USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 30
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At the same session of the legislature, (1833-4), the laws regulating the prac- tice of medicine were repealed.
This abolished the district medical societies, and, of course, their privilege of sending a beneficiary student to the college. In lieu of this provision, the faculty, by direction of the board of trustees, gave notice that they would re- ceive applications for a gratuitous course of lectures, from indigent young men, citizens of the state. Such application must specify the judicial district in which the applicant resided, and set forth, under oath before the nearest president, judge, or clerk of the county, that the applicant was at least twenty-one years old, had been a student of medicine for two years, was unable to pay the fees, and that the application was his own composition, and in his own handwriting. He was required to have a certificate, signed by two respectable clergymen, that he had a good moral character, and had received a good English educa- tion. Preference was given to young men who had received a collegiate education.
For a number of years previous to 1845 the faculty used to take notes, pay- able at some specified time, for the payment of fees to the college. These notes were in some, if not in all cases, to be paid when the students had earned the money in practice. The notes were generally endorsed by some friend, or for- mer preceptor. In the above named year this credit system was abolished.
REORGANIZATION IN 1837.
Dr. John Eberle, who had been appointed professor of materia medica and botany in 1831, was transferred to the chair of theory and practice of medicine in 1832. In 1837 he resigned, as did Dr. J. C. Cross.
In the reorganization of 1837, John T. Shotwell, a cousin of Drake, was made professor of anatomy. This position he held until 1850. During this time he was the master-spirit of the institution. Reuben Dimond Mussey ac- cepted the chair of surgery in 1838, and Marmaduke Burr Wright that of ma- teria medica, at Shotwell's request. New life seemed to have been given to the school. The peace, however, was of short duration. Quarrels, resignations, and attempts to reorganize, were of frequent occurrence. The faculty was divided into two factions, one headed by Shotwell; the other by M. B. Wright. In the
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board of trustees John L. Vattier was the supporter of Shotwell, and the enemy of Wright. John Locke, who was made professor of chemistry in 1837, and whose heart and energies were devoted to the welfare of the college, was opposed to Shotwell on account of the latter's methods of warfare. During the struggle in 1850, Dr. Locke was forced out of the college. In 1851, after Shotwell's death, he was reinstated, but resigned in 1853.
Leonidas Moreau Lawson, who took the chair of materia medica and pathology in 1847, at Shotwell's request, was the friend of Shotwell, but maintained a conciliatory attitude towards everybody. He passed through the upheaval of 1850, and in 1853 became professor of the theory and practice of medicine. The two following sessions (1854-5 and 1855-6) he spent in Louisville. In 1856 he resumed the chair of theory and practice in the Medical College of Ohio. He died of consumption in 1864. He was the founder and editor of the Western Lancet (1842-1858.) He was author of a number of minor works, but his greatest was a "Practical Treatise on Phthisis Pulmanalis," published in 1861.
John P. Harrison, one of the most distinguished practitioners and teachers of his time, was born in Louisville, Ky., in 1796. He graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1819. He began practice in Louisville, and became a most successful physician. He was ambitious to become a teacher, and decided in 1834 to go to Philadelphia and apply for a position in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania.
Drake, who was organizing the Medical Department of the Cincinnati Col- lege, asked him to take charge of the chair of materia medica in the new school. Harrison accepted and came to Cincinnati in 1835. When the Cincinnati College closed its doors in 1839, Harrison remained in the city. In 1841, he entered the faculty of the Medical College of Ohio as professor of materia medica. In 1845, he published a work on "Elements of Materia Medica," in two volumes. In 1847, he was transferred to the chair of theory and practice of medicine. He died of cholera in 1849. In the final struggle in 1849, Shotwell triumphed, and Wright was expelled. At the suggestion of some of Shotwell's friends he re- signed in the spring of 1850. He died of cholera, July 23, 1850.
John T. Shotwell was born in Mason county, Kentucky, January 10, 1807. In 1822 his father sent him to Transylvania University, where he remained until 1825. Later he came to Cincinnati and began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Drake, who was his cousin. For three years he studied in Drake's office. He then became a student in the Medical College of Ohio, receiving his degree in 1832. He opened an office on Walnut street below Third street. The cholera epidemic of 1832 gave him a chance to show his mettle, and he made a splendid record.
