History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 89

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
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Although not celebrated as a surgeon, yet he per-

formed all needful operations with a correct eye and steady hand, except those, perhaps, which require the very highest professional skill, and the largest amount of practice; and these his modest sense of responsibility prevented him from undertaking rashly merely for the sake of éclat.

His reputation was such that some two years before his death he was appointed Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Medical College of Phil- adelphia, and filled it for one or two sessions with profit to his class and marked distinction for himself; but his ill health at length compelled him to abandon his vocation as a teacher in his profession.

Dr. King in personal appearance was rather tall and well formed, yet he was by no means of a robust constitution, and his sedentary habits as a hard stu- dent were not calculated to improve it, so that he suffered more or less at all times from disordered digestive functions, and he who could remedy all the ills of others was unable to relieve his own. His dis- ease was inflammation of the stomach and intestines, which had committed such ravages upon his naturally feeble frame that before his professional brethren were aware of his danger or could come to his aid it was impossible to save him. Drs. Brown (Sr. and Jr.), Jackson, and Reiter watched him with intense anxiety, using all the means of modern science, but in vain. On the 2d of January, 1852, death removed him of all care and suffering, as gently as a mother puts her child to sleep.

His body lies somewhere in the St. Clair Cemetery, but the stranger would not be able to identify the grave. A plain tombstone which had been erected over them has been misplaced and broken. In his life and death he is an example of a character unap- preciated at home but honored abroad,-" a prophet not without honor save in his own country." The words which Milton wrote to Cromwell were applica- ble to him,-"He who conquers another's liberty in the very act loses his own."

He who has made the name of Westmoreland to be connected with his own and embalmed them both in the libraries of the leading philosophical societies and universities of the civilized world from London to Tokio-words familiar to paleontologists everywhere -lies in a nameless grave within twoscore steps of him whose name has been conferred on their burying- ground, whose life and services, too, brought untold distinction and honor to the county, and whose dust is covered by the humble monument erected by the hand of charity.

DR. DAVID ALTER .- Among those members of the medical profession of Westmoreland County who have earned high reputation in the walks of science, Dr. David Alter, who died in September, 1881, de- serves to be mentioned. In our mention of him we avail ourselve of the graphic and affectionate memoir from the pen of Dr. Frank Cowan, a gentleman who

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in the field of literature has done for his profession what Dr. Alter did in the field of practical science.

"In the year 1878," says Dr. Cowan, "I called upon him at his residence in Freeport, Armstrong Co., Pa., and found him, in appearance, an old man, with a calm and kindly countenance, in stature above the ordinary, albeit stooped and shrunken with age, still pursuing his profession, that of a physician, for a livelihood, while in effect he was the puzzle or sphinx that every philosopher must be to those around him who cannot appreciate the work of his hands in an objective form in the open day, much less encompass, in the depth, the distance, and the darkness of his windowless mind, the complexity of cerebration and entanglement of thought from which his work has been evolved.

"Dr. Alter was born on the 3d of December, in the year 1807, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in what is now Allegheny township, and within a few miles of the town of Freeport, in which he lived a great part of his life, and died, on the 18th of Septem- ber last, in his se enty-fourth year.

" Dr. Alter was a boy of only eight or nine when his mind was directed to the study of electricity. This was the result of reading the life of Benjamin Franklin. At ten, an uncle, a student of medicine, brought home from Washington a Leyden jar and other apparatus, and the boy became acquainted with frictional electricity and the accumulation of the mysterious mode of force in the jar. And before the lad attained the age of fifteen he had set up in his father's orchard a pole surmounted by a wire, in order that he might charge his Leyden jars with electricity from the clouds, the subtile force with which he already had begun to make experiments.

" About this time, suffering from an affection of the eyes, he went to an Irish doctor in Freeport, who, after prescribing for him and learning the curious bent of his mind, lent him a book on electricity. This the young student read and re-read with such avidity that it almost cost him his eyes.

"Soon after, from another physician, he procured a work on chemistry, and devoted himself assiduously to make himself master of its contents. And thus he went on, borrowing books and accumulating knowl- edge slowly and laboriously, until, at the age of twenty-four, in the year 1831, he was graduated as a physician at the Reformed Medical College of the United States, New York, belonging to the botanic or eclectic school of to-day.

