History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 76

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 76

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The government adopted for the college was extremely simple. There were to be two officers, each to be elected annually,-viz., a president of the faculty to call meetings and preside at them, and a dean upon whom devolved the duty of managing the entire machinery at home and of representing the institution abroad. He appoints janitors and all operatives, and is the sole custodian of the building and its contents. The institution has never had a treasurer, the dean managing the public funds. When the graduating fees, matriculating fees, and other resources of the dean were insufficient to pay the expenses of the college, the balance was provided for by pro rata assessments upon each professor. In early years, while furnishing the museum, these assessments were often very heavy, but in those years were cheerfully met. From time to time attempts have been made to increase the number of officers, but always failed. Prof. Winston has held the office of president of the faculty from the beginning. Prof. Lindsley held the office of dean the first six years, when he resigned. Prof. Eve then held it two years, and Prof. W. K. Bowling ten years, and, though re-elected unanimously, on the 30th of October, 1867, resigned, his resignation to take effect on the 1st of April following. Prof. Lindsley was elected to the deanship for the year after the 1st day of April, 1868.

The eminently just and conservative rule was adopted that a majority of the professors should rule, but should have no power to make the fees of different chairs unequal. A majority could assess each professor to any amount. The professor's remedy was resignation if he did not like the assessment, and if he did not pay his assessment within ninety days after it was agreed on by a majority of the faculty and recorded by the dean, that fact was to be taken as his resignation without further action of the faculty. In prosperous times these rules would be, and were, regarded as just and proper, but when assessments, however neces- sary, swallowed up fees almost to the last dollar, the more stringently organized could see no beauty in assessments, and would defy majorities.

The medical department of the university being thus or- ganized, Dr. Paul F. Eve was added to the faculty as professor of surgical anatomy and clinical surgery.

" All things being . now ready," says Prof. Thomas Menecs, " the next step in the development of a medical school was to command a class. The department, guided by the wisdom and impelled by the ardor and enthusiasm of its gifted founders, burst, like Minerva from the head of

Jupiter, at once into maturity, in full panoply and rich in all the appointments of utility, and commanded the largest first class that any institution of the kind had ever done in this country, and I doubt not, I may add, in the world. . . .

"So pleased were the trustees with the management and success of the department that early in the period of the first lease to the faculty they added twenty years' additional time to their right to occupy and control it, provided they would still add to and amplify their museum and apparatus, which was agreed to and done. She continued to add, by her success and achievements, to the lustre and brilliancy of her fame, until, in the language of the distinguished gen- tleman already quoted, ' When the war came, the eagle plumage of our medical school was already bathing in the sun, the cynosure of the republics of science throughout the world.'

" By the convulsions and vicissitudes of war she was crippled, but not crushed. Cato, when informed that his son had been slain in battle, answered something like this : 'I should have blushed had my house stood and prospered amid scenes like these.'

" Though wounded and temporarily arrested in her pro- gress, she still lives, and in the spirit of honorable and glorious rivalry offers again the gauntlet to those of her competitors who were more fortunately situated in relation to the calamities of that struggle, with the assurance that she will not only deserve victory, but again wrest it from temporary defeat.

" In carrying out this determination we are being nobly sustained by the trustees, who, less than two years ago, came forward and added thirteen years to our existing lease, giving us an aggregate of thirty years of unexpired possession, conditioned that the lessees would build a hospital attached to the college buildings.

" Already, with all modern improvements, the beautiful, magnificent, and imposing structure is there, and has been utilized during two sessions .* Thus fully equipped, with all the appointments of a first-class medical college, I say we again kindly and fraternally, yet boldly, offer the gauge in honorable rivalry to the most flattered, proud, and petted of fortune's favorites, and are willing to abide the arbitra- ment of time for the result.

" The faculty of this institution has furnished to the American Medical Association two presidents and five vice- presidents,-an honor which I believe has been conferred upon no other college in America.

"I will not stop to panegyrize the great names of its founders. Their works are their proudest eulogists. They have erected for themselves a monument imperishable as the noble profession to the culture and elevation of which they have contributed so much, and high upon whose roll of fame have inscribed their names in letters of living light, to cheer and animate its votarics who are to follow them to high resolves, lofty aspirations, and noble achievements.

