MEMORIAL VOLUME 
OF .THE 
TWELFTH CLASS1 
OF 
.(the fcleetic jffclteat .<$ allege 
OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 
Graduating January 28, 1875. 
“ The profession of the human healer is radically a sacred one, and con- 
nected with the higher priesthood ; or, rather, is itself the outcome and acme of 
all priesthoods, and divinest conquests of intellect here below—as will appear 
one day.”—Thomas Carlyle. 
JMew Yof(k : 
1875- Western Bank Note & Eng.Co-Ci"0*00' 
U^IeAdUtdiA, 
rou are yet Students upon the threshold of your profession, having its principal 
knowledges yet to acquire. You must learn how to ‘ minister to a min d 
diseased’as well as to prescribe for the ailments of the body; to distinguish 
between the fanciful and the philosophical.To do this you will need to study 
human nature upon the psychological side. MEMORIAL VOLUME 
OF THE 
12th glass of graduates 
OF THE 
/M Yc>r~/< 
Eclectic Medical College 
OF T1IE 
CITY OF NEW YORK. 
“HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD.” 
NEW YORK: 
1 875. “Another sign of our tinsel also marked by an analogous political movement, 
is the new importance given to the single person. Everything that tends to in- 
sulate the individual—to surround him with barriers of natural respect, so that 
each man shall feel the world as his, and man shall treat with man as a sovereign 
state with a sovereign state—tends to true union as well as greatness. ‘ I learned,’ 
said the melancholy Pestalazzi, ‘ that no man in God’s wide earth is either willing 
or able to help any other man.’ Help must come from the bosom alone. The 
scholar is that man who must take up into himself all the ability of the time, all 
the contributions of the Past, all the hopes of the Future. He must be an uni- 
versity of knowledge. If there be one lesson more than another which should 
pierce his ear, it is: The world is nothing, the man is all ; in yourself is the law 
of all nature, and you know not yet how a globule of sap ascends ; in yourself 
slumbers the whole of reason. It is for you to know all, it is for you to dare all. 
* * The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon it- 
self. There is no work for any but the decorous and the complaisant. Yeung 
men of the fairest promise, who begin life upon one theory, inflated by the moun- 
tain-winds, shined upon by all the stars of God, find the earth below not in uni- 
son with them, but are hindered from action by the disgust which the principles 
on which business is managed inspire, and turn drudges or die of disgusi—some 
of them suicides. What is the remedy? They did not yet see, and thousands 
of young men as hopeful now crowding to the barriers for the career, do not yet 
see that if the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there 
abide, the huge world will come round to him. Patience—patience ; with the 
shades of all the good and great for company ; and for solace, the perspective of 
your own infinite life ; and for work, the study and communication of principles, 
the making these instincts prevalent, the conversion of the world. * * The 
study of letters shall be no longer a name for pity, for doubt, for sensual indul- 
gence. The dread of man and the love of man shall be a wall of defense and a 
wreath of joy around all. A nation of men will for the first time exist, because 
each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul, which also inspires all men.” 
Ralph Waldo Emerson: The American Scholar. HISTORY OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. 
It is to be hoped that the present initial number of a Memorial 
Volume, by the Graduates of the Eclectic Medical College, of the 
City of New York, will be followed by similar publications by 
future classes. The record of Eclectic Medicine is too precious to 
be suffered to be lost; and it is only by efforts like this, that we 
can expect its preservation. Yet, our own professional career and 
those of students graduating heretofore and subsequently, are 
more or less involved in the matter. 
We have given the names of all the graduates of our Alma 
Mater, and so far as we could obtain them, the post-office directions 
of each, for the purpose of affording a sort of Directory for our 
entire number. A little more attention to this may make future 
Memorial volumes of more than passing interest to those whose 
names shall be there recorded. 
Our Alma Mater, the Eclectic Medical College, of the City of 
New York, has been to us something more than a mother. We 
have been carefully and patiently instructed, and our teachers, one 
and all, have shown an earnest sympathy in our future success, 
like that displayed by fathers and brothers. They have not shun- 
ned or hesitated to impart aught to us likely to prove of benefit to 
us; and we have assembled daily in the lecture room as at a family 
circle. Wherever we may go, and whatever our future experience, 
our grateful and affectionate remembrance will still cling to the 
old place of assembling and to the men who were at once our 
mentors, our instructors and friends. To them much of our future 
success will be due ; and we hope that it will be such as will assure 
them that their labors in our behalf—labors of love as they cer- 
tainly were, have not been in vain. 
James E. Briggs, M. D. 
William H. Weber, M. L). 
Franklin N. Wright, M. D. 
New York, February, 1875. MEMORIAL 
OF THE 
TWELFTH CLASS OF GRADUATES 
OF THE 
ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 
CONSTITUTION. 
Adopted January 29, 1875 
ARTICLE I. TITLE. 
This Society shall be known as The Association of the 
Graduates of the Eclectic Medical College of the City of 
New York. 
ARTICLE II. OFFICERS. 
The officers of this Association shall consist of a President, 
Vice-President, Secretary and 'Treasurer, who shall be elected 
annually. 
§ i. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to keep minutes of the 
meetings in a suitable book to be provided for that purpose, to 
conduct the correspondence of the Association, and to render such 6 
SKETCH OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
reports as may be required; and he shall, at the expiration of his 
term of office, transfer to his successor all books and papers. 
§ 2. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to collect all dues and 
pay all moneys when properly-audited accounts are presented to 
him ; and he shall give bonds satisfactory to the officers of the As- 
sociation for the faithful performance of his trust; and shall, 
further, at the expiration of his term of office, transfer to his suc- 
cessor all books, papers, moneys or property belonging to this As- 
sociation, and shall render a full and correct statement of his 
accounts at each annual meeting. 
ARTICLE HI.—AUDITING COMMITTEE. 
There shall be an Auditing Committee, consisting of the Presi- 
dent and Secretary. 
ARTICLE IV.—MEETINGS. 
There shall be, first, an Annual Meeting, held on the day follow- 
ing the Commencement Exercises of the Winter Term, and sec- 
ondly, a Special Meeting, held on the day following the Com- 
mencement Exercises of the Spring Term of the Eclectic Medical 
College of the City of New York, at such an hour and place as 
shall have been determined upon by the Association at a previous 
meeting. Seven graduates shall constitute a quorum. 
ARTICLE V.—DELINQUENT MEMBERS. 
Any member may be officially censured, invited to withdraw, or 
expelled, for conduct calculated to bring reproach upon the Asso- 
ciation, by a vote of four-fifths of the members present at a regular 
meeting ; provided that a specific charge is made in writing and 
submitted to the Auditing Committee one month previous to the 
meeting at which said action is taken. 
BY-LAWS. 
I. Essays, as soon as delivered, shall be considered the property 
of the Association, and a copy of the same shall be placed in the 
hands of the Secretary. 
II. At a regular meeting of the Association, the President shall 
appoint a Committee of three, who shall examine the various essays, 
and recommend for publication such as they deem worthy. SKETCH OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
7 
III. All Members are invited to present essays in addition to 
those appointed by the President. 
IV. The President shall appoint, with their own consent, two 
Members for Essayists at the next meeting of the Association. 
V. The Association shall appoint at each meeting, one Member 
to deliver an Address. 
THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 
The Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York, was 
incorporated by the Legislature on the 22d day of April, 1865. 
It is authorized to hold real and personal estate to the amount of 
$300,000, and to dispose of the same, the funds and property to 
be employed solely for the purpose of promoting medical science 
and instruction, and the establishment of a hospital and dispensary 
in connection with the college. 
No person over sixteen years of age, of good moral character, 
who has gone through the proper course of preliminary study,* 
and conforming to the usual rules of admission and attendance, 
can be excluded from attendance at the college. 
The Board of Trustees are empowered by the charter, upon the 
recommendation of the Faculty and Board of Censors, to grant 
* The preliminary study is perhaps most satisfactorily indicated by the General 
Law for the incorporation of Colleges and Academies, chapter 184, of the laws 
of 1853: 
Ҥ 11. The trustees of every college incorporated pursuant to this act shall 
have power to grant and confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine upon the rec- 
ommendation of the Board of Professors of said college, and at least three Cu- 
rators of the medical profession appointed by said trustees. But no person shall 
receive a diploma conferring such degree, unless he be of good moral character, 
and of the age of twenty-one years, and shall have received a good English edu- 
cation, and shall have pursued the study of medicine and the sciences connected 
therewith, for at least three years after the age of sixteen years, and have received 
instruction from some physician and surgeon fully qualified to practice his pro- 
fession until he is qualified to enter a medical college, and (except in cases here- 
after provided), shall also after that have attended two complete courses of lec- 
tures delivered in some incorporated medical college.” 8 
SKETCH OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
and confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine upon students of the 
college, aged twenty-one years, having pursued the study of medi- 
cine for three years under the supervision of a reputable physician, 
and attended at least two full terms of instruction in an incorpor- 
ated medical institution, the last of which terms shall have been 
held by this college. The Board also is empowered to confer the 
degree, either honorary or ad eundem, in pursuance of the recom- 
mendation of the Censors, upon eminent practitioners of medi- 
cine, and persons holding diplomas from other reputable incor- 
porated medical institutions. The diploma presented in testi- 
mony of the conferred degree, the statute declares “ shall entitle 
the person receiving it to all the rights and privileges, immunities 
and liabilities of physicians, as declared by the laws of this State.” 
The Corporation thus established organized in the Autumn of 
1865, making choice of the following officers : 
President, Hon. William F. Havemeyer. 
Vice-President, Willi am P. Strickland, LL. D. 
Treasurer, William Moller. 
Recording Secretary, Alexander Wilder, M. D. 
Corresponding Secretary, Henri L. Stuart. 
The following Professors were also elected : 
William Byrd Powell, M. D., Emeritus, Cerebral Pathology. 
Robert S. Newton, M. D., Operative Surgery and Surgical Diseases. 
Edwin Freeman, M. IX, Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy. 
Paul W. Allen, M. D., Theory and Practice of Medicine. 
William W. Hadley, M. D., Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 
Thomas D. Workali,, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. 
John M. Youatt, M. IX, Physiology and Pathology. 
J. Milton Sanders, M. IX, Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Toxicology. 
The building, No. 223 East Twenty-sixth street was leased, and 
a course of lectures begun in October, 1866, which was attended 
by a class of forty students. 
The First Commencement was held in the Cooper Union build- 
ing, on the evening of February, 16th, 1867. Dr. Robert S. Newton, 
President of the Faculty, occupied the chair, in the absence of 
President Havemeyer, and the degrees were conferred by Dr. 
Alexander Wilder, Secretary of the Corporation, upon a class of 
eleven; eight men and three women. 
Hon. Horace Greeley delivered the address to the graduates. 
At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees in 1867, the 
following officers were chosen: SKETCH OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
9 
President, Alexander Wilder, M. D. 
Vice-President, Dennis E. Smith, M. D. 
Treasurer, William Moli.kr. 
Recording Secretary, Hon. Martin Thatcher. 
Corresponding Secretary, Henri 1.. Stuart. 
The following were appointed Professors for the year: 
Robert S. Newton, M. D., Operative Surgery and Surgical Diseases. 
Paul W. Allen, M. I)., Theory ami Practice of Medicine. 
Edwin Freeman, M. D., Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy. 
Charles T. Hart, M. D., Physiology and Pathology. 
Isaac Spangler, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. 
William W. Hadley, M. I)., Materia Medica and Therapeutics. 
J. Milton Sanders, M. D., Chemistry. 
Prince A. Morrow, M. D., was also appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy. 
The Second Commencement was held at the Cooper Union 
building, February 8, 1868, Dr. Robert S. Newton, President of 
the Faculty, occupying the chair. 
The degrees were conferred by the President of the Corporation, 
Alexander Wilder, upon nine persons, of whom seven were men 
and two women. 
One member of the graduating class, George Lamb, died sud- 
denly two days before. 
Professor Hadley addressed the graduates, and the Hon. Horace 
Greeley then made a public address. 
The Third Commencement Exercises were held at the College 
building, No. 223 East Twenty-sixth Street, May 11, 1868. Dr. 
Alexander Wilder, the President, occupied the chair. 
The report of the Spring Class was made by Professor Paul W. 
Allen, Secretary of the Faculty. 
The President conferred the degrees upon eight graduates, of 
whom seven were men and one woman. 
Dr. J. Edwin Danelson pronounced the Valedictory Address, 
and Professor Hadley delivered the Charge to the graduates. 
The Board of Trustees at the next annual meeting made choice 
of the following officers: 
President, Alexander Wilder, M. U. 
Vice-President, Dennis E. Smith, M. D. 
Treasurer, Benjamin J. Stow, M. D. 
Recording Secretary, Hon. John F. Cleveland. 
Corresponding Secretary, Henri L. Stuaet. 10 
SKETCH OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
The following Professors were appointed, viz.: 
Joseph R. Buchanan, M. D„ Emeritus, Institutes of Medicine. 
Robert S. Newton, M. D., Operative Surgery and Surgical Diseases. 
Edwin Freeman, M. I)., Anatomy. 
J. M. F. Browne, M. D., Physiology, Pathology, and Histology. 
Paul W. Allen, M. D„ Theory and Practice of Medicine. 
William W. Hadley, M, D„ Materia Medica and Therapeutics. 
James M. Comins, M_. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. 
James Day, M. D., Chemistry. 
Dr John H. Fitch was also appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy. 
The following resolution, on motion of Dr. Alexander Wilder, 
was adopted by the Board, June 19, 1868, viz. : 
Resolved, That female students be educated in the Eclectic Medi- 
cal College of the City of New Yofk, upon the same condition 
as male students.* 
The Fourth Commencement was held at the rooms of the Col- 
lege, No. 223 East Twenty-sixth street, February 4, 1869. The 
President, Alexander Wilder, occupied the chair. 
Professor Paul W. Allen, read the report of the session, in which 
he took occasion to declare that the presence of ladies at the lec- 
tures “ had been a gratifying and perfect success.” 
The President then conferred the degree of Doctor of Medicine 
upon seven graduates, of whom six were men and one woman. 
Dr. Stowe,f M. D., of Lawrence, Massachusetts, Professor New- 
ton, and others, delivered addresses,. 
Dr. Homer L. Sweet delivered the Valedictory Address on the 
part of the graduates, and Professor Edwin Freeman addressed the 
new-made physicians. 
* This provision was afterward enacted as a part of the charter. In most of the 
Eclectic Colleges it has been in conformity with the practice, but in old school 
institutions, and those inlaid with old monkish ideas of instruction, women, 
too, have been excluded. Experience has shown that such classes are as success- 
ful as similar mixed classes in public and academic schools, and few intelligent 
persons object.—A. W. 
t Dr. Stowe died of pneumonia, on the 5th of February, 1875, greatly regretted. 
He was one of the oldest and most highly esteemed of the physicians of 
Massachusetts, a gentleman in manners, a model for his profession, and one of 
the most worthy of the representative men in Eclectic Medicine.—A. W. SKETCH OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
11 
The Fifth Commencement for the Spring term, was held at the 
rooms of the College, May 6, 1869 ; Professor William W. Had- 
ley in the chair. 
Dr. Dennis E. Smith, Vice-President of the Corporation, con- 
ferred the degree of Doctor of Medicine upon nine graduates, of 
whom seven were men and two were women. 
Charles H. Archer, M. D., delivered the Valedictory Address, 
and Professor J. M. F. Browne, the Charge to the Graduates. 
At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees in 1869, the 
following officers were chosen, viz.: 
President, Alexander Wilder, M. D. 
Vice-President, Dennis E. Smith, M. D. 
Treasurer, Benjamin J. Stow, M. I). 
Recording Secretary, Hon. John F. Cleveland. 
Corresponding Secretary, Henri L. Stuart. 
The charter having been amended to conform to the General 
Law, a Board of Censors was also lequired to be chosen. The 
following persons were accordingly elected, viz.: 
Dennis E. Smith, M. D.; Alexander Wilder, M. D. ; William Jones, M. D.; 
1’. Albert Morrow, M. D. ; Horatio E. Firth, M. D. 
The following Professors were also appointed, viz.: 
Joseph R. Buchanan, M. D., Emeritus, Institutes of Medicine. 
Robert S. Newton, M. D., Operative Surgery and Surgical Diseases. 
Edwin Frkkman, Anatomy. 
Paul W. Allen, M. D„ Theory and Practice of Medicine. 
William W. Hadley, M. D., Materia Medica and Therapeutics. 
James M. Comins, M. I)., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. 
J. M. F. Browne, M. D., Physiology and Pathology. 
J. Milton Sanders, M. 1)., Chemistry. 
II. D. Garrison, M. I)., Pharmacy. 
Frank Taber, A. M., Medical Jurisprudence. 
Dr. John H. Fitch, was also appointed Demonstrator and Adjunct Professor 
of Anatomy. 
The Sixth Commencement was held at Plympton Hall, Febru- 
ary ii, 1870. Dr. Alexander Wilder, President of the corporation, 
occupied the chair. 
Professor Edwin Freeman read the report of the session, after 
which the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon 
fourteen graduates, seven being men and seven women. 
Professor Allen addressed the new-made physicians. 12 
SKETCH OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
Professor Joseph R. Buchanan also delivered an address, like- 
wise the Rev. Charles F. Deems, of the Church of the Strangers. 
Dr. Charles H. Bronson pronounced the Valedictory on the 
part of the graduates. 
At the annual meeting of the Board of 'Trustees in 1870, the 
following officers were elected, viz.: 
President, Alexander Wilder, M. D. 
Vice President, Dennis E. Smith, M. D. 
Treasurer, Benjamin J. Stow, M. D. 
Recording Secretary, Hon. John F. Cleveland. 
Corresponding Secretary, Henri L. Stuart. 
Censors.—Dennis E. Smith, M. D. ; Alexander Wilder, M. D. ; William 
Jones, M. D.; P. Albert Morrow, M. D.; Horatio E. Firth, M. I). 
The following were appointed Professors, viz.: 
Joseph R. Buchanan, M. D., Emeritus, Institutes of Medicine. 
John F. Boynton, M. D., Emeritus, Natural Sciences. 
Robert S. Newton, M. D., Clinical Medicine and Surgery. 
Edwin Freeman, M. D., Operative Surgery and Surgical Diseases. 
Sanford Bell, M. D.. Anatomy * 
J. M. F. Browne, Physiolygy and Pathology. 
James M. Comins, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. 
Paul W. Allen, M. D., Theory and Practice of Medicine. 
R. G. Barham,f M. D., Materia Medica and Therapeutics. 
J. Milton Sanders, M. D., Chemistry. 
Henry Sanders, A. M., Pharmacy. 
Frank Taiier, A. M., Medical Jurisprudence. 
The Seventh Commencement was held at Association Hall, 
February n, 1871. 
The degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon fifteen 
graduates, thirteen men and two women. 
The President, Dr. Alexander Wilder, addressed the class, and 
Professor Paul W. Allen delivered the Charge to the graduates. 
Horace Greeley likewise addressed the graduates, recommend- 
ing them to perfect themselves in the treatment of particular 
disease, rather than follow the plan of operating with an indiffer- 
ent knowledge of various complaints. 
* Dr. Bell did not accept the position, and Dr. Henry M. Daniels was ap- 
pointed in his place. 
f Professor Barham resigned in consequence of ill health. SKETCH OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
13 
Dr. Joseph T. Ricker delivered the Valedictory address. 
A speech was delivered by Rev. E. C. Sweetser, humorous, in- 
structive, and eloquent. 
At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees for 1871, the 
officers of the preceding year were again elected. 
The following were chosen Censors . 
Dennis E. Smith, M. D.; Alexander Wilder, M. D. ; Samuel Tuthill, M. D.; 
P. A. Morrow, M. D. ; Iloratio E. Firth, M. D. 
The following Professors were also appointed, viz. : 
Robert S. Newton, M. D., Surgery. 
Paul W. Allen, M. D., Theory and Practice of Medicine. 
E. S. McClellan, M. D., Mate)ia Medica and Pharmacy. 
Robert A. Gunn, M. D., Anatomy. 
