History of Windsor County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 18

Author: Aldrich, Lewis Cass. ed. cn; Holmes, Frank R
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1260

USA > Vermont > Windsor County > History of Windsor County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 18

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HISTORY OF WINDSOR COUNTY.

of Royalton, Hiland H. Wheeler of Woodstock. 1872, May, William Batchelder of Bethel, Alba N. Lincoln of Woodstock. 1873, May, Madison T. Sawyer of Cavendish. 1874, December, William B. C. Stickney of Bethel. 1875, December, Milo S. Buck of Cavendish, Charles M. Marsh of Woodstock, Charles Williams of Woodstock, William H. Cotton of Hartford. 1876, May, George A. Weston of Ches- ter; December, Robert S. Southgate and Fred C. Southgate of Wood- stock, S. A. Griffin of Ludlow. 1877, May, James C. Barrett of Wood- stock, Josiah W. Dean of Cavendish. 1878, December, Rush T.

Barrett of Woodstock, William W. Stickney of Ludlow. 1879, May, Edward T. Hodsden of Hartford; December, John H. Dennison of Roy- alton, Clarence W. Scott of Plymouth. 1880, May, Herbert D. Ryder of Springfield, Francis C. Hatch of Woodstock; December, James G. Harvey of Royalton. 1881, May, Frederick Arnold of Bethel ; De- cember, Joseph C. Enright of Windsor. 1882, May, John J. Simonds of Windsor, Edward D. Reardon of Springfield. 1883, May, Warren C. French of Woodstock, Charles H. Mason of Royalton. 1884, May, Frank H. Clark of Reading, Elbridge M. Bush of Cavendish. Admit- ted subsequent to 1884, Frank A. Walker of Ludlow, Sanford E. Emery of Cavendish, Fred W. Cady of Windsor, (1888,) Alba C. Peck of Cav- endish. To the above list may be appended the names of a number of lawyers who were admitted in other counties, and who subsequently came to Windsor county to practice. This list is taken from the com- pilation of George B. French, who was county clerk from 1867 to 1885: Samuel W. Porter, admitted in Windham county, 1814; Julius Con- verse, Orange, 1826; William M. Pingry, Caledonia, 1832; Oliver P. Chandler, Caledonia, 1832; Augustus P. Hunton, Washington, 1837 ; Albert M. Albee, Windham, 1843; Charles M. Lamb, Orange, 1850; George L. Fletcher, Windham, 1859; Jerome W. Pierce, Windham, 1862; Charles P. Tarbell, Orange, 1870; William H. Bliss, Orange, 1877.

Personnel of the Present Bar .- At Bethel, Fred Arnold, Augustus B. Hunton, William B. C. Stickney, (State's attorney,) James J. Wilson. Cavendish, Milo S. Buck, Alva C. Peck. Chester, George L. Fletcher, Hugh Henry, (probate judge, Windsor district,) William Rounds (assist- ant judge). Hartford, Samuel E. Pingree, Stephen M. Pingree. Lud- low, Martin H. Stoddard, William W. Stickney, Frank A. Walker, Will-

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iam H. Walker. Proctorsville, Sanford E. Emery. Royalton, Dudley C. Dennison. Springfield, Albert M. Allbe, Jerome W. Pierce. South Royalton, Charles M. Lamb, Charles P. Tarbell. Windsor, William Batch- elder, Fred W. Cady, Gilbert A. Davis, Joseph C. Enright. White River Junction, James G. Harvey, John J. Simonds. Woodstock, Oliver P. Chandler, Warren C. French, William E. Johnson, Charles P. Marsh (assistant judge), Norman Paul, Thomas O. Seaver, (probate judge, Hart- ford district,) Frederick C. Southgate.

CHAPTER XII.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION-INSTITUTIONS AND) SOCIETIES OF WINDSOR COUNTY.

W THEN we consider the importance and elevated character of the science of medicine -- its object, the preservation of the health and lives, and the healing of diseases, and the amelioration of the physical and mental sufferings of our fellow human beings-its extent embracing a knowledge of all science-it is evident that medical education should engage the earnest attention of at least the entire medical profession. The advances made in all the branches of knowledge, and especially in the science of medicine during the past century, have excelled in extent and value those of all past ages; and it is no longer possible to compress its vast domain within the narrow limits of " seven professorships." The present age owes its wonderful progress to experimental and scientific research.

