Chapter 14

"It is believed from this view of it that for its vigorous prosperity and the rapid increase of its classes, the Medical School of Transylvania is without a parallel. Certainly in the United States there is nothing comparable to it. At the commencement of the present century, when the Medical School of Philadelphia had been in operation about forty years, it did not number more, we believe, than 200 pupils. It now contains about 400--rumor says a few more. In _thirty-three_ years, then, that school has added about 200 to its classes, while _in less than half that time_ the school of Transylvania has _formed_ a class of 262. This is the highest eulogy the institution can receive." (Doctor Caldwell to Lexington Medical Society, 1834, "On the Impolicy of Multiplying Schools of Medicine.")]

[Footnote 46: At the time of the formation of the "Transylvania Institute" (February 20, 1839), under articles of agreement between the city of Lexington and the Trustees of Transylvania University (see Deed Book No. 17, Page 42, office Fayette County Court), the city endowed the University with seventy thousand dollars; forty-five thousand dollars was to build a new medical hall and provide additional library and apparatus for the same, five thousand dollars for the Law Department, and twenty thousand dollars for Morrison College, securing permanent scholarships in each college. In consequence of a want of harmony in the Board of Trustees as to the location of the proposed medical hall, the medical professors and their friends felt obliged to purchase a lot (corner of Broadway and Second Street, where Doctor Bush's residence was afterward built) at a cost of five thousand dollars, although there was abundant space on the University grounds. This lot, to purchase which citizens contributed three thousand dollars of the five thousand, was given in trust to the University--but, by an unauthorized clause in the deed of conveyance, the lot and the medical hall erected on it at a cost of about thirty-five thousand dollars reverted to the city about 1860. On this building, which was burned during the Civil War, the medical professors also paid out of their own incomes the surplus cost over thirty thousand dollars which had been provided by the city. The medical professors also each contributed annually to the medical library, etc., ten dollars.]

[Footnote 47: There remain of this library five thousand, six hundred and eighty-four volumes; pamphlets and medical journals, seven hundred and fifty-four; bound volumes of theses, one hundred and thirty-eight, at Kentucky University.]

[Footnote 48: In the session following this disintegration of the school Doctor Thomas D. Mitchell says, in his Historical Catalogue of the Medical School, 1838: "Notwithstanding the great pecuniary embarrassments of the country and the peculiar circumstances accompanying the late disorganization, the number of pupils fell short but fifteen of the previous session."]

[Footnote 49: Doctor Mitchell at this time says: "The entire course of lectures in this school costs the sum of _one hundred and five dollars_. In addition the matriculation fee, which entitles the pupil to use of the very extensive library, is _five dollars_. The dissecting ticket is _ten dollars_, and may be taken or omitted at pleasure." The qualifications for candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine: "The persons offering must be 21 years of age and must have been engaged in the study of medicine during three years. Two full courses of lectures in a chartered medical school (the last of which in this institution) are also requisite. But persons who exhibit satisfactory proof of having been engaged in reputable practice for the space of four years may be candidates by attending one course of lectures, which must be in this school. Each candidate is required to exhibit all his tickets to the Dean before his name can be enrolled. The fee for graduation is $20." (See Doctor Mitchell's Historical Catalogue, 1838.)]

[Footnote 50: This, with a strange prejudice against novelties, he recommended to be made by putting an indefinite quantity of glass of antimony in a bottle with wine, to digest for an uncertain period, adding more wine as the contents were withdrawn for use.]

[Footnote 51: "From June 1 to August 1, 502 died." (_Collins' History of Kentucky._)]

[Footnote 52: The late William Hall, M. D., for a long time editor of _Hall's Journal of Health_, of New York.]

[Footnote 53: Memoir, Page 21.]

[Footnote 54: Doctor L. P. Yandell, senior, says of Doctor Cooke in his biography: "Dr. Cooke was one of the few men who might have been safely trusted to write his autobiography. He would have reviewed his career with a truthfulness, a modesty, a candor that would have exalted his character in the eyes of men. His works will be read by the curious for a long time to come, and will always be read with advantage by the earnest student."]

[Footnote 55: _Notices of Western Botany and Conchology_, by Doctor C. W. Short and H. H. Eaton, A. M., published in _Transylvania Journal of Medicine_, 1831.]

[Footnote 56: Professor Henry Miller, of Louisville, says of Doctor Short: "As a lecturer Dr. Short's style was chaste, concise, and classical, and his manner always grave and dignified. His lectures were always carefully and fully written and read in the lecture room with a good voice and correct emphasis. He never made the least attempt at display nor set a clap-trap in all his life."]

[Footnote 57: Doctor Gross says: "In stature Dr. Short was of medium height, well proportioned, with light hair and complexion, blue eyes, and an ample forehead. His features when lighted up by a smile were radiant with goodness and beneficence. In manner he was graceful, calm, and dignified; so much so that one coming into his presence for the first time might have supposed him to be haughty and ascetic; such, however, was not the case."]

[Footnote 58: Doctor David W. Yandell thus writes of Doctor Short as connected with the Medical Institute of Louisville: "Dr. Short was a most valuable officer. His high scientific attainment, the soundness of his judgment, high dignity and urbanity of manner, his amiable temper and blameless life added character and weight to the institution. Botany was his favorite pursuit. He found the flora of this region (Louisville) virgin and unknown, and so collected, arranged, and classified it that his successors in this field have been able to change nothing and to add but little to his work."]

[Footnote 59: We see in the records of the Trustees of Transylvania University that on March 17, 1832, Doctor Short was elected President _pro tem._ of Transylvania University "during the pleasure of the Board," but there is no mention of his acceptance. The fact is, Professors Short, Caldwell, and Dudley acted alternately as President _pro tem._ on public occasions and in signing diplomas, etc., until a President could be elected. The Reverend B. O. Peers was inaugurated President _pro tem._, 1833, and the Reverend Thomas W. Coit, an eminent Episcopalian divine from New England, was installed as President in 1835.]

[Footnote 60: The resignation of his predecessor, Doctor Blythe, took place March 16, 1831. (See Records of Transylvania University.)]

[Footnote 61: One of his ancestors was General William Eaton, the hero of Derne.]

[Footnote 62: In the chemical course of lectures the subject of Electricity was given up to him entirely. He lectured on it as well as performed the experiments.]

[Footnote 63: In the catalogue of the Rensselaer School, 1828, appears in the list of undergraduates, "Robert Peter, Pittsburg, Pa., Lecturer on the Experimental and Demonstrative Sciences, Druggist."]

[Footnote 64: This "Eclectic Institute" occupied the "colonial" residence on Second Street, now forming a part of the Hagerman Female College. Mr. Peers, H. A. Griswold, and H. H. Eaton were already associated.]

[Footnote 65: Doctor Mitchell says (1838): "Dr. Peter added to the Chemical Department several powerful galvanic batteries and a fine collection of apparatus recently procured from the East, making the laboratory more complete than it ever has been before." (Historical Catalogue, 1838.)]

[Footnote 66: Of the books, apparatus, etc., purchased in Europe by Doctor Peter we find the following account rendered on March 25, 1839: "Books and plates, six thousand dollars; chemical apparatus, two thousand five hundred dollars; preparations for anatomy and surgery, one thousand five hundred dollars; models for obstetrics, five hundred dollars; specimens for materia medica and therapeutics and drawing, five hundred dollars. A total of eleven thousand dollars."]

[Footnote 67: "A very large addition was made to library, museum, and 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.]