USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Five > Part 12
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"He was a wise and honest citizen. His neighbors, without exception, regarded him as a loving friend. He took pleasure in aiding them with his wise counsels, and his charities were bestowed with a free hand.
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Those who have known him from boyhood affirm that he never had a personal enemy. His personal charac- ter was of the highest order. Exemplary rectitude and wise sobriety adorned his whole life. He was the very soul of honor in all the relations of life. He was unpre- tentious in all his acts and was another illustration of the truism that unpretending characters are rarely deficient.
"To say that he was patient, diligent and thorough in the investigation of causes, is simply to state what is attested by his opinions recorded in twenty volumes of Ohio State Reports. These will constitute for all time an enduring monument of his sound, discriminat- ing judgment, and his fidelity and eminence as a jurist. He aided in solving many constitutional questions of the highest moment. His reported decisions touch almost every branch of the law. They have always been, and will ever be regarded with the highest respect, because they bear internal evidence that they are the results and products of exhaustive legal research by a strong, logical, penetrating mind, and of a man of the sternest integrity and strictest impartiality.
"Judge White has left, for all time, an enduring and elevating impression upon the jurisprudence and judicial history of the State, and he has added much to the distinction of her Supreme Judicial Court.
"Judge White has left to the profession of the bar, from which he was promoted to the highest honor which a lawyer can receive from the State, a lesson and an example worthy of following; and although he left but a small estate to his widow and children, he left
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them the rich heritage of an unsullied name, and the record of a life devoted to the service of his fellow men."
He was married in 1847 to Rachel Stout, whose parents were among the early settlers of Springfield. She, with one son and two daughters, survived him. The son, Charles R. White, served as judge of Common Pleas, in the Clark county subdivision, from May, 1885, until his death in 1890.
The Ohio judge who sat upon an Ohio bench longer than any other man is entitled to remembrance in this record.
William Hugh Frazier was born in Hubbard, Trum- bull county, Ohio, on March II, 1826. His father, George Frazier, a native of Kent county, Maryland, was a farmer and magistrate in Trumbull county, Ohio, where he had married Bethiah Randall, a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania. William was reared on the farm and attended school in Hubbard until in 1838 his parents removed to Guernsey county, Ohio. There, until he became of age, he attended common schools in winter and worked on the farm in summer. He then entered Madison college, at Antrim, Guernsey county, spending vacations at home in farm work. After two years at the college he studied law under his elder brother, Henry, until on May 17, 1852, he was admitted to the bar at Coshocton, Ohio. He at once began to practice at Sarahsville, Noble county, Ohio, in partnership with his brother, who died within a year thereafter. In 1858 William removed to Cald- well, the new county seat. In 1865-for about one year-James S. Foreman was his partner there. There- after he practiced alone. In 1855 he was elected prose-
NOAH HAYNES SWAYNE
Born in Culpeper county, Virginia, December 7, 1804; admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen, and in 1815 removed to Ohio and began the practice of law in Coshoc- ton; Prosecuting Attorney of the county, and elected to the Legislature; appointed by President Jackson, 1831, United States District Attorney for Ohio, removed to Columbus, and held that office ten years; subsequently occupied other appointive offices and practiced his pro- fession with high reputation; appointed by President Lincoln Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1862; resigned in 1881; died in New York City, June 8, 1884.
WIE RISE AND PROGRE
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cuting attorney of Noble county, and was reelected for five successive terms. In 1866 Noble county in con- vention unanimously supported him for nomination as Common Pleas judge, but Moses M. Granger was nominated and elected. Although assured of renomina- tion and reelection early in 1871, Judge Granger announced his intention to resign after the then coming September. He did so, and Governor Hayes appointed William Hugh Frazier to fill the vacancy on October 9, 1871. The people elected and reelected him in 1871, 1876, and 1881. In November, 1884, they elected him one of the three circuit judges for the Seventh or Eastern Ohio Circuit, which extended from Lake Erie to Washington county. Judge Frazier drew the four year term, but was reelected for the full six year term in 1888 and 1896. He retired from the bench February 9, 1901, having served as judge almost thirty years. He was married, November 30, 1855, to Minerva E. Staats.
The bar and people of eastern Ohio hold Judge William H. Frazier in high honor and regard; due to him because of the purity and rectitude of his life as a man, and the ability, industry and impartiality with which he served them as a judge for so many years. Only four Ohio judges have exceeded twenty-five years: John McLean, thirty-two years (twenty-six of them on a United States bench); Peter Hitchcock, twenty-eight years, not altogether consecutive; William T. Spear, present Judge of the Supreme Court, nearly twenty-seven consecutive years up to this writing (July, 1912), being the longest period of uninterrupted service in the history of the supreme bench of the State; and William Hugh Frazier, twenty-nine years
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and eight months. The death of Judge Frazier oc- curred in Los Angeles, California, July 29, 1906. He is buried in the Olive Cemetery at Caldwell, Ohio.
