USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 > Part 185
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Dr. C. Carleton Smith used to study medicine and compare the various systems while employed as a
It is, perhaps, an unique incident that a physician should graduate into the ranks of his profession from 5 nontical life, but such was the experience of Dr. Jeb, J. Garvin, who previous to the civil war had commanded a steamer plying between Philadelphia stof Savannah, and was chief othicer of several govern- Ment transports during the war. He had always used
homeopathic medicines at sca, and when his vessel was laid up, in 1857, he completed a course of study at the Homoeopathic College of Philadelphia, where he obtained his degree in 1863. Released from his maritime vocation, he settled down to practice in Philadelphia, where he was born in 1819. Dr. Richard Cox Allen, author of the "Dissector's Guide," an authority on anatomy, and a member of the American Institute, saw in 1865 a remarkable cure of diphtheria by Hahnemannian methods, and at once gave up the old school for the new. He is a graduate of the Homeopathic College of Philadel- phia, and selected the Frankford district for his field of labor. Dr. William Henry Smith was in his native England a pupil of Gideon Humphrey, and enjoys the notable distinction of being the first person who applied homoeopathic medicine to the diseases of animals, which he did as a repetition of the argument that it is the imagination which effects the cure. He had to practice in this line on analogy alone, as there were then no books to aid him, but he succeeded in making his demonstrations. In 1864, in the fifty-third year of his age, he gradu- ated at the Homeopathic College. The successor to the practice of Dr. Dubs, who retired in 1857, was Dr. G. R. Starkey, who had graduated at the same college two years previously, and at which he was, in 1860, elected to the chair of Anatomy, retiring in 1879 in order that he might uninterruptedly perfect the treatment of disease by compound oxygen gas. He also filled the chair of Surgery for several years.
Among the native-horn Germans who were led by Dr. Hering to look to homeopathy as the most meri- torious theory of medicine, was Dr. John Michael Weick. a resident of Philadelphia from 1852. Dr. William Henry Keim, a graduate of the Hahnemann Medical College, was, in the winter course of 1872 -73, assistant demonstrator of Anatomy in that insti- tution, and since April, 1871, physician to the dis- pensary of the college.
When Dr. Malcolm Macfarlan was appointed pro- dry-goods clerk, and his decision resulted in his re- fessor of Surgery in the llomœopathic Medical Col- ceiving the diploma of the New York Homoeopathic Medical College in 1861, he being at that time twenty- eight years of age. His residence in Philadelphia did not commence until nine years later, but shortly after his arrival here he was elected to the chair of Special Pathology and Diagnosis in the Hahnemann College, and in 1872 an honorary member of the Hahnemann Medical Institute. Like many of his professional associates, he has a share in the editorial work of the Medwal Investigator. lege of this city, in 1867, he had had five years of service in the United States army as hospital stew- ard, druggist, and surgeon, and held a degree from the medical department of Yale College. In Phila- delphia he set himself to work to establish a surgical and operative clinic, the first of any account in a homeopathic college. On the union of the Homeo- pathic College and the Hahnemann Medical College, in 1869, he was appointed professor of Clinical Sur- gery in the new institution.
Dr. Thomas Moore was appointed surgeon to the Northern Ilome for Friendless Children soon after homeopathy was introduced into it. In 1857 he was elected professor of Anatomy, and in 1859 professor of Obstetrics in the Homeopathie College of Penn- sylvania, a connection which his removal to German- town, in 1860, obliged him to sever.
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A physician who also occupied the chair of Anat- omy was Dr. John Coleman Morgan, who was chosen to it in 1865, and afterward to the professorship of Surgery in the Hahnemann College. The inception of the Homeopathic Hospital was a project to which he extended zealous aid. He is associate professor of the American Journal of Homeopathic Materia Medica.
