USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 106
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In 1867, Dr. Maddin was called to the chair of in- stitutes of medicine in the Medical Department of the University of Nashville, and after several years' acceptable service therein was transferred, about the time of the alliance of that institution with the Medical Department of Vanderbilt University, to the chair of theory and prac- tice of medicine and clinical medicine. This position he now holds in these colleges, and it is but according merited praise to say that his lectures, didactic and practical, on that important branch of medical learning, place him in the front rank of its teachers in the country. Strictly speaking, the Medical Department of Vanderbilt University, with which he is now connected, is Shelby Medical College, founded 1857, revived, and it is therefore nearly a quarter of a centery since his relation to the institution commenced, -a longer period, with a single contemporaneous exception, than any of his colleagues. Since 1870 he has been the president of the faculty.
Dr. Maddin is a member of the International Medical Congress, the American Medical Association, the State Medical Society, the County and City Medical Societies, and has contributed a number of able papers to their archives, and also the medical journals of the time. For several years he was co-editor of the Monthly Record of Medicine and Surgery, published at Nashville.
In the several spheres of medical lecturer, writer, and practitioner, Dr. Maddin has long been accredited with high rank. As a teacher, his style is full, accurate, clear, and animated. The entire scope of the subject is reviewed, and the student rises with a distinct impression of the lec- turer's views. This faculty renders his teachings instruc- tive, and of course popular, and no one is held in greater esteem by his classes as a sound and reliable exponent of advanced medical science. His learning and skill as a
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diagnostician are conceded by his medical brethren, and his success at the bedside is attested by the large patronage he has long held. His devotion to medicine as a science is shown in the close and severe application he gives to its study ; and his assiduity in the practice of its art is untir- ing by night and day. If it can be said of any one that he responds to every call, it can be truly said of one who, in the discharge of professional duty, is no respecter of weather, sometimes not of his own physical fitness, nor of the social rank of him who asks his service. While those able to remunerate might well engross all his attention and time, the humble and the poor have never known him to fail. Perhaps to no man in the profession does the latter class in the community owe a larger debt of gratitude or are they more attached.
As a citizen, Dr. Maddin is animated with public spirit, though retiring and unambitious save in the quiet walks of his calling. To this he may be said to be married. He has formed no other matrimonial union, and yet he is not without a family, for whom he has liberally provided. These consist of his nephews and nieces, to quite a number of whom he has contributed a support, and equipped them with education in the first universities and seminaries in the country. His manners are cordial and affable every- where, and in the sick-room are gentle to femininity, though mingled with the firmness required of him by duty. A well-recognized element of Dr. Maddin's professional char- acter has been his calm self-possession and unembarrassed self-reliance in the presence of medical and surgical emer- gencies, quickly appreciating the pathology and promptly applying the proper therapeutic endeavor involved in and demanded by the occasion. From his youth he has been a member of the church of his father, and his life and de- portment have been consistent. In every sphere, public and private, he holds a highly honorable position, and yet performs a work of usefulness and distinction. Dr. Thomas L. Maddin is at present the senior member of the firm of T. L. & J. W. Maddin, of Nashville, Tenn.
This brief notice is deemed proper to be chronicled in the history of the community he has so well served, and is recorded by one who has known him long and intimately.
WILLIAM THOMPSON BRIGGS.
William Thompson Briggs, the subject of this sketch, was born in Bowling Green, Ky., on the 4th of December, 1828. His father is Dr. John M. Briggs, who, though now eighty-two years old, is actively engaged in the prac- tice of medicine in Bowling Green, enduring all the hard- ships and privations of a doctor's life with all the perse- verance and energy of a young man, although he has now been in the saddle sixty years. His mother was Miss Harriet Morehead, a sister of Governor Morehead, of Kentucky.
