Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 145

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189

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Differential Diagnosis. Presented through an Analysis of 383 Cases. By Richard C. Cabot, M. D. Profusely Illustrated. 1911. 8vo. 753 pages. W. B. Saunders Company, Philadel- phia and London.

The Blues (Splanchnic Neurasthenia), Causes and Cure. By Albert Abrams, A. M., M. D. (Heidelberg), F. R. M. S. Fourth edition, revised and enlarged. Illustrated. E. B. Treat and Company, New York.

Inebriety. A Clinical Treatise on the Etiology, Symptomatology, Neurosis, Psychosis and Treatment and the Medico Legal Re- lations. By T. D. Crothers, M. D. 1911. 8vo. 365 pages. Harvey Publishing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Oxford Medical Publications. Text Book of Massage. By L. L. Despard. 1911. 8vo. 290 pages. Henry Frowde, London; Hodder & Stoughton, London.

Oxford Medical Publications. Handbook of the Surgery of the Kidneys. By W. Bruce Clarke, M. A., M. B. (Oxon.), F. R. C. S. With 5 plates and 50 illustrations in. the text. 1911. 8vo. 199 pages. Henry Frowde, London; Hodder & Stoughton, London.

Oxford Medical Publications. Introduction to Practical Organie. Chemistry. Including Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis and Preparations, with a Special Appendix on the London University Syllabus, and Schemes of Analysis for Stages 1 and' 2 of the Board of Education Syllabus. By A. M. Kellas, B. Sc. (Lond.), Ph. D. (Heidelberg). 1910. 8vo. 204 pages. Henry Frowde, London; Hodder & Stoughton, London.

A Text-Book of Gynecological Surgery. By Comyns Berkeley, M. A., M. D., B. C. Cantab., F. R. C. P. Lond., M. R. C. S., Eng. and Victor Bonney, M. S., M. D., B. Sc. Lond., F. R. C. S. Eng., M. R. C. P. Lond. With 392 figures in the text from drawings by Victor Bonney, and 16 colored plates. 1911. 8vo. 720 pages. Funk and Wagnalls Company, New York.

Manual of Cystoscopy. By J. Bentley Squier, M. D., and Henry G. Bugbee, M. D. 1911. 12º. 117 pages. Paul B. Hoeber, New York.

Progressive Medicine. A Quarterly Digest of Advances, Dis- coveries and Improvements in the Medical and Surgical Sciences. Edited by Hobart Amory Hare, M. D. Assisted by Leighton F. Appleman, M. D., Volume I. March, 1911. 8vo. 355 pages. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia and New York.

Die akute Leukämie. Von Dr. Albert Herz. 1911. 8vo. 184 pages. Franz Deuticke, Leipzig und Wien.

Diseases of the Nose, Throat and Ear. Medical and Sur;it By William Lincoln Ballenger, M. D. Third edition, rerz and enlarged. Illustrated with 506 engravings and ?! pl: 1911. 8vo. 983 pages. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia and S- York.

Oxford Medical Publications. Cholera and Its Treatment : Leonard Rogers, M. D., F. R. C. P., F. R. C. S., B. S, LY : 1911. 8vo. 236 pages. Henry Frowde, London; Hodet Stoughton, London.

Das Radium in der Biologie und Medizin. Von E. S. Lox: Mit 20 Abbildungen im Text. 1911. 8vo. 199 pusy Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft m. b. H., Leipzig.

Medico-Chirurgical College. Contributions from the Departez of Neurology and the Laboratory of Neuropathology for . Years 1908-9-10. (Reprints) Volume I. [1911.] 4to. P.) delphia.

Vicious Circles in Disease. By Jamieson B. Hurry, M. A. M . (Cantab.). With illustrations. 1911. 8vo. 186 pages : Blakiston's Son & Co., Philadelphia.

Bulletin of Iowa Institutions. (Under the Board of Contre' Published Quarterly. Volume XII, 1910.