The general opposition-at least until quite re- cently-of the medical profession to the admission of women we do not propose to do more than allude to. But it comes within the duty of the historian to speak of the careers of two women of renown. They are Dr. Sarah Brooks Pettingill and Dr. Emily Ridgway Robbins. Dr. Pettingill was born in Charlestown, Mass., May 16, 1810. She was the daughter of Jacob Felt, and in 1827 she married John Pettingill, and when they removed to Philadelphia, in 1835, she had indulged her innate love of the study of medicine by fairly grounding herself in its rudiments. In 1858 she had been two years regularly engaged in a course of instruction, which she decided to continue a third year if she could graduate honorably from the Penn- sylvania Medical University, of which she had be- come a member. The permission was accorded her, and she gained her diploma ; but her convictions were so greatly formed on the Hahnemannian pre- cepts that she applied to the dean of the Homœo- pathic College for admission. The rules closed the doors against her or any other female, and the utmost concession she could obtain was that she might attend the lectures on practice and Materia Medica if she would sit behind a partition to screen her from the view of the male students. She accepted the condi- tions, and thus attended two courses of lectures, from which she deduced sufficient of the homco- pathic system to apply it in her practice among her own sex. In 1871 the profession had so far pro- gressed in the broadening of its views that she was elected a member of the American Institute of Ho- mæopathy. She was the pioneer woman in the prac- tice of homeopathy in Philadelphia. Her daughter, Ehia Felt Pettingill, graduated from the Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia in 1864, and from the Pennsylvania Medical College in 1865.
Mrs. Emily Ridgway Robbins, M.D., was at first a determined opponent, and subsequently a firm advo- cate, of homeopathy. She matriculated at the Penn Medical University in 1855 and graduated in 1859. All her skill and energy could not secure for her pro- fessional success in the face of the then prevalent an- tipathy in Philadelphia to women doctors. Locating at Fort Madison, Iowa, the people there gave her a cor- dial welcome. At that period she was much disposed to deride the "fallacious nonsense," as she termned it, of homeopathy ; and even after she married, in 1862, Dr. Charles W. Robbins, of Philadelphia, a homœo- pathic physician, her views but slowly underwent a change. But when they found themselves back in their native city and he fell sick, she undertook to
attend to his practice. As his patients would have nothing but homeopathy, it became compulsory npon her that she should learn its formula. She did so, and was always a homœopath from that time on. The many occasions she was twitted for her adoption of a system that she had once so fervently antagonized are noted in numerous anecdotes. Having taken up homœopathic practice perforce, she continued stead- fast to it. In 1872 she was admitted a member of the Homeopathic Medical Society of Pennsylvania.
The Homeopathic Medical Society .- The first Homeopathic Medical Society begun in this city, and probably in the United States, was organized in 1833, but it had only a brief existence. Several of its suc- cessors met with the same fate, and it was not until the institution of the Homeopathic Society of the County of Philadelphia that a permanent organiza- tion was effected. This society originated from an informal meeting held Feb. 10, 1859, at the office of Dr. Richard Gardiner, at which were present, beside Dr. Gardiner, Dr. J. R. Coxe, Jr., Dr. Samuel R. Dubs, Dr. John G. Howard, Dr. Charles E. Tooth- aker, Dr. J. K. Lee, Dr. G. R. Starkey, Dr. D. Cowley, Dr. C. B. Compton, and Dr. G. Wolf. Dr. Coxe was appointed chairman. At a meeting held on the 10th of March following, a constitution and by-laws were adopted, and twenty-nine members were enrolled. Meetings were held regularly until October, 1860, when, for lack of attention, they were discontinued until Nov. 22, 1865, when one meeting was held. The next meeting was held on the 22d of February, 1866, when a committee was appointed to take meas- ures for the organization of the society as at present constituted. Circulars were issued to all the homœo- pathic physicians of Philadelphia and vicinity, call- ing a convention "to devise some acceptable plan of organization whereby all might co-operate in the furtherance of the cause of homeopathy," to meet in the Dental College building, corner of Tenth and Arch Streets, on the evening of March 8, 1866. The meeting was large and enthusiastic. A constitution and by-laws were adopted, and the society was named " The Homeopathic Medical Society of the County of Philadelphia." All persons who assisted in the organization were declared members, and all persons who had obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and were practicing according to the formula similia similibus curantur, were declared eligible for member- ship. At a meeting held April 19, 1866, in the Hahnemann Medical College, Dr. Richard Gardiner was chosen the first president, and Dr. Robert J. McClatchey secretary. The society has since met at the Hahnemann Medical College. Soon after organ- ization effective measures were taken by the society to erect the Homoeopathic Hospital. In all matters relating to homeopathy in the State the society has exerted a wide influence. Most of the articles read before the society, and the discussions thereon, have been published in the Hahnemannian Monthly.
