USA > Pennsylvania > A history of the Medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, from its foundation in 1765 > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19
160
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF
vast extension recently given to the single science of Pathology. The necessity of their separation had indeed been recognized in the appointment of an assistant to the Professor who occu- pied the united Chairs. This appointment, however, was merely provisional. To give their due relative weight to the two branches, and to secure permanently adequate instruction in each, it was necessary to establish a new professorship. The Trustees accordingly decided that the Institutes of Medicine should form the ground of a new Chair."] No new creation took place in this arrangement, for it will be recollected that the Chair of Institutes and Clinical Medicine existed when a union of the Faculties of the two schools took place in 1791. With the election of Dr. Rush to the Chair of Practice in 1805, the subjects of both chairs were apportioned to one, and thus continued for thirty years, when a separation became expe- dient. The necessity of separation of the two branches, and of the revival of the original professorships, had been urged upon the Trustees in 1823, and again in 1826, by the Medical Faculty. At the beginning of the session of 1827, Dr. Jackson, with the sanction of the Board, had received the appointment of Assistant, and on Dec. 2, 1828, had been elected by the Trustees the Assistant Professor to that position.
On the 6th of October, 1835, Dr. George B. Wood was elected to the vacant Professorship of Materia Medica and Pharmacy, and, at the same time, Dr. Samuel Jackson was elected Pro- fessor of the Institutes of Medicine.
In November, 1835, the health of Dr. Dewees, which had been much impaired by age and laborious occupation, com- pletely failed, and after the course of lectures had commenced, he was forced to resign, and was succeeded by Dr. Hugh L. Hodge, on whom the duty devolved of completing the course, and who was on the 14th of the same month elected to the Chair of Obstetrics.
The connection of Dr. Dewees with Obstetrics constitutes an epoch in the history of American Medicine. He was the first authoritative writer on this branch whom the country has pro- duced, and wielded, at the time when his personal influence
' Sketch of the History of the Medical Department of the University, issued in 1841, in connection with the Catalogue.
161
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
was unbounded, a sway over the opinions of his contemporaries and pupils which directed their practice and controlled their actions. He may truly be regarded as the Father of American Obstetrics.
William Potts Dewees was a native of Pennsylvania, his family being of Scottish origin. He was born in the year 1768. As his family were not in affluent circumstances, in his youth he had to contend with difficulties in obtaining an edu- cation, and to make amends for the want of extensive means of intellectual training by industry and perseverance in the use of such as were within his reach.
He determined early to study medicine, and was for this purpose placed by his father in the establishment of Dr. Phyle, a practising apothecary. Under the superintendence of this gentleman he acquired a knowledge of pharmacy and its col- lateral sciences. He subsequently entered the office of Dr. William Smith, and during his continuance in this position and residence in Philadelphia attended lectures in the Univer- sity. In 1789, at the age of twenty-one years, he took the degree of Bachelor of Medicine.
The early professional life of Dr. Dewees was spent in the country, at Abington, a settlement to the north of the city. The appearance of the yellow fever, in 1793, having thinned the ranks of the profession in Philadelphia, Dr. Dewees was induced to remove thither in December of that year. He entered upon his new field of duty with the confidence, and, it may be stated, under the patronage of Dr. Rush. His asso- ciates and competitors for medical practice at the time were Drs. Physick and James, who had just returned from their sojourn abroad. It was at a period of need in the important branch of obstetrics that Dr. Dewees located himself as a practitioner among the citizens of Philadelphia. Its condi- tion was not flattering, as has already been mentioned. Dr. Hodge informs us that "at that period the science was hardly known in America. The physicians who occasion- ally engaged in its practice had received no instruction, with the exception of a few, who, having visited Europe, brought home a general knowledge of the subject, but who, from the prejudices existing against the employment of male practi-
11
162
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF
tioners, had few opportunities and fewer inducements to per- fect their knowledge. Hence midwifery existed almost uni- versally as an art; the aged and imbecile nurse was preferred to the physician." It has been seen that only so far as taught by Dr. Shippen, and as a mere.appendage to the Chair of Ana- tomy and Surgery, from which it received necessarily but little attention, it was comparatively ignored in the medical school as a branch of scientific education. Medical men, therefore, who desired to become adepts in it were under the necessity of visiting Europe, or of relying upon their own resources. To supply the demand for skilful and intelligent assistance in the conduct of labor, Dr. Dewees, with James, Church, and others, directed their attention to this branch, and by rendering them- selves especially masters of it, were enabled to communicate their knowledge and experience to others.