International Clinics. A Quarterly of Illustrated Clinical Le: tures and Especially Prepared Original Articles. Edited :" Henry W. Cattell, A. M., M. D. Twenty-first Series, Volume. 1911. 8vo. 300 pages. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philate phia and London.

The Treatment of Syphilis with Salvarsan. By Sanitätsrat D Wilhelm Wechselmann. With an Introduction by Profese Dr. Paul Ehrlich, Only authorized translation by Abr. L. Wolbarst, M. D. With 15 textual figures and 16 colored fils trations. [1911]. 4to. 175 pages. Rebman Company, Ne York; Rebman Limited, London.

Medical Annual. A Year Book of Treatment and Practitioner! Index. Twenty-ninth Year, 1911. 8vo. 991 pages. Jx: Wright & Sons, Ltd., Bristol; Simpkin, Marshall, Hamiltet Kent & Co., Ltd., London.

Prevention of Infectious Diseases. By Alvah H. Doty, M. D. 18℃ 12mo. 281 pages. D. Appleton and Company, New York LE London.

Oxford Medical Publications. A Manual of Practical Imorgen Chemistry. Including Preparations and Quantitative Analysis with the Rudiments of Gas Analysis, etc. By A. M. Kellas E Sc. (Lond.), Ph. D. Heidelberg. 1910. 8vo. 347 page Henry Frowde, London; Hodder & Stoughton, London.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletins are issued monthly. They are printed by the LORD BALTIMORE PRESS, Baltimore. Subscription," a year (foreign postage, 50 cents), may be addressed to the publishers, THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS, BALTIMORE; single copies wil be " mall for twenty-five cents each. Single copies may also be procured from the BALTIMORE NEWS CO., Baltimore.

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THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL

Entered as Second-Class Matter at the Baltimore, Maryland, Postoffice.

. XXII .- No. 247.]

BALTIMORE, SEPTEMBER, 1911.

[Price, 25 Cents

CONTENTS.

PAGE

lel Boylston, Inoculator, and the Epidemic of Smallpox in Boston in 1721.

By REGINALD H. FITZ, M. D. . 315

y Newell Martin, Professor of Biology in Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, 1876-1898.

By HENRY SEWALL, M. D. .

327

Medical Notes on the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri.

By P. H. DERNEEL, M. D.

383

Molière and the Physician.

By MAX KAHN, M. A., M. D.

344

The New Department in the Johns Hopkins University. Art as

Applied to Medicine.

By MAX BRODEL

350

ZABDIEL BOYLSTON, INOCULATOR, AND THE EPIDEMIC OF SMALLPOX IN BOSTON IN 1721.

By REGINALD H. FITZ, M. D., Boston, Mass.

he recent centennial celebration, January 6, 1911, of the ston Medical Society of the Harvard Medical School, di- y leads to the thought who was Boylston whose name is so nately connected in Massachusetts with towns, buildings, ries, schoolhouses, corporations, associations, streets, rail- stations, charities, professorships and prizes ? " A name," 'ding to John Quincy Adams,' " which if publick benefits impart a title to remembrance, New England will not / forget: a name to the benevolence, publick spirit and ine patriotism of which this University, the neighboring polis, and this whole nation have long had, and still have · reasons to attest: a name, less distinguished by stations endour, than by deeds of virtue; and better known to this e by blessings enjoyed than by favours granted : a name, e, which if not encircled with the external radiance of arity brightly beams with the inward lustre of benefi- "

: Boylstons thus eulogized were members of a family ided ' from Thomas Boylston, who at the age of twenty came to this country in 1635 and settled in Watertown, chusetts. His son Thomas, born in 1644-5, married Gardner of Muddy River, then a part of Boston, but set 1705 as the town of Brookline. This Thomas was the t physician and surgeon of Muddy River and died in it the age of fifty. It is unknown where and how he

igural oration, when installed Boylston Professor of (ck and Oratory, in June, 1806. Vinton Memorial, 1858.

