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Book of  Berkshire.
PAPERS
Historical and Scientific Society,
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.
      PITTSFIELD, MASS.
PRESS OF THE SUN PRINTING COMPANY. 
 
PREFATORY   NOTE.
   The members and patrons of the Berkshire  Historical and Scientific So-
 ciety will receive herewith the third number of its principal  papers.  With
 the fourth number, whose issue may be expected in about a year, the first
 volume will be completed ;  and  the  separate numbers are and will be so
 printed and paged, as to be conveniently bound together into volumes,, which
 will bear the general title,  Book of Berkshire.
   It is thought, that the  papers now presented to the public, all of which
 have been  read at  the  Quarterly meetings  of the  Society,  of which the last
 held was the Fiftieth, will not fall below in  point of interest and importance
 those heretofore published.  Dr. Smith's paper on  " Medicine in Berkshire,"
 traverses hitherto unbroken ground ; and he kindly promises a future paper
 continuing the record of the physicians of the County from the year 1800 to
 a much more recent date.
   Lanesborough has the distinction of' making  tke  Episcopal  Church more
 prominent  in the early time than any other town in the County ; and in this
 point of view, the  elaborate  and  excellent paper,  by  a clergyman of that
 Church, printed in  the present number, will find a wide and pleasant recog-
 nition.
  Mr.  ('aiming has  been from  the  first one of the most assiduous and labor-
 ious members of our Society.   The ripened fruit of long research into the
 fascinating story of Indian Missions in  Stockbridge will be welcomed (and
 more) by the readers of the present number.
  A portion of  our County but little known, because hitherto but little in-
vestigated, has been illumined by Mr. Beebe in his careful paper, which the
Society is now glad  to present to the public.
                                                             A. L. P.
 Williams College,  March 4, 1890. 
 
Medicine  in  Berkshire,
By Dk. A. M. SMITH, Williamstown. 
       WZ..

         WO

         AM*/







NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
    WASHINGTON, D. C. 
MEDICINE  IN  BERKSHIRE.
   At the present time many of the physicians who first came
 to Berkshire, are known only by name.  The record  of their
 birth and death; of their struggles during the early days of the
 county; of their heroism; of their masterful skill; of that pro-
 found love  for them and confidence in them begotten  by their
 unselfish devotion  to  their profession; of these things there is
 for many no history.
   The  settlement of Southern Berkshire was from the valley of
 the  Connecticut.   "The first road into Berkshire county"—
 says Mr. Keith,—"is that from Westfield to Sheffield," and the
 four  new townships opened on  this road were called No. 1, 2,
 3, 4.   No.  1,  Monterey and Tyringham; No.  2,  New Marl-
 boro; No.  3, Sandisfield;  No. 4, Becket.   "It appears," says
 the  same   writer,  "that this  road  was only  a path at  the
 time  of the grant of townships Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 in 1735."  Still,
 we have a record of a  physician in Sheffield  as early as  1743.
   Mr. Charles J. Taylor, in a letter to the  writer, says, " The
 first physician in the north Parish of Sheffield, now Great Bar-
 rington, of  whom I find mention was Deodet Woodbridge of
 Hartford, Doctor of Physic, as described in a deed of March,
 1773.   He lived here for a time in  that year, but how long I
 do not know, nor have 1 any further information about him."
   "Doctor  Samuel Breck,  perhaps from Palmer, Mass., pur-
 chased a house and  land here in 1751, and is supposed  to have
 settled here in that year.  Was Parish Assessor in 1752.  Mar-
 ried, about Oct., 1762, Mary Strong of Stockbridge.  Had a son,
 John  Aaron Breck, baptized Dec. 13, 1763.   Doctor Breck
died in  1764."  (Correspondence of Mr. Taylor.)
  Doctor William Bull was a native of Westfield, and reputed
to be an eminent physician.   In  1751 he, with forty-four other
persons, petitioned the  General  Court of Massachusetts "for 
116     Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
the confirmation  of  their lands by  the occupants," etc.   He
must then as early as 1751 have been settled in Sheffield.  This
petition indicates a man of  great influence with his neighbors;
of great concern that they have to pay such heavy rents to
Robert  Livingstone,  Jr. Esq., "And  never like  to have  the
Gospel among them so long as they are Tenants to him," etc.,
and of that godliness which likes to occupy a good deal of land.
We have no further history of him.
   " Doctor Joseph Lee, from whence unknown,"  was in Shef-
field, now Barrington, in 1761.  Dr. Collins of Great Barring-
ton, says,  "I am now (1879) residing  on premises which have
been occupied by physicians for more than a century.  Not the
same buildings—my house was built of stone in 1851, the year
I came here, and stands on a corner in the southern part of the
village  and has just one acre about it.   The first owner was Dr.
Joseph Lee, who married, Jan. 1762,  Eunice  Woodbridge,
daughter  of Timothy  Woodbridge, Esq., of Stockbridge, and
occupied these premises in  1762, and died March 6, 1764, aged
27 years.   Dr. William Whiting occupied the same place 1765
and died 1772.  Dr. Samuel Barstow, father-in-law of  the late
Increase Sumner, Esq., occupied the premises in  1808, died in
1813.  So  you see  I  am  the fourth medical  man  on  the
premises.  The old  house was moved off about thirty years
ago."
   " Doctor Samuel Lee, said to have  been from Lyme, Conn.,
was here  in 1765, bought a house  and  land here Jan., 1765, the
same which, soon after, he  sold to the  County for a jail house?
and for the accommodations of a jail.  He was licensed as an
Innkeeper April, 1765, kept the  jail house and  was also ap-
parently  keeper of the jail.  He removed from town about
 1768, to Salisbury, Conn."   (Correspondence.)
   " Doctor  William Whiting was a son of  Lieut.  Col. William
Whiting  of Bozrah,  Conn., born April 8, 1730.   He  studied
 medicine with Dr. John Buckely of Colchester, Conn., became
 a physician and resided for a time in Hartford.   By the death
 of Dr.  Joseph  Lee and Dr. Samuel Breck, both of which oc-
 curred in 1764, a vacancy was made,  and it is probable that to
 fill the vacancy was the object of Dr. Whitney's removal to 
J/cHeine in Berkshire.
117
Barrington.   His first appearance there was  in March, 1765.
He located in the house previously built and occupied by Dr.
Joseph Lee.  He united  tavern keeping with  his professional
business,  He remained  on that place until  1773,  when  he
built in  the center of the village  a house still standing, though
removed from its former site.   He soon became prominent in
town affairs, was  often moderator of the town meetings, held
the office of  selectman  repeatedly, and in  1776 and '78 was a
member of the Committee of Safety.   At the  breaking out of
the war, he espoused the  cause of the. colonies—was active and
patriotic.  He was a member of the Provincial Congress of the
province '74-5 and 6, where he  served on  important commit-
tees.  Throughout the war he  seems  to have exerted a whole-
some influence in  town,  and his record in that period is very
commendable.  He was  a Justice of the  Peace during  the
Revolution, and  his  commission  issued under the  reign of
George  the Third, was one of those altered  by the State Coun-
cil, July 8, 1776, to correspond with  the changed status of po-
litical affairs.   From 1781 to '87 he was one of the Judges of
the Court of Common  Pleas for Berkshire, and as such, was com-
pelled with other of the Judges, by the mob of Shay's men, in
1786, to sign a paper agreeing to hold no more courts  until the
State Constitution should be reformed or revised.  His  course in
the Shay's troubles  was less commendable and patriotic than in
the Revolution.   It was  such as  brought upon him the dislike
and displeasure of the friends of law and order.   And in the re-
sult of the conflicts of that time, he was among the number fined
and sentenced to imprisonment  and  to sign bonds to  keep the
peace.   His offence seems to have consisted  in " seditious words
and practices."   He left a reputation of a skillful physician and
surgeon and appears to have had an extensive practice.  He died
1702, Dec. 8th, aged 62 years."  (C. J. Taylor, correspondence.)
  "Doctor John, Budcl, said to have been from New Bedford,
and also reputed to have  been a lieutenant in the service at the
capture  of Burgoyne, probably resided in  Barrington as early
as  Mav, 1780.   He was a driving, active fellow—a "high
flyer,"—and attained a large practice.  He died in 1804 at the
age of 54."  (Taylor.) 
118     Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
  "Doctor Isaac Baldwin,—a  genial man with a wooden leg,
—came here (Barrington)  from Waterbury, Conn., in 1804, in
his 59th year."  (Taylor.)
  "Doctor Benjamin Rogers, from  the  vicinity of  Lebanon,
Conn., came here (Barrington)  in or about 1S00, engaged in
practice probably as early as 1812.  He was a fine, gentlemanly
man, of prepossessing appearance, and took some interest in
political affairs.  He removed to Hartford where he died about
1836."  (Taylor.)
  "Doctor Samuel Barstow, son of Seth Barstow, of Sharon,
Conn., came  here (Barrington)  about  1808, and engaged in
practice with his brother, Gamaliel II. Barstow.  Samuel was
a democratic politician, and was a fine supporter of the right of
his country, a member of the State  Senate in 1812.   He died
in Barrington at the  age of 36, in 1813,  June 26th, of an  afflc-
tion of liver  and stomach; bore his long sickness wTith  calm
resignation, and died in hope, greatly lamented.  Gamaliel re-
moved to Broome county, N.  Y.; was a member of  the  New
York State Senate,  State Treasurer  of New York, and a mem-
ber of Congress."  (Taylor.)
  Doctor  Thomas Bolton, Doctor Thomas Drake, Doctor Al-
vin Wheeler were also in Barrington sixty years ago, respecting
whom little is known.
  Doctor  Nathaniel Downing was one  of  the  earliest physi-
cians  of Sheffield, but there is no further knowledge of him.
  Of Doctor Samuel Barnard, a native of Deerfield, and a grad-
uate of Yale College in 1759, Dr. Peck says:—"I only know by
tradition that he practiced here (Sheffield), and was the  town
clerk  for  many years, and I infer, therefore, that he was  quite
respectable as a physician and as a member of society."  Dr.
Barnard was one of the five of the committee appointed at a
congress of deputies of the  several  towns  within the county,
convened  at  Stockbridge, on Wednesday July  6, 1774, to take
into consideration and  report the draught of an agreement to
be recommended to the towns in this county for the non-con-
sumption  of  British manufactures, and from this circumstance
we may conclude that Dr. Barnard  not  only stood high in the
confidence of his townsmen, but also that among his colleagues 
Medicine in Berkshire.
119
chosen as deputies from  the towns, he was reckoned upon as a
man of firmness and integrity."
   Dr. Oliver Peck, writing of the Sheffield physicians, says:
"Dr. Sylvester Barnard was a nephew  of  Dr. Samuel, and
practiced here at one time extensively.  He was a native of
Northampton.   He died in 1817, at the age of 59."
   "Doctor Asa Ilillyer  was a native of Granby, Conn."
   "Doctor  Willi am  Buel, a native of Litchfield, Conn.," sa}Ts
Dr. Peck:   "I well knew.  He  practiced here (Sheffield) ex-
tensively for about twenty years, and  removed to Litchfield in
1815.  I had  a high opinion of  Dr. Buel.   He was well in-
formed in his  profession, and his moral and christian character
stood with me and the public at a very high point; he was the
grandfather of  Gen. William B.  Franklin, U. S. army.  Dr.
Buel died in Litchfield about twenty years ago (1859.)"
   " Doctor Asahel Bennett, born and educated in Sheffield, had
but  little practice,  and removed   to  Binghamgton,  N.  Y."
(Peck.)
   " Doctor John E. Laffargue, a native of Nantes, Lower Loire,
France, says Dr. Peck, I well knew. I have been engaged with
him many times in practice; he was well informed in his  pro-
fession;  a thorough Frenchman; a gentleman  in his manners,
with  some  of  his native peculiarities, with an  unblemished
moral character.   His practice was limited, and he moved to
San Domingo where he lost his property, and nearly his life in
the negro insurrection in 1791.   He died here (Sheffield) many
years since,  aged about 70 (1879.)"
   " Doctor Nathaniel Preston was a very respectable man in
his moral character;  of  good mental  abilities, but deficient in
education;  never practiced to any  extent and died here  (Shef-
field) in 1825."
   " Doctor F.  R. Kellogg was a native  of Sheffield, and prac-
ticed here and in Egremont during his life, with the exception
of about  ten years, which he spent in  mercantile pursuits jn
Erie Pa., in which he was unfortunate.  He died in Sheffield
1877, nearly 80 years of age."
   " Doctor Ithamer II Smith, a native of Sheffield, did not reside
many years in town.   He died in Canaan, Conn., age about 80." 
120     Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
  A kinsman of Doctor John Ddamater, (Dr. Peck, Sheffield,)
thus writes of him:  "He was a native of Florida, N.  \ ., born
about 1789; studied with his uncle, Dr. Russell Dow, of Chat-
ham, N. Y., and attended lectures in the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, New York; did not take a degree, such an arti-
cle as a diploma of M. D. was not thought  of  in those  days
(1806-8);  settled  at  first  at  Mendon, N.  Y.  He was always
rather moveable, and verified the old adage, ' A rolling stone
gathers no moss;'   was in Albany for a time, and came here in
1815, and remained here 'till '25, then he removed to Pittsfield,
and was  a  professor in Medical Institute, Fairfield, N. Y.;
Medical School, Pittsfield; Brunswick, Me.;  Cleveland, Ohio,
and where else I do not recollect.   When approaching 80
years of age  he proposed to go to some small place where living
was less expensive, but his medical brethren made provision for
him and raised about $1200.  Died in East Cleveland about 80
years ago.  He was not learned outside his  profession, but in
medical matters was indeed learned; he had an acute and dis-
criminating  mind in his profession, very enthusiastic, of great
facility in the  expression of his ideas.   His christian  character
 was above reproach;  his charity  unbounded,  which was the
 chief cause of  his poverty."
   The notice of physicians practicing in Otis which  follows, is
 from Mr.  George A. Shepard.
   " Doctor Eliphalet Colt, one  of the  first  practicing physi-
 cians, came  from Harwinton,  Conn., in 1795.   He  settled in
 that part of  Otis then known as London."
    " Doctor Edmund Bancroft was among the early settlers and
 practiced successfully for many years."
    "Doctor  White G. Spencer and Doctor Adonijah White prac-
 ticed for a time, but how long am unable to learn."
    " Doctor Eber  West was a leading physician for a number of
 years and was very skilful."
   •"Doctor Watson Sumner, brother of Increase Sumner, prac-
 ticed about 1820, very successfully."
    " Doctor William Baird practiced many years ; stood quite
 high in his profession ; was noted for his literary abilities, and
 lectured occasionally on scientific subjects."
# 
Medicine in Berkshire.
121
  " Doctor Charles U. Little was a practicing  physician early
in the  settlement of  the  town.  He was  from Middlefield,
Mass."
  " Doctor Wareham L. Fitch was in practice  in  Otis  some
fifty years since (1830.)"
  Mr. Shepard in  writing  of  Sandisfield physicians, says, " In
respect to many of the physicians I could obtain no date as to
time  of settlement, leaving, birth, death, or time remaining in
practice in the respective towns.  Our records furnish no clue.
The older ones were not born in this town."
  " Doctor Jabez Ilolden was the first physician settled in this
town of whom  we have any account.  He was one of the origi-
nal proprietors; a man prominent in town affairs, as appears by
the records, but no further information  can be obtained as to
his medical career."
  " Doctor Jeremiah Morrison was one of the earliest practic-
ing physicians, and came here soon after  the settlement of the
town commenced, but no knowledge is obtained as to the length
of time he practiced or when he died."
  " Doctor---- Hamilton came from Connecticut and prac-
ticed a short time."  No further history.
  "Doctor John Ilawley settled in the north part of the town
on what is known as Beach Plain.  I think he  also resided in
the  district  of Southfield for a time, for I  find his name on
their records.  He was among the first settlers."
  " Doctor Amos Smith was  settled in the  district of South-
field, was one  of  the  leading men, and must have been one of
the early settlers as his first child was born in 1773.  He had a
family of fourteen children!  five  girls  and nine boys!!   He
must have had considerable practice to support them all, but, he
had quite a large farm."
  " Doctor Reuben Bvchman was  "in practice in this town at
the same time that Dr. Smith was practicing in Southfield. His
first child  was born  in 1778.  He was eccentric, not popular,
practice limited."
  "Doctor Robert King was the son and  fifth child of Dr. Rob-
ert King  of  Blandford, Mass., who was born in Cork,  Ireland,
1744.  He was lieutenant  in  a squadron of cavalry in the 1st 
122      Berkshire Historical and Scien tific Society.
Brigade, 9th Division of Massachusetts Volunteers  in  1K0X;
made captain in 1812.  He stood high as a physician and sur-
geon, and had an extensive ride.  He removed to Ohio where
he died June 29, 1851."
  "Doctor Erastus Beach was  born in Goshen, Conn.  He
commenced teaching  school  when  sixteen years old.   After
twenty-one, he settled and  practiced medicine and became the
leading physician in Sandisfield."