" After this short account of his boyhood and edu- cation in his specialties, Dr. Alter proceeded to give me an account of his labors and achievements.

" In 1836, while living at Elderton, Armstrong Co., he invented and perfected an electric telegraph, which consisted of seven wires, the electricity deflecting a needle on a disk at the extremity of each wire. Each needle being deflected to the right or left, the seven gave in all fourteen movements or characters, which

in turn by combination gave a greater number than was absolutely necessary to transmit messages resolved into letters and figures. Each wire had a separate helix. And so perfected was the system that the doc- tor had it in operation between his house and his workshop in the barn, himself and members of his family transmitting messages to and fro.

" I related to Dr. Alter what I had heard of his connection with the invention of the electric tele- graph, which was in brief that he was the first to accomplish the results comprehended in the term an electric telegraph, and that Professor Morse had stolen the idea that has made him immortal from him, Dr. Alter. To this he replied that, as far as he knew, he was the first to perfect and put into use an electric tele- graph, and that he did it apart from and independent of everybody. 'But,' he continued, . 'others about the same time attained the same results. In 1887, in England, Professor Wheatstone invented a telegraph on a similar plan to mine, using one wire, a single disk, and a deflecting needle; and with respect to Professor Morse and the electric telegraph now in general use, I have seen in the newspapers time and again the statement which you make, and am free to say that it is without the slightest foundation ; indeed, I may say that there is no connection at all between the telegraph of Morse and others and that of myself, and that my system would be inadequate to do the work that is done to-day by the Morse; oh, no, no! Professor Morse most probably never heard of me or my Elderton telegraph.'

"I was surprised at hearing this refutation of what I had heard asseverated so often ; but at the same time I was pleased, for the doctor exhibited more anxiety to disabuse my mind of an erroneous impression of an- other than to create a favorable impression for himself. Indeed, with respect to his own electric telegraph, he spoke of it as if it had been a toy of his youth, or an ingenious plaything for the amusement of himself and family, rather than as the forerunner of the marvelous machine that is now in use in every civilized country of the globe. And although, as he himself states, his invention was not in the line of the ancestry of the great telegraph, yet it is worthy of honorable mention among men for all time as an original and prior achievement of a less.

" And here, in parenthesis, in justice further to Professor Morse, I may say that a claim for priority is made even for his invention, substantially and es- sentially as it now exists, over the crude and cum- bersome inventions of Dr. Alter and Professor Wheat- stone. In 'Appleton's Encyclopedia' it is stated authoritatively that Morse completed and put into successful operation his telegraph in 1835, or two years before the date generally assigned, and one year be- fore Dr. Alter, while Dr. C. T. Jackson, Morse's most formidable rival, declares that his telegraph was an accomplished fact in a perfect instrument in opera- tion in 1834, or one year before Morse.

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"Now to pass to another invention, which, in other forms, in time may rival the telegraph and electric motor.

"In 1887, Dr. Alter invented a little machine which was run by electricity, and on the 29th of June, 1837, he published in the Kittanning Gazette an elaborate article on the use of electricity as a motive-power, under the heading of 'Facts Relating to Electro- Magnetism.' This paper attracted attention among scientists and inventors, and was commented on gen- erally. See Silliman's ' Principles of Physics,' page 616.

" In 1845, Dr. Alter, in association with Dr. Ed- ward Gillespie and James Gillespie, went into the manufacture of bromine from the bittern, or mother- liquor of the salt-works, by a process which he and his partners had invented and elaborated to such an extent that they secured two patents for it. A large jar of the precious substance was exhibited at the World's Fair in New York in 1858, and attracted great attention, the wonder being that the rare form of matter could be produced in such quantites.

" I beg leave here to correct another error that pre- vails with respect to the achievements of Dr. Alter, namely, that he was the discoverer of the elementary substance bromine. He was not, and never pretended to be. Bromine was discovered by a chemist named Balard in 1826, and Dr. Alter, in his modest way, only assisted others in inventing and patenting two processes for its manufacture, in which he engaged in business with his associates.

