BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH
J.  KEARNY   RODGERS,  M.D.,
FELLOW OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
 THE STATE OF NEW YORK, AND ONE OF ITS TRUSTEES ; SURGEON TO THE NEW
  YORK HOSPITAL AND NEW YORK EYE INFIRMARY ; CONSULTING SURGEON OF
   THE NEW YORK LYING-IN ASYLUM, OF THE INSTITUTION FOR THE
     BLIND, AND OF THE EMIGRANTS' HOSPITAL; FORMERLY PRESIDENT
      OF THE N. Y. COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY, AND VICE-PRESIDENT
       OF THE ACADEMY OF MEDICINE ; AND HONORARY MEMBER
           OF THE NEW YORK PATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
\l
BY
EDWARD  DELAFIELD,  M.D.
Read before the New York Academy of Medicine on Wednesday, October 6th, 1852,
               and Published under its Authority.
                NEW YORK:
G. A. C. VAN BEUREN,  PRINTER, 223 BLEECKER STREET.
                     1852. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
J.  KEARNY  RODGERS,  M.D.
  The life of a good physician does not always furnish
materials most  available to the biographer.  He may
have practised long and successfully ; may have formed
a large  circle  of deeply attached friends and patients;
may have been beloved and honored by the poor ; have
gained the respect and esteem of every member  of his
own profession; have added his fair proportion  to the
improvements  of the day,  in  his science and his art;
and, in dying, left a whole community to deplore his loss,
and  feel, for  the  time, that  his place could not  be
supplied;—and yet leave behind him no materials from
which  a biography could be drawn up of deep interest
beyond his own profession and  the circle  of patients
among whom  he  moved.   And such was John Kearny
Rodgers.  For thirty-five years was he known  in the
city of New York as the  good physician;  every year
gaining reputation as a practitioner, and  esteem and
affection with those among whom he practised; gradually
but  surely building up a fame as a surgeon second to
none in our country, and acquiring a position depending
on his qualities as a man of sterling integrity and high
honor, equalled by few and enviable by all.
   It is men of this stamp who leave  behind them  the 
4
regret that they have left no written memorial of what
they have learned and what they have accomplished.
And it always must  be  so.  The practising  physician
who moves most among the sick, and is most esteemed
during  his  lifetime,  has little  leisure  to  write.  The
labors  of a long day in a  large city, with  the cares
and  anxieties  caused by  attendance  upon  numerous
cases involving danger and  often death, are  no good
preparation for the use of the pen at night.  And every
da}^ do such men see and learn many things they would
be glad  to  contribute to the common stock of  their
profession's knowledge ;  but  it  cannot be.   They go on,
day after day, and year after  year, learning  more  and
knowing more ;  until when they begin to feel that they
have now somewhat mastered the difficulties of  their
science ; have somewhat learned what to discard among
rules of art handed down from  ages, and what to retain;
have even  felt that they themselves have  added some-
thing to the great professional treasury ; they drop into
the grave and carry all with them.
  But  I  should notsay  all.  Such men as Dr. Rodgers
do leave behind  them, although  not  in print, much to
improve their profession.  They have had many young
men under their instruction who have drawn in, through
daily intercourse, whatever was new  or original in the
mind of their preceptor.   And  in the constant  intercom-
munion going on between a physician of high reputation
and his co-laborers of the day, he is incessantly diffusing
the light he  himself has created.  His ideas too, are
taken  up by  men of more leisure  than  himself and
incorporated into the medical literature   of the day,
and he as well as the author, is thus adding to the mass
of knowledge  which, year by  year, is  accumulated by
our profession.
  There were two such  men, whom this train of thought 
5
brings forcibly to recollection, who were at the zenith
of their reputation when Dr. Rodgers was as yet but a
student  of medicine.   They were the late Drs. Wright
Post, and Samuel Borrowe.  He was  highly esteemed
by them both,  and  from both  derived  much of the
knowledge he  afterwards made  so available.   They
both  were  admirable  physicians, and  enjoying  the
highest  confidence of a large circle of patients.  They
both were remarkable for medical sagacity ;  the  prompt-
ness and  clearness  with which  they seized  upon the
features of a case, which shewed its character ; and the
judgment with which they selected the appropriate treat-
ment ;—and yet neither of them  left any written work
to perpetuate their names.   It is  a melancholy pleasure
to the  writer, at  this -late day,  to bear  his  testimony
to the  worth  and excellence of  these men of former
days; for he, as well as Dr. Rodgers, looked up to them
both with affection and  reverence, and feels  that he
owes them a debt not to be repaid.