  " He was a man of good  judgment, a skillful practitioner, a
man  prominent in town affairs,  He was clear-headed and a
man of nerve.  During  his early practice, returning home at
midnight, he passed the central burying-ground.  While pass-
ing he thought he saw something in the figure of a  person—
but  ghostly white—moving about.   He stopped  his horse to
make sure  it was no  deception, and being assured  there was
none, he resolved to solve the mystery.  Hitching his horse he
proceeded to investigate.  As he approached, he saw it move,
but intent  on solving  the mystery, he faltered not.  Was it a
spectre or some tangible  being?  He found the widow of Rev.
Eliazer Storr's, who  had deceased  a  short  time previously,
wandering in her night dress, in a somnambulistic condition,
and hovering over the grave of her deceased husband."
>  " Doctor Ebenezer Batch, a contemporary of Dr. Beach, was
from Plattsburg, N. Y.   He studied with the Dr. Brewster of
Becket.
  " He was exceedindly plain  and blunt in speech, making use
of many quaint and ludicrous expressions.  He indulged at times
somewhat freely  in alcoholic  beverages, but  was careful and
guarded when attending those seriously sick, and was a very
cautious practitioner.   He excelled in compounding medicines.
He died Feb. 19,  1851, aged 68."  (Geo. A. Shepard.)
  Of Doctor John Hulbut,  or Hurlbut as  he  spelled it, of Al-
ford, Mr. E. C. Ticknor says, " We know next  to nothing.   We
gather—that in 1773, soon after the incorporation  of this town,
at the first  meeting in March he was elected Town Clerk and
also one of the  Selectmen; filled at times  various town offices
was representative to  the General  Court and received the ap
pointment of Justice of the Peace, which was revoked because 
Medicine in Berkshire.
123
he was a Shay's man.   It is understood that he received a clas-
sic education at Yale.   He married a Miss Hamlin, the mother
of a numerous family of  children,  among whom was the late
Hon. John W. Hulbut of Pittsfield, who represented this dis-
trict in Congress one term."
  He was the only physician in town  for a long period.  He
was one of the first members of the  District Society.   He died
June, 1815, at the age of 85 years."
  "Doctor Forward Barnum, born in Danbury, Conn., was
the son of Stephen Barnum, who  participated in the seige of
Yorktown at the capture  of Cornwallis.   Dr. Barnum came to
this town (Alford) about  1800.  He received only an English
education, studied medicine with Dr. Burghardt of Richmond,
and became the  successor of Dr. Hurlbut not  long after his
death.   Dr. B. died 1828, age 38."  (Ticknor.)
  Of  the New  Marlboro early physicians we  know next to
nothing.
  Doctor Elihu  W rigid, Dr. Ebenezer Parish.
  Doctor Benjamin Smith was one  of  the founders of the
Medical Association in 1787, but was the minority of one who
refused to sign the rules, and we hear nothing more from him.
  Doctor Elijah  Catlin was  admitted  to  practice  by the
Censors  of  the  Medical  Association.  He " has exhibited his
Proficiency in the several branches of Physical Knowledge to
Satisfaction, is, therefore, hereby recommended to the Publick,
as duly qualified, by a regular Education, to  enter upon the
duties of the Profession.  Dated at  Pittsfield, this Eiglith Day
of January, 1788."
  Doctors Jacob Hoit and Reuben Buckman were admitted at
the same time.
  Doctor Catlin died June 5, 1823, aged  61 years.
  Doctor Gilbert Smith died about 1804.
  Doctor Edmund C Peet died May 6,1828, age 44.
  The earliest physician of Becket was Doctor 0. Brewster.
  The following sketch of his life  is from the  " Panoplist" for
Aug. 1812:
  " Doctor Oliver Brewster of Becket, was born at Lebanon,
Conn., April 2, 1760.   A lineal descendant of the pilgrims of 
124      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society-
the Mayflower.  At a very early age he obtained his profession
and was  employed as a surgeon  in the American army, in a
regiment from Berkshire under Col. John Brown of Pittsfield,
in the valley of the  Mohawk.   On the morning  before  the
action at Herkimer, he was breakfasting with some officers of
the regiment to which he belonged.  The colonel observing the
company to eat but little began to reproach them with coward-
ice.  He said ' These fellows, Brewster, have got lead in their
stomachs.  Why!  the battle will not last more than  five min-
utes, and you can all of you live in hell so long.'   They went
immediately into  action, when in  less than  five minutes  the
colonel fell and Dr. Brewster was called just in time to see him
expire."
  " His labors in his profession were indefatigably faithful and
successful.   In most instances, particularly in acute  diseases, his
practice was eminently successful.  Beneficence was a well-
known trait  in his character.   This  was  particularly exper-
ienced by his patients to  whom, when poor, he was not only a
physician, but a father, relieving  their wants  to the extent of
his ability."
  " His professional charges were remarkably moderate and his
collections of them from persons of humble means—if collected
at all—was in the most  favorable way possible.  His worldly
prosperity was due to his industry and  economy of time."
  " In his family his fidelity as a christian  father was remark-
able and exemplary."
  " Decision and  determination were indeed characteristics of
the man."
  " He stood as a  pillar in the church  in which he  was deacon.
Religion was to him a delight, not a burden; it abounded in
him, and in mixed companies his conversation upon  it possessed
that readiness and force which manifested ,his intimate  ac-
quaintance, both with its  theory and spirit.   Feb. 15, 1812, he
was visiting a very sick lady  in imminent danger.  Walking
the room  in deep anxiety, ' I know not,' said he,  ' what more
we can do,  but we must all  pray  for her,  and pray for our-
selves.'  He  was immediately seized with an apoplectic attack)
losing all consciousness,  in  which  state he lay for six  hours 
Medicine in Berkshire.
125
when he died in the harness and in the fullness and richness of
his manhood."
   "The next road (second)  through Berkshire was  probably
along the Deerfield valley, over the Hoosic mountain, past Fort
Massachusetts, through Williamstown, etc.   Fort Massachusetts
being  built about  1744,  a road or  trail  was probably in use
then."  (Keith.)
   The  following  sketch  is from  the  pen of Dr. Stephen W.
Williams,  the grandson  of  Dr. Thomas Williams, whose life
and work is of historic interest to this County.
   " Doctor Thomas Williams, was second son of Col. Ephraim
Williams of  Stockbridge, who was of the third generation in
lineal descent from M. Robert Williams, who landed at Boston
and settled in Roxbury, Mass., in 1630, ten years after the land-
ing of the pilgrims on the rock  at Plymouth, and eight years
after the first settlement of Boston.   Thomas was born at New-
ton, Mass., April 1, 1718.   He received the honorary degree of
Master of Arts from Y^ale College  about  the  year 1737, and
studied the profession with Dr. Wheat of Boston.  (In those
days such a thing  as a medical degree was not known in this
state.)   He settled at Deerfield as a physician and surgeon about
the year 1739, and was held in great estimation by the govern-
ment, not  alone as a physician and surgeon, but as a man of
of science.
   So, in the projected expedition against Canada, in the French
war of 1743, he was appointed surgeon in the army, afterwards
surgeon of the chain of forts extending from Fort  Dummer, at
Vernon in Vermont, to Fort Massachusetts at Adams.  Dr.
Williams was often in great peril, for he was frequently obliged
to [Kiss these forts.  It is  related of  him that a day or two be-
fore the capitulation of Fort Massachusetts, which happened on
the 20th of August, 1746, he obtained permission of the com-
mandant of the garrison  to  return  to Deerfield.  At a little
distance from the fort he,  with  thirteen  attendants, passed
through a company of hostile Indians on each side of the path,
and very near, yet they let him pass unmolested for fear, proba-
bly, of  alarming  the garrison by firing.   He was at Deerfield 
126      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
at the Barrs tight, so-called, a few days afterward and dressed
the wounded.
   In the war or 1755 he  was surgeon in the army under Sir
William Johnson  at Lake George.  And, in the encampment
at the head of Lake George, four miles from  the scene of ac-
tion, on  the bloody morning scout, Sept. 8, 1755, received the
news of the death  of his  brother, Col. Ephraim Williams, the
founder  of Williams College.  On the  attack of Dieskau's
troops upon the encampment the same day, constantly exposed
to the  fire  of  the  enemy, he was  incessantly  administering to
the necessities of the wounded, and dressed the wound of Dies-
kau, who was taken prisoner.
   His  practice  was very  arduous, as his ride was very exten-
sive, he being the  only surgeon in this part of the country. The
old county of Hampshire  then included the county of Berk-
shire,  and  Dr. Pynchon  of  Springfield, and Dr. Mather of
Northampton,  were his  contemporaries, who,  together with
himself,  were the  principal physicians.  He was often called
into the states of  Vermont and New Hampshire.   He kept
himself supplied with the  most approved  European authors and
read extensively.  In addition to his duties  as  physician and
surgeon, he held the office of  Justice of the Peace under the
Crown;  also that of  Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and
of Probate.  He was also many years Town Clerk." He also
educated many young men as physicians, who became eminent
and useful.
   He was a firm believer  in the truth of the doctrines of the
Christian religion, was a  member of Rev. Jonathan  Ashley's
church and his devoted friend.   He was always spoken of with
great respect and love by those who knew him.
   His  sickness was consumption, from a severe  cold caught in
.his professional duties, causing his  death on the 28th of Sep-
tember, 1775, in the 58th year of his age.
   " Doctor Elisha Lee Allen, Pittsfield,  son  of  Rev.  Thomas
Allen, born 1783,  died at  Pas Christian, Louisiana, Sept.  5,
1817, falling a  victim to  his conscientious and zealous  per-
formance of duty  in attending  upon  soldiers' suffering from
yellow fever.   He was assistant surgeon of  the 21st, and in 
Medicine in Berkshire.               127
1815, when the army was reduced to a peace basis, was retained
as surgeon's mate.
  Another surgeon's mate and worthy of mention is Dr. Perez
Marsh, the son  of  Capt. Job. Marsh, born at Hadley, Oct. 25,
1729, and a Yale graduate in 1748.  He was a  physician and
surgeon's  mate  in  the  regiment of  Col. Ephraim Williams,
1755.  Between that and 1761, he settled at Ashuelot Equiva.
lent (Dalton.)   His further judicial history is given by Mr. II.
Taft, Esq., in his paper, "Judicial History of Berkshire."
  The history of medicine would be very incomplete without
that of the "Medical Association," which  was formed in 1787
              " Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
  In the year of our Lord, 1781.
An  Act, To incorporate Certain physicians, by the name of the Massachusetts
  Medical Society."
This was enacted and approved by John Hancock.
  Among the names  of physicians thus  incorporated we find
the name of William Whiting of Great Barrington.
  In Oct., 1785, .the parent society appointed Dr. Sargeant and
Dr. Partridge a committee in this  county "for the purpose of
encouraging the communications of all important or extraordi-
nary cases that may occur in the practice of the Medical Art,
and for this  purpose to meet, correspond  and communicate
with  any individuals  or any Association of Physicians  that
have been or may be formed  in their respective counties and
make a report from time to time of their  doings to this society
as occasion may require."  But, as  we may presume, notwith-
standing the efforts and  solicitations of this committee, and
earnest men they were, the meeting for the formation of an as-
sociation did not occur until Jan.  16, 1787, at Stockbridge.
  The morning  of  Jan. 16, 1787, was cold and clear.   It need
to have been, for the  physicians of Berkshire were summoned
to meet on that day at Stockbridge.  In obedience to the call
William AVhiting,  John Budd and  Samuel Baldwin started
from Barrington; James Cowdrey and Amos Smith from  San-
disfield; Gideon Thompson from Lee; Jacob Kingsbury from
Tyringham; Oliver Brewster  from  Becket;  Joseph Clark from
Richmond; Hezekiah Clark  from Lanesboro'; Eldad Lewis 
128      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
from  Lenox; John Hurlbut from Alford, and David Church.
  Through the dense woods, sparkling, as their branches hung
with silver crystals, were lit by the morning sun, over the deep
drifts which the  storm had  piled in fantastic heaps  around,
plodding their way with stout, resolute hearts, on horseback,
they came from the various points of compass, treading their
way to the house  of one Mrs. Bingham,  of Stockbridge.  Drs.
Sargeant and Partridge were there to meet them.  This meet-
ing had been anticipated for more than a year.
  These grave and revered seignors, when they had thoroughly
warmed themselves at  the  deep fire-place filled with blazing
logs, and  had  discussed a  goodly quantity  of mulled toddy,
earnestly discussed the  potentous event  which this day com-
memorates.
  It was mid-winter,  hard  and  cold.   Would it be  possible
with the social storm  added, for the infant  to survive.  But
there are certain events which will happen whether or no, and
really before these  gray haired  sires  were ready the child was
born.  Anglo-Saxon in origin, moulded  from  the  tough fibre
of Puritan stock this fair and lusty infant gave such vigorous
manifestations of a determination to  surmount all the diseases
and obstacles which lie in  the path  of  infantile life, that the
attending physicians put aside their fond fears and christened
the baby "Medical  Association."  The  history of this creation
whose paternity  was   the Massachusetts  Medical Society, for
somewhat more than a  year before Drs. Sargeant and Partridge
had been appointed a  committee " to form an association for
the purpose of  observing  and  communicating those things
which may be for the  improvement  of the art of physick,  and
of encouraging a  spirit of union  with those of the Faculty,  and
of rendering the  Faculty more respectable"—this history from
then till now may be conveniently divided into four periods.
  1st.   That from Jan. 16, 1787, to Jan. 8, 1788.
  2d.  That from Nov. 12, 1794, to Jan. 7, 1796.
  3d.  That from May 4, 1720, to Sept. 1837.
  4th.  That from  March 2, 1842, to the present time.
  In this first  period, or formative  stage, none of the fifteen
physicians were  north of  Lanesboro.  The  force  of cohesion 
Medicine in Berkshire.
129
first exerted itself and  the organization was effected with the
choice of Dr. William Whiting president, and Dr. Oliver Par-
tridge secretary.   They then chose a committee to select such
laws  for the  best method of securing this union, i. e., Drs.
Whiting, Sargeant, Lewis, Hurlbut and Partridge, and as would
further the three objects clearly set forth:
  1st.  " The purpose of observing and communicating those
things which may be for the improvement of the art of phy-
sick."
  2d.   " The  encouraging a spirit of union with those of the
Faculty."
  3d.   " The rendering the Faculty more respectable."
  The  interim  between Jan.  16th  and Ma"y 1st,  the time to
wjiich the meeting was adjourned, was politically a stormy one,
and when  May 1st seven met, they were a forlorn band.
  Why?  Feb. 27, a little over a month since the triumphant
consolidation, history says, "a party of men halted at the  public
house then kept by Mrs. Bingham," no doubt  helping  them-
selves to a goodly portion of  that  which  Falstaff  so highly
praised as creative of valor; then they  proceeded to the house
of Dr. Sargeant and took as prisoners Drs. Sargeant and Par-
tridge,  and  the medical students, Hopkins and Catlin, and,
'mirabile dictu,' stole Mercy Scott's silver shoe buckles."  Thai
was what's the  matter.   Some dastardly  one  boss  shay so
stooped to conquer that he took Mercy's shoe buckles, silver at
that.
  We can't wonder this second meeting  of seven was pro-
foundly disturbed, and could only say, " whereas the  tumults of
the times are so great" and they came near saying, as to lead
some  dastardly wretch  to steal Mercy  Scott's silver shoe
buckles, but they  turned it off and said, " as to prevent a meet-
ing.  We agree to  adjourn and come back  on the 12th of
June."
  And they did, and more, for in response to the urgent solici-
tations of their secretary fourteen were present at the third
meeting, Drs. Timothy Childs of Pittsfield, and  Asahel Wright
of Windsor, among them.
  It requires but  little imagination to picture these enthusiasts 
130      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
gathered for the purpose of improving the  art of  physic and
encouraging a spirit of union, discussing with zeal the tough
cases in their practice and with greater warmth the social tumult
which had  upheaved the foundations  of society making prison-
ers of Sargeant and Claflin, stealing Mercy's shoe buckles, over-
throwing the  altars of  justice, setting  friend against friend,
household against household, gathering around their appointed
orator, Dr. Eldad Lewis, listening to his scholarly and noble
address with rapt attention.
   Hear him:   "A society  of physicians united upon  liberal
principles,  offers a fine opportunity for improvement from the
communications of the several members.  Important incidents
recurring in private practice will by this means be rescued from
oblivion, talents will be stimulated to exercise which otherwise
might have lain dormant and useless,  as there will be the great-
est and most noble excitement to a laudable  emulation and in-
dustry."
   In speaking of the "splendor and dignity" of the profession
in other counties, he says,  "This  great  and desirable purpose
can never be obtained until all those low and disageeeable ideas
of rivalship that have hitherto actuated physicians be discarded
and sentiments more liberal and philanthropic be adopted:—
the general prosperity of the  whole can never be obtained but
by the united efforts of all  the the parts, so long as  we are act-
uated by the meanness of jealously and opposition to each other
the Faculty will be subjected to every species of vexation and
contempt."
