History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 176

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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1598

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

they had assigned to themselves had ended. There is something akin to romance, especially, in the con- certed efforts of Shippen, Morgan, and Rush, mere boys, who projected the great institution that for a century and a third yet remains the first in rank amid so large a number of kindred. As interesting as this, and yet more to he adnrired, is the cordiality with which these young men were received by the older practitioners, under whom they had studied the rudi- ments of science, and by whom they had been sent abroad for obtaining the benefit of those faculties that had been denied to themselves.

Yet among those who were less distinguished than those we have already mentioned were some of excel- lent ability and character. Contemporary with Red- man were the usual number for such a town, of vary- ing abilities and notoriety. Dr. John Jones, whose office was on Market Street, between Second and Third Streets, was a man of much note and a large practice. He was often referred to with respect and gratitude by some of the more distinguished men whom he had assisted in their studies. Another was Dr. Thomas Say, who lived on Moravian Street, near Arch. Dr. Say was an eminently pious Quaker, so much so that he claimed and was believed to have been honored by special visitations from heaven. He was un- doubtedly a good physician, and he sincerely believed himself to be a favored medium between the Divine Being and mankind, and was wont to tell, both with tongue and pen, of what had been revealed to him. Some of his family credited what he said of these revelations, and one of his sons, Benjamin, who was also a physician, wrote, among other things, what he styled " A Short Compilation of the Extraordinary Life and Writings" of his father. The report of his having been thus chosen as a recipient of Divine con- fidence rendered him an interesting object in old age, especially to the young, who were wont to panse when he was met upon the street and wonder how the strange visions appeared that he had seen.

There was Dr. Abraham Chovet, on Race Street, be- tween Third and Fourth, whose lectures on anatomy were held at his house on Water Street, which was in that day the principal place of residence for the mer- chants. He was eminently successful, after long trials and experiments, in making preparations in wax. He lingered in active life long after old age had set upon him. Many anecdotes were told of him. He is thus described by Watson :

" This aged gentleman and physician was almost daily to be seen push- ing his way, in epite of his feebleness, in a kind of hasty walk or rather shuffle ; hie aged head and straight white hair, bowed and hanging for- ward beyond the cape of his black, old-fashioned coat, mounted by a small cocked hat, closely turned upon the crown upward behind, but projectingly, and ont of all proportion, cocked before, and seemingly the impelling cause of his anxion«, forward movements ; his aged lips closely compressed (sans teeth) together, were in continual motion, ae thongh he were munching somewhat all the while; hie golden-headed Indian cane, not need for his support, but dangling by a knotted black silken string from hie wrist ; the ferrule of his cane and the heels of his capa- ctons shoes, well lined in winter-time with thick woolen cloth, might

be heard jingling and scraping the pavement at every step; he eeemed on the street always as one hastening as fast as his aged limbe would permit him to some patient dangerously ill, without looking at any one passing him to the right or left."

In this primal time there were some of the other sex who were not unknown to fame. It must have been a case that threatened to become fatal when a man physician was called in at the most critical period of a woman's life. When these began to be resorted to there was great complaint among the nurse sisterhood, and charges of departure from decent usages were made. Mary Broadway was a famous midwife. She lived to be a hundred years old, and served at her profession to the last, even without need of spectacles, as was fondly mentioned in the obituary notice on the day after her departure from this life. It was sad to such women when the science and the business of obstetrics passed from them to the men.

We herewith append a list of all the physicians and dentists of Philadelphia in 1783, with their locations. It will seem strange how some of these locations should ever have been specially favorable :

James Batchelor, Water Street, between Almond and Catherine Streets. Barnabas Binney, Arch Street, between Fourth and Fifth. Bond & Wilson, Second Street, between Market and Arch. John Baker, dentist, Second Street, between Walunt and Spruce. John Carson, Third Street, between Chestnut and Walnut. William Clarkson, Front Street, between Union and Pine. Abraham Chovet, Race Street, between Third and Fourth. Gerardns Clarkson, Pine Street, between Front and Second. William Curry, corner Second and Pine.