" So much for the Medical Department of the Univer- sity of Nashville, which has been adopted by Vanderbilt University. This medical department now represents each

* Address of Prof. Mences, delivered in 1877.

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

one of these universities, distinct in their faculty organiza- tions, yet joint in their teaching. We have their endorse- ment with the power of conferring the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the name of each institution. We teach the classes jointly, each having all the facilities of the other."

This arrangement between the two universities was con- summated in 1874. The college is now known as the Medical Department of the University of Nashville and of Vanderbilt University. Since 1874 the courses of lectures have been delivered to the medical students of the two universities in the same halls, cach enjoying like facilities. During the past year there have been costly improvements in the buildings, one result of which is the most elegant auditorium in the United States, lighted, heated, and seated in conformity with the most recent modern desigus. The hospital, under the same roof, has been doubled in capacity and refitted in a style to meet all requirements of a first- class institution of the kind. The class of 1879-80 is the largest which has assembled since the war, numbering nearly three hundred and fifty. It is gratifying to be able to state that the class, in its literary acquirements and aptitude for study, gives evidence of an active revival of education in the South. This school has a great reputa- tion. Its alumni, now aggregating two thousand two hun- dred in number, are found in all the Southern and in many of the Northern States of the Union. From its origin to the present time the school has been remarkably fortunate in having a faculty composed of able and experienced phy- Eicians,-gentlemen whose reputation is by no means con- fined to Nashville or Tennessee. From the start its success was insured. Students flocked from all parts of the South to its lecture-halls, which were soon filled to their utmost capacity.

The buildings of the medical college are situated in the southeastern part of the city, between College and Market Streets, and occupy an entire square.

The following is a synopsis of the matriculates and graduates of the school from its beginning to the present time :

Datos.

Matriculates.

Graduates.

1851-52.

121

1852-53.

152

1853-54

220

1854-55

294

1855-56.

339

1856-57.

419

137

1857-58

353

109

1858-59

436

103

1859-60

456

101

1860-61

399

141

1861-62

102

1862-63

1863-64

1864

1864-65

1866-67.

192

1867-68

209

1868-69

201

1869-70

186

1870-71

203

1871-72

240

1872-73

235

1873-74.

2445

1874-75.

240

1875-76.

242

1876-77

248

1877

1877-78

260

101

1878-79

282

116

1879-80

340

142

Total

6991

2200

Faculties .- In 1854, Dr. Thomas R. Jennings was made professor of the institutes of medicine. In 1855, Dr. R. M. Porter, professor of anatomy, died, and Professor Jen- nings was transferred to the chair of anatomy. During the civil war lectures in the medical department were sus- pended, but in 1865 its doors were reopened. In 1863, Professor A. H. Buchanan died, and, on the reopening of the school, Dr. Joseph Jones was made professor of phys- iology. In 1866, Professor John M. Watson died, and the chair of obstetrics was filled by the election of Dr. W. T. Briggs, who had been associated with the institution as demonstrator of anatomy since its foundation, and as adjunct professor of anatomy for some time. In 1867, Professors Eve, Jennings, and Jones retired from the faculty, and, in 1868, Drs. Maddin, Callender, Nichol, T. B. Buchanan, and V. S. Lindsley were elected members respectively to the chairs of institutes, materia medica, diseases of the chest and clinical medicine and anatomy and surgical anatomy. Professor Briggs was transferred to the chair of surgery, and Professor Winston from that of materia medica to that of obstetrics. In 1870, Professor Callender retired from the chair of materia medica, and was made professor of diseases of the brain and nervous system, and Professor Nichol was transferred to the chair of materia medica. In 1873, Professors J. B. Lindsley, W. K. Bowling, and C. K. Winston retired from the school, and Dr. J. M. Safford was elected to fill the chair of chemistry. Professor Mad- din was transferred to the chair of practice of medicine, Professor W. L. Nichol to that of obstetrics, Professor V. S. Lindsley to that of institutes, and Dr. Thomas Mences was elected to fill the chair of materia medica. In 1874, Professor T. B. Buchanan resigned the chair of anatomy, and was succeeded by Dr. Thomas O. Summers, Jr. Pro- fessor Nichol resigned the chair of obstetrics, and Professor Menecs was transferred to it, and Dr. Thomas A. Atchison was elected to the chair of materia medica. The chair of diseases of women and children was made at this time, and Professor W. L. Nichol was elected to fill it. In 1875, Professor Paul F. Eve renewed his connection with the school, filling for two years the chair of clinical surgery. In 1877, Professor Bowling also renewed his connection in the chair of malarial diseases, which he held until 1878. In 1880, Professor Summers resigned the chair of anatomy, and was succeeded by Professor V. S. Lindsley, and Pro- fessor Callender was made professor of physiology and psy- chology. Dr. C. S. Briggs was made adjunct to the chair of surgery. The demonstratorship of anatomy in the in- stitution has been filled, in the course of its history, by Drs. W. T. Briggs, V. S. Lindsley, H. M. Compton, C. S. Briggs, T. W. Menees, and O. H. Menees. The faculty is at present organized as follows :