   As  we listen we are forcibly struck with the wording of the
vote we have noticed, at the  formation of the society, showing
clearly who was the prime  spirit in the Association.
   Rule 8.  " All decent  familiarity be allowed in said meetings
in conversing on physical subjects, and no inadvertance or mis-
apprehension of any matter through inattention be made a sub-
ject of ridicule, but shall be corrected with that lenity which
becometh friends."  This rule takes us back to that part of the
address,  which  says,  "while  in  this  country  there are no
methods  of education but  the fortuitous  instruction of ])rivate
gentlemen  and those often  the most worthless and unlearned." 
Medicine in Berkshire.
131
   He evidently was thinking  that the stream would be no bet-
 ter than the fountain whence it flows.
   Rule 6th smacks strongly of the old puritan whack.
   " Any person residing within the  limits of this county, and
 pretending to practice physic and  shall refuse after due notifi-
 cation to become a member by attending the meetings and sub-
 scribing the rules,  he shall be treated with entire neglect by all
 that  are  members, in  medical matters."  These  rules  were
 signed by thirteen of  the fourteen  present.   Benjamin Smith
 of New Marlboro, was  the  minority of one.   How  resolute in
 his defiance he must have been to have called down on his de-
 voted head  the contempt  and  "neglect" of his thirteen  pro-
 fessional brethren.
   1st.  The first  meeting  was Jan. 16th, not June.  Fifteen
 were present at that meeting, including  Hezekiah  Clark from
 Lanesboro,  north of Pittsfield.
   2d.  The second meeting  was in May.   Seven  physicians
 present.
   3d.  The third  meeting was June  12th.   Fourteen physi-
 cians present, at which  time rules were presented and signed
 by thirteen of the fourteen physicians present.  (See Society
 Record.)
   We give a sketch of the Secretary  of the Association, Dr.
 Partridge.
   " Doctor Oliver  Partridge was  born April 26, 1751; in Hat-
 field, and studied medicine there, and removed to Stockbridge in
 177 L  He began the active practice of his profession in 1773 and
 died  in July, 1848.  He had  lived in one house seventy-seven
 years, and  had  been in  the   profession  seventy-five  years.
 Throughout this long period he was  engaged in the study and
practice of medicine.  He was a careful observer of nature, a stu-
dent of botany and  interested in the study of the medicinal plants
of this country.   He even engaged in a  public discussion of the
merits of some of our indigenous  plants  with Dr. Thatcher of
   Note of correction.—In the History of Pittsfield, 2d Vol,, occurs this statement:  "In
June, 1787, fifteen physicians all from towns south of Pittsfield met at Stockbridge for
the purpose of forming (such) a society; but the " tumults of the times (the Shay's Re-
bellion) prevented any further action, except the choice of officers, until the 12th of
June, when articles of association and rules were drawn up and signed by fourteen
physicians."  This is an erroneous statement. 
132      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
Plymouth, after they were  both past  the  age of four-score.
And even when he was more than ninety five years old he cor-
responded with an eminent physician concerning a case of some
doubt.  He  was particularly skillful in chronic complaints and
in detecting the diseases of children.
   It is said that he was with  the volunteers who marched to
the battle of Bennington, or had hurried on before them, and
he often related that during the busy scenes that followed the
battle he noticed  and spoke of the blood upon the sleeve of
Capt. Stoddard,
   In Sept.,  1784, a vote was  passed which  gave  to  Dr. Par.
tridge the liberty of erecting at his own expense a " high pew,"
so-called, over the entrance doors of  the gallery to be used by
him as he pleased during  his  residence in the town,  except so
much of it as should be occupied by the tything men."
   His mind held out to the  last.  " Only four weeks before his
death his deposition was taken by one of his lawyers,  and his
memory was so accurate that he would  not  sign it until it was
altered to conform exactly to what he had told the party some
months previous.'1
   " Thus with quiet diligence he passed more than three-quarters
of a century in the cure of disease and the study of natural his-
tory, possessing always the  love and confidence of his fellow
men, and died after having  enjoyed more happiness than falls
to the common lot of man."  (History  Stockbridge.)
   The history of Dr. Lewis is very imperfect.
   Doctor Eldad Lewis of  Lenox, was one  of  the founders of
the Berkshire Medical Society, and the first orator delivering an
ornate and quite lengthy paper. The tone of this,  the first liter-
ary production of the society, was very high.
   This is his introduction :
   " Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Association :—Hav-
ing long lamented the  many disadvantages under  which the
 Faculty have  labored in America, it gives me the highest satis-
faction to perceive the gloom which has hitherto been an in-
seperable bar  to all improvements to be dispersing and  that the
light of true  science  and rational  knowledge begins to illum-
 inate our hemisphere. 
Medicine in Berkshire.
133
  I have exerted myself for years to procure its establishment,
and nothing shall in future  be neglected, that  lies  within  my
power to raise it to the highest degree of usefulness  and  re-
spectability."
  This was in 17*7.  I have been unable to ascertain the facts
of his history, only that he was a man of very great ability and
influence in the county in his day.  He removed from Lenox
and resided in the  latter years of his life in the state  of New
York.
  Mr. Stanly, Lenox, says, " With regard to  Dr. Eldad Lewis,
I am surprised at the incompleteness of my own knowledge of
his  history, having had considerable  acquaintance with him.
That a man who resided here for more than a quarter of a cen-
tury—a magistrate, taking an important part in  public affairs—
an active member  of the Congregational church, deputed to at-
tend ecclesiastical councils—one of the foremost in establishing;
our first  Town Library—publishing in this  town a political
campaign  paper,  one of  the  earliest  papers  printed  in  the
county,—one of the  founders of  our  Academy and one of its
earliest trustees—a good classical scholar, an elegant and forci-
ble  writer, a thorough medical student and  writer of  medical
essays and successful practioner—and, that before two  genera-
tions have passed,  no  one  here can tell when or where he was
born,  and no  one  knows  when or  where he was buried, any
more than they know where  Moses  was  buried, seems  remark-
able.   A man rendering such  services to a community ought
not so  soon to pass out of memory, and with the materials we
have,  I trust a more complete account of him may be obtained,
but it may require considerable correspondence and of course
take time to accomplish it.
  He was here as  early as 1788, and  removed  from the town
about 1820."
  " Doctor Erastus Sergeant of Stockbridge, was the eldest  son
of the Rev. Erastus Sergeant, the first minister  of Stockbridge,
the  missionary to  the Ilousatonnuc  Indians  there, and one of
the  very first white settlers  in that town.  It  is believed that
Dr. Sargeant was the first white male child born in Stockbridge,
in the  year 1742. 
134      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
  He was fitted for college by  his  father, entered Princeton,
remained two or three  years but did  not  graduate there.   He
studied medicine with Dr. Thomas Williams of Deerfield, with
whom he studied the usual period of two years, and commenced
the practice of  physic and surgery at Stockbridge about 1746,
and immediately established a fine business.  He was much re-
lied upon as councillor and in difficult cases was the last resort.
He was a most excellent surgeon and performed nearly all the
capital operations in his circle of practice,  which extended over
a diameter  of thirty miles, and was considered  to be very suc-
cessful in his operations, even in  cases which were considered
to be desperate.
  He  educated several students who became  eminent prac-
tioners.
  He was elected a member of  the Massachusetts Medical So-
ciety in 1785, and  was  a member  twenty-nine  years, in which
period he was often  chosen as Counsellor."  (Williams' Medi-
cal Biography.)         ,
  Dr. Partridge observes, "He was endowed with a judgment
and skill in his profession, was sedate, with  a large share of
christian grace, and  he  was truly  the beloved  physician.  It
was said of him that no one  ever spoke  ill of him from his
youth up."
  In "History of Stockbridge" is this note : "During the sum-
mer of 1776 a regiment from Berkshire proceeded to Ticonder-
oga, and as  Dr. Erastus Sergeant was one summer at Ticonderoga
under Capt. Cook of Curtisville, and his son remembers to have
seen the muster roll among his father's papers, the probability
is that he was orderly sergeant in the company."  So it reads,
but, as he had been in practice of medicine and surgery twelve
years, there is  some doubt whether he exercised the office of
orderly sergeant.
  In Shay's rebellion his house was  visited and they took as
prisoners Drs. Sergeant, Partridge and Catlin.
  Dr. Sergeant was  tall, erect and spare  in flesh.   The latter
period of his  life he had pulmonary disease, and Nov. 14, 1814,
while sitting at the dinner table he  was  attacked with a fit of 
                  Medicine in Berkshire.               135
coughing, succeeded by such a  violent hemorrhage, that  it
speedily terminated his life at the age of 72 years.
  " Doctor Erastus Sergeant, Jr., son of Dr. Erastus Sergeant
of Stockbridge, was born at Stockbridge, 1772, graduated  at
Dartmouth College 1792, and settled in Lee in 1794.  He was
a genial, well-informed  man, a skillful physician and had an
extensive practice.  He died in Lee in 1832."
  " John Crocker was from  Barnstable, a graduate of Harvard,
and  early settled  in Richmond.   He was  small in size and
stature and had what  is not uncommon  to such men rather an
irritable disposition which, no doubt, detracted much from his
popularity and made his practice very limited.  He died where
the most of long life had been  spent  in  1815, at the age of 95
years.
  Of these physicians who  attended  the first meeting no his-
tory has been found.  Dr.  David Church, Dr. Samuel Bald-
win, Dr. Jabez Cowdrey of Sandisfield, Dr. Jacob Kingsbury
of Tyringham.   Dr. Gideon Thompson of Lee, was the first
physician in Lee.  He was a native of Goshen, Conn., practiced
there only a few years, and removed to Galway, N. Y.
  Of those  attending  the second   meeting,  Dr.  Thaddeus
Thompson was from Lenox;  Drs. Joseph Brewster and Ephraim
Durham have no history.
  Of the new members at the third meeting were Drs. Timothy
Childs, Asahel Wright,  John Wright, Lyman Norton, Samuel
Frisbie.  The three latter have no history.
  These earnest men said:  " Notwithstanding the present dis-
couragements to  continue  to associate and not dissolve,"—so
January 8, 1788, they met  and began work.   They admitted
Jonathan Lee of Pittsfield, an assistant of Dr. T. Childs in the
army, and Ephraim  Durwin.  The  censors  examined and
passed Elijah Catlin, Reuben Buckman and Jacob Hoit.  They
agreed to meet  in June in Stockbridge, " but the rebellion pro-
ceeded," says the Journal, " so rapidly to a crisis," that our in-
fant prodigy  took refuge in the wilderness, and was heard of
no more till the latter part of '94.
  It is not difficult to see what were the causes which drew the
mourning lines  on the journal  at  the end of the first period- 
136      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
Considering that the usual place of  meeting was the public
house, also the social custom of the time for drinking, it would
seem impossible in this turmoil of Shay's rebellion to have kept
discussions of it and rancor engendered by it, from mingling in
the business of  the hour.  In addition to this was the difficulty
of travel, and also that each of these physicians  practiced over
a wide stretch  of territory.   These factors were sufficient to
quell the ardor  and high ideal of these representative men.
   Doctor Joseph Clark of Richmond, and one  of its earliest
physicians, as also one of the  fifteen at the first meeting of the
association of Berkshire physicians, was from Springfield.  He
was a very successful practioner  and  a man of great influence
in the  affairs of  the community.  After residing  for a few
years in Richmond he was solicited by friends in Vermont to
remove to that  state.  After  removing there he had a long and
successful practice.  The year of his death is not known.
   " Doctor Timothy Childs was one of the leading patriots of
Pittsfield in the  Revolution.  His father was Capt. Timothy
Childs, who led a company of minute men from  Deerfield on
receiving the news of the battle of Lexington, at the same time
that Dr.  Timothy was  marching  as lieutenant with a similar
corps  from Pittsfield.  Dr.  Childs was  born at Deerfield in
1748,  entered  Harvard in 1764, but did not graduate.  He
studied medicine in his native town with Dr. Thomas Williams
and established himself in  practice in Pittsfield in 1771.  This
young physician was a valuable accession to the wliigs.  He
soon won popularity and influence,  proved himself an  effective
speaker,  and by the rich qualities of mind and heart, as well as
by the contagion of his youthful zeal, gave  a new impulse to
the cause of independence which he espoused.
   In 1774, August 15th, he  and John Strong drew up the pe-
tition of the inhabitants of the town of Pittsfield to the " Hon.
old court, not to  transact any  business this present term,"
which, not admitting a refusal, resulted in the suppression for-
ever of the  courts of law under  royal commission in Berkshire.
   In the spring '74, he asked permission to " set up inoculation
in Pittsfield."  The town meeting of '75 denied him permission
but granted it  in '76, but with hesitancy and  embarassing con- 
                  Medicine in Berkshire.               137
ditions."  This circumstances speaks for the boldness and push
of this young doctor, for the first inoculating hospitals in the
state were only opened in 1764  in the vicinity of Boston, and
in '76  William  Aspinwall and  Samuel Ilayward prepared at
Brooklin—probably on  account of the appearance of small-pox
at Cambridge in '75—for private inoculation, and  it required
high courage thus early in this county to face the danger and
unpopularity of this measure.
   In the winter of '74 and 5 he was  one of the committee of
"instruction, inspection and correspondence."
   Dr.  Childs first marched as one of its lieutenants in a com-
pany of minute  men composed of the flower of Pittsfield and
Richmond April 22, '74, but was  soon  detailed as surgeon; af-
terwards appointed regimental surgeon  with Dr. Jonathan Lee
of Pittsfield, who was afterwards  surgeon, as his assistant.
   In 1792  a committee  was appointed  "to  see if  Dr. Childs
might  safely be  permitted to build  a  medicine  store on the
west side  of the meeting-house," and their report was that he
might  safely be  permitted to do so.
   In the war of 1812 he was appointed as visiting  physician to
the prisoners  in  Pittsfield and  Cheshire, and the  Marshal of
Massachusetts writing to him says,  " That your services have
been constant, arduous and successful was to be expected from
your well-known character for patriotism, zeal and professional
skill, and it was from these considerations that when  I proposed
the appointment I  felt  peculiarly gratified that you signified
your acceptance."
   His  obituary from The Pittsfield Sun, reads  thus:  " In this
town, Feb. 25,1821, after an illness of a few days, died Dr. Tim-
othy Childs, aged 73.  He had long enjoyed the confidence and
esteem of his fellow citizens and his death is a severe public loss
and deeply regretted.   As a physician he was eminently useful
and skillful, always  extending his aid to the relief of the poor
and the destitute as readily as to the affluent.   As a public man
he was a  faithful,  able  and ardent advocate of the people's
rights, and our republican form of goverement, and during the
struco-le for independence he participated actively and zealously
by every means in  his power to promote the views and objects 
138      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
of the heroes and  patriots of the Revolution.  Their triumphs
in that glorious cause were therefore ever dear to his heart and
he lived long enough to witness in the structure of our govern-
ment the fulfillment of all he had so fondly anticipated.  As a
testimony of the people's confidence for many years they elected
him to represent them, both in  the House of Representatives
and Senate, which stations he filled to the  perfect satisfaction
of his friends.  In his  last moments he was calm and resigned
to the will of  Providence;  enjoyed his reason  perfectly, and
departed without a struggle."
   This minute occurs upon the journal  of the Berkshire Medi-
cal Society: " That, whereas, iu the course of the dispensation
of Divine Providence, it has pleased Almighty God to remove
by death from  our meetings and counsels  of this society our
late revered and respected President, the late Timothy Childs,
of Pittsfield,  M. D.  Whereupon the society declare and direct
the same to  be entered on their records.   That, while they
bend with  humble submission to the rod, they deeply feel and
sadly deplore their loss."
   "Doctor Asahel Wright of Windsor, was born Feb. 26, 1757.
He  first married Mary Worthington,  by whom  he  had  ten
children.   His two eldest sons were educated at Williams Col-
lege.   Five of  them,  Orin, Erastus, Uriel, Clark and Julius
were physicians;  one, Worthington, a  D. D.; one,  Asahel, a
L. L. D.;  one, Philo, a farmer.
   His father, Asa Wright, was  an architect, and accompanied
Rev. Mr. Wheelock  from Lebanon, to Hanover, N. H., where
he superintended the erection of Dartmouth College buildings.
His  son, Asahel, entered Dartmouth College where he remained
through junior year, but the death of his father made it necessary
for him to leave college.  He then studied medicine, and after-
wards served as surgeon in the navy of  the Revolutionary war.
He then settled in Windsor, about 1781, and practiced not only
in Windsor, but Dalton, Peru, Hinsdale and other towns 'till
Dr. Kittredge  settled  in  Hinsdale.  His daughter, Mrs. Her-
rick, says,  " My father was a man of  remarkable energy and
fine  health.  I have heard him speak of riding  to these places
on horseback guided by marked  trees."   He freely  gave his 
Medicine in Berkshire.