received his medical training, unless, in part, in the Narra- gansett War in which he is reported to have been engaged. There is, however, no verification of the statement by Thacher' that he was a native of England and obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from Oxford. In his married life of thirty years there were born to him twelve children, the sixth being Zabdiel Boylston, who has gained undying fame as the founder in this country of inoculation as a preventive of the disastrous results of smallpox. Although other descendants of the first Thomas Boylston, through their benefactions and achievements, have been more immediately concerned with con- ferring popular distinction upon the name, it is especially among physicians that the name and fame of Boylston should be connected closest with the memory of this most meritorious physician of his day in America. This is all the more fitting since his nephew Thomas Boylston and his grandnephew, Ward Nicholas Boylston, in announcing their medical benefactions and gifts call particular attention to the great service rendered to humanity by their kinsman. Thomas Boylston's intended benefactions proved valueless in consequence of business re- verses which caused the loss of his fortune. Ward Nicholas Boylston, the wealthy merchant, became a patron of medical education through his gifts to Harvard University, and the medical student's society is his namesake. Zabdiel Boylston, however, was a medical hero, of service to all mankind and his example should ever be memorable.

3 American Medical Biography, 1828, I, 185.

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Zabdiel Boylston was born in 1679 and died in 1766 in his eighty-seventh year. He was educated in medicine by his father and by Dr. Cutler, a physician of some note in Boston. He was not a graduate of Harvard College, from which his eldest son Zabdiel was graduated in 1724, afterwards going to England, where he died. Dr. Boylston attracted no especial attention until 1721. He then was living near Dock Square, not far from the residence of the Reverend Benjamin Colman," pastor of the Brattle Street Church, who refers to " my house (which faces into the Doctor's yard)" and from which he was able to observe the behavior of the doctor's patients. At this time he was presumably one of the practitioners of medicine referred to by Dr. Douglass," who states that there were four- teen apothecary shops in Boston and that every practitioner dispensed his own medicines. Indeed, he is called ' an apothe- cary by an anonymous writer not friendly disposed to his cause. It is evident, however, from a communication to the Boston News-Letter of July 17-24, 1721, No. 912, signed W. Philanthropos, but written in the manner of Dr. Douglass, that his practice was also surgical. In this he is called a " Cutter for the Stone " and is spoken of as illiterate, ignorant and the producer of a "dangerous quack advertisement," with but little experience in smallpox and without having at the time a patient with the smallpox under his charge.

Further evidence of Dr. Boylston's surgical qualifications is to be found in the Province Laws.' In these it appears that in 1707 he treated Captain Gridley for a broken arm acci- dentally received while in the expedition to Nova Scotia. In the same year he treated Mary Lyon, " grievously wounded by a Negroe Man," and in 1712 he cared for Joseph Smith, a soldier in the "late designed expedition to Canada." But whatever may have been the other medical or surgical qualifi- cations of Dr. Boylston, they are wholly subordinate to his great work in beginning and continuing the inoculation of smallpox.

Towards the end of April, 1721, Boston for the sixth time was invaded by this disease. It had then a population of about 11,000. Aeneas Salter, at the close of the epidemic, was em- ployed by the selectmen to make a scrutiny of the inhabitants and found" " that the number of persons who continued in Boston (many fled into the country) were 10,567, whereof about 700 escaped ; the small-pox decumbitents had been 5,989, whereof 894 died, which is nearly one in seven." Of the previous epidemics that of 1678 had been especially fatal and

. Some Observations on the New Method of Receiving the Small. (Por by Ingrafting or Inoculating. By Mr. Colman, 1721.

5 Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., I, 2d Series, 1884-85, 44.

" A Letter from one in the Country, to his Friend in the City: In Relation to their Distresses occasioned by the doubtful and prevailing Practice of the Jnoccufation Of The Small-Pox, 1721, 3. " The Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Vols. VIII and IX.