He received a good education at the Southern Literary College, located at Bowling Green, and at the early age of seventeen years began the study of medicine with his father. With Dr. John Briggs it was a labor of love to instruct the son, whose fine mind gave promise of great
results. He was thoroughly competent to the self-imposed task. He himself, though never holding an official posi- tion in any school or college, was, however, a man of great distinction. His fame throughout Southern Kentucky as a physician and surgeon was second to none other. On all important cases the opinion of Dr. Briggs was considered to be essential. At this time no railroad offered its facili- ties to the practitioner, nor did he even have the advan- tages of good roads; consequently the work had to be performed on horseback, and it was no unusual thing for him to ride from fifty to seventy-five miles to see a patient. He was a man of indomitable will and great acumen. His diagnostic powers were singularly correct, so that he rarely failed to designate the disease with which he had to con- tend, however obscure the symptoms. With such a teacher it may well be supposed the young man went to college better prepared than most young physicians at graduation. His father had carried him with him so often that the principal diseases incident to country practice were per- fectly familiar to him. He attended medical lectures at the Transylvania University, Lexington, at a time when it was second to none in the United States. He was under the special tutelage of Dr. Benjamin Dudley, one of the most successful as well as famous surgeons of the United States. It was due to the care and instructions of this eminent man that Dr. Briggs' mind was turned specially to the study of surgery. He assisted the professor in all his operations before the class, and imbibed the care and caution for which Dudley was celebrated,-so much so that when he consented to operate he was uniformly successful. The very fact of his consent being obtained to an operation was the most favorable prognosis in the case. With such attention as he received at the hands of both these famous physicians, Dr. William T. graduated with the highest dis- tinction in the spring of 1849.
He returned to Bowling Green and began the practice of medicine with his father. He soon attained an unusual prominence for so young a man. He had commenced practice at least six months before he had attained his majority. He remained here three years, storing his mind with valuable information by constant study, for he clearly saw that his education was now only begun, and if he would attain eminence it would only be by constant, unre- mitting application to books. His fine physical conforma- tion enabled him to apply himself a great deal, and he did not hesitate to draw largely upon his strength; but he soon became convinced that his native town was too circum- scribed for the ambition which incited him to a position far beyond any that could be attained in an interior town.
In the mean time he had met and become attached to a young lady of his town, Miss Ann Eliza Stubbins, who was in every way a fit helpmate to the young doctor. Gifted with great personal charms, she had, added to these, a most accomplished mind, far above the ordinary attain- ments of young women, and besides was a woman of great amiability. She was the very one to help him climb the ladder of fame, and he considers it one of the chief factors of his success in life that he was enabled to secure her as a wise counselor for life. They were married in 1850 at Bowling Green.
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It was just as these ambitious thoughts began to take shape in his mind that the Medical Department of the Uni- versity of Nashville was organized. The history of this school is elsewhere given, and the fact is also noted that it was formed by a combination of the first medical men of the South, and, in all that tended to the value of the insti- tution, was equal to any in the Union.
Dr. William T. Briggs was unanimously elected to the position of demonstrator of anatomy, and, as a matter of ne- cessity, at once removed to Nashville, where he still lives. This was in the autumn of 1852. He was fortunate enough to secure the friendship of the late Dr. John M. Watson, professor of obstetrics in the university, a man whose name is synonymous with all that is good, generous, and benevolent in the human race. This friendship was followed by a professional partnership, which continued through the life of Dr. Watson, and in a short time, indeed, the names of " Watson and Briggs" became famous throughout the South. The same course of undivided attention to his pro- fessional duties and unremitting study, added to a peculiarly genial disposition, with which he had begun life, rapidly ad- vanced him on the road to success.
As an evidence of the appreciation in which he was held by the faculty, we are enabled, by a reference to the records of the school, to lay the following resolution before our readers :
" W. T. BRIGGS, M.D .: Dear Sir, At a meeting of the Faculty of the Medical Department of the University of Nashville on Jan. 24, 1855, the following resolution was unanimously adopted :
"' Resolved, That the rule requiring the demonstrator of anatomy to pay the expenses of the dissecting-rooms be not enforced this session, the faculty wishing to testify their appreciation of the very efficient, faithful, and satis- factory manner in which the duties of the demonstrator have been discharged this winter.'
" Very truly yours, " J. BERRIEN LINDSLEY, " Dean of the Faculty."