In 1835 he was made demonstrator of anatomy; the following year he was appointed adjunct professor of anatomy. In the upheaval of 1837 Shotwell be- came master of the situation. John Locke was in Europe; John Eberle, J. C. Cross, Jedediah Cobb and A. G. Smith had resigned. Shotwell being the only member of the faculty left, made himself dean. Drake, his cousin and preceptor, who had founded the Medical Department of Cincinnati, became his rival and bitter enemy. Shotwell's reputation suffered much in the struggle.
In the latter part of 1849, to save the apparently moribund institution, Drake was earnestly solicited to return. He accepted the chair of theory and practice,
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and delivered the opening address November 5, 1849. At the end of the session he resigned, and went back to Louisville. In 1852 he was again importuned to return. He began his work, but took sick in October, and died November 6, 1852.
On February 22, 1851, an important meeting of the trustees was called by Dr. John L. Vattier. Dr. Thomas O. Edwards, professor of materia medica (1850-5), was authorized to go to Columbus and aid in making certain changes in the charter, and get permission to obtain a loan for erecting a new building. A special committee was authorized to procure a loan of twenty thousand dol- lars by issuing forty bonds of five hundred dollars each, the capital to be paid back in ten years. Subsequently twenty more bonds of like amount each, were issued. Within one year the building, a Gothic structure of imposing appearance, and considered the finest and most practical edifice of its kind in this country, was ready for occupancy. It contained two large amphitheatres, each capable of accommodating between five and six hundred students; rooms for clinics, library, museum, laboratories, dissecting rooms, and private apartments for the faculty.
This building was the home of the college until 1896, a period of forty-four years, when the college became the Medical Department of the University of Cincinnati, and was removed to its present location. The opening of the new building was the beginning of the prosperous career of the college. The or- ganization of two new schools, (the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery in 1851, and The Miami Medical College in 1852), did not in any way injure it. During the decade 1850 to 1860, the faculty was made up of the ablest men in the profession; such men as Henry E. Foote (1857-60) ; Jesse P. Judkins (1857-61) ; George Mendenhall (1857-61) ; C. G. Comegys (1857-60, and 1864- 68) ; N. T. Marshall (1853-7) ; Samuel G. Armor (1854-57) ; John A. Warder (1854-7) ; George C. Blackman (1855-71) ; James Graham (1855-74) ; Leonidas M. Lawson (1847-56) ; John Locke ( 1837-50, and 1851-3).
In this group of able men George C. Blackman stands out as one of the most brilliant and scholarly surgeons of his time. His reputation was international. In the hospital amphitheatre, with the patient on the table before him, he was the demi-god of more than three hundred students who looked down upon him from the benches. He was irritable, quarrelsome with his confreres, and vain to a degree. This latter characteristic was encouraged by the students who would gather around him. At times, however, he was most agreeable. His ambition, and his ability to work were boundless. Under the most distressing poverty, and much of the time in ill-health, he spent months abroad in study.
In 1853 he translated Vidal's "Treatise on Syphilis," and later Velpeau's "Operative Surgery," in three large volumes. For several years before his death he was engaged with the Hon. Stanley Mathews of the United States Supreme Court in preparing an exhaustive work on "Legal Liability in Surgical Mal- practice." At the same time he was gathering material for a work on the "Prin- ciples and Practice of Surgery." His minor works and articles in the journals were numberless.
At the same time (1855) Dr. James Graham entered the school. Equally brilliant as a teacher, and successful as a practitioner, he was in some respects the counterpart of Blackman. While decided in his opinions, he was never con-
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tentious. He acted among his confreres as a peacemaker. A striking contrast to these two was Dr. C. G. Comegys. Of commanding appearance, dignified. affable, scholarly, always mindful of the interests of his profession, enthusiastic in everything that belonged to educational progress, he worked to the last for the advancement of the school, and the interests of the university. His principal literary work was the translation of "Renouard's History of Medicine."
It is not to be inferred that all was harmonious during these years. Resigna- tions and new appointments were constantly taking place. The troubles, how- ever, were confined to the faculty for the most part. The profession and the public were friendly to, and interested in, the welfare of the school.