139
services to the poor.  He was a regular attendant upon  Sab-
bath worship and a supporter of the gospel.  He was genial,
enjoying  a  joke, dealing them  out to his  patients when he
thought they needed  no medicine.  Highly respected  and be-
loved and eminently useful, he spent a long life honorably, and
died Feb. 16, 1834.   (Correspondence.)
  In the second period, which commenced Nov. 12, '94, an in-
terim of nearly seven years, the first meeting  also at Stock-
bridge had fifteen members, all south of Pittsfield.   The affairs
of the association  were  conducted by nearly the same persons
as before.  Dr. Whiting had died.   There were  in  all six
meetings, and five new men were  added to the society.  They
stated the object of the association and in nearly the same terms,
and adopted nearly the same rules.
  The term of pupilage was fixed at three  years, and none
could become  pupils until they had  "a good  knowledge of
mathmematics and the English language, and can construe and
parse the Latin language- with  accuracy."  They began  with
four meetings yearly; but at the last  meeting, Jan. 7, 1796, at
which but four were present, they voted to meet twice yearly.
They adjourned to meet  at the same place on the second Tues-
day of January, but there  was no  meeting  except the censors
who examined and admitted Ralph Wilcox and Jonathan Whit-
ney to the society.
  What put the quietus  upon the  second period, we can  only
conjecture.  There is apparent  harmony.  The turbid social
condition has passed away.  May it not have been that there
were too many rules; that they were  too rigid;  that there was
too little elasticity to them ?  For example:
  Rule  2.   " Any one absenting  himself from  two successive
meetings shall render a satisfactory excuse for  his absence."
  Rule  16, (part)  "We will treat each other  with decency,
honor and candor, and not detract from  each  other's character
as physician."
  Now  a condition of feeling which necessitates  such  rules as
these  with  a penalty added  for infraction, is not one which
could render  a long association  possible.   Tinkering  of rules
and ethical  questions, carried  to any  great  extent  will be the 
140      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
death of any medical association.  The reports by the Secre-
tary are merely matters of business and are not instructive in
any branch of medicine.  In June 9, '96, the record  is once
more closed, and we wait twenty-three years, almost a quarter
of a century before the opening of the third period.
   Of Doctors Joseph Waldo, Elijah  Fowler, Elnathan Pratt,
and Davin Goodwin we have no histories.
   Doctor Samuel  Carrington of Sandisfield, was  one of the
committee on revision of rules.
   " Rule 9.   A Box shall be opened each meeting for the recep-
tion incognito of questions, answers, cases and essays on medi-
cal subjects, which shall be read by the  Secretary and kept on
file; all questions shall be numbered  and the answers  to them
shall have  corresponding  numbers.  Subsequently voted, That
the Box be examined.  Several papers were  found in the Box;
read before the society and placed on file."
   Next meeting.   "The Box was examined and a dissertation
on Inflammation and the formation of Pus  was found  therein;
read before the society and placed on  file."
   As Dr. Jones was then "associated" we give a sketch of his
life.
   " Doctor Horatio Jones of Stockbridge, son of Capt. Josiah
Jones of that place, and grandson of  one  of the first persons
who were chosen as companions of  the first missionary and
school master to  the Housatonnuc Indians, was born  Dec. 30,
1769.  He entered Yale College  in  early life and pursued his
studies so zealously that his eyesight failed, and he was obliged
to abandon his  studies.  Of active  disposition,  with several
others, he went to what was then  called the  Genesee  Country
for the purpose of laying out lands as a surveyor.   In this busi-
ness his health and sight were restored, and he returned to his
studies,  entering as  a  student of medicine  the office of  Dr.
Sergeant.  Before commencing practice as  a physician, he en-
gaged for awhile  as a  druggist in Stockbridge.   He  com-
menced practice in Pittsfield, where  he  remained more than a
year.
   Being invited by Dr. Sergeant, then in the decline of life,
to settle  in  Stockbridge, he accepted the invitation.   In  the 
Medicine in Berkshire.
141
winter of 1805 and 6, probably a few years after he commenced
practice in  Stockbridge, he went to Philadelphia for the pur-
pose of improving himself more particularly in the department
of surgery.   He spent the winter there in attendance upon the
various courses of lectures, and  then returned  to  Stockbridge
where he remained till his death."
  He became a member of the  Massachusetts Medical Society
in 1804 and received the  honorary degree of A. M. from Wil-
liams College in 1810.
  Mrs.  Fairchild, his daughter, says that  " he was a man of
science, eminent in his profession, a good operator in surgery;
active, social and very popular;  indefatigable by night and day
to give relief in cases of  distress or danger."  There was that
in his manner which seemed  to  add efficacy to the medicines
which he administered, and his visits were often acknowledged
to be beneficial to his  patients when he made no  prescription.
Miss Sedgwick said of him: " Our beloved physician who gave
us smiles instead of drugs."
  " He was unremitting in his attention to the poor, even when
lie knew he could secure no pecuniary reward."   From History
of Stockbridge I take this sketch:
  " As a man, he combined in himself all those excellencies and
virtues which constituted  him just what  the excellent and  vir-
tuous wished him to be.  As  a  scholar, he was eminent.   His
researches were deep, thorough and effectual.   As a physician,
he had but few equals.  In addition to his extensive knowledge
he possessed—in eminent  degree—the talent of rendering him-
self pleasing, easy and agreeable to his patients.  Without any
regard to his  own  ease or quiet he devoted all  his time and
talents to the service  of  the  public, and possessed  the entire
confidence of all.  He was an eminent christian.
  In the spring of 1813, "pneumonia typhoides,"  an  epidemic
then so-called, was very prevalent in many  places.  He had been
incessant in his labors with the sick, and  eight  days before his
death was violently seized  with  the  disease; yet continuing in
the unimpaired use of his reason, and glorying that  God and
Savior who by grace, had fitted him for the death  of the right-
eous, and crying when the scenes of earth were  fading from his 
142      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
vision, ' Lord, Jesus receive my spirit,' fell asleep, April 26th,
1813, at  the  early age of forty-three years.  His funeral ser-
mon was preached by  Rev. Dr. Hyde of Lee, and the concourse
of mourners from Stockbridge and neighboring towns attested
the deep interest taken in the life and  death of this eminent
and good man."
   In the third period, in Lenox, July 1, 1819, we change to "a
meeting of fellows of the Massachusetts Medical Society.  " The
voices to which we were accustomed, we listen for in vain.  The
places of Sergeant, Jones, Partridge and Lewis are occupied by
others of a succeeding generation upon whom their mantle of a
high professional ideal  has fallen.   Drs. Burghardt,  H. II.
Childs, Robert Worthington, Asa Burbank, Alfred Perry, Orin
Wright,  H. S. Sabin, Wm. H. Tyler, Daniel Collins,  Royal
Fowler,  Hubbard  Bartlett, these  were the  men who were
standard bearers from 1820 to 1834.  The medical center had
now moved to Lenox  with an  annual and semi-annual meeting,
but in consequence, later, of the establishment  of the Berkshire
Medical  Institute, the semi-annual was held at Pittsfield.  In
this  revival of the society Dr. Timothy Childs of Pittsfield, was
first President, elected May 4, 1820; but  full of years and
honors he died while  president, aged seventy-three.
   The journal says, "  Our late revered and respected president."
The word "revered"  is  one which sheds  light upon  his
character, and would  not have been used  without there had
been joined  to  his character  as  physician, those other higher
spiritual  qualities which are so ennobling.
   Doctor Hugo  Burghardt,  the  first Vice-president  of  the
third period, a native  of Great Barrington, was born 1771.  He
was  a graduate  of Yale College.  He  studied medicine with
Dr.  Sergeant of  Stockbridge, and  commenced practice in Rich-
mond in  1790, and  continued  the  beloved physician till 1820,
when  declining  health  obliged  him to  relinquish  general
practice,  though  after that, called in council in obstinate cases.
His  practice  extended to other towns where he often had the
charge of acute  cases.  Confidence in his skill extended as far
as his name  was known.   He educated many students who
went from his office  as their Alma Mater, many of whom dis 
Medicine in Berkshire.               143
languished themselves in medicine  in  different sections of the
country.
   " In person, he was a specimen of the noblest productions of
nature;  tall,  with a well-proportioned physical organization;
erect and graceful in all his movements, he won the notice and
admiration of all.   Affable in his manners, his geniality threw
a halo around his path  and  made him a most welcome visitor
to scenes of suffering and sorrow.  In discussion, he was strictly
logical, clear and  convincing.   As  a citizen, he regarded the
interests of the  community as  his own, and gave his influence
strongly in their behalf."
   In Shay's Rebellion, says  the  writer of Berkshire  County
History, 138, "a body of men coming on from  Lenox under
Capt. William Walker, lost of the  militia  two killed and one
wounded."  The  person wounded was  Dr.  Burghardt of Rich-
mond.
   Those whose memories treasure facts that transpired seventy
years ago will  recollect that the war of 1812 drew political lines
so strong that brother was often at implacable war with brother,
and it was not unusual for men's strong and most vindictive
foes to be of their own family.  Dr. Burghardt took an active
part in this war of feeling and  the pecuniary sacrifices he made
to sustain and give ascendency  to  his party were his pecuniary
ruin."  He died Oct. 18, 1822, aged fifty-one  years.
   In Sept. 1822, the Medical Society passed  and  presented to
him the following vote:
   " That the thanks  of the society be presented to Dr. Hugo
Burghardt, our late president, for the zeal  and interest mani-
fested by him in promoting  the  establishment and prosperity
of the society, also for the ability and dignity displayed by him
as presiding officer of this society, regretting that the state of
his health would not permit him to continue in said office."
  From History of  Stockbridge, page  218:  "Doctor Alfred
Perry, Secretary of  the society 1820, was born in Harwinton,
Connecticut,  where  his  father  was then  pastor, but  in 1784
removed  to  Richmond,  in  this  county,  with  his  parents.
In 1803  he  was graduated at Williams College.   For several
years he was in feeble health, but taught for a time in West- 
144      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
field Academy, and for a few years in South Carolina, whither
he had gone for his health.   He  completed his  studies at the
Philadelphia Institution then under the care of Dr. Rush, and
commenced practice in Williamstown.  Nov. 1, 1814, he was
married  to Miss Lucy Benjamin of that town, and  in  Nov.
1815, he removed to Stockbridge.  In 1837 he went to Illinois,
and having fixed upon a location  removed his family in June,
1838, but died Sept. 10th of the same year.
  As a  Christian and a  deacon in the church, Dr. Perry was
peculiarly active;  and,  as  a physician, fervently  beloved  by
his  patients, and trusted with a fearlessness  which was some-
times denominated idolatry.  He was a man of  great patience
and firmness, and differed from many of his day in both his re-
ligious and his medical views; and in religious matters, though
he steadfastly adhered to what he believed to be right, still he
maintained an unusual degree of quietness and self-possession,
and when convinced of an error, no man was more prompt to
acknowledge it and seek forgiveness.  An auxiliary temperance
sociaty was formed  through the energetic efforts of Dr.  Perry
as early as the summer of '27, and we believe '26."
  On the revival of the Medical Society in 1820, after its sleep
of over twenty years, Dr. Perry was elected Secretary, and on-
wards to near the time of his leaving for the west, was a very
active and influential member, and for a number of years was
President.
  " He was generally in advance of his time on all subjects of
moral reform, such as temperance and slavery—in thorough
sympathy with  all progressive  movements, ideas  in theology
and medicine.  An auxiliary temperance society was formed
in Stockbridge  as early  as the summer  of '26 or  '27 through
the energetic efforts of Dr. Perry when it was exceedingly un-
popular to be on the side of  total abstinence, and the same was
true as respects the side of anti-slavery."
  In the words of one who  knew him best:—" He was a con-
scientious, devoted Christian; he never let self stand  between
God and duty.   I have known him," she says, "let a neighbor
take his horse to go to mill, at the same  time he walked four
miles to visit a patient." 
Medicine in Berkshire.
145
  "He  went  to  the west against the earnest opposition of
friends, following  his own convictions in respect to his duty,
even unto death."
  Voted.—Sept. 13, 1821, To hear the dissertation of Dr. Asa
Burbank.
  Voted.—The thanks  of the Society to Dr. Burbank for his
learned and elegant dissertation.
  " Doctor Asa Burbank was born in Williamstown,  Mass.,
Sept. 28, 1773.  He devoted his early life to study; graduated
at Williams College in 1797,  and in the  vear 1798 he was ap-
pointed a tutor in that college, which office he held two years.
In the year 1800  he commenced the study of medicine in the
office, it  is believed, of  the celebrated Dr. William Towner, a
distinguished  physician  and  surgeon  in Williamstown.   He
attended one or two courses of medical lectures in the medical
school of the  city  of  New York, under the  direction and in-
struction of the eminent Dr. Post and other distinguished pro-
fessors  in  that celebrated  institution, then  connected with
Columbia College.   He  then commenced  the practice  of his
profession in Lanesboro'.  Here he continued in extensive and
lucrative practice, not only in this, but in  most of the neighbor-
ing towns, giving  universal satisfaction.   In 1824 he removed
to Albany where  he remained four years, till he was attacked
with dropsy of the brain, which was probably brought on by a
fall, and injury of  the head, in 1824, and which  induced him
to leave the theatre of his active usefulness at Albany, and re-
turn to Williamstown.  Here he became blind, and remained
so for nine months.  Dr. Burbank stood high in the estimation
of his professional brethren, as well as of the  public.  In the
year 1822, about the time of the establishment of the Berkshire
Medical Institution connected with Williams College, he was
appointed Professor of  Obstetrics, and  continued his  useful
labors for two years, giving great satisfaction to the students,
when he resigned and  removed to Albany."  Dr. Williams
says,  "I was intimately acquainted with him  in this institution
where I was a fellow laborer  with  him  in the department of
medical jurisprudence, and I  can bear ample testimony to his
worth and usefulness.   He was one of the most companionable 
146      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
and facetious of men, and his happy turn of relating anecdotes,
of which an abundance was stored in his capacious mind, often
kept an assemblage of his friends in  a roar of laughter.  He
had a most happy and  enviable  faculty  of cheering up the
minds of his patients, even in the most  desponding cases, and
often of smoothing their pillows in their descent to the grave.
No one can doubt that he was both a moral and a highly relig-
ious man."
   In a letter from his daughter she says, " In his profession his
love for doing good seemed to  be the governing principle of
his life.  I think  he braved the winter storms of old Berkshire
with more readiness to visit the very poor, than those who had
ample means to reward him for so doing.  To benefit the town
in which he lived, he was willing to and did make great sacri-
fices, both to encourage education and in many other  ways to
improve society.
   My father was  tall, six  feet and well proportioned, with an
eye that seemed to read character at once, retiring in his man-
ner, but could indulge in severe satire when he thought he was
not honestly dealt with.  He had a happy faculty to cheer and
encourage in the  sick room, and many  a  nervous, desponding
patient  rallied  and recovered after his encouraging conversa-
tion.   He was a religious  man.  His disease was dropsy of the
brain and terminated his life  Aug. 4, 1829."
   Before passing to a further consideration of the society
whose affairs were intimately  associated  with  the  Berkshire
Medical Institution, we will introduce  sketches of three cele-
brated Williamstown physicians and surgeons:
   Doctor Samuel Porter  of  Williamstown, was born in 1756,
and came to Williamstown from Northampton.   He was a dis-
tinguished surgeon, especially  in the line of  "bone setter."
Many apocryphal  stories  are extant in the community regard-
ing him, but it is known that he went to New York city to re.
duce a  hip dislocation  which  had baffled  the efforts of the
faculty, and was  successful.  He had  the patroon of Ranslaeer
for a patient, and as a surgeon  his fame was wide-spread.   He
was fearless and  probably somewhat reckless.  It is related of
him that when asked why he never put breechin on his horse 
Medicine in Berkshire.
147
he replied with a big D.  " that he didn't want any horses that
couldn't keep out of the way of his sulky."   In driving he was
a Jehu.  He died Jan. 7, 1822, "after a long and severe illness
which  he bore with great patience and resignation.   He was an
active  and  useful  man, and esteemed  for  his  benevolent and
 social  qualities."
   Doctor William Towner of Williamstown, was from  New
 Fairfield, Ct.,   He was born  in 1756.   His first settlement in
the county was at Stafford Hill, Cheshire, where he lived a
 number of years, and was the first  physician.   It  is related he
 then moved to Williamstown,  about  the  year 1790, at first oc-
cupying the place now owned and occupied by Almon Stephens.
 He afterwards, till the  time of his  death, occupied  the house
in Water street, now  owned  by Mr. Welch, opposite  Green
 River  Mills.
   He was a man of graceful exterior and pleasing manners; a
 courtly gentleman of the old school, fond of society, and  "read-
 ily lent his attention to subjects outside his profession, espec-
 ially politics, at that time the all-engrossing concern of the day."
