private pupil for many years. He graduated in the Medical Department
of Transylvania University with distinguished honor in 1842, after
having attended three full courses of instruction in that department.
His first course of medical lectures was in the winter of 1838-39. It
was the first session in which the present writer occupied the chair
of Chemistry and Pharmacy, and well he remembers the assiduous
attention of his pupil; his avidity in the acquisition of knowledge
and his unusual ability to retain it. Distrusting yet his own
attainments and desirous of more thorough training before taking upon
himself the responsible and arduous offices of a practitioner, he,
under the immediate charge of his uncle, then in active practice,
attended two other full courses of medical lectures (sessions 1842-43
and 1843-44) as resident graduate. During this period he sometimes
officiated as prosector to his distinguished kinsman.[92]
[Illustration: DOCTOR ETHELBERT L. DUDLEY.
From a Photograph.]
Before the next following session, Doctor Ethelbert L. Dudley was
appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy in the place of Doctor James M.
Bush, who had been promoted to the chair of Anatomy. This responsible
office he filled until called to the chair of General and Pathological
Anatomy in 1847-48.
From the origin of this medical school Professor Benjamin W. Dudley
had taught in the combined chair of Anatomy and Surgery, blending the
two in a manner most instructive and practical.[93] In 1837, he
accepted Doctor James M. Bush as adjunct to the combined
professorship, and in 1844, Doctor Bush having been appointed
Professor of Anatomy, the elder Dudley restricted himself to the chair
of the Principles of Surgery.
In the summer of 1846, Doctor Ethelbert L. Dudley was appointed to
deliver a course of lectures on Comparative Anatomy. This duty he
performed to the highest satisfaction of all concerned; and when,
almost at the beginning of the next regular session (1847-48), he was
called to the chair of Anatomy and Physiology, he successfully
encountered the great labor of preparing and delivering a new course
of lectures on these subjects. At the same time he also discharged the
arduous duties of Demonstrator of Anatomy--duties more onerous in this
school, in our small inland city, than in most other medical colleges.
No one in the whole school accomplished half the work which he
mastered. No task seemed too great for his young and ardent energies.
In 1849, he originated and took upon himself the sole charge as editor
of the _Transylvania Medical Journal_, a new series of the old
_Transylvania Journal of Medicine_. He published three volumes in
three successive years, aided only occasionally by some of his
colleagues. In the spring of 1850, he visited Europe for professional
improvement, making many friends; amongst the distinguished medical
men of England particularly. Immediately on his return from Europe, in
the autumn of that year, the present writer announced to him, in the
city of New York, his appointment to the chair of Descriptive Anatomy
and Histology in the Kentucky School of Medicine. This was a new
school which some of the physicians of Louisville and professors of
the Lexington school were about to establish in the former city, to
which place students of medicine from the South and West were
beginning to flock, to the neglect somewhat of the time-honored
Transylvania school, in which it was proposed to continue medical
instruction in summer sessions.
This appointment he accepted, joining in the preliminary October
course of lectures and aiding greatly by his talents and energy in
building up that institution. Transferred in the following year to the
chair of Surgery in the Transylvania summer school, on the retirement
of his uncle from active professional life, he continued to teach with
distinguished ability in the position made illustrious by his
predecessor, until the close of the school shortly before the outbreak
of our Civil War.
In the second year of the Kentucky School of Medicine, he was
transferred to the chair of Surgical Anatomy and Operative Surgery, and
accordingly gave the surgical-clinical instruction in the Marine
Hospital of Louisville to the combined classes of the two medical
schools of that city during the session of 1851-52. A course which was a
decided success for the young professor and surgeon, and which helped to
place him at once on the elevated position as a professional man and a
gentleman which he maintained to the day of his death and to which few
men, of his age especially, ever are fortunate enough to attain.[94]
After another successful session in this school he, with the other
Transylvania professors, resigned and returned permanently to
Lexington, resuming his practice there and his duties in the renewed
winter sessions of the Transylvania Medical Department.