. A Summary, Historical and Political, of The First Planting, Progressive Improvements, and Present States of the British Settlements in North America. William Douglass, M. D., MDCCLX, Vol. II, 396.

that of 1702 was of recent memory to many of the inbath Since 1702 the population had nearly doubled in number:L generation of unprotected children had been born. It ve: nounced in the Boston News-Letter of April 13-17, 1815 893, that twenty or thirty deaths from smallpox were ter place daily at Barbadoes. In the following week it was sze that the Saltertudas fleet had arrived bringing the die- the town. Sewall writes in his diary :1

April 15th. . . Hold another Council about giving Liber Mr. Frizzle's Ship from Salt-Tartuda (Tortugas) to come ; On the 8th of May it is learned : "

. . whereas a Certain Negro man is now Sick of the Sc pox in the Town who came from Tertudos in His Majesties Seahorse which renders it very likely that that distemper now be on board that Ship. Therefor for the preservation d : Inhabitants of this Town,

Voted that John Clark, Esqre., be Desired to go on boar. : Majesties Ship Seahorse and Report in what State of hat Sickness the Ship's Company are in, Espetialy with respe: the Smal Pox or other Contagious Sickness.

There being a negro servant sick with smallpox at the i of Captain Paxton, near the South Battery, the first inde. a nurse was ordered to attend the patient and a watch : placed at the door. On the 12th of May it is recorded the: Seahorse is infected with smallpox and the greater part of company were on a cruise. "Sundry other Sick on Sher .. that there is not aboue ten or fifteen Effective men on Ba: The ship was ordered to Bird Island to prevent the spor .. the infection. A town-meeting was held on this day and : : voted 12 to seek the advice of the Governor and Council v reference to sending the Seahorse with its two or three cai smallpox to Spectacle Island, " Pursuant to a Law d'. Province to prevent (God willing) the Spreading of the x: Pox in this Town & Province."

By the middle of May, when the ship Francis left for don, she carried the report that the disease was rife, site in the News-Letter of May 15-22, 1721, No. 898, it wars:" that on the 20th of May there was but one case and t in the house where the disease first appeared. Nevertx- a committee appointed to prepare instructions for the Bx. representatives in the coming session of the General Ase. proposed," May 22, 1721, among other recommendst. ... " That they promote some further Law Effectually to itA. the Select men of Each Town to prevent the spreading ! : Infectious Sickness among them." A week later it was & mitted " that on May 27 there were eight cases of the die .. one in Bennett street, three in Tremont street, two in S !. street, one in Batterymarch street and one in Winter st- On the 5th of June the school was transferred " to the B:" sentatives' room in the Town-House.

" Boston News-Letter, April 17-24, 1721, No. 894.

10 5 Mass. Hist. Coll., 7, 288.

" Selectmen's Minutes, 1721, 81.

12 Boston Town Records, 1721, 154.

13 Boston Town Records, 1721, 154.

14 News-Letter, May 22-27, 1721, No. 899.

15 Selectmen's Minutes, 1721, 83.

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d also to the neighboring towns, especially to Roxbury, estown and Cambridge. In Charlestown it was reported " there were " lately " 100 deaths and that there were not than ten or twelve families which had not suffered from pox.

e physicians of Boston at that time whose names have down to us, were Drs. Archibald, Boylston, Clark, Cutler, onde, Davis, Douglass, Perkins, Williams and White. Of Drs. Clark, Douglass and Williams were liberally edu- , Clark and Williams being graduates in Arts of Harvard ge. Dr. Archibald had been surgeon of an English war- Dr. Dalhonde was a Frenchman who had seen service in gn wars, and Dr. Cutler was favorably mentioned by the ag clergymen, while Dr. Perkins was a pious neighbor of n Mather and of satisfactory skill. Several of these phy- is in after years were members of the first medical society lished in this country.