"I now come to the ultimatum attained by Dr. Alter in science and invention, namely, the discovery and application of the principles of the prism in that marvelous mode of investigation universally known to-day as spectrum analysis. And here, in setting forth his claim to this achievement, which in effect has added almost a new sense to mankind, beyond the statement which the doctor made to me that he made his discovery in 1858, I desire to give in evi- dence only that which is unimpeachable and indis- putable, namely, the documents setting forth the dis- covery in detail, which were published in a leading scientific journal and spread before the eyes of inves- tigators and inventors throughout the world. And in doing so I doubt not that I shall do all that my la- mented friend, were he here, would ask or allow to preserve his name among his fellow-men, without con- demning either the encyclopedists for ignoring him, or the distinguished scientist who, perhaps uncon- scious of the prior claim of another, wears the crown of glory to which he, Dr. Alter, is entitled.

"The first paper of Dr. Alter appeared in Novem- ber in the year 1854, or no less than five years before the announcement of the discovery of spectrum analysis as his own achievement by Gustav Robert Kirchoff, of Königsberg, Germany, for a sketch of whose life and works the reader is referred to the leading encyclopedias of the day.

"It appears in Silliman's American Journal of Sci- ence and Art, 2d Series, vol. xviii., for November, 1854, pp. 55-57, under the following head : 'Article VI .- On certain Physical Properties of Light, pro- duced by the Combustion of different Metals in the Electric Spark refracted by & Prism. By David Alter, M.D., Freeport, Pa.'

" A second article appeared in the same scientific journal for May, 1855, vol. xix., pp. 213-14, under the caption, 'Article XXI .- On certain Physical Pro- perties of the Light of the Electric Spark within certain Gases, as seen through a Prism. By Dr. Alter, M.D., Freeport, Pa.' In this explicit article a para- graph is found indicating the application of his dis- covery to the detection of the elements in combustion in shooting stars or luminous meteors, in other words, to the application of spectrum analysis to the study of celestial phenomena ad infinitum.

" While, in curious confirmation of the discoverer's comprehension of the scope of spectrum analysis still in his hands, Dr. Alter already had daguerreo- typed the dark lines of the solar spectrums, two of which he sent along with his communication to Pro- fessor Silliman.

"It remains now but to show that the substance of these articles of Dr. Alter was reproduced in Europe, and came within the ken of Professor Kirchhoff, pos- sibly beneath his very eyes, to make out a presump- tive case that, in addition to the indisputable prior discovery of spectrum analysis by Dr. Alter, his was the source, afar in the backwoods of Western Penn- sylvania, from which has flowed the stream of science on the surface of which the gilded galley of Kirch- hoff has floated in glittering splendor around the world. A half-page abstract of Dr. Alter's first paper appeared in the Chemico-Jahrsberichte of Liebig and Kopp for 1854, while the second paper of Dr. Alter was reproduced in its entirety in the Parisian journal L' Institut for the year 1856, page 156, and in the journal of Geneva, Archives of the Physical and Natu- ral Sciences, vol. xxix. page 151. In addition to this a full-page extract from the second paper was published in Kopp and Will's (formerly Liebig and Kopp's) 'Annual Report of Chemistry,' 1859, page 107, and in the extract the statement of Dr. Alter appears that gases would be characterized just as distinctly by the light of the ordinary electric spark as metals by the galvanic light, also that all the elements could be distinguished in this way by means of the fusion. In connection with which it is to be noted that in this year the announcement of the discovery of Kirch- hoff was made, namely, the cause of Fraunhofer's lines in the solar spectrum. See ' Reports of the Academy of Berlin' for 1859, page 652; 'Poggen- dorf's Annals'; 'Dingler's Polytechnic Journal' ; and Kopp and Will's ' Annual Report of Chemistry,' 1859, page 646.