Benjamin Duffield, Front, between Sontb and Almond. James Dunlap, Market, between Fifth and Sixth. Nathan Dorsey, Front, between Walout and Spruce. Samuel Duffield, Chestnut, between Second and Third. Jobo Fonlk, Front, between Market and Arch. George Glentworth, Arch, betweea Front and Second. Peter Glentworth, Front, between Market and Arch. Joseph Goss, Front, between Walnnt sod Spruce. Samuel K. Griffith, Union, between Second and Third. James Gardette, dentist, corner Third and Pear. James Hutchinson, Second, betweea Walont and Spruce. Robert Harris, Spruce, between Second and Third. John Jones, Market, between Second and Third. Michael Jennings, Moravian Alley (Bread Street). Jackson & Smith, Second, between Market and Chestnut. John Kelime, Race, between Second and Third. Adam Kucher, Second, between Chestunt and Walnut. George Syle, Front, near Poole's bridge. John Morgan, corner Second and Spruce. Peter Peres, North Second, corner Brown Street. Joseph Phiffer, Second, between Vine and Callowhill. Thomas Park, Fourth, between Chestnut and Market. Benjamin Rush, Second, between Chestnut and Walnut. Frederick Rapp, Third, between Race and Vine. John Redman, Second, between Market and Arch. Benjamin Say, Second, between Arch and Race. William Smith, Arch, between Front and Second. Sumnel Shober, Front, between Almond and Sonth. Thomas Shaw, corner Front and Callowhill. William Shippen, Second, between Walnut and Spruce. Benjamin Vanleer, Water, between Race and Vine.

Before proceeding further with accounts of the men who have been leaders in the medical profes- sion, it seems proper to speak somewhat of diseases, especially those that were epidemic in the earliest settlement of Philadelphia, and the habits of persons not skilled in medical science in making available

1599

MEDICAL PROFESSION.

for eures or alleviations of sickness the natural pro- duetions of the country. In the study of this branch of the subject, we have been impressed by the accu- racy with which many traditions of the curative qual- ities of certain of the indigenous plants of the country have descended to the inhabitants of rural distriets wherever we have known them.

The farther we go back in the history of the settle- ment, the more frequent seem the variations in the degrees of heat in summer and cold in winter. Wil- liam Penn early noticed this inconstancy, and occa- sionally alluded to it in his letters to friends. From the mildness of the first winter of his residence, he was at first inclined to suspect that he had settled in the midst of a climate for the greater part of the time salubrious and even delectable. The next year (1683) was not so mild, as the Delaware River during one spell was frozen over. It is certain that as the time elapsed the spring season came on later and later. The native grapes used to green by the last of Feb- epidemic have been gathered from the journals of ruary, and in the course of thirty or forty years the Thomas Chalkley and Thomas Story, two zealous preachers among the Friends. The latter was then visiting the colony of Pennsylvania, where, however, he settled upon his arrival, and was made master of the rolls, though he afterward returned to London, where he died in 1742. Chalkley had been on a mis- sion to the island of Tortola, and came to Philadel- phia in 1701, where he remained during the rest of his life. The historian Proud speaks of him as a man of great virtues. The disease began about the Ist of August, and continued nearly through Octo- ber. Story tells with great satisfaction that the only season of abatement of the awful malady was during the session of the Friends' Meeting. springs seem to have fallen a couple of weeks or more behind the usual period of their return. So the win- ters were later in coming as they were in departing. The Delaware used often to freeze by the middle of November. Merchants, counting upon this, were wont to hasten in sending forth their ships, to avoid being ice-bound. By about the middle of the cen- tury this necessity was not wont to arise until about a month later. Several winters in that period of half a century were intensely severe. That of 1697-98 was notably so, as that of 1702-3. Loaded wagons trav- eled across the Delaware at Christmas in the former year, and in the latter such was the case early in Oc- tober. That of 1704-5 was so severe that during six weeks no mail matter was brought or carried. The snow fell to the average depth of three feet. In " In this distemper," he says, "had died six, seven, and sometimes sight a day, for several weeks, there being few houses, if any, free of the sickness. Great was the majesty aod hand of the Lonl' Great was the fear that fell on all flesh ! I saw no lofty or oiry countenances, nor heard any vain jesting to move men to laughter, nor witty reparteo to move meo to mirth, nor extravagant feasting to excite the lusts atul de- elres of the flesh above measure. But overy face gathered paleness, 1740-41 it was yet more so. The wild animals, in their stress for food, were wont to make their way to the plantations in search of the means of subsistence, and many of the poorer classes of citizens maintained themselves and their families from these and the ear- casses of those who were found nearly perished in the snow. Other winters were as notably mild, as that of 1824-25 and that of 1827-28. In Hazard's " Reg- ister" there is much interesting information to be ob- tained touching this subject, which, however, is too voluminous to be inserted.