  John  Kearny Rodgers was born in  the city of New
York, October 18th, 1793.   He  was the eldest son of
Dr. John  R. B. Rodgers, and grandson of the Rev. John
Rodgers,  D.D., many years  Pastor of the Wall street
Presbyterian Church.
  It is  pleasing to  look back to the progenitors of so
excellent  a man, when we can find that by inheritance
even, he  was  entitled to  the excellent disposition and
great moral worth which were his characteristics.
  "The family was of Scottish origin. They were among*
the colonists from  Scotland who were induced by the
English government to take up  lands in Ulster, in the
north of Ireland, and to assist in extirpating the * wilde
Irish,' at  the time  the  city of London received from
James  I. the  charter  of Londonderry.   The great-
grandmother of Dr. J. K. Rodgers was quite a child in 
6
after times when Londonderry was defended by Walker,
in 1690, and retained through life a vivid recollection of
the privations and horrors of that siege.   Some time
after that event, a large body of Presbyterians came to
this country under the conduct of their Ministers, and
settled Londonderry in New Hampshire; and in con-
nection with that immigration, but at a later period, the
father of John Rodgers, D.D., came out to this country.
This last  was born at Boston, August 5th, 1727.  He
was educated for the ministry and settled at St. George's,
in Delaware,  and  married  Elizabeth   Bayard,  the
daughter of Col. Peter Bayard, of  Cecil county, Mary-
land, September 19th, 1752.   His  memoir, written by
his friend and colleague, Dr.  Samuel Miller, gives the
principal  events of  a life passed  in quiet  usefulness,
chequered only by the vicissitudes of the Revolutionary
war ; and the volume owes most of its bulk and much of
its interest (to Presbyterians, at least,) to the fact that
he was a prominent clergyman  of that  church in this
country;  and that the early history of that church was
very much identified with his labours.
  " John R. B. Rodgers, the father of Dr. J. K. Rodgers,
was born at St. George's in  Delaware, December 28th,
1757.   He  went  to   school  at Elizabethtown,  New
Jersey, and  was a  class-mate  with Aaron  Burr at
school, and  afterwards at College at Princeton,  New
Jersey, where he graduated  in 1775.  He was a  pupil
of Dr. Rush, and was  employed by him during the
commencement of his  medical course, as an assistant in
the organization of military  hospitals,  and  in other
services connected with  the plans  of Dr. Shippen and
Dr. Rush.   He afterwards became Surgeon of the  1st
Pennsylvania regiment, and continued in the service to
the close of the war.   At the peace, he went to Europe,
and after taking his medical degree  at the University of 
7
Edinburgh,  he visited France,  and returning,  settled
in New  York.   On  the 5th July, 1790, he married
Susannah R. Kearny, daughter  of Ravaud Kearny, of
Amboy,  in New  Jersey, of which union John Kearny
Rodgers  was the  second  child.
  " The  late Dr. Rodgers went to school in New York to
Dr. Barry, lately deceased.   He then went to Baskin-
ridge in New Jersey, where the Rev. Robert Finley had
established a classical academy of some reputation.  At
this  place  he was  prepared  for college,  and entered
Sophomore at Nassau Hall, Princeton, in the autumn of
1808.   For some reason he was not a favourite of the
President,  Dr. Samuel Stanhope  Smith, who, on one
occasion,  remarked  to  him,  that  he  would  never
distinguish  himself.   To which  he  replied, smarting
under  the  taunt, 'The world shall see, Sir.'.  In  after
life he often  alluded to  this incident  as  being the first
stimulus his ambition § ever  received.  His  feeling of
unmerited  rebuke aroused his pride  and furnished him
with an incentive to industry, which, confirmed by habit
and guided  by  good principles, never  ceased to  act
during his  whole  life.  He  took his first  degree at
Princeton, in October 1811, and having chosen medicine
as  his profession,  he became  a  pupil of the late Dr.