Eben S. Stearns, D.D., Chancellor of the University of Nashville.

Landon C. Garland, LL.D., Chancellor of Vanderbilt University.

Faculty .- William T. Briggs, M.D.,* Professor of Sur- gery ; Thomas L. Maddin, M.D., Professor of the Insti- tutes and Practice of Medicine and of Clinical Medicine ;

* See special biography.

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

William L. Nichol, M.D., Professor of Diseases of Women and Children and of Clinical Medicine; John H. Callender, M.D., Professor of Physiology and Psychology ; Van S. Lindsley, M.D.,* Professor of Anatomy ; Thomas Mences,* M.D., Professor of Obstetrics ; James M. Safford, M.D., Professor of Chemistry ; Thomas A. Atchison, M.L., Pro- fessor of Materia Medica, Therapeutics, and Preventive Medicine; C. S. Briggs, M.D., Adjunct Professor of Sur- gery ; Orville H. Menees, M.D., Demonstrator of Anatomy.

Ambrose Morrison, M.D., Assistant to Chair of Physi- ology ; W. D. Haggard, M.D., Assistant to Chair of Ob- stetrics ; William G. Ewing, M.D., Assistant to Chair of Chemistry ; R. W. Steger, M.D., Assistant to Chair of Practice ; Orville H. Menees, M.D., Assistant to Chair of Anatomy.

Thomas L. Maddin, M.D.,* President of the Faculty. W. T. Briggs, M.D., Dean of the University of Nash- ville.

Thomas Menees, M.D., Dean of Vanderbilt University. James M. Safford, M.D., Secretary of the Faculty.

SHELBY MEDICAL COLLEGE.

This institution was founded in 1857 as the medical de- partment of a projected university of the Methodist Epis- copal Church South, and is so designated in the charter obtained from the Legislature of Tennessee. The influence of Southern Methodism was crystallizing at Nashville. The establishment of a " central university" at this point was deemed essential. A. L. P. Green, D.D., was in the front of this movement. Cornelius Vanderbilt stepped forward and solved the financial difficulty. Therefore, out of grati- tude to him, it was deemed just and proper that his name should be perpetuated and honored by substituting it for " Central University," of which Shelby College was the medical department. The unprecedented success of the educational enterprises of Nashville, and especially of the Medical Department of the University of Nashville, in the estimation of prudent and wise councilors, justified the founding of another medical school. Its organization was committed to John P. Ford, M.D., John H. Callender, M.D., and Thomas L. Maddin, M.D.

The buildings were situated on Broad Street, between Vine and Spruce Streets, on the site at present occupied by that model of beautiful architecture, the United States Custom-House. They were commodious, beautifully situ- ated, and admirably adapted for the purposes of medical teaching. Immediately adjoining, and under the same roof, was the City Charity Hospital, averaging about one hundred patients, under the control and management of the faculty, furnishing ample material for clinical instruc- tion. The equipment in museum, materia medica, cabinet, and chemical apparatus was of the most approved plans for didactic illustration, and would compare favorably with any school in the country.