No one could realize more fully than Dr. Dewees the want of more extensive and efficient instruction on the subject of practical midwifery, and, to use the words of Dr. Hodge, " we find that he has the high honor of first attempting a full course of Lectures on Obstetrics in America.1
"In a small office he collected a few pupils, and in a familiar manner indoctrinated them with the principles of our science, toiling year after year, in opposition to the prejudices not only of the community but even of the profession, who could not perceive that so much effort was necessary for facilitating the natural process of parturition."2 In 1806, Dr. Dewees took the
' An Eulogium on William P. Dewees, M. D., delivered before the medi- cal students of the University of Pennsylvania, Nov. 5, 1842, by Hugh L. Hodge, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics, &c.
2 Reference has been made to the efforts of Dr. Shippen in the early part of his career. Dr. Bond advertised instruction in obstetrics at the Penn- sylvania Hospital, under date of October 25, 1781, in connection with his Clinical Lectures. We find in the American Daily Advertiser the an- nouncement of a course, entitled " Anatomical, Chirurgical, and Obstetri- cal Lectures," by Dr. John Foulke, October 25, 1790.
A course of private lectures was delivered by Dr. Benjamin Duffield. The advertisement of the commencement of this undertaking is as follows : "Dr. B. Duffield's Introduction to his summer Course of Midwifery Lec- tures will be delivered this day, at Mr. Charles Little's School House, at 6 o'clock in the evening. April 6th, 1793." Dr. Church was a relative of
163
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
degree of Doctor of Medicine, his thesis on this occasion was on " The Means of Moderating or Relieving Pain during Par- turition." This essay was afterwards expanded and published as a book, which added to the reputation of the author.1
When, in 1810, it was determined to erect Midwifery to an independent position in the University, Dr. Dewees became a candidate for the Chair. The struggle, we are told, was "a warm one, and the claims of opposing candidates and the influ- ence of their respective friends rendered the event doubtful. The strong claims of Dr. Dewees, his talents, his industry, his attainments, his dexterity, boldness, decision, and judgment as a practitioner ; his great success in the practice of his art; his popularity, supported by the strongest testimonials from many of the distinguished men in the profession, including Drs. Rush and Physick, were met by analogous claims of Drs. James and Chapman."2 The result has been already stated.
In 1812, Dr. Dewees, under the apprehension of a pulmonary affection, retired from the profession and became a farmer. This change did not result to his pecuniary advantage, and he returned to Philadelphia in 1817. In 1825 he was elected to the position of Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics. He had then passed the meridian of life, he was fifty-seven years of age, but his constitution was firm and his energy untiring. In this secondary post he remained until 1834, when he was elected to the Professorship. He delivered but one course of lectures in this position. On the commencement of the second course his health broke down from paralysis, and his retirement became expedient, both for himself and the school.
Dr. Dewees was a voluminous writer; but his best book is his first, his "Compendious System of Midwifery." Although
Dr. Duffield, and became his successor, to be assisted by Dr. James, as has been stated.
Dr. Hodge does not state the year that Dr. Dewees commenced to teach Midwifery. He settled in Philadelphia in 1793, and hence the probability is that his lectures were after those of Dr. Duffield, and contemporary with those of Church and James.
1 It is stated that when Dr. Shippen read this Essay, he remarked "that had he previously been acquainted with the information contained in it, how much suffering would have been spared to his patients."
2 Hodge's Eulogium.
164
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF
not the first original treatise upon the subject in this country, it attracted the attention of European writers to American au- thorship.1 It deviated from the principles of the English authorities, and, while resting upon those of Baudelocque, who was the exponent of the French school of obstetrics, presented so much of original thought and observation as to bestow a high reputation upon the author. "To an American, there- fore, the appearance of Dr. Dewees's work on Midwifery is an important epoch in the history of our science, as being the first regular attempt to think for ourselves on Tokology, and to contribute to the onward progress of this important division of Medical Science."2
After spending a few years in the Southern States, with a view to the restoration of his health, Dr. Dewees returned to Philadelphia, where he died on May 20th, 1841.
When Dr. Dewees resigned in 1835, the Faculty stood as follows :-
Practice of Medicine and Clini- cal Medicine .
NATHANIEL CHAPMAN, M.D.
Chemistry
ROBERT HARE, M.D.
