apparatus by extensive purchases in Europe (selected by Dr. Bush and
myself), bringing the former collection up to 8,000 volumes and making
the latter equal, if not superior, to any in the United States."
(Introductory lecture of Doctor Peter to Medical Department, 1854.)]
[Footnote 68: See _Western Lancet_, Volume V, 1846.]
[Footnote 69: See _Transylvania Journal of Medicine_, Volumes VI and
VII.]
[Footnote 70: The memorial was written entirely by Doctor Peter, the
map was mostly copied from one published about that time by a Mr.
Byrem Lawrence, who traveled and lectured on Geology in Kentucky and
who subsequently went to Arkansas and made observations on its
Geology, etc., and, as the writer believes, died there.]
[Footnote 71: See _Kentucky Geological Survey_, Volume I, N. S., Page
143.]
[Footnote 72: See Volume I, N. S., Page 143.]
[Footnote 73: Doctor Owen says: "The principal operating room in which
Dr. P. made his analyses is 15 feet square, the working and balance
tables stand within three feet of each other, and the furnace, sand,
and water baths three feet from the former, so that one or two steps
suffice to reach all important parts of the different operations in
their various stages of progression. The reagents constantly in use
... in a case resting on the working table within arm's reach of the
operator, and his recording desk in a drawer of the same table." This
laboratory was in the north-west corner of the Medical Hall, corner
of Broadway and Second Street. Doctor Owen, zealous to defend Doctor
Peter, explains further that the latter was aided by a more than
common physical as well as mental aptitude. Doctor Peter took no part
in this defense save to extend to the skeptics an invitation to visit
his laboratory and examine his manner of working.]
[Footnote 74: I must acknowledge that the expression "shoulder to
shoulder" is a mere figure of speech as regards "Uncle Davy" Sayre,
for he usually attended the drills in a buggy in subservience to his
gout, being thereby rendered immune from the consequences suffered by
his dignified compatriots of sundry knots tied, by youthful humorists,
in the long grass of the classic "little college lot," the favorite
drill ground of the Home Guard, as it had been of Morgan's Rifles and
other military companies. This "college lot" was none other than the
original "out lot No. 6," the first seat of Transylvania, and was the
identical spot whereon had taught the immortal Holley. Madison C.
Johnson was "conspicuous" for his sky-blue blouse of fine material,
which stood forth in the ranks of common dark blue cotton, and must
have been a mark for the enemy had the celebrated battle for the arms
hereinafter mentioned ever taken place.]
[Footnote 75: See _Kentucky Geological Survey_, Volume IV, N. S.,
Pages 18, 65, and 66; also Volume III, N. S., Page 391.]
[Footnote 76: Mr. Bowman says, in a letter to Doctor Peter, April 20,
1876: "If my life is spared I will work on until by national and State
aid, if not denominational, I will lay broad and deep the
_foundations_ of a great, free, liberal, unsectarian university for
all classes and professions of this people and abreast with the
advanced curriculum of the best institutions of our century."]
[Footnote 77: In the heat of contest Doctor Peter's adversaries did
not hesitate to call him an infidel and an atheist. It was the worst
they could say, but not strictly in conformity with the facts. He was
not a church member. He had been baptized in the Church of England,
always kept a pew in the Episcopal Church, and as a young man taught
in the Episcopal Sunday-school. The spectacle, in so many instances,
of the impediment to educational progress by narrowness and bigotry in
churches had given him an indifference--not disguised--to _sectarian_
religion. He never molested the religious tenets of others. He
constantly declared that education should be free to _all_ men,
irrespective of creed.]
[Footnote 78: Antagonists in this controversy, powerless to assail him
as a scientist and teacher, characterized him as a person of low
origin and brutal manners. He ignored this attack, it being his custom
never to lean upon ancestors--to look forward rather than back,
holding to the homely but truly American saying that "every tub must
stand on its own bottom." But in truth he was of excellent English
family and a descendant of that powerful "Arundel" who in the days of
the Conquest was master of twenty-eight lordships. His manners passed
muster among old-fashioned Kentucky gentlemen.]
