 1857. The combined journal was abandoned in 1859, and was followed by the Journal of Rational Medicine, edited by Dr. C. H. Cleaveland, which lasted three years, when it was suspended. Dr. R. S. Newton published the Western Medical News from 1851 to 1859. He then issued a clinical monthly called the Express. In conjunction with G. W. L. Bickley, Newton published the Cincinnati Eclectic and Edinburgh Medi- cal Journal. After a short existence both were absorbed by the Eclectic Medical Journal.
A monthly called Journal of Human Science was started in 1860 by W. Byrd Powell and J. W. Smith, but abandoned after four numbers. A good exponent of eclecticism is the Eclectic Medical Gleaner, a monthly begun in 1878, and
.
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edited by Drs. W. E. Bloyer and W. C. Cooper. In 1904 it became a bi-monthly under the management of Drs. H. W. Felter and J. U. Lloyd.
Dr. Abner Curtis, the leader of the Physio-Medical school, published the Botanico-Medical Recorder from 1837 to 1852. It had been published in Colum- bus, Ohio, since 1827. In 1852 the name was changed to Physio-Medical Re- corder. It was suspended in 1880. After the suspension of the Recorder, Dr. W. H. Cook, the associate of Curtis, issued the Cincinnati Medical Gazette and Recorder for two years. In 1854 Curtis issued the Journal of Medical Reform, and in 1866 the Journal of Education and of Physiological and Medical Reform. Neither survived its first year. In 1849 E. H. Stockwell, professor of Anatomy in the Physio-Medical college, started the Physio-Medical and Surgical Journal, in opposition to Curtis and his school. It was suspended in 1852.
DRAKE'S SCHOOL.
In 1815 the Lancaster Seminary was incorporated, and Drake became one of the trustees. It derived its name from Joseph Lancaster, a Scotchman, who originated the system. The principle of the system was the training of the younger pupils by the more advanced ones, who thus became the teachers of the younger pupils. In 1820 it was merged into the Cincinnati College.
Worn out with the internal strife in the Medical College of Ohio, Dr. Drake, in 1835, opened his school as the Medical Department of the Cincinnati College under the charter of that institution. The opening of this rival school met with determined opposition from the friends of the Medical College of Ohio. They contested the right of the trustees of the Cincinnati College to conduct a depart- ment of medicine under their charter.
On June 27, 1835, the trustees of Cincinnati College announced the opening of their medical department with the following faculty: Joseph N. McDowell, professor of anatomy; Samuel D. Gross, pathology, physiology, and jurispru- dence ; Horatio B. Jameson, surgery; Landon C. Rives, obstetrics and diseases of women and children; James B. Rogers, chemistry and pharmacy; John P. Harrison, materia medica; Daniel Drake, theory and practice; John L. Riddell, adjunct professor in chemistry and lecturer on botany.
Cary A. Trimble, who had been a student in the Medical College of Ohio in 1833, was made demonstrator of anatomy. Dr. Jameson resigned after the first term.
Dr. Willard Parker, one of the greatest surgeons of his day, was appointed in Jameson's place. The rivalry between the schools was most bitter. The Com- mercial hospital from which the professors and students of the new school were excluded, the Medical College of Ohio being by law the care-taker and beneficiary of the hospital, was the principal bone of contention. Drake fitted up a small hospital opposite his college (where the Gibson house now stands), and called it the Cincinnati Hospital. It furnished the clinical material for the new school. Drake's Eye Infirmary, founded in 1827, by Drake and Jedediah Cobb, and known as the Cincinnati Eye Infirmary, located on Third street between Main and Walnut, became a clinical department of the new school. In 1839, Drake broke up the monopoly of the Medical College of Ohio in the Commercial
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hospital. In accordance with an act passed by the legislature in 1839, the town- ship trustees issued an order permitting the students of the Cincinnati College to attend clinical lectures in the Commercial hospital and made an arrangement whereby some of the professors were added to the staff. Unfortunately the victory came too late. Drake and his associates who had conducted their school for four years without help, were about to abandon the school. During the year 1838 the standing committee on medical colleges and medical societies sub- mitted two reports to the legislature, one sustaining the Medical College of Ohio, the other recommending the Medical Department of Cincinnati College. It was suggested to turn all properties of the Medical College of Ohio over to the Cin- cinnati College, making the latter a state institution. The committee consisted of five members. Each report was handed in by two members. One did not vote. That saved the day for the Medical College of Ohio.
