MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.--PROFESSORS NATHAN SMITH, REUBEN D. MUSSEY, DIXI
CROSBY, EDMUND R. PEASLEE, ALBERT SMITH, AND ALPHEUS B. CROSBY.--OTHER
TEACHERS.
In "A Contribution to the Medical History of New Hampshire," by Prof.
A. B. Crosby, we find a condensed history of the Medical Department of
the College.
"Soon after its formation, the impression became general that the
State Society, excellent as it was both in design and execution, did
not fully answer the medical wants of New Hampshire. There were those
who felt that the young men of the State should have systematic,
didactic instruction, and that this could be accomplished only by the
foundation of a regularly chartered medical college. This plan was
eventually reduced to a demonstration through the energy and talents
of one man. It is with profound veneration that I write the name of
Nathan Smith. Himself a member of the society, I know not but he here
gained inspiration and encouragement for the enterprise from his
associates. At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of
Dartmouth College, in August, 1796, being then a Bachelor of Medicine,
not having received the degree of M.D., he made an application to the
Board, asking their encouragement and approbation of a plan he had
devised to establish a professorship of the Theory and Practice of
Medicine in connection with Dartmouth College. After considerable
discussion, the Board voted to postpone their final action upon the
proposition for a year, but in the meantime a resolution was passed
complimentary to the character and energy of Mr. Smith, and promising
such encouragement and assistance in the future as the plan might
merit and the circumstances of the college admit.
"The records of the college are extremely barren of details respecting
the preliminary steps towards a medical establishment, and there are
no means of knowing what the action of the Board was the following
year. It is evident, however, that some measures must have been taken
in relation to the future welfare of the school, for in the year 1798
we find that 'the fee for conferring the degree of Bachelor of
Medicine _pro meritis_ be twenty dollars.' The honorary degree of
Master of Arts was the same year conferred on Mr. Smith, while it
remained for a subsequent Board to discover that his professional
attainments merited the rank and title of Doctor.
"Later in the same session it was voted 'That a professor be
appointed, whose duty it shall be to deliver public lectures upon
Anatomy, Surgery, Chemistry, Materia Medica, and the Theory and
Practice of Physic, and that said professor be entitled to receive
payment for instruction in those branches, as hereafter mentioned, as
compensation for his services in that office.' Mr. Smith was at once
chosen to fulfill the laborious, and to us almost incredible duties of
this professorship, while the compensation alluded to was for a long
time held in abeyance. We also find that in this year the Board
adopted the following code of Medical Statutes:
"1. Lectures shall begin the first of October, annually, and continue
ten weeks, during which the professor shall deliver three lectures
daily, Saturday and Sunday excepted.
"2. In the lectures on the Theory and Practice of Physic, shall be
explained the nature of diseases and method of cure.
"3. The lectures on Chemistry and Materia Medica shall be accompanied
by actual experiments, tending to explain and demonstrate the
principles of Chemistry, and an exhibition shall be made of the
principal medicines used in curing disease, with an explanation of
their medicinal qualities, and effect on the human body.
"4. In the lectures on Anatomy and Surgery, shall be demonstrated the
parts of the human body by dissecting a recent subject, _if such
subject can be legally obtained_; otherwise, by exhibiting anatomical
preparations, which shall be attended by the performance of the
principal capital operations in surgery. [The lower animals were used
to some extent.]
"5. The medical professor shall be entitled to the use of the college
library and apparatus gratis.
"6. The medical students shall be entitled to the use of the college
library under the discretionary restrictions of the president.
"7. Medical students shall be subject to the same rules of morality
and decorum as Bachelors in Art residing at the college.
"8. No graduate of any college shall be admitted to an examination for
the degree of Bachelor of Medicine, unless he shall have studied two
full years with some respectable physician, or surgeon, and attended
two full courses of lectures at some university.
"9. No person _not_ a graduate shall be admitted to such an
examination unless he shall have studied _three_ full years, as above,
attended two full courses of lectures, and shall, upon a preparatory
examination before the president and professors, be able to parse the
English and Latin languages, to construe Virgil and Cicero's orations,
and possess a good knowledge of common Arithmetic, Geometry,
Geography, and Natural and Moral Philosophy.
"10. Examinations shall be holden in public before the executive
authority of the college by the medical professor, and candidates
shall read and defend a dissertation, etc.
"11. Every person receiving a degree in Medicine shall cause his
thesis to be printed, and sixteen copies thereof to be delivered to
the president, for the use of the college and Trustees.
"12. The fee for attending a full course of lectures shall be fifty
dollars; that is, for Anatomy and Surgery, twenty-five dollars; for
Chemistry and Materia Medica, fifteen dollars, and for Theory and
Practice, ten dollars.
"13. The members of the two senior classes in college may attend the
medical lectures by paying twenty dollars for the full course.
"Besides these statutes, the Trustees voted that Mr. Smith might
employ assistance in any of his departments, at _his own expense_,
and that one half part of the fees for conferring the degree of
Bachelor of Medicine be his perquisite, and the other half a
perquisite to the president of the college.
"The first course of lectures was delivered in the fall of 1797,
although Mr. Smith was not elected to his professorship until after
his return from Europe, the following year. In the year 1798, two
young men were graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Medicine. The
next year the Trustees voted to appropriate a room in the northeast
corner of Dartmouth Hall to the use of Professor Smith, and it was
repaired and furnished for that purpose. The room was a small one,
scarcely as large as a common parlor, but still it served for a
lecture hall, dissecting-room, chemical laboratory and library, for
several years, when another room adjoining was appropriated to the
same purpose.
"In 1801, the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon Mr.
Smith, and a committee was appointed to confer with him in relation to
a salary. A grant of fifty dollars per annum was voted him, upon which
he was to allow a debt he owed the college for money loaned. I presume
that this latter was furnished him in order to enable him to visit
Europe.
"The Trustees about this time made a change in the term of study
required for a degree. The new statute fixed the period of three years
for academical graduates, and five years for non-graduates."
In 1803 the New Hampshire Legislature granted $600 to Dr. Smith for
the purchase of apparatus, and in 1809 $3,450 for "a building of brick
or stone for a medical school, sixty-five feet in length, thirty-two
feet in width, and two stories in height," Dr. Smith furnishing land
for the purpose. He furnished one acre, on which a brick building
seventy-five feet in length, two stories in the middle, with wings of
three stories, was erected, at a cost of over $4,600, Dr. Smith
becoming responsible for the balance. By the terms of the above grants
the building and anatomical and chemical apparatus became the property
of the State upon the removal of Dr. Smith from the institution, which
is with propriety styled the "New Hampshire Medical College."