His adaptability to the position of teacher enabled him to take advantage of every circumstance that presented itself. On the death of the late Professor Porter, who had filled the chair of anatomy, that position was given to Dr. Thomas R. Jennings, a most popular and distinguished practitioner of this city. At the same time, in 1856, Dr. Briggs was made adjunct professor with Dr. Jennings. This position he continued to hold until the outbreak of the war of Rebellion. But Dr. Briggs' distinction as a practi- tioner of medicine had far outstripped his rank in the uni- versity. There being no opening, he could of course receive no promotion, yet his practice had become quite large and lucrative.
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His natural taste for surgery found a fine opening in the dissection-room for proficiency and skill with the knife. It gave him a familiarity with the human frame to be obtained in no other way so well, and his exceeding nicety and deli- cacy of operating soon made him a favorite in all operations that required extra care and attention. Added to his skill with the knife, although very conservative in determining,
no one was more daring when the decision was once made as to its necessity. It required no astuteness to see that he would soon take rank as one of our best operators. Added to the caution of Dudley, his old preceptor and model, he soon acquired the self-possession and boldness of Mott or Gross. Nature gave him a steady hand and a clear eye; consequently his cuts are marvels of nicety. No plunging, hacking, or tearing ever disfigures his patients with unsightly cicatrices, but his strokes are as delicate as the pencil of an artist, yet rapid and unerring as fate.
The war arrested the operations of the university, but at its reorganization, in 1865, Dr. Briggs was transferred to the chair of surgical anatomy and physiology, the same filled by the late Dr. A. H. Buchanan ; and in the following year, on the death of his loved friend and partner, Dr. John M. Watson, he was transferred to the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women and children. This change was made at the urgent request of Dr. Watson, who knew his capacity and faithfulness better than any one else, and who knew his chair would be thoroughly filled by the change.
Again, in 1868, he passed from that to the post he now occupies in the school, that of surgery, Dr. Paul F. Eve having resigned it.
And now at last he had attained the highest distinction possible to be given by any official position, nor has he failed to keep pace with his rapid promotions. Gifted with a retentive memory, a quick analytical mind, a laudable ambition and indomitable perseverance, together with a great thirst for knowledge, he has stored his mind with all the medical literature of the day. He has no disposition, however, to run off after new or crude ideas, but, being very conservative, he adheres rather to a practice known to be good until he is able to demonstrate by scientific principles the necessity for a change. His reputation in his favorite branch of study has grown rapidly, until now he has no superior in the South and but few equals in the Union. His skill with the knife is marvelous, and his wonderful diagnostic powers enable him to determine in the most rapid manner the feasibility of an operation.
As an evidence of his skill and reputation, it will only be necessary to allude to a few special cases.
He has performed the operation of lithotomy, or stone in the bladder, for one hundred cases, with the loss of only four, and they were strumous cases without the ability to rally. The last sixty cases have all been successful. This operation he performs by the medio-bilateral method.
He has removed sixty ovarian tumors from women with equal success. Some of the tumors weighed near one hun- dred pounds.
He has performed the operation of trephining the skull for injuries forty times and for epilepsy twenty-five times. It may be well to mention that in each of the latter cases the relief was absolute.
He has performed amputation of the hip-joint repeat- edly, with uniform success. One case of this kind de- mands special notice. It was for elephantiasis of the limb. After it was amputated it weighed eighty pounds, while the rest of the body weighed sixty pounds.
He has ligated all the principal arteries, both for wounds and aneurisms, and diseases of various kinds.
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But the master-operation of his life was ligating the carotid artery just where it enters the skull. The artery was wounded, and only by the most wonderful efforts was the life of the patient preserved until an incision could be made down to it through a perfect network of vessels and nerves, the mere touch to some of which would have made life extinct in a moment. Yet the operation was performed under many disadvantages, and the life of the patient pre- served.