In the year 1857 two full courses were given, and two commencements held. In most of the western schools at that time two courses of five months each were required for graduation. In the east six months constituted a term. The question of a higher education agitated the profession then as now. There were a number who urged the possession of a baccalaureate degree as a requirement for matriculation.
In 1853 Dr. Thomas Wood was appointed demonstrator of anatomy. In 1855 he became professor of anatomy. In 1857 the chair of anatomy was di- vided between Wood and Jesse Judkins, the former teaching surgical, and the latter descriptive anatomy. In 1858 microscopy was added to Wood's subject. In 1859 he resigned. Wood was one of the remarkable men of his day. He was a great surgeon, a poet, litterateur, journalist, and inventor. Among his inventions was an instrument called the "Lineal Mensurator" for which he was granted a patent. The purpose of the instrument was to enable anyone to find the exact number of square feet in a piece of ground no matter how irregular in outline. He also designed a dirigible balloon. A goodly number of his poems appeared in the journals, and he left an equal number of unpublished ones.
On October 2, 1871, he made a hip-joint amputation in the new Cincinnati hospital, two hours after Dr. M. B. Wright had delivered the address at the formal dedication of the institution.
The reorganization of the faculty before the session of 1860-61, was a delicate and difficult matter. Every member of the old faculty had resigned except Gra- ham, on account of their hostility to Blackman. The trustees finally decided to create the chairs of Clinical Medicine and Clinical Surgery. The other mem- bers of the new faculty were: L. M. Lawson, professor of theory and practice of medicine, John Davis, professor of anatomy, Jesse P. Judkins, professor of principles of surgery, George Mendenhall, professor of obstetrics, C. G. Comegys, professor of physiology; John A. Murphy, professor of materia medica, Henry E. Foote, professor of chemistry, B. F. Richardson, professor of diseases of women and children. The trustees made a rule enjoining the professors from speaking ill of each other. Graham and Blackman accepted the rule; the other professors promptly resigned.
The trustees were disgusted, and in turn resigned. The governor accepted their resignations, and the next day reappointed them. They met and organized. Then they appointed Blackman, professor of surgery; Graham, professor of theory and practice of medicine; M. B. Wright, professor of obstetrics, and Mr.
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Charles O'Leary, professor of chemistry. At the end of the term Mr. O'Leary resigned.
The appointment of the remaining professors was left to the four above named. They elected James F. Hibbard, professor of physiology and pathol- ogy; John C. Reeve, professor of materia medica; L. M. Lawson, professor of theory and practice of medicine; Jesse P. Judkins, professor of anatomy ; John S. Billings, demonstrator of anatomy. The latter entered the army, and Wm. W. Dawson took his place. In 1862, C. G. Comegys reentered the faculty.
In 1867 the college building was purchased by Joseph C. Butler, and leased to the faculty. Some of the men who entered the faculty in the sixties were: W. W. Dawson (1861) ; Roberts Bartholow (1864) ; Theophilus Parvin (1864) ; Wm. H. Gobricht (1866) ; Phineas S. Conner (1868) ; Samuel Nickles (1865) ; W. W. Seely (1865) ; James T. Whittaker (1869) ; Chauncey D. Palmer (1870). During the late sixties the number of students was more than three hundred each year. In 1872 the college graduated a class of ninety. In 1878 there were about eight hundred medical students in Cincinnati. Of these about three hun- dred and fifty were in the Medical College of Ohio. The following year (1879) one hundred and twenty-one graduated. For several years thereafter the num- ber was never less than one hundred. In 1871 Dr. Bartholow suggested buying the college building and presenting it to the university for its medical department. Drs. Graham, Dawson and Bartholow were appointed a committee to interest the citizens in the matter. The plan, however, was a failure. Fifteen years later the Medical College of Ohio became nominally the medical department of the university. The arrangement, however, conferred no rights, and imposed no obligations on either the college or university.
