The Etowah County ( Ala.) Medical Society 
VS. 
Dr. William Thomas Gwin. 
Dr. William Thomas Coggin, of Athens, Ga., who Claims the 
Honor of doing the first Symphyseotomy, in this 
Country, is Denounced by the Etowah County (Ala.) 
Medical Society as an Imposter and a Fraud. 
REPRINT FROM 
The Alabama Medical and Surgical Age. 
JUNE NUMBER, 1894. DOCTOR WILLIAM THOMAS COGGIN, OF ATHENS, GA., 
WHO CLAIMS THE HONOR OF DOING THE FIRST SYMPHYSEOTOMY IN 
THIS COUNTRY, IS DENOUNCED BY THE ETOWAH COUNTY (ALA.) 
MEDICAL SOCIETY AS AN IMPOSTER AND A FRAUD. 
[_We publish the following communication by request 
of the Etowah County Medical Society. This Society 
also requests that all medical journals which have given 
publication to Dr. Coggin's claim to the distinguished 
honor publish this communication We shall hear from 
Dr. Coggin before making editorial comment.-Ed. 
Age]: 
Editor Alabama Medical and Surgical Age: 
In the April number of your journal there is an 
extract from the New Orleans Medical Journal, from 
the pen of Dr. Robert P. Harris, of Philadelphia. 
In the above article the very distinguished honor of 
performing the first symphyseotomy on the American 
continent is bestowed upon one William Thomas Coggin, 
A. M., M. D., Ph. D., Gc., now of Athens, Ga., but late 
of Keener, Etowah, county, Ala. Until the above article 
appeared in your journal, the medical profession of this 
county had never heard of the wonderful feat of Dr. 
Coggin, and feeling that it is a duty we owe to our pro- 
fession in general, and other claimants for the same 
honor in particular, we determined to make a thorough 
investigation as to the facts in Dr. Coggin's claims, as 
we are on the grounds where he claims to have done 
the work; hence \ye think this should be satisfactory to 2 
all feair-minded men. We recognize the fact that "honor 
should be given to whom honor is due." 
To accomplish our purpose in a satisfactory way the 
matter was brought before our county medical society 
at the regular meeting in May. A committee of three 
was appointed by the president to make a thorough in- 
vestigation as to the facts in Dr. Coggin's claims, and 
report to the society at the regular meeting on the first 
Tuesday in June. 
From the report of this committee, after a thorough 
investigation of the case, together with correspondence 
from Dr. Coggin with different persons on the subject, 
what is here stated is based. We will first notice what 
Dr. Coggin says as to the facts : He states that on 
March 12th, 1892, he delivered one Mrs. Cary Hughs, 
the wife of a miner, of a living child by pubic section, 
and that his patient resided at the time of the operation 
at Freedman, Northeast Alabama, and that one Dr. 
Charles Slaughter assisted him in doing the operation. 
In a letter dated April 2, 1894, to Dr. C. J. Slaughter, 
of Aurora, Ala., Dr. Coggin says that "Mr. Cary Hughs 
lived on the Freedman place, near the rocky ford on 
Wills creek, before he went to the mines." 
Diligent search has been made of the postoffice direc- 
tory and other sources, and no such place as Freedman 
in Alabama can be found. A large number of the most 
prominent men in the vicinity in which Dr. Coggin 
lived and claimed to have done this operation have been 
interviewed, both as to Freedman and the operation, 
but not a single individual has been found who ever 
heard of freedman or the operation, All the men in 3 
the immediate vicinity of the rocky ford have been in- 
terviewed with reference to Cary Hughs, but not one 
of them ever knew or heard of such a person in that 
locality. The books and managers of the mines in that 
locality have been consulted, and no trace of Cary Hughs 
ever having been in that locality can be found. The 
merchants and postmaster in that section of country 
have never known or heard of such an individual. Dr. 
C. J. Slaughter is the only Dr. Slaughter who has ever 
been heard of in that entire section of Alabama, and 
he says he never assisted in or heard of any such oper- 
ation by Dr. Coggin or any one else. 
In Dr. Coggin's report to the county health officer, of 
the births and deaths in his practice, he makes no re- 
port of delivering Mrs. Cary Hughs, although he makes 
a report of other cases in the same month he claims to 
have done the operation. In all the search and investi- 
gation that has been made, not a shadow of evidence 
has been found supporting Dr. Coggin's claim. 