Evolution and development are the talismanic watch- words of the nine- teenth century, and the doctrine is being accepted that things in the world do grow, and are not made; it is no longer universally accepted as a matter of religious faith that the world was created by supernatural power, for many of our deepest thinkers, men of the most profound under- standing, believe that it has been gradually unfolded by the action of natural causes. But, not wishing to be accused of heresy, it may be

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stated that whether the theory be according to Darwin, or Hackel, or Spencer, or some other philosopher, the law will be the same in any case, and away back, behind " protoplasm," " germinal matter" and "celular germ," there still exists abundant proof of a "First Great Cause," of an " Infinite Wisdom," for the depth of which language hath not expression. A flood of light on this subject is now pouring forth on the world, but its acceptation as a convincing truth rests in a great measure with the individual.

" The world," says Goethe, "is so framed that it cannot keep quiet." All the natural energies are brought into full force by the spirit of enter- prise, by the spirit of progress. The telegraph wires wipe out all terri- torial boundaries, and railways penetrate the utmost confines of the earth, and by them States and Territories are bound fast together in one web.

"The Bible," says Gail Hamilton, " is full of excellent precepts, and the world is full of bad examples. If a man smite us on the right cheek, we-knock him down. If a man sues us at law, we stand suit, and if he would borrow of us we promptly turn away, unless he can give ample security."

Science and enterprise have spanned the continent with electric wires, cabled the Atlantic Ocean, given us the measurements of revolving plan - ets, spread forth the canvas to the gale, and made the trackless ocean a highway through the world. By the use of scientific and cunningly de- vised instruments bleak skies and rude winds are foreseen, and the navi- gator places himself in safety. The electric light has displaced gas as effectually as the latter did the " tallow dip," and is established upon a secure commercial basis. School-houses, churches, newspapers, and books open up to the poorest the lights and opportunities of knowledge.

The wealth of nations increases and we see all the arts of life approach - ing nearer and nearer perfection. In science, art and literature each succeeding generation is wiser than its predecessor. The mistakes of past experience serve as beacon-lights to warn us off the rocks and shoals of error and guide us to the port of truth.

The great and wide advancement in the different branches of medical science within the last generation is as much a marvel as the progress made in any other of the arts and sciences. The poorest laborer can now obtain advice and medicine far superior to that which royalty could command one or two centuries ago.

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" The advance in medical knowledge within one's memory," say Sir James Paget, "is amazing, whether reckoned in the wonders of science not yet applied, or in practical results, in the general lengthening of life, or, which is still better, in the prevention and decrease of pain and mis- ery, and in the increase of working power."

The dawning of medical science, which now sheds its light through the world, began with Hippocrates nearly twenty-three hundred years ago, and he first treated of medicine with anything like sound or rational principles. He wrote extensively, much of which has been translated and serves as a foundation for the succeeding literature of the profession. He relied chiefly on the healing powers of nature, his remedies being exceedingly simple. He taught that the people ought not to load them- selves with excrements, or keep them in too long; and for this reason he prescribed " meats proper for loosening the belly," and if these failed he directed the use of clysters.

Three hundred years before Christ, Erasistratus invented and used the catheter, introduced the tourniquet, and produced an instrument for lithotriptic operations. Celsus flourished A. D. 50 to 120, as the greatest of Roman surgeons.

Through all the centuries from the beginning of the Christian era down to the time of the discovery of the circulation of the blood by Harvey, 1619, medicine shed but a glimmering light in the midst of the darkness then enshrouding the world, and the greatest strides in the advancement of the various branches of medical science have been made in the last one hundred years, and most of them may be placed to the credit of the last half century.

Physiologists no longer believe with Paracelsus in the sixteenth cen- tury, that the planets have a direct controlling action on the body, the sun upon the heart, and the moon upon the brain ; nor do they now be- lieve that the vital spirits are prepared in the brain by distillation ; nor do they admit that the chyle effervesces in the heart under the influ- ence of salt and sulphur, which take fire together and produce the vital flame. On the contrary, modern physiology teaches that the phenom- ena of the living body are the result of physical and chemical changes ; the temperature of the blood is ascertained by the thermometer, and the different fluids and gases of the body are analyzed by the chemist, giving to each its own properties and function.