J. M. F. Browne, M. D., Physiology and Pathology. 
James M. Comins, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Childre n. 
J. Milton Sanders, M. D., Chemistry. 
Frank Taber, A. M., Medical furisprudence. 
Dr. Joseph J. Ricker, was likewise appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy. 
The Eighth Commencement took place at Association Hall, 
February 15, 1872. The President, Dr. Alexander Wilder, occu- 
pied the chair. 
The degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon eleven 
graduates, four men and seven women. 
Miss Harriet E. Cady, M. D., was awarded the prize for sustain- 
ing the best competitive examination in Physiology. 
The Valedictory was delivered by Dr. Richard Gaudern, and 
the charge to the graduates by Professor R. A Gunn. 
At the annual election of the Board of Trustees for 1872, the 
same officers as before were re-elected. 
The Board of Censors also were chosen as follows, viz : 
Dennis E. Smith, M. D.; Samuel Tuthill, M. D.; Alexander Wilder, M. D. ; 
P. A. Morrow, M. D. ; Horatio E. Firth, M. D. 
The following Professors were also selected, viz.: 
Robert S. Newton, M. D., Surgery. 
Paul W. Allen, Theory and Practice of Medicine. 
E. S. McClellan, M. D., Materia Medica and Therapeutics. 
Robert A. Gunn, M. D., Anatomy. 
J. M. F. Browne, M. D., Physiology. 
James M. Comins,* M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. 
*Dr.Comins declined this appointment, and Dr.V. A. Baker was chosen in his place. 14 
SKETCH OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
Paul Schwitzer, M. A., Chemistry. 
W. Glover, A. M., Medical Jurisprudence. 
Dr. John C. Spray was also appointed Demonstrator and adjunct Professor of 
Anatomy. 
The Ninth Commencement took place at Association Hill, 
February 19, 1873. 
The degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon seventeen 
graduates, fourteen men and three women. 
A public address was delivered by Professor Gunn on Repub- 
licanism vs. Despotism ; the Valedictory by Dr. Thomas A. Granger ; 
the Charge to the graduates by Professor K. S. McClellan. 
Professor V. A. Baker, also read an original poem, and the 
benediction was pronounced. 
At the adjourned annual meeting of the Board of Trustees, the 
following officers were chosen, viz.: 
President, Alexander Wilder, M. D. 
Vice-President, Herman Boskowitz, M. D. 
Treasurer, Richard E. Kunze, M. D. 
Recording Secretary, Roberts. Newton, M. D. 
Corresponding Secretary, Henri L. Stuart. 
Censors.—Dennis E. Smith,* M. D.; B. J. Stow,* M. D. ; Samuel Tuthill,* 
M. D.; Alexander Wilder,* M. D. ; Richard E. Kunze, M. I). 
The following were appointed Professors, viz: 
Robert S. Newton, M. D., Surgery. 
Joseph R. Buchanan, M. D., Anthropology and Institutes of Medicine. 
William H. Burnham, M. D., Anatomy. 
Alexander Wilder, M. D., Physiology and Psychological Medicine. 
Herman Boskowitz, M. D., Homoepathic Medicine. 
William Archer,M. D., Theory and Practice of Medicine. 
Jur JUS Von Meyer, M. D., Materia Medica and Therapeutics. 
James M. Comins, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. 
C. Stockton Gauntt, M. D., Chemistry. 
Hon. Norman Stratton, A. M., Medical Jurisprudence. 
The Tenth Commencement was held at the Cooper Union 
Building, February 3, 1874. 
The opening address on the status of Eclectic Medicine was de- 
livered by Professor William H. Burnham. 
* These Censors not serving, their places were filled by Drs. Simon P. Taft, 
Orson S. Gregory, and M. B. Hayden. SKETCH OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
15 
The report of the session was read by Professor Julius Von Meyer. 
The degree of Doctor of Medicine was then conferred upon the 
candidates, nine in number, of whom five were men and four women. 
The President, Dr. Alexander Wilder, on presenting the degrees, 
addressed the new-made physicians at length, appealing to them to 
assert and maintain their rank as regular physicians ; and declar- 
ing that there was no established school or hierarchy of medicine 
in this country with the powers of an established church, to lay 
down dogmas and ethics to which only those subscribing were 
regular and the only proper physicians. There was no “ apostolic 
succession ” in medicine. They had been indoctrinated in a safe 
as well as scientific school of medication—a school which has ter- 
minated blood-letting in American practice, and furnished a new 
pharmacopoeia to the world. 
Dr. J. W. Von Namee read a poem. 
The valedictory was then delivered by Miss Lucy VV. Harrison, 
M. D. It was gracefully pronounced, and elicited much applause. 
The Eleventh Commencement took place in Robinson’s Hall, 
May 16, 1874. 
Professor William Archer delivered the report of the Class, after 
which the President, Dr. Alexander Wilder, conferred the degrees 
upon eleven graduates—nine men and two women. 
Professor Newton delivered an address, also Rev.Wm P. Corbitt. 
Doctor Alonzo R. Pettit ascended the platform and read a series 
of resolutions highly eulogistic of the different instructors, their 
fidelity and thoroughness. 
The President replied, thanking the students for their good will, 
and assuring them that their sentiments wera cordially reciprocated. 
Dr. Isaac J. Brooks then delivered the valedictory of the Class 
of 1874, and the proceedings were brought to a close. 
The Annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Eclectic 
Medical College was held at the Rooms of the College, May 20, 
1874. 
The following officers were elected for the year, namely: 
President, Alexander Wilder, M. D. 
Vice-President, Herman Boskowitz, M. D. 
Treasurer, Richard E. Kunze, M. D. 
Recording Secretary, Robert S. Newton, M. D. 
Corresponding Secretary, Henri L. Stuart. 16 
SKETCH OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
Censors.—Richard E. Kunze, M. D. ; Orson S. Gregory, M. D. ; Simon P. Taft, 
M. D. ; Charles H. Archer, M. D.; Mrs. Maria B. Hayden, M. D. 
The following Professors were also appointed, viz : 
Robert S. Newton, M. D., Surgery. 
Herman Boskowitz, M. D., Institutes of Homoeopathic Medicine. 
William Archer, M. D„ Theory and Practice of Medicine. 
Julius Von Meyer, M. D., Materia Medica and Therapeutics. 
Samuel E. Mortimore, M. D., Anatomy. 
Alexander Wilder, M. D., Physiology and Psychological Medicine. 
James M. Comins, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. 
Joseph R. Buchanan, M. D., Anthropology and Institutes of Medicine. 
J. Milton Sanders, M. D., Chemistry. 
Dr. Mark Nivison was also appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy. 
The exercises of the Twelfth Commencement are given below 
at full length : 
The Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees was held at the 
Rooms of the College, May 20, 1875. 
The following officers were elected for the year, namely : 
President, Alexander Wilder, M. D. 
Vice-President, Herman Boskowitz, M. D. 
Treasurer, Benjamin Brandreth, M. 1). 
Recording Secretary, Robert S. Newton, M. D. 
Corresponding Secretary, Richard E. Kunze, M. D. 
Censors—Orson S. Gregory, M. D.; Mrs. M. B. Hayden, M. D.; Franklin N. 
Wright, M. I).; H. G. von Lillienschiold, M. D.; George Win. Winterborn, M. I). 
The following professors were also appointed : 
Robert S. Newton, M. D., Practical Medicine and Surgery. 
Joseph R. Buchanan, M. D., Anthropology and Institutes of Medicine. 
Herman Boskowitz, M. D., Institutes,of Homoeopathic Medicine. 
James M. Comins, M. I)., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. 
WlLUAM Archer, M. I)., Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology. 
Samuel E. Mortimore, M. D., Anatomy and Alind Surgery. 
Alexander Wilder, M.I)., Physiology, Pathology and Psychological Medicine, 
Materia. Medica and Therapeutics. 
William II. Wearer, Chemistry and Pharmacy. 
Mark Nivison, M. D., Demonstrator of Anatomy, and Adjunct Professor of 
A natomy. From The Medical Eclectic, March 15, 1875. 
THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE, 
TWELFTH COMMENCEMENT. 
The 28th of January, 1875, will long be remembered by the 
friends of Medical Eclecticism and the Eclectic Medical College 
of the City of New York. It was the occasion of the Twelfth 
Commencement. The exercises were held at Association Hall, 
Fourth Avenue. It was a stormy evening, and pedestrian travel- 
ing was badly incommoded ; yet an audience of several hundred 
was in attendance, a part of them from other medical colleges of 
the city. The music was furnished by Professor Francis S. Bar- 
rett, and heightened the attractiveness of the occasion. The 
graduating class are all residents of the State of New York, an 
occurrence somewhat unusual in the history of the College, and 
likely to exert a beneficial influence. 
After the performing of the overture, “ The Bronze Horse,” by 
Auber, the chair was taken by the President; and the Rev. William 
Archer offered prayer. 
The Rev. Charles Larew, of Haverstraw, N. Y., a member of 
the graduating class, delivered the oration. It contained a care- 
fully considered exposition of Eclectic Medicine, a kind and 
flattering notice of the College and its staff of instructors ; a 
history of Dr. Jacob Tidd, of New Jersey, who taught Wooster 
Beach, and so was the patriarch of the Reformed School of 
Practice, and other collateral subjects of importance. The oration 
will be found in the present number of The Medical Eclectic, 
page 43. * 
The exquisite piece of music, “Poet and Peasant,” by Luppi, 
was then performed; after which the report of the Faculty for 
the session just closed, was read by Professor James M. Comins. 
The following are the principal features : 
“ The session which has just closed is behind none which have 
preceded it, in any respect. From the opening of the College in 
* See Appendix, No. 1. 18 
ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
October last, till the present evening, there has not a single occur- 
rence taken place to mar the cordial relations between the Faculty 
and students. We have been all as one family, each in sympathy 
with the exertions of the others; sorrowing with misfortune and 
rejoicing in each other’s advantage The Faculty have on their 
part, endeavored to be thorough and faithful in their lectures, and 
the students have been diligent, laborious, and eagerly attentive. 
The result has been not only the most friendly relations, but a 
progress in technical and scientific learning that has not often been 
rivaled. 
“ The number of matriculants is 59 ; and the graduates are 
14 in number. The degree ad euridem has also been conferred 
upon eight worthy and reputable practitioners, holding diplomas 
from other institutions, and three have been awarded the Hone vy 
degree. 
“ This makes the entire list of our graduates one hundred and 
thirty-seven, besides fifty-six holding the ad eundem degree. The 
number of ladies who have received their degrees from this Col- 
lege, is thirty-seven. The great majority of them are now engaged 
in remunerative practice; a few we have lost sight of, and some 
are dead. 
“ The present class is fully equal to any that have been instructed 
in this College, and its members will hardly fail to make their mark 
wherever they may go. They deserve our best wishes, and have 
them. 
“ I am glad to be able to announce that we have hope now 
that our long-deferred hope will be realized, and that we shall 
have a new college building.* The corporation is out of debt; 
by the munificence of one gentleman we have money at interest 
ready on instant call; three others have placed in our possession real 
estate to the value of several thousand dollars more ; while several 
others have likewise given assurance that when the time shall come, 
they will not be found backward or empty-handed. We are hopeful; 
we have prospered, and never had so many, or so earnest and sin- 
cere friends, as we now have. The fire which others have kindled 
* The new college building is at No. 1 Livingston Place, where the fourteenth 
term will be held, beginning on Tuesday, October 5, 1875. TWELFTH COMMENCEMENT. 
19 
to sweep us from existence, has only served to purify us. We are 
stronger as an institution, with the public, and especially so with 
the friends of Eclectic Medicine, in this country and Great Britain, 
than ever before.” 
Dr. Comins then addressed the class in regard to their duties 
and experiences as physicians. His remarks were received with 
much satisfaction. 
At the conclusion, Dr. Robert S. Newton, Professor of Surgery, 
and President of the Faculty, announced the names of the gradu- 
ating class, as follows: 
James E. Briggs, - New York. 
Robert S. Galt, ----- “ 
Thomas J. Kilmer, 
Rev. Charles Larew, A. M., - “ 
Valentine Mott Lawyer, “ 
Albert Lewis, ----- “ 
Charles Nagel, - - -. - “ 
William W. Nims, ----- “ 
Rev. John A. Roesch, -----“ 
David L. Spaulding, - “ 
H. Gustav von Lii.lienschiold, “ 
William H. Weaber, - “ 
Franklin N. Wright, - “ 
Vincenzo Zolnowski, - “ 
The students thus called, advanced to the platform, where they 
were each welcomed by the President of the Board of Trustees, 
Dr. Alexander Wilder, who presented to them the diploma of the 
College, and addressed them as follows: 
“Gentlemen: Once more a pleasing duty has devolved upon 
me,—that of inducting you into the position and dignity which 
has been awarded you, and which, I rejoice to add, you have 
abundantly deserved. I therefore, in conformity with the suffrage 
of your instructors and of the Corporation of this College, and by 
the authority created by the laws of this State, presenting you with 
these diplomas, duly signed and sealed, hereby confer upon you, 
each and severally, the degree of Doctor of Medicine, which 
entitles you to the honors, privileges and immunities which pertain 
to the same, by the statutes and jurisprudence of this State and 
Country. With the rank and protection which this degree confers, 
are also associated the obligations and responsibilities which you 20 
ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
cannot or evade. I charge you to observe carefully the 
conditions imposed by the Hippocratic oath : that you will perform 
with fidelity the duties of your profession, that you will maintain 
its honor and dignity, preserve inviolably the secrets and confi- 
dential disclosures of your patients; that you will uphold the 
cause of science, and preserve your own lives pure and holy; and 
into whatsoever house you enter, that you go thither for the good 
of the patient, abstain from inflicting any violence or injury, and 
from leading awray any, whether man or woman, bond or free.” 
The class now resumed their seats, and Dr. Wilder continued : 
“You are now our peers in rank ; you are each and all of you 
regular physicians, the graduates of a regular School of Medicine, 
with not even a dog at liberty to raise his tongue to question your 
professional rights, character and position. The laws and juris- 
prudence of this State assure you all this, and the Federal Consti- 
tution confirms the same to you, all over our country. Never, 
therefore, permit a question, or even an innuendo to pass un- 
challenged, that is to the contrary. The highest Court of the 
State, on appeal, will sustain you. 
“ Several of your number have complained to me, that your ex- 
aminations for the degree, were more severe and extensive than in 
the other medical colleges of this city. I have not a doubt of it. 
Such has always been the case, so far as I know, since this College 
was incorporated. You have the gratification, certainly, that you 
have come honestly by your diplomas. I have for one, earnestly 
sympathized with you in these perplexities. 
“You have heard, perhaps, that a person unable to obtain a de- 
gree in other institutions, could procure one in this College. You 
now are able to see that this remark relates in no way to our 
standard of scientific knowdedge. The fact is only this—that in 
an Old School College no student, however proficient, will be al- 
lowed to take his degree, but will be ‘ plucked’ on some pretext 
or other, if it is known that he intends to become other than an 
Old School practitioner. We have never made such a test, for we 
believe in fair play. Years ago those who slandered us had power to 
procure laws making the Reformed Practice a criminal offense, and 
prevent any institution of Reformed Medicine from being charter- 
ed, as well as to withhold degrees from students in their own TWELFTH COMMENCEMENT. 
21 
colleges who might be in favor of the Reformed practice. After all 
this, they derided and calumniated our physicians as ignorant. 
“Yet the enactment of the statute in May last, requiring practi- 
tioners to have a diploma or license, found our physicians more 
generally having the legal qualifications. A large number of our 
Homoeopathic neighbors were without diplomas, and even some 
of the foremost of the Old School, and conspicuously the Presi- 
dent of the old New York County Medical Society. Such was 
the plight of those who maligned us, casting stones at us; their 
own houses were of frailest glass. 
“ You are now obligated by us to observe no Code of Ethics, 
except the Golden Rule of charity toward men. We are as old a 
school as any rival practice on this continent. As your orator 
already has shown you, Eclecticism is from Morrow, Beach and 
Tidd, and that dates back to the American Revolution. It was 
the practice largely employed at that period, when calomel, anti- 
mony and other noxious drugs, were fortunately shut out of the 
country by blockade. Our predecessors resorted to the indigenous 
herbs, and adhered to their use ; theirs returned to ‘ the weak and 
beggarly elements’ of bleeding and deadly drugs. Now, having 
revolutionized medical practice on this continent, having abolish- 
ed the torture of the sick, and let air and water into the sick- 
room, whence they were before excluded, we now assert our mis- 
sion and apostleship. 
“ My associate has already counseled you ; I have little to add. 
He is a more practical man than I am. But I beg you to main- 
tain all the kindness of heart and manner; that characterize the 
real gentleman. I hate that roughness of manner and ready un- 
kindness of speech, which I have sometimes encountered, and by 
which some men seem to think they express superiority and honesty. 
It is no characteristic of merit, excellence, or even of personal 
worth, to cultivate and display the manners of a swine or a boor. 
You are physicians only when you sympathize; and then only, 
can you be of use to patients. Preserve their confidence. Do 
not give their names to the public when you have occasion to 
allude to their ailments. 
“ Avoid running in debt. A person in debt seldom preserves 
self-respect or personal virtue. Most persons who borrow, and 
women especially, do so without ever intending to pay, in any 22 
ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
honorable manner. If you lend you must do so in the prescribed 
manner, ‘ hoping for nothing again,’ for with most debtors in this 
age, you drivel if you should hope. 
“A man should be careful in dealing with his fellows, that he 
shall not be cheated. How much more truly wise, however, if he 
could be on his guard not to cheat others. How glorious the com- 
pact of the two Frenchmen: ‘Let there be truth between us 
forever.’ 
“ We are overrun with school education. We read, hear and 
talk, a great deal. The intellectual powers are squandered in the 
demonstrating that they exist. Our schools overflow with lectures 
and books; thought and individuality seem to be at a discount. A 
man should not be so mastered. His book is but his servant. 
Any knowledge will feed the mind. Colleges teach elements; but 
they should evolve and educate rather than drill, else the student 
is made a thing, not a man. 
“ I know not the exact character of the organization that meets 
in this hall. But the names and symbols around us express 
much. Wyckliff and Luther, Wesley, Calvin and Knox, and 
quaint, English-speaking John Bunyan, all remind me of protest 
against religious domination ; the right of man to his own worship 
and his own conscience. Above us also I read the golden words of 
Augustin of Hippo : ‘ In necessariis unit as, in dubiis libertas, et in 
omnibus caritas,’—in things essential let there be unity; in matters 
doubtful, liberty ; and in all things, charity. We can hardly im- 
prove upon that, and I care not to try. But yonder is a symbolism 
more curious. You see the Alpha, the letter representing the Tree 
of Knowledge, and the Omega, which denotes the Tree of Life. 
Between the two stands the mysterious Baphomet, the symbol of 
the Templar Knights of the Middle Ages, sworn soldiers of the 
Temple and of religion. Why the device is adopted here, I may 
not inquire ; it is a good one for ourselves. We are sworn like- 
wise to a holy crusade. Our profession is oldest in history and 
noblest. The second king of the first dynasty in Egypt, living in 
a mythical antiquity, was a writer on anatomy and medicine; 
Egyptian physicians embalmed Jacob; the Egyptians were cele- 
brated as the healthiest of men, and ‘ healing medicines,’—general- 
ly herbs and balsams, were universally used. This was uncounted 
centuries before the fable of Hssculapius ; and all the kings of Asia, TWELFTH COMMENCEMENT. 
23 
the Persians notoriously, procured physicians from Egypt. So old 
was the profession ; and the person of the medical man was sacred. 
Every physician was a priest. ‘The physician,’ says Plato, ‘is 
next to God.’ 
“ Let your character and manners blazon your calling. Seek to 
overawe no one by rudeness or overbearing conduct. Only the 
diffident and sensitive will be repelled. Courtesy is the badge of 
a lady or gentleman ; kind deportment indicates the best of God’s 
creation. A palm-tree, however little cultivated, produces dates ; 
an almond can be transformed into a peach; while a thorn always 
remains a thorn. Manners are the means to fortune ; your horo- 
scope can be cast from your own person. 