He is now preparing a treatise on trephining the skull, in which he takes the ground that the operation should be performed as a preventive remedy and not await the de- structive effects of wounds on the false hope that it may be unnecessary. He contends that by procrastination in the performance of this operation many valuable lives are lost, when they could have been saved by a judicious and prompter use of the instrument. After suppuration and destruction of the brain-substance the chances for life are gone. Being still a young man, in the prime of his profes- sional life, he bids fair to obtain a continued increase of reputation.
His charities are, like those of most physicians, hidden but constant. It requires only the voice of suffering to call him to the hut or hovel.
Dr. Briggs has been doubly blessed in his children. His oldest son, Dr. Charles S. Briggs, is now demonstrator of anatomy in the Medical Department of the Universities of Nashville and Vanderbilt, and has lately been elected ad- junct professor of anatomy. His second son, Waldo Briggs, is a physician of St. Louis. His third child, Virginia Lee, has intellectual powers of a high order, as well as amiability, which makes her a universal favorite, while the youngest, Samuel C., though only twelve years old, is just as bright as any of the others.
We hope Dr. Briggs will yet live many years to dispense his powers among the suffering of the human family, and, as longevity is one of the leading characteristics of his family, we may hope so with an assurance as strong as belongs to humanity.
We have spoken of his official character, and now we will close this desultory sketch with a testimonial volun- tarily given him by the medical convention held in the university on the 9th of February, 1858, which will show the man in his social light :
"W. T. BRIGGS, M.D .:
"Dear Sir,-I have the honor, as secretary of the con- vention, to transmit, by order of the convention, its proceed- ings and resolutions.
"I am, sir, with profound respect, yours truly, " B. GIRARD. BIDWELL.
" At a meeting of the candidates for graduation, held in the hall on Feb. 9, 1858, for the purpose of voting thanks to W. T. Briggs, M.D., for his able efforts in our behalf, and J. B. Finley, of Arkansas, being called to the chair, and B. G. Bidwell, of Tennessee, appointed secretary, a committee of three were appointed to draft and present resolutions. Messrs. Moore, Simpson, and Wilson were appointed said committee. They soon reported the follow-
ing resolutions, which were unanimously adopted and or- dered published :
"' Whereas, The relationship existing between Dr. Briggs as teacher and ourselves as students will soon be forever dissolved ; therefore be it
"' Resolved, That we vote our thanks to Dr. Briggs for the very able and efficient manner in which he has dis- charged the duties devolved upon him as adjunct profes- sor of anatomy, and also in his capacity as demonstrator of anatomy.
"'Resolved, That we regret the necessity. which compels us to part so soon with one who has by his universally pop- ular method of teaching anatomy placed us under profound obligations to him, and who by his high-minded and honor- able deportment has secured for himself the esteem and kind regards of all who know him.
"'Resolved, That we congratulate him upon his almost unparalleled success thus far, and hope soon to have the happy privilege of witnessing his elevation to the high and honorable position which inevitably awaits him.
"'Resolved, That the secretary of this convention be and is hereby requested to send a copy of these resolutions to him and to the Medical Magazine for publication.'
" Committee, F. McG. Moore, S. P. Simpson, J. A. Willson."
VAN S. LINDSLEY.
Van Sinderen Lindsley, Nashville, Tenn., was .born at .Greensboro', Guilford Co., N. C., Oct. 13, 1840, and is a son of Silas Condict Lindsley, a distinguished educator in that State, who was brother of Philip Lindsley, D.D., founder and president of Nashville University, and also of Harvey Lindsley, M.D., of Washington, D. C. The family descends from John Lindsley, one of the earliest English settlers of the New Haven colony, Connecticut, who, with his sons, John and Francis, came from London, England. They settled at Branford, Conn., before 1640. The father, John (1), died at Guilford, Conn., 1650. Francis (1) re- moved from Branford to Newark, N. J., 1667, and died there in 1704, leaving son John (3), born 1667, who set- tled at Morristown, N. J., and left a son John (4), born 1694, the father of Philip (5) and grandfather of Isaac (6), who was father of Silas (7) and grandfather of Van Sin- deren (8), his ancestry showing an American record of eight generations, embracing a period of two hundred and forty years.