Wright  Post the following winter.   He  received  his
license to  practise physic from the medical  society of
this city, in January 1816, and  in the month  of March
following,  graduated in  medicine  at the College of
Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  the University  of  the
State."*
   Dr. Post, at that time and until his death, was  the
acknowledged head of his profession, the worthy pre-
ceptor of the worthy pupil.   With Dr. Post our young
  •This history of the family was obtained from one of its members, and is given
in his own words. 
8
student soon gained the highest confidence, and by his
assiduity and diligence became  the favourite  pupil.
Following the example of so distinguished a master, he
attached himself to Anatomy and Surgery as his special
pursuits;  and with  such energy and success did he
devote himself to these subjects, that, even before he
graduated in  medicine, he  acted as Demonstrator of
Anatomy to Dr. Post.  He  was  looked  up to by his
fellow-students as far excelling  all of  them  in  the
knowledge of Anatomy and skill in dissecting.   To the
Anatomical  Theatre he devoted  himself with untiring
zeal and ability, making himself by constant experience
familiar with all the manipulations required in preparing
and  dissecting subjects, as well as the   preparation of
either  healthy or morbid specimens for preservation.
Very early he began  to collect a museum of Anatomy
and Pathology, and in conjunction with Dr. Wagner and
the writer  of these lines, while still pupils, formed the
nucleus of two collections.  One of these, after it had
become large and valuable, he presented  during his life-
time to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of this
city;  and  the  other is  deposited  in   the  Obstetric
collection of the  same institution.
  In 1815  he was appointed assistant house-surgeon to
the New York Hospital, and six months  afterwards the
writer  became an occupant of the same apartments in
that establishment, as  assistant house-physician.  It was
here that, living together and labouring together in a
common cause, a friendship begun as students under the
same master,  was  cemented by  a bond which death
alone dissolved.
  As house-surgeon  in the  Hospital, an office  which
he filled in the following year, Dr. Rodgers first shewed
the dawnings of  that skill as a surgeon which eventually
placed  him among the  very first of whom our country 
9
 can boast; and  it was here too, that in his attendance
 upon the poor inmates of a public hospital, first appeared
 that  kind and  considerate  manner, that  gentle  but
 cheerful address, that so evident heartfelt interest in the
 well-doing of his patients which, in after life, made him
 so universally  beloved by all who fell  under  his pro-
 fessional care.    From the Governors and Superintend-
 ent down to the  humblest official about the  hospital, he
 was by all respected  and  beloved ; and  no  medical
 officer  ever left  the institution who had better  done his
 duty there, or with more entire  satisfaction to all the
 inmates.
   In  February, 1816,  after thus honorably closing his
 duties as house-surgeon of the New York Hospital, he
 sailed for England ; and once more as a student in a new
 school  and among new associates, drank deep at the
 fountains of knowledge now opened to him by such men
 as Haighton, Cline, Astley  Cooper, Abernethy, Law-
 rence and Travers.   In six months the writer followed
 him and again laboured with him in the same Hospitals,
 the same schools, and even the same apartments.
   Here once more the devoted zeal of Dr. Rodgers soon
 attracted the attention  of his teachers, and especially of
 Sir Astley Cooper; and among the 400 pupils attending
 that great  man's lectures  in Guy's and St. Thomas'
 Hospitals, he soon became one of the most distinguished,
 and received constantly marks of attention of the most
 gratifying character.  This eminent surgeon  was at that
 time at the  very  zenith of his reputation, and was
 constantly  performing  at  Guy's  Hospital  the  most
 important and difficult operations, which were regularly
 witnessed by Dr.  Rodgers ; and, among the rest, he saw
 him perform the wonderful operation of tying the Aorta.