[Footnote 79: Doctor Cross was appointed to a chair in the Transylvania
Medical Faculty by the influence of Reverend Nathan H. Hall, a trustee,
and against the judgment of other members of the Board.]
[Footnote 80: From the _Transylvania Journal of Medicine_, Volume XI,
1838.]
[Footnote 81: Letter of Doctor Mitchell to Benjamin Gratz, February 7,
1838: " ... I graduated in 1812. In 1813 was appointed by the Governor
of Pa. to the office of Lazaretto Physician of the Port of Phila, which
post I held until 1816, when indisposition compelled me to resign. I
then had opportunity of becoming acquainted with the Southern fevers,
particularly the yellow fever of N. Orleans and the West Indies. For 17
years after I was actively engaged in practice, and may refer to
Eberle's _Therapeutics_ for his opinion of me as a medical man, at a
time when I was not personally acquainted with him. The journals of
those times contain many medical papers furnished by me, as examination
will show. In 1831 my name was before the Trustees of Jefferson Medical
College for the chair of Materia Medica vacated by the resignation of
Dr. Eberle, and I would have been appointed, as I have since been
informed by Gen. Duncan, one of the Trustees, if I had not agreed to
join with Dr. Eberle a new faculty at Cincinnati. If any object that a
Prof'r of Chemistry can not make a good Prof'r of Theory and Practice, I
have only to refer to the case of the celebrated Dr. Rush, who passed
directly from Chemistry to Theory and Practice, as the published records
of the University of Penna. will show."]
[Footnote 82: He was sole editor of this journal in the latter years
of its existence.]
[Footnote 83: Doctor Mitchell was an exceedingly rapid speaker. With
difficulty could those unused to this peculiarity follow his swift
flow of language and ideas. But once accustomed, his pupils liked this
better than the more deliberate speech of other professors. He never
failed to impress upon students the importance of a not too hasty
diagnosis, the _premonitory_ symptoms of widely differing diseases
being nearly identical; whereas treatment proper for one disease might
result fatally if applied to another.]
[Footnote 84: Doctor Bush's mother was Miss Palmer, sister of the wife
of Governor Adair. His grandparents, Philip and Mary Bush, came to
America from Germany and settled at Winchester, Virginia, 1750.]
[Footnote 85: The first Faculty of the Kentucky School of Medicine at
Louisville: Benjamin W. Dudley, M. D., Emeritus Professor of Anatomy
and Surgery; Robert Peter, M. D., Medical Chemistry and Toxicology;
Samuel Annan, M. D., Pathology and Practice of Medicine; Joshua B.
Flint, M. D., Principles and Practice of Surgery; Ethelbert L. Dudley,
M. D., Descriptive Anatomy and Histology; Llewellyn Powell, Obstetrics
and Diseases of Women and Children; James M. Bush, M. D., Surgical
Anatomy and Operative Surgery; Henry M. Bullitt, Physiology and
Materia Medica; Philip Thornbury, M. D., and John Bartlett, M. D.,
Demonstrators of Anatomy.]
[Footnote 86: That this arrangement met with much opposition among
citizens of Lexington will be seen by a perusal of the _Kentucky
Statesman_ and other Lexington newspapers of the day. A hand-bill was
also issued February 1, 1850, calling a "public meeting" in order to
discuss more "fairly" the various aspects of the question.]
[Footnote 87: Doctor Bush's other children are Captain Thomas J. Bush
and Miss Nannie M. Bush, of Lexington, Kentucky.]
[Footnote 88: Extract from Doctor Smith's letter of resignation, January
7, 1841: " ... By the influence of the reputation and efficient
exertions of the present Faculty and by the munificence of the citizens
of Lexington, the Medical Department of Transylvania is now placed upon
a foundation which renders its position perfectly secure. Its friends
may, without fear of contradiction, pronounce it to be decidedly the
best endowed medical school in America. Its patronage and the emoluments
of its chairs are second to those of but one, and there are none to be
associated with which I should consider it a higher honor. Under these
circumstances my resignation can not exercise the least injurious
influence upon its prosperity. The chair will immediately command the
services of some one whose labors will be more efficient than mine. You
will please, dear sir, convey to the members of the Faculty assurance of
my great respect and affectionate consideration.