Under date of May 18, 1894, the president of our 
society invited Dr. Coggin to meet our society at the 
June meeting, and to exhibit his patient, and such other 
evidence as he might have to establish his claims. He 
was assured he should have a fair and square hearing, 
and if he produced the evidence he claimed to have, in 
a card to the president of this society, dated May 17, 
1894, our society would take pleasure in confirming his 
claims; and doing him the honor he was claiming. He 
was urged to appear before us, but he failed to put in 
his appearance. Hence it is clear to any unbiased mind 
that there is not a shadow of evidence tending to cor- 4 
roborate Coggin's claim, and the whole matter hinges 
on his own assertion. If we are not laboring under a 
false impression, it is not the policy of the medical pro- 
fession of this country to accept statements or asser- 
tions of this kind without some proof to verify such 
statements, although he may be ever so reputable. 
This being the case, we think it perfectly legitimate 
and equitable to investigate the record of Dr. Coggin. 
We are fully aware that it is no small or insignificant 
matter to undertake to impeach a brother physician (if 
he is entitled to such honor), but we feel the gravity of 
the case justifies the means ; therefore we will take a 
retrospective view of Dr. Coggin's career during his 
sojourn in Alabama. 
During the early part of the year 1888 Dr. Coggin 
came to Gadsden, Alabama, and made application to 
the Etowah County Examining Board for an examina- 
tion to obtain a license preparatory to entering the 
practice of medicine, in compliance with the laws of 
the State. 
Before an applicant is elligible for examination before 
a county medical examining board in Alabama, he must 
first exhibit a diploma from some reliable medical col- 
lege ; this Dr. Coggin was not able to do, but he set 
about to convince the board that he was a graduate in 
medicine, but he had been unfortunate by having his 
diploma burned, together with a drug store in Athens, 
Ga., a short time previous ; and to convince the board 
of the correctness of his statement he exhibited letters 
to that effect, one of which was from the dean of the 
faculty of the medical department of the University of 5 
the State of Georgia, located at Augusta, Ga. Dr. 
Coggin claimed to have graduated from that school in 
1882, and from tne literary department of the Univer- 
sity at Athens he claims to have received the degree of 
A. M. He also exhibited letters verifying his state- 
ment as to the burning of his drug store. 
This evidence had its desired effect on the part of 
Dr. Coggin and an examination was granted him. The 
board claim he was given a fair examination, but he 
failed to come up to the requirements of the law, and a 
certificate was refused. 
For a while Dr. Coggin was nonplussed, but soon 
rallied and came with renewed force and vigor. He 
appealed to our Senior Censor, Dr. Jerome Cochran, 
and by the mighty force of that magic pen of his, which 
he has wielded so successfully on more occasions than 
this, he touched the tender cord of sympathy in the 
noble heart of Dr. Cochran, and actuated by the advice 
and recommendation of Dr. Cochran, which was the 
only possible available way by which a re-examination 
could be granted him under twelve months before a 
'county examining board. In his appeals to Dr. Coch- 
ran he brought to bear upon him that, in his first ex- 
amination, he was sick and his eyes were inflamed to 
such an extent that he was not able to see to read or 
write, and that his means were exhausted, and he felt 
confident if he was given a fair showing he could pass a 
successful examination. 
It is claimed, on good authority, that he, although 
but a short time in the community, soon found valuable 
friends who came to his rescue, and by their aid and 6 
some leniency on the part of the board a certificate was 
granted him. 
This healed the Doctor, so far as the law was con- 
cerned, to practice medicine in Alabama, and so he pro- 
ceeded at once and was soon located at the famous and 
historic spot, where he says he soon succeeded in estab- 
lishing a satisfactory practice; but whether or not 
when he located at this place he ever dreamed that 
away back in the lonely hills and mountains of Etowah 
county a favorable opportunity should offer itself to 
bring forth the latent skill and ingenuity that was lurk- 
ing in the posterior portion of his cranium-be this as 
it may-but, according to his statement, that favorable 
opportunity came at last, and he was on the alert to 
avail himself of the opportunity that presents itself to 
but few men with similar environments, and thus bound 
at one gigantic leap into world-wide fame ! 
Soon after Dr. Coggin located in our county, as he 
was in the midst of an agricultural people, he seems to 
have decided it would be the proper thing for him to 
attach himself to the Farmers Alliance, which, at that 
time, was sweeping over this country at high tide, and 
by this soon ingratiate himself into the good graces of 
the yeomanry of his section. The Doctor it seems was 
not slow in arising to no small eminence in that organi- 
zation, and was gaining, by his craft, the confidence of 
the community as a physician ; and in the meantime he 
had become an active member of our county medical 
society. 