“ But I will not detain you further. You go forth with our most 
cordial wishes. I regard it as propitious that you are all residents 
of this State. I would gladly place such a class, year by year, in 
the counties of New York. The State Society will thus be of one 
element with the College; and so, each strengthening the other, 
we shall be able to maintain our ground against both opposition 
and persecution. We are in the right, and therefore we shall 
stand. 
“ You go from us bearing our hearts with you. Your career is 
ours. Your success is ours. We shall always regard you as of 
our family. This is a relation which I have personally maintained 
toward every one of our graduates. Your welfare and prosperity 
will always be desired by us, and we wish you every success.” 
VALEDICTORY. 
The Valedictory was delivered by Franklin N. Wright, M. D. : 
“ Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, and you Class- 
mates : 
“ By the suffrage of my fellow-graduates, I have been chosen to 
speak the words of farewell. Entertaining no feeling of exalta- 
tion or superiority by reason of this partiality, I now proceed, with 
somewhat of depression and sorrowfulness of feeling to perform 
that duty. 
“ Taking a glance backward over our course, mingled emotions 
of joy and sadness arise at the retrospection :—joy, indeed, that 
our laborious curriculum is passed successfully, and that we have 24 
ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
achieved an honorable conclusion of our labors. But sadness 
comes up, likewise. We must dissolve these friendly associations 
and lake our place elsewhere, in active life, where, perhaps, we shall 
strive painfully, even though bravely, against difficulties, if we do not 
content ourselves to float supinely, idly and listlessly, down the cur- 
rent, to find a Utopia, or, more probably, an outward oblivion. 
“ Arduous our course certainly has beer, and severe have been 
the questionings and repeated examinations which we have re- 
ceived. Yet, if our future have no hours darker than those which 
we have experienced in these associations, we shall be indeed for- 
tunate. Let the events of this day spur us on to new effort, and to 
enthusiastic, I had almost said, to enthusiastic zeal, in our chosen 
profession. 
“ For our Aimi Mater, the Eclectic Medical College, of New 
York, we see the highest prospects in the immediate future. 
Generous benefactors have provided that a new building shall be 
procured for the future sessions, worthy of the institution, of its 
patrons and instructors, and worthy of the cause of Eclectic 
Medicine. There are such men in the Board of Management, and 
we hope that the munificence of a Boskowitz, a Shewell, a Bran- 
dreth, a Lewis and a Lillienschiold may be seconded by other 
noble and energetic persons, and endeavors, as will assure to us an 
academical structure that shall be the assurance and harbinger of 
a glorious and prosperous career. Then a brighter day will come 
to our noble school of Reformed Medicine ; we shall be enabled 
to emulate the achievements of our rivals; we shall stand peers to 
all our brethren, East, West, South, and away over the ocean, in 
Great Britain. The laurels of a Bennett, a Hitchman and Sexton 
in the other hemisphere, will be complemented by the garlands de- 
servedly worn by a Newton, John Stowe, a Johnson, Buchanan and 
Powell, in our own country. When the beneficence of those who 
have befriended this College shall have made it what is now con- 
templated, and we trust before this present season is completed— 
we hope to have a college edifice creditable in appearance, with all 
the necessary appointments for the successful promotion of study, 
with the Faculty enlarged and the advantages to students also 
proportionally augmented. This has been promised ; the way has 
been opened, and we are sanguine that the inducements thus 
freely offered will be abundantly realized. “ Having among our alumni representatives from almost every 
State in the Federal Union, and students from distant lands, the 
influence of our College will spread more and more widely, and 
our future classes will be increased in numbers. Such success, we 
trust, will be deserved. Indeed, we do not doubt it. Our Re- 
formed School of Medicine can find their principles fairly, fully 
and successfully taught nowhere except in an Eclectic College. 
The medical practice of the future must be Eclectic. Its doctrines 
are essentially and fundamentally distinct from all others ; and 
they must increase in favor as they are better understood, because 
they are not only broad and complete in their scope, but because 
they are founded on common sense. 
“ Let God’s medicines skillfully employed, assist the enfeebled 
forces of nature and restore the debilitated energies. This is 
Eclectic doctrine. But never let agents be administered which 
are known to be injurious and poisonous in their character, having 
no necessity or justification for their use ; but let the current of 
life coursing through the body to cleanse and renew it, be drawn 
from its appointed course and office. 
“ For our Professors we have thoughts only of respect and love. 
We cannot expect that this our esteem will be as fully recipro- 
cated by them; for while they have been our sole instructors, we 
constitute only one out of the many classes that they have con- 
ducted thus through the appointed curriculum ; and as we now go 
forth upon our career, another like group of hopeful and aspiring 
students take our place and require their care and attention. We 
know not whether the love of young, untried hearts is of value to 
such men ; but such as it is, it is the only tribute which we can 
offer them, and we bestow it freely and from our hearts. 
“To those on whom our mantles will descend, who will take 
our places in the lecture-rooms, at the scalpel, and in the laboratory, 
we leave our best wishes, trusting that with the enlarged opportu- 
nities which our College will afford them, their attainments will be 
proportionately increased, and that we shall have abundant reason 
to esteem them as being not unworthy of those who have preceded 
them. 
“We have always regarded it as cause for congratulation that 
this College invites and welcomes women who come to participate 
in its advantages. Generally, our institutions for professional and 
TWELFTH COMMENCEMENT. 
25 26 
ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
higher education have withheld from the female sex the oppor- 
tunities for culture which have been abundantly afforded to their 
more robust brothers. Many even question to which sex Nature 
has been more liberal in her endowments. Every college has been 
but a convent for uncowled monks. Women have been routed 
out of the medical and other professions which they once exer- 
cised ; and girls have been kept away from school, or instructed 
only in institutions where they would be taught superficially. 
Even a learned professor in Harvard College, eager perhaps to 
keep every innovation from that ancient temple of knowledge, has 
taught us marvelously in regard to the building of a brain, female 
and male ; and has ventured to assert that a girl during the grow- 
ing period, owing to certain physiological peculiarities, ‘ will not 
have as much power left for the tasks of the school, as the boy of 
whom Nature requires less at the corresponding epoch,’ and that 
‘ identical education of the two sexes is a crime before God and 
humanity, that physiology protests against, and that experience 
weeps over.’ It is, perhaps, too arrogant for an unfledged gradu- 
ate to question utterances of a pundit so learned and a physician 
of broad experience; but we must remark that vitality is essen- 
tially superior in all females, and that unphysiological habits, more 
than college curricula and scientific study are prone to debilitate 
and unsex them. There is, as has been already mentioned, more 
actual capacity for hard study. When youths and maidens are in 
school together, there is a natural, divine, eternal law, by the oper- 
ation of which the presence cf each sex incites, inspires and 
strengthens the other. Nor can we believe that high culture of the 
mind tends to debility of the physical constitution, whether in man 
or woman. Let us then, stand for culture to develop perfect man- 
hood and perfect womanhood, as the means of long life, and what 
is better, a full life. The more completely our education is after 
the model of Nature, the more perfectly will we realize its grand 
purposes. 
“As a matter of principle, and in contravention of the unworthy 
idea that young men will not attend our college because women are 
taught there, we trust our successors, our Faculty, and Board of 
Trustees will reply in the appropriate words of Emerson : 
“ ‘Let it not be recorded in our own memories, that in this mo- 
ment of the Eternity, when we who were named by our names TWELFTH COMMENCEMENT. 
27 
flitted across the light, we were afraid of any fact, or disgraced the 
fair Day by a pusillanimous preference of our bread to our free- 
dom.’ 
“ Laying aside all carping about ‘ relative superiority,’ let it be 
the ambition of our students of either sex to cultivate their intel- 
lectual powers and render themselves useful in the highest degree 
in their profession. It is comparatively small importance to whom 
Nature has been more generous or partial, if each, with like fidelity, 
shall employ their faculties to the fullest extent in promoting the 
best interests of humanity. 
“ Our sisters here will bear me witness that they have been 
saluted by us with no ribald jest or entendre to shock their modesty, 
or dishearten them from engaging in like pursuits and competition 
with ‘the sterner sex;’ at the same time, we have not striven to 
flatter them into an idea that they are of a more angelic mould, 
or persuade them that their charms are by no means heightened in 
our estimation by culture of the intellect. 
“ Associates ! memory will always fondly recall faces and forms 
of classmates, and will return and linger over those scenes of com- 
bined work and enjoyment. But these reveries must be brief. 
These diplomas are passports over no royal highway of ease, by 
which we may attain the objects of life. They are mandates to 
labor in the vineyard of God. Accept them with no levity, for 
they bring with them a responsibility that requires stout and brave 
hearts to sustain. Your lives must be lives of devotion, and when 
need comes, of sacrifice. Prepare therefore, to surrender your 
comforts, enjoyments, health, and even life for others, whether you 
expect pecuniary recompense or not; to leave your book with the 
page unfinished ; to rise from a meal untasted ; to be roused from 
your couch at midnight to encounter the rude storm ; to be able 
no more to call an hour your own in which you are not liable to 
be called away, as the feudal lord might summon his vassals. 
“ Let me quote from an address by a clergyman of the Church 
of England to his clerical brethren : 
“ ‘ Men are pleased to call you Reverend, but if such a title be- 
longs to any profession on this earth, it belongs to the doctor. 
He it is, who, in some degree at least, is making himself Christ to 
the suffering and sorrowing among mankind ; he it is who turns 
out of his bed at midnight to cool the poor man’s burning lips, or 
succor a woman with the tenderest efforts of his skill,—who can 28 
ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
never pay him a sixpence, whether her infant lives or not. What 
you do cheerfully once in a day, he does as a matter of business 
all day long. Your work is but baby’s play compared to his.’ 
“ But our picture must not be all shadow. Brighter tints and 
stretches of sunshine will relieve the heavier background. A 
pleasanter union of mental and physical labor than that of a phy- 
sician cannot be undertaken. Thus, likewise, he has the gratitude 
of the suffering and convalescent, which I may remark, is pretty 
sure to continue—at least till his bill for services is presented. 
“ Most persons desire their days upon the earth may be long and 
as free from discomfort as possible ; and the physician is expected 
to enable them to realize this wish. He may not, indeed, be suc- 
cessful enough to prolong life beyond its appointed span ; but cer- 
tainly he has almost absolute control over physical suffering. 
Man’s entrance into life and his departure may be as peaceful as 
the beginning and end of a ship’s voyage, leaving a protected har- 
bor, and after a voyage, perhaps of storm and vicissitude, entering 
a friendly port. 
“ Perhaps our experience does not warrant us in the offering of 
advice; but permit us to assume a silver-browed wisdom for the 
nonce. 
“ Improve your leisure, which will probably be most abundant, 
in the possession of young practitioners. 
“ Preserve inviolate your promises. 
“ Mix your medicine with brains. 
“ Do not suppose that you can obtain ‘ the golden fleece’ with- 
out brave endeavor. 
“ He who would walk the mountain-top must climb there. 
“ Labor for the honor of your profession, your country and your 
God. 
“ To-night, classmates, closes our three-years’ course. Three 
years! Three waves of Eternity’s vast, boundless ocean, on 
which our barques have neared and hailed each other, floated side 
by side toward their destination, and now, sadly parting, drift 
away. 
"Before concluding, I will now, in the name of the Graduating 
Class, thank you, our Professors, for the many kindnesses that we 
have experienced at your hands, as well as for your faithful teach- 
ings and the fatherly interest which you, one and all, have taken in TWELFTH COMMENCEMENT. 
29 
us. To you, in a great measure, is due our success as graduates. 
The world is indebted to you for your labor and discoveries. 
You may not receive the meed in your life-time, but in the final 
hour, close your eyes with the consciousness, that however the de- 
served credit has been withheld from you, future generations will 
bless your memory. In this moment, when the relations between 
us are about to be severed, let me say to you, that you are esteem- 
ed highly and beloved by us all, and that the remembrance of you, 
will be preserved in the most sacred chamber of our hearts. 
Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for your attendance here 
this evening, and for the interest which you have taken in these 
commencement exercises. To-morrow will behold us scattered 
to distant parts of our State. May we hope that whithersoever 
you go, or whatever may be our lot, you will give us as your beni- 
son, your warmest sympathies,-your sincere wishes for our welfare.” 
The benediction was pronounced by the Rev. Charles Larew, 
M. I)., after which the music struck up the March “ The Class of 
’75,” and the memorable exercises of the Twelfth Commencement 
of the Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York, were 
concluded. ALUMNI 
OF THE 
ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
OF THE 
CITY OF NEW YORK. 
CLASS OF 1866-7. 
NAMES, P. O. WHEN KNOWN. 
Bricker, John Ladora, Iowa. 
Conaway, John Brooklyn, Iowa. 
Dolley, Charles W .' Michigan. 
Hayden, William R Bedford Springs, Mass. 
Hayden, Mrs. Maria B 437 Fourth Avenue, New York City. 
Merwin, William R Middle Granville, Washington Co., N. Y. 
Millington, Edwin H Hancock, N. Y. 
Morris, James A. New Jersey. 
Mix, Mrs. Josephine B 149 E. Fifty-first Street, New York City. 
Morrow, P. Albert 113 W. Thirty-Fourth Street, New York City. 
Pratt, Miss H. H New York. 
Wilcocks, David 650 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
AD EUNDEM. 
Boskowitz, Herman 137 Duffield Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Firth, Horatio E 191 Carlton Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Henshall, lames A Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 
Jackson, Joseph Boston, Mass. 
Miles, C. Edwin Boston Highlands, Mass. 
Prettyman, John S. Milford, Delaware. 
Smith, Dennis E 131 Fort Greene Place, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Stow, Benjamin J 213 Nassau StreeJ, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Sweet, Homer M. (deceased) New’York 
CLASS OF 1867-8. 
Bogart, D. P Brighton, Ontario. 
Comins, James M 345 Lexington Avenue, New York City. 
Danelson, James Edwin 532 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Day, James Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Firth, Lambson B 435 Hudson Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Harvey, Elias Belcher, N. Y. ALUMNI OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
31 
NAMES. P. O. WHEN KNOWN. 
Lamb, George (deceased) Rockland, New Brunswick. 
Simons, O. H Jamestown, Chautauqua Co., N. Y. 
Teed, Cyrus R New York. 
AD EUNDEM. 
Cooper, Henry C Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Nivison, Miss Anna T 565 Orange Street, Newark, N. J. 
Norton, Mrs. H. L Louisville, Kentucky. 
CLASS OF 1868 (Spring). 
Andrews, Mrs. E. B. (deceased) New York City. 
Battleson, George Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Belknap, M. C Albion, Michigan. 
Callahan, Dennis Hillsborough, Highland Co., Ohio. 
Danelson, J. Edwin 120 Lexington Avenue, N. Y. City. 
Fitch, John H New Scotland, Albany Co., N. Y. 
Geddes, William...... Mass. 
Kunze, Richard E 606 Third Avenue, New York City. 
AD EUNDEM. 
Bowlsby, William H Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Browne, J. M. F 
Gunning, J. H 
Hamilton, C. T. (deceased) Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Huyler, Edward P 77 Amity Street, New York City. 
Jamieson, John Cincinnati, Ohio. 
HONORARY. 
Fishblatt, Edward Newark, N. J. 
Plumbe, Edward O New York. 
Stanton, Lyman (deceased) Copenhagen, N. Y. 
Skelton, John Leeds, England. 
Totman, Calvin S Syracuse, N. Y. 
Archer, Mrs. Hannah E Paterson, N. J. 
Archer, William Paterson, N. J. 
Berry, Thaddeus, C. S Houlton, Arostook Co., Maine. 
Linquist, Maurice F New Haven, Ct. 
Miller, Isaac S 108 Washington Street, Hartford, Conn. 
Starr, George O Rye, Westchester Co., N. Y. 
Sweet, Homer L New Hampshire. 
CLASS OF 1868-9. 32 
ALUMNI OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
CLASS OF 1869 (Spring). 
NAMES. P. O. WHEN KNOWN. 
Allen, William A Flushing, Queens Co., N. Y. 
Archer, Charles Ii Weehawken, N. J. 
Brown, Mrs. Electa A 19 Congress Avenue, Chelsea, Mass. 
Chapman, Benj. F 345 Cumberland St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Cheesebrough, William D 223 East Twenty-sixth St., N. Y. City. 
Ostrander, Mrs. Zitella 161 East 28th St., New York City. 
Roe, Sylvester, Jr Wappinger’s Falls, Dutchess Co., N. Y. 
Shattuck, L. A Bridgeport, Conn. 
Smith, William J New York. 
AD EUNDEM. 
De Witt, E. W Arkansas. 
Geddes, R. W. Winchendon, Mass. 
Perkins, T. S. (deceased) Boston, Mass. 
HONORARY. 
Church, William D Kingston, Luzerne Co., Penn. 
Crane, Oliver Carbondale, Penn. 
Hyde, John J .Brooklyn, New York. 
Jones, William ... Newburgh, N. Y. 
McCartney, John Dublin, Ireland. 
Tuthill, Samuel Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
Banker, William.. 144 Broadway, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Bronson, Charles H New York. 
Dewey, Miss Mary E . Fort Ann. N. Y. 
Goodspeed, Miss Helen A .. .Worcester, Mass. 
Hathaway (now Haring), Mrs. Maria Newark, N. J. 
Jackson, J. W. C 2 St James avenue, Boston, Mass. 
Kelly, Peter Oran, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y. 
Mason, James J New York. 
Miller, Mrs. Margaret A 58 Dey Street, New York City. 
Phelps, Mrs. Lovisa J Syracuse, N. Y. 
Rockwell, John A. (deceased) Hartford, Conn. 
Smith, Le Roy A .”. .Hartford, Conn. 
Smith, Marie Louisa (now Mrs. B. F. Chapman) Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Van Kirk, Mrs. Harriet P Health Institute, Owego, N. Y. 
AD EUNDEM. 
Eaton, Edward Byrom China. 
Hitchman, William. .....; Liverpool, England. 
Horton, John Brooklyn, N. Y. 
CLA.'S OF 1869-70 OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 
33 
NAMES. P. O. WHEN KNOWN. 
Jacobson, Adolphus E 5 Lafayette Place, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Mansfield, Charles Worcester, Mass. 
Sprague, Romulus C Greenville, Illinois. 
Von Meyer, Julius West Twenty-fourth St., New York City. 
Wolff, Gabriel J 251 East Tenth street, New York City. 
HONORARY. 
Browne, D. J Ireland. 
Dunkley, William W Liverpool, England. 
Highett, Charles .' London, England. 
Merkel, Gottfried Herman 52 Harrison Avenue, Boston, Mass. 
Webb, Edward L London, England. 
CLASS OF 1870-71 
Aisbitt, Matthew S Irving Station, Westmoreland Co., Penn. 
Bishop, Midas E New Russia, Essex Co., N. Y. 
Chase, George W Mass. 
Dickens, J. R. M Boston, Mass. 
Firth, Mrs. Elizabeth 191 Carlton Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Griffith, Joseph (deceased) N. J. 
Gordon, Edward S Troisnot, N. C. 
Hynan, Peter N. Y. 
Jewett, Nathaniel Ashburnham, Mass. 
Morgan, Elihu R Shelburne Falls, Mass. 
Parks, Mrs. Marie J. Warsaw, Ind. 
Prankard, William New York. 
Ricker, Joseph T Ohio. 
Ripley, Edwin M Wing Station, Westchester Co., N. Y. 
Simms, Joseph West Exeter, Otsego Co., N. Y. 
AD EUNDEM. 
Aspinwall, William .Liverpool, England. 
Bayley, Robert L Liverpool, England. 
Davidson, Samuel N. Y. City. 
Lamb, George England. 
Lewis, William Leeds, England. 
Preston, Elisha S..» Rochester, N. Y. 
Smith, William T. Y England. 
Smythe, Samuel Wesley.. Burlington, Vt. 
Sohl, Henricus Boston, Mass. 
HONORARY. 
Carpenter, George W Forestville, Chautauqua Co., N. Y. 