The short but brilliant career of the Medical Department of the Cincinnati College is thus described by Gross in his memorial of Drake: "With such a faculty the school could hardly fail to prosper. It had, however, to contend with one serious disadvantage, namely, the want of an endowment. It was strictly speaking, a private enterprise; and although the citizens of Cincinnati contrib- uted, perhaps not illiberally, to its support, yet the chief burden fell upon the four original projectors, Drake, Rives, McDowell and myself. They found the edifice of the Cincinnati College erected many years before, in a state of decay, without apparatus, lecture rooms or museum ; they had to go east of the moun- tains for two of their professors, with onerous guarantees; and they had to en- counter no ordinary degree of prejudice and actual opposition from friends of the Medical College of Ohio. It is not surprising therefore, that after struggling on, although with annually increasing classes, and with a spirit of activity and perseverance that hardly knew any bounds, it should at length have exhausted the patience, and even the forbearance of its founders. What, however, con- tributed more perhaps than anything else to its immediate downfall, was the resignation of Dr. Parker, who in the summer of 1839, accepted the correspond- ing chair in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the City of New York. The vacation of the surgical chair was soon followed by my own retirement and by that of my other colleagues, Dr. Drake being the last to withdraw. During the four years the school was in existence it educated nearly four hundred pupils."
MEDICAL COLLEGES.
In the month of December, 1818, Dr. Drake made a personal application to the legislature of Ohio for the passage of a law authorizing the establishment of a medical college in Cincinnati. The bill establishing the Medical College of Ohio was passed January 19, 1819. In this act Samuel Brown, Coleman Rogers, Elijah Slack, and Daniel Drake, were named as corporators, and invested with the powers of trustees. The same individuals were also constituted the faculty The government of the institution was committed to their charge, and they were authorized to elect professors and officers. It was provided, however, that no professorship should be created or abolished, nor any professor or lecturer be
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elected or dismissed, without the consent of three-fourths of the faculty. By the original charter one of the professors was to be president of the college, and all of the professors were eligible. The term of office was to be two years, and the length of the sessions five months. This latter rule was made for the reason that at first only five professorships were established instead of six or seven, as in the older schools. Under these laws Dr. Drake was elected president; Dr. Coleman Rogers, vice president; and Elijah Slack, registrar and treasurer. Dr. Samuel Brown declined to accept the positions tendered to him. For this and other re- tarding causes no session was held in 1819-20. On the 30th of December, 1819, an amendatory act was passed, providing that no professorship should be created or abolished, nor any professor or lecturer elected, or dismissed, without the concurrence of two-thirds of the faculty. Under this last act Dr. Coleman Rog- ers was made Professor of Surgery. Before the first session, the faculty, con- sisting of Drs. Drake, Slack, and Rogers, held a meeting, and Dr. Rogers was ex- pelled by the votes of Drs. Drake and Slack.
