AN ADDRESS 
BEFORE THE 
(Ssbrgra Hkbical 
ON ITS SIXTY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY 
crjLJsrvjk.ttir s7 isss. 
R. D. ARNOLD, A. M., M. D, 
RETIRING PRESIDENT, 
SAVANNAIf, GA. 
PURSE, PRINTER. 
1868. ADDRESS. 
Gentlemen of the Georgia Medical Societg : 
During the past current year, you appointed a Com- 
mittee to report a revised Constitution for the adoption 
of our Society. The report of that Committee was 
received and adopted, with the exception of one particular 
provision. I express here to my brethren of the Society 
ray heartfelt thanks that the provision in question was 
rejected by a large majority. 
But amongst the regulations sanctioned by the revised 
Constitution, was one that the retiring President of the 
year should deliver an address to the Society. Although 
I had the honor of addressing you last year, on your 
Anniversary, as you had selected me for your President 
for the preceding current year, I now address you in pur- 
suance of the amended Constitution, and only on that 
account, for I would have gladly consigned the task to 
some younger member of the profession, with more 
leisure than I can command. But yet the duty thus 
devolved upon me is, in many respects, not an unpleasant 
one. The execution of it brings up memories of the 
past, which will perish when my brain, in common with 
the other organs of my physical existence, shall have 
obeyed the fiat of Almighty God, and suffered organic 
decomposition. 
But limited as the appointed time of man on this 
earth is, God, in the course of Ilia providence, has given 
to him a power which has enabled him to transmit to his 
posterity the record of his actions and of his thoughts. 
That power is the art of writing—the art of letters. 
Thousands of years have passed since some of the great 4 
ADDRESS 
geniuses of the world have paid the debt of nature 
and have descended into their mother earth. Not yet 
has come upon them that change described by St. Paul, 
in which all is to be changed in the utwinkling .of an 
eye.” But although their bodies may have, long ago, 
been decomposed, their minds, that is, their souls live 
amongst ns, in their recorded and written sentences. 
“Non omnis monar,”—l shall not wholly die,—was 
the exultant exclamation of the great poet of human 
nature in its social phase, Horace ; and he saw his im- 
mortality in the written records of his great works, as 
they were periodically hung up in the portico of the 
most frequented temple of Rome. As I look around 
me as I am penning these lines, the souls of Homer, 
Virgil, and Milton, and Dante are personified in their 
works, and each speaks to me as distinctly, as clearly, as 
emphatically, as if each was here present in the flesh. 
To leave the sublime epic writers and to come down to a 
different gradation of intellect, I laugh with the brilliant 
LeSage, over his inimitable representations of real life, 
in the adventures of his hero, Gil Bias. I follow the 
example of him who was espied by Philip the Second, 
of Spain, laughing immoderately ; when Philip, survey- 
ing him from his castle window, exclaimed, “ that man 
is either mad, or he is reading Don Quixote!” And I 
sympathize with the mistaken chivalry of the genuine 
gentleman of La Mancha, or almost burst with laughter 
at his burlesque adventures and at the quaint commenta- 
ries and the admirable proverbs of Sancho Panza; or 
with “downright Montaigne,” I re-survey the great world 
of past letters. To continue the list of geniuses whose 
lucubrations, and whose scintillations of wit have 
descended to us by means of “ the art preservative of 
art,” that is, of writing, and not, as the mere typograph- 
ist believes, the art of printing, which is simply the art 
of more easily multiplying the copies of the winged 
words which have been arrested and fixed by writing, 5 
ADDRESS 
would lead me too far for my present purpose. By 
writing, by fixed and determinate signs, do the great 
master minds of the past communicate, and form the 
link which connects them to the everpresent. So is the 
world ever progressive, as each generation can profit by 
the experience of all its antecedents. 
