[From _The History of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1892)]
It is probable Dr. Thomas Walker, of Virginia, was the first physician
who ever visited Kentucky. In 1745 he came and negotiated treaties
with the Indian tribes for the establishment of a colony, which was
announced in Washington's journal (1754) as Walker's settlement on the
Cumberland, accompanied by a map, dated 1750. Some time just before
1770, Dr. John Connolly, of Pittsburgh, visited the Falls of the Ohio,
and three years later, in company with Captain Thomas Bullitt,
patented the land on which Louisville now stands. But little is known
of the professional performances of either Walker or Connolly, except
the fact that they were both men of superior intelligence, and of far
more than average cultivation. They were both known as enterprising
business men rather than great practitioners of medicine. In a
_History of the Medical Literature of Kentucky_, Dr. Lunsford P.
Yandell (the elder) says: "The first surgical operation ever performed
in Kentucky by a white man occurred in 1767." Colonel James Smith, in
that year, accompanied by his black servant, Jamie, traveled from the
mouth of the Tennessee river across the country to Carolina, now
Tennessee. On their way, Colonel Smith stepped upon a projecting
fragment of cane, which pierced his foot, and was broken off level
with the skin. Swelling quickly came on, causing the flesh to rise
above the end of the cane. Having no other instruments than a knife, a
moccasin awl, and a pair of bullet-molds, the colonel directed his
servant to seize the piece of cane with the bullet-molds, while he
raised the skin with the awl and cut the flesh away from around the
piece of cane, and, with the assistance of Jamie, the foreign body was
drawn out. Colonel Smith then treated the wound with the bruised bark
from the root of a lind tree, and subsequently by poultices made of
the same material, using the mosses of the old logs in the forest,
which he secured with strips of elm bark, as a dressing.
Dr. Frederick Ridgely, a favorite pupil of Dr. Rush, was sent from
Philadelphia early in 1779, as a surgeon to a vessel sailing with
letters of marque and reprisal off the coast of Virginia. This vessel
was chased into the Chesapeake Bay by a British man-of-war. As the
ship's colors were struck to the enemy, Dr. Ridgely leaped overboard,
and narrowly escaped capture by swimming two miles to the shore. He
was at once thereafter appointed an officer in the medical department
of the Colonial army. A few months later, he resigned his commission,
and settled, in 1790, at Lexington, where he speedily attained a
leading position as a master of the healing art. From Lexington he was
frequently called, in the capacity of surgeon, to accompany militia in
their expeditions against the Indians. He was appointed
surgeon-general to the army of "Mad Anthony Wayne," returning finally
to Lexington, where he took part in the organization of the first
medical college established in the West. Dr. Ridgely was a frequent
contributor to the _American Medical Repertory_, published at
Philadelphia. He was the intimate friend of Dr. Samuel Brown, also of
Lexington. At the organization of the medical department of
Transylvania University, in 1799, Brown and Ridgely were the first
professors. Ridgely, in that year, delivered a course of lectures to a
small class, and, as the organization of the faculty had not been
completed, no further attempts at teaching were made. Dr. Samuel
Brown, like his colleague, Ridgely, was a surgeon of great ability and
large experience. These two gentlemen added greatly to the growth and
popularity of Lexington by their renown as surgeons. They attracted
patients from the remote settlements on the frontier, and were both
frequent contributors to the medical literature of that time. The
cases reported by these gentlemen were numerous, interesting,
carefully observed, and ably reported. Dr. Brown was a student at the
University of Edinburgh with Hosack, Davidge, Ephraim McDowell, and
Brockenborough, of Virginia. Hosack became famous as a professor in
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at New York; Davidge laid the
foundation of the University of Maryland; Brown was one of the first
professors in Transylvania University, at Lexington, while McDowell
achieved immortal fame in surgery as the father of ovariotomy. Strong
rivalry in the practice of medicine at Lexington, between Brown and
Ridgely, and Fishback and Pindell, had much to do with the
difficulties attending the efforts of the two former to establish the
medical school. In 1798, Jenner made public his great discovery of the
protective power of vaccination. Dr. Brown, of Lexington, was his
first imitator on this continent. Within three years from the date of
Jenner's first publication, and before the experiment had been tried
elsewhere in this country, Brown had already vaccinated successfully
more than five hundred people at Lexington.