 He labored hard in the establishment of the  free school founded
 by Williams, which afterwards became  Williams College, and
it is written in the heading of the subscription, " in  erecting a
house  of public worship on the eminence where the old meet-
ins; house once stood in Williamstown."
   He was commissioned General of Brigade by the state, and
 is described as a "large, well-proportioned, and not only a grand
 man, but also  a splendid looking man in  regimentals."
   He was both Representative and Senator, and Justice of the
 Peace.  In the time of Shay's Rebellion  he  became very ob-
 noxious to Shay's  adherents and was shot at by them, some of
 the buckshot lodging in his boot.   Being an old democrat, the
 federals  o-ot doctors to  run him out, but when their own  fam-
 ilies were sick they employed  him.   He  was strictly temperate.
 In those days  it was the custom for the  physician  to help  him-
 self wherever he called from  the decanters of the  sideboard,
 but he early became convinced that total abstinence was his
 only safeguard and he adopted it.   He  was surgeon's mate in
 Col. Simons' regiment in  Oct. 1781. 
 148     Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
   At the time of his death he was looked upon as one of those
' to support Gen. Dearborn and he would  have done so had not
 death  frustrated the purpose; his commission  arriving after
 that event.
   In medicine his success was wonderful, his fame wide-spread.
 He practiced, as  far as Troy, and in 1S40 his grand-daughter re-
 ceived  marked  attention while  residing at Waterford,  N. Y.,
 from people in high life, by reason of her relationship to Gen.
 Towner.  In fevers his medical aid was sought extensively and
 he was in them  considered the authority.
   He  was considered  in " mad dog bite"  as sure to eradicate
 the poison and prevent the disease, but what method he used the
 writer never could ascertain, only that calomel was exhibited in
 some stage of the treatment.
   What was strange for those days, he never  bled in  fevers,
 nor in typhoid pneumonia.  It was while  the epidemic  of
 pneumonia in 1812, 13 and 14 was raging through this section
 that he was seized with the  disease when in Pownal.  His sys-
 tem was exhausted by his incessant  toil, and  when  his son-in-
 law, Dr. Samuel Smith, who had  been practicing  with him
 only a short  time, reached  him, he  told him on no account to
 bleed him as it would be his  death;  but in the  absence of Dr.
 Smith, Dr. Porter, his  co-temporary in  Williamstown, called
 upon him, and although his symptoms were more favorable, in-
 sisted  on bleeding him, after which  he failed very rapidly and
 died.   Thus at the age of  fifty-eight passed away a physician
 whose  fame extended to the  Capitol, and whose early death
 excited the profoundest regret among all classes.  He was phy-
 sician  in the family of Dr. Sabin's father in Pittsfield, and rec-
 ollects on coming home one  day  from school, he found his
 mother leaning  against the mantel-piece crying,  and on inquiry
 learned that the beloved Dr. Towner was dead.
   He  was a  Mason and buried with ceremonies  of both the
 Masonic  and military  orders.  But he was mourned by the
 poor and humble who had  shared equally with the  rich in his
 ministrations, and who held him in grateful and  tearful remem-
 brance as long as they lived.
   He  was a churchman and often as possible attended  service 
                  Medicine in Berkshire.               149
in Lanesboro', the then nearest point of worship; but became
the warm admirer of Dr. Nott, who occasionally preached in
Williamstown.   He  died  insolvent,  his property being sunk
through  Gen. Skinner when state treasurer, as he was one of
Skinner's bondsmen.
  Although the Masons procured  for him a monument it was
never erected, and through a shameful neglect nothing marks
his grave and it is now unknown where he rests.
  Doctor Samuel Smith was born in Hadley, Mass., Aug. 13,
1780, and died in Williamstown, where  he spent the greater
part of his life, June 9, 1852.  His father, Joseph Smith, "lost
his  property in the Revolutionary army," and in consequence
the boy Samuel was early  bound out to a first cousin, and he
relates that he worked through the day on the farm, and then
trudged at night nearly to Amherst after the cows.   He never
went to school but three months.  The first book  he owned
was Capt. Cook's travels, read by the light of pine knots in the
winter; when he had read  it  he sold  it  and bought another
book and in this manner continued his reading and education.
He came to  Williamstown with Stephen  Smith, a cousin, who
was a blacksmith, and worked  with him until he was eighteen
years old, about  which  time he married  Betsey, the second
daughter of Gen. William Towner, and went to Manchester,
Vt.  Not being successful, after a  stay of four years, he re-
turned and started a trip-hammer blacksmith shop where Town's
mill stood, living in  a house  opposite.  He  continued at his
trade till his  health failed  him, when he  entered the office of
Dr. Towner and commenced the  study  of medicine. About
this time he used to teach  singing-schools  in  town, Lanesboro,
and other towns, and one who ever heard him  will never forget
the purity and sweetness of his singing, or his invariable habit of
sinking whenever or wherever he rode over the Berkshire hills.
In 1809 he entered into partnership with Dr.  Towner, and Oct.
30, 1809, twenty-nine years old, the father of six children, he
makes his first charge  against Robert Lee."
  In 1812 Dr. Towner died, and  Dr. Smith  succeeded to his
large practice.  His daughter  says,  " Father  was emphatically
a self-made man.  I  can remember when  he  had few hours of 
150      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
rest, always riding night and day, yet, he took medical journals
and put their thoughts in  his head to use when and where his
good  sense suggested."  He  could intelligently converse with
Profs. Dewey, Kellogg or any one else on medicine, chemistry or
botany.   The latter study he pursued enthusiastically with Prof.
Eaton, and I (the writer) well remember the botanical  speci-
mens which were pressed and placed in a book and scientifically
labelled; yes, and I don't forget  that my morning  naps were
broken by his calling  me  to  help gather lobelia, elecampane,
colt's foot,  skunk cabbage, etc.   He dwelt very largely in the
Vegetable  Pharmacopoeia, yet  he used  many other remedies.
One of his favorite prescriptions was equal parts of steel fil-
ings,  aromatic powder and powdered egg shells, and as an an-
tacid and tonic in dyspepsia  was excellent.  Indeed, his pre-
ferred medicine  was, in cases  of debility,  iron in some form,
more usually Huxham's tincture;  opium  was,  however, his
sheet anchor, and it may justly  be claimed that  the priority in
this section of the use of opium in peritonitis belongs to him.
  He was a man  of rare  powers of observation and judgment,
of excellent memory, and in  his  generalization was usually ac-
curate.   He  trusted much in  the  powers of nature, and as a
successful and highly esteemed obstetrician with large practice
in this department, would have considered  some of the teach-
ings and practice of the present day as wildest vagaries.
  As a practioner in  fevers,  he was  a long way ahead of his
generation, adopting in the main the practice of the  present
day.  His  patients were nourished  and their  nervous system
quieted, and  placed in the best condition for the conservative
powers of nature to weather  the storm.  lie used in adynamic
cases stimulants  freely, and discarded cathartics, giving freely
of cream of tartar and gum arabic for drink.  Of course, being
a very decided man in his opinions, when he felt himself in the
right, he was often  brought into  decided antagonism with the
disciples of the school of bleeding, calomel and carthartics; but
his wise trust in the powers of nature; his use of tonics and se-
datives,  no  doubt, saved  many valuable  lives, and  in  many a
house and heart to-day his memory is  precious.
  He was honored by his fellow townsmen, being twice elected 
Medicine in Berkshire.
151
to the Legislature, besides bearing for a long time the commis-
sion of Justice of the Peace.
   He was a religious man, very active and scrupulous in relig-
ious duty.  I do not forget the winter daylight prayer-meeting,
which I was called up from my bed to go to with him, nor the
morning  prayer after breakfast, when  he often, with his large
family, all singers, led the hymn, "Show  pity  Lord" to the
tune Rockingham,—that  was verily religious education.   His
seat was rarely unoccupied on the Sabbath day.
   In his family and  society he was genial—in his younger days
frolicksome,  and he  loved to hunt, being  an excellent marks-
man, too  much so for the proprietors  of turkey shoots.   He
was familiar with all the woods and mountains of Williamstown
and vicinity, often  visiting  Greylock.   His daughter, Nancy,
was the first female who rode on horseback to the summit.
   He had a strong,  expressive face, jet black hair,  even till
his death, and the peculiarity which was noticed by all people
of later days, his queue.
   He was a man of great activity, a very early riser, and ac-
complished a great deal  while others  were asleep and wanted
to sleep.   lie delighted in the  best and earliest vegetable gar-
den in town, and as  long  as  he lived  excelled, in this respect,
all his neighbors.
  His longest co-partnership was with Dr. Sabin, ten years, and
in this period of his  greatest medical activity his circuit of
business was more than twenty miles.
  He died June, 1852, after  a short  illness, closing a life full
of blessing to his family, the poor, the community at large and
his profession.
  Doctor  Remembrance Sheldon was born  in  1759.   His his-
tory is unknown, only that he came to Williamstown, as related,
in response  to invitation  of Shay's partisans  in opposition to
Dr. Towner, who  had incurred  their  hate.  He lived in the
house now occupied by Mr. James Waterman, and had a re-
spectable  family.  He died in 1809.
  " Doctor  Snell Babbitt was  born in Norton, Mass., Sept.
9, 1783, and died March  9, 1853, aged sixty-nine  and a half
years.  While a youth, his parents removed to Savoy, County 
 152     Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
 of Berkshire.  During his minority he was assiduously engaged
 in the labors of the farm.  lie early manifested a strong desire
 for the acquisition of knowledge, and under  the. direction of
 the Rev. Jeremiah Hallock of Plainfield, he pursued his studies
 preparatory  to the  profession of medicine.  With Dr. David
 Cushing of Cheshire, an  eminent physician, he studied the pro-
 fession of medicine.  He remained  a  short time in Qheshire,
 practicing  his profession, but soon removed to  Hancock, where
 a wider field invited his  labors.   It  was during  the epidemic
 of 1812, a  malignant  disease called  Spotted Fever and Cold
 Plague, Dr. Babbitt gained  a high  reputation as* a judicious
 physician, and was extensively employed in all the surrounding
 country.  In  1831,  Dr.  Babbitt located  in Adams, where he
 continued in the  practice of  medicine  nearly twenty-two years,
 —successful  as a general practioner, and distinguished particu-
 larly as an  Obstetrician.   Though  deprived of the advantages
 now enjoyed  by the medical student, such was  his thirst  for
 knowledge and desire for improvement, that he employed every
 leisure moment in study, and was ever posted up in the progress
 of the science of medicine.  He was  not merely a reader, but
 a thinker, a discriminating observer, and a man of sound judg-
 ment, and withal, a memory  so accurate, that at the bed-side of
 his patient he could draw from this  store-house  all  that was
 valuable in  the formation of a  correct opinion of the case in
 hand.
  Dr. Babbitt was an  intelligent and  agreeable man in all his
 associations with his brethren,—cheerful and pleasant at home
in his family,  and especially  so in his intercourse with his fel-
low citizens,—qualities which made him not only very accepta-
ble in the chamber of  the sick, but  contributed largely to the
comfort and restoration of his patients.
  The confidence of his  fellow townsmen, in his ability and in
his fidelity, was manifested by his repeatedly representing them
in the  Legislature.
  For twenty years he  was a member of the Massachusetts
Medical Society, and for several years a counsellor, and was a
warm friend to the interests of medical science.
  From the first organization of the  Congregational Society in 
Medicine in Berkshire.
153
South Adams, he was a warm supporter and constant attendant
on public worship, and the latter  part of his life made a public
profession of his faith, departing this life in the confident hope
and trust of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
  His disease was an  organic affection  of the stomach, and its
character and termination  he early understood,  and wisely an-
ticipated the event.
  "He was extremely fond of the old poets, and with an excel-
lent memory his quotations from them were frequent and apt.
He was courageous in.his practice and however urgent the case
his energies were made to correspond with his case.  Temporal
arteries fared hardly when a case of eclampsia occurred, and in
a long  career,  1  think he said he never  lost but one case."
(Obituary.)
  "Died at Adams, Sept  30, 1814, of  typhus, Doctor David
Cushing, aged forty-seven.  He was a kind and indulgent hus-
band, father and friend; no eulogy could be made so lasting as
the monument  already erected  in  the bosoms of his acquaint-
ance.   He had educated many young men in his office."
  "Died at Adams, very suddenly, Oct. 12,1821, Doctor Liscom
Phillips, aged forty-four.  He possessed  by nature a strong,
investigating mind, which  was  cultivated with  more than or-
dinary care in ordinary and scientific acquirements.  He pos-
sessed those noble qualities of soul which eminently fitted him
for the  various  relations  of husband, father,  neighbor and
friend.   As a physician, his ride  was  extensive, and he pos-
sessed the unbounded confidence of his patients."
  "Doctor Robert Cutler R&bvnson of Adams, born 1784; died
in 1846, aged sixty-two, having practiced medicine  forty years
in the north  part of  the county and the adjoining county of
Hampshire.  He studied his profession under the direction of
the distinguished Dr. Peter Bryant of Cummington, whose
reputation for scientific and professional attainment is widely
known.  Dr. Robinson was a self-educated  man, and a writer
of considerable eminence, as evidenced by his essays and public
addresses on various subjects.   AVith talents of a high order,
he mio-ht have excelled as  an orator, if his course had been in 
154      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Socoty.
that direction.  In the sphere in which he-labored he was use-
ful and respected.  (Address, Greeley, page  l<.).),,
  " Doctor IJeriah Bishop of Richmond, born 177s,  son of the
Hon. Nathaniel Bishop, died l8i>r>, aged twenty-seven.
  His youth impaired  by too  severe exertion  caused him to
turn his attention to science.  His  medical education was pur-
sued under Dr. Burghardt of Richmond,  and Dr. Smith  of
Hanover, N. II.  He entered business in 1803, in partnership
with Dr. Burghardt.  Highly improved with medical learning,
by assidnous attention to business and by his prudent, amiable
and exemplary deportment, he  rapidly extended his practice.
But he fell a victim  to  consumption, and was buried from the
house of Judge Bishop."
  "Doctor Mason Brown was born in Cheshire, in 1783.   He
was  educated in the common schools, but  studied medicine
with Dr. Towner of AVilliamstown.   He was lame,  and not of
strong constitution.   His little  office  long stood on the village
green, near the church.  He practiced in the winter in Cheshire,
but his  summers were  spent  in  Saratoga, where  his  services
were in great repute.   He made a  famous pill, which, in con-
nection  with  the  Spring water, made him famous there, and
added materially to his income.
   " He  never married;  was of  a genial, kind nature, and was
always surrounded by a bevy of village children."
   "• A little anecdote is  related  of  his encounter with ' Uncle'
Moses Wolcott, who  for many years, kept  the only inn in the
village.  Meeting Mr. W. one morning he jokingly said, ' Well,
Mr. AVolcott, we are going to have a new tavern on  the hill, so
we can  have two.'  '  Yes ! yes!'  said the testy old  man,  ' and
we are  going to have  a new  doctor in town, so we can have
one.'"   (Correspondence.)
   Dr. Brown, on returning  from  Saratoga, made his stopping-
place at his  sister's, Mrs. Stephen Hosford, and there, in  1>>36,
he died.
   ''The first effectual effort in the direction of a Medical School
was made in 1851,  when  Oliver  I.  Root, returning  from a
course  of lectures  in Castleton, \"t.,—Dr.  J. P. Batchelder, a
professor in that institution, having become dissatisfied with it, 
Medicine in Berkshire.
155
 —sent word by him to Dr. H. H. Childs that the favorable mo-
 ment had arrived to establish a new school at Pittsfield.  Dr.
 C. seized the  hint  with avidity and immediately took steps to
 avail himself of it."  Hist, of Pittsfield, Vol. 2, Chap. XVII.
   In May -22,  the  subject of a medical institution was  intro-
 duced to the society by Dr. Childs, and favorably entertained.
 A committee was chosen  by the  society  to petition the Legis-
 lature for an act of incorporation and a  grant of money.  Drs.
 Childs,  Burbank and Collins was  the  committee and  they also
 addressed the parent society, requesting its aid and co-operation
 in the proposed measure.  But for some reason the parent society
 turned the cold shoulder and opposed the measure.   But the
 impetuosity of Dr.  Childs knew no defeat, and the charter was
 granted  January 4,  1823,  and a  course  of  lectures  was  an-.
 nounced for September.
    Theory and Practice,                 -     Dr. H. H. Childs.
    Anatomy and Physiology,    -             Dr. J. V  C. Smith.
    Surgery,    -                         Dr. J. P. Batchelder.
    Obstetrics and Materia Medica, -            -  Dr. Asa Burbank.
    Chemistry and Botany,   -     -      -    Dr. Chester Dewey.
   From this it appears, as there were  three Professors from
 the  Society, how  intimate  the  relations  were  between  the
 society  and the  institution.  But  further,  the society  ap-
 pointed a committee  of "inspection"  to  investigate  the con-
 cerns of the institution, and their report in December 23, says,
 "The institution, we are happy to  state, promises much utility
 to the  medical profession to the  country and  to  the world.