If we were to lose the records of the past, man would 
have to begin his training de novo, and it would require 
centuries upon centuries to invent again those material 
aids to civilization which have been developed in the 
progress of time, or to elucidate and explain the great 
moral truths which have exercised the subtlest intellects 
of Greece and Rome. Look at the wonderful monu- 
ments of Egypt! Their history is indelibly written in 
hieroglyphic characters upon enduring granite. The 
chevalier Bunsen, the head of the Evangelical school of 
modern Prussia, in his great work “Egypt’s Place in 
Universal History,” has allowed a period of twenty 
thousand years for the authentic development of her 
civilization. The solution of the riddle of the hiero- 
glyphics by Hr. Young and Champollion Le Jeun, has 
restored a long missing link in the chain of the history 
of the past, and has had its proportionate effect. I allude 
to these things because of the evident feeling which we 
all have to learn what has occurred before our time. We 
seem to realize the idea of the metempsychosis of Py- 
thagoras, and to believe that our souls had, in times past, 
filled the bodies of some of the warriors and sages of 
antiquity. Surely, oftentimes a pleasant and a harmless 
illusion of fancy. 
But while 1 dismiss the too distant past, I feel that we 
are here to-night to revive recollections more immedi- 
ately connected with ourselves, to rescue from the for- 
getfulness in which nearly three generations have involved 
them, facts which we, as a Society and as members of a 
liberal profession, would not willingly allow to pass into 
the gulf of oblivion. 6 
ADDRESS 
It is right that we, the members of the oldest Medical 
Society in the State of Georgia and one of the oldest in 
the once United States of America, should make the 
effort. You have determined that hereafter we should 
publicly celebrate our Anniversary, and thus in some 
measure show our real condition, and the just claims we 
have on the confidence of the public, as men honestly 
and conscientiously laboring for the advancement of 
Truth and Science in our profession. 
The principle of association to carry out some common 
end, appears to have existed wherever social organiza- 
tion has ever made any progress. By no people do 
associations appear to have been carried to such an 
extent as by the Romans. They set an example in their 
treatment of conquered countries which it would be well 
for some of our self-satisfied legislators at Washington, 
who pride themselves on their classical acquirements, to 
study and to ponder over. 
The noble lines of Yirgil are familiar to many of you : 
“ Ta regere imperio populos, Romane, memento ; 
Hse tibi erunt artes, pacisque irnponere morem. 
Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbis.” 
“Thee, Heaven, brave Roman, formed for high command ! 
Be these thy arts, from thy victorious hand, 
To make glad nations own their peace bestowed. 
To spare the suppliant, and pall down the proud.’' 
The first care of the conquering Roman was to extend 
the area of civilization, to establish colonies of citizens 
who should carry with them all the arts and sciences of 
practical life which existed in Imperial Rome. They 
built up, they sought to repair the ravages of war, to 
restore, not to destroy. Amongst the most efficient means 
of bringing about this end were the Collegia Opificum 
of Rome, associations of men following a common call- 
ing, who organized themselves for the common purpose 
of advancing their own private and general interests. 
It was from the example of these Collegia that the 
Guilds of the middle ages were formed ; associations ADDRESS 
7 
which not only had a powerful effect on the trade and 
prosperity of the various cities in which they were 
formed, but which constituted the entering wedge by 
which the Feudal System, which had long been an incu- 
bus on Europe, was riven into fragments. 
In the progress of time, associations were formed 
amongst all classes. The cause of literature and sci- 
ence has been greatly benefitted by them. Our medical 
predecessors in this city were not unmindful of the 
advantages which might accrue to the profession from a 
well organized association of men pledged to act on well 
ascertained principles, and to uphold the dignity and 
character of our profession. 
In the beginning of this century, Georgia, the young- 
est of the old thirteen States, was the least thickly set- 
tled in proportion to its area, for while after the cession 
to the United States of what now constitutes the great 
States of Alabama and Mississippi, her western bound- 
ary was the same as it now is, but her population ex- 
tended no farther than the Altamaha and its western 
affluent to the west; Wilkes county was almost the last 
county on the north, and the whole country to the north- 
west was wandered over by the native Cherokee Indian. 