In 1810 Dr. Cyrus Perkins (created a Doctor upon that occasion) was
elected professor of Anatomy. Some trouble having occurred about this
time between the college officers and the Medical students, the
following articles were added to the laws.
* * * * *
"'1. That each person, previous to becoming a member of the Medical
institution, shall be required to give satisfactory evidence that he
possesses a good moral character.
"'2. That it be required of medical students that they conduct
themselves respectfully towards the executive officers of the college,
and if any of them should be guilty of immoral or ungentlemanly
conduct the executive may expel them, and no professor shall receive
or continue to receive as his private pupil any such expelled person,
or recommend him to any other medical man or institution.
"'3. That the executive officers of the college be, and hereby are
authorized to visit the rooms of the medical students whenever they
think proper.'
* * * * *
"In the year 1812, some important changes were made in the economy of
the institution. Up to this time the degree of Bachelor of Medicine
only was conferred upon recent graduates, while the degree of M.D. was
only allowed in course three years after graduation. This was now
changed, and the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon all
medical graduates. The term of study was again changed, and fixed at
the present standard. Another of the new regulations and perhaps the
least agreeable one to the students, compelled candidates to read
their theses publicly in the chapel.
"The Faculty was also strengthened by the appointment of Rufus Graves,
Esq., as lecturer on Chemistry, making this department, for the first
time, a separate branch. Colonel Graves, although a good lecturer, was
an unsuccessful manipulator, which caused his dismission in 1815,
three years later. During the same year [1812, at Dartmouth] we find
that Mr. Reuben D. Mussey, a name thoroughly identified with the
success of the school, and with medical progress in New Hampshire, was
created a Doctor of Medicine.
"In 1814, Dr. Smith having been absent for a year, it was voted that
the salary and emoluments pertaining to the chair of Medicine, be paid
to Dr. Perkins, and at an adjourned meeting the resignation of Dr.
Smith was received and accepted. The Board then proceeded to elect Dr.
Mussey professor of Theory and Practice and Materia Medica. In 1816,
Dr. Perkins was excused from lecturing on Surgery, and Obstetrics was
added to his chair, instead, while Dr. Mussey assumed the department
of Chemistry, in addition to his other labors. In the meanwhile Dr.
Smith was re-elected professor of Surgery, but declining to accept, Dr.
Massey added a course of lectures on this branch to his already
laborious duties. The following year he was somewhat relieved by the
choice of Dr. James F. Dana, as lecturer on Chemistry, which office he
continued to hold until 1820, when he was elected to a full
professorship. In August, 1819, Dr. Perkins resigned his chair.
"By vote of the Board of Trustees, in 1820, they accepted the
proffered fraternization of the New Hampshire Medical Society, by
sending delegates to attend the annual examinations. The statutes were
also altered very materially. By these amendments the Medical Faculty
were allowed the sole control of the discipline, etc., of their
department. Students coming to attend lectures were not required to
give evidence of the possession of a good moral character, as under
the old laws. The invidious have alleged that this latter amendment
enabled a larger number to avail themselves of the advantages of a
medical education than might otherwise do so. The requirements for
graduation were at the same time lessened, being now limited to a
knowledge of Latin and Natural and Experimental Philosophy, while the
examinations were to be private, instead of public, as heretofore.
"It was determined that the Medical Faculty should henceforth consist
of:
"1. The president of the College.
"2. A professor of Surgery, Obstetrics, and Medical Jurisprudence.
"3. A professor of Theory and Practice and Materia Medica.
"4. A professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy.
"5. A professor of Anatomy and Physiology.
"Dr. Mussey was elected to the first of the professorial chairs; Dr.
Daniel Oliver, of Salem, Mass., to the second; Dr. James F. Dana, to
the third, and Dr. Usher Parsons to the fourth. Dr. Parsons remained
but two years, when Dr. Mussey was appointed professor of Anatomy, in
addition to his other branches. No further change occurred until 1826,
when Dr. Dana resigned the chair of Chemistry, which was filled by the
election of Professor Hale, who continued to lecture until 1835, when
his connection with the college ceased. The following year Dr. John
Delamater was chosen professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic,
and the present incumbent, Dr. O. P. Hubbard, professor of Chemistry,
while in 1838 a great change was made in the Medical Faculty by the
resignation of all the lecturers except Professor Hubbard. By the
election of the Trustees, the Faculty now consisted of Elisha
Bartlett, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Delamater, Oliver Payson
Hubbard, Dixi Crosby, and Stephen W. Williams. Dr. Bartlett resigned
in 1840, and was succeeded by Dr. Joseph Roby. Dr. Delamater also
left, and Dr. Holmes tendered his resignation. The next year, 1841,
Dr. Phelps and Dr. Peaslee commenced their long and useful connection
with the school. No farther change was made until 1849, when Dr. Roby
resigned and Dr. Albert Smith was elected. In 1867 Dixi Crosby
resigned the chair of Surgery, and A. B. Crosby, who had served as
adjunct professor of Surgery since 1862, was elected to fill the
vacancy. In 1869, Dr. Peaslee, having resigned the chair of Anatomy
and Physiology, was transferred to a new chair of the Diseases of
Women, while Lyman Bartlett How, M.D., was elected to fill the
vacancy. And finally Dr. Dixi Crosby has sent in his resignation of
the chair of Obstetrics, to take effect at the ensuing commencement
(1870), thus terminating an active connection of thirty-two years with
the school.
"Nathan Smith, the founder of the school, was without dispute a great
man. He was born at Rehoboth, Massachusetts, September 30, 1762.
Incited to enter the profession by witnessing an amputation in
Vermont, he devoted himself to acquiring the best preliminary
education his means afforded, and eventually entered his profession
full of zeal and ambition, resolved to act no secondary part in his
chosen vocation. To found a medical college at Dartmouth was the chief
desire of his early manhood. Regardless of his own pecuniary
interests, he borrowed money to buy the necessary apparatus and
appliances with which to commence his course of instruction. When the
increasing demands of the institution required a building for its
accommodation, it was through his personal efforts that it was
secured. The means were raised and the project carried out by Dr.