In 1894 the length of the session was increased to six months, and a graded course of three years was established. In the following year the curriculum was extended, making a four-years' course compulsory for obtaining a degree. A closer affiliation was effected April 27, 1896, when the trustees of the uni- versity and the faculty of the college signed an agreement, provisionally merg- ing the college into the university. The latter gave to the college a new home in the McMicken University building. The trustees of the university were to be the governing body. At a meeting of the faculty, held June 4, 1896, the plans and estimates for the buildings presented by Dr. Reamy, appeared to be satisfac- tory, and it was voted that the matter be left to Drs. Reamy and Hyndman, with power to act, and that they be limited to seven thousand dollars for the dispen- sary building. The treasurer was authorized to borrow, as required for build- ing purposes, a sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars. On October 17, 1896, the faculty invited the trustees of the Medical College of Ohio to inspect the alterations made in the old building. These included new laboratories, lecture- rooms, and the clinical buildings. The sum expended was fourteen thousand dollars. Of this seven thousand, five hundred was applied to the new clinic building on McMicken avenue.
In 1906, the lectureship on hygiene was made a full professorship. In the same year laboratories for instruction in electro-therapeutics, embryology, and pharmacology were established. In 1907 a professional chair of medical juris-
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prudence and economics was established. A post-graduate course was founded, beginning about the middle of April and ending June Ist.
In 1909, the union of the Medical College of Ohio, then the medical depart- ment of the university, and the Miami Medical College, was effected. The new establishment was to be known as the Ohio-Miami Medical College, the medical department of the University of Cincinnati. Instructors on full time and pay were appointed in pathology, bacteriology, and chemistry, laboratory methods of teaching being employed. The professors of pathology and bacteriology had charge of the laboratories of the Cincinnati hospital.
Entrance requirements were advanced to one year's university work in phys- ics, chemistry, biology and a modern language.
In 1910 the instructors in anatomy and physiology were put on full time and pay.
During the current year (1911) the following advances have been made : Cooperation with the board of health; a library established and equipped ; seniors to act as clinical clerks in the wards of the Cincinnati hospital.
OHIO-MIAMI MEDICAL COLLEGE.
JOSEPH EICHBERG ENDOWMENT.
DECEMBER 16, 1909. To the Academy of Medicine:
Your Committee appointed August, 1908, to collect funds for the endowment of the Professorship of Physiology in the Medical Department of the University as a memorial to the late Dr. Jos. Eichberg, having completed their work, beg leave to present their report and beg to be discharged.
The Committee organized by the election of Dr. N. P. Dandridge, Chairman, and Dr. Alfred Friedlander, Secretary, and immediately began active work in collecting subscriptions.
When the sum of $45,000.00 was reached it was offered to the University on the condition that on its receipt they would create the Joseph Eichberg Pro- fessorship of Physiology. Saturday, December II, the following contract was signed by the President and Clerk of the University, and by the Trustees of the Academy and the money paid over to them :
JOSEPH EICHBERG FUND CONTRACT.
This agreement made this IIth day of December, 1909, between the Uni- versity of Cincinnati and the Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati, both corpora- tions under the laws of Ohio, the latter acting on its own behalf and also as Trustee for the other donors of the fund of forty-five thousand dollars ($45,- 000.00) hereinafter mentioned, which was raised by the family and friends and pupils of the late Joseph Eichberg for the purpose of endowing a chair of physi- ology in said University as a memorial to him, on the terms and conditions of this agreement, witnesseth :
The University of Cincinnati, in consideration of said sum of forty-five thou- sand dollars ($45,000.00), the receipt of which from said Academy of Medicine acting for said donors is hereby acknowledged, agrees as follows with said Acad- emy of Medicine in its individual capacity and as Trustee for the other donors
THE OLD OHIO MEDICAL COLLEGE, SIXTII NEAR VINE STREET
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of said fund, a list of whom and of the amounts subscribed by each is hereto at- tached and made a part hereof, viz .:
I. To establish by September, 1910, and thereafter forever maintain in said University a first-class professorship for instruction in Physiology, equal in every respect to the Ohio Fundamental Chair.
2. To call said chair "The Joseph Eichberg Professorship of Physiology," and to so designate it in the catalogue of the University and in all other official announcements.
3. To apply the income of said fund to the support of said professorship and to appropriate to its support out of the funds of the University such addi- tional sums as may be necessary from time to time to maintain said professor- ship of physiology.