Clark, Samuel Lawrence, Illinois. 34 
ALUMNI OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
NAMES. P. O. WHEN KNOWN. 
Fox, Albert Pawling, Dutchess Co., New York. 
Jacques, Joseph (deceased) Bridgeport, Conn. 
Johnson, William S Milton, Vermont. 
Morehouse, E. M Owatonna, Minnesota. 
Price,V. Clarence Waukegan, 111. 
Sharp, James J New York. 
Cady, Miss Harriet E* 427 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
De Baun, Alice (now Mrs. Burdick)..351 W.Thirty-fourth St., N.Y. City. 
Davis, Eber E New York. 
Dickenson, Mrs. Martha Conn. 
Ensign, Mrs. Jennie 357 West 34th St., N. Y. City. 
Gaudern, Richard Pioneer, Ohio. 
Lacy, Mrs. Mary L. W Ithaca, N. Y. 
Pratt, Mrs. Seraphina E Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Ralston, Annie Bell Creek, Nebraska. 
Rich, Francis M New York. 
Young, William H. A Vermont. 
AD EUNDEM 
Adams, Henry L., R.C.P ,. .London, England. 
Currie, George England. 
Fitzgerald, Augustin F., R.C.P London, England. 
Gregory, John England. 
More, James Huson England. 
Staff, George, T. A England. 
Sidney, A. W Fitchburg, Mass. 
HONORARY. 
Borden, Lewis H .Patterson, N. Y. 
Brooks, Abel D... Irving, Chautauqua Co., N. Y. 
Goodale, J. R Pawtucket, Rhode Island. 
Jordan, Lewis J 57 East 10th Street, New York City. 
Jordan, Philip J Philadelphia, Penn. 
CLASS OF 1871-2. 
CLASS OF 1872-3. 
Allen, Henry A .New York City. 
Bond, Miss Mary E 120 Lexington Avenue, New York City. 
Borden, David P Paterson, N. J. 
Cahill, Henry H Hartford, Conn. 
Clow, William New York. 
* Miss Cady carried off Prof. Browne’s prize as the most proficient student in Physiology. OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 
35 
NAMES. P. O. WHEN KNOWN, 
Crans, A. F Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Dye, John H Buffalo, N. Y. 
Gaillard, D. A 108 Spring Street, New York City. 
Granger, Thomas A Nineteenth Street, New York City. 
Griswold, Charles E 159 Willoughby St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Holland, Mrs. Mary A (now Mrs. D. A. Gaillard) N. Y. City. 
Jarvis, Wallace New York. 
Lamont,‘James West Henrietta, Monroe Co., New York. 
Mortimore, Samuel E Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York City. 
Munn, Howard E j Naugatuck, Conn. 
Nivison, Mrs. Mary C Scranton, Penn. 
Simmons, George Charlotteville, Schoharie Co., New York. 
AD EUNDEM. 
Baker, Florace L Blissfield, Michigan. 
Butterfield, E. F Syracuse, N. Y. 
HONORARY. 
Fletcher, George Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Shewed, Mrs. Elizabeth A 159 Warren Avenue, Boston, Mass. 
CLASS OF 1873-4. 
Cooper, George 427 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Elliott, John A New York City. 
Harrison, Miss Lucy W Jacksonville, N. Y. 
Hungerford, Edwin Avon, Livingston Co., N. Y. 
Kennedy, Edward H Brooklyn, N. Y. 
McEntee, Miss Sara Kingston, N. Y. 
Ormandy, Miss Mara W. (now Mrs. I. J. Brooks) New Haven, Ct. 
Quinn, John C New York City. 
Young, Mrs. Mary C Five Corners, Cayuga Co., N. Y. 
AD EUNDEM. 
Kay, Mrs. Alice England. 
Sweeny, Henry J 5 Temple Place, Boston, Mass. 
HONORARY. 
Burnham, Mrs. Carrie A. M Sixth Avenue, New York City. 
Frankenstein, George L New York City. 
House, George V 683 Broadway, New York City. 
Taft, Simon P 28 Fulton Street, Newark, N. J. 
ALSO, 
Burnham, Professor William H Sixth Avenue, New York City. 
Newton, Robert S 137 W. Forty-seventh St., N. Y. City. 
Wilder, Alexander 137 W. Forty-seventh St., N. Y. City. 36 
ALUMNI OF THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE 
CLASS OF 1874 (Spring). 
NAMES. P. O. WHEN KNOWN. 
Brooks, Isaac J New Haven, Conn. 
Cooley, Mrs. Ada E New York City. 
Crowell, Willis E Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Davison, David. St. Louis, Mo. 
Furber, Henry (deceased) N. J. 
Holcomb, Almeron J Jersey City. 
Lyons, Theodore D New York City. 
Montague, Miss Hattie Paterson, N. J. 
Nivison, Mark 565 Orange Street, Newark, N. J. 
Pettit, Alonzo E Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Scharlach, Fernando L. L New York City. 
Whitehead, Isaac P Rahway, N. J. 
Wright, James E New York City. 
AD EUNDEM. 
Cook, C. F San Francisco, Cal. 
Dike, Mrs. Jennie S Brooklyn, N Y. 
Wells, Henry Entre Rios, Argentine Republic, S. A. 
HONORARY. 
Davis, Orin Attica, N. Y. 
Hamilton, Robert Saratoga Springs, N. Y. 
Pease, Harman Schenectady, N. Y. 
CLASS OF 1874-5 
Briggs, James E 24 Fourth Street, New York City. 
Galt, Robert S Cherry Valley, Ostego Co., New York. 
Kilmer, Thomas J Schoharie Court House, N. Y. 
Larew, Charles Haverstraw, Rockland Co., N. Y. 
Lawyer, Valentine Mott Schoharie Co., N. Y. 
Lewis Albert 242 Hudson Street, Hoboken, N. J. 
Nagel, Charles 202 West 36th Street., New York City. 
Nims, William W Yates Block, Syracuse, N. Y. 
Roesch, John A 345 East 4th Street, New York City. 
Spaulding, David L Summit, Schoharie Co., N. Y. 
Von Lillienschiold, H. Gustav 33 Union Place, Greenpoint, N. Y. 
Weaber, William H West 104th Street, New York City. 
Wright, Franklin N 226 West Tenth Street, New York City. 
Zolnowski, Vincenzo 303 W. Twenty-first Street, New York City. 
AD EUNDEM 
Bone, Lewis H 106 W. Sixteenth Street, New York City. 
Brandreth, Benjamin Sing Sing, N. Y. 
Hamilton, Robert Saratoga Springs, N. Y. OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 
37 
NAMES. p. o. WHEN KNOWN. 
Liston, Robert Albany, N. Y. 
Mattocks, James E Sing Sing, N. Y. 
Newby, George 160 West Sixteenth Street, New York City. 
Valentiny, Charles Henry 100 Sackett St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
White, Russell J Buffalo, N. Y. 
Youngman, Leopold 293 Sackett St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
HONORARY. 
Blankman, Mitchell A New York City. 
Greenleaf, C. T Brewerton, Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
Lozier, Mrs. Clemence S Fourteenth Street, N. Y. City. 
CLASS OF 1875 (Spring). 
Bruce, Hiram M Woodside, N. J. 
Filkins, Morgan Lewis Albany, N. Y. 
Filkins, Welcome Lewis. Albany, N. Y. 
Hayward, Mrs. Isabel P Lynn, Mass. 
Holton, Mrs. Adelaide T Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Jones, Alfred F Brooklyn, N. Y. 
McDonogh, Dan’l K New Orleans, La. 
McGauran, George D 303 East 59th St., New York City. 
McLeish, John New York City. 
Ovens, Charles Edward New York City. 
Stephens, Philetus J 216 West 34th Street, N. Y. City. 
Wilcox, Theodore S Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Winterburn, Charles New York City. 
Winterburn, George William New York City. 
AD EUNDEM. 
Adams, Mrs. Elizabeth S West 21st Street, New York City. 
Althenhain, Mrs. Elise New York City. 
Drescher, Luis New York City. 
HONORARY. 
Lukens, Joseph Nevada. 
Westcott, J. H 627 Shawmut Ave., Boston, Mass. HISTORY OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 
[ Journal. J 
The first meeting of the Graduates of the Eclectic Medical Col- 
lege, of the City of New York, for the purpose of alumnal organi- 
zation, was held at the rooms of the College, No. 223 East 26th 
Street, New York City, May j i, 1868. J. Edwin Danelson, M. D., 
was called to the chair, and a ballot taken for the election of per- 
manent officers, resulting in the following choice, viz.: 
President, James M. Comins, M. D. 
Vice-President, J. Edwin DanelsOn, M. D. 
Secretary, James Day, M. D 
Treasurer, John PI. Fitch, M. D. 
A Committee on Constitution and By-Laws was appointed, 
consisting of Doctors Day, Fitch, and H. C. Cooper, the Presi- 
dent acting with them; and the meeting adjourned till the evening 
of the next day. 
On coming together, the Committee reported the draft of aCon. 
stitution and which was accepted, adopted, and after 
being engrossed, was signed by those present. The name of the 
organization thus created was “ The Alumni Association of the 
Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York." 
Resolutions were adopted acknowledging the kindness and 
courtesy of Dr. Richard E. Kunze, for presenting to the College 
many valuable s] ecimens of Materia Medica; and also to Dr. 
James Day, for the instructions which he had rendered in Phar- 
macy, Chemistry, and Uroscopy. 
Dr. Comins was designated to deliver the Annual Address at the 
next meeting, and after some further business the Association ad- 
journed. 
SECOND MEETING. 
The next meeting was held at the rooms of the Eclectic Medi- 
cal College, February 5, 1869. 
Reports were made showing the affairs of the Association in a 
highly prosperous condition. ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
39 
The following officers were elected : 
President, James Day, M. D. 
Vice-President, William Archer, M. D. 
Secretary, George O. Starr, M. D. 
Treasurer, John H. Fitch, M. D. 
The retiring President, Dr. Comins, addressed the Society. 
Resolutions were adopted appointing the new President to de- 
liver the next Annual Address; requesting Professor Paul W. Allen 
to deliver an humorous address, and the other Professors of the 
College to attend at the next meeting and make addresses. 
Dr. William Archer was designated to read an original poem ; 
and P. A. Morrow, M. D., and John H. Fitch, M. IJ., were ap- 
pointed Essayists. 
A resolution was also adopted, on motion of Dr. Archer, that an 
album be prepared to contain the photographic pictures and an 
autograp . of each member of the Association. 
Another resolution was also adopted, on motion of Dr. Comins> 
to have an Alumni d.nner annually at such time and place as the 
officers of the Association shall designate. 
After remarks and further business the Association adjourned. 
SPECIAL MEETING. 
A special meeting was held May 5, 1869, at the close of the 
Spring Term of the College. President Day occupied the chair. 
An Order of Business was adopted, which appears to have been 
the principal business transacted. 
[It has not been possible to procure any further history of the 
proceedings before 1874. Several meetings were held, and busi- 
ness was transacted, the records of which have been lost.] 
ANNUAL MEETING IN 1874. 
On the 4th of February, 1874, the graduates and others met 
with the Alumni Association. The chair was taken by the Presi- 
dent, Dr. Wm. Archer, and in the absence of Dr. J. H Fitch, the 
Secietary, Professor Julius Von Meyer was chosen temporary 
Secretary. 
The explanation was made that the Association, owing to the 
absence of the President and the prolonged illness of the Secretary, 
had not met for two years past. 
The several graduates of the class of 1873-4 were elected to 
membership ; also, Professors Newton, Burnham and Wilder. 40 
HISTORY OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. 
A committee was appointed to prepare a diploma of member- 
ship, consisting of Doctors Burnham, Wilder and Boskowitz. 
At the afternoon session, addresses were delivered by the Presi- 
dent, Doctors Mortimore and Burnham. 
The election of officers was next held, with the following re- 
sult : 
President, Alexander Wilder, M. D. 
Vice-President, Sylvester Roe, Jr., M. D. 
Secretary, Julius Von Meyer, M. D. 
Treasurer, Mrs. Maria B. Hayden, M. D. 
A discussion took place upon the proper treatment of Pleuro- 
Pneumonia. 
Dr. William H. Burnham read an original poem. 
The subject selected for discussion at the next meeting of the 
Association was “ Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis.” 
A resolution was adopted requesting the members to prepare 
essays for the next meeting. 
The Association adjourned to meet on the day succeeding the 
Commencement for the ensuing Spring Term of the College. 
SECOND MEETING IN 1874. 
The special meeting of the Association was held, pursuant to 
adjournment, at the rooms of the Eclecdc Medical College, May 
29, 1874, and was called to order by the President. The minutes 
at the annual meeting were read and approved; after which, these 
graduates for the Spring Term were duly elected to membership. 
The constitution was amended to reduce the initiation fee to 
two dollars. 
The Committee on Diploma reported that the financid condi- 
tion of the Association would not warrant the expense which it 
had been proposed to incur. The report was accepted, the com- 
mittee discharged, and a new committee appointed to prepare a 
simpler design, ready for delivery at the next meeting. Doctors 
S. Roe, Alonzo E. Pettit, and W. E. Crowell were so appointed. 
Doctors William Archer, Herman Boskowitz, and George Cooper 
were appointed a committee to provide an entertainment for the 
Association at its annual meeting. 
The subject of “ Epidemic Diseases ” was proposed for discus- 
sion at the next annual meeting. 
The Association then adjourned. ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
41 
ANNUAL MEETING FOR 1875. 
The annual meeting of the Alumni Association of the Eclectic 
Medical College of the City of New York for the year 1875, was 
held at the rooms of the College, on the morning succeeding the 
Annual Commencement, January 29, 1875. 
The meeting was called to order by the President, Alexander 
Wilder, M. D. The minutes of the last meeting were read and 
approved. 
The graduates of the preceding term were duly proposed and 
elected to membership, viz : 
Mitchell A. Blankman, M. D. 
James E. Briggs, M. D. 
Robert S. Galt, M. D. 
Thomas J. Killmer, M. D. 
Charles Larew, M. D. 
Valentine Mott Lawyer, M. D. 
Albert Lewis, M. D. 
Charles Nagle, M. D. 
William W. Nims, M. D. 
John A. Roesch, M. D. 
David L. Spaulding, M. D. 
H. Gustav Von Lili.ienschiold, M. D. 
William H. Weaker, M. D. 
Franklin N. Wright, M. D. 
On motion of Professor Robert S. Newton, M. D., a committee 
of three was appointed to prepare a new Constitution for the As- 
sociation. 
Doctors Newton, William Archer, and Charles Larew were ap- 
pointed, to which the President was added. 
The committee reported a Preamble, Constitution and By-Laws. 
A copy of the same is on another page of this volume. The title 
of the Association is changed to “ The Association of the Graduates 
of the Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York.” The 
initiation fees and annual dues were abolished, and future ex- 
penses left to be paid at the respective meetings when incurred or 
audited. 
On motion of Professor H. Boskowitz, M. D., the fifth by-law oi 
the Alumni Association was suspended, after which the new Con- 
stitution, with Preamble and By-laws, was unanimously adopted. 
The bill of Dr. S. Roe, for the form of a diploma of membership 
was audited, and an order made for payment. 
The following officers were then elected for the ensuing year,, 
viz.: 
President, Alexander Wilder, M. D. 
Vice-President, Robert S. Newton, M. D. 
Secretary, Julius Von Meyer, M. D. 
Treasurer, Herman Boskowitz, M. D. 42 
HISTORY OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. 
The President appointed Doctors Charles Larew and Vincenzo 
Zolnowski, essayists for the next meeting. 
Alexander Wilder, M. D., was appointed by resolution to deliver 
the address at the next meeting of the Association. 
On motion of Dr. J. Von Meyer, 
Resolved, That every member is hereby requested to furnish a 
curriculum vitx to the Secretary, to be preserved by him for the 
use of the Association. 
Doctors James E. Briggs, William H. Weaber, and Franklin N 
Wright were appointed a Committee to collect material for the 
publication of a Memorial Volume. 
The members were requested to furnish for the next meeting 
original papers upon the therapeutical use of the Hemlock— 
Pinus Canadensis. 
Doctors Robert S. Newton, William Archer, and H; Boskowitz, 
were appointed a Committee upon the subject of a Diploma of 
Membership, with instructions to report at the next meeting. 
The President then declared the Association adjourned till the 
special meeting, to be held at the rooms of the College, on the day 
next succeeding the Spring Term of 1875. 
Alexander Wilder, President. 
Julius Von Meyer, Secretary. ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
43 
THE EVENING AT HOBOKEN. 
Pursuant to invitation of Albert Lewis, M. D., a party composed 
of the Faculty and Graduates of the Eclectic Medical College of 
the City of New York, assembled in the evening, at his residence, 
*n Hoboken, New Jersey. After some time spent in conversation, 
the guests were conducted by their munificent host to the ban- 
queting-room, where they sat down to an elegant entertainment. 
The officers of the College, Doctors Newton and Wilder, sat at 
the head of the table, and the other members of the company filled 
the sides. 
The following is a copy of the Bill of Fare : 
Complimentary supper 
To the Alumni Association of the Eclectic Medical College, of the 
City of New York, Friday, January 29th, 1875, at the residence 
of Dr. A. Lewis, 242 Hudson Street, Hoboken, N. J. 
MENU. 
HUITRES. 
Haute Sauterne, 
Hors d’oeuvre, 
Petites Bouchees, a la Reine—Huitres, a l’Orly. 
POTAGE. 
Printanniere, a la Royale, 
Sherry Amontilado. 
POISSON. 
Salmon a la Hollandaise, 
Vins du Rhin. 
ENTREES. 
Filet de Boeuf, aux Champignons, 
Poulet Saute, a la Marengo, 
Selle de Chevreuil, sauce Poivrade, 
Bourgogne. 
' ROTIS. 
Quails on Toast. Partridges, Canvas Back Ducks. 
Champagne. Legumes. Bordeaux. 
Petits Pois. Tomatoes. Pommes a la Duchesse. 
Celery. Asparagus. Salade. 
DESSERT. 
Oranges. Raisins. Nuts. Cabinet Pudding. 
Assorted Cakes. Charlotte Russe. 
Coffee. 44 
HISTORY OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. 
Addresses, toasts and speeches, diversified the entertainment; 
which was indeed, “ a feast of reason and a flow of soul.” 
Among the guests were Professors Newton, Wilder, Yon Meyer? 
Mortimore and Nivison of the Faculty of the College; also 
Doctors James E. Briggs, W. W. Nims, H. G. Von Lillienschiold, 
F. N. Wright, V. Zolnowski, R. S. Newton, Jr., George Boskowitz, 
Geo. Cooper, M. L. Filkins, and several gentlemen from Jersey 
City and Hoboken. 
During the proceedings, Dr. Lewis addressed the officers of the 
College, assuring them of his gratification at the agreeable circum- 
stances of his association with them, and the pleasure experienced 
at having them for his guests. He then presented to Dr. Wilder 
a deed of conveyance to the Eclectic Medical College, of twelve 
lots in Staten Island, near the Railroad, eligiWy situated and likely 
to increase rapidly in value. 
Dr. Wilder accepted the trust in the name of the corporation 
and assured Dr. Lewis of their appreciation of his generosity, and 
pledged himself and College so to employ his benefaction that he 
would always feel that it had been well bestowed. 
Dr. Newton also thanked Dr. Lewis, and assured him of the 
cordial esteem in which he had been held by him and his associ- 
ates from their first acquaintance. 
After a free interchange of cordial sentiments, the company dis- 
persed at five o’clock in the morning—on the best of terms with 
their host and all the world besides. Never had hospitality been 
more courteously or gracefully bestowed. APPENDIX. 
No. I. 
THE ESSENTIALS OF ECLECTIG MEDICINE. 
REV. CHARLES LAREW, M. D. 