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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The successive presidents have been Dr. Richard Gardiner, 1866-70; Dr. Walter Williamson, 1870-71 ; Dr. Jacob Jeanes, 1871-73; Dr. W. M. Williamson, 1873-74; Dr. P. Dudley, 1874-75; Dr. A. R. Thomas, 1875-77; Dr. R. I. MeClatehey, 1877-78; Dr. John K. Lee, 1878-79; Dr. E. A. Farrington, 1879-81 ; and Dr. William B. Trites, 1881-84. The number of members of the society in February, 1854, was one hundred and fifty-three.
The object of the society is briefly stated in its con- stitution to be "the advancement of medical science." The officers of the society are a president, a vice- president, a treasurer, a secretary, and three censors, who are chosen at the annual meeting in April. Stated meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month, except July and August. The initiation fee is one dollar, and the annual contribution one dollar.
Dental Surgery is an important branch of the medieal profession, and the Philadelphia dentists have not failed to qualify themselves for the proper discharge of the most delieate and difficult labors that they can be called upon to perform. They measure up to the central maxim of their science as it is now taught,-that the business of the dentist is not primarily to pull teeth or fit false teeth, but to preserve the teeth of the patient in every instance where it is possible to do so. They have their l'enn- sylvania College of Dental Surgery and their Phila- delphia Dental College; and when we contrast the present perfection of the science with its rude begin- nings, we discover some curious facts relative to its early stages. It seems that some of our ancestors in the last century had teeth which originally grew in the heads of other people. Mr. B. Fendall, a dentist, who was for some time in Philadelphia, advertised in the Maryland Gazette, Sept. 24. 1779, that " those who have had the misfortune of losing their teeth may have natural teeth transplanted from one person to another, which will remain as firm in the jaw as if they originally grew there." In his "Annals of Phil- adelphia," Watson says that he had seen a printed advertisement of the year 1784, wherein Dr. Le Mayeur, dentist, proposed to the citizens of Philadel- phia to transplant teeth, stating that he had success- fully transplanted one hundred and twenty-three teeth in the preceding six months. At the same time he offered two guineas for every tooth that any person might be disposed to sell to him. Watson adds: ' This was quite a novelty in Philadelphia; the pres- ent care of the teeth was ill understood then. He had, however, great success in Philadelphia, and went off with a great deal of our patricians' money. Sev- ral respectable ladies had them implanted. One of the Meschianza belles had such teeth. They were, in some cases, two months before they could eat with them. One lady told me she knew of sixteen cases of such persons among her acquaintance."
Turming from this picture of the clumsy dentistry
of a hundred years ago, we are brought to notice that Philadelphia not only now has three of the best equipped and most efficient dental colleges in exist- ence, and her practitioners are not excelled anywhere, but they have also exerted a potent and widespread influence in the formation of professional associations other than those existing in this city. The Pennsyl- vania Dental Association was organized at a meeting held in the hall of the Philadelphia Dental College, and the original suggestion for the creation of the American Dental Association came from the pen of the late Dr. McQuillen. A large proportion of the text-books of dental science have been written by Philadelphians, and a still larger proportion have been published here. Stockton's Dental Intelligencer was the first periodical in this city devoted to den- tistry, and the second in the world. The Dental News- Letter was originally issued in October, 1847, as a quarterly pamphlet of sixteen pages, by Jones, White & Co. Its size was increased from year to year until the numbers of the fifth volume comprised sixty-four pages, and J. D. White, D.D.S., M.D., and J. R. MeCurdy were appointed its editors.
The Dental Cosmos, a monthly journal, was started under the ownership of Jones & White in 1859, the editors being J. D. White, J. H. MIeQuillen, and George J. Ziegler. In 1861 Dr. S. S. White became the sole proprietor. In 1865 the editorship of J. D. White ceased, Drs. MeQuillen and Ziegler continuing. In 1872 J. W. White, M.D., D.D.S., assumed the edi- torial charge, in which position he still remains. This journal from the first has been managed with marked ability, and probably has a larger circulation than any other dental journal in the world.
The Dental Times, a quarterly, was issued July, 1863, and ran a course of some ten years. It was published and edited by the faculty of the Pennsyl- vania College of Dental Surgery.
The Dental Practitioner, a new monthly journal, published by Gideon Sibley, and edited by Charles E. Pike, D.D.S., was begun January, 1883, and gives promise of able management and of usefulness to the profession. The first number of the second volume appeared with an additional number of pages and otherwise greatly improved. The dental profession have also contributed many valuable works to the literature of the country, among which may be men- tioned :
A Practical Guide to the Management of the Teeth. By L. S. Parmly, dental professor. Phila- delphia, ISI9.