Surgery
WILLIAM GIBSON, M.D.
Anatomy .
WILLIAM E. HORNER, M.D.
Institutes of Medicine SAMUEL JACKSON, M.D.
Materia Medica and Pharmacy GEORGE B. WOOD, M.D.
Obstetrics and Diseases of Wo- men and Children,
HUGH L. HODGE, M.D.
| Published in 1826. In 1828, three editions had already been issued. A Compendium of Midwifery was published by Dr. John Bard, of New York, about the beginning of the present century. A second edition appeared in 1811. In speaking of this work Dr. James remarks : "It contains a large mass of practical knowledge compressed into a small space, and to me it appears as one of the best introductory books that can be placed in the hands of the student." (MS. Introductory Lecture, 1810.) 2 Hodge's Eulogium.
The other works of Dr. Dewees were a "Treatise on the Diseases of Females," one on the "Diseases of Children," and his "Practice of Medicine." His papers on various subjects may be found in the journals.
1
WISTAR. MD
CASPAR WISTAR, M.D. Physician to the Hospital 1793-1810
165
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XIV.
Resignation of Dr. Hare-Sketch of his life-Election of Dr. James B. Rogers to the Chair of Chemistry-Change in the lecture term-Resig- nation of Dr. Chapman-Sketch of his life-Election of Dr. Wood to the Chair of Practice, and of Dr. Carson to that of Materia Medica and Phar- macy.
FROM the period last mentioned until the year 1847, no change took place in the Faculty. Dr. Hare then resigned the Profes- sorship of Chemistry, to which he had been appointed in 1819. He had been in possession of the Chair twenty-seven years.
Dr. Robert Hare was born in the city of Philadelphia in 1781. After finishing his academic education, he devoted some time to the occupation of a brewer, in the establishment of his father, in which his active mind was engaged upon the chemistry of the manufacture of malt liquors, and of their pre- servation. While engaged in this business, a barrel was in- vented by him, partly of iron, for the purpose of resisting the pressure from an extra accumulation of carbonic acid gas. At the age of twenty he entered the Chemical School of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, where, in association with Dr. Benja- min Silliman, he pursued his studies under the direction of Woodhouse.
With reference to that period, Dr. Silliman writes thus in 1809: "When I was appointed to the Chymical Chair of this College (Yale) I was allowed time and opportunities to qualify myself for a station, for which those who appointed me knew I was not at the time prepared. I went to Philadelphia, and was so fortunate as to board in the same house with Mr. Hare. My pursuits and his tastes led us to form a small laboratory, where we pursued Chymistry with much ardour. It is with pleasure that I say that I am greatly indebted to the able assistance and instruction which I received from Mr. Hare at that time, for any progress I made in the Science.
" He had already become, from a great deal of private re-
.
166
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF
search, an experienced and able experimenter, and it is no disrespect to the memory of Dr. Woodhouse (whose opinion of Mr. Hare as a chymist and a man of science I know to have been extremely favourable) for me to add that I often derived from the conversation of Mr. Hare, at home, views of chymical science and explanations of chymical phenomena, which greatly aided my comprehension of the lectures, and even supplied deficiencies which may occur occasionally in the public philo- sophical discourses of the ablest men."1
In 1801 Dr. Hare contrived the Oxy-hydrogen Blowpipe, and was awarded the Rumford Medal of the " American Aca- demy of Arts and Sciences." With respect to the discovery of the "Compound Blowpipe," it is well known that a claim has been set up in England, and upon this point the following testimony of Prof. Silliman is conclusive in placing the credit where it is deserved: "In December of the year 1801, Mr. Hare communicated to the Chymical Society of Philadelphia his discovery of a method of burning oxygen and hydrogen gases in a united stream, so as to produce a very intense heat.
"In 1802 he published a memoir upon the subject, with an engraving of his apparatus, and he recited the effects of his instrument, some of which, in the degree of heat produced, surpassed anything before known. In 1802 and 1803 I was occupied with him in Philadelphia in prosecuting similar experiments on a more extended scale, and a communication was made to the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. The Memoir was printed in the 'Transactions,"2 and Mr. Hare's original Memoir was reprinted in the 'Annals of Chymistry' of Paris, and in the 'Philosophical Magazine' of London. Mr. Murray, in his 'System of Chemistry,' has mentioned Mr. Hare's results in the fusion of the several earths, &c., and has given him credit for his discovery.3
" In one instance, while in Europe in 1806, at a public lec-
1 Letter from Professor Silliman to E. Bronson, Esq., New Haven, June 15, 1809.
2 Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. vi. p. 99.