An Oration delivered at the Twelfth Commencement of the Eclectic Medical 
College of the City of New York, held at Association Hall, January 28, 1875. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :—My position before 
you to-night is somewhat indefinite. Indeed, my real status is 
not well defined to myself. I am placed before you as a master, 
and yet I sustain the relation of a student. I have been called 
upon by my class, in conjunction with our Faculty, for the usual 
Oration—to stand where Horace Greeley and other great men 
have stood at your previous Commencements—and I have not yet 
received my Diploma. Some one in the presence of Doctor John- 
son, quoted the adage that— 
“ He who rules o’er freemen, must himself be free 
but the giant critic at once parodied it to death, by saying, “ as 
well might it be said that— 
“ He who drives fat oxen, must himself be fat.” 
Thus encouraged, Ladies and Gentlemen, that I need not be 
an equal, in order to address my superiors, I shall proceed to con- 
sider, so far as the time may admit, some of— 
The Principles and Characteristics with the Essential Profession- 
al Qualifications peculiar to the Eclectic System of Medicine. 
i. The first principle of the Eclectic School to which we would 
invite consideration, is the one lying at the very base of her Pa- 
thology. The true Eclectic does not regard disease as being in 
itself an entity—a thing absolute and independent, located in the 
system, or intrenched within some tissue or organ of the body, to 
be slain or routed as a burglar from the house, or a rat from the 
grain-stack ; not a something to be drawn by the lancet, dislodged 
by mercury, or slain by antimony. 46 
APPENDIX. 
By the Eclectic, disease is regarded as a morbid condition of the 
tissues and functions themselves. The life-force may be obstructed, 
depressed, or thrown into perverted action, causing derangement 
of function and degeneration of the fluids and tissues. 
n. This leads in the second place to the consideration of the 
true therapeutic principle, which is life itself—the principle called 
the “healing power of nature,” or “ vis medicatrix naturcef as the 
sole agent capable of curing disease and maintaining the condi- 
tions of health. Keeping in mind our views of pathology, in 
connection with the true principle of cure, we call attention to 
what may be called a third principle, lying at the very foundation 
of cure by means of medicine, namely, this : all functional or or- 
ganic life if kept in action by what may be appropriately denomi- 
nated stimulation. To apprehend light is the appropriate office of 
the eye, and sound, of the ear. The air prompts the lungs to proper 
action ; the blood, the heart and arteries ; food, the stomach, etc. 
The philosophy of this co-relation is indeed a mystery; but the 
fact of its existence, and the fact of the whole physiological econo- 
my of the animal system being dependent upon it, as a principle, 
cannot be disputed. 
All cures, according to the Eclectic view, proceed upon this 
natural principle. Medicine is that, to which a diseased organ, 
tissue or the system as a whole, will respond in the direction of 
healthy action. Hence we may add that, as a rule, all remedies 
should be congenial to the system, and corroborant of its natural 
functions. 
hi. The third principle relates to the scientific sources of Eclec- 
tic knowledge and teaching. Two extremes have, from ages past, 
been regarded as opposing principles, and greatly divided the ad- 
vocates of medical science. The Empirics and the Dogmatics have 
long been in fierce opposition. The Empirics took the ground 
that experience alone, that a certain medicine is found to cure a 
certain disease, is an all sufficient guide in practice. And not only 
did they hold that a scientific knowledge of the human system, 
and of materia medica was unnecessary, but unattainable. The 
Dogmatics contended that a thorough knowledge of the human 
system in health, and in disease, was attainable—that the science 
of Physiology and of Pathology, with that of Therapeutics, by 
which a competent theory and rule of practice might belaid down, ESSENTIALS OF ECLECTIC MEDICINE. 
47 
was the only competent guide. From these extreme views much 
evil has arisen, and the progress of the science of medicine has 
been greatly retarded. 
The Eclectics, with a higher wisdom, combine both, giving each 
its appropriate place and degree of importance in their teaching. 
Experience gives to science its proper clew; science investigates 
and defines, giving wisdom and confirmation to experience. 
Eclecticism finds them reciprocal, and mutually necessary; and 
having married them, wisdom and skill in practice are found to be 
their issue. 
In accord with this principle, we have had in our course of lec- 
tures during our past term, a Teacher of the science of Anatomy. 
This man has dissected and thoroughly defined to us every part of 
the human body; distinguishing each with an aptness truly ad- 
mirable, and describing each with a vividness that left its lasting 
and glowing impress upon our memories. 
For our Physiology, we have had a choice Teacher ! In power 
of analysis, philosophical acuteness, and in facility for making the 
most abstruse facts and principles simple and understandable, 
truly a Plato. Long shall we remember him, also, for his superior 
practical sense, and his earnest and encouraging sympathy with 
his students. 
For Chemistry, we have had a Professor, who, in the inorganic 
department can analyze all substances, from a block of limestone 
of Mount Lebanon, to a mass of granite from the Rocky Moun- 
tains ; while in the organic, he could tell us the component parts of 
every living thing, from the contents of an elephant’s trunk to the 
constituents of a flea in your boot. 
Our Professor on Materia Medica, being well adapted by nature 
and training, has led us many a long stride into the fields of plant 
and root medicinal, and told us of their virtues and modes of 
therapeutic application. In obstetrics, we have had a man of abili- 
ty—one who, grasping his subject with tenacity, analyzed it to 
the last minutiae, and then by a clear and forceful delineation, so 
impressed it, as never to be forgotten—a man who has taken over 
three thousand babes from the hands of the angels who brought 
them, and placed them on the bosoms of the happy mothers 
awaiting their coming. And he has taught us how to do it! 
In Theory and Practice, we have had no mean Teacher; but a 48 
APPENDIX. 
man of acute thought, a close observer, a medical genuis, and of a 
wide and successful practice. By him we have been taught the 
nature of disease, its varied forms and symptoms, with the appro- 
priate remedies in their needful combinations and true proportions. 
The Empiric and the Dogmatic meet in him, in illustration of 
their mutual advantages, as the experie7iced practitioner, and the 
practical teacher. 
Nor has Homeopathy been overlooked in our curriculum. 
While in medical colleges of diverse sentiments, Eclectic ideas 
are not taught or understood, though occasionally misrepresented, 
here we have a Professor of Homeopathy, one of the few who ac- 
tually believe in that mode of practice—a gentleman in the true 
sense of the term, a scholar, and one with whom it is both an 
honor and a pleasure to associate, the friend of Rockitansky and 
other savants in the Old World, and of the foremost Eclectics in 
the New. So we too, have been taught, if not initiated into, the 
delightful mysteries of similia similibus curantur. 
In our Professor of Surgery, we have had a man of long and 
varied experience, combined with unusual skill; a man who can 
give a patient an almost entirely new set of features when needful 
—lip and eyelid, nose and cheek, can all be restored by his skillful 
hand—a man whose success in the cure of cancer has been, in 
many instances, truly wonderful. He has been the Nestor of our 
Faculty. With his impressive and lucid eloquence he has so im- 
printed his important lessons upon our understandings, as to make 
them a life-long advantage. He is a man of noble proportions, 
and composed of the stuff out of which Alexanders and Napoleons 
are made. 
In all I have said of our teachers, at whose feet we have sat 
these months past, I have simply expressed the true and grateful 
sentiments of my own heart, and those of our class, with a free- 
dom of expression justified by the occasion, thus illustrating the 
fact stated at the outset. We have had these combined principles 
fully carried out by our Professors in their College teachings, each 
one giving us not only the science of his special department, but 
his experience also. They have told us that, on the receipt of our 
diplomas, we had but just begun, especially in that important de- 
partment of medical knowledge which is gained only by experi- 
ence. ESSENTIALS OF ECLECTIC MEDICINE. 
49 
CH ARCTERISTICS. 
We now call attention to a few of the chief Characteristics of 
Eclecticism. 
i. The First is Eclecticism itself. The word Eclectic- means to 
choose, and in this connection it means to select from all sources 
and schools, such remedies and modes of cure as are found the 
least injurious to the constitution, and most efficient in the treat- 
ment of disease. 
As one of its chief characteristics, Eclecticism holds the man 
superior to his science. It places him relatively where his Crea- 
tor placed him—lord over all the creatures of the earth, giving 
him by insight the power to call them by their names, and put 
them to their proper uses. Instead of regarding the man as a 
mere machine to be passively controlled by a fixed system or code, 
like a coffee-mill in the kitchen, which, by the way, produces doses 
far more agreeable and beneficial, in its way, than the blind ad- 
herent to the dogmatism of the past, doctoring mere symptoms 
with his cast-iron prescriptions, Eclecticism would choose out men 
gifted of God for this special calling, and, after due scientific quali- 
fication, enthrone them 
“ Monarchs of all they survey, 
Whose right there is none to dispute.” 
It sets each free as master of the whole realm of medical science, 
to appropriate all he finds good, from the Cedar of Lebanon, to the 
hyssop that springs out of the wall. This personal and practically- 
recognized manhood, in medical science and practice,is a peculiar 
trait of the Eclectic school. 
ii. The second characteristic is found in the peculiarity of our 
remedies. 
The Eclectics have evolved a most effective class of medicines 
peculiar to themselves, from our native plants. From the first, 
these have been mostly botanic. Of these they now have a large 
number which have proved themselves to be surprisingly efficient, 
and from which the Pharmacopoeias of all other schools have been 
greatly enriched; though we are sorry to add, that in this country 
at least, their source has been unacknowledged. 
Another peculiarity of these remedies is the fact that they are 
not only almost entirely botanic—such as “the Lord caused "to 50 
APPENDIX. 
grow out of the ground,” but that they come mostly of our native 
plants. And what more rational than the conclusion that these 
are the true remedies, from the fact that a wise Providence has 
placed them near us as the medicines for all diseases peculiar to 
the country and climate in which they are found ? This, in the 
hands of our Eclectics, has been set beyond all doubt by experi- 
ence. 
iii. In the third place, this school is eminently progressive. 
This feature has, from the beginning, been one of its most marked 
characteristics. The Eclectic practice arose mainly from the 
people and partakes largely of the spirit and genius of this country. 
The Indians who had discovered the virtues of many of our 
native plants contributed largely at the beginning. Those sensi- 
ble women of our early days, called “good nurses,” contributed 
much that they had learned from their observation and experience. 
These were gathered up by more scientific minds such as Tidd, 
Beach, Morrow, the Newtons, Jones and others, and put to the 
test, “proving all things and holding fast to that which was good.” 
Dr. Jacob Tidd was more than an ordinary man. He resided 
in the town of East Amwell, Hunterdon Co., near Pennington, 
New Jersey, and within five or six miles of my paternal roof. He 
was the personal friend of my parents, who were in the practice of 
consulting him. And I am proud, sir, to have my birth in the 
same vicinity with the Father of our “American Practice.” His 
name was a familiar house word in our family during my boyhood. 
Prompted by a native genius, he began to investigate and practice 
among his neighbors, with what we now call “ domestic remedies,” 
and afterward formed the acquaintance of a German physician of 
high standing. Of this man he gained an extensive knowledge of 
medicine. In addition to this, one of his relatives, who had been 
for some time a prisoner among the Indians and noted much of 
their remedies and practice, returned, and contributed largely to his 
stock of knowledge already gained. 
With this, in addition to about forty years’ experience of active 
practice, in the use of our native plants, he became widely famous. 
The people regarded him possessed of a strange and wondrous 
skill, and resorting to him from all parts of the country were cured 
of their diseases; such especially as the doctors did not under- 
stand or could not cure. With chronic diseases, cancerous ESSENTIALS OF ECLECTIC MEDICINE. 
51 
growths, and especially with what were regarded as incurable tu- 
mors and ulcers he had astonishing success. His skill in the last 
particular was largely inherited by his daughter, Mrs. Bennett, who 
died at Ringoe’s, N. J., a few years since. She was widely known 
in the cure of all skin diseases. The prestige of her father gave 
her great favor and notoriety in connection with her own skill. 
My aged mother still carries a. dark tumor, about the size of a 
small pea, in the upper eyelid, concerning which, in her early days 
she consulted Dr. Tidd : relying on his judgment with the fullest 
confidence. In reply to her apprehensions of cancer he told her, 
to her great relief, that it was an innocuous growth, and might re- 
main—an opinion justified by over forty years’ experience. 
It was with this remarkable man that Dr. Beach studied and 
practiced until the death of Dr. Tidd, when he came to New York. 
But time would fail me in giving this history fully. Suffice it to 
say, involved in its present status, I find this school of medicine 
now numbers 12,000 practicing physicians, six colleges in success- 
ful operation, and about 75 standard works written and placed on 
our shelves by her own noble sons. 
Nor is her zeal abated. Her watchword is still “ Onward! ” 
Progress is her life. Eclecticism is no dust-covered mummy, 
with her arteries injected with the effete principles of the ancient 
philosophies, nor embalmed with the resinous unguents of dog- 
matic conservatism, nor wrapped in the countless and stifling folds 
of an Egyptian orthodoxy. She is yet free, of ruddy cheek, and 
strong for aggressive progress. 
Under the third general head, we would consider a few of the 
essential professional qualifications. 
I. The first is that of intellectual capacity. The physician must 
have brains—brains in due quantity, of proper texture, and in the 
right place. He must be able to comprehend the facts and prin- 
ciples of medical science, and have judgment sufficient to put them 
into effective practical application. Many a man might make a 
competent mechanic, farmer, or merchant, who would utterly fail 
as a Doctor of Medicine. 
II. The second is that of special genius. Providence has endowed 
certain individuals with a special gift of genius for their proper 
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS. 52 
APPENDIX. 
calling. When Israel was in the wilderness, and the Tabernacle 
was to be built, men were selected for those parts requiring skill, 
who are called “ cunning workmen,”—men of special aptness for 
the work. Again, this principle is recognized in the precept— 
“ Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old 
he will not depart from it.” A glance at the Hebrew term here 
used will show that it means to train up a child in the calling, or 
way, for which he has a special genius. 
This in the physician is what gives that instinctive perception or 
intuitive understanding, so needful in judging of disease, and 
applying remedies ; and in an essential sense, it makes the true and 
divinely-ordained physician. Let the mothers watch their boys, 
sir, and if they find them showing aptness and inclination to doctor 
the cats, dogs, and goats, train them up in that way. He is a born 
doctor ; and take care in what school you place him ! 
III. It is essential that he be qualified by a good moral 
character, or better still, if he be truly religious. Morality is a 
practical conformity to the divine law, through the fear of God, to 
whom we are all responsible. Religion is the same, from the 
higher motive of love to God, as our friend and Father. A moral- 
ity destitute of due regard to the Deity, and inspired by selfish 
interest alone, is without its true principle. Not only do the laws 
of our State and the rules of our College require this, but the 
interests and welfare of our patients, and also those of the physi- 
cian himself, both as a man and a doctor. 
The physician is as really the minister of God to the bodies of 
men, and as dependent upon him for success, as is the minister 
of the Gospel in regard to souls. He should therefore be as much 
in prayerful accord with the Great Healer, in his sphere, as the 
minister of the Gospel in his. 
The healing art, with its necessities, bears a remarkable analogy 
to the remedial power of the Gospel upon the soul. As the body 
and the soul correspond, so do their diseases, and their means 
and modes of cure. In fact as remedial systems, they are recip- 
rocal and co-related. All the healing of the bodies of men by 
Jesus of Nazareth were foreshadowing analogies of what, by his 
spirit, he now does for their penitent souls. These reciprocal 
principles should find a personification in every physician. Again, 
he who is known as a truly conscientious or godly doctor, in any ESSENTIALS OF ECLECTIC MEDICINE. 
53 
community, other things being equal, will realize manifold more 
advantage to himself, and be a far greater blessing to his patients 
and their friends, than the profane and unscrupulous one, be his 
abilities what they may. Who feels either safe or comfortable, 
with himself, or his loved ones, in the hands of an immoral physi- 
cian ? Let him be moral or religious, and truly sypathizing, and 
the community will cleave to him as to a father from generation to 
generation. James E. Briggs, M. D., 
24 Fourth Street, New York City. APPENDIX, No. II. 
THESES 
OF THE 
GRADUATING CLASS OF 1874-5. 
PNEUMONIA. 
DR. JAMES E. BRIGGS. 
Pneumonia is the inflammation of the parenchyma or spongy 
tissue of the lungs. It affects a continuous part, sometimes in- 
volving the entire lobe, or complete lung. When this is the care, 
some nosologists distinguish it as lobar pneumonia. Occasionally 
both lungs are involved, and we have a double tneumonia. The 
pleura or investing membrane also is liable to participate in the 
inflammation, and then the disorder is styledplcuro-pneumonia. But 
this designation is not so often used. The complaint is primary 
and alone, and also may accompany some other form of disease, 
as a secondary affection. When it takes a low type, it becomes the 
well-known pneumonia typhoides or typhoid pneumonia. When the 
portal circulation participates in the disorder, the complaint is 
named bilious pneumonia. 
In common lobar pneumonia, there are three stages well mark- 
ed, namely: congestion, inflammation and suppuration. During the 
first, the affected part is of a deep red color, crepitating on pres- 
sure less than in health, and retains the impression of the finger as 
is usual in dropsy. If the inflamed tissue is cut, a bloody, frothy, 
turbid serum exudes copiously. If the disorder is arrested in 
this stage, the affected organ soon resumes its healthy condition. 
Otherwise, however, it passes into a state of hepatisation, which 
is actually a softening; takes on a deep reddish-brown or gray-red 
color. Its density is now so much increased that it will sink in 
water. The finger may be forced through it with but little resist- 
ance. When taken between the fingers, the inflamed part will ex- 
ude a reddish fluid, thicker, less frothy, and less in quantity, than 
when in the congested stage. 
The cut or torn surface exhibits numerous granules, which are 56 
APPENDIX. 
probably the cells filled and distorted. In advanced life, the sur- 
face is sometimes smooth and uniform. 
In the third, or suppurative state, there are two conditions, of 
which the most common is denominated gray hepatisation or 
“ gray softening.” The other is abscess. In the former condition, 
the lung is compacted and dense, and presents externally and 
within, a yellowish or grayish appearance; and when cut there 
exudes a yellowish opaque fluid, sometimes tinged with blood. 
Occasionally purulent collections are formed around deposits of 
tubercles. 
The bronchi, also, with few exceptions, participate in the in- 
flammation, and abound, more or less, with mucus, and exhibit a 
reddened surface. If a single lobe only is affected, the bronchi 
connected with it are alone inflamed. The bronchial glands are 
also enlarged; the right cavity of the heart contains coagula, 
sometimes red and soft, and at other times, yellowish and firm. 
In the majority of cases, pneumonia is confined to the lung on 
the right side. A comparison of 1,430 patients, made by M. Gris- 
wold, showed but 18 per cent, of cases of double pneumonia; 30 
per cent, of cases of pneumonia of the left side; and 52 percent, 
of cases where the right lung only was involved. 
In secondary pneumonia, the opposite side appears to be equal- 
ly affected. If both lungs are attacked, the lower portion is re- 
garded as the seat of the inflammation, which, indeed, usually be- 
gins there. Lobular pneumonia is most common in infants under 
six years of age, and rarely attacks adults. The inflammation occu- 
pies distinct spots, surrounded by healthy tissue. 
Many forms of pneumonia have been described by authors; 
but I think that they all oiiginate from a uniform cause. The 
severity of the attack is closely related to the vitality of the 
patient. The less vital power is possessed, the more severe will be 
the disorder. We may talk of vesicular pneumonia, typhoid pneu- 
monia, chronic pneumonia, or what we please, the complaint is 
pneumonia or inflammation of the lungs, and must be treated by 
striking at the fountain-head, removing the cause of the disturb- 
ance. 
Common pneumonia is ushered in usually with a chill, followed 
by the reactive fever, with cough, and pain in the side or back 
SYMPTOMS, CAUSE AND TREATMENT. PNEUMONIA. BY DR. J. E. BRIGGS. 
57 
part of the chest. Sometimes the fever will occur, especially in 
infants, when no premonitory chill is noticed. Occasionally, the 
attack is preceded several days by a sense of general uneasiness, * 
lassitude, loss of appetite, and more or less fever. Sometimes it 
begins obscurely, without pain or cough, and is recognized only by 
the hurried respiration, depression of strength, and other analo- 
gous pathological signs. It generally assumes this form when 
complicated with cerebral disorder. The medulla oblongata, in my 
opinion, always, more or less, participates in this disease. The 
breathing is always quickened,—sometimes from sixteen to twenty, 
and even to forty or fifty respirations in a minute. The op- 
pression is increased by speaking or any vocal effort. Cough is 
usually present. As the disease advances, the sputa become 
viscid. The rusty sputa may be relied upon as a sign of pneumonia, 
when other symptoms fail. 