So far as we were aware, everything was smooth 
sailing with the Doctor, until in the early part of the 7 
year 1889, when, it appears, a brother Allianceman and 
doctor as well, who is of rather an investigative turn of 
mind, and not at all disposed to keep silent and submit to 
any man coming within his domain and relieving him 
of the burdens, and sharing the profits and luxuries of 
a country practice, without first satisfying himself that 
such individual was legally authorized to carry on such 
a business, was not slow to investigate, and his efforts 
were crowned with success. It was not long until the 
biography of Dr. Coggin was rather current news for 
the community; and, I may add, this biographical sketch 
was not altogether as flattering to Dr. Coggin as the 
one given in the April number of your journal. He 
denounced him in unmistakable terms as a fraud, a 
forger and an imposition on the people, and heavily 
assailed our examining board for granting him a certifi- 
cate to practice medicine, claiming he had no diploma 
and that he had duped the board. 
The examining board had acted in good faith, and 
this charge put it on the defensive, and an investigation 
was at once instituted with reference to Dr. Coggin's 
claims of graduation. The dean of the faculty of the 
medical department of the University of Georgia was 
written to with reference to Dr. Coggin's graduation 
from that school, and also as to having written a letter 
to that effect, in reply to which he stated Dr. Coggin 
was not a graduate of that school, and if Dr. Coggin 
had exhibited any letter with his signature to that 
effect it was forged. He went on to state that Dr. 
Coggin had matriculated in that school, but had left 
there under a cloud. The postmaster at Athens, Ga., 8 
was written to concerning the burning of the drug 
store, and in reply he stated he had been a citizen of 
Athens, Ga., for a number of years, and no such man as 
William Thomas Coggin had ever engaged in the drug 
business or the practice of medicine in that place, and 
that there had not been a drug store burned there for 
a number of years. 
After his little scheme had been shown to be false 
about graduating at Augusta, he then claimed he had 
graduated from the Medical College of South Carolina, 
at Charleston. An investigation of this claim proved 
it to be as false as the previous one. 
After these facts were shown up, charges were pre- 
ferred against him and he was notified to appear beiore 
our county medical society to answer to them, but he 
did not so much as appear to offer any defense, and he 
was expelled from and put under the ban of the society. 
After this Dr. Coggin quieted down for a while and 
nothing more was heard from him by our society until 
in 1891, when he made complaint to Dr. Jerome Coch- 
ran, our Senior Censor of the State, that he had been 
misrepresented by our society, as shown in the transac- 
tions of the State Medical Association. In making our 
report to the State Association, we had reported him as 
an undergraduate. Dr. Cochran called the attention of 
our society to the matter, and Dr. Coggin was notified 
to appear before our society at its next regular meeting, 
which was in August, and show cause why he should 
not be so reported. Dr. Coggin promptly appeared be- 
fore our society, and to the utter surprise and astonish- 
ment of every one he exhibited a diploma, coming this 9 
time from the "Western Reserve University," of Cleve- 
land, Ohio, and was an adendum degree. Our society 
is in possession of a letter from one H. H. Powell, 
register of the Western Reserve University, of Cleve- 
land, Ohio, and in that letter, which is dated July 8th( 
1891, he says that a man by the name of Wm. Thos. 
Coggin graduated a few years ago from what was then 
known as "Charity Hospital College," and all such are 
entitled to the adendum of the University. He regis- 
tered from Keener, Ala. It should be borne in mind 
that Dr. Coggin now claims to have graduated from the 
Charity Hospital College, of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1882, 
and that Dr. H. H. Powell, register of the Western 
Reserve University, of Cleveland, Ohio, stated that he 
matriculated from Keener, Ala. 
It can be clearly shown that Wm. Thos. Coggin was 
never heard of in Etowah county until in 1888. How 
and when Dr. Coggin obtained these diplomas we are 
not able to state. It seems remarkably strange, how- 
ever, that if Dr. Coggin was a graduate in 1882 from 
the Charity Hospital College, of Cleveland, Ohio, as he 
now claims, -why, in 1888, when he made application 
to our county examining board, he did not exhibit his 
diploma from that school. It seems to us this would 
have been much easier than to go to all the trouble he 
did in getting up the proof about graduating in Au- 
gusta, Georgia. Dr. Coggin alone, we presume, can 
explain this. It would be quite a gratification to our 
society to have an explanation from the doctor on this 
subject. The burden of proof is thrown upon him to 
show how and when he obtained these diplomas, as well 10 
as the rights to some of the titles he has swung on to 
his autograph. When he shall have done this in a sat- 
isfactory way, then he can ask decent people to give 
credence to what he says about his symphyseotomy. 
Until he does this or produces his patient, with reliable 
evidence to corroborate it, the Etowah County Medical 
Society brands his claims as utterly false, without a 
particle of foundation. 
The Etowah County Medical Society has the proofs 
on file to verify every statement made in this article, 
and we stand ready and are anxious to establish and 
maintain every word of it. We challenge William 
Thomas Coggin to successfully contradict it. 
Erasmus T. Camp, M. D., 
Pres't Etowah Co. Med. Society, Gadsden, Ala,