In January. 1820, Dr. Benjamin S. Bohrer, of the District of Columbia, was elected Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy. Subsequently Dr. Jesse Smith was elected a member of the faculty. In 1820 an organization of the faculty was effected, and an announcement was issued, August 20, 1820, stating the session would open on the first of November following. At this meeting Dr. Drake was elected Professor of Theory and Practice, and Diseases of Women and Children; Dr. Slack, Professor of Chemistry; Dr. Bohrer, Profes- sor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy; Dr. Jesse Smith, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery; and Dr. Robert Best, Assistant to the Chair of Chemistry. On the opening of the session, November 1, 1820, a class of twenty-four students was assembled. Cincinnati was then a town of about 10,000 inhabitants. Their first building has been described by one who attended lectures at that time as a very pretentious one. It was a two-story brick house, located at 91 Main street, below Pearl. The lectures were given in an ordinary room upstairs. The first story was occupied as a drug store by the father and brother of Dr. Drake. Here the college remained one year. In April, 1821, the first commencement was held, and a class of seven graduated. At the close of the session, Mr. Best as- sistant to the chair of chemistry, was dismissed. Botany and clinical medicine were added to Dr. Bohrer's department. Jealousies and intrigues began, how- ever, with the first meeting of the faculty. Dr. Drake wittily intimates because the president's chair was not large enough to hold all of the faculty. Soon after the close of this session Dr. Bohrer resigned, and returned East.
The same intrinsic defects which had caused the delay of the first session, originated another rupture, and at a faculty meeting composed of Drs. Drake, Slack and Smith, Dr. Drake was expelled by the votes of his colleagues. At this meeting Dr. Drake presided. Dr. Smith "moved that Dr. Drake be expelled ;" Dr. Slack "seconded the motion;" Dr. Drake then put the motion, and it was carried without a dissenting voice. (See "Rise and Fall of the M. C. O." by D. Drake, M. D. p. II.)
In October, 1821, the departments of anatomy and surgery were separated, Dr. Smith retained the former, and Dr. John D. Godman, of Philadelphia, was elected to the chair of surgery. In the Cincinnati Gazette of October 13, 1821, the fol- lowing editorial is found: "Everyone knows that the value of our paper cur-
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rency has depreciated at least one-third. The faculty of the Medical College, however, have agreed, for the present, to receive this depreciated paper at par for tickets." The editorial continues: "We are also much gratified to find that the trustees of the township (until the hospital shall be erected) have taken a large and commodious house in a healthy location, and propose to introduce forthwith a proper medical police. The professors of the college will enter upon their official duties in the hospital in November, and the town will be relieved from paying a medical attendant as heretofore. There are at this time twenty persons in the hospital, fifteen of whom are patients."
The second session, that of 1821-2, opened with a class of thirty students. The faculty consisted of Drs. Smith, Slack and Godman. Before the close of the session Dr. Godman resigned, to take effect at the end of the term. The ses- sion closed March 4, 1822, with a class of seven graduates. Soon after, Dr. Godman returned to Philadelphia.
In the following session (1822-3), Drs. Smith and Slack attempted to carry on the lectures. For this purpose Dr. Smith built a room in the rear of his resi- dence, on Walnut street. The class was small, and the institution existed only in name. On the 13th of December, 1822, another law was passed, entitled, "An Act to Further Amend the Act Entitled, An Act Authorizing the Establishment of a Medical College in Cincinnati." By the provisions of this law the government of the institution was transferred to a board of trustees. This board consisted of thirteen members as follows : Hon. Wm. Burke, Samuel W. Davies, D. K. Este, W. H. Harrison, N. Longworth, Rev. Martin Ruter, O. M. Spencer, Ethan Stone, M. T. Williams, Jeremiah Morrow (governor of Ohio), Nathan Guilford, and the presidents of the Medical Convention of Ohio, and the Medical College of Ohio. General W. H. Harrison was elected president of the board.
Early in 1823, the trustees took upon themselves the trust, and entered upon the discharge of their duties. At the same time the former organization ceased. With all their exertions they were not able to organize a new faculty before the summer of 1824. At that time the following faculty were elected, and entered upon their duties November 15, 1824: Institutes and practice, Jedediah Cobb; chemistry and pharmacy, E. Slack; materia medica and obstetrics, John Moor- head; anatomy and surgery, Jesse Smith. Dr. Smith was elected dean. Dr. Smith was the first dean of the college. The first three lectured five times a week; the last, Dr. Smith, six times. The session opened with a class of fifteen students. In 1825 the college was reorganized; the number of trustees reduced to eleven, who were to serve for a term of three years (see Statutes of Ohio, 1832-3). This order was continued until 1851, when the legislature passed an act electing them for a period of ten years, or until their successors should be appointed. The sessions of 1824-5, and 1825-6, were held in the old Miami Ex- porting Company's banking house, on Front street between Main and Sycamore. After the reorganization in 1825 (Dr. Moorhead was dean), the faculty was reduced to four members, namely : J. Cobb, professor of anatomy and physiology ; E. Slack, chemistry and pharmacy; John Moorhead, theory and practice, and obstetrics ; J. Whitman, materia medica. The class of 1825-6 increased to forty- eight members.