Pneumonia is sometimes mistaken for bronchitis, pleurisy and 
certain states of phthisis. In capillary bronchitis, when the 
disease extends to the minute ramifications of the bronchi, the ex- 
pectorations may be streaked with blood, but they are never viscid 
and tenacious. 
The mortality of typhoid pneumonia, I think to be mainly due 
to the u heroic treatment”—calomel, antimony and venesection. 
The treatment as laid down in most books is “ depletive” ; where- 
as, no one disease, perhaps, requires more nursing, more building- 
up of the tissues, with the exception, perhaps, of low grades of 
fever and diphtheria. The blood must pass through the lungs; 
and we may diminish the amount without the lancet or any 
depletive, by employing medicine to moderate the action of the 
heart. This will prevent the hurrying of the blood into the in- 
flamed air-cells, and so diminish the irritation. For this purpose 
the cautious use of veratrum viride, is perhaps, one of the best 
agents known. It has been employed by physicians of the Re- 
formed Practice with marked success, and from them has been to 
a considerable extent, adopted by practitioners of the Old School. 
An emollient cataplasm should also be applied over the region of 
the lower breast; and if the strength is insufficient, ammonia car- 
* In two attacks of this complaint which I experienced in 1871 and 1872, I 
suffered some time previous from incense depression of spirits. In each case I 
had experienced a violent mental shock from which I had not rallied.—A. W. 58 
APPENDIX. 
bonate may be administered with benefit. In the declining stage 
of the disease, expectorants are salutary, like squills, senega, hy- 
ocyamus, or syrup of Prunus Virginiana. If there is hectic or 
night-sweats, sulphate of quinia should be employed. Nutritious 
diet and stimulants are beneficial. 
SMALL-POX. 
BY DR. WILLIAM H. WEABER. 
Variola, or Small-Pox, is considered a subject of somewhat less 
interest, since the discovery of vaccination. I am at a loss to 
know why. We may perform vaccination, and the person never 
contract small-pox, and it may be omitted with like impunity. I 
doubt, therefore, whether vaccination prevents it; for I have 
known many vaccinated persons who have since had small-pox.* 
Average cases of small-pox in different communities, show that 
those that have been vaccinated, contract this disease as frequently 
as others.f 
Small-Pox is supposed to have been introduced into Europe 
from Asia, at an early period of the Middle Ages. It is ushered 
* Doct. William Hitchman, of Liverpool, England, has pronounced in his 
declarations that vaccination affords no protection whatever, against variola. In 
an address before the British Medical Reform Association, at Sheffield, July, 
1873, he says: “ From such sights of Old Physic as contagious diseases propa- 
gated by Act of Parliament, Hygeia may well flee. Small-pox is now raging 
among the vaccinated. Variola, of a malignant type, not only in this country, 
but in Thun, Interlaken and Bernese Oberland, is often recurrent.” 
f The late Dr. Schiefferdecker, of New York, in a monogram upon the sub- 
ject, come to the following conclusion, in which we perfectly coincide, namely : 
“ 1. That it is not true that vaccination is a preventive of small-pox. 
“ 2. That cow-pox virus is as decided a poison as that taken from the small- 
pox patient. 
“ 3. That vaccination propagates a variety of other diseases, many of which are 
more fatal than small-pox, such as scarlet fever, croup, typhoid fever, scrofula, 
consumption, syphilis, cancer, tuberculous formations, diphtheria, etc. 
“ 4. That small-pox, as well as other diseases, when they fasten upon people 
who have been vaccinated, are more malignant and difficult to cure than when 
they attack persons who have never had their blood thus corrupted. 
“ 5. That longev’ty has diminished since the introduction of vaccination.” SMALL-POX. BY DR. W. H. WEABER. 
59 
in by a fever of three or four days’ duration, followed by a peculiar 
eruption, which is at first popular, then vesicular, and finally pustu- 
lar. Two varieties of the disease are commonly recognized : the 
distinct and the confluent. In the former, the pustules are isolated; 
in the latter, they “ run together” and are more numerous. 
A person remaining in a room for some time where a patient is 
laboring under small-pox, will be attacked a few days afterward 
by a violent chill, followed in turn by all the symptoms of the 
disease. 
The peculiar poison is of a subtile character, and cannot be 
analyzed or measured by any chemical or mechanical contrivance. 
It is mixed with the air,* and passes with it into the lungs, thence 
to be conveyed all over the body. 
As in Syphilis, the poison takes a certain time to bring the glands 
under its full influence. When they are fully contaminated, the 
system appears to have experienced a great shock. The citadel 
of life has been shaken to the foundation. This is manifested by 
the severe rigor. The organic nervous system rouses to expel the 
enemy. This is evident from the pustules, which indicate an 
endeavor to get rid of the poison. 
There are three stages of this disease: i. The eruptive ; 2. 
The maturative; 3. The declining. Some consider the period 
elapsing between the inception of the poison and the attack of 
fever as a distinct stage, and accordingly enumerate the stages as 
follows : 1. Incubation, lasting from six to twenty days. 2. In- 
vasion. 3. Eruption. 4. Maturation. 5. Decline. 6. Desqua- 
mation. 
SYMPTOMS. 
The ordinary symptoms are fever, with pain in the back, irri- 
tability of the stomach and obstinate vomiting. Coryza and sore 
throat are frequently present. Children often have convulsions, 
probably from cerebral irritation. 
The fever is of the remittent type, and subsides immediately 
upon the appearance of the eruption. The pain in the head de- 
notes a cerebro-spinal disturbance. In the first two days there is 
* Pure oxygen, especially if ozonized, will render the poison of small-pox in- 
nocuous. Hence, when the patient is kept carefully clean, and his apartments 
and bedding thoroughly aired, the contagious infection is seldom communicated 
to others.—A. W. 60 
APPENDIX. 
a temperature of 104° or 105°, and full, strong pulse. The erup- 
tion comes out usually in the course of the third day; first minute, 
red and popular, resembling a flea-bite, over the face, neck, chest 
and abdomen, and finally over the lower extremities. The second 
stage commences when the eruption is fully out and begins to un- 
dergo change on the different parts of the body. The pimples 
are converted into vesicles on the third day of the eruption, and 
become depressed in the center. On the fourth day they gradually 
increase in size. The lymph becomes opaque, until the vesicle is 
transformed into a pustule. About the fifth day they lose their 
umbilicated appearance, become convex and distended at the top. 
About the eighth day of the eruption, and the eleventh or twelfth 
of the disease, they begin to change to a brownish color ; some- 
times they burst and dry up. On the twentieth day, or about that 
time, the crusts fall off, usually leaving a prominent pit or depres- 
sion on the skin. 
The eruption varies from a few scattered pustules to a complete 
efflorescence over the entire body, the isolated character being 
always maintained, in the distinct form. During the eruptive stage, 
the different mucous membranes are more or less affected ; hence 
pain in the throat, sore eyes and nose. The skin, especially upon 
the face and head, is liable to be swollen during the filling and 
maturing of the pustules. 
The secondary fever, or fever of maturating, comes on about the 
eighth or twelfth day of the disease, or the sixth day of the erup- 
tion. It is proportionately severe, according to the intensity of the 
sympathy of the constitution with the local affection. During the 
period of maturation, a peculiar greasy odor is given off from the 
body of the patient, by which the disease may be recognized. 
Violent itching also accompanies this period. 
The third, or declining stage, commences about the twelfth day 
of the disease. Some of the pustules dry up; others burst, 
pouring out their contents, which also dry in the form of brownish 
scales or scabs. This process of desiccation is generally com- 
pleted from the fifteenth to the twentieth day; after which, circu- 
lar brownish spots often remain for several weeks, together with the 
characteristic pits. 
In the confluent small-pox, all the symptoms are of a graver 
type. The cerebral and gastric complications are more marked; SMALL-POX.—BY DR. W. H. WEABER. 
61 
there is persistent vomiting, and either delirium or convulsions. 
These disturbances may occasion a fatal issue. 
The eruption comes out all at once and seldom in successive 
manifestations. It occurs about the second or third day; rarely 
on the fourth, and still more rarely on the fifth. It is sometimes 
accompanied by a rash like scarlatina or erysipelas. The pustules 
are less prominent and more aggravated than in simple variola; 
and their edges run into one another. They do not, however, fill 
so completely, are flatter and of a darker color. They are more 
numerous in the face than on other parts; and when the crusts be- 
gin to form, the whole face is covered as with a mask. This in- 
crustation falls off from the fifteenth to the twentieth day. The 
fever never subsides entirely as in the distinct form. It is much 
aggravated during the second or maturative stage ; and although 
generally of the sthenic form, it sometimes assumes a low type, 
and the patient dies from extreme exhaustion. 
By some writers, the greater intensity of the secondary fever, is 
considered as a diagnostic of this variety. The eruption begins 
to scab upon the face about the tenth day of the disease. The 
skin is excessively swollen; suppurative matter oozes out beneath 
the crusts and is mingled with a bloody ichor; the mucous mem- 
branes suffer greatly, especially those of the throat, larynx, nose 
and eyes. 
If the patient shall survive this second stage, and pass into the 
third, there is still danger from pseudo membranous inflammation of 
the larynx and fauces, pneumonia, pleurisy, destructive ophthal- 
mia, ulceration and sloughing of the cornea and subsequent 
opacity of this structure, excessive suppuration, erysipelas, and 
gangrene. After desiccating, there are usually, unsightly scars and 
pits left behind. 
In the condition denominated malignant small-pox, there is either 
a complete prostration of the organic nervous force from the first, 
so that the patient never regains vigor from the outset, or else 
there is a depraved condition of the blood, giving rise to petechiae 
and vibices, and accompanied by other evidences of a typhous con- 
dition. Death generally occurs in such instances, from the seventh 
to the ninth day. 
The most danger is to be apprehended during the secondary 
fever, which is very evident in confluent small-pox. Out of 168 62 
APPENDIX. 
cases reported by Doctor Gregory, thirty-two died in the first week, 
ninety-seven in the second, and twenty in the third. In the first 
week, death seems to be caused by an overwhelming malignancy 
of the poison, which acts on the brain, producing coma; in the 
second week, from affections of the respiratory passages ; and in 
the third week, from debility. 
The prognosis is always governed by the number of pustules on 
the body. The period of greatest danger is at the time of suppura- 
tion. The patient may die from exhaustion, or from a complica- 
tion of causes. The mucous membrane may be tumefied, so that 
deglutition is impossible. There may, likewise, be an oedema of 
the larynx. The most frequent complications, however, are bron- 
chitis, pneumonia with distinct symptoms, pulmonary apoplexy, 
occasioned by changes produced in the blood by the variolar poi- 
son, also pleurisy with erysipelas during convalescence, and ery- 
sipelas of the face. Abscesses are also liable to form. 
TREATMENT. 
Under the former plan of stimulating, in the earlier stages, 
small-pox was very fatal. At present, under the refrigerant plan, 
it is much more manageable. The apartment of the patient 
should be large, cool and well-ventilated. In mild cases, the only 
medicines required are refrigerant diaphoretics and an occasional 
mild laxative. Sponging the body with cool or tepid water, at in- 
tervals, has been recommended, especially, when the skin is hot 
and dry. It is important to remember, however, that the term of 
the disease cannot be cut short; and hence, that the strength of 
the patient should be carefully husbanded. I would suggest that 
a Dover’s powder be given at bed-time to combat the restlessness. 
If there is severe prostration, stimulants will be of advantage; also 
at the same time, or when vesication commences, nutritive aliments 
may be added, like milk, eggs, and farinaceous food. 
CAN PITTING BE PREVENTED ? 
Collodion, mercury, iodine and silver, have been used to pre- 
vent pitting, but without success. Certain patients will not have 
the pits. Exclusion of the air and light from the face have been 
recommended. The pitting is the result of sloughing. Some 
authors have declared that there is only one way to prevent it, 
namely, by opening the vesicles by means of a fine needle, before 
suppuration begins. EPILEPSY.—BY DR. ALBERT LEWIS. 
63 
EPILEPSY. 
DR. ALBERT LEWIS. 
No disorder, perhaps, has been more perplexing to the medical 
practitioner, or less hopeful in its prognosis than Epilepsy. The 
physician desires to forecast the probable result, to determine 
whether it is likely to end in death or recovery, or in the impair- 
ment of the general health, or of any special function of the body. 
But from time immemorial, Epilepsy has been altogether excluded 
from such calculations, and there has been no hesitation in giving 
at once an unfavorable opinion. The ancients were equally posi- 
tive ; and hence it has come down to us with the designation of 
morbus sacer—the sacred—or perhaps more correctly, the cursed 
disease. 
Probably we should regard it as a symptom rather than a disease, 
but we content ourselves with following the usual technology, as 
we are not able to explain the lesion existing, or its exact seat. 
It belongs to the class of cerebrospinal disorders, and its peculiar 
characteristic is loss of consciousness, with spasms or convulsions 
occuring in paroxysms. 
Sometimes the spasms are slight, sometimes general and severe; 
sometimes there is mental aberration, and sometimes these occur 
all together. But loss of consciousness is the essential element of 
the epileptic paroxysm. 
The precursory phenomena are exceedingly variable. The aura 
has perhaps been most noted by pathological observers. This, 
from the meaning of the term, ought to signify the sensation of a 
wave of cool air passing from the feet toward the head ; but it may 
likewise be a numbness, tingling, or a shock as of electricity, or 
pain beginning, in some distant part of the body and running 
toward the head. This aura is usually of the same character in 
every attack of the same patient. Other symptoms are pain in the 
head, dizziness, noise in the ears, flashes of light, blindness, illusion 
of the senses, extraordinary irritability or cheerfulness, difficult 
speech, feeling of constriction in the throat, sudden relaxation of 
sphincter muscles, sexual excitement, drowsiness. Delasiauve 64 
APPENDIX. 
enumerates 264 cases, of which 75 had the precursory symptoms in 
the head, 22 in the thorax, 32 in the abdomen, 94 in the limbs, 22 
generally over the body, 5 in the sexual system. 
A patient may be standing or talking, and a sudden blank occur, 
hardly attracting attention, and disappear, leaving no feeling of dis- 
comfort behind. Sometimes he will stagger for a moment, draw a 
long breath, and then recover. Presently there will remain vertigo, 
confusion of ideas or other nervous derangement. As the disorder 
progresses, the loss of consciousness is of longer duration. The 
spasms often appear as if they were tricks of the patient. When 
the disorder is more confirmed, the paroxysm occurs suddenly; 
the person cries or rather bleats, and falls to the ground as if shot. 
The eyes are fixed, the muscles contracted, the respiration impeded, 
and sensibility abolished. Froth may issue from the mouth streaked 
with blood if the patient has bitten his tongue ; the pupils of the 
eyes dilate and contract; the heart beats irregularly, and stupor 
usually supervenes. 
In the intervals between the paroxysms, epileptics often exhibit 
evidences of disordered mental and nervous functions. There 
are, nevertheless, many exceptions to this rule. “ A patient,” says 
Reynolds, “ may be epileptic and a lunatic; he may be epileptic and 
asthmatic ; but there are some epileptics whose minds are as healthy 
as their lungs ; and so far as the history of epilepsy is concerned, 
it is a mistake to derive it from complicated causes.” 
The symptoms show conclusively that there exists a state of un- 
due excitability in the medulla oblongata, in consequence of which 
the centers of consciousness and motive power are paroxysmally 
deprived of their proper controlling force. The irritation of the 
vaso-motor nerves of the encephalon causes contractions of the 
meningeal arteries, arresting cerebral circulation and producing a 
condition of anaemia, which is the proximate cause ot both loss of 
consciousness and of the convulsions. Tonic contraction and then 
atonic contraction occur of the cerebral arteries, producing paraly- 
sis of the arterial coa% and with it, exhaustion and prostration, by 
which the epileptic fit ends. 
It is considered by our best authors as demonstrated, that struc- 
tural lesions are an effect and not the actual cause of epilepsy. It is 
a functional disorder, due to certain finer changes in the nutrition of the 
brain, i7nperceptible to our senses, and may be rectified by treatment. EPILEPSY BY DR. ALBERT LEWIS. 
65 
Hereditary tendency, the effect of nervous disorder in parents or 
ancestors, is the predisposing cause of epilepsy in ten or twelve per 
cent, of the cases. Mental disturbance and disordered condition 
of the digestive or sexual system are foremost, however, in develop- 
ing it; thus showing that although the cerebro-spinal system is at 
the basis of the matter, the sympathetic nerves are also originally 
affected. Undue mental exertion occasions one-sixth of the 
attacks; sexual excess about sixteen per cent.; menstrual derange- 
ment ten per cent., and indigestion eleven per cent. 
Although epileptic seizure is so often the product of an overtaxed 
mental system, it does not always destroy the faculties of the mind. 
Julius Caesar, Mahomet, Oliver Cromwell, and the first Napoleon 
are marked examples of such escape; but they are cases found on 
the obverse side of the picture. 
Much of our knowledge in regard to the treating of epilepsy is 
still empirical, but the success has been sufficiently ample to war- 
rant hope. Elderly persons who have been closely devoted to study 
seldom recover from attack; and indeed, every paroxysm creates 
a stronger tendency to recurrence, and renders cure more difficult. 
Hence it is obvious that the physician should give his first attention 
to prevent the fits. The patient should be instructed to give heed 
to the peculiar warnings, and seek the means to obviate their usual 
sequence. 
The condition of the brain and nervous system also demand the 
care of the medical adviser. As has been remarked, the disorder 
is the consequence of defective nutrition. This is evident from 
the manner in which it is first developed. The mental and diges- 
tive disturbances which precede and occasion it, do so by arrest of 
nutrition. Neuralgias, it is now well established, are so caused; like- 
wise numerous other maladies. Proper nourishing of the patient 
is often, even in our present condition of knowledge, sufficient of 
itself, to restore to health. Medicines which evoke the normal 
action of the digestive function and favor secretion, are important 
auxiliaries. 
The physician should aim to render the general health of his 
patient as satisfactory as possible, and to remove all sources of irri- 
tation, whether mental or physical. Attendants, who will be on the 
watch for symptoms preceding an attack constitute a prime neces- 
sity. In some instances, the patient is struck down without pre- 66 
APPENDIX. 
monition; but generally the case is otherwise. Neglect and indiffer- 
ence of attendants to follow up directions will render any treatment 
unsuccessful. Women are more easily cured than men ; young per- 
sons than those older; elderly men who have done hard intellectual 
work being the most unlikely patients of all. But the directions 
of the physician must be scrupulously obeyed, even long after they 
are supposed to be hardly necessary. The patient is too likely 
afer having enjoyed a long cessation from attack, to imagine that 
his old enemy is gone ; that he is equal to any amount of exertion; 
that he may now with impunity compensate himself for the priva- 
tions which he has previously endured, and so to begin once more to 
enjoy life and its pleasures. If he is not then checked in his im- 
petuosity, he will often have to expiate his indiscretion by relapses 
of a serious character. 
The medicines employed are numerous. Dr. W. A. Hammond 
recommends the bromide of potassium or sodium, given in 
saturated solution, thirty grains to the drachm of water, and in 
doses of fifteen grains or more, three times a day. The sodium 
salt is preferable, producing less gastric irritation. “ It must be 
clearly understood that the bromide is to be taken for at least a 
year, and in most cases longer, before its administration is stopped. ” 
If after two months there are no indications of bromism he in- 
creases the dose by one-half. In case of paroxysms before this 
period, he also increases it one-half till they are arrested and the 
medicine is inefficacious or injurious. One patient took twenty 
grains three times a day without apparent benefit; then thirty and 
forty-five ; the latter being finally increased from three to four times 
daily. This finally arrested the paroxysms, they only recurring 
when he had omitted the medicine for several days. Oxide of 
zinc given in two-grain doses three times a day seems to render the 
bromide more efficacious. It should not, however, be continued 
longer than two months, as it will debilitate. Medicine ought also 
to be given to keep up the strength of the patient. Dr. Hammond is 
very certain that the bromic cachexia is favorable to the eradication 
of the epileptic tendency ; and the physican should persevere in his 
treatment, except the phenomena are so marked and the debility so 
extreme as to excite the gravest apprehensions. 