Smith, who, himself, on his own responsibility, furnished a large part
of the money. A part, as shown by the records, was also secured by the
same gentleman from the Legislature of New Hampshire.
"Dr. Smith was a man of genius. I hazard nothing in saying that he was
fifty years in advance of his profession. He was one of those
characters who was not only an observing man, but, rarest of all, he
was a _good observer_. Nothing escaped him, and when he had seized on
all the salient points of a given subject, he astounded his listeners
with the full, symmetrical character of his generalizations.
"As intances in point, let me briefly advert to one or two
illustrations. When Dr. Smith entered the profession, everything in
the way of continued fever in the valley of the Connecticut was termed
typhus. Dr. S. soon became convinced that while true typhus did
prevail, there was yet a continued fever essentially different in its
character, and so he came to differentiate between typhus and typhoid.
Noting carefully the symptoms in these cases, making autopsies
whenever a chance occurred, and observing the morbid changes thus
revealed, he soon found himself master of the situation. Then he wrote
an unpretending little tract, in which he embodied his observations
and his inferences. This brochure was undoubtedly the first
comprehensive description of typhoid fever written, and covered in a
wonderfully exhaustive way not only the clinical history, but the
pathology, of this most interesting disease. This noble record of
results, obtained by observations made mainly at Norwich, Vermont, and
Cornish, New Hampshire, was almost the '_Vox clamantis in deserto_.'
"Many years later, in the great hospitals of Paris, Louis made and
published his own observations in regard to the same disease, and the
whole medical world rang with plaudits of admiration at his genius and
learning. But in the modest little tract of Nathan Smith, the gist and
germ of all the magnificent discoveries of Louis are anticipated. And
thus it is again demonstrated that men of genius are confined to no
age and to no country, but whether in the wilds of New Hampshire or in
the world's gayest capital, they form a fraternity as cosmopolitan as
useful.
"I have recently learned an incident that still further illustrates
Dr. Smith's sagacity. While residing in Cornish he had a friend who
was a sea-captain, and who, on his return from foreign voyages, was
wont to relate to him whatever of interest in a medical way he might
have chanced to observe while abroad. On one occasion he told Dr.
Smith that on his previous voyage one of the sailors dislocated his
hip; there being no surgeon on board, the captain tried but in vain to
reduce it. The man was accordingly placed in a hammock with the
dislocation unreduced. During a great storm the sufferer was thrown
from the hammock to the floor, striking violently on the knee of the
affected side. On examination, it was found that in the fall the hip
had somehow been set. This greatly interested Dr. Smith, and he
questioned the narrator again and again as to the exact position of
the thigh, the knee and the leg, at the time of the fall.
"From this apparently insignificant circumstance, Dr. Smith eventually
educed and reduced to successful practice the method of reducing
dislocations by the manoeuvre, a system as useful as it is simple,
and as scientific as the principle of flexion and leverage on which it
depends. Had this incident been related to a stupid man, he would have
seen nothing in it, or to a skeptic, he would have discredited the
whole account, but to a man of genius it furnished a clue by which
another of Nature's labyrinths was traced out. This system is by far
the best ever devised, symplifying and rendering easy the work of the
surgeon, while reducing human suffering to its minimum.
"I do not propose to recall to your minds how much he did for
Medicine and Surgery; that were the work of days, not a single hour.
"Time would fail me to relate the well authenticated traditions of his
skill, his benevolence and his practical greatness. But almost from
the inception of his professional life until he left for New Haven, he
was the acknowledged leader of his profession in the State, and his
reputation came soon to cover the whole of New England. He was the
father of several sons, who have since been distinguished in the same
profession. The venerable Professor N. R. Smith, of Baltimore, is the
eldest, and perhaps the most celebrated, of the survivors."
The venerable Dr. A. T. Lowe adds the following valuable paragraphs:
"In the organization and early history of the Medical department of
Dartmouth College Dr. Nathan Smith occupied a pre-eminent position. For
ten or twelve years he was the actual manager and the only professor
in the institution, giving three lectures each day, for five days in
the week, through the term of ten to twelve weeks. He lectured with
great acceptance in all the branches of the profession then taught in
the few kindred institutions existing in the country, and he
contributed liberally to the pecuniary support of the institution,
frequently to his great personal inconvenience. With these accumulated
duties to discharge, he faithfully attended to a large practice in
Medicine and Surgery, which was daily increasing, and severely tasking
his physical as well as his intellectual powers, and his fame, in the
line of his profession, soon placed him at its head; and his skill and
the history of his remarkable success, so frequently announced, and so
well attested, was early recognized and acknowledged, not only
throughout his State, but was scarcely limited to New England. By a
seeming universal consent Dr. Smith's name stood among the highest in
the medical temple of fame.
"Dr. Smith was not what the world would now call a learned man. We may
say of him, in this respect, what Ben Jonson said of Shakespeare: 'He
knew little Latin and less Greek,' but he had a mind and a power of
intellect which as eminently fitted him for a physician, as
Shakespeare's genius qualified him to become a dramatist of the
highest character; and whatever the occasion, whether it related to
the lecturer or teacher, to the surgeon or physician, Dr. Smith could
readily exercise his whole moral force for the enlightenment of his
pupil, or the health of his patient.
"The writer of these lines became his pupil in 1816; attending him
almost daily in his professional visits, to witness his practice and
listen to his clinical instruction."
After giving one or two instances of his quick diagnostic ability and
his highly successful practice, he continues:
"Dr. Smith was a great and good man. He never appeared to toil for
professional fame, but to do good to his fellow-man: and in view of
his virtues as a citizen and his justly pre-eminent skill as a
physician, one of his surviving pupils of those early days, who now
counts more than four-score years, feels impelled to exclaim,--Honored
be the memory of Nathan Smith, the founder, father, and for many years
the sustainer of the Medical Department of Dartmouth College; ever
recognized by all his friends and acquaintances--and their name was
legion--as an honest man and most useful citizen."
Professor Smith married successively, Elizabeth and Sarah, daughters
of Gen. Jonathan Chase, of Cornish, N. H. He died at New Haven, Conn.,
where he had been some years a professor in the Medical Department of
Yale College, January 26, 1829.
* * * * *
A commemorative "Address," by Professor A. B. Crosby, contains the
following account of Professor Smith's successor:
"Reuben Dimond Mussey was born in Pelham, N. H., June 23, 1780. His
father, Dr. John Mussey, was a respectable physician and an excellent
man.
"Determined to have an education, although too poor to immediately
attain it, he labored on a farm in summer and taught a school during
the winter. This he continued to do until, at the age of twenty-one,
he entered the Junior class in Dartmouth College, in the year 1801. He
continued to teach for his support while in college, and acquitted
himself creditably as a scholar, being reckoned in the first third of
his class.
"He was graduated in August, 1803, and immediately became a pupil of
Dr. Nathan Smith, the founder of Dartmouth Medical College. The
following summer young Mussey taught an academy at Peterborough, and
studied with Dr. Howe of Jaffrey.
"He completed his studies with Dr. Smith, sustained a public
examination, and read and defended a thesis on Dysentery. The degree
of Bachelor of Medicine having been conferred upon him in 1806, he
commenced practice in Ipswich, now Essex, Mass. Here he practiced
successfully for three years, when he settled his business and went to
Philadelphia, where he engaged in medical study for a period of nine
months. While at Chebacco, now Essex, Mass., he married Miss Mary
Sewall, who survived the marriage only three years. He subsequently
married Miss Hetty Osgood, a daughter of Dr. Osgood of Salem, who
served as a surgeon in the army during the Revolution. Under the
instruction of Benjamin Smith Barton, he attended a full course of
lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, and was graduated as a
Doctor in Medicine in the year 1809. The professors at that time were
Rush, Wistar, Physic, Dorsey, Barton, and Woodhouse.
"Drs. Chapman and James gave the course in Obstetrics. Dr. Mussey here
distinguished himself by a series of experiments tending to rebut some
of the generally received physiological doctrines of the time.
"On his return from Philadelphia he settled in Salem, Mass., and soon
afterward formed a partnership with Dr. Daniel Oliver, subsequently a
professor in the Dartmouth Medical College.
"These gentlemen gave popular courses of lectures on Chemistry, in
Salem, with great acceptance. Dr. Mussey remained in this field
between five and six years, and attained a large practice during the
last three years, averaging, it is said, a fraction over three
obstetric cases a week. He had already distinguished himself as a
surgeon, and in the autumn of 1814 he was called to the chair of
Theory and Practice at Dartmouth. He gave in addition a course on
Chemistry, most acceptably to the students, and engaged in an extended
and a laborious practice.
"In 1822, Dr. Mussey was appointed professor of Anatomy and Surgery.
Until the close of the session of 1838, he held this chair, and also
lectured on Materia Medica and Obstetrics, to meet occasional
exigencies in the college.
"In the summer of 1818 he lectured on Chemistry in the college at
Middlebury, Vt. In December, 1829, Dr. Mussey left Hanover for Paris,
where he remained several months. He passed several weeks in London,
visited the great hospitals and museums, both there and in the
provinces, and became acquainted with many distinguished men.
"Not far from this time he was invited to fill the chair of Anatomy
and Surgery at Bowdoin College, which he did for four years in
succession. In 1836 and 1837, Dr. Mussey went to Fairfield, New York,
and gave lectures on surgery at the Medical College in that place.
During the year 1837 a professorship was tendered him in New York
city, Cincinnati, and Nashville, Tennessee. He decided to accept the
call to Cincinnati, and for fourteen years was the leading man in the
Ohio Medical College. He then founded the Miami Medical College,
labored assiduously for its good six years, and then retired from
active professional life, though still retaining all his ardor and
enthusiasm for his chosen profession. At the close of his professorial
duties in 1858, Dr. Mussey removed to Boston, where he spent the
remainder of his life, and died from the infirmities of age, June 21,
1866.
"He had ever been from his youth a consistent, devout Christian, and
his record is without spot or blemish.
"It was as a surgeon that Dr. Mussey came to be most extensively
known. Both as an operative and a scientific surgeon he attained a
national reputation.
"He cared not to make a figure, but to benefit his patient; not to
gain _eclat_, but to save human life. He believed much in skilled
surgery, something in nature, but most of all in God. So it transpired
that on the eve of a great operation he frequently knelt at the
bedside, and sought skill and strength and success from the great
Source of all vitality. We are told that the moral effect upon the
patient, and the peaceful composure that followed, were not the least
of the agencies that so often rendered his surgery successful.
"But he was not content blindly to accept the dictum of those who had
gone before. Every principle was carefully scrutinized, and whatever
he believed to be false he did not hesitate to attack, and so his name
came to be associated with surgical progress. As illustrative of this
point, some instances may be adduced.
"In the year 1830, and before that period, Sir Astley Cooper had
taught the doctrine of non-union in cases of intra-capsular fracture,
and it was generally accepted as an established principle at that
time. Dr. Mussey carried a specimen to England which he believed
showed the possibility of such union taking place. Sir Astley on first
seeing it said, "This was never broken," but on seeing a section of
the same specimen remarked, 'This does look a little more like it, to
be sure, but I do not think the fracture was entirely within the
capsular ligament.' John Thompson of Edinburgh, on seeing it, declared
'upon his troth and honor' that it had never been broken. This eminent
surgeon, like the disputatious Massachusetts Scotchman, 'always
positive and sometimes right,' was in this instance mistaken, as the
principle advocated by Dr. Mussey is now established.
"As a surgeon he was bold and fearless, ever willing to assume any
legitimate responsibility, even though it took him into the
undiscovered country of experiment. He did not do this rashly, but
only when the stake was worthy of the risk. There is still living in
Hanover a monument of Dr. Mussey's pluck and skill. This man had a
large, ulcerated and bleeding naevus on the vertex of his head, which
threatened a speedy death. There seemed no way to relieve the patient
except by tying both carotids, which was regarded as an operation
inevitably fatal. The danger was imminent, and as Dr. Mussey could see
no way to untie the knot, he determined to cut it. He tied one
carotid, and in twelve days tied the other, following both operations
in a few weeks with a removal of the tumor. The recovery was perfect,
and the case was, we believe, the first recorded instance where both
carotids were successfully tied. This operation gave him great fame
both at home and abroad.
"It is not my purpose to attempt an account of the surgery done by
this eminent man, only to touch on some of its salient points. Thus he
successfully removed an ovarian tumor, at a time when the operation
had been done only a few times in the world. He removed a boy's tongue
which measured eight inches in circumference, and projected five
inches beyond the jaws, and the patient recovered.
"He removed the scapula and a large part of the clavicle at one
operation, from a patient on whom he had amputated previously at the
shoulder-joint. Dr. Mussey supposed that this was the first operation
of the kind [as it was in some respects] in the history of Surgery.
"He several times removed the upper, and portions of the lower, jaw.
Dr. Mussey kept no extended records of his operations, but I subjoin a
few statements alike interesting to us and creditable to him.
"He performed the operation of lithotomy forty-nine times, and all the
patients recovered but four. He operated for strangulated hernia forty
times, and with a fatal result in only eight cases. He practiced
subcutaneous deligation in forty cases of varicocele, and all were
successful. Dr. Mussey operated four times for perineal fistula, twice
for impermeable stricture of the urethra, and did a large number of
plastic operations with the best results. He also successfully treated
a recto-vaginal fistula.
"These are only a fraction of the innumerable operations which he did,
yet they show results such as the greatest surgeons in the world would
be proud to declare.
"But it is not alone as a surgeon that Dr. Mussey attained excellence.
It was as an accurate observer that he early made himself known to the
medical world. The habit of his mind was positive; he respected
authority, and to the latest period of his life was assiduous in
acquiring professional knowledge from books no less than from
observation. He delighted to fortify himself in any given position by
citing authorities, and always showed that he had informed himself
exhaustively in the bibliography of the subject. Yet it was his habit
to subject every medical statement to the most rigid tests. While
pursuing his studies in Philadelphia, he joined issue with Dr. Rush on
some of the physiological doctrines which were generally received at
that time. This distinguished man had taught the doctrine of
non-absorption by the skin. This was supposed to have been proved by
an experiment in which a young man, confined in a small room, breathed
through a tube running through the wall into the open air, the surface
of the skin being rubbed at the same time with turpentine, asparagus,
etc. As no odor of these substances was perceptible in the secretions,
it was inferred that no absorption had taken place through the skin,
and that it was impossible. Dr. Mussey, believing this doctrine to be
fallacious, immersed himself in a strong solution of madder for three
hours. He had the satisfaction of getting unmistakable evidence of the
presence of madder in the secretions for two days, the addition of an
alkali always rendering them red. He repeated this experiment with the
same result, and made it the theme of a thesis on his graduation. Some
of the Faculty who differed with Dr. Rush on the subject were much
pleased with these experiments, and predicted even then for our friend
a distinguished career."
Professor Mussey died at Boston June 21, 1866.
* * * * *
We quote from Dr. J. W. Barstow's obituary notice in the "New York
Medical Journal," November, 1873, of Professor Mussey's successor.
"Dr. Dixi Crosby, for thirty-two years professor of Surgery in
Dartmouth College, died at his residence in Hanover, N. H., September
26, 1873. Dr. Crosby was born February 7, 1800, at Sandwich, N. H., of
pure New England stock,--strong in the best Puritan element, where
self-reliance, love of justice, and unbending will, formed the basis
of character and the mainspring of action. His father's father was a
captain in the Revolutionary army, and served with two of his sons at
the battle of Bunker Hill. His maternal grandfather (Hoit) was one of
Washington's body-guard, and later in life a judge of some
distinction. His father, Dr. Asa Crosby, who married Betsey Hoit, was
a surgeon of eminence in eastern New Hampshire. At the age of twenty,
he entered upon the study of Medicine in the office of his father.
"The practice of a country doctor in New Hampshire of course embraced
every department and variety of professional work. But Surgery offered
to young Crosby a special charm, and the ardor with which he threw
himself into this branch of the profession showed early fruits. From
the day when he commenced his Anatomy, his practice and his study went
hand in hand. Fearless and original, ready in expedients and ingenious
in their use, he observed, he resolved, and he acted.
"In the first year of his study he accompanied his father to a
consultation in the case of a man whose leg had been frozen, and whose
condition was most critical. It was agreed by the older physicians
that amputation at an earlier stage might have saved the patient's
life, but that it was now too late to attempt it. Young Crosby urged
that the operation be performed, but the elders shook their heads. He
even proposed to attempt it himself; but this was received with a
storm of disapproval, in which even his father joined, and the thing
was pronounced impossible. The doctors then departed, leaving the
student to watch with the patient during the few hours which
apparently remained of life. During the night young Crosby succeeded
in reviving the courage of the man to make a last effort for life. The
limb was removed, and the man recovered.
"His second year of study developed still further the growing
resources of the young surgeon. Upon one occasion both father and son,
while visiting a patient at night, in a distant village, were suddenly
called to a case of extensive laceration of the leg, with profuse
hemorrhage. The case was urgent, and the patient was sinking. No
instruments were at hand. He called for a carving-knife, which he
sharpened on a grindstone and finished on a razor-strap, filed a
hand-saw, amputated the limb, dressed the stump, left the patient in
safety, and drove home with his father to breakfast. The man
recovered.
"Before a nature so fearless, and so fertile in expedients, obstacles
speedily vanish, and young Crosby found himself in possession of a
large and responsible practice, even before taking his medical degree,
and at the early age of twenty-three years. The following year (1824)
he graduated in Medicine at Dartmouth (having passed his examination
in November preceding), and for ten years remained in Gilmanton, in
practice with his father. He then removed to Meredith Bridge, now
Laconia, N. H., where he practiced for three years; and in 1838 was
called to the chair of Surgery in Dartmouth College, then recently
made vacant by the resignation of the late Dr. Mussey. In this field
Dr. Crosby found at once full exercise for all his large resources of
head and heart and hand. As an instructor he was clear, direct, and
definite,--imparting, to his pupils his own zeal, and teaching them
his own self-reliance. 'Depend upon yourselves, young gentlemen,' he
invariably said. 'Take no man's diagnosis, but see with your own eyes,
feel with your own fingers, judge with your own judgment, and be the
disciple of no man.'
"In his class, he was courteous without familiarity, patient with
dulness, but quick to punish impertinence; always kind, always
dignified, always genial. The practical view of a subject was the view
which he delighted to take; and the dry humor with which he never
failed to emphasize his point, at once fixed it in the memory of the
class, and made it available for future use. With his office-students,
Dr. Crosby was the very soul of geniality and confidence. He saw and
measured men at a glance, and was rarely wrong in his estimate of
character. Strong in his own convictions, he was yet tender of the
infirmities and the prejudices of others, and his generous instincts
lost no opportunity for their daily exercise.
"His love of nature was as instinctive and as thorough as his
knowledge of men. He transferred the treasures of the woods to his own
garden. He studied the habits of birds and insects, and his parlors
were adorned with a cabinet of American birds more complete than is
often found in the museum of a professed naturalist. He reveled in the
'pomp of groves and garniture of fields,' and his daily drives through
the picturesque scenery of the Connecticut valley fed his aesthetic
taste, and proved a compensation for fatigue.
"Dr. Crosby, though a surgeon by nature and by preference, was in no
modern sense a _specialist_. His professional labors covered the whole
range of Medicine. His professorship included Obstetrics as well as
Surgery, and his practice in this department was exceptionally large.
His surgical diocese extended from Lake Champlain to Boston. Distance
seemed no bar to his influence, and his professional journeys were
often made by night as well as by day. Of the special operations of
Dr. Crosby we do not propose here to speak in detail. It is sufficient
to mention that, in 1824, he devised a new and ingenious mode of
reducing metacarpo-phalangeal dislocation. In 1836 he removed the arm,
scapula, and three quarters of the clavicle at a single operation, for
the first time in the history of Surgery. He was the first to open
abscess of the hip-joint. He performed his operations, without ever
having seen them performed, almost without exception. Dr. Crosby was
not what may be called a _rapid_ operator. 'An operation, gentlemen,'
he often said to his clinical students, 'is soon enough done when it
is _well_ enough done.' And, with him, it was never done otherwise
than _well_.
"At the outbreak of the rebellion, Dr. Crosby served in the
provost-marshal's office at a great sacrifice for many months,
attending to his practice chiefly at night. As years and honors
accumulated, Dr. Crosby still continued his work, though his
constitutional vigor was impaired by the severity of the New Hampshire
winters, and by his unremitting labor. At length, having reached man's
limit of three-score years and ten, he withdrew from active practice,
and in 1870 resigned his chair in the college, to which his son
succeeded. From that time it was plain that Dr. Crosby's life-work was
nearly done. In his well-ordered and delightful home he found that
rest to which his long service in behalf of humanity entitled him. His
end was perfect dignity and perfect peace.
"To those of us who had been most intimately associated with our
departed friend, who had enjoyed his teachings, his counsels, and his
generous kindness, the news of his death came as a heavy shock. But he
still lives in the remembrance of his distinguished services, in the
unfading affection and gratitude of his pupils, and in the many hearts
whose burdens he has lifted. Verily, '_Extinctus amabitur idem!_'"
Professor Crosby married Mary Jane, daughter of Stephen Moody, of
Gilmanton, N. H.
The following paragraphs relating to one of Dartmouth's most eminent
professors, the esteemed classmate of President Bartlett, who says:
"Outside of my own family circle, I had no better friend," are from
the pen of Dr. T. A. Emmet, of New York.
"Edmund Randolph Peaslee was born at Newton, New Hampshire, January
22, 1814. We have no record of his boyhood, or of his life previous to
graduating from Dartmouth College, with the class of 1836. In this
institution he occupied the position of tutor from 1837 to 1839, when
he entered the Medical Department of Yale College and took his degree
in 1840.
"The following year he settled in Hanover, N. H., and commenced the
practice of his profession. Without waiting in expectation, he began
his busy life by delivering a popular course of lectures on Anatomy
and Physiology.
"These lectures indicated so clearly his talents that, in 1842, but
two years after entering the profession, he was appointed professor of
Anatomy and Physiology in the Medical Department of Dartmouth College,
and retained the office until his death. Within a year afterwards, in
1843, he was appointed lecturer, and shortly afterwards professor of
Anatomy and Surgery in the Medical School in Maine, connected with
Bowdoin College. He filled those two professorships until 1857, when
he gave up Anatomy, but continued to lecture on Surgery until 1860.
Dr. Peaslee first came to the city of New York in 1851, on receiving
the professorship of Physiology and General Pathology in the New York
Medical College, then just being established.
"This position he held for four years, when he was transferred to the
chair of Obstetrics, and continued to lecture on this branch until the
institution was closed about 1860. He, however, did not settle in New
York, to the practice of his profession, until 1858. After 1860, he
mainly devoted himself to his practice, lecturing little except during
the summer or autumn course in Dartmouth College. But to do justice to
his subject and compress the whole subject into the space of some six
weeks, this being his time of recreation from business, he always
delivered at least two lectures a day and frequently more. In 1870,
he was elected one of the Trustees of his Alma Mater, which had in
1859 conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws. From 1872, he
delivered a course of lectures in the Medical Department on the
Diseases of Women. Two years afterwards, the course on Obstetrics and
the Diseases of Women in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College was
divided, when Dr. Peaslee was offered and accepted the chair of
Gynaecology. At about this date he also occupied for a short time a
professorship in the Albany Medical School. On the reorganization of
the Medical Department of the Woman's Hospital of the State of New
York, in 1872, he was made one of the Attending Surgeons, and held
this position, together with his professorship in the Bellevue
Hospital Medical College, at the time of his death.
"In 1857, he published in Philadelphia, 'Human Histology, in its
Relations to Descriptive Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology,' in which
were given for the first time, by translation, the experiments of
Robin and Verdell on Anatomical Chemistry. But the one great work
which will identify him with his generation is that on 'Ovarian
Tumors, their Pathology, Diagnosis, and Treatment, especially by
Ovariotomy,' published in New York, 1872. To this work he contributed
but little original matter, beyond his personal experience, which had
been large at that time. He, however, presented a digest of the whole
subject in so thorough and masterly a manner that this work is
destined to be a classic and a landmark as it were. It will be the
future starting-point for the literature of this subject, as an
original patent is in the searching of a title. There will be no need
to go beyond his researches on this subject, as they are exhaustive.
"For one feature in his work he has often expressed the greatest
satisfaction, that he had been able to establish for Dr. Ephraim
McDowell the credit of being the first ovariotomist. In consequence of
his labors, the world has at length given us credit for this great
discovery, of no less value than many others which we can claim to
have originated in our country, for the prolongation of life and for
the mitigation of suffering.
"Dr. Peaslee, at some time in his life, had lectured on every branch
of Medical science. With the exception of Dr. Physic, we have not
another instance where the lecturer was equally proficient in the
practice. But if we compare the extent of professional knowledge in
Dr. Physic's generation and the acquirements of the present day, Dr.
Peaslee will stand alone. Notwithstanding the incessant claims of his
profession, he kept up through life his collegiate training in the
classics, his taste for mathematics, and had acquired the knowledge of
one or more modern languages. Few men in the profession were more
familiar with the literature of our own language."
Dr. W. M. Chamberlain, who had rare opportunities for appreciating the
character and worth of Dr. Peaslee, says:
"The call for a sketch of Dr. Peaslee's professional life and work
will be abundantly satisfied by the recorded tributes of his more
immediate colleagues and associates, Drs. Barker, Thomas, Emmet,
Flint, and others. These are but a part of the testimony which after
his death came from far and near. Wherever men were gathered for the
study and discussion of medical subjects it was felt that a fountain
of knowledge was closed, a leader of opinion was gone, and they made
haste to acknowledge their obligations and their loss. He was a member
of many such organizations, and almost uniformly advanced to the front
rank in position.
"President of the New Hampshire Medical Society; of the New York
County Medical Society; the American Gynaecological Society; the New
York Academy of Medicine; the New York Pathological Society; the New
York Obstetrical Society; the New York Medical Journal Association,
etc., etc., he reaped all the honors. Yet no one ever thought of him
as a seeker of office. The tribute was always spontaneous, necessary:
'Palmam qui meruit ferat!'
"And these honors were not awarded for any great effort or success in
some partial field. He was decorated for service in each specific
line, as Physician, Surgeon, Pathologist, Gynaecologist, Bibliographer.
His attainments were comprehensive and symmetrical.
"He had the very great advantage of a liberal general education. This
gave him his broad outlook upon all departments of science. He had by
nature a mathematical and logical habit of mind. This made him the
accurate and complete student that he was, both in original
investigations and literary research. At the outset of his career he
sought the best schools. Just then (1840) reigned a new enthusiasm in
the physical and experimental study of the Medical Sciences at Paris.
Laennec, Andral, Louis, Malgaigne, Velpeau, and Bernard, were the
worthy models and masters of the young American.
"Thus well-endowed, well-grounded, and well-guided, he entered upon a
life of professional study, which he pursued with unremitting ardor
and diligence even to the end of life.
"It would seem to be a great thing to say of any man that he was never
idle, and never unprofitably employed; but it might be more justly
said of Dr. Peaslee than of any other person known to the writer. He
wasted no work. His conclusions were not reached by intuition or
guess, but slowly and surely elaborated, exactly formulated and
classified, so as to be always at his command.
"More than any other member of the profession known to the writer did
he illustrate each clause of Bacon's category, that 'Reading maketh
the full man; writing the exact man; and conversation the ready man.'
"From the first he was an agreeable and satisfactory teacher, year by
year, increasingly so; this work he did for thirty-six years; in six
Medical Colleges, in five different departments of the curriculum,
before nearly a hundred different classes of students. Such training,
such practice, made him a teacher in every professional circle. In
societies he was wont to be a silent and often apparently an
abstracted listener until near the close of the debate; then he would
rise and review the whole subject with a memory so comprehensive, a
knowledge so complete, and an appreciation so judicial, that nothing
more remained to be said. His books and monographs for the time and
era of their publication were standard, and will always remain
exceptionally valuable. Only the lapse of many years may antiquate but
never stale his elegant work on 'Ovarian Tumors,' of which one of his
most famous compeers has said that he would 'rather have written it
than any other medical work of any time or in any language.'
"In his personal relations to the members of the profession, Dr.
Peaslee was genial, charitable, and just. His patients looked to him
in perfect confidence and respect, personally as well as
professionally. He was as remarkable for the diligent care as for the
thorough study of his cases; and at every visit he dispensed with
gentle humor the best medicines, faith and hope.
"From youth through middle life he passed in the light of growing
knowledge; in the serenity of accomplished duty; in the prestige of
gathering fame and fortune; and he died before age or decay had
limited his scope of life."
Prof. Peaslee married Martha Thankful, daughter of Hon. Stephen
Kendrick, of Lebanon, N. H. He died in New York City, January 21,
1878.
* * * * *
Reliable sources furnish some facts regarding another gentleman long
and honorably connected with this Department.
Prof. Albert Smith, M.D., LL. D., was born in Peterborough, N. H. He
graduated at Dartmouth College, in 1825, and took his medical degree
there, in 1833. He was early successful as a practitioner, and before
middle age acquired a high reputation as a medical scholar and
thinker.
In 1849, he was appointed professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics
in the Dartmouth Medical College, where he continued to lecture till
his resignation, in 1870, from which time until his death he was
professor Emeritus. In 1857, he delivered his course of lectures at
the Vermont Medical College, and also the course at the Bowdoin
Medical School, in 1859.
The honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Dartmouth
College, in 1870, and also an honorary degree of M.D. by the Rush
Medical College, Chicago, in 1875. He was also an honorary member of
the New York Medical Society. As a medical instructor he was included
in the first rank of New England professors. His writings also gained
him a wide and enviable reputation. Among his publications were a
lecture on Hippocrates; also one on Paracelsus, and a commemorative
Discourse on the death of Dr. Amos Twitchell, besides various articles
in the medical journals and in the transactions of the New Hampshire
Medical Society.
With high professional attainments and distinctions Prof. Smith united
a personal character of the highest purity, integrity, and nobility.
He had been for a long time a member and constant attendant upon the
Unitarian Church, and for thirty years a Sunday-school teacher. He was
a strong advocate of temperance, and took a deep interest in the cause
of education. He represented Peterborough, his place of residence, in
the Legislature several times. He devoted the spare hours of his
latest years to the preparation of a "History of the Town of
Peterborough," which was published in a large octavo volume in 1876.
He married Fidelia Stearns, February 26, 1828. Prof. Smith died at
Peterborough, February 22, 1878.