DR. GEORGE BLACKMAN
DR. JOSEPH H. PULTE
DR. JOHN LOCKE
Copyright from Otto Juettner's Daniel Drake and His Followers. DR. JAMES GRAHAM
DR. JOHN M. SCUDDER
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Copyright from Otto Juettner's Daniel Drake and His Followers. DR. DANIEL VAUGHN
DR. W. S. MERRELL
DR. R. D. MUSSEY
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During the session of 1825, the legislature authorized each district medical society to appoint one indigent medical student for gratuitous instruction in the college. The district medical society furnished him a certificate stating that he had been deemed worthy of the appointment. This was signed by the president and secretary, and the seal of the society was affixed thereto. There were twenty-four of these district societies.
On the 31st of December, 1825, an act was passed by the legislature whereby the acts of January 19, 1819, (establishing the college), and December 13, 1819, (amending the former act), and December 13, 1822, (act for better regulation of, and making appropriations for the college), and of February 5, 1825, (creating a board of eleven trustees, and making other provisions), were repealed, and a board of eleven trustees was created. It was provided that no professor could be a trustee ; that the trustees should have the power of appointing and dismiss- ing professors; of establishing new chairs, and of conferring degrees; the latter function to be exercised in conjunction with, and upon recommendation of the faculty. This act made the trustees governors of the college, and confined the activity of the professors to their spheres as teachers. All moneys realized for five years in Hamilton county on tax penalties, auction sales and auction licenses were appropriated for the support of the Medical College of Ohio. The new board of trustees consisted of William Corry, Samuel W. Davies, Jacob Burnet, Ebenezer H. Pierson, William H. Harrison, Samuel Ramsey, Oliver M. Spen- cer, Joseph Guert, Martin Ruter, David K. Este, and Nathaniel Wright. Dr. Ramsey was president of the new board.
In the summer of 1826, the trustees obtained ground on Sixth street, between Vine and Race, and erected buildings on the site now occupied by the Butler building. Owing to limited means they could not erect such buildings as were desirable. For this reason the chemical lectures were delivered in the college building, on Walnut street above Fourth during the session of 1827. As matters of amusing interest, I take the following from the records of that date. "At a meeting of the faculty a resolution was passed authorizing the dean to purchase candlesticks and snuffers." Also the following: "Resolved, That, if any student shall fight a duel, or send or accept a challenge to fight a duel, or be the bearer of a challenge, or be a second or accessory to any act or proceeding of that kind, he shall be expelled from the institution." From the nature of their relations, it may be judged that these high privileges were reserved for the faculty.
After the reorganization the school increased in numbers, but seems to have suffered from the hostility of a large number of the profession, and from want of public confidence. The class of 1826-7 numbered eighty students, and that of 1827-8, one hundred and one students. The numbers continued to increase until the session of 1831-2, when it amounted to one hundred and thirty-two.
In the winter of 1827-8, the legislature, on the application of Dr. Barnes, in- corporated an institution under the name of The Cincinnati Medical Academy. This was to be a preparatory school for students wishing to enter the Medical College of Ohio. Six lectures a week were to be delivered by Dr. Barnes and others.