the outset of the epidemic the best educated physician of own was Dr. William Douglass, a Scotchman of about i years of age who had been in Boston some three years had brought letters of recommendation to Increase and n Mather and to Benjamin Colman. These gentlemen : well of him and were of some help to him, although but general notice was taken of him until he made himself n through his opposition to inoculation. He had received lucation in Edinburgh, Paris and Leyden and was the only cian in Boston at the time who had received the degree octor of Medicine, although it does not appear when and he obtained it. He was a well-read man of intelligence bility, but was conceited, injudicious, inaccurate and con- us. Dr. Samuel A. Green " regards him as " a man of intellectual parts and a versatile writer. He knew 1omy and could calculate eclipses; he had a taste for al history, and was withal an excellent botanist. He d his medical cases, and took careful notes by the bed

the earlier part of his career, with which we are especially 'ned, his failings were more conspicuous than his virtues. seful man he soon attained an influential position among lows. At first he was favored by the ministers, but as he heir esteem he became a bitter and violent opponent of views. According to the Reverend Peter Thacher," 'eater part of the physicians in town & those of most emi- reprobated inoculation in the strongest terms. Douglass himself at the head and did not hesitate to use any is lawful or unlawful to destroy his antagonists. This who had in perfection the hungry penetration and the iting bitterness of his native country (not America), left :hod untried to load Dr. B. with obloquy and prevent the ; of his practice.

0 England Courant, Jan. 15-22, 1722, No. 25.

tory of Medicine in Massachusetts, a Centennial Address ed before the Massachusetts Medical Society at Cambridge, 1881.

jsachusetts Magazine, 1789, I, 776.

Cotton Mather and had lent him certain numbers or a volume of the Philosophical Transactions published by the Royal So- ciety, of which, at the time, he appeared to have had the only copy in Boston. Later another copy was obtained by John Campbell, publisher of the News-Letter, although he did not make its presence known " until five months after he had re- ceived it.

The volume was entitled " Philosophical Translations, Giv- ing Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies and Labours of the Ingenious in Many Considerable Parts of the World. Vol. XXIX, for the Years 1714, 1715, 1716. London, 1717."

It may be that Douglass supposed that Mather's interest would lie especially in article IV of No. 339 for April, May and June, 1714, entitled, "An Extract of Several Letters from Cotton Mather, D. D., to John Woodward, M. D., and Richard Waller, Esq., S. R. Secr." There were twelve of these letters on various subjects communicated in 1712. Mather's atten- tion, however, was fixed on article V, " An Account or History, of the Procuring the SMALL Pox by Incision or Inoculation : As it has for some time been practised at Constantinople. Being the Extract of a Letter from Emanuel Timonius, Oxon. & Patav., M. D., S. R. S., dated at Constantinople, December, 1713. Communicated to the Royal Society by John Wood- ward, M. D., Profes. Med. Gresh. and S. R. S." He also un- doubtedly studied with care article No. 347 for the months of January, February and March, 1716, entitled, " Nova & TUTA Variolas excitandi per Transplantationem Methodus nuper inventa & in usum Tracta: Per Jacobum Pylarinum, Venetum, M. D., & Reipublicae Venetae apud Smyrnenses nuper Con- sulem." These articles gave a statement of the method and successful result of the treatment of smallpox in Turkey and neighboring countries by inoculating healthy individuals with the disease.

Cotton Mather was quick to see the bearing of these articles on existing conditions, and the following entry appears in his published diary, for excerpts from which I am indebted to Mr. Worthington C. Ford, of the Massachusetts Historical Society :

May 26, 1721. G. D. The grievous Calamity of the Small- Por has now Entered the Town. The practice of conveying and suffering the Small-por by Inoculation has never been used in America, nor indeed in our Nation. But how many Lives might be saved by it, if it were practised. I will procure a Consult of our Physicians, and lay the matter before them.

He prepared a letter to the physicians of Boston, giving an abstract " of these communications and suggesting some action. As this letter was the beginning of the battle which raged so

1º News-Letter, 1722, March 5-12, No. 945.