The conclusions that have been arrived at by those familiar with the history of meteorological phenomena are that the climate of Pennsylvania underwent con- siderable changes within a hundred years, and that a greater uniformity was observable in the seasons. The springs became colder and the autumns milder,1

yet these frequent abrupt variations continued, and produced their natural crops of sickness.

Allusion has been made heretofore to the specially sickly seasons spoken of by Noah Webster and others. The excessive cold of the winter of 1697-98 was pro- ductive of much influenza, which, but more so farther north than in Philadelphia, took on the form of ty- phoid pneumonia. Two years afterward, in August, 1699, the city was visited by a most malignant sick- ness, to which was given the name of the Barhadoes distemper, though there does not seem to be any evidence that it was directly imported from that island, and it was not until afterward that the epidemic received the name of yellow fever. The summer had been as notably hot as the last, but one winter had been cold. The heat had been so intense that often laborers in the harvest-field had been pros- trated, many of them dying. This was a most un- cominon occurrence anywhere. The accounts of this

since that time. Ilo observes that there are seldom more than twenty or thirty days in sommer or winter In which the mercury rives ninove 80° in the former or falls below 30 in the Intter season. The higher the mercury rises in hot day's the lower it nunally falls in the night Thus, when at 800 by day it falls to 66° at night, or when at only 60o by day it falle only to 56° at night. The greatest disproportion le olust apparent io August. The warmiest wenther ie generally in July, but intense warm days are often felt in Mny, June, August, and September. The variablonens of weather in our State, he observes, lies south of 41 , and beyond that the winters are steady and in character with the East- ern and Northern States. Our juteuse cold seldom sets in till about the 20th or 25th of December, ' As the day lengthens the cold strengthens,' so that the coldest weather is gonerally in January The greatest coll he has known in Philadelphia was 5 below zero and the greatest boat 95 . The standard temperature of the city |< 521 : The month of June la the only month that resembles a spring month in the south countries of Europe. The autumn he deems our most ngrecable season. The raine in October are the harbingers of the winter, so that, as the Indians also suy, the degrees of cold In winter can be foreknown by the measure of rain preceding it in the author. The molsture of the air is greater now than formerly, owing, probably, to its now falling in rain, wherons it before fell in snow. Even the enme successive seasons and mouths differ from each other every year."

1 The following from Watson's "Annals," referring to lInzard'e specu- lations, are interestlog : " Ile thinks the menn temperature may not have changed, but that the climate is altered by heat and cold, being less confined than formerly to their natural seasons, Ho thinks no facts warrant a belief that the winters were colder before the year 1740 thin

1600

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

and many hearts were hunibled, and conotenances fallen and eunk, as such that waited every moment to be summoned to the bar, and oum- bered to the grave."

About two hundred and twenty perished of the disease. Among them were as many as five from the family of Isaac Norris, Sr.1 The disease was ever thought to have been imported. Dr. Rush, we be- lieve, was the first to assume that it might originate from local causes.

The neighborhood was occasionally beset by fever and ague. The year 1717 was notable for this visita- tion. The smallpox made its entry into Philadelphia in 1710. It had been on the ship on which Penn came over in 1682, and several of the passengers died while at sea, but we believe there is no record of its having invaded the country at that time. The havoc made in 1710 was great. Afterward some pains were taken, upon its recurrence, to keep those infected away from the rest. Such was the case in 1726, when it was imported by a ship from England. There was a house called Blue-House Tavern, on South Street near Tenth, where infected persons from the ships were carried, and the disease confined there.