8 Dr. Hare repeated his experiments in the presence of Dr. Priestley (the discoverer of oxygen), and of Woodhouse, Silliman, and others .- Silli- man's Journal, July, 1858.
167
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
ture I saw some of them exhibited by a celebrated Professor' who mentioned Mr. Hare as the reputed author of the inven- tion.
" In December, 1811, I instituted a course of experiments with Mr. Hare's Blowpipe, in which I melted lime and magne- sia, and a long list of the most refractory minerals, gems, and others, the greater part of which had never been melted before; and I supposed that I had decomposed lime, barytes, strontites, and magnesia, evolving their metallic bases, which burn in the air as fast as produced. I communicated a detailed account of my experiments to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, who published it in their 'Transactions' in 1812. With their leave it was communicated to Dr. Bruce's ' Mineralo- gical Journal,' and was printed in the 4th number of that work. Hundreds of my pupils can testify that Mr. Hare's splendid experiments, and many others performed by his Blowpipe, fed by oxygen and hydrogen. gases, have been for years past annually exhibited in my public courses of Chymistry in Yale College, and that the fusion of the earths, of rock crystals, gun flint, of the corundum gems, and many other very refractory substances, and the production of light beyond the brightness of the sun, have been familiar experiments in my laboratory. I have uniformly given Mr. Hare the credit of his invention, although my researches with his instrument had been pushed further than his own, and a good many new results added.
"It is therefore with no small surprise that, in the 'Annales de Chimie et de Physique' for September, 1816, I found a trans- lation of a very elaborate Memoir from a scientific journal published at the Royal Institution in London, in which a full account is given of a very interesting series of experiments performed by means of Mr. Hare's instrument, or one on the same principle, but without any notice being taken of Mr. Hare's invention, or experiments, or mine; and that the whole is exhibited as original. On a comparison of the Memoir in question with Mr. Hare's and my own, I find that very many of the results are identical, and all the new ones are derived from Mr. Hare's instrument with the following difference: In Mr. Hare's the two gases were in distinct reservoirs, to prevent explosion. They were propelled by the pressure of a column
168
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF
of water, and were made to mingle just before the exit at a common orifice. In the English apparatus, the gases are both in one reservoir, and they are propelled by their own elasticity, after a condensation by a syringe. Professor Clarke, of Cam- bridge University, the celebrated traveller, is the author of the Memoir in question, and we must presume that he was igno- rant of what had been done by Mr. Hare and myself, or he would candidly have adverted to the facts.
" Measures have been taken to set the matter right in Eu- rope, but in the mean time whatever treatment the subject may receive there, it is proper that the American public should know that Mr. Hare was the inventor of the instrument with which in Europe they are now performing the most brilliant experiments, and that there are very few of the results hitherto obtained there by the use of it (and the publication of which has there excited great interest) which were not several years ago anticipated here, either by Mr. Hare or myself."1
It appears that, in consequence of no recognition being made of Dr. Hare's claims by Dr. Clarke, although a spirited protest was communicated to him, Dr. Hare entered into a full exposition of his discovery and a complete vindication of his rights before the scientific world, in "Silliman's Journal," vol. 2, 1820.
The injustice above referred to was not, however, universal in Europe. On the part of many gentlemen of high scientific character, the merit of the discovery was given to its rightful possessor. In 1813 the merit of the discovery was acknowledged by Dr. Hope, of Edinburgh, in the following language: "For the invention of this very ingenious machine we are indebted to Dr. Robert Hare, of Philadelphia, a gentleman whose merits claim a distinguished rank among the most successful pro- moters of Chemistry in the United States of America."2 When it is recollected that this was spoken at a time that a bitter war existed between Great Britain and this country, we cannot but admire the spirit of scientific candor manifested,
1 Eclectic Repertory, vol. vi., July, 1819.
2 A letter from Henry Brevoort, Esq., to John Hare Powell, Esq., dated New York, 1816. Mr. Brevoort was present at the lecture in which the above statement was made by Dr. Hope.
169
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
elevated as it was above party feeling, or the causes of national animosity.