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HISTORY OF WINDSOR COUNTY.

While the eighteenth century witnessed greater advancement in the department of medical science than any or all its predecessors, the crowning achievement seems to have been reserved for the nineteenth- the present century. Among the thousands of elements that comprise this century's advance in medical science mention will be made of but one, and that among the first discoveries, i. e., the use of anesthetics, which benumb the nerves of sensation, and produce a profound but transient state of insensibility, in which the most formidable operation may be performed while the patient sleeps and dreams of home and happy hours, and the physician is left to the pleasing reflection that he is causing no pain or suffering.

But it appears that as rapid as has been this advance during the last hundred years, so, correspondingly, have there developed new forms and phases of disease to baffle the skill of the most eminent physicians and scientists in the land; and while diseases, malarious in their char- acter, have for a time defied the attempts to overcome them, they have, nevertheless, been subdued and conquered. Medical skill has proven equal to every emergency.

There is, to day, known to botanists over one hundred and forty thou- sand plants, a large proportion of which are being constantly added to the already appalling list of new remedies. Many of these new drugs possess little, if any, virtue, save as their sale adds to the exchequer of some enterprising pharmacist. A drug house in New England recently issued a circular, in which they advertised 33 syrups, 42 elixirs, 93 solid extracts, 150 varieties of sugar-coated pills, 236 tinctures, 245 roots, barks, herbs, seeds and flowers, 322 fluid extracts, and 348 general drugs and chemicals.

The ancients were not so well supplied with drugs. It was the cus- tom among the Babylonians to expose the sick to the view of passen- gers, in order to learn of them whether they had been afflicted with a like distemper, and by what remedies they had been cured. It was also the custom of those days for all persons who had been sick, and were cured, to put up a tablet in the temple of Esculapius, wherein they gave an account of the remedies that had restored them to health. Prior to the time of Hippocrates all medicine was in the hands of the priests, and was associated with numerous superstitions, such as sympathetic

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ointments applied to the weapon with which a wound was made, incan- tations, charms, amulets, the royal touch for the cure of scrofula, human or horse flesh for the cure of epilepsy, convulsions treated with human brains.

While all this credulous superstition of early ages, born of ignorance, existed to a vastly large extent, it has not been fully wiped out by the generally advanced education of the present day. The latest appeal to the credulity of the masses of the people is an invention to relieve the unfortunate sick, and is known as " the Faith Cure." The persons seek- ing to popularize this means of cure are either deceived themselves, or are deceiving others. Upon this point a popular writer says: " If the disease be an incurable one, all the prayers in the world will not cure it. Filth brings fever ; prayer cannot interpose."

There is probably no department of medicine at the present time more promising of good results than is sanitary science. While physi- ology and pathology are making known to us the functions of the hu- man body, and the nature and cause of disease, sanitary science is stead- ily teaching how the causes of disease may be removed or avoided, and health thereby secured.

Progress during the coming one hundred years, if only equal to that of the past, will more than have "accomplished great works in the ad- vancement of sanitary science ; but the accomplishment of this work calls not only for the labor of the physician, but for the intelligent co- operation of the people ; the physician cannot do it alone. If anything really great is to be done in the way of sanitary improvement, and of preventing disease and death, it must be done by the people themselves. This implies that they must be instructed in sanitary matters. They must be taught what unsanitary conditions most favor the origin of dis- eases, how disease is spread, and the means of its prevention. If it is true that that knowledge is of the greatest to us which teaches the means of self-preservation, then the importance of a wide-spread knowledge of how to prevent disease and premature death cannot be overestimated.

A number of the towns of Windsor county have already acquired the proportions of municipal being, and with every increase of population there comes an increased demand for sanitary regulations, especially in the more thickly peopled localities; and it behooves the authorities of

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HISTORY OF WINDSOR COUNTY.

those towns to look well to the matter of a complete system of sewerage. This is a matter that needs prompt and efficient attention. The expense of course would be considerable, but the outlay might better be made than to defer action until disaster should come that might be a greater cost both of means and lives.