"Yours most truly, N. R. SMITH."
Letter to Doctor Smith from the Faculty: "Dear Sir: The receipt of
your communication informing us that circumstances beyond your control
would oblige you to resign the chair of the Theory and Practice of
Medicine in the Medical Department of Transylvania University at the
end of the present session, renders some expression of sentiment on
our part both just and appropriate. Permit us, therefore, to assure
you that we receive the information of your intended resignation with
regret, and that nothing would have afforded us more gratification
than the certainty of your continuance among us as a fellow-citizen
and colleague. The intercourse which has existed between us for the
three years during which we have been associated has been of the most
harmonious and pleasant character, and the ability with which you have
performed the duties of your chair increases the reluctance with which
we give up the expectations of a longer co-operation with you under
the auspices of Transylvania University. With the most sincere wishes
for your continued increase in fame and prosperity, we remain your
friends and colleagues.
THE MEDICAL FACULTY OF TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY.
"ROBERT PETER, _Dean_."
(From _History of Medical Department of Transylvania University and
its Faculty_, by William Jeptha Calvert, M. D.)]
[Footnote 89: Extracts from Doctor Huntington's address to the
Middlesex North District Medical Society, 1856.]
[Footnote 90: Extract from the letter of resignation of Professor
Bartlett, Lowell, Massachusetts, April 5, 1844: "It is unnecessary for
me to go now into the considerations which lead me to this step any
further than to say that they are connected _wholly_ with motives of a
domestic character and with the strong desire which I have long
cherished and expressed of being settled in one of the Eastern cities.
The only pain which the step costs me being occasioned by my
separation from my present colleagues which it involves, and the
dissolution of the professional and social relationship, to myself of
the most amicable and agreeable character."]
[Footnote 91: During the absence of Doctor Bartlett his chair was
filled by Doctor Lotan G. Watson, of North Carolina.]
[Footnote 92: In 1842 the Transylvania University had been placed
under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with a Faculty
as follows: Reverend H. B. Bascom, D. D., Acting President and
Morrison Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy; Benjamin W.
Dudley, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Surgery; James C. Cross, M.
D., Professor of Institutes and Medical Jurisprudence; Elisha
Bartlett, M. D., Professor of Theory and Practice; William H.
Richardson, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and
Children; Thomas D. Mitchell, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and
Therapeutics; Robert Peter, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and
Pharmacy; James M. Bush, M. D., Adjunct Professor of Anatomy and
Surgery; Honorable George Robertson, LL. D., Professor of
Constitutional Law, Equity, and the Law of Comity; Honorable Thomas A.
Marshall, LL. D., Law of Pleading, Evidence, and Contract; Honorable
A. K. Woolley, LL. D., Professor of Elementary Principles of Common
Law, National and Commercial Law; Reverend R. T. P. Allen, A. M.,
Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Civil Engineering;
Reverend B. H. McCoun, A. M., Professor of Ancient Languages and
Literature; Reverend W. H. Anderson, A. M., Professor of English
Literature; Reverend J. L. Kemp, A. M., Adjunct Professor of
Mathematics, Preparatory Department; Reverend Thomas H. Lynch, A. M.,
Adjunct Professor of Languages, Preparatory Department; ----, Principal
of the Junior Section of the Preparatory Department.
N. B.--The Reverend Wright Merrick was appointed to the above
vacancy.]
[Footnote 93: Doctor C. C. Graham said that Doctor Dudley tenaciously
held that these two chairs should always be combined.]
[Footnote 94: Doctor L. B. Todd calls him "that knightly Bayard of
Kentucky Surgery."]