Yet in each of the cities of Savannah and Augusta, then 
the only two of Georgia, there was a circle of cultivated 
men in the two great professions of law and medicine, 
who would have reflected credit on any community. In 
the traditions of our sister profession, the law, many 
distinguished names are preserved. In our profession, 
there existed many men keenly alive to its interest and 
dignity, and they pursued the most direct and sensible 
way to ensure them, by establishing a Medical Society. 
It is to commemorate its foundation, it is to rescue the 
names of its founders from the partial forgetfulness 
which the lapse of time entails on most of us however 
active we may have been in our day and generation, that 
we determined to celebrate its Anniversary, and as their 8 
INCORPORATION 
legitimate successors to keep alive the lire which had 
been kindled by them. 
As all the records and books of our Society were 
destroyed by the United States soldiers who occupied 
our Hall, where I now address you, I propose to put 
upon record some reminiscences derived from older 
members of the profession, and to reproduce in full the 
Act of the Legislature of Georgia, incorporating our 
Society, as it is found in Clayton’s Compilation, which 
is now becoming a scarce work, and the Digests now 
compiled very seldom give any local law except in an 
abstract. It is entitled 
AN ACT 
Whereas, Noble Wimberly Jones, President, John 
Irvine, Vice-President, John Grimes, Secretary, Lemuel 
Kollock, Treasurer; John Gumming, James Ewell, 
Moses Sheftall, Joshua E. White, William Parker, 
Thomas Schley, George Jones, George Vinson Proctor, 
Henry Bourquin, Thomas Young, Jr., Peter Ward, 
William Cocke, James Glenn and Nicholas S. Bayard, 
have by their petition represented that they have associ- 
ated in the city of Savannah under the style and name of 
the Georgia Medical Society, for the purpose of lessen- 
ing the fatality induced by climate and incidental causes, 
and improving the science of medicine, and in order to 
ensure and establish their said Institution in a perma- 
nent and effectual manner, so that the benevolent and 
desirable objects thereof may be executed with success 
and advantage; have prayed the Legislature to grant 
them an Act of Incorporation. 
Sec. 1. Be it: enacted by the Senate and; Mouse, of Repre- 
sentatives of the State of Georgia, in General Assembly met, 
and by the authority of the same, it is hereby enacted, That 
the several persons hereinbefore named, and others who 
are or may become members thereof, and their succes- 
sor, shall be and they are hereby declared to be a body 
corporate, in name and deed, by the style aad denomina- 
tion of “ The Georgia Medical Society,.” and by the said 
name and style, shall have perpetual succession of odi- 
7o Incorporate the Georgia Medical Society.. INCORPORATION 
9 
cers and members and a common seal to use, and shall 
have power and authority to make, alter, amend, and 
change such hy-laws as may be agreed on by the mem- 
bers of the same; Prodded, Such by-laws bo not 
repugnant to the laws or the Constitution of this State 
or of the United States. 
Sec. 2. And be it farther enacted, That they shall have 
full power and authority under the style and name of 
the Georgia Medical Society, to sue for, in the name of 
their President and Vice-President, for the time being, 
and recover all such sum or sums of money as now are 
or hereafter may become due the said Society, by any 
name or style whatever, in any court of law, or at any 
tribunal having jurisdiction thereof, and the rights and 
privileges of the said Society in any court, or at any 
tribunal whatever, to defend, and also to receive, take 
and apply such bequests or donations as may be made, 
to and for the uses and purposes intended "by the said 
Society; and shall be, and are hereby declared to be 
vested with all the powers and advantages, privileges 
and immunities, of an Association or Society of people 
incorporated for the purposes and intentions of their said 
Association. 
Sec. 8. And he it farther enacted, That this Act shall he 
and is hereby declared to be deemed and considered a 
public Act to all intents and purposes whatever. 
Abraham Jackson, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
Jared Irwin, 
President of the Senate. 
Assented to, December 12, 1804. 
John Milledge, Governor. 