The account of this great discovery from the pen of Dr. Chapman may not be superfluous in this connection : " Means of producing a sufficient degree of temperature to melt some of the metals and other refractory substances had long been de- sired by artists, and hitherto had fruitlessly engaged the atten- tion of chymists. At the suggestion of Mr. Hare, the Chymical Society selected this subject as worthy of examination, and he was appointed to manage the investigation of it. The result of his labors was a discovery which has emphatically been pro- nounced by a great chymist of Europe to be one of the most important of the eighteenth century."1
From the foregoing exposition of the discoveries of Dr. Hare and Professor Silliman, made with the instrument of the former, we may judge of the originality of the "Drummond Light," which is only an application of lime to the flame of the com- pound blowpipe, the intensity of the light under these circum- stances being perfectly familiar to these distinguished chemists, and annually shown to their classes before any practical appli- cation was made of it.
On the death of Dr. Woodhouse in 1809, Dr. Hare pre- sented himself as a candidate for the Chair of Chemistry, but was unsuccessful in his application. Soon after he was chosen " Professor of Natural Philosophy for the Medical Depart- ment ;" but as that position gave no status in the Faculty, he soon accepted the appointment of Chemical Professor in Wil- liam and Mary College, at Williamsburgh, Virginia, where he continued until his election to the University of Pennsylvania. In 1816 the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was con- ferred upon him by Harvard University.
As a lecturer Dr. Hare was remarkable for the scale of his experiments, which were uniformly successful, and impressed the mind by their grandeur. His apparatus was elaborate, and perfect so far as mechanical skill and ingenuity could accom- plish its completion. In galvanism and electricity he invented
1 Letter from Dr. Chapman to Joseph Hopkinson, Esq. Testimonials submitted to the Trustees of the University, in 1809, by Dr. Hare.
170
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF
instruments which far exceeded those familiar to the scientific world, and produced results before unknown. His Calorimotor, so named from the facility of generating an immense amount of heat, was described in "Silliman's Journal" in 1820.1
Two years later he promulgated, through the medium of the "Philadelphia Journal of Medical and Physical Sciences," a new theory of galvanism, accompanied by descriptions of some new modifications of galvanic apparatus. A modifica- tion of his apparatus was termed Dr. Hare's Deflagrator.2 With respect to it we quote the statement of Dr. Silliman: "It is not less a proof of the merits of Dr. Hare's apparatus that Professor Faraday, in 1835, after having exhausted his ingenuity and experience in perfecting the voltaic battery, found that Dr. Hare had already, nearly twenty years before, accomplished all that he had attempted, and with a noble frankness, worthy of all praise, he at once adopted Dr. Hare's instrument, as embodying the best results then possible." Its power was sufficient to fuse platinum, with the production of a brilliant light.
He also contrived an improved Gasometer, a Eudiometer, a Litrometer, a Hydrostatic Blowpipe, an apparatus for freezing water by the use of sulphuric acid, a single leaf Electroscope, and numerous smaller improvements in chemical instruments. The description of his working apparatus, employed in his lec- tures, was given in his "Compendium," a book which, originat- ing in a mere outline or syllabus, was, at the time he left the Uni- versity, enlarged to a bulky volume.
Dr. Hare was exceedingly fond of discussing the philoso- phical bearings of the branch of science which occupied the attention of his lifetime, and occasionally promulgated his views in a controversial way in the journals. He thought for himself, and was not unfrequently in disagreement with Ber- zelius and other prominent chemists of Europe of the time. One subject which much occupied his attention, and gave rise
Vol. 1, pp. 274.
2 The voltaic pile of numerous pairs produces electrical and but little or no calorific effect. Large surfaces in one to four pairs produce great calo- rific and but little electrical effect.
171
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
to discussion on his part, was the "Salt Radical Theory." A number of his papers were contributed to the pages of the " American Journal of Pharmacy." Some of these refer to the especial subjects to which that journal is devoted, and others were upon nomenclature and more general topics. Although Dr. Hare was not regularly bred to the medical profession, and belonged more especially to that class which may be termed philosophical chemists, yet his mind was directed by his asso- ciations to improvements in medicine and its several branches ; hence it will be found that he endeavored by his experiments to promote the advance of medical science. The preparations of opium, the ethers, and other medicinal articles, were the subjects of investigation and of suggestions in their formation which were eminently useful. Pharmacy is indebted to him for the method of denarcotizing laudanum; and to Toxicology he gave the method of determining minute quantities of opium in solution. In the latter years of his life Meteorology occu- pied much of his attention.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.