But what can be said in these pages concerning the history of the medi- cal profession of Windsor county, and who were its pioneer represent- atives ? Upon this question there appears but little of record, and still less of reliable tradition. The oldest living medical practitioner in the county would hardly attempt an enumeration of the practitioners that preceded him; those of the last century that rode the country over dur- ing its pioneer days. They are all gone now and have left no record of their lives and deeds for succeeding generations. Whoever they were, and wherever they may have lived, the pioneer representatives of the healing art recognized the necessity of associating together for the pro- tection of their craft, and regulating the standard of fitness of aspirants for professional duty. Such a sentiment led to the formation of the " First Medical Society in Vermont," which was incorporated on the 25th of October, 1784. None of the incorporators, however, of that society were residents of Windsor county.

The second medical society of the State was formed in October, 1794, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature by physicians of Windsor county. The third was an organization of Franklin county, incorporated February 6, 1804; and the fourth was a Windsor county society, incor- porated on the 27th of October, 1812, but not fully organized by its members until the succeding year. These societies were county organi- zations. The first State societywas incorporated by an act of the Legis- lature passed November 6, 1813, and was known as the " Vermont Medical Society." Among its incorporators were a number of Windsor county residents, as follows : Josiah Goodhue, Joadam Gallup, Moses Cobb, Stephen Drew, Nahum Trask, Silas Bowen, Eldad Alexander, Asaph Fletcher, Henry Gray, Erastus Torrey, Isaac Parker, Joadam Dennison, Joseph Winslow, Silas Brown, Nathaniel Pierce, Benjamin A. Dennison, Luther Fletcher, Charles Wolcott Chandler, John Burnell.

The incorporators named in the act from the several counties, or any five from a single county, were authorized to form themselves into a

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county society for the same purpose as that for which the State society was created, that is : " The improvement of the theory and practice of the different branches of the healing art," etc. It is not essentially im- portant to refer at any length to the powers and duties prescribed in the act as belonging to the State society, other than to note the fact that under it county societies were authorized, and out of which the " Medi- cal Society of the County of Windsor " was created and organized dur- ing, or immediately after, the year 1813.

The minutes of proceedings and constitution of this old society are un- questionably lost, and nothing remains that in any manner relates to its existence except a book of charges found in the possession of Dr. Edwin Hazen, of Woodstock. This book purports to contain a record of the medical works loaned by the society to its members. The library com- prised forty volumes, physiological and pathological, which were held for the use and instruction of members, and loaned to them upon proper oc- casion. From this book is taken the names of the physicians who were members of the society, as follows : Joseph A. Gallup, Joseph A. Deni- son, Nahum Trask, Erastus Torrey, John Burnell, John D. Powers, A. W. Monger, Elijah W. Alexander, Amos B. Page, Silas Bowen, Thomas Swift, Frederick Ware, James Tracy, Isaac Danforth, Alfred Page, Moses Cobb, Ora F. Paddock, John Anger, Ptolemy Edson, Willard P. Gilson, Samuel P. Page, Dyar Story, W. Bowman, John Emory, Edwin Hazen. Dr. Hazen was the last physician to become a member of the society ; and he says that even: occurred about 1844 or 1846; and that the soci- ety was then about to pass out of being, in fact, " on its last legs," as the Doctor expresses it.

In the year 1837, at a meeting of the society held June 13th, Dr. John Burnell read an address to the assembled members, which was a review of the history of the organization, with some reference to the events that led to its formation, and the difficulties encountered in accomplishing it. Through the kindness of Dr. Hazen we are enabled to use such extracts from the address as will be deemed of interest to the profession of the present day.

"Early in the year 1812 some four or five of us in this immediate vicinity (Woodstock), who were then young in practice, conceived the plan of associating together and forming ourselves into a kind of club,

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for mutual improvement in our profession. We had understood that an attempt had been made by the physicians of the county, or some indi- viduals of them, by petitioning the Legislature, to get an act of incor. poration for a medical society for this county. But on account of the extreme jealousy of that body, of all secret societies, it being then the days of 'Washington Benevolent Societies,' ' Hartford Conventions,' etc., the petition was ridiculed out of the House by moving that it be referred to the 'mad-dog committee,' which discouraged any further attempt at assistance from that source.