In their corporate capacity they nobly fulfilled their 
purpose of “ lessening the fatality induced by climate 
and incidental causes.” At that time, rice was cultivated 
on the low grounds adjacent to the city, up to the very 
door-sills of our houses. The members of our Society 
early took a decided stand, that with a semi-tropical 
climate, such as ours, there could be no worse or more 
malignant incidental causes of disease, than the stagnant 
water which remains on a rice field exposed to an ardent 10 
ADDRESS 
summer’s sun ; and the saturated soil wliieli is next ex- 
posed when the water is drained off. The first efforts ot 
the Society were directed towards the abatement of this 
evil. A plan of dry culture was proposed, that is, that 
the lands then cultivated in rice, which obligates wet 
culture, should be cultivated solely in such products as 
necessitated drainage and dry culture. I have always 
been informed that the opinion as to the propriety of 
tins course was a unanimous one. It has not been left 
to the present day to discover the prophylactic and hygi- 
enic qualities of thorough drainage. Truly has Solomon 
observed that “novelty is ignorance.” 
It was proposed to prohibit the culture of rice within 
a radius of one mile from the city limits, 33ut the rice 
lands were valuable, and the culture of rice was the most 
profitable one to which the land could be applied. It 
could not be expected that the owners of these lands 
should be the only ones to suffer pecuniary loss in the 
effort to improve the health of the city. It was accord- 
ingly proposed to buy out the right of wet culture, i e., 
to pay a stipulated price per acre for the land, and take 
a lien on it that it never should be allowed to be culti- 
vated in wet culture. But this was objected to for a long 
time by the owners who saw that the land would bo 
greatly depreciated in value by such an obligation, as it 
involved not only the abandonment of the culture of 
rice, but the necessity of keeping the land well ditched 
and drained even if it were not cultivated. Some years 
passed, and the plan was still in abeyance, but always 
actively pressed by our Society. Success crowned their 
persevering efforts. About the year 1817, the land own- 
ers came to terms; and in consideration of the sum of 
forty dollars per acre agreed to bind their lands forever 
from being cultivated in wet culture. The city of Sa- 
vannah had then a population of 4,000 people, half 
blacks, and she paid the sum of $200,000 to carry this 
project into effect; a noble monument of the liberality 11 
of her citizens, and a high tribute to the estimation in 
which our profession was held, when a sum so large in 
proportion to her population, was freely given in support 
of what many still maintained was a mere theoretical 
idea. But it was a practical idea. Never were more 
decided results produced from any given cause. 
In my early student’s life I knew personally some of 
the physicians who had practised here prior to the intro- 
duction of the dry culture system. My preceptor, the 
late Dr. Wm. E. Waring, had been one of the most 
ardent advocates of the measure, and had, as a \oung 
man, distinguished himself by a series of essays devoted 
to proving the efficacy and prospective benefit ot it. Dis. 
Bartow, Shefrall, J- C. Habersham, and Posey had all 
practiced in the city before the adoption of the measure. 
There was but one belief amongst them all, that was, 
the undoubted and positive improvement in the type of 
the climate fevers, their diminished frequency, and their 
lessened mortality. Nothing is more fixed in medical 
belief, than that the cause of malaria can be removed by 
thorough drainage. But unfortunately, this subtle poison 
can be wafted for miles, when there is no material obsta- 
cle to Stop its transmission, and while we can materially 
mitigate its effects and produce great improvements in 
certain localities, we never can eradicate the cause from 
the entire country, until our increased population would 
enable us to drain our whole country, as the fens of Lin- 
colnshire in England are drained, where what were for- 
merly pestilential bogs have been converted into fertile 
fields, and the malarial emanations from the soil which 
even in that temperate climate produced the most obsti- 
nate fevers and agues, have entirely ceased. 
I repeat, then, that the dry culture system in the 
vicinity of Savannah is a monument to the perseverance 
and good judgment of the early members of the Georgia 
Medical Society. They were men of mark in their day- 
gome of them had participated in the Revolution of 1(76, 
ADDRESS 12 
A DDR ESS 
which failed of being a Rebellion, simply because it was 
successful. 
“Treason ne’er succeeds, they say, 
Pray, what’s the reason ? 
When it does succeed. 
They never call it Treason.” 