Historic references to "The Twelve Judges" of England, as well as the English Common Law number- ing of its jury, has made us familiar with the number "twelve" in connection with the judiciary. I have briefly outlined the lives and services of twelve of the Ohio judges of 1803-1903, and submit them as illustra- tions of that judiciary.
After one-third of the century had passed, Joseph Vance, Governor of Ohio, in his inaugural address on December 13, 1836, said:
"I have again and again, whilst on business in eastern cities, heard our judiciary spoken of in terms that made me proud that I was a citizen of Ohio. ‘No collusion or fraud, sir,' said an eminent merchant of one of our eastern cities, 'can stand before your judiciary.' This is the character, gentlemen, that causes capital to seek employment here; that gives security to our rights and value to our property."
When the first half century was near its close, in April, 1852, Judge William Lawrence, noted for long service in the national House of Representatives, and in other public positions and trusts, and high in rank at the bar, wrote of the Supreme Court that had ad- journed sine die on January 16, 1852:
"This court has from its commencement been com- posed of judges distinguished for learning, talents and integrity. Its decisions, on the circuit and in banc, now (1852) comprise twenty volumes of Reports-a fund of judicial learning, characterized by profound
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research and luminous exposition, not only invaluable to the profession in Ohio, but which will leave its im- press upon the science of law wherever that science is known and understood."
Ohio may rightfully be proud of her judiciary and of its record. So long as the people of Ohio will insure the independence of her courts by wise laws, and main- tain their character by always refusing nominations and votes to unfit candidates for judicial office, they will make secure their own lives, liberties and property.
MEDICAL OHIO
BY D. TOD GILLIAM, M. D.
David Tod Gilliam, the author of the following article, was born at Hebron, Ohio, April 3, 1844, and graduated at the Medical College of Ohio (Cincinnati) in 1871. Previously to his medical education he served in the Union Army during the Civil War from the summer of 1861 to the spring of 1863. He was a non-commissioned officer in the 2d Virginia Cavalry, participating in several of the leading battles, in one of which he was made prisoner and in another wounded. He has been a practitioner of his profession in Columbus, Ohio, since his graduation, and occupied a chair in the faculty of Starling Medical College. He has originated several important operations, which have been adopted by his profession, has been the inventor of various medical instru- ments, and is the author of standard works in medical literature. His literary attainments are evidenced by his historical novel, entitled "The Rose Croix, " and magazine articles .-- THE EDITORS.
T HE pioneer doctor of Ohio, in common with other pioneers, came with axe and gun, a sturdy frame, a brave heart, lots of good, hard sense and little learning. His arma- mentarium consisted of a few crude drugs, roots and herbs, a bountiful supply of calomel, a lancet, a few cupping glasses, or in lieu of which he could use a tumbler or teacup, and, if specially well equipped, he possessed a few crude surgical instruments and pos- sibly a jar of leeches. All these things, or as many of them as possible, he carried in his saddle-bags, which, if he was fortunate enough to own a horse, he laid across the saddle, or, in the absence of such a luxury, he carried across his arm. As a rule the pioneer doctor was loud and gruff, sometimes boorish, but more frequently with an assumption of dignity that among the people passed current for erudition. Under this armor of dignity. he carried a kind, sympathetic heart, which his patients soon learned to know and thought nothing of his rough and sometimes profane language while ministering to their needs with almost womanly tenderness.
The pioneer doctor's life was not an easy one, but on the contrary fraught with danger, hardship and exposure such as we to-day can scarcely realize. His patients were few and oftentimes widely separated. Roads were mere trails, cut or blazed through the woods and in bad weather almost bottomless. There were vast areas of swamp land, miry, treacherous and of uncertain depth, which had to be braved or circum- vented by a long detour. There were practically no bridges or boats, and swollen streams and swift moving
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currents made fording or swimming extra hazardous. Then there was the skulking Indian, the bands of yelping red-mouthed wolves, the catamount and the stealthy panther. The driving sleet, the blinding snow, and the chances of being lost in the trackless forest, with a cold so intense as to freeze the blood in the veins, was by no means a far-fetched fear. This, though a highly colored picture, is not an unlikely one, and does not represent a tithe of the dangers and dis- comforts of the pioneer doctor, and the wonder is that the disasters from such exposures were not more frequent. The answer is to be found in the hardiness, resourcefulness, excellent judgment and indomitable will power of these men. And what did the doctor do after arriving at the bedside of the patient? It should be remembered that the pioneer doctor was largely his own purveyor and dispenser. Pharmacol- ogists and drug stores were as yet unknown. The doctor stocked himself with native herbs, roots, leaves and balsams which he gathered from the woods or wayside. He compounded his own pills, powders and potions. The drugs used in those days were crude and for the most part unsparingly repugnant to the taste, and were exhibited in doses proportionate to their nastiness. Powders were given by the teaspoon or tablespoonful, or even in larger quantities; infusions or decoctions by the mugful, or even by the pint or quart. Little or no attempt was made to disguise the taste of these unspeakable crudities, or, if so, it was usually ineffectual. Impounding the medicament in scraped apple, or enclosing it in dough which had been rolled and pressed, were the methods most in
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vogue. As said before, they were ineffectual, for some- how the medicine, which, so far as gustatory qualities were concerned, had the scraped apple beat to a frazzle, always managed to get nearest the palate and the bolus so clumsily constructed defied all attempts at deglutition until the contents had been nicely and evenly distributed through the oral cavity. A much more effectual method of concealing the taste of ob- noxious bitters was to suspend them in a strong decoc- tion of black coffee. But who had the coffee? When it is remembered that the people of those days were as alive to gustatory impressions as they are to-day, it will be understood that it was a serious matter to be sick, in more senses than one. But this was not all.