Hyoscyamus appears however, to be of equal benefit. There is 
no remedy, says Dr. Althaus, more useful for the suppression of EPILEPSY—BY DR. ALBERT LEWIS. 
67 
epileptic aurae and attacks than tincture of henbane. “ But it must 
be given in far larger doses than those usually prescribed; for in 
many cases only half-ounce doses, frequently repeated, produce the 
desired effect. Such doses, however, should be avoided in young 
children, where they might produce great depression ; and in the 
aged, where they might interfere with the operation of the bladder.” 
Galvanism is also an important adjunct to the treatment. Three 
applications a week are generally sufficient, employing ten minutes 
to a time. Smee’s or Daniell’s Battery, with five to fifteen cells, 
charged without acid, appears to be preferable. The immediate 
sedative action of the continuous current is often very striking, and 
always pleasant to the patient, especially as the low tension of the 
electricity used renders its application entirely painless. The current 
should be applied to the brain and sympathetic nerve ; part of the 
time placing one pole on the back of the neck and the other on the 
forehead ; at another interval, placing one pole on each mastoid pro- 
cess ; and at another, placing one pole on the sympathetic nerve of 
the neck and the other on the spinal column at the first dorsal 
vertebra. 
Before any treatment is attempted, the cause of the affection should 
be ascertained. Worms in the intestines are a prolific cause, and 
must be expelled. An injured nerve may occasion the attack, or 
disturbed menstruation. Masturbation, and excessive sexual indul- 
gence are also to be prevented. Mental excitement, from whatever 
cause, especially from study, anxious care, or depression, must also 
be strictly avoided. They are all provocative to the disturbance, 
and will render any successful treatment impossible. 
Strict attention should be paid to the hygienic management. In 
most forms of insanity, hysteria, and other mental aberrations, the 
patient should be persuaded and even required to take much exer- 
cise in the open air, careful only to avoid fatigue. The same rule 
should be observed in epilepsy. The food should be nourishing 
but not stimulating or hard of digestion. Every substance liable 
to irritate the stomach or intestines should be avoided. Pastry, 
badly-baked bread, confectionery, and alcohol are bad beyond com- 
parison. Overheating should be guarded against. The apart- 
ments should be cool rather than warm, but not provocative or even 
suggestive of discomfort. Every source of irritation should be 
obviated. The mind should not be overtasked nor the emotions 68 
APPENDIX. 
unduly excited. Bathing should be frequent, but care taken to 
avoid shock. The patient should be carefully disciplined in the 
exercise of his will and instructed to exert it to stop the recurrence 
of the paroxysm. In many respects he should not be tampered 
with, but judiciously let alone. His self-respect should be culti- 
vated and kept active. Thus by careful attention to hygiene, ap- 
peal to the moral and mental faculties, and due care of physiological 
and pathological conditions, we may hope to relieve and even to 
remove entirely one of the most sad and unfortunate inflictions 
to which disease and unlucky conditions ever subjected a human 
being. 
MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN. 
DR. FRANKLIN N. WRIGHT. 
The question arises : “ What is the cause of such fearful mor- 
tality among the young ?” My answer to the question will be : 
It is the treatment which they receive at the hands of their parents 
or nurse. It appears obvious to me that children should eat or be 
suckled only three times during the day, and never at night. They 
should be brought under the same rules as are applied to adults. 
It requires about the same time for their organs to digest food, as 
for those of grown persons. If they are fed often, the results are 
acidity of stomach and actual disease. The usual way then pur- 
sued is to drug the little sufferer with “ soothing syrup” or some 
other deadly article. This deranges the stomach more or less 
permanently, and if continued, produces death, or at least, injury 
for life. 
The food which the God of nature has provided for children 
is adapted to their capacity for digesting. The various steps in 
the digestive process, are the same, both for the young and the aged. 
My opinion is that if either children or adults require more than 
three meals a day, those who perform manual labor are the per- 
sons. Their digestive organs are likely to acquire healthy action 
from exercise of the body, and the process of digestion, must, of 
course, be accomplished a little more quickly. 
As children are now treated, they have but a small chance for 
life. Most infants are nursed every hour, day and night. Then, MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN BY DR. F. N. WRIGHT. 
69 
if from any ill treatment, they cry, the same remedy is applied, till 
it produces stupefaction of the brain and nervous system; and 
after that, if at all restless, they are rocked in a cradle till they have 
no senses left. Often, from the extreme burdening of the stomach, 
the child will vomit up the contents—an effort of nature to avert 
convulsions and death. 
I was called recently to prescribe for an infant of about seven 
months old, for cramps and fits. The mother told me that it had 
never been entirely free from them since birth. Believing the 
cause to be over-feeding, I inquired how often she nursed the 
child. The father was present, and replied : “ About every ten 
minutes.” I prescribed some simple medicine, relying upon the 
following directions for the case, namely: To nurse the child at 
morning, noon and evening, but at no other time. At my next 
visit, I inquired whether my directions had been strictly followed. 
The father informed me that the patient had been nursed as often 
as ever. Upon my remonstrance, the mother gave me her word 
that she would obey my directions literally. The result was that 
the child soon recovered, and has had no recurring symptom of 
the difficulty. 
The most healthy children coming under my observation, were 
reared as here indicated. A lady informed me of a test which she 
had made. A child fell into her charge that had lost its mother at 
birth. She was obliged to rear it “ by hand.” She began by feed- 
ing it as much milk, properly prepared, as it would take three 
times a day, but no oftener. Remarking upon the sequel, she 
said : “ A more healthy, thriving, robust child, I never saw. It 
was subject to none of the illnesses to which children are subject; 
has continued in perfect health up to the present time ; and is now 
fourteen years of age.” 
When children become old enough to take solid food, the rule 
to eat but three times a day, should be rigidly observed. If they 
eat oftener, their food will not nourish the system so perfectly, or 
give the strength required. If any mother will take the pains to 
examine carefully the function of digestion, she will bo speedily 
convinced that no child can receive food into the stomach oftener 
than once in five or six hours, without throwing the whole digestive 
process into confusion, interfering with the previous meal, and 
seriously injuring the organs employed. 70 
APPENDIX 
Why will mothers suffer their offspring to violate the laws of 
Nature, and expose themselves to the penalty of the violation? 
Is it their tenderness for their children that leads them to gratify 
this depraved appetite, to the destruction of comfort, enjoyment, 
and perhaps life? Mothers often remark that a child had no ap- 
petite for breakfast, and therefore, must have something to eat be- 
fore dinner. Yet this is sure to increase the difficulty. The child 
will hardly be likely to have a healthy appetite, so long as this im- 
proper course is continued. Let the child dispense with the lunch 
upon which it has depended, and before long it will partake of the 
regular meal with relish. 
Doctor Wooster Beach remarks upon this subject as follows : 
“It is owing to this that so many children sicken and die; and 
furthermore, it is in consequence of this ignorance in our fore- 
fathers, that the present generation have become so weak, sickly 
and effeminate. Most of these evils may be imputed to errors in 
diet, regimen and depletive agents, etc. We have departed from 
the simplicity of nature, and must, of course, suffer the penalty." 
Note.—This mortality of children has been the bane of untold ages. Gen. 
Eaton, Commissioner of Education, remarks: “From what we can learn by 
Marshall’s tables, at the close of the sixteenth century, one-half of all children 
born, perished under five years of age, and the average length of life of the whole 
population was eighteen years. The proportion of mortality to the whole popu- 
lation in 1631, was one in twenty-one. In the seventeenth century, one-half of 
all the children born, died under twelve years of age.” 
There has been improvement in later centuries, but the mortality of children, 
especially among the poorer population, is still prodigious. Male children, by 
some mysterious principle of nature, are most liable to fatal occurrences, and die 
in far larger proportion, giving the disparity of adult population in favor of the 
other sex. Dr. Wright’s suggestions deserve consideration.—A. W. THE PULSE BY REV. CHARLES LAREW, M. D. 
71 
THE PULSE. 
ITS NATURE AND ACTION AS A DIAGNOSTIC SIGN OF DISEASE. 
REV. CHARLES LAREW, M. D. 
The pulse may be defined as the beating of the arteries, pro- 
duced by the flow of the blood, as propelled by the heart in its con- 
tractions. And though the beat may be felt at a number of points 
where the arteries approach the surface, yet, for the sake of con- 
venience, the radial artery at the wrist is generally preferred, to 
detect the precise character of the pulsation, by the different im- 
pressions which it may produce upon the finger. But in order to 
understand its nature and action more fully, it will be necessary 
to consider the three constituents which conduce to the producing 
and qualifying of that sensible throb or motion of the arteries. 
These consist— 
1. Of the Heart, or great central organ from which these im- 
pulses of the blood emanate and are made sensible to the touch. 
2. The arterial tubes or vessels through which the vital current 
flows from the central organ to all the extremities, at convenient 
points of which its motions may be distinguished. 
3. The blood itself, which, as constituting the contents of 
these tubes, receiving its impulses from the heart, gives rise direct- 
ly to the various characteristics of the pulse. 
But in order that we may properly estimate its various condi- 
tions and its true indications, with regard to disease, it will be 
necessary for us to consider more fully the nature and relative 
functions of these essential and organic constituents. 
From the heart, as we have seen, we have what may be called a 
functional control over the state of the pulse. Whatever may be 
its action, especially in regard to frequency and regularity, such 
will be that of the motion of the blood through the arteries. Like 
all other muscular structures, the heart is subject to various grades 
of organic and functional power. Its valves and parietes are sub- 
ject also to disease and injury. These conditions, as might be ex- 
pected, exert great influence upon the character of the pulse, the 
condition of which is communicated by action of the left ventricle. 72 
APPENDIX. 
The Arteries, we must hold in view, are not merely passive 
tubes, but possessed of qualities both functional and vital. Physical- 
ly, they are expansible, extensible and elastic ; and by virtue of their 
fibrous and cellular tissues, they are possessed of these qualities in 
an eminent degree. The coats, or varied tissues of these organs, 
are also permeated extensively by nerve-fibres, connecting them 
with the great ganglionic centres, through which they become en- 
dowed with the vital qualities that connect them sympathetically 
with the whole organic system. By this vital union, they are 
found to be contracted, expanded, and irritated, toned or en- 
feebled, in accord with the general state of the body, or that of 
some one or more of its particular organs. 
The blood, also, being the important constituent of the pulse, 
must not be overlooked in our estimation of its conditions. The 
movement of this vital column set in motion by the heart, may be 
regarded uniform throughout the body, modified simply by the 
distance from the central organ of impulse. There are often in 
disease, however, obstructions in the venous circulations, as well 
as local determinations, which modify arterial action. Besides 
these considerations, it must be kept in view, that the blood has 
certain conditions peculiar to itself, which materially affect the 
state of the pulse. 
These relate to its quantity and its quality, and also to its de- 
gree of vitality. There is, moreover, an important modifying in- 
fluence upon the pulse, arising from the relative proportion be- 
tween the quantity of blood and the capacity of the vessels through 
which it flows, in regard to its tension, frequency and regularity ; 
for the blood is subject both to excess and deficiencies. 
The quality also affects largely the state of the pulse. The 
amount of red corpuscles and fibrine, other than of its proper 
constituents, are subject to variations and disproportions. Beside 
this, it frequently becomes loaded more or less, with poisonous 
and unnatural materials, imbibed in part from without, and con- 
sisting in part of effete and uneliminated substances from within. 
These react upon the system by irritation and depression. These 
various conditions must, of course, modify the state of the pulse 
in a very important degree. 
Thus having considered the nature of the pulse with its 
physiological and functional principles, we will now take a brief THE PULSE BY REV. CHARLES LAREW, M. D. 
73 
view of the varied conditions peculiar to the pulse itself, with its 
specific indications, in regard to the character of disease. 
We speak first of its frequency. This is greatly modified by a 
variety of causes, both during health and in disease. Age, sex 
and temperament modify it in health. At birth, or soon afterward, 
the pulsations range from 120 to 130; and during the time of denti- 
tion, even higher. They gradually lessen as the age of puberty 
and maturity are reached. At this period, the pulse varies from 
60 to 80 beats per minute. Sex, also, has its modifying influence ; 
the pulse of the female averaging from five to fifteen above that of 
the male, beside being also much more excitable. It is also more 
frequent in persons of a nervous and sanguineous, than in those 
of a bilious or lymphatic temperament. 
The various positions of the body also have their influence. 
The recumbent and sitting postures are accompanied with less 
frequency than the erect, which forms a fuller exercise of the 
respiratory functions. Sleeping and working also produce differ- 
ent degrees of frequency. During our working hours, in which 
we are exercising to a greater or less degree, our voluntary func- 
tions are subject to the excitement of the circumstances, the pulse 
is more frequent than during sleep. 
The next that we shall notice is what may be called the strong 
pulse. This may be described as large, open, full and bounding. 
Upon examination, it is found to strike a large portion of the fin- 
ger, due to the amount of blood expelled by each forcible con- 
traction of the heart. This type of pulse evinces unusual excite- 
ment of the nervous system governing the heart, and is peculiar 
to the higher grade of fevers, and especially to the more acute in- 
flammations. 
The third may be characterized as the constricted pulse. This 
may be defined as hard, persistent and wiry, impressing a very 
narrow portion of the finger. This tense, firm pulse, is found 
mostly in robust constitutions, when in a high state of irritation, 
especially in persons of an irritable temperament with strong vital 
power. It is usually more or less accelerated, both as to frequency 
and quickness. This type is caused by an irritated state of the 
heart and arteries, and sometimes by a morbid condition of the 
circulating fluid itself. This kind of pulse also indicates inflamma- 
tion, though it does not accompany all inflammations, and may be 74 
APPENDIX. 
found in the absence of any. This condition of the pulse is just- 
ly considered as very important, and it should lead to close and 
careful inquiry in connection with other symptoms as to its cause. 
The fourth variety which we shall mention, is the soft pulse. It 
is feeble, compressible, expansible ; and in extreme degrees of 
debility, may be called the soap-bubble pulse. This may be regard- 
ed as the opposite of the hard, constricted and wiry type, of which 
we have spoken; and is pre-eminently the index of local conges- 
tion, with exhaustion of the vital powers and a weak, debilitated 
state of the organs of circulation. The functional power of the 
heart is depressed ; and the walls of the arteries, having lost their 
tone, are unable to contract properly, upon their contents. In pro- 
tracted disease, this is owing to serious impairment of the sympa- 
thetic system, as it is generally found to accompany the advanced 
stages of these diseases, peculiar to the abdominal viscera, which 
terminate in effusion or hemorrhage. 
As the fifth, we may mention the quick pulse, which under the 
touch, will be found sharp, sudden and vibrating. This must not 
be confounded with the frequent pulse, of which we have already 
spoken. The term refers to that brief and sudden impulse of the 
blood-column against the finger, leaving the intervals more distinct 
and prolonged, though it may be more or less accelerated. This 
state of the pulse indicates nervous irritation and disorder. It is 
met with in most diseases, accompanied by marked excitement 
and great irritability of the general system. 
When the pulse intermits one or more of its regular beats, and 
these are unequal in force, or continue an indefinite time, it is 
called irregular. All of these states may exist independent of 
each other ; and though they are in some degree natural to a few 
individuals, a disturbance of the circulation is indicated, implicating 
the functions of the brain, the respiratory organs, etc. It may 
originate, however, in simple disorder of the stomach, or be the 
result of general debility alone. This, like the constricted and 
wiry pulse, may be regarded as one to be most seriously consider- 
ed by the physician. It may indicate mortal disease ; it may im- 
ply no danger whatever; it may give no clew to any available 
treatment; it may teach us how toward off impending destruction. 
Of the diagnostic indications of these forms of the pulse, in their 
varied and multitudinous combinations, as found in general prac- DYSPEPSIA—BY EGBERT VAN SANTON. 
75 
tice, we have not even the time or space to write; but submitting 
these as the more distinct, positive and general conditions, we 
leave the others to professional experience and sagacity. 
DYSPEPSIA. 
EGBERT VAN SAXTON. 
Dyspepsia is purely functional, and is characterized by the 
abnormal condition of the mucous membranes, defective action of 
the secreting, digestive and absorbing functions, and the impaired 
condition of the gastric fluids. Owing to these facts, the trans- 
formation of the food is prevented, and by reason of a deranged 
state of the nervous system the glands are hindered from elabo- 
rating the fluids. The cause of these derangements are manifold 
and varied. Often they are congenital. Generally they are to be 
found in the unwholesome food which parents allow their children 
through mistaken indulgence, to partake of, thus laying the foun- 
dation for future debility and suffering. Indigestion also arises 
from excessive eating, from the use of ill-prepared food, from 
eating at irregular intervals, rendering the digestive organs inca- 
pable of properly performing their office. 
Improper mastication, and insufficient insalivation of the food, 
hurried eating, and sedentary habits, all contribute to the same 
derangement. Excessive physical exercise also does its part, 
making men prematurely old and debilitated. The same thing is 
true also of inordinate mental labor, students, bankers and others 
suffering from overtaxed energies and neglect of the conditions of 
health. If the mind is actively employed during the digestive 
period, the process will be impaired. Different emotions produce 
a similar result, such as anger, joy, hope, fear, despair. We often 
notice when persons are violently angry, the appetite is destroyed 
and the whole system deranged. 
The immoderate use of alcoholic stimulants operates injuriously 
upon the tissues, exhilarating and then depressing the circulation, 
destroying the mucous membrane and so rendering the digestive 
organs incapable of performing their functions. The excessive use 
of tobacco causes irritation of the mouth and mucous lining of the 
palate and tonsils, causing the stomach to send up its fluids to re- 76 
APPENDIX. 
move this deleterious influence. Acid, drastic and other poison- 
ous medicines in too large doses or too often repeated, injure the 
mucous membrane, rendering the stomach, intestines and kidneys 
more or less incapable of properly discharging their functions. 
Nervous irritability of all kinds attacks the digestive organs sym- 
pathetically. Changes of climate, sudden changes of the weather, 
altered modes of living, also affect them unfavorably. 
The symptoms are numerous and manifold—loss of appetite, 
disgust for food, vomiting of acid or bitter matter, an acrid taste 
in the mouth, are common. Sometimes the appetite is voracious. 
There is in many cases a burning at the pit of the stomach and 
eructations, pain in the epigastrium, a feeling of sinking, and often 
water-brash. The mouth is clammy, the tongue coated with a 
white deposit, or it may be yellow or dark brown where there is 
biliary disorder; the eyes are sometimes highly colored, and there 
are headache, dizziness, blurred state of mind, tendency to indolence 
with sleeplessness, and a painful sense of weariness. But the symp- 
toms are not uniform. They differ with persons and conditions. 
The treatment often baffles the most experienced practitioner. 
Except by removing of the exciting causes, a case can not be 
helped. The food must be plain, simple and easy to digest, and 
should not be taken in undue quantity. Starchy and fatty articles 
should be avoided ; and acidity of the stomach, whenever it pre- 
vails, should be corrected by bicarbonate of soda or magnesia, to be 
followed by a tonic. In case of nausea or vomiting an emetic should 
be administered, and followed by gentle cathartics, and afterward 
by tonics. Sugar should be prohibited. The activity of the 
stomach and glandular system should be aroused by proper stimu- 
lants, as Xanthoxylum, Capsicum, Ginger, Peruvian Bark, Gentien. 
The moderate use of ale or beer is often beneficial. The body 
should have abundant rest and sleep. Exercise should be taken 
freely in the open air, but never to the point of fatigue. Drastic 
and active medicines should be avoided. I have found the follow- 
ing formula beneficial : 
R. Pepsin, lactis Schaefer, 
Bismuth) subnitratis aa, grs. x. 
Quiniae sulphatis gr, }( 
Gentiani radicis pulv. 