This disease was the greater from the ignorance of any means of preventing except by inoculation and the tardiness with which it was resorted to. We have seen that among the physicians of Philadelphia at the time were some of thorough education. These advised inoculation, but the state of public opinion was so hostile to it that it was long before any medi- cal man dared to attempt it. The majority of the inhabitants, in case of the death of any one from this cause, would have regarded it as a case of murder. The Weekly Mercury, the first newspaper, published, as we have seen, by Bradford, contained a sermon by a New England divine, in which he styled inocula- tion as "an unjustifiable act, an infliction of an evil, and a distrust of God's overruling care to procure us a possible future good." It was thirty years before this superstitious prejudice could be overcome. In 1730 the mortality had been appalling. Among the victims were George Claypole and five of his chil- dren. In the following year, when inoculation was successfully performed upon James Growden, the ex- ample thus set was soon followed. Not all the play- sicians practiced it, but a majority did as late as 1836. These were Kearsley, Shippen, Zachary, Bond, Hooper, Sommers, and Cadwalader.2

1 The following is from the papere left by him: " This ie quite the Barbadoes distemper. They void and vomit blood. There is not a day nor night has passed for several weeks but we hear the account of the death or sickness of some friend or neighbor. It hath sometimes been very sickly, but 1 never knew it so mortal as now; nine persons lay dead in one day at the same time; very few recover. All business and trude down. The fall itself was extremely moderate and open."

2 In volume ix., " Register of Pennsylvania," on the subject of " The early settlement of Columbia, in Pennsylvania," occurs the following: " In the year 1757 a physician (Dr. Moore) came from Philadelphia to juoculate the children who never had had the smallpox. Being all connected, they were taken to one house to make it convenient for the doctor, lle bad forty patients. One or two that did not take the small-

In the year 1741 the yellow fever again appeared this time called the " Palatinate distemper," because of its being brought by some German emigrants Noah Webster calls it the " American plague ;" but Dr. Bond, who seems to have been in advance of his time, if not in learning, at least in judgment, pro- nounced this yellow fever, and declared that it had been imported along with a shipful of emigrants from Dublin. In 1743 the same disease reappeared, but there being no proof of importation, the appre- hension for the first time seemed to be that it owed its origin to local influences.

The years 1747 aud 1748 were notable for sickness and the mortality consequent thereupon. That of the first seems to have been what Noal Webster calls " a bilious plague ;" that of the second, coming on in February, was known as an "epidemic pleurisy." In 1754-55 the mortality was great. The infection thus received was called the "Dutch distemper." This originated from a disease occurring among the immi- grants of vessels from Germany, who, occupying crowded and poorly-ventilated berths, fell ill of a distemper that became so general as to have assigned to it a national name.

Without undertaking to account for the fact, it is certain that among all peoples, however uncultivated, there has ever been a considerable acquaintance with the virtues of various medicinal herbs. Such ac- quaintance will ever be found most abundant in new communities, as all will testify who have spent much of their time in their midst. The crone with her salves precedes the physician with his books and apothecary materials, and it is long before he can entirely supplant her. Indeed, he never does so en- tirely, partly because of the intimate acquaintance that those otherwise wholly unlearned have made with the provisions that nature has made in the woods, the field, and the garden. The history of medicine in Philadelphia shows that the fees of the most learned of the early physicians were not large, on account of the use of plants and herbs, which was common, especially among the poorer class. Ordi- nary cases of sickness were usually treated by the parents or friends, and it must be a case of great danger, or one requiring surgical operation, when a physician or surgeon would be called. As the city grew in population and culture, the knowledge of the efficacies of these various plants became more and more diminished, and the professional man was found to be more and more in demand.

Very many were those plants. Asthmatic persons, for instance, smoked the Jamestown weed ; poke-ber- ries were used for chronic sores, sour-dock for the itch, burdock for the reduction of fevers, everlasting for poultices, mullein for vapor-baths, catmint for colic, blackberry-roots and berries for dysentery. Many of

pox by inoculation died; the rest all did well. It was the opinion then that it would be wrong to inocnlate the second time, lest the subject should take the disease the natural way, and have a double portion."