[Footnote 95: An incident well told by his son-in-law, General Joseph
C. Breckinridge, is characteristic of Dudley. When, during the Civil
War, a struggle was imminent between the secessionists and the Home
Guard for possession of a large shipment of arms and ammunition sent
into Kentucky by the United States Government for the arming of Union
soldiers and citizens, Dudley, fearing the Home Guard at Lexington
would be overpowered and the munitions captured on arrival, sent as a
trusty messenger to General Nelson, at Camp Dick Robinson, to ask for
troops--a midnight journey of twenty miles through a hostile
country--his only son, Scott Dudley, a youth scarcely seventeen. He
saddled the horse and armed the boy himself, at dead of night, the
better to insure secrecy, for in his own household were foes. This
mission was successful. (See speech of General Joseph C. Breckinridge,
United States Army, at the reunion of the Army of the Cumberland,
Chattanooga, October 10, 1900.) Ensign J. Cabell Breckinridge, United
States Navy, the first life lost on the threshold of the Spanish War,
and Lieutenant Ethelbert D. Breckinridge, seriously wounded almost at
the very instant that his General, the well-beloved Lawton, fell
beside him in the Philippines, were grandsons of Doctor Dudley.]
[Footnote 96: Quoted from the _Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky_,
etc., of 1878.]
[Footnote 97: We learn from old announcements, etc., that, as early as
1830, the Medical Faculty of Transylvania University offered their
services gratuitously to the Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum, through
Samuel Theobalds, M. D., and that, in 1845, Doctor John R. Allen was
to deliver clinical lectures to the medical class, at the Lunatic
Asylum every Saturday.]
[Footnote 98: Other sons were William Wallace, Benjamin Gratz, and
Colonel Saunders D. Bruce.]
[Footnote 99: Doctor L. B. Todd.]
[Footnote 100: See _The Marshall Family_, by W. M. Paxton, 1885.]
[Footnote 101: Address at Morrison College on being inaugurated
President of Transylvania University.]
[Footnote 102: Doctor Peter's introductory lecture to the Medical
Class, November, 1842.]
[Footnote 103: The first railroad was the Baltimore & Ohio, chartered
March, 1827, but not completed to the Ohio until 1853--twenty-six years.]
[Footnote 104: _Pioneer Surgery in Kentucky._]
[Footnote 105: "In 1856, the Trustees of Morrison College came to the
legislature of Kentucky and offered all the buildings, the library,
the apparatus, and grounds, which were valued at over two hundred
thousand dollars, if the State would take it and establish a Normal
School." ... Speech of Honorable C. J. Bronston on the Agricultural
and Mechanical College tax. The idea of a Normal School originated
with Doctor Robert J. Breckinridge several years before.]
[Footnote 106: May 22, 1863. _Collins' History of Kentucky._]
[Footnote 107: From the report of the Treasurer of the University,
1871, it is gathered that after long and persistent effort on his part
while in Washington there was secured from the Government the sum of
twenty-five thousand dollars "for the rents and damages to the medical
college and other Transylvania property during the war," nearly one
half of which was claimed and recovered from the University by the
city of Lexington on the plea that the Medical Hall had been abandoned.]
[Transcriber's Note:
* The footnotes have been moved to the end of the book with the exception
of the footnotes for tables.
* Footnote 19: Added period after "_tem_" in "elected President, _pro
tem_".
* Footnote 88: Added period after "prosperity" in "influence upon its
prosperity".
* Pg 148 "His success was progressive this article exemplifying"
retained as printed.
* Pg 173 Added comma after "117" in "Writings of 117".
* Pg 173 Removed comma after "Charles," in "Caldwell, Doctor Charles,".
* Pg 174 Added comma after "51" in "autobiography of 49, 50, 51".
* Pg 174 Added comma after "69" in "experience of Doctor Peter 69 70".
* Pg 177 Removed comma after "W," in "Dudley, Doctor Benjamin W,".
* Pg 180 Removed comma after "1842," in "University under the
Methodists, 1842,".
* Pg 184 Removed comma after "instituted," in "Transylvania University
first instituted,".
* Pg 186 Added comma after "94" in "Owen, Doctor David Dale 94".
* Pg 193 Added comma after "Winter" in "Winter Elisha I".
* Pg 193 Removed comma after "P.," in "Yandell, Doctor Lunsford P.,".
* Otherwise, archaic and inconsistent spelling and hyphenation retained.]