The faculty consisted of gentlemen eminent in their sev- eral departments, viz. : E. B. Haskins, M.D., Professor of Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine ; John Freder- ick May, M.D., Professor of Surgery and Clinical Surgery ;

John P. Ford, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Clinical Obstetrics ; Thomas L. Maddin, M.D., Professor of An- atomy and Histology ; Daniel F. Wright, M.D., Professor of Physiology ; John H. Callender, M.D., Professor of Ma- teria Medica and Therapeutics; Henri Ervin, M.D., Pro- fessor of Chemistry ; M. Compton, M.D., Demonstrator in Practical Anatomy.

Thus equipped and appointed, Shelby Medical College opened its first session in the fall of 1857 with an ethical standard shaped closely upon the requirements of the best- organized schools in the country. After a successful carcer of three sessions, the first numbering eighty-five, the third one hundred and twenty students, in common with all other institutions of learning throughout the South, its doors were closed by the events of our civil war. The buildings were impressed for hospital purposes, then barracks for sol- diers, and finally barracks for refugees, and were thus used to the close of the war. With buildings dilapidated, mu- seum, cabinets, and chemical apparatus a mass of rubbish, and with only a minority of the faculty surviving, the insti- tution was in bad plight for reorganization.

In the reconstruction of the Medical Department of the University of Nashville, in 1867, Drs. Callender and Mad- din were invited to chairs in that school. Strictly speaking, the Medical Department of Vanderbilt University is Shelby Medical College resuscitated. These gentlemen have the gratification of having contributed to its union with the Medical Department of the University of Nashville, under one organization and one faculty. Shelby College exists to-day in honored fellowship with the other departments of this splendid institution,-the outcome of a great man's philanthropy, a pride and benefaction to the present genera- tion, and a sure promise of a higher civilization to the future.

NASHVILLE MEDICAL COLLEGE-MEDICAL DEPART- MENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE.

This institution was organized in the summer of 1876,- the national Centennial year. It was founded by Drs. Dun- can Eve and W. F. Glenn, who drew from the faculty of the Medical Department of the University of Nashville and Vanderbilt University the renowned Prof. Paul F. Eve, M.D., who with Drs. T. B. Buchanan, George S. Blackic, W. P. Jones, J. J. Abernethy, and others constituted the faculty of the young medical college.

The first session of this institution was commenced March 5, 1877, under most flattering prospects ; the number of stu- dents graduated was greater than that of any medical col- lege, for the first session, in the United States.

The faculty represented a larger number of specialists, or professors of special departments in medicine and surgery, than any similar institution in the South.

In 1879 an overture was made the faculty by the trus- tees of the University of Tennessee, formerly the East Ten- nessee University, located at Knoxville, Tenn., to become their medical department, and an agreement was entered into, forming as the college did a most formidable alliance. In the spring of this same year a dental department was es- tablished, being the first dental school in the South. This department, like the medical, has met with the most signal success.

* See special biography.

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

The Nashville Medical College-Medical Department of the University of Tennessee-has advocated from its estab- lishment a high standard of medical education, and to this end has required a vigorous examination of its candidates for the degrees of M.D. and D.D.S. The college is a mem- ber of the American Medical College Association.

The college is located on the west side of North Market Street, just below the public square, in the city of Nashville.

Among the recent improvements added to the college building is the erection of several large furnaces underneath the floor, to be used in heating the different departments during the winter, and the construction of a stack chimney in connection with the furnaces, which will also act as a ventilating shaft. The greatest improvement of all, how- ever, is the new lecture-hall, with a seating capacity for four hundred students. The seats are admirably arranged and every convenience possible added. The ceiling of this department, at a cost of one thousand five hundred dollars, has been beautifully frescoed with designs showing the dif- ferent industrial enterprises of the State.

The amphitheatre will accommodate an equal number of students. It is well heated and ventilated, and a well- arranged skylight floods the apartment with light.

The dissecting department is probably better arranged for the work which its name indicates than that of any other medical institution in America. It consists of a long hall running the entire length of the building, on each side of which are eighteen rooms.

The library, which is yet incomplete, contains several hundred standard medical works and books of reference, to which the students have free access.