4. To keep a separate account of said fund and the investment and income thereof, which shall always be open to the inspection of the Trustees of said Academy, and to invest the fund only in approved securities or in new buildings on land owned in fee simple by the University, or held by the city of Cincin- nati, a Trustee for said University. If the fund is invested in buildings, they shall be kept insured for the benefit of the fund.
5. To return said fund to said Academy for the use and benefit of said donors, their legal representatives and assigns, if said University shall fail to faithfully keep and perform this agreement on its part.
6. Said Academy shall have the right to make further contributions to said fund from time to time, which shall be received and held by the University sub- ject to the terms of this agreement.
In witness whereof the University of Cincinnati by the Chairman and Clerk of its Board of Trustees, thereunto duly authorized by said Board, and the Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati by its Trustees thereunto duly authorized, have hereunto and to a duplicate hereof set their corporate names and seals this IIth day of December, 1909. (Signed) FRED A. GEIER,
Chairman Board of Trustees, University of Cincinnati. DANIEL LAURENCE, Clerk, Board of Trustees. N. P. DANDRIDGE, Academy of Medicine Trustee. A. B. ISHAM, Academy of Medicine Trustee. JAMES F. HEADY, Academy of Medicine Trustee.
Witness to all signatures : GEO. W. HARRIS, HARRY M. LEVY.
In concluding our report the Committee desires to express their obligation to Mr. Harry Levy for the active interest and efficient aid rendered by him. To his personal efforts we are indebted for the larger part of the fund raised.
Respectfully submitted,
N. P. DANDRIDGE,
Chairman of Committee.
Vol. II .- 16.
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THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL INSTITUTE.
In the closing years of the first quarter of the nineteenth century there ap- peared in the city of New York a man whose purpose in life was to reform the existing forms of medical practice. Dr. Wooster Beach was born in Trumbull, Connecticut, in 1794. He began the study of medicine with a country doctor, in a secluded part of the state of New Jersey. Subsequently he graduated from a regular medical college in New York city. In order to spread his views and practice, he opened a clinical school known as The United States Infirmary, (1827). In 1829 this school was enlarged and named The Reformed Medical Academy. The next year it received the more pretentious title of The Re- formed Medical College of the City of New York. From this school has sprung indirectly all the Eclectic Medical Colleges in the United States. In 1830, The Reformed Medical Society of the United States passed a resolution, "That this society deems it expedient to establish an additional school in some town on the Ohio river." In the town of Worthington, Ohio, one of the most noted educa- tors in the United States, Rev. Philander Chase, was principal of a literary and scientific school known as the Worthington Academy. This school was founded in 1808. In 1819 a new charter was granted with the title, Worthington College.
The friends of Worthington College offered Dr. Beach the use of the char- ter and edifice of the college for the establishment of a medical department. The offer was accepted, and the medical department of Worthington College was instituted in 1830. Dr. Thomas Vaughan Morrow, one of Dr. Beach's pupils was made dean of the medical faculty. The institution prospered for nine years. In 1839 a riot was precipitated by the finding of a body in the college building that had been taken from a neighboring grave-yard. Dr. Morrow's house was destroyed by the infuriated people. In 1842 Dr. Morrow removed to Cincinnati. He at once took up his work and gave a course of lectures in the "Hay-Scales House," corner of Sixth and Vine streets.
The following year lectures were given in a house on Third street. Dr. L. E. Jones and Dr. James Kilbourne were added to the faculty, and the school was named The Reformed Medical School of Cincinnati.
In 1845, "Fourth Street Hall" rented. In the same year a petition, signed by the mayor, most of the members of council, and over a thousand citizens, was pre- sented to the legislature, asking for a charter. The charter was granted March 10, 1845. The school was called the Eclectic Medical Institute. During the session of 1845-6, Dr. Beach lectured in the Institute.
Dr. Morrow, the founder of the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical Institute, was also the founder of the National Eclectic Medical Institute. Dr. Morrow died in 1850.
The provisions of the charter made it obligatory upon the corporation "to possess property in its own right to the fair value of ten thousand dollars," be- fore diplomas could be granted. A lot was purchased at the northwest corner of Court and Plum streets, and a college building erected. The edifice was com- pleted in 1846 and occupied November 7th of that year. The school had one hundred and twenty-seven students. During the first three years it had four hundred and twenty-eight students. The first faculty was constituted as fol-
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