 About  eighty  students have attended  the course; above five
 hundred lectures have been delivered.  The  funds of the in-
 stitution are low;  it needed patronage, and was worthy of it.
 And should the patronage it needed be granted  it must rise to
eminence and  great usefulness."   And the society united with
 the  institution  in  petitioning  for an  endowment which was
 granted in 1824, in payments of  $1000  yearly for five  years.
 No doubt the income was meagre.
   The institution was managed by a board of trustees  of which
 Drs. Perry and  Tyler were chosen as members from the society.
 There were also annually two  delegates  chosen to attend the 
156      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.

examination of the  students  for the  degree  of M. D., which
were conferred upon  its alumni by the president of Williams
College till 1837, when the degrees were conferred  by the
president of the institution.
  The first President of the Berkshire Medical Institution was
Doctor Josiah  Goodhue, born  at  Dunstable,  Mass., Jan. 17,
1759. He commenced his medical pupilage with Dr. Kittredge
of Fakesbury, and at the end of two  years returned to his par-
ents in Putney, Vt., where he commenced practice, when about
twenty years old.   Notwithstanding the meagreness of his pre-
liminary  education,  he  rapidly gained in  favor, as well as
knowledge.  Students  in numbers came to him and he taught
some  who  became distinguished.  Nathan Smith was one of
his pupils.  In the year 1800, he received from Dartmouth Col-
lege the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine.
  In 1816, he  located  in Iladley, Mass., and in 1823 was ap-
pointed by the trustees President of the Berkshire Medical In-
stitution.  He had the  interests of the  institution very much
in heart, and says, " AVhile I have the  honor to preside in this
Institution, it shall  be the business of  my declining  years to
promote its interests in every way in my power."
  He had an extensive practice in  Operative Surgery, and has
stated that, so far as he knew, he was the first to amputate at
the shoulder joint of any man in New England.
  He was extremely temperate in his manner of living.
  " In his manner, Dr. Goodhue was a pattern of urbanity and
gentility.  In his  appearance and dress  he was perfectly neat.
He commanded the respect and esteem of all  who knew him.
In his department he was affable and polite  to his equals and
inferiors;  his  conversational talents were of such an order as
ever to attract attention, and he was always listened to with
great interest and respect."   Williams' Biog.
  He died in 1829, at the house of Dr. Twitchell.
  " July 26,1823.   Voted.—That Prof. Dewey be appointed a
committee to confer with the Trustees of Williams College for
the loan of the chemical and philosophical apparatus, for the
use of the Institution during the ensuing course of lectures.
                                J. B. Batchelder, Sec." 
Medicine in Berkshire.
157
   There is no record of the loan, but I presume  it was loaned.
   In 1824 there crops out the jealously towards Harvard, which
 was in  consequence, no doubt,  of  the opposition met  with to
 the  establishment  of  the Institution, and  which lasted many
 years, and was  freely expressed by Dr. Childs.   The vote was
 that the degree of M. D. conferred upon the graduate of the
 Berkshire  .Medical Institution, through the  authority of Wil-
 liams College, should  "Entitle  its possessor to all the rights,
 privileges and immunities granted  to graduates of Harvard."
   In this  year  the Trustees bought  the "Berkshire Hotel,"
 where Dr. Sabin's  father lived, and anticipated the grant of
 the state to the  amount of $3,000.  And Joseph Shearer pre-
 sents a fine fat ox for  the benefit of the Institution.  A com-
 mittee was appointed  to see  what should be done with the ox;
 they report " that the ox be sold to the best advantage, and the
 avails be distributed in premiums next  year.   Called the Joseph
 Shearer fund."
   No doubt the income was meagre.
   How otherwise would Joseph Shearer  have made to the In-
 stitution the  present  of "a  fine fat  ox."   But I credit the
 whole (caboodle?) of them  with lunacy.  Would you believe
 it?  Actually, they appointed a committee to sit on that ox and
 see what  should be done  with it.  Anybody  out a  lunatic
 asylum  would say, make a  big barbecue, invite  all the hostile
 Indians from the parent society and Harvard  hall and Williams
 College and  the Legislature, then  wash the  tenderloin down
 with old Jamaica.   Do you think, with the inner man red hot
 with beef and Jamaica, they wouldn't  have come down hand-
 some ?  Why! the  Faculty could have marched  in procession
 with Childs at the head waving  his  banner  of general  princi-
 ples, Smith shouldering a huge thigh bone, Batchelder with
 his carving  knife, Burbank  with his obstetric forceps and
 Dewey as rear guard with a staff of golden rod trampling over
all opposition to fatness and  renown.  They wouldn't have
been begging Williams College for old chemical and philosophi-
cal traps, not a bit of it.   But pity 'tis, 'tis true, this daft com-
mittee sitting  on the fat ox, voted to sell it and make Shearer
hero. 
158      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
  There was in 1828, some  trouble growing out of the repre-
sentations of Dr. Batchelder, (who was then secretary) respect-
ing the Institution.   It was a repetition  of  what occurred at
Woodstock.   March 20, 1828, there was an examination of Dr.
Batchelder, on the charge that he tried to  injure the reputation
of the  school.   " Voted.—That  in the opinion of the Trustees
it is not for the interest of the  Institution to continue Dr. B.
as a professor in the same."
   Near this time Dr. O. S. Root  was appointed Professor of
Pharmacy, Materia Medica and Medical Chemistry.
  "Doctor Oliver Sackett  Hoot was born in Pittsfield, July 1st,
1799.  He was a delicate child, fond of his books, and showed
early unusual powers of observation.   His academic education
was at Lenox and Westfield.  He studied medicine  with Dr.
H. H.  Childs, and graduated at the Berkshire Medical Institu-
tion in 1824.  In 1828, was appointed  Professor, and was al-
ways afterwards one of the Trustees."
   " He was an accomplished botanist and his decision was often
appealed  to in  any disputed question  on that  subject.   Al-
ways deeply interested in public education,.he was nearly thirty
years a member of the School Committee, and for many years
its chairman.  It was greatly owing to  his influence and  exer-
tions that the  beautiful site of the  Pittsfield Cemetery was
chosen.  He was the  first  to discover its natural advantages
and capabilities, and year after  year  urged the town its pur-
chase until at last it was decided upon."
   " A  public spirited man he took deep interest in the affairs of
the town.  He took strong  ground as an  anti-slavery and tem-
perance  advocate.   He  spent  the  summer  of '59 abroad.
During the war full of the patriotic zeal which had animated
his grandfather in  the old  stniggle for liberty,—too old  to be
accepted as  surgeon—in '64 he offered his services to and was
accepted by the United  States  Christian  Commission,  and
labored zealously and satisfactorily in the  hospitals  of  City
Point  and Petersburg.  He was a great favorite with the
Berkshire boys.   His exposure  in camp life was too great, and
he never fully recovered from it.  He had remarkable  powers
of endurance, and continued his practice  to  the last however 
                   Medicine hi Berkshire.                159
 never refusing to go out to see a patient, even in the stormiest
 night."
   " He was an earnest, consistent  Christian, an active member
 of the  Congregational  church, and often in  the absence of a
 clergyman, his prayers and ministrations by the  bedside of the
 sick and dying were most welcome and comforting."
   He  died  of pneumonia, Oct, 22, 1870, and his funeral ser-
 mon was preached by President Hopkins to a great concourse
 of children of the schools and townspeople.
   Dr. Root was Secretary of the Institution till its close.   The
 Berkshire Medical Society, after his death, passed this resolu-
 tion:  "Resolved.—That we remember with  gratitude his un-
 tiring industry, his rigid discipline, his brilliant medical essays,
 his thorough medical education, and above all, his love to God.
 The sick and helpless  poor have been  deprived of a kind and
 faithful friend and medical adviser."   Correspondence.
   In December, 1836, a petition was sent to the Legislature
 for an alteration of its  charter, so that the Institution would
 have the power to confer  its own degrees, and in '37 the act
 passed.   They also petitioned for a grant of $10,000.
   Dr. Goodhue was succeeded by Dr. Zadock Howe Bellerica,
 who resigned in 1837, when the connection between Williams
 College and the Institution was dissolved and the Institution
 conferred its own degrees, and in '38 Dr. H. H.  Childs was
 chosen its President.
   •'Doctor Henry Halsey Childs of Pittsfield, was born at the
 Child's homestead on Jubilee Hill, June 7, 1783.  As a youth
 he was both noble hearted  and  noble  minded.  He graduated
 at AVilliams College in 1802.  At that time all the Faculty and
 Trustees but one were Federalists,  and  his commencement ora-
tion, which  was submitted to the President for approval, was
full of the rankest Jeffersonian Democracy.   The utterance of
what was considered heresy was forbidden and some harmless
and  probably flittering  generalities substituted.  But when it
came his turn to speak  out  leaped  the pestilent democracy.
The  President tried to stop him, but he could not be  silenced;
he went on to the end amid mingled  hisses and applause."
  And this typified what the young man was to be.   He stud- 
160      Berkshire Historical and Scic?itific Society.
ied medicine with  his father, and commenced and carried on
practice with him as long as his father lived.  They introduced
vaccination in spite of opposition, as the father had inoculation.
In 1822, May, at a medical meeting, and the first after a long
interval, Dr.  Childs introduced the  subject of a Aledical Col-
lege, urging  it with his usual ardor, and that originated  the
Berkshire Medical  College.   From  the time of its establish-
ment he was  its life and soul, and it died with him.
  His labors  and sacrifices  for the Berkshire Aledical College,
and  the great good  to  this  town and county and state  and
country coming from it, directly connected with the personality
of this  man, cannot be estimated; it suffices to say they were
very great.
  He had a large medical  practice and for many  years was a
member of the Faculty of  the medical colleges at Woodstock,
Art, and Willougby and Columbus, Ohio.
  His labors  in the medical line  were sufficient to employ all
the time of an ordinary man, still he found time for the activi-
ties of a zealous  and uncompromising  democrat.   And in  this
direction he  wielded great influence, for he was  elected to
represent the town  in  the  Legislatures of 1816 and 1827,  and
the Constitutional Convention of 1820; to the State Senate of
1837, and as  Lieut.  Governor in 1843.
  In the Constitutional Convention, in advocating  his motion
to amend Article 3,  in  Bill of  Rights, he  particularly  dis-
tinguished himself as the champion of the voluntary system in
the support of public worship.                            9
  Dr. Childs, in motion to amend Article 3, in Bill of Rights,
" As the happiness of a people and the good order and preserva-
tion of civil government essentially depend upon piety, religion
and morality, and as these cannot  be generally diffused through
a community but by the institution of the  public worship of
God, and as it is the inalienable  right of every man to render
that worship  in the  mode most consistent with the dictates of
his own conscience, etc."
  One of his opponents was AVebster, and Childs was defeated,
but AVebster  afterwards admitted that he was wrong and  that
Dr. Childs was right. 
Medicine in Berkshire.
161
   But with all his enthusiasm and  ardor  in  his pursuits, Dr.
 Childs was a Christian gentleman.   He was tender of the feel-
 ings and reputation of others.  This was manifest in his deal-
 ings with those  who  were examined for the degree of M. D.
   In 1863 Dr. Childs  resigned.  Resolutions  of the Trustees
 of  Berkshire  Medical Institution:—"That the resignation of
 Dr. Childs requires from us more than a passing notice.   For
 more than forty years he has been the active head of the Berk-
 shire Medical Institution, his usefulness having extended to a
 period  almost unprecedented.  During these  years,  by his
 energy and zeal, he has achieved a wide-spread reputation as a
 medical man;  and, by his courtesy of manner and  kindness of
 heart, a no less deserved  name of a  Christian gentleman.  He
 has ever maintained a high standard  of medical  honor, and his
 pupils must forget or ignore his teachings before they can stoop
 to anything base or ignoble.   With quick appreciation of merit,
however modest, and ever ready with a timely word of needed
 encouragement, his pupils learned to love him, and thousands
 throughout  the  length  and breadth of  the land look back to
 him as to a foster father.   While we  regret the  infirmities
 which compel the retirement of our venerable President from
 the active duties of instruction, we  earnestly hope that the in-
 terests of the  Institution, which  is  so  identified with his life
 and name, may not abate, and  that  he  may long be spared to
 speak words of cheer  to  the new generation of students and
 give the benefit of his advice and  counsel  to  the Faculty and
 Trustees."
  He was liberal and generous.  As a Christian, he was in earnest.
In  1821 he became  a member of  the  First Congregational
church, and as deacon and Sabbath-school scholar and President
of the Berkshire Bible Society, he exemplified the grace, ten-
 derness and power of Christianity.   He was gentle, but strong;
 tender, yet true hearted; zealous, yet with meekness; having a
strono- will, yet under the dominion of a will superior to his
 own  with aspirations and  affection which  rested, not upon
 those near him, but reached forth as far as the mission of him
 whom he so faithfully served.
  It was sad, that desiring  it  so  much, he did  not in  his last 
162      Berkshire Ilisto-rical and Scientific Society.
davs rest his eyes on the dear old hills of  I'erkshire, and com-
mune with them; and with  the deep blue  arch  studded with
the stars that had, through the long  lonely night rides, been to
him an inspiration, filling  him  with trust and hope.
  He died in Boston, with his daughter, March, 1868,  in the
eighty-fifth year of his age.
  In 185<> the Medical  building  Mas burned.   The committee
selected the site offered by Henry  Colt,  Esq., at the foot of
South street, and in 1852 sold the old boarding house, thus ter-
minating their connection  with a place they had occupied for
thirty years.
  The new building was of pressed brick outside, well arranged
and commodious.
  Dr. Gilman Kimball, Prof,  of Surgery;  Dr. Alonzo Clark,
Prof, of General and Special Pathology; Dr. Benjamin  R.
Palmer, Prof, of Anatomy, were  added to the  Faculty in 1843.
  Dr. Timothy  Childs  was elected  Secretary  and Trustee in
1848.  In '63, Dr. II. H.  Childs  was succeeded by Dr. AV. W.
Seymour of Troy.   Dr. AVilliam AV. Green was Prof, of Sur-
gery; Dr. R. C. Stiles, of Pathology;  Dr. A. B. Palmer, of
Practice of Medicine; Dr.  P. Chadbourne, of Chemistry  and
Natural History; Dr. Earle, of Diseases  of the Nervous Sys-
tem ;  Dr. T. Childs, of  Military Surgery;  Dr. Ford, of Physi-
ology.
  But the war was disastrous  to  the country medical schools •
here, as elsewhere, and, with other  causes  added, resulted in a
ruinous  decrease of students.  In 1866 only forty-one attended,
in 1867, only .thirty-three.   The last course of  lectures was de-
livered  in  1867, and  Dr.  F. K  Paddock, the last  appointed
professor, received his  appointment as Professor of Urinology
and Venereal Diseases in 1867.
  In 1870 the building was sold to Pittsfield, and April 29,
1871, Dr. C. A.  Mills of this Society performed the last funeral
rites.
  Thus  came  to an  end  the  Berkshire  Medical Institution
which was the offspring of this Society, which had carefully re-
ceived attention  for forty-four  years, and had graduated 1,120
students. 
Medicine in Berkshire.
163
  The prophecy that "it would be of much utility to the medi-
cal profession, to the country and to the world" was abundantly
verified.
  " Voted.—That Dr. Daniel Collins deliver the dissertation
at the next semi-annual meeting."
  kl Doctor Daniel Collins was born  in  Lenox, Dec. 19, 1774.
The second of three brother physicians—preparing for college
at the Academy in Lenox and graduating at Williams College
in 180();  soon after commenced the study  of medicine with
Dr.  Lewis;  completed his professional  studies and  began the
practice of medicine with his older brother, Luke, at Louisville,
Kentucky.  This brother was an earlier graduate of Williams
and student  of Dr. Lewis.
  Dr. Collins' residence in  Kentucky gave him an experience
in the treatment of febrile diseases that he would not ordinarily
have had, and enabled him to treat successfully a large number
of cases during an unusual  prevalence of fever in this vicinity,
at the time of his return, and gave him a local reputation that
he ever after retained.  Fond of study and scientific investiga-
tion, he was  well acquainted with the theory and  practice of
his profession, possessing a retentive memory and having for
those days a large  and" well selected  general library, which he
thoroughly read.   He was entertaining and instructive in con-
versation, and took much pleasure in sharing with others any
information  he  acquired;  and, had  ambition impelled  him
might have  obtained  celebrity.  He was fond of  military drill
and  parade,  marched  to Boston commanding a company from
this town in 1S12, and held the rank of colonel in our militia
service.  Of  a commanding presence, possessing many  noble
and generous qualities, he  had the confidence and good will of
those under his command.
  After his sojourn of a couple of years or so in Kentucky, he
returned to Lenox, where he resided  until his death, which oc-
curred March 9, 1S47.,,   (J. G. Stanly, letter.)