The museum is contained in a large and well-lighted room. A variety of normal and morbid anatomical speci- mens have been collected, besides models in plaster and wax. The museum promises to become one of the most extensive in the South. Here can also be seen Dr. Eve's private collections in lithotomy, second in number only to those of Dr. Gross.

The following are the professors :

George S. Blackie, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology, and President of the Faculty ; W. P. Jones, M.D., Professor of Insanity and State Medicine; Deering J. Roberts, M.D., Professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine; J. Bunyan Stephens, M.D., Professor of Ob- stetrics and Clinical Midwifery ; Duncan Eve, M.D., Pro- fessor of Science and Art of Surgery and Clinical Surgery, and Dean of the Faculty ; J. S. Nowlin, M.D., Professor of Medical and Surgical Diseases of Women ; W. M. Vertrees, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica and Thera- peutics and Clinical Medicine; T. O. Summers, M.D., Professor of Physiology and Surgical Anatomy ; William F. Glenn, M.D., Professor of Anatomy and Venereal Dis- eases ; A. Blitz, M.D., Professor of Medical and Surgical Diseases of the Eye and Ear ; William G. Brien, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Medical Jurisprudence; J. G. Sin- clair, M.D., Professor of Principles of Surgery and Dis- eases of the Throat; Robert Russell, M.D., D.D.S., Pro- fessor of Operative Dentistry ; J. Y. Crawford, M.D., D.D.S., Professor of Mechanical Dentistry ; Paul F. Eve, M.D., J. A. Rogers, M.D., Demonstrators of Anatomy ;

W. L. Desmukes, D.D.S., Gillington Chisholm, D.D.S., J. F. Stephens, D.D.S., Demonstrators of Dentistry.

NASHVILLE INFIRMARY.

Nashville Infirmary, corner of College and Priestly Streets, Nashville, Tenn., under the superintendence of M. Baxter, M.D., established in 1876, is situated in the high- est and most salubrious part of the city of Nashville. Thoroughly equipped and provided with all the modern and improved conveniences for the treatment of medical and surgical diseases, it offers extraordinary inducements to patients coming to the city as a quiet retreat during their sojourn. The faculty of the Medical Departments of the University of Nashville and of Vanderbilt University con- stitute the medical and surgical staff of the infirmary. A skilled corps of nurses is in constant attendance, and a com- petent resident physician has immediate charge of the patients. The lying-in department constitutes an impor- tant feature of the infirmary, and thorough privacy is as- sured in such cases. Every effort is taken by the consult- ing staff and the superintendent to render the stay of patients pleasant and profitable, and to that end they seek to make the infirmary as comfortable and home-like as possible. Board in the wards, five dollars per week ; in private rooms, from eight to fourteen dollars per week, ac- cording to circumstances.

NASHVILLE BOARD OF HEALTH.

One of the most important institutions of Nashville is its Board of Health. In no city, however naturally healthy, can there be permanent immunity from sickness, especially from the ravages of prevailing epidemics, where the laws and conditions of health are habitually violated. This principle was fully recognized by the Nashville Medical Society in 1866, when the prevalence of Asiatic cholera in many portions of the United States created alarm for the safety of the city, and they sounded the note of warn- ing to the municipal government to ward off the impending danger by wise and timely sanitary measures. In this movement the Board of Health of Nashville had its incep- tion. The president of the medical society, Dr. C. K. Winston, called a meeting of the profession at the office of Dr. T. L. Maddin, on the evening of the 5th of June, 1866, at which time and place two physicians were selected for sanitary work in each ward of the city. The names and wards were as follows :

First Ward .- W. A. Cheatham and J. R. Buist. Second Ward .- J. C. Newnan and H. M. Compton. Third Ward .- T. L. Maddin and W. L. Nichol. Fourth Ward .- J. W. Morton and W. B. Maney. Fifth Ward .- J. D. Winston and J. H. Callender. Sixth Ward .- T. B. Buchanan and J. D. Plunket. Seventh Ward .- E. F. P'Pool and J. H. Currey. Eighth Ward .- C. A. Brodie and J. A. Beauchamp. Ninth Ward .- F. M. Hughes and Van S. Lindsley. Tenth Ward .- T. A. Atchison and D. Du Pre.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 76

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013