" To be found in " Some ACCOUNT of what is said of Inoculating or Transplanting the Small Pox by the Learned Dr. Emanuel Timonius, and Jacobus Pylarinus. With Some Remarks thereon. To which are added, A Few Quaeries in Answer to the Scruples of many about the Lawfulness of this Method. Published by Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, 1721."

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violently the following extract from it is taken from " A Vindication of the Ministers of Boston from the Abuses and Scandals lately cast upon them in Diverse Printed Papers. 1722, 7."

I will only say (writes the DOCTOR) that inasmuch as the Practice of suffering and preventing the Small-Pox in the way of Jnoculation has never yet (as far as I have heard) been intro- duced into our Nation; where there are so many that would give great Sums, to have their Lives insur'd, from the dangers of this dreadful Distemper, nor has ever any one in all America ever yet, made the tryal of it (tho' we have several Africans among us, as I now find, who tryed it in their own Country) I cannot but move that it be warily proceeded in. I durst not yet engage, that the Success of the tryal here will be the same, as has hitherto been in the other Hemisphere. But I am very confident, no person would miscarry in it, but what must most certainly have miscarried upon taking it in the Common way. And I would humbly advise that it be never made, but under the man- agement of a Stiffut (PBpsician who will wisely prepare the Body for it before he performs the Operation. Gentlemen, my request is, that you would meet for a Consultation upon this Occasion, and to deliberate upon it, that whoever first begins this practise, (if you approve that it should be begun at all) may have the concurrence of his worthy Brethren to fortify him in it.

This letter was dated June 6, 1721, and was directed to one of the physicians, a preacher and also " A Worthy School- master " (whom we did not reproach for going out of his Line for practising Physick)," with the request that he should com- municate it to the physicians, with a separate note to one or two of them, and with the express request that Dr. Douglass should not be forgotten but should receive a copy of the letter. The latter gentleman evidently was aggrieved that Cotton Mather, a clergyman, should borrow his books and select therefrom communications upon a medical subject and recommend them to the consideration of the physicians of Boston without consul- tation with the owner of the books in question. He intimates = that before the physicians could meet, consult and report Dr. Boylston had been induced privately to make the trial. Never- theless, there was no reply from the physicians nor did they hold a meeting, and it is probable that Dr. Douglass was ex- erting his influence against any action. In the meantime a watch was being set in accordance with the order of the Select- men " of May 6, 1678, to control the removal of infected articles and to prevent the premature appearance in public of the patients. But the epidemic was spreading so rapidly that the guards were being taken from the infected houses as of no use. Persons, among others, Mrs. Boylston, were leaving the town to avoid the risk of contagion. Cotton Mather is filled with great anxiety with regard to two of his children who are liable to acquire the disease. He cannot make up his mind to send them away. He writes in his diary on June 13, " What

21 Presumably Dr. Nathaniel Williams, H. C., 1693, and master of what became eventually the Boston Latin School.

" THE ABUSES and SCANDALS of some late Pamphlets In Favour of Inoculation of the SMALL Pox, Modestly obviated, and Inocula- tion further consid'd in a Letter to A. .. . S .... , M. D. & F. R. S., in London, 1722.

2 Boston Town Records, 1678, 119.

shall I do with regard unto Sammy? He comes barz- - the small-pox begins to spread in the neighborhood; az: : lothe to return unto Cambridge." His daughter Lin Tz greater fear of the disease than her brother. June #! cords: " I prepare a little Treatise on the Small-Par awakening the Sentiments of Piety, which it calls for then exhibiting the best Medicines and Methods, st world has yett had for the managing of it; and finaly the New Discovery, to prevent it in the way of Inied. It is possible that this Essay may save the Lives, yer, ci Souls of many People. Shall I give it unto the Boite I am waiting for Direction." It would appear from the that he made another attempt to interest the physician: : is written June 23: "I write a letter unto the Phys entreating them, to take into consideration the impera: fairs of preventing the Small-por in the way of Inostia:

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Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 145

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1189

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189