Our predecessors were in the fortunate category of 
successful Revolutionists, asserting and maintaining the 
right of every people to select their own government, 
provided they are able to do it. If they are not, might 
becomes right, and “vce victim," “woe to the conquered,” 
is too often the doom of the conquered. Unfortunately 
for us, ice know how this has been carried out. 
First on the list of the original corporators of our 
Society stands the name of JNoble Wimberly Jones, 
President. The name of Jones is an historical one in 
the annals of Georgia, both in a political and a literary 
point of view. A distinguished physician and an ardent 
patriot, (meaning, with all deference to existing govern- 
ing powers, an asserter of the right of the people to 
choose their own mode of government,) he occupied the 
front rank in the estimation and confidence of his 
fellow-citizens. 
John Irvine, the Vice-President, was an educated 
gentleman, and although he left no lineal descendants, 
his collaterals were amongst our best citizens. 
When I come to the name of John Grimes, I must 
pause awhile. He died at the early age of 35, in 1815, 
Seldom have I been more interested in the history of 
any man, not known to me personally, than I have been 
in his. I have conversed frequently with those who had 
employed him as a family physician ; I had heard scores 
of anecdotes about him, which I cannot repeat here; I 
had heard from Hr. Waring, the most emphatic encomi- 
ums upon him. When a student in Philadelphia, the 
distinguished Hr. Physich had advised him to settle in 
Philadelphia. A native of Middle Georgia, he refused ADDRESS 
to abandon his native State, and selected Savannah for 
his residence. Never did a man acquire a more brilliant 
reputation or a more successful practice. I have always 
classed him as a man of genius, not merely a man of 
talent. 
Lemuel Kollock was the Treasurer. In my boyhood 
I knew him. Independently of his acknowledged stand- 
ing as a physician, I recollect him as a dignified and 
courteous gentleman. He is worthily represented in both 
capacities by his son, our honored past Vice-President. 
Dr. Gumming was an Irishman of a high education. 
He abandoned medicine, and was a successful merchant 
in after times; was for years, the President of the Branch 
Bank of the United States in this city. He wTas destroyed 
in the ill-fated Pulaski, in 183S; but years and fortune 
had crowned him. He left a worthy representative in 
his son, one of Savannah’s most intellectual citizens. 
James Ewell moved to the city of Washington. lie 
is the author of “Ewell’s Medical Companion,” which, 
while it cannot receive the sanction of a regular physi- 
cian, yet contains much valuable information as to the 
indigenous medicinal plants of our country. 
Moses Sheftall is one of the original corporators, whom 
it was my privilege to know personally. He had been a 
very successful physician, and was noted for his treat- 
ment of our climate fevers, when malaria was at our 
very doors; and those fevers were most virulent. He 
has left descendants amongst us wTho worthily represent 
him, although not his name, for they are female. When 
I first made his acquaintance 1 was a student, but I 
never can forget his geniality and kindness. 
Joshua E. White wTas more distinguished as a literary 
man than as a physician. His immediate descendants 
left the city many years since. 
William Parker was one whom I knew personalty. 
After a prosperous career as a physician, he retired 
from practice, and enjoyed a green old age which seldom 14 
A DDRICSS 
falls to the lot of the physician ; with an ample compe- 
tence, with the love and respect of the community. Our 
Society, as a body, attended his obsequies in the year 1838. 
Thomas Schley was from Middle Georgia. I can 
gather no particulars about him. He was a member of 
the large and influential family of that name in our State. 
George Jones was well known to me in my younger 
days. He abandoned the practice of medicine, qualified 
himself for that of law, and was raised to the bench of 
the Superior Court of the State of Georgia, and hence, 
in my knowledge of him personally, was distinguished 
as Judge Jones. Ho has left lineal descendants amongst 
us, all from the original H. W. Jones, who have always 
proved the truth of the French proverb, that “ JSoblesse 
oblige,” which I translate freely—a gentleman cannot 
forget himself. 