Observations upon the Importance of the Teeth. By Samuel Sheldon Fitch, 1 surgeon dentist. Phila- delphia, 1828.
The Anatomy. Physiology, and Pathology of the Human Teeth. By Paul Beck Goddard,* M.D. Philadelphia, 1846.
1 The * Indicates the authors as Philadelphia dentiats.
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A Practical Treatise on the Operations of Surgical and Mechanical Dentistry. By Samuel C. Harbert,* surgeon dentist. Philadelphia, 1847.
The Medical Student's Guide in Extracting Teeth. By S. S. Horner,* practical dentist. Philadelphia, 1851.
Ether and Chloroform : their Employment in Surgery, Dentistry, etc. By J. F. B. Flagg,* M.D. Philadelphia, 1851.
A Practical Treatise on Dental Medicine. By
Thomas E. Bond, A.M., M.D. Philadelphia, 1851.
A Text-Book of Anatomy and Guide in Dissec- tions, for the Use of Students of Medicine and Den- tal Surgery. By William R. Handy, M.D. Phila- delphia, 1853.
Chemistry and Metallurgy as Applied to the Study and Practice of Dental Surgery. By A. Snowden Pigott, M.D. Philadelphia, 1853.
A Treatise on the Use of Adhesive Gold Foil. By Robert Arthur, M.D., D.D.S. Philadelphia, 1857.
A Practical Treatise on Operative Dentistry. By J. Taft, Professor of Operative Dentistry, etc. Phila- delphia, 1859.
A Practical Treatise on Mechanical Dentistry. By Joseph Richardson, D.D.S., M.D. Philadelphia, 1860.
Dental Anomalies. By Am. Fouget, M.D., C.L.D. Philadelphia, 1860.
A Manual on Extracting Teeth. By Abraham Robinson, D.D.S., M.D. Philadelphia, 1863.
Instructions in the Manipulations of Hard Rubber or Vulcanite for Dental Purposes. By E. Wildman,* M.D., D.D.S. Philadelphia, 1865.
Odontalgia : Commonly called Toothache. Its Causes, Prevention, and Cure. By S. Parsons Shaw. Philadelphia, 1868.
Register Papers : A Collection of Chemical Essays in Reference to Dental Surgery. By George Watt, M.D., D.D.S. Philadelphia, 1868.
A Treatise on the Diseases and Surgery of the Mouth, Jaws, and Associate Parts. By James E. Garretson,* M.D., D.D.S. Philadelphia, 1869.
Treatment and Prevention of Decay of the Teeth. By Robert Arthur, M.D. Philadelphia, 1871.
Studies in the Facial Region. By Harrison Allen,* M.D. Philadelphia, 1874.
Plasters and Plastic Fillings, By J. Foster Flagg .* Philadelphia, 1881.
The Mouth and Teeth. By J. W. White, M.D., editor of Dental Cosmos.
Notes on Operative Dentistry. By Marshall H. Webb .* Philadelphia, 1883.
Dental Metallurgy : a Manual for the Use of Den- tal Students. By Charles J. Essig,* 1882.
Dental Medicine. By F. J. S. Gorgas, A.M., M.D., D.D.S. Blakiston, Son & Co., Philadelphia, 1884.
The question as to who was the first regularly edn- cated dentist that practiced in America is answered by the historical evidence that John Woofendale, a
pupil of Thomas Berdmore, dentist to King George III., came over from England in 1766, and spent some eighteen months in Philadelphia, making occa- sional visits to New York for professional purposes. In March, 1768, he returned to England, as his American venture had not been remunerative to him. Within a very few years after that' date there was, as related in Watson's "Annals," a Dr. Baker, who had an office for the practice of dentistry on Second Street, between Walnut and Spruce. Like Woofendale, he seems to have left no abiding his- torical impression.
One of the Frenchmen attracted to America during the Revolutionary war was James Gardette, physician, surgeon, and dentist, who also came to Philadelphia in 1784. He opened an office at the corner of Third and Pear Streets for the practice of dental surgery, which he pursued for a period of forty-five years. Mr. Gardette had received in his native country a systematic and thorough education in medicine and surgery, as well as in the specialty of dentistry, so far as instruction was available at that time. What he lacked in the art and science his inherent genius, close application, and judgment supplied. Much might be said of the improvements he made in dental practice. He was a most estimable man, a skillful dentist, and his name stands as one of the most prominent among the host of American dentists.