" Feeling the want of their aid, and supposing that some of the older practitioners might be willing to unite with us, we consulted with them upon the subject. Their advice was that another attempt should be made upon the Legislature, and recommended that an advertisement for a convention of the physicians of the county should be published, to meet in this place (Woodstock), to concert further measures upon the subject. . In pursuance of this advice the notice referred to was inserted in the public papers at Windsor, and the convention on the 31st of August, 1812, was the result. Some fifteen or twenty physicians were present. We were determined to have a society, the Legislature to the contrary notwithstanding; and it was thought best, all concurring therein, to try the Legislature once more, and a commit- tee was chosen for drafting the petition.

"At our next meeting, September 23, heard and accepted the peti- tion, and chose Dr. Joseph Winslow agent to present it, and use his en- deavors to get it granted. And it is recollected that on account of the appearance in our political horizon at that time, showing less party ani- mosity and jealousy of the influence of secret societies, and especially as Dr. Winslow was a leading man on the side of the dominant party, we had strong assurance of success, and the event proved we were not dis- appointed. At the next meeting, January 7, 1813, our agent reported the act of the Legislature, constituting us a body politic, by the name of the Medical Society of the County of Windsor. And it like- wise appears that at the same time our code of by-laws was reported by the committee which had been appointed for the purpose, and adopted by the society, which, with some alterations and amendments, still re- mains as our rules and regulations. At this meeting, January, 1813, a

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full board of officers was chosen, and the society was first fully organized according to law. . From that time for several years our meet- ings were held alternately, annual meeting at Woodstock, and semi- annual at Windsor. But we were to feel the influence of those blighting causes, which are more or less unavoidable in institutions of this kind; and which, but for the exertions of those members who pre- ferred peace and the success of our profession to the gratification of feel-

ings of personal animosity, our society must have come to the ground. I allude principally to an attempt which was made, fifteen years since, to introduce within the walls of this society the discussion of the merits of an unhappy law suit between two of its members, which was then but just terminated. Although it was treated by the members generally as it should have been, after much annoyance by him who made the at- tempt, and one other, who espoused his cause, much injury to our cause resulted from it.

"The languishing state and final suspension of all business of our sister county societies, and consequently of the parent State society, are not among the least of the causes against which we have had to contend. Where shall we look for this cause which is operating so generally to paralyze all efforts for the furtherance of medical science and the re- spectability of our profession ? By referring to the records of a meeting of this society in June, 1823, it will be found that the following resolution was introduced, and published in the Woodstock Observer, or ordered to be there published :

" ' Whereas, the medical literature of our State has its progress im- peded by the public interest and influence being divided between Cas- tleton and Burlington ; Resolved, therefore, by the Windsor County Medical Society, that we recommend the union of those schools, and invite the attention of the Vermont Medical Society, and of the several societies, to this subject.'

" If it was thought in 1823, when we had but two medical schools in the State, that they were exerting a bad influence in dividing public in- terest, how much more influence of the same kind will three schools exert, and one having two courses of lectures in each year ? Lest it may be thought that the foregoing resolution had its origin in the prej- udice of members of this society towards those medical schools, or any

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of the faculty at the head of them, it may be proper to mention that it was introduced and advocated by two of the gentlemen then connected with the Castleton Academy of Medicine."

The reader will at once observe from the tenor of the foregoing ex- tracts that there evidently existed an inharmonious feeling in the pro- fession relating to the system of management of the medical college then in operation at the county seat. This would appear to be the real object of the worthy Doctor's address, to give voice and expression to his sentiment upon the subject, although in so doing he gave something of the history of the old medical society of the county. In another and still later part of his essay, the Doctor says : "But, it may possibly be agreed that if there are too many schools of medicine, it is an evil which will cure itself, cannot be supported, some of them must go down. True, Mr. President, they may, but in the meantime what will become of our medical society, that ought to be the supervisor of these institutions, while all our principal and leading physicians are engaged with all their might in sustaining each his favorite school ? In the meantime, too, we shall be inundated with ' quackery,' which is already making fearful in- roads in our goodly State."

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History of Windsor County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 18

Author: Aldrich, Lewis Cass. ed. cn; Holmes, Frank R Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 1260

Author: Aldrich, Lewis Cass. ed. cn; Holmes, Frank R
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1260