At or about the time we are speaking of, it was the custom to treat fevers and inflammatory affections by confinement in a close room, the body sandwiched between feather-beds, or loaded down with bedclothes and all cooling drinks withheld. Add to this the frequently repeated and heroic doses of nauseating medicines and the intemperate use of the lancet, and the wonder is not so much that so many died as that any survived.
In those days, and for a long period thereafter, calomel and jalap were the sheet anchors for a wide range of ailments. Indeed, among the more ignorant practicians, who constituted the majority, these drugs were given almost indiscriminately. Not only so, but the calomel especially was given with such reckless disregard of consequences as to lead to fre- quently unpleasant if not disastrous results. Intense salivation, with loss of gums and teeth, and unsightly
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disfigurement, were by no means rare. Blood-letting was then much in vogue, and among the class of doctors of whom we are now speaking was practiced as reck- lessly as was the use of calomel.
Patients were bled for every conceivable state and condition, and it was even asserted that they were bled for hemorrhages of the nose, stomach and bowels, or as a prophylactic against such hemorrhages. The extent to which this abuse was carried in some sections and by some practicians is almost unbelievable. As a rule people submitted without question, for the reason that as a rule the doctor was not called in until the case had become supposedly desperate. Yet we find in the literature of that period, which, by the way, was mostly foreign, complaints by writers that patients too often denied themselves the benefits of blood-letting under the mistaken belief that the first blood-letting was so much more efficacious than subsequent ones. They wanted to reserve this first blood-letting for some crisis which they knew would come sooner or later. We hold in our hand a small volume, published early in the last century, in which specific directions are given for blood-letting and other barbarous prac- tices then in vogue, which carries with it a sort of lurid suggestiveness well fitted to the subject.
Leeching was another form of blood-letting very much in use at the time. The leeches are applied by rolling them in a cloth and covering with a tumbler. The cloth is now withdrawn under the edge of the tumbler. "If they be well chosen and disposed to bite they can only do so on the skin." In case of troublesome hemorrhage following the falling of
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the leeches, the author proposes the following method, "which never fails." It consists in covering the bleeding surface with a piece of linen folded several times on itself, and applying to it a red-hot iron. He then goes on to describe the process of cupping, which consists in making a number of incisions in the skin and drawing the blood therefrom by applying to the scarified surface glasses from which the air has been expelled by burning alcohol. Next he pro- ceeds to consider some of the various methods and instruments of torture in daily use by the physician and surgeon of the time, and with which we of to-day are less conversant. After speaking of the blister, which is not so old as to be new to us, but which was at that time used universally and unstintedly, he passes on to the seton. The seton is a thread or skein of threads introduced through a fold of the skin to create and maintain an issue. These were sometimes per- mitted to remain through a long period, and various supplementary devices resorted to to increase the irri- tation and discharge. "It often happens," says the writer, "that patients object to having the seton through the skin of the neck on account of the unsightly scar, but, as we have no other means of conquering a violent ophthalmia, it becomes important that the above objection should be overcome." Permanent issues were usually made on the thigh, leg or arm. An incision was made and "a small tent of lint kept in the wound a few days to irritate it. We then place a pea in the wound to prevent the healing and keep up a continual irritation." "The actual cautery (hot iron) may take precedence of all others, and is one of
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the most powerful assistants to surgery. The less the cautery is heated, the more pain it causes and the less it destroys the parts to which it is applied; thus the cautery heated to a gray heat is very irritating and causes acute suffering, while the cautery at a white heat is more active and much less felt." The gray cautery is that recommended. The Moxa was an appliance of slow torture, the object of which was to produce powerful and sustained counter-irritation. This consists in carded cotton made into a sort of a rope and bound tightly in linen. This is coiled on the surface of the body and one end ignited. Slow combustion, and incidentally protracted torture, is maintained by the more or less constant use of the bellows. "We should blow so that the Moxa may burn as slowly as possible without allowing it to be extin- guished." We are tempted to give the writer's de- scription and use of the old-fashioned pullikins for the extraction of teeth and descant on the barbarous manner in which it was done, but, on reflection, and calling to mind a little personal experience, we are will- ing to concede that while it might have been worse it could not have been much worse than we have it to-day.