Edward Hudson, who came from Dublin, Ireland, to this country in 1802, began the practice of his pro- fession in this city in 1805. At first he was involved in pecuniary embarrassments, and met with many discouragements; but, freeing himself from the per- plexities of certain commercial pursuits, he attained to great skill and eminence in his profession. It has been said of him by one who is competent to judge, " We are probably more indebted to his success than to that of any other man for the importance which was attached at that period to operations which were intended to preserve the natural teeth in their nat- ural state. For by the complete success attending the practice of this great man the public were soon convinced that teeth could be saved instead of being extracted."
Leonard Koecker, a native of Bremen. Hanover, came to this country, and began the practice of den- tistry in Philadelphia in 1807. His knowledge of dentistry was very meagre when he commenced, and he had much to learn. But his native ability and energy enabled him to overcome his many defects, and in a few years he gained quite a reputation. Ile practiced some fifteen years in this city, when, his health failing, he went to Europe, and finally settled in London, where he gained an extensive practice and widely-known reputation as a dentist.
A. A. Plantou was one of the early dentists of this city. He was born in France in 1774, and graduated in the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery at Paris in 1805. He came to Philadelphia in 1817, and
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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
pursued the practice of his profession up to about the time of his death, which occurred March 16, 1837. To him belongs the credit of introducing porcelain, or mineral, teeth into this country, and also for many improvements that he made in their fabrication. In the same line of work was that versatile genius, Charles W. Peale, who founded the Philadelphia Museum, the first in the United States, and was suc- cessively a saddler, silversmith, watch-maker, dentist, and portrait-painter. Peale died Feb. 22, 1827, at the age of eighty-six years. Samuel W. Stockton so im- proved upon the ideas of Plantou and Peale in regard to the form and quality of porcelain teeth as to make their manufacture of great commercial importance. Among other dentists of high reputation in the first half of the century were Drs. Roper, Harrington, Flagg, Gilliams, Harris, Dillingham, and Elisha M. Neal.
Dr. Elisha Townsend was a most accomplished and skillful practitioner of dentistry. For many years previous to his death, which occurred Oct. 13, 1858, his attainments placed him at the head of his profes- sion, not only in this city, but throughout the entire country. In 1840 a few prominent men determined to form the American Society of Dental Surgeons. In 1851 Dr. Townsend took a leading position as an advocate for separate and independent colleges for instruction in dentistry. He was professor of Oper- ative Dentistry and dean of the Philadelphia Col- lege of Dental Surgery, the first dental school estab- lished in the city, in 1852. Upon the reorganization of this institution, under the corporate name of the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, he again filled the same chair in 1856-57. His health failing in the autumn of 1857, the honorary degree of emeritus professor was conferred on him by the trustees and faculty of the college. He was president of the American Society of Dental Surgeons, and the originator of the American Dental Convention. His contributions to the various repositories of dental literature consist of introductory and valedictory ad- dresses delivered before collegiate classes, their topics being the means, methods, aims, and duties of pro- fessional life and progress, collegiate education in dentistry, the agency and utility of associative effort among practitioners for the advancement of their common interest and honor, and also essays upon professional fees, dental patients, and the minor morals of professional conduct,-enough for a volume of classical miscellanies.
Dr. Elias Wildman, a distinguished dentist of Philadelphia, was a native of Bucks County, Pa., and was born June 8, 1811. He graduated at the Uni- varsity of Pennsylvania, served in hospital practice in New York for some time, studied dentistry, and commenced its practice in Philadelphia in 1836.
Hle devoted himself with untiring zeal to scientific researches and experiments in various departments of his profession, and his labors were crowned with
marked success. He improved the fabrication of mineral teeth, reducing the process to an exact sys- tem, giving to them a more natural form and life-like appearance. The dental profession is indebted to him for the discovery of the method of producing the beautiful gum enamel in use at the present time. His experiments in hard rubber and celluloid as a base for artificial dentures were of great value. He was elected professor of Mechanical Dentistry and Metallurgy in the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1862, and retained the position up to the time of his death, which occurred July 25, 1876.
Another quite prominent member of the dental profession in Philadelphia was the late George S. Barker, D.D.S. He was born in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., March 26, 1836. He came to this city in 1856, en- tered the office of Dr. Edward Townsend as a stu- dent, attended lectures at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, and graduated from that institu- tion in 1859.
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