Zinziberi rad. pulv. aa, grs, v. 
Mix. Charta xx. Take one in water before each meal. DIAGNOSIS—BY WILLIAM W. NIMS. 
77 
Bathing in tepid or warm water is beneficial. In consti- 
pated habits, the Stillingia compound is beneficial; in a re- 
laxed state of the body, citrate of iron attended with dilute 
nitric or hydrochloric acid. If the motor nerves are affected 
administer Nux vomica in eighth-grain doses with Hydrastis and 
followed by Xanthoxylum. For flatus, a tea of peach-tree bark is 
excellent. Alcoholic drinks,#opiates, sexual and other excitement 
must all be avoided; but every agency should be employed to pro- 
mote cheerfulness; as music, lively conversation, agreeable com- 
panionship to divert the attention of the patient from his own 
trouble, which is generally sure to produce a morbid condition of 
the nervous system. 
The remedies advised for this disorder are numerous, and the 
skillful practitioner will make his selections judiciously. The great 
irequency with which it appears has almost familiarized us with 
it to forgetfulness of the perils which lie masked behind it. But a 
swarm of maladies, hydra-headed, Proteus-formed, painful and 
often deadly, are thus introduced. From the trifling inconvenience 
which we hardly note to the destructive phthisis, Dyspepsia is parent 
to them all. 
DIAGNOSIS. 
WILLIAM W. NIMS. 
The first duty of a student beginning the study of medicine, is 
to gain a thorough knowledge of the frame-work of the human 
body and the functions of the different organs. He is then pre- 
pared to learn how to put that body in repair whenever it becomes 
diseased. So with the physician, when first called to the bedside of 
a patient. He should give the case a careful examination, and be 
certain that he makes a correct diagnosis. In order to do this, it is 
necessary to take time, not only to study the symptoms carefully, 
but to note the peculiarities of the patient as far as possible. 
Some physicians seem to think it incumbent on them to appear 
to be in great haste, in order to convey the impression that they 
are overrun with business. They come into the sick room uncere- 
moniously ; startle and excite the patient by their abruptness; 78 
APPENDIX. 
ask a few questions, note several of the prominent symptoms, 
dash off a prescription, and go away knowing little more of the 
case than when they came in, and giving the patient no satisfaction 
whatever. How much more credit they would gain if they would 
take a little more time and manifest some more interest in the case, 
aside from dollars and cents. Many a patient has been hurried 
into a premature grave by this off-hagd way of doing business. 
Physicians frequently meet patients, especially nervous, excitable 
females, who are not in condition for an examination on the first 
appearance of a strange physician. The pulse is at such time, no 
trustworthy index of the condition of the circulation. Let the 
physician, however, endeavor first of all to gain their confidence, 
by manifesting a kindly interest and sympathy in their affairs, 
generally. He can gradually lead the conversation to the case and 
elicit the facts without producing excitement. 
Endeavor, under all circumstances, to gain the confidence of 
your patient, if possible. If you are unfortunate enough at any 
time, to get a patient on your hands whose confidence you cannot 
obtain, get rid of him as soon as you can. You will lose more in 
raputation by keeping him than pecuniarily, by letting him go. 
Your prescription will do little good ; although the same medicine 
prescribed by a physician having his confidence will act like a 
charm. 
Invariably carry a cheerful, hopeful countenance into the pres- 
ence of the sick. Never manifest despondency before patients. 
The countenance of the physician is their barometer; every change 
is watched, and they are affected correspondingly. Hope is one of 
the most powerful stimulants to the nervous system. No article in 
the materia medica can compare with it; and the physician who 
neglects this fact and does not act upon it, will behold the time 
when his pride will be humbled and his credit as a practitioner 
injured. Another, perhaps greatly his inferior in knowledge and 
ability otherwise, will come in and recover the patient, whom he 
has given up as hopeless ; not by the superiority of the prescrip- 
tion, but by the hope that he has inspired in the mind of the 
patient, by the stimulus which every word and act has imparted 
to the nervous system, rallying the flagging powers. 
When a very sick patient has given the physician much anxiety, 
there has been perceived a certain mysterious and unaccountable THE INFIRMITIES OF THE AGED BY DAVID L. SPAULDING. 
79 
influence—call it magnetism if you like—by which he receives an 
impression and forms a conclusion in regard to the case, for which 
he can give no satisfactory reason, but which in the end, proves 
to be correct. Every physician of experience, taking a lively in- 
terest in his patients, has felt these impressions. For instance, a 
patient may lie very low, and every indication point to a fatal is- 
sue ; but at the same time, there is a conviction in the mind of the 
physician that he will get well, and the patient does recover. 
You will occasionally meet with a case so complicated, that you 
are at a loss what opinion to form. Do not attempt to deceive 
your patient in the matter, but tell him frankly that you are not 
prepared, and want time to study his case ; but will tell him what 
conclusion you arrive at. He will promptly set you down as a 
physician who takes an interest in his patients, and will give you 
his confidence. 
Mind affects mind more powerfully and directly than we general- 
ly imagine. The student ambitious to become a successful prac- 
titioner, should realize this fact, and become accordingly as closely 
conversant with psychological as with physiological laws. 
THE INFIRMITIES OF THE AGED. 
BY DAVID L. SPAULDING 
So few ever reflect upon the probability of ever becoming old 
and infirm, that they seldom economize their stock of vital power, 
and strive to accumulate health and strength, as they would gather 
wealth, to assure a comfortable old age. Prodigal in early life, in 
the expenditure of constitutional vigor, the majority live as if 
there was no end to their vital resources, or, as if endeavoring to 
hurry through life as rapidly as possible, and to bring on old age 
prematurely, aggravating its infirmities as much as possible. The 
world is full of these “fast men” and “fast women,” who ridicule 
admonitions, and die as they live. 
The vital organs are kept in action by their mainspring, the di- 
gestive system. It is to all the parts of the body, what roots are 
to a tree or plant. Yet it is so often abused in early life, that it 80 
APPENDIX. 
frequently tires,—in other words, wears out, before any other or- 
gan, and thus complicating and increasing the ills and infirmities 
of old age. 
The use, or excess of wholesome food in early life, will 
often create an irritation and inflammation of the mucous mem- 
brane lining the stomach, liable to be followed by thickening of 
its walls and coats, and consequent laborious and imperfect di- 
gestion. The quantity which might before have been eaten with 
impunity, will now oppress the stomach and bring on all the tor- 
ments and horrors of dyspepsia. This will soon be followed by 
loss of appetite ; and the sufferer eats only because impelled to do 
so as the means of prolonging a miserable, if not a useless exist- 
ence. The alimentary canal becomes more or less inactive, losing 
its contractile power, and so is unable to remove the accumula- 
tions of partially-digested food, which remain decomposing, poi- 
soning the blood, and causing great debility and exhaustion. 
The heart usually sympathizes with the stomach. Its walls be- 
come thinner and weaker; the large blood-vessels sometimes be- 
come ossified by the deposit of calcareous matter from the blood, 
which soon impairs their elasticity, diminishing the force of the 
pulse and power of the circulation. 
The veins, unable to return the blood to the heart with due 
promptness, become enlarged and varicose, causing oedema of the 
feet and limbs : the minute capillaries are thickened, thus lessening 
their diameter, and so impeding the circulation of the blood that it 
ceases to maintain the vital heat. 
The urinary, and more especially, the sexual organs, not 
only become languid, but they often fall into a state of disease, 
the result of excess and abuse in earlier life Volumes might and 
ought to be written, in illustration of the wretchedness produced 
in later life by these perversions. It seems to be a fact that few 
persons reach even the meridian of life without serious derange- 
ment of their organization and functions. The part most liable 
to disease, and which when discovered, is most likely to disturb 
health and comfort in old age, is the prostate gland. Its enlarge- 
ment interferes with the free passage of the urine and causes its 
accumulation in the bladder, causing great irritation and distress, 
which if not relieved, may terminate fatally. 
When old people take to their beds, they seldom live much HOW CRIMINAL ABORTION MAY BE DETECTED—BY T. J. KILMER, 
81 
longer, as their faculties and powers will decline rapidly if not 
kept in constant exercise. 
The sleeping apartments of aged persons should be large, well- 
aired and lighted. If not, they will soon become sallow and pale, 
from no other cause than the long confinement in badly-lighted 
rooms greatly increasing the evils and infirmities of age. 
In conclusion, let me say, that all human beings have a natural 
right to be born into this world with good, healthy organizations; 
and if they are not so born, then they have been robbed, even be- 
fore birth, of a part of their birth-right, by their parents, and have 
a right to blame them. No human being has a right to live as he 
may please, in violation of the laws of his being, and then become 
the parent of wretched, diseased, and imperfect human beings. 
If we treated Nature with half the attention which she merits, 
she would rarely inflict upon us disease and suffering; and death 
would finally be introduced to us as a kind friend, and without 
his ghastly terrors. 
HOW CRIMINAL ABORTION BY MARRIED WOMEN 
MAY BE DETECTED. 
THOMAS J. KILMER. 
The married woman who should render to society the functions 
of her womanhood often seeks the abortionist, and for money 
is enabled to shirk the holy office of maternity. The expense of 
this crime has become so cheap as to bring it within the reach 
even of the servant-girl; and practitioners will even take their pay 
in installments. 
A few years ago, a woman, young and interesting, the wife of a 
young medical man, came to me for such a purpose. I endeav- 
ored to convince her of the certainty of being detected by her 
husband. To my great surprise she informed me that she had 
once succeeded in deceiving him in such a matter. He supposed 
the “show ” to be a renewal of menstruation, profuse from having 
been interrupted two or three months. 
The difficulty of detection exists because the crime has been 
perpetrated at an early period in the course of gestation. In the 
majority of cases the third menstrual lapse is the period chosen 82 
APPENDIX. 
for such interference. Women who have acquired the art of auto- 
catheterisation, usually employ it at the expiration of the first 
month, if the menses do not appear. These cases rarely come 
under the notice of the medical man except hemorrhage occurs, 
or as the patient expresses it—“ she has been for such a long time 
unwell.” It is thus not remarkable if he is at fault. 
The second and third months constitute the crisis in the 
uterine existence of the foetus, among women who exhibit this 
moral obliquity. After the fourth month, married women, believ- 
ing that foetal life is then fully developed, are generally afraid to 
resort to criminal interference. Before that period, “ nice women ” 
suppose that “ no particular harm is done.” Only those who fear 
the having of children more than pre-natal child murder, attempt 
after this time to arrest the progress of gestation. I speak of 
married women, as no rule will apply to cases of illegal concep- 
tion. 
The physician is called upon to attend to two classes of these 
patients, namely: 
1. Those who acknowledge the fact of abortion, but deny its 
criminal cause. 
2. Those who refer their sickness to some cause other than a 
pending abortion. 
The first class consists generally of married women, and is less 
difficult to detect. The woman generally refers the cause to a 
fall, or blow, or sudden reception of unhappy news, sudden alarm, 
or an unfortunate habit of body, expressing the fear of never 
having a living child. So apparently sincere will she appear that 
a physician doubting her word would seem to be heartless. 
Yet it is reasonable ground for suspicion that a miscarriage 
should occur in a young married woman, of previously good 
health, between the second and third months. Where an abor- 
tion occurs at that early period, it is from ovular disease. Even 
syphilis spares the product of conception till a later time. If 
there is no constitutional taint or confirmed ill-health, it is appa- 
rent that good reason should be found for the occurrence by 
investigating the history of the conception and the evidences fur- 
nished by the touch. 
A fall or blow would leave some taint of soreness or ecchymo- 
sis upon a part of the body favorable to such a result; but this HOW CRIMINAL ABORTION MAY BE DETECTED—BY T. J. KILMER. 
83 
would by no means be conclusive, if similar tokens were not in 
those regions; yet allowance should be made, in the case of a 
nervous, irritable woman who had previously suffered a sponta- 
neous abortion, for the effects of shock. 
A case came to my notice, several years ago, in which the 
woman asserted that the miscarriage had occurred between the 
third and fourth month in consequence of a kick upon the abdo- 
men from her husband. It afterward transpired that a woman 
had performed the operation upon her for abortion six or eight 
days after the alleged injury. 
In the matter of a fall, or in descending stairs, during the first 
weeks of gestation, the ovum is sometimes forced away from its 
resting-place, as a cork is forced from a half-filled bottle by sudden 
concussion. This never occurs after instrumental interference. 
An important element in these investigations is time. It will be 
observed that the peculiar symptoms are inverted. The sponta- 
neous abortion begins without shock. The abortion from manip- 
ulation is almost always preceded with more or less severe 
constitutional disturbance, or with persistent pain in the abdomen 
or lumbar region. The shock exists from the invading of the 
cavity of the womb with an instrument like a sound, or by an 
injection of water. A shock from such an injection is incident 
when the uterus is unimpregnated ; and how much more persist- 
ent must be the systems of wrong-doing when the cavity is so 
injected for a criminal purpose, and is subjected to rude manipu- 
lation at the very time when this, the key-organ of a woman’s 
system, is undergoing radical physiological changes. The abor- 
tion produced by instruments is often indicated by pain imme- 
diately following the interference. The spontaneous or accidental 
abortion never presents this as an initial symptom. Injection pro- 
duces an immediate demand upon the expulsive power of the 
womb, to which it rarely fails to respond. If, therefore, the testi- 
mony of the woman, her husband, or others, shall establish the fact 
that severe shock, followed by expulsive pains, was among the first 
symptoms—and if, in addition to this, the application of the hand to 
the abdomen reveals marked tenderness of the hypogastrium, we 
are fully warranted in declaring the case one of forced abortion. 
If questions are skillfully put, the facts will be readily elicited, al- 
though the patient will probably deny the truth very vehemently. 84 
APPENDIX. 
A digital examination will of course afford evidence completely 
corroborative, but the preceding method is sufficiently conclusive 
to acquit the conscience of the physician. This will bring to light 
a great heat and fullness in the vaginal passage. These symptoms 
are rarely found in spontaneous or accidental abortions, except 
where are inflammatory complications. 
Careful attention to these suggestions will enable us to satisfy 
ourselves as to the existence of crime, and prevent us from doing 
any injustice to a patient. 
DISEASES INCIDENT TO WOMEN. 
ROBERT S. GALT. 
Most of the diseases which deteriorate the human family origi- 
nate with women. The child in the arms, or silent in the womb, 
derives from them the elements of deformity and enfeebletnent, or 
those of beauty, strength, and purity. It is their duty, therefore, 
to inform themselves upon the subjects relating to their physical 
organization, and to protect themselves from disorder of every 
character. 
They are not only liable to all the diseases peculiar to the other 
sex, but likewise suffer others, which relate especially to their sex- 
ual system. The uterus creates or modifies many disorders in 
different parts of the body; and indeed, to a great degree, it governs 
the moral character, as well as regulates many of the physical 
movements. It has been declared by many to possess a distinct 
and peculiar life. Certainly, sexual diseases occasion severe dis- 
tress in different parts, incommode, torment, and even destroy 
women, by degenerating the womb, ovaries, and other organs, sub- 
vert the health, and ultimately destroy life. Yet their seat is often 
hidden and masked by the external form of the ailments. Treat- 
ment in such cases is often misapplied, until, at last, the womb be- 
comes as a tumor, is totally degenerated, so that all success in 
treatment is impracticable 
The healthiest woman is liable, almost immediately after con- 
ception, to be afflicted by disturbing radiations of the uterine or 
hysteric force. She may be seized with distressing nausea, profuse DISEASES INCIDENT TO WOMEN BY ROBERT S. GALT. 
85 
salivation, hysteria, and a thousand perversions of the mouth and 
glands, as well as of the organic functions. These may arise from 
irritation, peculiar to incipient gestation, or from a morbid state 
of the womb. It is also true that many painful and troublesome 
disorders will occur and tax, if not baffle outright, the skill of the 
most expert physician, which, if they had been properly under- 
stood, would not have been serious. Leucorrhoea, for example, 
may safely be assumed to be a matter of little consequence when 
the vagina only is involved ; but the real malady may exist in the 
neck of the uterus, in which case it is of the gravest importance. 
Debility, pain in the back and loins, the sense of bearing down, 
heat in the interior passages, are likely to supervene; also an in- 
sufferable pruritus. 
Retroversion or prolapsus is so common that one acquires a dis- 
position to suspect its existence even before having made any ex- 
amination. I have long been convinced that it lay behind the 
great majority of disorders of the sexual system. The wonder is 
that more are not so afflicted, owing to the habits now fashionable. 
Young ladies and girls, owing to the prevalent idea of modesty, 
are very liable to be sufferers. So often does it exist when it is 
not suspected, that the majority, very possibly, when becoming 
advanced in years, are prone to attribute their trouble to “ change of 
life.” In this disaster not a moment should be lost in the endeav- 
or to ascertain the actual difficulty and the proper remedy. Neg- 
lect is more or less dangerous. In a little time the patient may 
be overwhelmed by the excessive drain, and so fritter out her 
days in misery and suffering. 
There are other maladies proper to mention in this connection, 
but I have not time or space to treat of them. 86 
APPENDIX. 
RUBEOLA. 
VALENTINE MOTT LAWYER. 
The disease known familiarly as measles is a form of conta- 
gious fever accompanied by a peculiar eruption. The symptoms 
resemble those of ordinary fever with the addition of catarrh ; as, 
for example, redness and watery appearance of the eyes, frequent 
sneezing, hoarseness, and cough ; also, perhaps, constriction of the 
chest. 
The eruption makes its appearance on the fourth or fifth day, 
in the form of small circular spots, first on the face, and thence 
extending, within a day or two, to the neck, chest, and entire sur- 
face of the body and limbs. Generally the small spots are suc- 
ceeded by larger ones, and the final arrangement of the patches is 
in a semi-circular form. The red tint of the eruption assumes its 
greatest intensity on the face, on the fifth or sixth day. The fever 
does not immediately subside, but may even be increased, as may 
also the catarrhal symptoms. 
The eruption is slightly elevated above the sxin, and is often 
attended with itching, when at its height. The frequency of the 
pulse, heat, thirst, redness of the eyes, and inflammation, attended 
with the removal of the membrane of the nose; are now greatly 
relieved. About the sixth or seventh day the inflammatory symp- 
toms disappear, the cough alone remaining. 
On the third or fourth day of the eruption, the spots become 
pale, and gradually assume a yellow tint; and when the redness 
has gone, the*epidermis desquamates, coming off in small scales. 
At this stage, diarrhoea generally supervenes, and is an indication 
of convalescence. 
In measles, the mucous membranes are apt to be much affected, 
especially those of the throat, nostrils, and eyelids ; those of the 
stomach and bowels sometimes participating in the disturbance, 
occasioning nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea. The membranes of 
the brain are also affected, in some cases, producing coma. 
The prognosis is favorable if the progress of the disease is regu- 
lar, and the skin is moist until the eruption begins to disappear. RUBEOLA—BY VALENTINE MOTT LAWYER. 
87 
The chief danger is to be apprehended from complication with 
pneumonia, or when the patient is a young child, and the eruption 
“ strikes in” or disappears suddenly. 
TREATMENT. 
When the progress of the disease is regular and symptoms favor- 
able, the treatment is very simple. Keep the sick-room at a mild 
temperature ; let the diet be light, and the medicine laxative and 
diaphoretic. Sponge the body of the patient with warm water ; 
and let some of it be inhaled if the soreness of the throat is 
troublesome. 
All inflammatory disorders that accompany or follow measles 
should be treated as they appear. If the eruption recedes sud- 
denly, employ treatment to bring it out again. If pneumonia 
follows, use the ordinary methods laid down for that affection. 
Diarrhoea supervening is important as an auxiliary to check a ten 
dency to disease of the bowels ; and if it is too severe, it may be 
relieved by Dover’s powders, and then warm baths. 
. During convalescence, care should be taken to guard against 
exposure to cold. 
The malignant form of this disease is most successfully treated 
with stimulants, both external and internal. The medical adviser 
and attendants are especially required to exercise vigilance, both 
in regard to the disease itself, and the complaints that are likely to 
accompany or follow.