" And here I cannot refrain from expressing my surprise at the omission of the name of Dr. Alter by

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Professor Kirchhoff in his summary of the progressive ! steps of spectrum analysis to the ultimate attained at the time of his writing, seeing that the ' Annual Report of Chemistry,' which contained the procla- mation of his discovery on page 648, contained on page 107 an extract exhibiting the results of Dr. Alter's investigations four and five years before, re- sults, too, which clearly comprehended his own, and I can account for it only on the ground of dishonesty and the basest of all incentives to action or inaction, ingratitude, exhibited in kicking the ladder after the house-top is gained. But Kirchhoff, in the interest of self-glorification, happily is not the only recorder of the achievements of science and the history of man- kind, and I doubt not that the time will soon come when the name of David Alter will be pronounced with the same breath of praise and pride that keeps alive and revered the names of Franklin and Morse.

"It is a little matter in comparison with the above, but it is curious, and perhaps not without its use, to know that the prism with which Dr. Alter made bis remarkable experiments, was made by him from a fragment of a great mass of very brilliant glass found in the pot of a glass-house which had been destroyed in the great fire of Pittsburgh on the 10th of April, 1845. Thus remotely was the burning of Pittsburgh the solution of the combustion of the sun of the solar system, and of the otherwise incomprehensible con- flagrations of more distant furnace spheres in illimit- able space.

" Besides the achievements of Dr. Alter referred to above, he accomplished much more that is deserving of note. Of other inventions, I may mention here a rotating retort for the extraction of coal oil from can- nel coal and the oleiferous shales. With this appa- ratus in operation by a company with ample capital, the philosopher was on the high road to making a fortune, when, presto! E. L. Drake, at the depth of only seventy feet, in Venango County, struck oil or petroleum, and the days of coal oil and Dr. Alter's affluence were at an end.

"Indeed, from his birth to his death, the life of Dr. Alter was a struggle with poverty; but in the greater mankind in which he was merged and with which he is now immortal, he is rich in the reward which his race inherits."

THE WESTMORELAND MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

At the solicitation of Dr. A. T. King, a number of the medical profession met at Greensburg in the sum- mer of 1842 to hold a conference on the subject of organizing a County Medical Society. In the county papers for the month of August appeared the follow- ing announcement :

"TO THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

" Whereas, having deeply lamented the desolate and disconnected state in which the medical profession of Western Pennsylvania exists, alike disreputable to ourselves and the profession in other parts of the United States, where friendship, and science, and literature are cultivated by its members; and whereas, being fully convinced that the multitudinous

evils, not expedient to mention in this place, resulting from this dilecce- nected state may be enally remedied and the cause readily removed; therefore a meeting of the members of the profesion in Westmoreland and the adjoining counties is respectfully aud carmostly solicited on Tuesday of the ercond werk of the cours, in Greensburg, for the purpose of taking into consideration the practiceability of organizing ourselves Into a society."

The meeting held in pursuance of this conference and announcement was attended by some of the fore- most physicians of the county. Of its proceedings we have nothing except what we have gathered from the fragmentary notices in the county papers. Of this meeting, however, Dr. Hasson,1 of West Newton, was elected president ; a committee was appointed to draft a constitution, and a subsequent meeting was fixed for Tuesday, the 18th of October, 1842. This meeting was reported as follows :

" WESTMORELAND MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

" Agrecably to adjournment, a large number of physicians of the county convened at the court-house de Tuesday, the 13th instaat.

"Dr. Hasson, president of the previous meeting, being absent, Dr. Porter was called to the chair, Dr. Brown, secretary,

" When, on motion, it was Resolved, That the secretary form a list of the members present, now and at the former meeting, and that they be considered the society.

" The committee tu draft a constitution submitted one, which, after Interchange of sentiments, was, with its preamble, adopted with amend- menta, after which the following officers were elected: Dr. D. Porter, president; Dr. J. Postleth waite, vice-president; Dr. A. T. King, record- ing secretary ; Dr. J. Hasson, corresponding secretary ; Dr. 8. P. Brown, treasurer ; Dr. F. Vogely, librarian.

"On motion, Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to draft by-laws and report at next meeting. Drs. Richardson, B. R. Marchand, and William Speer were appointed.

"On motion, Resolred, That a committee on a minimum fee-bill be appointed, and that they report at next meeting. Dra. King, Cummins, and Brown were appointed.