George Vinson Proctor was a marked man. My only 
personal recollection of him is, when I was a boy I saw 
him going up our bluff on his return from fighting a duel 
across the river, which was a way that gentlemen had 
about that time, and in these parts. From those who 
knew him wTell I have always heard that he was a very 
high-toned gentleman and a man of unquestioned ability 
in his profession, lie served during the whole war of 
1812 as a Surgeon in the Array of the United States, 
Henry Burquoin was of an old family here. He was 
a prosperous man and stood well in the community. 
Thomas Young, Jr., was an amateur practitioner, but 
he was a man of the highest culture, educated in the 
best schools of his native country, Scotland. He ever 
maintained the reputation, up to the time of his death, 
of being one of the most accomplished scholars of our 
city. 
Peter Ward was a Southern man. He left no lineal 
descendants, but his collaterals now maintain their 
original social position. 
Of William Cocke I can obtain no trace. ADDRESS 
15 
James Glenn belonged to an old Georgia family, but 
be removed to Pennsylvania shortly after the organiza- 
tion of the Society, and was a prosperous practitioner 
there for many years. 
Nicholas S. Bayard was known to me only by tradi- 
tion, as he died previously to my return from school at 
the North, lie left an irreproachable character behind 
him, and his son was for many years a leading and re- 
spected merchant in this city. 
I feel proud that I can give such a record of our ori- 
ginal founders. It shows that they were men of mark, 
and that we require but to imitate their example socially 
and professionally to leave the same untarnished char- 
acter to those who are to succeed us. 
But our Association has had its trials, and at times in 
its history, it seemed as if our profession were about to 
forego the advantages accruing to them from the liberal 
act of incorporation which created them a Society, and 
to dissolve the bands which united them as one body. 
I entered upon the practice of my profession in the year 
1830. At that time I found our Society in abeyance. 
Divisions had sprung up amongst some of our leading 
physicians, and the meetings of the Society had been 
wholly discontinued. There was a lamentable state of 
affairs in our profession. The old rules were disregarded ; 
they had no tribunal to which they could appeal in case 
of differences of opinion ; every man stood, to use a 
common expression, “on his own hook.” In the year 
1837, a reform took place. Some of us, and Ido claim 
to have taken an active part in the business, induced the 
older members of the profession, who v ere members of 
the Society, to re-organize and to admit the younger 
men who were not members into the Society. Much 
zeal and energy were displayed and the Society moved 
on with renewed vigor. For many years, the meetings 
were fully attended and many interesting essays were 
read and many animated debates were held. 16 
ADDRESS 
About the year 1852, the blight of dissension again 
101 l on our profession, and for a number of years while 
mo held together nominally, the meetings were few and 
interrupted by long intervals. During the war, the 
feociety revived, and the meetings were held with con- 
siderable regularity. After the storm of war had passed 
over and after we had got possession of our Hall, which 
had been occupied by the United States’ soldiers and 
been pillaged of our furniture and our entire library, 
the profession again closed their ranks and determined 
to seek strength in union. We have all felt the bene- 
hcial effects of this action. Our weekly meetings are 
generally looked forward to with interest. The discus- 
sion of a stated medical subject brings entertainment 
instruction. Our frequent comminglings draw closer 
the bands of friendship, and dull the edge of prejudice. 
Social ends as well as professional ones are attained. 
We have sought to keep up our Society to the highest 
standard of Medical Ethics. The promotion of that 
end has a beneficial effect on the profession in general 
and each individual member in particular. We are thus 
setting an example to the profession at large, and I am 
proud to state that never during my now long practice, 
imre I known our profession to be in a more harmonious 
condition and more actuated by elevated views as to its 
practice. Before closing, I must be allowed to express 
m/ individual thanks to you for the many manifestations 
of your confidence in so often placing me at your head 
as 1 resident. It has been a gratifying reward to me for 
any zeal I may have shown as a co-worker with you. 
In retiring from that post of honor, I shall by no 
means sink into inaction. 1 have too high an idea of the 
- If,"tjTa,nd duties of onr profession, and as long as life 
is left, I hope to co-operate with you and I hope to see 
you pursue the same harmonious and successful career 
you are now pursuing.