As a practitioner, especially of surgery, Doctor E. L. Dudley always
commanded the highest respect and admiration of his colleagues as well
as the confidence and affections of his patients. Singularly unselfish
and always willing to devote himself fully to his profession, his
patients and his friends, few men had the power so quickly and so
firmly to bind others to him with the ties of affection.
With nerves as of steel, clear eye, quick judgment and answering hand,
combined with the kind feelings of a woman and a fullness of
professional knowledge rarely surpassed, his short career as a
surgeon--all too brief!--was yet a brilliant one. Had his life been
spared to him the name of Dudley had achieved a yet higher distinction
in the annals of surgery.
At the outbreak of our Civil War, Doctor Dudley's loyal attachment to
the nation and his love of country caused him to take an active part
against the rebellion. While the fate of Kentucky hung yet in the
balance of a professed neutrality, he was actively instrumental in
organizing a battalion of "Home Guards," of which he was at once
appointed Commandant--an organization which greatly helped to prevent
the precipitation of our State into the war for secession.[95]
Obtaining authority to organize a regiment of volunteers for active
service, of which he was Colonel, preferring this active position to
the less belligerent one of Medical Director which was proffered him,
he left Lexington with his command for the southern part of the State.
There, exhausted by the continued labors and exposures of his
combined offices of colonel, surgeon and physician to his men (which
he would not commit to another), he fell a victim to typhoid fever on
February 20, 1862, at the age of forty-four. His remains, brought to
Lexington, were received with public honors and were followed to the
cemetery by a long procession of sorrowing friends.
SAMUEL ANNAN, M. D.,
Was born at Philadelphia, Pa., in the year 1800--a descendant of
Scotch ancestors. He graduated as M. D. at the Edinburgh University in
1820. His thesis, entitled _De Appoplexia Sanguinia_, is in the
library of the Medical and Surgical Faculty of Maryland. He was
licentiate of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland in 1822,
being then ex-President of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh.
From 1827 to 1834, he ably occupied the chair of Anatomy and
Physiology in the Medical Department of Washington University at
Baltimore, Maryland. From 1838 to 1845, he was physician to the
Baltimore Alms-house. In 1846, he was called to the chair of
Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in the Medical
Department of Transylvania University, a position which he occupied
with great ability until, in 1849, he was transferred to the chair of
Theory and Practice of Medicine in the same institution, in which he
gave general satisfaction until 1854, when he resigned that position.
During the years 1853-57, he was Superintendent to the Insane Asylum
at Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He became surgeon to the Confederate States
Army at the outbreak of our Civil War in 1861, maintaining that
position until 1864. In 1866, he was surgeon to the steamship
"Carroll" of the Liverpool line, from April to November. He died at
Baltimore, January 19, 1868.
Doctor Annan was a person of great activity of mind and body, of high
intelligence and probity of character. In the course of his active
life and practice in his profession he found time to contribute many
valuable articles to the medical journals, of which we quote the
following, viz:
"Cases of Bronchotomy." Maryland Medical Recorder, Vol. VII, p. 42. 1823.
"On the Surgical Anatomy of Hernia." Ibid., Vol. III, p. 529. 1829.
"On Polypus Nasi." Ibid., No. 3, p. 655. 1830.
"On the Use of Wine in Fevers." Ibid., p. 279. 1831.
"Address to the Graduates of Washington University." 1834.
"New Views of Certain Dislocations." American Journal of Medical
Science, Vol. XVIII, p. 376. 1836.
"On the Treatment of Prolapsus Ani." Ibid., p. 334. 1836.
"On Spinal Irritation and Inflammation." Ibid., Vol. XX, p. 85. 1837.
"On Cases in the Baltimore Alms-house." Ibid., Vol. XXII, p. 378. 1838.
"On Wind Contusions." American Medical Journal, Vol. II, pp. 3, 133,
and 213. 1838.