  Dr. Collins, in his  youth, was  called by  the  ladies a very
handsome man.   He was an excellent scholar and fine  linguist.
He  stood very  high  in the esteem  of  his  medical brethren. 
164      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.

Keen in observation, original in reasoning, independent in his
judgment;  his counsel was sought after in difficult cases.
  He stood very high in the Society, being elected  President,
besides filling honorable and  responsible positions.  (Corres-
pondence.)
  "Doctor  William II Tyler was born in Lanesborough, May
18, 1780.   He worked  upon his father's  farm  until eighteen
years of age.   Studied  with Dr. Silas Hamilton, in Saratoga,
one year.   Continued them  with Dr. Joseph Jarvis of Lanes-
borough, and  completed them with Dr.  Asa Burbank of the
same town, occupying about three and one-half years.   "And
then,,, he says, "I was privileged with a full course  of medical
lectures in Columbia College, New York.   The Marine Hospi-
tal was  at hand; bones, muscles, arteries and  veins were  no
longer presented to the imagination only, I could examine them
with my eye  and the dissecting knife.   Drs.  Post, Rodgers,
Stringham, Hosack and Hammersly were the professors."   At
that time a* spirited discussion was going on on contagion and
non-contagion of Yellow fever.
  "Dr. Tyler commenced  practice  in  Lanesborough in 1815,
and  soon had an extensive ride.  He practiced  among the best
families in  and out of  town, and the poor he never neglected
whether there was prospect of renumeration or not.  He was
associated  with  the  best medical men in the  county, among
them Drs.  Timothy Childs, H. H. Childs, Delamater, Batchel-
der  and Towner.   He was an  honored  member of the Massa-
chusetts Medical  Society, Censor, Councillor and President of
the  Berkshire Medical  Society, and always enjoyed to a high
degree the confidence and esteem of his medical brethren."  In
1815, 20, 31 and 35 he represented his town in Legislature and
Congressional Convention  with usefulness and great credit to
himself.
   Dr. Tyler  practiced thirty-four years in Lanesborough, and
the  intimate  friendship with  Gov. G. N.  Briggs  terminated
only with his death.
   In a letter to  him March 10, 1856, he says, "Dear Sir. I was
very much gratified on the reception of a staff marked  'G. N.
Briggs to  AV. H.  Tyler.'  It  is long enough,  strong enough, 
Medicine in Berkshire.
165
large enough and  handsome enough, and as good for aught I
know as Jacob's when he passed over the Jordan, or when he
leaned upon the head of it and worshipped and blessed the sons
of Joseph."
  He thus writes, " The day my limb was amputated I asked the
Lord if there might be fifteen years added to my earthly exist-
ence. He has added that and more, and I ought to say in humble
submission, the Lord's will be done.   I think I have tried to do
good in my day and generation to my fellows, my friends and
my enemies, but the world is about ready to spare me now and
and  I want to be ready to go when required."
  " I have had an anxious, arduous and laborious life, and have
not been more than  one-half remunerated for it.  I have tried
to be an honor to the medical profession, and obtain honor and
a good  reputation ; but very many of the  faculty have dis-
honored themselves  by dishonest and intriguing efforts to ob-
tain  business.  Quackery  and pretension to skill  have  sup-
planted and broken down many who were worthy of the best
public patronage."
  " I have continued my medical reading  even until now (eighty
years old).  At the  present  day (1856) a great  assortment of
doctors  has sprung  into existence, and the human family are
humbugged and cheated,—I wish they knew how much—for,
notwithstanding, I have spent a long life  in reading and investi-
gating this abstruse science,  my lesson is half unlearned."
  Dr. Tyler  was a  very  devout, thoughtful  Christian.  He
philosophises, " Who is I?   I think I is a sentient spirit, an im-
mortal soul, that will know  and  be  known by other spirits or
souls when separated from the body.  God is a spirit.  Spirits
must have some property in common.  What is it?  Do spirits
have any matter in their composition %"
  These extracts  serve to show that Dr. Tyler was a constant
reader, and conscientious practioner,  regardful, not alone of his
patients, but of his profession as well.
  I remember  him  with his  furrowed  face  and short bushy
hair and  kindness  of manner, and  his  carefulness in making
up his opinion,  and his gentleness with his junior brethren. 
166      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.

  To crown all, he was an excellent  father  and  neighbor and
citizen, because he was a sincere Christian.
  As Paul  said.  " By the grace of  God I am what 1 am," so
said  Dr. Tyler; and  died  in  the  faith Dec. 6th, aged  eighty-
eight and one-half years.
  Doctor Abel Kittredge  was born  in Tewksbury,  Mass., in
1773, settled as a physician in the town  of Hinsdale in 1801.
lie was the  first  and only physician in  the town for twenty-
five  years,  and had a  large  practice there and surrounding
towns.  lie was commissioned as surgeon's  mate in one of the
Afassachusetts  regiments in  1812, by Gov. Caleb Strong.  He
died in 1847, aged seventy-four years.  He  was brother of Dr.
William Kittredge, then settled in Pittsfield.
  "In 1827, a disease  in his eyes, called 'Western Sore Eyes,'
almost entirely destroyed his  sight for several years, obliging
him  to abandon the practice of his profession.  lie afterwards
was  much  interested in agriculture, being  one of the largest
farmers in the town."
  " In 1797 he married Miss Eunice Chamberlain of Dalton, and
had four sons and six daughters.   He had a noble, generous na-
ture, full of  kindness and aid to the suffering and needy, and was
foremost in  supporting education, good moral and religious in-
stitutions in the town."  Correspondence.
  The following anecdote of Dr. Abel Kittredge  is told by
Mr. F. :—
  "When quite  a young man he (Mr. F.) bought some sheep
which  he sold within a few  days at a profit of one  hundred
dollars.   Soon after the doctor meeting him, said, " Well, Mr.
F., I hear you have made a hundred dollars  within four days."
Mr. F. admitted that he had.   " Young man," said the doctor,
"you will find that the dearest hundred dollars you ever had,"
which the sequel  shows was doubted, as he made a second pur-
chase and gained another profit.   Buying the third  time, he
took the sheep  to New York and  this time lost  all  he had
gained.   Mr. F. was  forced to acknowledge that the doctor was
right.  It exemplified his belief in small economies and moder-
ate profits as the best foundations for a young man's prosperity;
along with that first requisite  in all dealings—integrity. 
Medicine in Berkshire.
167
  Dr. Kittredge was a satisfactory physician to most people in
his region.   He  was  respected and  public-spirited.   Though
for some years before his death  he had  discontinued practice,
he was still keenly interested in public affairs."
  Doctor Charles Worthington was  born Aug. 27, 1778, and
died May 23, 1840.
  There is no history (medical)  except that gleaned from the
records of the Society.
  "Voted.—That Charles Worthington  be Treasurer and Li-
brarian."   He was on the  committee of inspection  to investi-
gate the concerns of the Medical Institute.
  "Voted.—That Dr. Charles Worthington be appointed to de-
liver a dissertation at  the  next  annual meeting."   He was on
the committee "to take into  consideration the subject of our
annual assessments and initiation fees."   This was a long stand-
ing and grievous matter with the parent  Society.
  In 1880 he was elected Vice-president  of the Society.
  These different records show  that he stood very high in the
esteem and confidence of his medical brethren.
  " Doctor Robert Worthington of Lenox, was born  Sept.  29,
1791, and died August, 1856.
  lie was well known as  a physician, having  long  resided in
the county.   He was  for  a number  of  years secretary of the
Berkshire Medical Society, and  was honored and esteemed, as
the records of the Society show,  by his medical brethren.  But
not only in the walks  of professional life  was he well known,
but in  the  toilsome  though honorable  and useful walks  of
Christian  benevolence. He was a member of the Congrega-
tional church in Lenox, and  one  on whom much is imposed
and sustained with ability  and  constancy.  He was for many
years  Treasurer of the Berkshire  Bible  Society, and  by that
Society  made a Life  Director  in the  American Bible Society.
lie was Secretary of the  County Seamen's Friend Society, and
an earnest friend  of  every measure  of  popular reform.  His
Christian faith was vital,  energetic, active, and hence we must
believe  the  true faith that works  by love.  His memory will
always be cherished with honor.
  They  were sons of Capt. Daniel and  Mrs. Lois  (Foote) 
        InVs      Berkshire Historical and Sci, ntific Society.

        Worthington, and were born in Colchester, Conn.  The family
        removed to  Lenox  probably in the early part of this century,
        and there the parents  and the two  sons  above named died."
        Correspondence.
           " Doctor John M. Brewster was born Oct. 22, 17S9 in Becket,
        Mass.
           His early education  was at the Lenox Academy while Mr.
        Gleason was  principal.  He commenced the study of medicine
        under the instruction of his father; attended a course of lectures
        in New Haven in 1*10, and graduated at the  Medical School
        in Boston under  Dr. Jackson, in 1812; reached home the very
        day his father was brought home  dead of apoplexy, and com-
        menced immediately the  practice of medicine at  his  native
        place where he remained till 1821  when he removed to Lenox,
        and was a successful physician  in  that and neighboring towns
        for sixteen years.  He  was Town Clerk there two years.
           In  April, 1837, he removed to  Pittsfield, purchased the old
        homestead of Gen. Willis and continued his  profession with
        zeal, fidelity and  success  for  thirty  years, making  in all fifty-
        five years of continuous practice.
           " His physical constitution was of the most robust kind.  Till
        after  he was seventy years of age he  would mount his horse
        with no other help then the stirrups and ride with grace and
        lleetness.
           The old Brewster homestead is one of the historic landmarks,
        inasmuch as it has the  credit of having  been  a  station of the
        underground railroad  for fugitives  from the  South  on their
        way to Canada and freedom.
*          Dr. Brewster welcomed  to  his  home  Gerritt  Smith, Elihu
        Burritt, Henry Wilson and inany of the early anti-slavery ad-
        vocates.   The friendship that  existed between himself and the
        Hon. Charles Sumner  (of  glorious memory) was constant and
        unabated to the close of life."
           He was an anti-slaver man when it cost something to be one
        —as  far  back  as when James G. Birney was candidate  for
        President.
           Studious of social proprietry and civil obligations, he firmly
        and conscientiously took  his chances on the  side of manhood 
Medicine in Berkshire.
169
and right and calmly and quietly awaited the result."   Corres-
pondence.
  Need it be said that his grand  conduct as husband, father,
neighbor, citizen and physician was the outcome of a character
which was born of Jesus of Nazareth.
  He died May 3, 1869, aged eighty years.
  " Doctor Robert Campbell, son of David Campbell, the elder
was born at Pittsfield, 1796; graduated at the Berkshire Medi-
cal  College, 1822, having  commenced his  studies before the
foundation of that institution.  No Pittsfield man, of his gen-
eration at least, excelled him in mental  power or liberal culture.
The variety of the subjects of which he acquired accurate and
practical knowledge  was remarkable.   His skill  in his profes-
sion was widely  recognized  although  he abandoned it in the
prime of his  life.   His  thirst for study and experiment  was
ardent; he possessed  extreme conscientiousness,  displayed  not
only in business integrity, but in all the  affairs of life."  (His-
tory of Pittsfield,)
  " Doctor Royal Fowler of Stockbridge, took the place of Dr.
Jones.  He was born 1786, and  a native  of Pittsfield.  He
practiced at first in  Barrington.   He  was a peculiarly careful
physician and much  confided in by his patients."
  He  was  a member of the  Berkshire  Medical Society  and
from  the records  I  gather that  he was highly esteemed and
confided in  by his fellow  members, being placed often in po-
sitions of responsibility, and his record as a citizen and  physi-
cian is irreproachable.
  "He was a Christian and died in great peace  Sept. 20, 1849,
at the age of sixty-three."
  We resume the meetings of the  Society.
  In  1827 the Society meetings revolved around the court in
Lenox and the cattle show  in Pittsfield.
  In  '39 we meet a vote as follows:  "That certain resolutions
upon  the subject of intemperance this  day presented, after
he in"' revised by  the president and secretary, be adopted and
printed in the county newspapers, signed by the president and
secretary.  The president  was  Dr. Perry of Stockbridge, and
as in  1837, he established by his energetic efforts at that place 
 17<>     Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
 an  auxiliary  temperance society, at  that  time  when it was ex-
 ceedingly unpopular to advocate that question, we have no doubt
 but these  resolutions were  from him.   Dr. Hawks of  North
 Adams, says of l82i>, " At that time New England was drenched
 with rum  and cider  brandy."  Another  writer  says,  "The
 habits of intemperance,  thriftlessness and dissipation generally
 which existed in  the  years  immediately following the Revolu-
 tion still continued."  AVe glory then in the heroism of a mem-
 ber of our  Society, who, at that time, gave such a sharp rebuke
 to the habit to which, no doubt, some of  his medical brethren
 were subject; and at  the same time, by its record, placing the
 Society  on  the side of  temperance.   From '34 to '37 there is
 no  record of meeting.   We  search in vain  for the wherefore
 except the  conjecture of dissatisfaction on the relation of the
 district to the parent Society.
  In '2D a  committee  was appointed  to  take into consideration
 the subject of "our annual assessments and initiation fees, and
 report the best or most  proper course to be pursued by the So-
 ciety to obtain relief."
  Jan. 30,  the committee reported and it was voted, " That that
 part of the report advising a separation from the parent Society
 be rejected."
  May 31,  "That a  committee  be appointed to consider  the
 subject  matter of the  petition  of  the  physicians from this
 county,  and also the subject of  difference between the fellows
 of this county and the parent Society."
  " That this committee be  instructed to contend for or insist
 upon the abandonment  of the whole  annual assessment to this
 Society."
  Next meeting,  '32, this  vote was amended  so that the in-
struction was to compromise for the payment of one dollar per
annum of the  assessment to the parent Society.   At the next
meeting the contest continued in a somewhat varied form.
  The meetings of October and December must have been
very exciting and condemnatory of the parent Society.   Votes
were passed, then rescinded,  and it is evident that these meet-
ings must have been very wearying to the flesh.
  In '33 this subject is  continued in  a report which it is stated 
                  Medicine in Berkshire.               171
that after  " an  investigation, this district Society is entitled to
the sum of $81.53, and our treasurer is directed to retain in his
hands said sum."
  There is no record of  meeting again till 1837, an interim of
four years.  In  '37 a spasmodic effort was made for a revival,
but  there  was  only  one meeting.  This was a time of great
financial depression and  ruin, and was no doubt  the  efficient
reason for the discontinuance of the meetings.
  In looking back through this period we are impressed with the
fact that the profession is standing on a higher plane than dur-
ing that preceding.  The rules are more dignified and elastic.
They concede more  to  individual honor.  Command  is suc-
ceeded by an  appeal to  the better  and higher nature.  The
business complications and wranglings with the parent Society
and  the interests  of  the  Medical Institution occupy much of
the time to the exclusion of professional matters, probably to
the disgust  of some  members, still, there are many carefully
prepared papers and many interesting  cases brought  to  the
thought of the Society, with a finer and richer enthusiasm than
before.
  In 1842 there  was a reorganization.   The Society starts again
with nearly the same leaders.
  Of the eighty-five names upon  the record sheet of 1842, all
are  dead or removed but  eight.
  There were  two yearly meetings, one at  Lenox and one at
Pittsfield.   This arrangement held till '62, when the meetings
were held  in Pittsfield.   There was no special interest for ten
years and the old troubles with the parent Society were still in
existence.
  We note the  resolutions  upon  Dr. Royal Fowler by Dr. R.
Worthington,  June, 1850:   "Whereas, God in  his righteous
providence, has removed  by death Dr. Royal Fowler, a beloved
and faithful fellow laborer  in the medical  profession, and re-
cently  President  of  this  Society, thus depriving us  of  the
presence and counsel  of  one who was usually "at his post" at
the regular meetings of this Society, Therefore, Resolved, That
while we would  humbly and submissively feel and acknowledge
the hand of God  in this event we enter upon the records this 
  172      Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
•  testimonial of our  estimation of his character and usefulness as
  a scientific and successful practioner of medicine, a faithful and
  devoted friend to the interests and prosperity of the medical
  profession, and above all would we  gratefully acknowledge  the
  goodness  of the  'Great Physician,'  that in addition to  the
  above traits of character, he possessed  and was enabled to ex-
  emplify the character  of a  meek and humble follower of  the
  Saviour.  And we would accompany  this testimonial with  the
  sincere aspiration that we may all, having faithfully discharged
  our individual and relative duties  be prepared like him to de-
  part in peace."   No one could desire a better testimonial.  It
  testifies to eminence in the profession, to faithfulness in his ob-
  ligations to  his medical brethren, to a fulne'ss and  sweetness of
  character which made his life an inspiration.  But rarely does
  the resolution equally  reveal the character of the writer.   This
  is a transparency, revealing behind it  a firm, self-reliant Chris-
  tian physician, one who could enter upon a journal the exuber-
  ant joy in the character of  his friend, and a desire for confor-
  mation to his high standard of life.