In 1831, the trustees of Miami University attempted to establish a medical department in Cincinnati. Dr. Drake was the instigator and principal worker
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in this scheme. Under his direction a number of gentlemen were brought out from the east. Dr. Thos. D. Mitchell was guaranteed a salary of $2,000. A faculty was appointed as follows: Dr. Drake, professor of institutes and practice of medicine ; Dr. Geo. McClellan, professor of anatomy and physiology ; Dr. John Eberle, professor of materia medica and botany; Dr. Jas. M. Staugh- ton, professor of surgery; Dr. John F. Henry, professor of obstetrics and dis- eases of women and children; Dr. Thos. D. Mitchell, professor of chemistry and pharmacy ; Dr. Jas. N. McDowell, adjunct professor of anatomy and physi- ology. In connection with this school an institution was projected, to be called The Cincinnati Academy of Medicine. The academy was announced to open on the first Monday in April, 1831, and was to continue for twenty-five weeks. The following gentlemen were to be the lecturers: James M. Staughton on the Institutes of Surgery ; Isaac Hough on Operative Surgery; J. N. McDowell on Anatomy; Wolcott Richards on Physiology; Landon C. Rives on Institutes of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence; Daniel Drake on Practice and Materia Medica; J. F. Henry on Obstetrics; E. A. Atlee on Diseases of Women and Children; Thos. D. Mitchell on Chemistry and Pharmacy; Dr. Atlee was presi- dent and Dr. Rives, secretary. A more brilliant corps of teachers has seldom been found in one school. One lecture was delivered by Dr. Mitchell. Before the beginning of the first session the Medical College of Ohio was reorganized, and the Miami plan abandoned. Sic transit gloria mundi.
The new faculty was constituted as follows: Dr. J. Cobb, professor of anatomy and physiology; Dr. T. D. Mitchell, professor of chemistry and phar- macy ; Dr. Staughton, professor of surgery; Dr. John Eberle, professor of ma- teria medica and botany; Dr. J. F. Henry, professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children; Dr. John Moorhead, professor of theory and prac- tice of medicine ; Dr. Chas. E. Pierson, professor of institutes and medical juris- prudence; Dr. Drake, professor of clinical medicine.
Dr. Staughton was elected dean. During the year 1831 the erection of addi- tional buildings was begun.
Before the close of the session, on the 19th of January, 1832, Dr. Drake re- signed. The trustees then reduced the number of the faculty to six. Under this action Dr. Henry retired.
In the session of 1832-3 the faculty consisted of Dr. Cobb, professor of anatomy and physiology; Dr. Mitchell, professor of chemistry and pharmacy ; Dr. Staughton, professor of surgery; Dr. Pierson, professor of materia medica ; Dr. Moorhead, professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children; and Dr. Eberle, professor of theory and practice. Owing to its long continued internal discords the school had run down from a class of 132 in 1831-2, to 82 in 1832-3. At the end of the latter session they had a graduating class of nine- teen. In August, 1833, Dr. Staughton, professor of surgery, died. Dr. Alban Gold Smith was elected in his place. In the Fall of 1833, Dr. Samuel D. Gross was brought out from Philadelphia through the influence of Dr. Eberle, and appointed demonstrator of anatomy. In 1835 Dr. Gross resigned, and accepted the chair of pathological anatomy in the Medical Department of Cincinnati Col- lege, then founded by Dr. Drake. In the following session (1833-4) the class in- creased to 126 students, and at the commencement in 1834 twenty candidates
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graduated. Notwithstanding this apparent prosperity, the greatest discord and dissatisfaction existed in the ranks of the profession in regard to the constitu- tion of the faculty, and the conduct of the trustees. Petitions signed by large numbers of he profession were sent to the legislature, saying that the faculty were incompetent, and that under their rule the school was "a by-word and a hissing stock." The opposition was led by Dr. Drake, and the charges made by him against the trustees and faculty of the college, and the trustees of the township contained no less than sixteen specifications. The governor of the state appointed a committee to visit the city and ascertain the true condition of affairs. This committee made a majority and minority report, but in them offered no opinion as to what facts were proven, and what disproven. The senate thereupon appointed a select committee, to which these reports were referred. This committee made a thorough examination, which resulted in sustaining the trustees and faculty. This report was adopted by the senate by a vote of 34 to I.
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