Primarily educated at the Greensboro' Institute, of which his father was principal, Dr. Lindsley was graduated A.M. at the University of Nashville in 1861, and in 1863 re- ceived the degree of M.D. from its Medical Department, by whose faculty he was subsequently elected demonstrator of anatomy, holding that position until 1868. At this time he married Lucie, daughter of Pay-director J. George Har- ris, United States Navy.
After returning from a tour of professional observation through the principal hospitals of Europe, he was assigned the chair of surgical anatomy, which he occupied until 1871, when he was elected to that of physiology, to which was
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added in 1876 the diseases of eye, ear, and throat. In 1880 he was elected to the chair of anatomy in the Medi- cal Department of the University of Nashville and Vander- bilt University.
Papers on the " Reproduction of Bone," and on " Or- thopædic Surgery" and " Hypermetropia," etc., have been read by him before the State Medical Society, besides numbers of published addresses and lectures on "Sound and Hearing," practically illustrated, and "The Eye as an Optical Instrument," and monthly reports of his operations for cataract, strabismus, entropion, otitis media, etc., ap- pear in the Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery.
He was elected and re elected president of the Nashville Medical Society, is a member of the American Public Health Association, is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was a delegate from the State Medical Society to the International Medical Con- gress held in Philadelphia in 1876; is a member of the American Medical Association, and was a delegate to New York in June, 1880.
Dr. Lindsley illustrates in a marked degree the leading characteristics of his ancestors in a love of literature for its own sake and the capacity for continued and untiring study, with devotion to Presbyterian religious principles, thus clinging to the traditions of his family, who have been dis- tinguished educators, physicians, and divines.
Dr. Lindsley now occupies the chair of anatomy in the Medical Department of the University of Nashville and Vanderbilt University, and devotes himself to the practice of diseases of the eye and ear, and to general surgery.
JOHN BERRIEN LINDSLEY.
John Berrien Lindsley was born in Princeton, N. J., Oct. 24, 1822. He is descended from the Lindsleys who were among the first settlers of Morristown, N. J., and from the Lawrences who settled at Hell Gate, Long Island, in 1660. Both these families emigrated from England early in American colonization. He bears the name of his mother's grandfather, John Berrien, chief justice of the province of New Jersey under the old regime. The Ber- riens are of French Huguenot origin.
His early education was received at home. He then finished the usual four years' college curriculum in three years, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Nashville in 1839, and that of Master, in course, three years later. His medical education was ac- quired in the office of Dr. William G. Dickinson, and in the medical schools of the Universities of Louisville and Pennsylvania. From the latter he received the Doctorate in Medicine in 1843, William Walker, of Nicaragua fame, being his classmate and chum. His medical studies were pursued as part of a theological course.
Upon this he now entered under care of the Presbytery of Nashville, and was ordained in October, 1846. He was for some time stated supply to the Hermitage and Smyrna Churches, and also for a year in the service of the Presby- terian Board of Domestic Missions as preacher to the slaves in the vicinity of Nashville.
From 1838 to 1850 he was the favored private pupil of Gerard Troost, one of the illustrious pioneers in American science. When the latter died, in 1850, the family com- mitted his invaluable collection to Dr. Lindsley's charge, who watched over it during all the changes of peace and war, and finally, in 1874, disposed of it to the Library As- sociation of Louisville, after vainly endeavoring to secure its possession by some one of the great Tennessee univer- sities. In 1848 he made an extensive geological tour through the Northern and Eastern States. In 1849 he was urged by Drs. C. K. Winston, A. H. Buchanan, and others to take the chair of chemistry in a projected medi- cal school, the celebrated Prof. Charles Caldwell being active in the scheme. The subsequent winter he passed in Louis- ville and other cities, making medical schools a study. In 1852 and 1859 he pursued these studies in France and in Germany.
In 1850 he got together the club which became the Medical Department of the University of Nashville. In this institution he was twenty-three years professor of chemistry. He was also from 1850 to 1856 dean of the faculty, and again after the civil war. He devoted in all not less than ten years of hard work to building and re- building this school. The pay he received as dean was given to assistants or to the establishment of the Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery.
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