" On motion, Dra. Porter and King were appointed to deliver addresses at the next meeting.

"On motion, Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the officers and published in the Republican and Intelligencer.

" Resolved, That the society now adjourn to meet in this place on Tuesday, 22d of November next, at one o'clock P.M.

" DAVID PORTER, President.

"8. P. BROWN, Secretary.

" PREAMBLE to the Constitution of the Westmoreland Medical Association as adopted on the report of the Committee :

"The objects contemplated by the Westmoreland Medical Associatiod are, first, The cultivation of friendship and good feeling among ite mem- bers. Second, The collection, diffusion, interchange, preservation, and general advancement of knowledge pertaining to medicine and surgery, together with the various branches of physical science which are sub- servient to them. Thirdly, The promotion of the empire of general

1 Dr. John Hasson died at his residence in West Newton, Pa., May 10, 1872, aged sixty six years. Dr. Hasson was born in Cecil County, Md., received his academic education at West Nottingham Academy, in his native county, pursued his medical studies in the office of Dr. Joseph Pancoast, of Philadelphia, and after having attended two summer courses in the Philadelphia School of Medicine and three fall winter courses of medical lectures in the University of Philadelphia, received from that institution the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the spring of 1835. After a practice of three years in the State of Maryland, he set- tled in West Newton, Pa., March, 1838, having letters from several eminent physicians of Eastern Pennsylvania, among which were tes- timonials of ability and integrity from Dra. Pancoast, Randolph, and William Bush, of Philadelphia. These testimonials foreshadowcd the confidence Dr. Hasson afterwards enjoyed throughout a career of thirty- four years of active professional life. During this long period he served a numerous community of patrons, and was 'always prompt in the die- charge of professional duty and faithful in his atteutions to the sick.

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knowledge, by which we mean to include all the branches of the exact sciences and general literature. Fourthly, The diffusion of professional knowledge as far as practicable among the community."

On the occasion of the meeting of the society in November, Dr. King delivered his address, one of the most beautiful and entertaining of all his produc- tions. The subject was " A brief historical abstract of the origin, progress, and present condition of medical science."

At a meeting of the association in February, 1848, Dr. Porter, the president, delivered an eulogy on Dr. Postlethwaithe, who had died Nov. 17, 1842. Dr. Hasson delivered a lecture upon anatomy.

At a meeting in May, Dr. Cummins was the presi- dent pro tem., and Dr. King recording secretary.

This association in time passed out of existence, and the next effort to form an organization was in 1852. '

The following is from the Argus of March 19, 1852 : "MEETING OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

" Agreeably to a notice circulated among them, a number of the mem- bers of the medical profession of Westmoreland County met at the office of Dr. A. T. King, in Greensburg, on Tuesday, the 9th inst, for the purpose of forming . County Medical Society.

"The meeting was organized by calling Dr. A. T. King to the chair, and the appointment of Wm. C. Lane as secretary.

" After the organization the following resolutions were offered by Dr. Beiter, of Mount Pleasant, and unanimously adopted :

" Ist. Resolved, That our object in forming . County Medical Society is to co-operate with the onward movement now making in the United States, as well as in the world at large, for the advancement of medical science.

" 2d. Resolved, That Dra. King and Lane be appointed a committee, whose duty shall be to prepare a constitution and by-laws for the govern- ment of this society, and that they present the same at the next meet- ing of the society, so that the members may have an opportunity of ap- proving them and attaching their names to them.

"On motion of the chairman, it was resolved that each member who may attend the next meeting of this society be requested to bring with him a written statement of the nature and predominant characteristics of the various diseases which have prevailed in his respective locality during the past year.

" It was furthermore unanimously agreed that Dr. Wm. C. Reiter be requested to deliver an address before the members of this society at its next meeting.

"On motion of Dr. O. J. Robison, the society adjourned to reassemble at the office of Dr. King, in Greensburg, on Monday, the 12th day of April, at 2 o'clock P.M.

" It was also

" Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published in the several newspapers of Greensburg.

" A. T. KING, Pres't. " WM. C. LANE, Sec'y."

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 89

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: