Part 26

Personally, Dr. O'Dwyer was of cold exterior, nor had he many close friends. Those who knew him well understood that beneath the layer of ice there was a warm, considerate, tender heart for those whom he admitted to the penetralia of his intimacy. On the other hand, few men have ever had friends more devoted than were O'Dwyer's. He was, however, of an extremely sensitive disposition. His conclusions in medicine had always been worked out with {352} the greatest care, and were the results of personal observations. To have them criticised then by those who had much less experience, or who had never thought along the same lines, was always intolerable to him, and generally kept him out of medical discussions. Those who knew him best realized that his opinions were of the greatest value, nor ever failed to contain a germ of original thought, the result of his personal experience. After his long years of work at intubation, many of his medical brethren refused at first to accept his new method of treatment, claiming that it did not reduce the mortality, even though it did for a moment relieve the sufferings of the patient. This position was a source of the keenest disappointment and depression to O'Dwyer.

After the method of treatment by intubation had been for some time before the medical profession of the country, a thorough discussion of it was held at one of the meetings of the Academy of Medicine of New York. Authorities in children's diseases from several of the large Eastern cities were invited to be present to give their opinions of intubation. Most of them were agreed that O'Dwyer's invention was of very little service. It was not a novelty in the history of medicine to have a really great and helpful discovery thus at first rejected by those who were later to be its ardent advocates. To O'Dwyer, however, who was present and took part in the discussion, the criticism of his method of treatment was a source of veritable torment. He did not show at the meeting how deeply wounded was his spirit, but for three days afterward he practically shut himself up in his room and refused to see anyone.

Naturally he was of a rather melancholic tendency, prone to dwell on the sadder side of things, and was constantly interested in sad stories and songs. He liked sad music, {353} and usually refused to listen to the livelier airs that others, especially of his race, were apt to find so refreshing. Something of this sterner side of his character entered into all his relations with others, and even with his own family. Though deeply affectionate, he very seldom permitted them to see and appreciate that fact. He was rather apt to be stern than otherwise, fearful lest his affection should in any way spoil them. To the very young children, in whose regard he did not consider this objection to hold, he was almost demonstratively affectionate, and those who knew his love for little children appreciated the sacrifice he made in denying himself demonstrations of affection to his own.

With all his sadness there was, as might be expected from his racial descent, a vein of dry humor, not infrequently manifest, though only to very near friends. He appreciated a good story, though the slightest tendency to vulgarity was extremely displeasing to him. He is said to be the originator of the humorous expression that has since been used often enough. While one day calling at a friend's house, in the absence of the friend, the servant asked him to leave his name, but was met with the reply (from the doctor) that "he preferred not to, as he thought he might have use for it before he got home."

The religious side of O'Dwyer's character is intensely interesting, because it represents a successful professional man--the maker of an important discovery in medicine; a logical, scientific thinker, whose opinion was valued by all his professional brethren--as one of the simplest of believers, tenderly pious and faithful. The sexton of the church near which he lived tells (since his death) of frequently seeing him steal in during the day to say his prayers at the foot of the altar. He was one of the most faithful attendants at the communions and retreats of the Xavier Alumni Sodality {354} of New York City, of which he was an enthusiastic member. His deep piety can, perhaps, be best appreciated from a characteristic incident, which illustrates his faith in prayer--his confidence in Providence. He had asked for something with regard to one of his children over and over again, and finally thought that his prayer had been heard. Later on he had reason to regret the fact that his wish had been granted, and to a friend, to whom he told the circumstances, he said:

"All that we can do is to say with resignation, 'Thy will be done,' and then we shall be sure that whatever happens will be for the best."

The story of O'Dwyer's death serves to illustrate some of the weaker points of modern medicine. During the nearly ten years after his wife's death he had never been quite the same man, but had succeeded in doing a large amount of work and had continued to care for a very large practice. In December, 1897, he began to develop some anomalous symptoms, pointing to a serious pathological condition within the skull. He seemed to have had what are known as "Meniere's symptoms," that is, a tendency to vertigo, some ringing in the ears and other unpleasant feelings. Toward the end of that month some hemiplegia, or at least some weakness of one side of his body, developed. He was rather neglectful of his personal health, as most physicians are, and until this time had paid very little attention to his symptoms. Most of the prominent New York consultants and nervous specialists were called in, but there was a marked disaccord as to the cause of the symptoms.

After some days in bed, comatose symptoms began to manifest themselves, and on January the seventh following, after having been lethargic for some days, Dr. O'Dwyer died. The _antemortem_ diagnosis of his case was dubious, lying amid the possibilities of tubercular meningitis, {355} secondary infection after otitis media, and secondary infection from some external cause. During the previous December, O'Dwyer had been treating a patient with carbuncle, and developed himself a small carbuncle on his chin. By some it is thought that infectious material from this lesion had been carried by emissary veins or their accompanying lymphatics to the inside of the skull, affecting the meninges, and perhaps portions of the brain-substance itself.

The _postmortem_ examination did not entirely clear up the doubts of diagnosis. The lateral sinus was found thrombosed, while there were some suspicious signs in the middle ear, but no distinct inflammatory condition. Just how the infection took place, then, is not clear, but O'Dwyer's condition of lowered resistive vitality was evidently at fault, to an important degree, in permitting infection to take place and in not throwing it off afterward.

At the time of his death he was about fifty-seven years of age. He had reached the maturity of his powers, and with the consciousness of having accomplished one good work was ready for further original investigations in practical medicine. A thought that had occupied him very much toward the end of his life was the possibility of a mechanical method of treating pneumonia. He had made a series of experiments on the lungs, and many clinical observations with regard to the possibility of producing over-inflation by mechanical measures. He confided to one of his physician friends, who had been closest to him during life, that he hoped thus to secure a method of treating pneumonia successfully. This, after all, is the most serious problem in present-day medicine. Our death-rate from pneumonia is at least as high now as it was a century ago. O'Dwyer started from the observation that those suffering from emphysema seldom develop true pneumonia. And he hoped {356} to prevent the progress of the disease, or to abort it in its inception, by producing artificial emphysema for the time being. Had he lived, it seems not unlikely that we would have had further original work of a high order from him.

Though of Irish descent, Dr. O'Dwyer illustrated very well the expression that was used of the English nobility who went to Ireland in Elizabeth's time, and who are said to have become "more Irish than the Irish themselves." O'Dwyer became an American of the Americans. He believed in meeting Americans on their own ground, cultivating their acquaintance, and making them realize the worth of new citizens of the republic by showing them how sincere was the patriotism of their recently admitted compatriots.

Dr. O'Dwyer was in everything the model of a Christian gentleman, and an exemplary member of the great humanitarian profession whose charitable opportunities he knew how to find and take advantage of at every turn in life. The American medical profession has never had a more worthy model of all that can be expected from physicians in their philanthropic duties toward suffering humanity, nor a better exemplar of what Christian manhood means in the widest sense of that expressive term. With an inventive genius of a high order, that gave him a prominent place in a great generation and that has stamped his name on the roll of medical fame for all time, there were united the simple faith, the earnest purpose, the clear-sighted judgment and the feeling kindness--those supreme qualities of head and heart that will always secure for him a prominent place in the small group of great medical men.

{357}

INDEX.

Allbutt, 138 Allison, 188 Alternate generation, 238 America to Jenner, 102 Ampere, 19 Aneurism, 43 Aneurism of aorta, 45, 203 Angelo Michel, 33 Angina pectoris, 89 Animal electricity, 119 Antivaccination, 100 Aortic aneurism, 45, 203 Aortic valves, 202 Appendicitis, 285 Arago, 299 Archimedes, 50 Asiatic cholera, 189 Aspergillus, 239 Atmospheric electricity, 121 Attending physician, 202 Auenbrugger and Laennec, 66-72 beneficence, 78; cases, 79; neglect, 69-73; preface, 67 Auscultation, mediate, 145 Avocation, 54

B

Bacon, 324 Baron, Dr., 96 Bassi, Laura 126 Bayle, 163 Bedside instruction, 57 Bell, 233 Bernard statue, 272; honors, 286; musical comedy, 275; poverty, 273-275; succeeds Flourens, 286 Benedict XIII, 48 Benedict XIV, 48 Berzelius, 244 Bichat, 153 Biological succession 306 Biot, 299 Birrell Augustine, 107 Blushing, 283 Boerhaave, 49 Bologna, 35-37 Bologna sausage, 34 Bonn, 231 Bouillaud, 148 Bouchut, intubation, 338 Boyle, Robt., 306 Breadth of education, 226 Breton peasant's faith, 294; peasant woman, 294 Bribery and union, 197 Brittany, 138 Bronchitis, chronic, 46 Broussais, 139-152 Brown, Dr. Jno., 270 Browne, Sir Thos., 114 Bruecke, 226 Butt, Isaac, 196 Butyric acid, 304

C

Cabanis, 286 Cameron, Sir Chas., 167 Cancer, removal, 46 Carbonic oxide 284 Carlyle, 107 Carriers of disease, 309 Caspar, 219 Catarina Sforza, 33 Cavendish, 19 Cavities, 65 Cell doctrine, 255, 261-264 Cellulose, 300 Charite, La, 152 Chassaignac, 131 Chauffard, 164 Chaussier's tubes, 337 {358} Chauvinism, 235 Chemistry, organic, 296 Cheyne, 170 Cheyne-Stokes, 168, 185, 194 Chicken cholera, 309 Cholera, epidemic, 327 Cirrhosis, 152 Cirrhosis of lungs, 206 Cisalpine republic, 128 Classical training, 227, 288 Claude Bernard, 42 Clement XIII, 48 Cline, Dr., 99 Clinical teaching, 57, 178 College de France, 271 Common sense and the beautiful, 198 Comparative pathology, 45 Confidence in medicines, 180 Conservatism, 288 Consumption and alcohol, 174; and city life, 174; curable, 192; outdoor life, 193 Contagion of tuberculosis, 46 Contemporary popularity, 253 Cook, Dr. Win, 48 Corrigan and Sunday closing, 210; as a consultant, 206; as a teacher, 208; disease, 15, 200; honors, 209; member of parliament, 214; physician in ordinary, 212; pulse, 168; practice, 201, 205 Corvisart, 74, 142 Cowpox, 94 Croup, 329 Cuckoo, 93 Cullen, 188 Curare, 284

D

Da Costa, 83 Daguerre, 260 Dalkey, 211 Dante, 131 Danube capricious, 64 Darwin, 254 Dean Swift, 167 De Haen, 58; writings, 69 De Maria, 131 Desault, 336; tubes, 337 Desgenettes, 157 Diabetes, 279 Diastases, 287 Dictionnaire des sciences med., 153 Dieffenbach, 219 Digestion, 278; and emotion, 282 Dignity of medicine, 194 Diphtheria fatality, 329; antitoxin, 345 Discoveries rejected, 14 Discovery in distans, 18; wine of, 298 Dissymmetrical forces, 301 Dissymmetry and universe, 302, 303 Distinction, living and non-living, 300 Doctor of medicine and philosophy, 37 Do not think, investigate, 92 Dom Pedro II, 315 Dublin Zoological Garden, 211 Du Bois-Reymond, 242 Duchesse de Berri, 155 Duclaux, 302 Ductless glands, 281 Ducts of Mueller, 233 Dust and life, 306 Dyspepsia, nervous, 282

E

Earth worms, carriers of disease, 309 Edinburgh, 208 Education, classical, 288; rounded, 289 Eggs and oxygen, 258 Electricity, animal, 119; atmospheric, 121 Elsner, Dr. Henry L., 137 Emanuel III, 48 Emphysema and pneumonia, 355 Empress Eugenie, 319 Encyclopedists, 115 Eustachius, 32 Eyerel, 74

F

Fallopius, 32 Faraday, 19 Fat digestion, 277 Father Morgagni, S. J., 50 Father of German medicine, 217 Father of pathology, 29 Fatty heart, 192 {359} Fermentations, 304; and disease, 306 Ferments, 287 Fever, nature and treatment, 205 Flacherie, 307 Flint, 144, 150, 166 Flourens, 286 Foolishness of materialism, 318 Forli, 33 Foundling Asylum (N. Y.), 328 Franco-Prussian War, 312 Franklin, 19; anticipated, 123 French Revolution, 115; Academy of Physicians, 286 Frog dancing-master, 122 Froriep, 219 Froude, 134

G

Gaelic movement, 167 Gairdner, 30 Galeazzi, 116 Galen, 35 Galileo, 244 Galvani, 19; Mme., 117, 120; dancing frogs, 21; the physician, 125; medal, 130 Gases and eggs, 259 German students at Padua, 40; decorations returned, 313; rabies, 313, 314 Girardin, St. Marc, 275 Glycogen, 281 Goerres, 223 Goethe, 227 Gold dust of time, 240 Graves family, 169; as a traveler, 169; fed fevers, 172; perfect teacher, 177; remedies, 177; last moments, 185 Grease in horses, 95 Guerin, 131

H

Hahn, S. J., 286 Haller, 29; and Mueller, 244 Harvey, 28, 35, 104 Hauey, 116 Heart percussion, 63 Heat production, 281; regulation, 282 Heberden, 89 Heliostat and growth, 302 Helmholtz, 247 Henle, 200 Herter, Dr. Christian, 311, 320 Hibernation, 92 Hippocrates, 35, 142, 336; succussion, 72 Hirsch, Baroness, 315 History, 12 Holme, Sir Edw., 95 Hunter, 90, 120 Huxley, 20 Hydatids, 151

I

Ideals, 294; in life, 320 Il Morgagni, 50 Imagination, 284 Indians, American, and Jenner, 103 Infinite and supernatural, 316 Institutions and men, 217 Internal secretion, 280 Intubation experiments, 330; first, 332; for chronic ills, 342; history, 335; improvement, 333; studies, 334; tubes, 331 Inventum novum, 61 Investigating spirit, 16 Irene, Sister, 348 Irish aristocracy, 197; College of Physicians, 210 Italy's leadership in medicine, 31; medical schools, 32

J

Jacobi, 341 Jardin des Plantes, 273 Jefferson, 104 Jenner, 77; and Indians, 103; epigrams, 93; honors conferred, 102; Hunter, 91; Mrs. Jenner, 109; Jenner's patience, 91; personality, 105; son inoculated, 93 Jesuit education, 224-273

K

Koch, 135 Kuehne, 278 Kulturkampf, 249 {360} L

La Cellule, 266 Laennec's character, 156; in practice, 161; preface, 154 Laic, saint, 295 Lamarck, 116 Lamennais, 138 Lancet on Corrigan, 207, 212 Lancisi, 57 Laplace, 116 Lavater, 227 Lavoisier, 244 Layard, 184 Lieberkuehn, 238 Liebig, 262, 304 Liege, 266 Limitations of genius, 203 Lister, 312 Liston, 338 Littre, 294 Liver sugar, 280 Lough Corrib, 197 Louise Lateau, 267 Louvain, 264 Ludwig, 71

M

Magendie, 276, 283 Maisonneuve, 139 Malpighi, 32, 233 Manzolini, Mme., 127 Maria Theresa, 23, 80 Mayer, 22 Maynooth, 207, 212 Mead, Sir Richard, 49 Meckel, 42 Meckel's Archiv, 230 Medical charities bill, 190; education, 181; progress, 19 Medicine an art, 178; and the public, 195; faith, 24; in Italy, 31 Meniere's symptoms, 354 Merbach, 65 Microcosm, 114 Microtome, 256 Milk in diarrhea, 175 Mitscherlich, 297 Molecular forces, 301 Mondino, 32, 34 Moore, Sir Jno., 167, 200 Morgagni daughters nuns, 49; basic idea, 14; literary light, 23; long life, 31; method, 30; popularity, 48 Mouth-gag, 333 Mozart, 81 Mueller, a priest of nature, 247; as a teacher, 245, 257; and Aristotle, 224; education, 218; discoveries, 232; distinctions, 244; ducts, 233; father, 222; handbook, 234; introspection, 231; methods, 237; monument, 249; mother, 223; muscular control, 229; panegyric, 220; personality, 246; students, 246; translates plate, 224; vivisection, 225, 235 Muscle sugar, 281

N

Napoleon III, 286; judgment, 75, 143 Nasse, 228 Nature, study, 108 Necker hospital, 143 Nervous reflex, 42 Newman, 216 Newton, 244 Normandy, 140 Northrup, 349; O'Dwyer's personality, 350 Not many patients, 181 Nurses, trained, 171

O

Observation, 181 O'Connell, 196 O'Dwyer Americanism, 356; birth, boyhood, 326; careful prognosis, 343; cholera volunteer, 327; clinical experience, 339; devotion to duty, 344; discouragements, 340; domestic life, 353; feeling for children, 345; originality, 335; patient work, 328, 339; resignation, 354; sensitiveness, 352 Oersted, 19, 116 Ohm, 19 Olfactory nerve, 42 {361} Opposition to vaccination, 101; to science, 22 Organotherapy, 281 Original research, 13 Origins in electricity, 19 Osler, 14, 252 Otis, Dr. Edw. O., 82

P

Padua, 1000 German students, 40 Paine's Age of Reason, 186 Pancreas, 277 Paradise Lost, 41 Parasites, 238 Paratartrates, 297 Pasteur, advice to young men, 321; and money, 319; chemist, 296; faith, 294; ideals, 295; illness, 311; last moments, 318; letters, 317; monument, 293; obsequies, 315; prayer in laboratory, 318; tenderness, 317 Pathology, comparative, 45 Pebrine, 307 Pepsin, 262 Percussion, 62 Petrie, 198 Pharmacy, old-time, 274 Phila. College of Physicians, 144 Philosophy, a little, 126 Phipps Institute, 55 Physiology and Psychology, 286 Pilgrim's Progress, 41 Pindar, 50 Pinel, 142 Pneumonia, 355 Polarization, 299 Poor patients, 214; Corrigan, 213; Galvani, 125; Graves, 171; Laennec, 156; Stokes, 190 Positivism, 295 Practical teaching, 183 Psychologus physiologus, 249 Pulse, intermittence, 45

R

Rabies, 313, 314 Radot, M., 301 Ragpicker of science, 283 Ratio medendi, 70 Ray-fish, 124 Read, Dr. C. A. L., 219 Red blood cell, 285 Religion and science, 255; and medicine, 24 Religious training, 108 Removal of stomach, 279 Respiration, 285 Retzius, 239 Rheumatism and the heart, 89 Richardson, Benj. Ward, 36, 40, 153 Richman, 123 Roger, 149 Rosalie, Sister, 341 Rothschild, 315 Roux, 316 Royal Irish Academy, 198 Rudolphi, 230, 234 Ruskin, 20 Ruysch, 49, 233

S

Saintignon, Life of Laennec, 157 Salivary nerves, 277 Sap temperatures, 92 Schenkelton, 62 Schlegels, August and Friedrich, 59 Schoenlein, 219, 238 Scholar in medicine, 84 Schott treatment anticipated, 193 Schwann and professorships, 267; devotion to science, 256; friendships, 268; handiness, 260; scientific work, 265 Science and religion, 24, 255 Scott, Sir Walter, 187 Seats and causes of disease, 40 Sense, a new, 148 Silkworm diseases, 306, industry, 307 Sisters Irene and Rosalie, 341, 348 Skepticism, medical, 180 Skoda, 61 Sources of democracy, 316 Spalding, 166, 292 Spanish hospital, Vienna, 60 Specialization, 289 Spigelius, 32 Splenic fever, 308 {362} Spontaneous generation, 262, 287, 309; of disease, 263 Spores, 311 Stereochemistry, 299 Stethoscope, 147; a toy, 16 St. Francis of Assisi, 131 St. Francis of Sales, 117 Still madness, 79 Stokes, 136, 186; character, 200; distinctions, 199; Margaret, 198; Sir Wm. Jr., 198; wife, 199 Stoll, 74 Sugar absorption, 279 Sydenham, 138 Sympathetic nerves, 43, 282

T

Tartrates, 297 The chimney sweep, 80 Theorists, 20 Theory and observation, 20 Theriaque, 274 Thompson, 187 Tissue-therapy, 281 Titian, 35 Torpedo fish, 124 Tracheotomy, 329; failure, 330 Trousseau, 15, 176, 200, 238 Trudeau, 55 Truth in medicine, 17 Tuberculosis, 173, 192 Tufnell treatment anticipated, 44 Turner, 170 Typhoid and typhus, 188, 205

U

United Irishmen, 186 Unselfish devotion, 25 Uric acid, 300 Utility and ideals, 198

V

Vaccination and measles, 102; day, 97; first successful, 98 Valsalva, 36 Van Swieten, 58, 60; writings, 69 Vasomotor nerves, 282 Venesection, 47, 158 Venetian patricians, 48 Vesalius, 32, 35 Vicq d'Azyr, 286 Vienna school, 15, 56; general hospital, 56 Villemin, 135 Virago of Forli, 33 Virchow, 29, 206, 219, 220; Virchow and Mueller, 239 Vital force, 218, 242, 288, 299 Vogel, 71 Volta, 19

W

Walshe, 144 Wardrop's operation, 204 Washington, 337 Watson, Jno., 338 Werner, 80 Woehler, 218 Women at Italian Universities, 126, 127 Woodhead, G. Sims, 55

Y

Young Germany, 263 Young men discoverers, 14, 15, 16; in biology, 16; electricity, 19; in medicine, 201

Z

Zois, Baron, 80 Zoological Society, 211

End of Project Gutenberg's Makers of Modern Medicine, by James J. Walsh