1601

MEDICAL PROFESSION.

these may be found to-day in rural districts remote from cities. "In the woods they also found medi- cines, much of which knowledge was derived from the Indians, as Gabriel Thomas, in 1689, says, 'There are also many curious and excellent herbs, roots, and drugs of great virtue, which make the Indians, by a right application of them, as able doctors and sur- geons as any in Europe.' The inner bark of the oak and of the wild cherry-tree were their tonics. Sassafras roots and flowers were used as purifiers and thinners of the blood. People used the leaves of the beech- tree for steeping the feet in hot water. Grape-vine sap they used to make the hair grow. Of the dog- wood-tree (its flowers or bark) they made a great cure for dysentery. The magnolia leaf they used as a tea to produce sweat ; the berries, put into brandy, cured consumptions, and was a good bitters; the bark of it was used for dysenteries ; it could cure old sores by burning the wood to charcoal and mixing the pow- der of it with hog's lard. People used the root of the bayberry-bush to cure toothache. The eedar-tree berries were used as a tonic to strengthen a weak spine, to destroy worms, ete. Golden-rod was deemed excellent for dysentery. Boneset, used for consump- tion and for agnes ; sweet ferns, for bowel complaints ; pennyroyal, excellent to produce sweat for colds ; dittany, for cure of a fever ; alder-bnds made a tea for purging the blood. elderberries were used for purges, and the inner bark to make ointment for burns and sores."1 It was then customary among the more provident and charitable of the inhabitants to cultivate many of these plants in their gardens, not only for their own use, but that of their neighbors and the sick in general.

Doubtless it was owing in great part to the simple living of these early settlers that made sickness, ex- cept in the case of epidemics, easily relievable by such simple remedies. The same Gabriel Thomas' opinions of the wonderful skill of the Indian physi- cians must be taken with some allowance when we remember his hostility, or at least his prejudice, against professional men, whether physicians or lawyers. Ont- side of these he was a man ready to praise the most of what he saw in his travels, and some things he said spoke well for those women whose best and favorite doings were in rendering assistance to those who were called upon to aid in the way most natural to the increase of the population.

The attention of leading medieal men was early called to the effects upon the health of the habitual use of ardent spirits. The College of Physicians, in 1787, appointed a committee, consisting of Drs. Rush, Jones, and Griffitts, to memorialize the Legislature upon the subject ; and afterward another committee, consisting of the two former and Dr. Parke, memo- rialized Congress upon the subjeet. Among other things said in the address was the following :

1 Watsoo's " Annala."

" Your memorialiats have beheld with i.gret the feeble Influence of reason and religion in restraining the evila which they have coumer- ated. They centre their hopes, therefore, of an effectual remedy for them in the wisdom and power of the United States; and in behalf of the interests of humanity, to which their profession is closely allied, they thne publicly entreat the Congress, by their obligation to protect the lives of their constitueote, end by their regard to the character of our nation, and to the rank of our species in the scale of beings, to im- pose euch heavy duties upon all dietilled spirits as shall be effectual to restrain their intemperate use in our country."

The members present at the adoption of this ad- dress were John Redman, president; John Jones, vice-president; Robert Harris, Nicholas B. Waters, Thomas Parke, William Currie, Benjamin S. Barton, Nathan Dorsey, Benjamin Rush, Michael Leib, Wil- liam W. Smith, Adam Kuhn, and Samuel P. Griffitts, secretary. The names on the adoption of the me- morial to the Legislature, and not on the above list, are William Shippen, Jr., George Glentworth, James Hutchinson, Benjamin Duffield, Benjamin Say, John Carson, John R. B. Rogers. Among the diseases consequent upon the use of distilled spirits the me- morialists "would only mention the dropsy, epilepsy, palsy, apoplexy, melancholy, and madness, which too seldom yield to the power of medicine;" and they maintain that the "inconveniences arising from exces- sive labor, heat, or cold are to be removed with much more safety and certainty by the use of cider and malt liquors."

These physicians abstained from the utterance of any other opinions upon the subject than those which lay in the line of their profession. Whatever views may be indulged as to the practicability of the legislation they sought, their action in the premises evinces that they were men who seriously desired whatever nieans were feasible for the prevention of human suffering and the conservation of the health, physical and intellectual, of the community.

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 176

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992