     In 1852 we  notice  that  Dr. A.  Williams reported a case of
  Peritonitis treated successfully with large doses of opium.  Dr.
  Clark and Dr. Childs have both been credited with the orisrina-
  tion of this  manner of treating Peritonitis.
     This claim, if it be a claim, we do not think can be substan-
  tiated.  Years before, this treatment was practiced by Dr. Smith
  of Williamstown.  It was not original with him.  It is probable
  that in Berkshire, Dr. Towner would be found the one who was
  the rescuer, if not originator of this  practice, and that  it was
  continued in a large degree by Dr. Smith.
     In the early part of 1854 we have  two fine addresses.  .One
  from Dr. Babbitt on  Tubercular Diseases,  "rich in facts and
  replete with sound medical principles for which able addresses
  the  Society voted thanks.   One from  Dr. George  S. Lyman,
  setting forth  the true mission of  our  profession replete with
  wholesome  sentiments of great  literary merit."  In lsr>4,  Dr.
  White, "then President, interested  the Society for half an hour
  with a condensed history  of his life.  He intimated that he
  had  been laboring  under disease of the heart from  early Hfe 
Medicine in Berkshire.
173
 which had been a source  of  serious embarrassment during his
 professional  career.   In '55  a  vote  of thanks was tendered to
 Dr. White for his faithfulness and courtesy as President of this
 Society.
   '58 marks a new  departure  in the  history of this  Society.
 The story is this.  At a meeting in July remarks were made by
 Dr. Collins, critizing the manner of conducting the meetings,
 asking for more method and suggesting that  "the president
 make an individual call upon the fellows to relate anything of
 interest which has occurred  in the practice of each since the
 last meeting, and  that ten minutes  be allowed each fellow for
 recital/'   After dinner he made some very spirited and caustic
 remarks relative to the inefficiency of the Society.
   The brethren mutually pledged themselves to be more mind-
 ful of the future meetings of the Society.
   In  November following, it  was  voted, though the journal
 does not state that the motion was made by Dr. Collins, that
 there be monthly meetings and except  the annual meeting at
 Lenox, be held in  Pittsfield.
   What was impossible in the beginning was  possible now,
 whatever a few years before  was impracticable was practicable
 now.
   The meetings became fully attended and very interesting.
   About June, '59, Dr. Jackson initiated the custom of giving
 a dinner at the monthly meeting.  They are styled, in the Jour-
 nal, as "sumptuous," "elegant," etc.
   Those of us who partook of them will bear witness that the
 adjectives descriptive were none too strong.
   AAre  all know that  Dr. Sabin was a  good feeder, and ap-
 preciated a good dinner.  Now this motion of his at the Jack-
 son dinner testifies not only to the dinner but to himself as en-
 tirely satisfied therewith:  "I move,  Mr. President, that the
 thanks of  the Society be tendered to  Dr.  Jackson for the
sumptuous entertainment  he  has   furnished.  Also, to  Mr.
Ilowland for the efficient manner in which he has executed the
order of Dr. Jackson.   Carried unanimously."
   The  dinner speeches were good and productive in cementing
friendship and good  will. 
174      Berkshire Hixtoricid and Scientific Society.

  The Great Barrington entertainments of  Dr.  Collins  were
always "swell," that of Y>0 especially; nearly fifty medical men
were present.   Many letters were read; speeches were fired off.
The scribe was evidently deeply stirred, he writes:   "Evening
shadows were gathering about us (four hours having been spent
around the cheerful and hospitable table) and the guests left the
hall to be charmed  by the  music of Curtis cornet band.   In a
social view this probably was the most delightful meeting the So-
ciety ever held."  Much is certainly owing  to Dr. Collins for
his zeal in behalf of the Society ;  his earnest endeavor to make  it
practical  and scientific.   His death was the loss  of a true and
sterling friend.
  Certainly  the meetings were  never more vigorous than dur-
ing the ten years from '52 to '62.  The  meetings  were very
fully attended; the cases reported interesting  and freely and
fully discussed, and were so reported upon  the journal that
they are of great value.
  The reports of Drs. Stiles and Cady are especially excellent
and worthy  of praise.  The interest seemed at almost fever
heat.
  The day of the February meeting in '61,  the  storm was so
severe that the meeting  was held at the Berkshire Hotel, and
seventeen members were present.  The active members at that
time were:  Drs. H. H. and T. Childs, Collins, Lucas, Brewster,
Lawrence, Williams,  Cady, Meacham,  Deming,   Smith,  of
Pittsfield;  Duncan,  Miller,  Holmes,  Manning,  Kittredge,
Streeter,  DeWolf,  Root and Starkweather.   Of this number
only one  remains (1800.)
  The presidents during this time, Drs. Sabin, White, II. II.
Childs, Ferre,  Timothy Childs and  Clarkson Collins  are all
dead.  Dr. Timothy Childs was one of the finest  presidents
this Society ever had.  Prompt  in  his  decisions,  thoroughly
versed in parliamentary practice, cool, clear-headed, he kept the
Society always  at their work.
  In one of the exciting and  acrimonious discussions in the
amphitheatre of the college building he impressed  me as one
of the best presiding officers I ever knew.
  He was also a fine surgeon.   He had an originally fine mind, 
Medicine in Bcrksh ire.
175
and a college education with abundant opportunity, had ripened
him  into a bold and skillful surgeon.  He was a fluent and
easy lecturer.   He  kept himself posted on  and abreast of all
improved methods, and his sad  and  untimely death  brought
deep sorrow to a host of friends.
  Once when operating before the Society, his patient, a little
boy whose deformed arm he was trying to remedy while under
an anaesthetic, ceased to  breathe.  So did we all.   But the
energetic and  tireless efforts in artificial respiration were not
remitted till the  spirit  which seemed  to have  been launched
into the  boundless  ocean  was brought back  from the land of
shadows to life and light.
  The last annual meeting at Lenox was in '62.   The removal
of the court house in making Pittsfield the shire town removed
all meetings  to Pittsfield, except when the Society  accepted
special invitations from  fellows to  meet with them, and those
 at Great Barrington,  Sheffield,  Stockbridge, Lee, North and
 South Adams and Williamstown, were occasions of great pleas-
ure as well a6 profit.
  About '60 the Society received the  addition  of Drs. Stiles,
Thayer and Green.
  Dr. Green was at first  Professor of Materia Medica, then to
that was  added  military  surgery.  Still later  principles and
practice of surgery, and clinical surgery.  It is needless for me
to eulogize him for he was known to most of you.
  He was the first surgeon who originated  the extirpation of
Bronchocele, on Oct. 19, ^6.  Dr.  Green's relation of the case
will be found  in the Medical  Record  of Nov. 15, ^(j.  Drs.
Smith  and  Paddock were eye-witnesses of  this remarkable
operation.
  He was a delegate from Portland, Ale., in 1881 to the Inter-
national Medical Congress.  He made remarks in criticism of
some points in " Listerism."  And the ideas he enunciated are
now the rule in surgery.  Returning from the Congress he died
at sea.   A notice of him says:  "he was a leading physician of
Portland;  confessedly one of the ablest surgeons in Maine, and
one of the most skillful in the country."
  He was for  three years Secretary  of this  Society, and his 
17<">      Berkshire Historical and Sci, ntific Society.

modesty, great-heartedness and geniality made him a multitude
of friends.
   Drs. Stiles and Thayer are well known  in connection with
the Berkshire .Medical  Journal  which began its publication in
January, 1861.
   It was an admirable  journal, and  many of the  papers are
even to-day of great scientific and practical interest.
   The reports of the Society published in it are very complete,
that of April occupying twelve closely printed Journal pages.
   The stimulus  to  the  Society  was very  great, but the "over-
whelming  interest," which  took its editors into the field, and
crushed half of the  Medical  Journals of that year, brought this
to finis with its 12th number.  It was  of incalculable benefit to
the Society through its broad and discreet management and ad-
mirable reports.
   AVatts says:
                " While the lump holds out to burn
                   The vilest sinner may  return."
   The proof of that was at the  last annual meeting at Lenox,
May 14, 1862, when this communication came before the So-
ciety :
   "To the  President of  Berkshire Medical Society.—The un-
dersigned,  a graduate  of Berkshire  Medical College, having
practiced Homeopathy for  several years, from an assurance of
its friends,  in whom he had confidence, that its potency in dis-
ease promised  more certain relief to  sufferers than the Allo-
pathic treatment, hereby affirms that he has no confidence in it
as a system of practice, and that he believes it his duty, as well
to himself  as to the public, to thus declare, and, that it is his
sincere desire to take an honorable position, under his diploma,
in the profession, and to observe fully, and faithfully  the rules
and by-laws of the  Massachusetts Medical Society."
   And he  kept on eating "crow" till  December, '62, when
with drooping crest he begged to come out of the rot of Homeo-
pathy under the old umbrella.   Dr. Childs' great fatherly heart
made a place for him.
   One hundred years ago  the Association  had for its objects:
First, Observation  and  Communication; Second. A Spirit of 
Medicine in Berkshire.
177
Dnion; Third, Respectability.  To-day  in  this  Society these
objects are amply fulfilled.  The pages of the record show how
accurate the observations are, and how admirably they are com-
municated.   The spirit of union as far as known is perfect and
no cloud threatens its perpetuity.
  Foremost in all the  questions which lie at the foundations of
public health and life, thoroughly alive to the medical progress
of the day both in art and science, filling in all our communities
responsible and honorable  positions, the medical profession of
Berkshire has no cause to question its respectability.
  The two great objeets to be obtained in any medical associa-
tion are cohesion and growth.
  Cohesion requires that the  atoms  should  be similar and in
contact.   For this reason there can be no cohesion between the
students of nature and the  students  of  Hahnemann, between
regular medicine and homeopathy.  The atoms are not similar.
  There can be no  contact  without association, no association
without  mutual  esteem, no mutual esteem without  acquaint-
ance.
  Coming together monthly,  communicating  our cases  and
treatment we find ourselves, at times, confronted with criticism
and suggestions, which even if they prick  the bag of conceit,
and thereby give us a fall, yet, make  us in after time stronger
and wiser.
  It does great good  to one marching  forward with the idea
that all the world is under his umbrella,  to have it whirled out
of his hands, that his e}7es may take in the  unlimited expanse
around and above him.  Nothing like a live society like this to
pull a  man out of the ruts and keep him  out.
  Growth of a society means growth of its members.  There is
no orowth except there is an assimilation of appropriate nourish-
ment.   That,  for a medical man, is truth  as  developed from
accurate observation of facts and a generalization upon a suffi-
cient number.
  The scrappy relation of a case  with treatment to  match is,
for a medical  society, eating  sawdust.  There  must be brain
work of the highest order in  careful analysis  and deduction
with the largest possible elimination  of  the personal equation, 
17s      Berkshire Historical and Seie/dific Society.
if the pabalum is adapted to growth.   And tin- vitalizing prin-
ciple must not be wanting.
  There must be mutual  esteem and  consideration  of one tor
another.  This exists  in eminent degree in this Society.
  We have long  ago  sailed  past the rule which enjoins us to
treat  one another  "without ridicule"—"with  candor and de-
cency."  Even so far, that we should consider it an insult were
any one to point us to it.
  Standing to-day on the vantage  ground  of great discoveries
in both the art and science  of  Physic—looking proudly, as we
must, upon the  facilities for  thorough medical   education in
which  Harvard leads  the country—glorying in the  grand medi-
cal charities which are seen  on every hand—with minds intent
upon the  great  medical  problems, which, with their solution,
will banish many of our fatal diseases—there should be no con-
gratulations more fervid than  that with  which the Berkshire
Medical Society greets the new century.   Centennial address,
Oct. 27, 1887.
  I have now noticed one  hundred  and  five  physicians who
practiced in   Berkshire  commencing as  early as  1743.   In
nearly  every respect there is  an almost infinite difference be-
tween  the then and now.   Then this Berkshire was a  wilder-
ness—conveyance on horseback guided by  marked  trees—popu-
lation sparse—the arts in a rudimentary state.  As for the science
of medicine then  it could  scarcely merit  the name rudimen-
tary.  These physicians had  neither stethoscope, opthalmoscope,
microscope, endoscope or chemical thermometer—-none of the
elegant and efficient preparations which chemistry has furnished
to us.   They collected, prepared and pounded their own medi-
cines.   Cloroform, ether and quinine were unknown.
  They could say with Cerimon—(Pericles Act 3, Sec.  2.)—
                            " Tis known I ever
          Have studied physic, through which secret art,
          By  turning o'er authorities, I have
          (Together with my practice) made familiar
          To  me and to my aid, the blest infusions
          That dwell in vegitives, in metals, stones ;
          And I can speak of the disturbances
          That nature works, and of her cures, which give me 
Medicine in Berkshire.
179
           A more content in course of true delight,
           Than to be thirsty after tottering honor,
           Or tie my treasure up in silken bags
           To please the fool and death."
   Among  them, sixteen were college educated, two Dartmouth,
three Harvard,  five Yale,  five Williams, one unknown.  But
those who  never trod academic  halls were self-educated, as we
say, which  is  the best of all education.  How did these early
physicians  become such strong and correct thinkers?  Not alone
or  chiefly  because they were forced by stern  necessity to a
vocation which would  procure for themselves and  those de-
pending on them, daily bread, but because they were impelled
by desire "the wings of the soul," "which is indeed, (as Wilson
says) essential  to  all greatness, enlargement and strength of
soul; by which the unconquered patriot hopes his country's de-
liverance, and the  good man hopes that his just  purpose shall
succeed against the opposition and division of the world."
   Says  North, " There have  been those who have  found the
power to bring down good  among men,  and have used it. Men
simple in their spirit, not radiant in genius, not strong in power,
not pouring out the  dazzling  and exuberant  wealth of their
own minds before men's  eyes, but  pouring out their spirit
through their hearts—men  unconscious of themselves, but who
have brought down good  into the  life  of men by bringing it
first into their own."
   They were men, broad in  manhood, generous in sympathy,
mindful of the poor, became  love of humanity, " pure, gener-
ous and heroic, in its every heigth of strength sacrificing itself
to its object or to  solemn  duties, enabled them  by its own in-
tense strength to make that sacrifice."
   Yes, these men were  strong hearted and heroic.  The howl-
in»- winds  and pitiless storms, when wild winter had wrapped
these Berkshire hills in a snowy shroud, or the stars in the deep
blue vault which looked down upon them in  guidance in their
lono- lonely rides, or the sick  in the rude log cabin far from the
busy haunts of men, whose soul as well as body were gladdened
by their ministrations, they would testify of their heroism.
   But these men were not  only physicians making the best use 
18<>      Berkshire Historical and S<ientifi<' Society.
of what they had,—and first rate work at that—but they were
in the fullest and best  sense of the word, citizens.  We know
seven of them took an active  part  in the  Revolution, one in
the war of 1755, five in the war of 1>42;  most of them were
either Town Clerk, Selectmen  or Justice of the Peace; many
of them were Representatives or Senators ;  three of them were
Judges  of Court of Common Pleas; one was Lieutenant Gov-
ernor.   It is striking, in all  the  communications  made to me,
what uniform mention  is made of the interest of these men in
public education.
   In Pittsfield, what a  debt of honor and gratitude is owing to
its Childs and  Rrcwsters, in  the  same regard.   The Horkshire
Medical College stood for  a long time  the monument to the
unconquerable zeal and wisdom and  devotion  of H. H. Childs
in the education of men spread far and near, who were a bless-
to their  race.   And with him were associated  Burbank, and
Collins, and  Burghardt,  and  the Worthingtons, and Fowler,
and Bartlett, and Perry, and Tyler, and Delamater, and Brews-
ter, and Batchelder, and Dewey.   Men of classic education and
strong and earnest.
   What of good (it must have been  immense) this institution
has achieved can never be known.
   And so all through  this County   the  early  physicians had
great  influence in  moulding public  affairs.  Even those relat-
ing to anti-slavery and temperance;  they went forward as the
pioneer corps, ushering in the true and the best.
   Over these early physicions and citizens  was thrown the ra-
dient  mantle of  Christianity.  There was the  hiding  of their
power.   The profession of medicine is Christ-like, and some of
these  physicians have been spoken of, as going about doing
good.   The  majority were  professing Christians  and many of
them  deacons.
   Now, in view of what these men  were as scholars,  active in
mind  as well as  body, eagerly  seeking for  opportunities to do
something noble, as physiciams with extensive practice, touch-
ing multitudes of people in  the  tenderest places of humanity,
—with zeal generally according to knowledge,—as citizens, tak-
ing a larger share in the matters of civil government, deeply in- 
                  Medicine in Berkshire.               181
terested in education, knowing that true education was the vital-
ity of the Commonwealth;  maintainers of the sanctity of the
Sabbath and public worship; zealous for the Bible, and readers of
it, and in  their lives exemplifying its teaching, what must their
inevitable influence and power have been  in  the normal de-
velopment of  Berkshire County. 
 
 
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