* * * * *
The following paragraphs relating to one of Dartmouth's most largely
endowed, highly cultivated, and warmly beloved teachers, Prof. Alpheus
B. Crosby, who was born at Gilmanton, N. H., February 22, 1832, and
was the son of Dr. Dixi and Mary Jane (Moody) Crosby, are from a
Memorial "Discourse" by Dr. J. W. Barstow:
"Seven generations of tough New England fibre, combining sturdy
physique, thorough individuality and undiluted common sense, form a
groundwork on which no modern youth need hesitate to build, while the
mellow background of a virtuous lineage well prepares the canvas for
whatever of high aim and noble deed shall fill up the fresher
foreground of his own life's picture.
"The native temperament of the boy, as I remember him, showed some
rare combinations and counterpoises. With an exuberance of animal
spirits he had, also, a natural balance of _caution_. He was ardent,
but not hasty; he was self reliant and fearless, but never
precipitate; frank and affable, though not easily won by a stranger;
fond of experiment, but also intensely practical. He was prompt to
decide, but always took time for detail, and pursued perseveringly to
the end whatever engaged his attention and his effort.
"His constant association with his father, and with his father's
friends, made the boy perfectly at home in the office and in the
society of professional men; and almost from his cradle he was
accustomed to assist in minor operations and in the general detail of
a student's service. Being a discreet lad, he often accompanied the
elder Crosby in professional visits; and thus the face of the 'parvus
Iulus,' became, early, as _familiar_ as that of the 'pater Aeneas,' and
grew, later, to be as welcome.
"When chloroform in Surgery was first introduced, Dr. Dixi Crosby went
to Boston to study its effects, and was one of the first surgeons in
New Hampshire to employ it in his practice. Young Ben was then a
school-boy of fifteen. His father, with full confidence in the
coolness and self possession of his son, at once commenced training
him as an assistant for the administration of the anaesthetic; teaching
him to watch the pulse and respiration, and to note all the necessary
conditions for its safe employment. And from this time, even long
before our friend commenced the systematic study of his profession, he
assisted his father, and administered the chloroform in many important
operations, sometimes even making long journeys for the purpose. It is
interesting to add, also, that in all the years of their practice
together, and in all their operations, performed under the use of
chloroform, there never occurred a single accident from its
administration.
"On graduating at Dartmouth, in 1853, our young friend pursued his
medical studies in the office of his father. He attended lectures both
at Dartmouth and at the College of Physicians in New York City, and
served for one year as interne in the U. S. Marine Hospital at
Chelsea, Massachusetts. With the exception of these necessary absences
from home, he gave every day of these preparatory years to the
assistance of his father in his wide and laborious practice. To this
course he was stimulated no less by filial ardor than by his growing
professional zeal.
"His medical degree was taken at Dartmouth, in 1856, and instead of
_beginning_ to practice, we may say that he _continued_ to practice
with his father in Hanover, going in and out as a favorite, both with
patients and in society.
"Immediately on receiving his medical degree, Dr. Crosby was appointed
demonstrator of Pathological Anatomy in the Dartmouth Medical College,
an office which he ably filled for five years.
"At the outbreak of the rebellion, in 1861, he was appointed surgeon
of the first regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, for three months'
service. This being concluded, he was at once commissioned as Brigade
Surgeon of U. S. Volunteers, and soon after promoted to the rank of
Medical Director, serving as such on the staffs, successively, of
Generale Stone, Casey, Sedgwick, and Peck. His army service was marked
by the same strong individuality, the same resolute activity, the same
executive talent, which we have seen stamped upon the boy and the
youth. Added to all those other qualities, was that same genial
humanity which made friends of every one. His brother officers trusted
him, depended upon him, and loved him. The private soldiers idolized
him, for they saw his quick and constant sympathy for them, and knew
that his large and loving heart embraced them all in its tender care.
"In the noble record of his army service, let us not forget, that to
our lamented friend belongs the credit of having originated and
erected the first complete military hospital on the modern 'pavilion
plan' that was built during the war of the rebellion.
"This hospital was visited and admired by surgeons throughout the
army, as a model of complete ventilation and drainage. Its plans were
extensively copied, and the record of its usefulness is preserved in
the archives of the War Department.
"In all his widening range of work and of social activities says
Professor Parker, 'his large heart seemed as incapable of being
overloaded with friendships as it was inexhaustible in its overflowing
friendliness. His personal magnetism held fast old friends, while the
keen points of his magnetic nature constantly caught new affinities
and drew to him fresh intimacies.'
"In the autumn of 1862, he was appointed adjunct professor of Surgery
in Dartmouth, and from that time forward his _honors_, literally,
outran his _years_.
"The number of his appointments to professional chairs in different
institutions, is something beyond precedent in the history of any
young American practitioner.
"In 1865, he was invited to the chair of Surgery in the University of
Vermont, and in the same year to a similar chair in the University of
Michigan.
"Both these positions he accepted, and ably filled for several years.
"In 1870, on the resignation of his honored father at the age of
threescore and ten, Dr. Ben was at once called to the chair of Surgery
in Dartmouth, and entered upon its duties, still continuing to perform
full duty in both his other professorships. He also delivered a course
of surgical lectures in Bowdoin College, Maine, during the same year.
"In 1871, he received the appointment of Surgical professor in the
_Long Island Medical College_, in the city of Brooklyn, which he
accepted, together with the post of visiting surgeon in the hospital
to which the college was attached. His work during this period was
extremely arduous, but was performed with the utmost ability and
credit.
"In 1872, he was invited to a professorship in the New York
University, and also to another (that of Surgical Anatomy) in Bellevue
Hospital Medical College in New York City. The former of these he
declined, but he accepted the latter and retained it until his death.
"In 1873, Dr. Crosby was invited by the Trustees of Jefferson Medical
College, Philadelphia, to accept the chair of Anatomy, on the
resignation of the distinguished Dr. Pancoast.
"This, though not accepted, may be reckoned the crowning honor in his
wreath of professional laurels."
For all the qualities which distinguish the model physician, surgeon,
teacher, and companion, few names, in all the annals of Medicine,
stand higher than that of Alpheus Benning Crosby.
Professor Crosby married at Baltimore, Md., Mildred Glassell, daughter
of Dr. Wm. R. Smith. He died at Hanover, August 9, 1877.
* * * * *
In closing this record the valuable services of Parsons, Delamater,
Bartlett, Holmes, Hubbard, Roby, Williams, Phelps, Field, How, and
Frost should not escape our notice.