"On Cases in the Baltimore Alms-house." Journal of Medical Science, Vol.
XXIV, p. 316; and Journal of Medical Science, Vol. XXV, p. 32. 1839.
"On Cases in the Baltimore Alms-house." Medical and Surgical Journal,
pp. 322 and 338. 1840.
"Lecture at Opening of Kentucky School of Medicine." 1850.
"On Fracture of the Skull." American Medical Record, No. 3, Vol. II,
p. 449.
"Case of Laceration of the Ileum from External Injury." American
Journal of Medical Science, p. 287. 1838.
For most of the facts contained in this brief sketch of the active
life of Doctor Annan we are indebted to the kindness of Doctor Oscar
J. Coskery, of Baltimore.
NOTE.--In 1850, Doctor Annan accepted the chair of Pathology and
Practice of Medicine in the new Kentucky School of Medicine in
Louisville, which position he occupied for two years with great
ability, when he resigned to return to his native city.
In 1849, when Doctor Annan was transferred to the chair of Theory and
Practice, the chair of Obstetrics was filled by Doctor William M.
Boling, of Montgomery, Alabama, for one session. Doctor Boling had
taught in the Memphis Medical School of Tennessee, and was "favorably
known in the South as a good practitioner, an able medical writer, and
an excellent teacher."
PROFESSOR HENRY M. BULLITT
Occupied the chair of Materia Medica and Medical Botany with ability
during the session of 1849-50, after which, with the aid of some of
his Transylvania associates, he established the "Kentucky School of
Medicine," which still maintains a prosperous condition.
"Doctor Bullitt commenced the study of medicine at seventeen years of
age, in the office of Doctor Coleman Rogers, senior, of Louisville,
entering the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania as a
pupil, and graduating with high honor in 1838. Returning to
Louisville, he began the practice of medicine in partnership with
Doctor Joshua B. Flint, thus continuing for many years, their office
being the headquarters of the prominent physicians of this city.
"Doctor Bullitt passed the year 1845 in Europe, where he took
advantage of every opportunity of advancing in medical knowledge. He
returned liberally equipped with the good fruits of his sojourn
abroad. In 1846, he was elected a professor in the St. Louis Medical
College and lectured there in 1846-47 and 1847-48. In 1849, he was
elected to the chair of Materia Medica, etc., in Transylvania
University.... In 1850, he was mainly instrumental in the
establishment of the Kentucky School of Medicine in Louisville, aided
by 'prominent members of the Faculty of Transylvania.'
"In 1866, he was elected to the chair of Theory and Practice in the
University of Louisville, and, in 1867, was transferred to that of
Physiology. In 1868, he established the Louisville Medical College,
with which he remained during the several years of his professional
life, his increasing deafness greatly marring his social and
professional enjoyments.
"Doctor Bullitt was an able writer on professional subjects.... He
held, successively, chairs in five medical schools," in all with great
ability.
"In 1866, he was elected Health Officer of the city of Louisville,"
which office he most ably filled.... "Doctor Bullitt was one of the
ablest Health Officers the city ever possessed," and was author of
many papers of "great merit in numerous medical journals. His great
affliction, deafness, was all that prevented him from taking the
foremost position among medical practitioners, teachers, and writers.
But he bore the misfortune with singular equanimity and fortitude."
Doctor Bullitt died on the seventh of January, 1880, after a number of
weeks' confinement to his bed with Bright's disease.
* * * * *
The greater part of this brief sketch of the life of Doctor Bullitt is
copied from an able obituary notice published in the _Louisville
Journal_ at the time of his death.
HENRY MARTYN SKILLMAN, M. D.,
Youngest child of Thomas T. and Elizabeth Farrar Skillman, born
September 4, 1824, at Lexington, Kentucky, was educated in
Transylvania University. He spent two or three years in the drug and
apothecary business in Lexington, and commenced the study of medicine
and surgery in 1844, graduating as Doctor of Medicine, etc., in 1847.