The early settlers for obvious reasons located along the streams, made clearings and broke the sod. In the course of a few months, ague, bilious fever and dysentery made their appearance. This was ascribed to the miasm rising from the bottoms and broken soil. The doctor spoke of "paludal influence" and thereby boosted himself several rungs in the eyes of his admir- ing constituency. But nobody thought of the ubiqui-
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tous mosquito except as a pesky little tormemtor, never once dreaming that it had any connection, even in the remotest degree, with the prevailing sickness. Every farm house, every settlement and every village had its contingent of sallow, anemic and icteroid men, women and children who dragged themselves about one day and shivered and chattered and raved in fever the next, until the immunity that comes from repeated inoculation, aided to some extent by the drugs of the doctor, eradicated the plasmoidium which the mos- quito had set adrift in their veins. So common, so virulent, so persistent were these attacks that many of the settlers, despairing of relief and unable to battle with their maladies and support themselves at the same time, returned to the densely populated districts whence they had come and where the afore-mentioned mos- quito, with its siren song and poison tongue, did not so abound.
It must not be supposed that the doctor stood hands down during all this time. The opportunity was too good to be lost. He plied his patients with calomel and jalap, bulky doses of cinchona bark, or, in the ab- sence of that, something else equally as nasty if not quite so efficacious.
"When a thing is bad," once said a great editor, "it is mighty hard to right, when it is mighty bad it rights itself."
It would seem that things had arrived at that stage where the automatic reversal should come in. Sud- denly, nobody knew how, a change came. It was not at the behest of any one great personage or by any conclave of authority. It meant not so much anything
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new as to get away from the old. "Get away from the old!" That was the cry of human hearts, and it rose to the very gates of heaven. But where ? How? Before them were darkness, mystery, uncertainty; behind were bondage and bricks of straw. The sublime moment was at hand. It is one of those human climaxes in which inspiration comes in thun- der tones. "Speak to the sons of ÆEsculapius that they go forward!" Into the darkness, into the mystery, into the uncertainty they go, and lo, there are the cloud by day and the fire by night to lead them. Like all reforms, it swung to the other extreme. Blood- letting was tabooed, mercury was execrated, the starva- tion treatment of diseases gave way to liberal feeding, the introduction of cooling drinks in fever led up to the unrestricted use of the same, suffocative rooms and sweltering beds gave way to open doors and win- dows, cooling drafts, cold packs and sponging of the surface. Where practicable, the open air treatment was adopted with nothing but a canopy overhead to protect from rain and sun. This was a phenomenal stride in the right direction, though it soon became apparent to all except the purblind that the prohibition of mercurials was not altogether wise-that in some diseased conditions it was indispensable, in others distinctly advantageous. It took longer to re-discover any virtue in blood-letting, but in time it became evident that in certain rare conditions, and as an emergency measure, it was not only advisable but at times necessary. It was a great victory for rational medicine. The progressives were in the camps of the enemy. The antiquarians no longer existed as an
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organization. That they were not utterly destroyed, a peep into the saddle-bags of some of the more staid gave ample evidence. Here the lancet, the scarificator, the coil of Moxa and a generous bottle of calomel spoke of fealty to a lost cause. While these things were transpiring in the new world in the quiet unostentatious way which we have depicted, more marked and violent changes had taken place in the old world, championed by leaders of character.
Thus we find that the Brunonian System, which had its origin in the fertile brain of John Brown, of Scotland, (1735-88), found a foothold in Scotland, Italy and Ger- many. This system, favoring mild medication and supporting treatment for the majority of diseases, came nearer approaching the border line of rationalism than anything hitherto propounded. Strange as it may seem, it was opposed tooth and toe-nail by many of the most influential members of the profession, and was only installed after a hard fought battle, including public riots. Its career was short and it died the death. Scarcely had the acclaim which greated Brunonianism died away than Broussais (1772-1838) came forward with a system, more sanguinary, if anything, than any that preceeded it. Broussais is said to have used 100,000 leeches in his individual practice in a twelve- month! Such was the heritage of American medicine.
Meanwhile the fame of Ohio, "the Garden Spot of America," had gone forth. An empire had risen where shortly before the crack of the white man's rifle had wakened the echoes of the primeval forests-forests whose green boughs had fanned azure skies throughout the ages. Villages, towns and cities had taken the
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