He was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical Department of
Transylvania University in 1848. In 1851, he was appointed Professor
of General and Pathological Anatomy and Physiology, which position he
occupied with skill and success until the close of the Medical College
in 1857. Since that time he has devoted himself to the duties of his
profession in medicine and surgery, being "one of the most skillful,
successful, and accomplished physicians in Kentucky," and "having
inherited the admirable qualities of his parents, is one of the most
honorable and useful citizens of Lexington."[96]
Since the above was written, the gentle and busy life of this last
surviving member of the Transylvania Medical Faculty came suddenly to
a close at his home in Lexington, March 21, 1902, at a quarter past
four o'clock in the afternoon, apparently without warning. Only two
hours previously, handsome and smiling and dignified as usual, he had
visited a patient, and he expected in a few hours to resume his
professional rounds when the last summons came.
[Illustration: DOCTOR HENRY MARTYN SKILLMAN.
From a Photograph by Mullen.]
It is hardly possible for a man to depart this life without leaving an
enemy, but if Doctor Skillman, in his fifty-four years of active
professional life, had made even a few enemies they hesitated to
declare themselves. His own nature was to see good in others; their
defects were not made prominent by him. As he spoke no evil, so
nothing but good was said of him. But with his amiable, benevolent,
compromising disposition there was no trace of weakness. Strict in
professional etiquette, immovable in principle, he repelled with
gentle but irresistible firmness every effort to shake his integrity.
The loveliness of his character and personality is best portrayed in
"Luke, the Beloved Physician," a tribute paid, on his death,
editorially in the _Lexington Herald_ by Kentucky's favorite orator
and statesman, every word of which is as true as it is well-chosen and
beautiful. Doctor Skillman held numerous offices of trust; was
elected, in 1869, President of Kentucky State Medical Society and, in
1889, the first President of Lexington and Fayette County Medical
Society, and was at the time of his death the oldest practicing
physician in Lexington, having seen that city grow from eight thousand
to thirty thousand inhabitants. It is claimed that he was the first
physician to administer chloroform there. For two years during the
Civil War he was contract surgeon for the Government.
Doctor Skillman's father, Thomas T. Skillman, a native of New Jersey,
came to Lexington in 1809, and soon founded there the largest
publishing house in the Mississippi Valley, the name of T. T. Skillman
on the title page of a work being a guarantee of its excellence and
fitness for the family circle. In 1823, an edition of several thousand
copies of the entire Bible was published by Mr. Skillman from
stereotype plates sent from New York by the American Bible Society. He
founded the _Evangelical Recorder and Western Review_, afterward
edited by Reverend John Breckinridge, the young and talented pastor of
"the McChord Church"; also the _Western Luminary_, in 1824, the first
religious paper issued in the West.
Doctor Skillman married, October 30, 1851, Margaret, daughter of
Matthew T. Scott, President of the Northern Bank of Kentucky. Of their
children only one is living, Henry Martyn Skillman, of the Lexington
Security Trust and Safety Vault Company.
SAMUEL M. LETCHER, M. D.,
Of a prominent Kentucky family, also a graduate of the Medical
Department of Transylvania University who had won distinction in his
profession in Lexington, was called to the chair of Professor of
Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in that school in 1851,
and performed the duties of that chair with ability and success until
the close of the Medical College in Lexington in 1857. During the
Civil War he was placed in charge of a United States General Hospital
in Lexington, a position which he held for some time, giving great
satisfaction. He died February 1, 1863, in Lexington, Kentucky.
JOHN ROWAN ALLEN, M. D.,
Who was Superintendent of the Eastern Lunatic Asylum at Lexington,[97]
Kentucky, and who first introduced there the moral treatment of the
insane instead of forcible means, was appointed Professor of Materia
Medica and Botany in 1851, and performed the duties of this chair with
great ability until the end of the session of 1855, when he resigned
that position.
DOCTOR WILLIAM STOUT CHIPLEY