   Here he  had constant access to the valuable museum
of Anatomy of St.Thomas' Hospital, and from this source 
10
as well as in the Dissecting-rooms of the same Hospital,
where Mr. Green was the Demonstrator, he drew large
stores of useful  knowledge  from the comparison of
healthy  and  diseased  organization.   " There  were
giants in those days," and London then boasted of a
constellation  of  medical  men,  both  physicians  and
surgeons, teaching in the great schools of that metropo-
lis, who  have never been excelled, and hardly equalled
since. t  And  it was by following the teachings of these
men that Dr. Rodgers laid the foundation of professional
knowledge, upon which he afterwards  built so well by
his  own  observation  *in  the extensive  practice  he
eventually enjoyed.
   It was at this period also, that his attention was first
attracted to diseases of the eye as a favourite  subject of
study.   When  he left  his  own  country to pursue
medical  study abroad, this class  of diseases  was very
imperfectly, it may almost be said,  not at all understood
by American surgeons.   The London Eye  Infirmary
had  been founded by John Cunningham Saunders not
many years  before,   and had   then  become  firmly
established, and  had  under  its  charge a very  large
number  of  patients.  It was here that Dr. Rodgers, Dr.
Edward Reynolds, of Boston, and the writer of these
pages, first learned their own ignorance of these diseases,
and  seized the  opportunity of studying a subject which
opened  to them so wide a  field  of usefulness.  Mr.
Saunders had  died,  but  Mr. Travers,  Sir  William
Lawrence,  Dr.  Farre and  Mr. Tyrrell, were  then the
medical  officers of the institution; with all of whom Dr.
Rodgers became intimately acquainted, and from whom
he constantly received the most flattering attentions.
   " He  had little inclination for and little time to devote
to reading, while in London.  He took copious notes of
lectures  and  interesting  cases,  which, at  night  he 
11
occupied himself with filling up.  His grand aim, how-
ever,  was  to  acquire experimentally, useful  practical
knowledge,  for  which  purpose the  senses of  sight,
hearing,  and touch  were  brought into thorough and
active operation."*  Before leaving  London he  passed
his examination and received the  license of the Royal
College of Surgeons, in the year 1818.
   After spending  the spring  and  summer  months  in
Paris, still  devoting himself with  untiring  assiduity
to professional study, he  made  a  short tour  on the
continent in company with the writer, and in the month
of October they both sailed for home.
   While  in  Europe, he received  from Dr.  Post  a
proposal to become his Demonstrator of Anatomy, and
immediately on his arrival, in the month of November,
1818,  he  commenced the duties of that office  in the
course of lectures which had already begun.  Previously
to this period no such office had existed in the College
of Physicians  and Surgeons, and  it  was  established
mainly for the  purpose  of securing for the College the
valuable  services of Dr. Rodgers, who, while a pupil,
had shewn himself so admirable a working anatomist.
This  station he held a number of years and filled most
acceptably both to Dr. Post  and  his  classes, until his
increasing  practice and more attractive public duties
obliged him to resign the office.
   In  the year 1820, the New  York Eye Infirmary was
established, and to the zeal, assiduity and success with
which Dr.  Rodgers laboured as  one of the founders of
this institution, maybe attributed much of the reputation
which afterwards carried him on so successfully through
life. The novelty of the undertaking induced the founders
to begin it on  their own private responsibility, trusting
that after demonstrating its usefulness, it would be taken
                     * Dr. Sterling. 
12
up and established by the liberality of the public.   Ac-
cordingly, in the month of August, 1820, a small suite of
apartments was taken,  in Chatham street; and it soon
became known that at these apartments all poor persons
applying,  with diseases of  the  eye,  would be treated
gratuitously.  In  the meantime, Dr.  Wright  Post, and
Dr. Samuel Borrowe, had allowed their names to be used
as Consulting Surgeons, and were  at once a guarantee
to the public of the respectability of the institution, and
to the  profession, that it was conducted according to
strict rules  of medical  propriety.   The number of
patients who flocked  to  it, far exceeded  the  expecta-
tions of the founders;  and  they soon found  that they
had in charge an institution altogether too considerable
to be supported by two young  men  just commencing
their professional career. Accordingly, in the month ol
February,  1821,  an appeal  was made to the  public
in its behalf;  liberal subscriptions were  made, and a
number of the most distinguished gentlemen of the city
became Directors of  the  Infirmary,  and its  zealous
supporters.
   In 1822, the Infirmary was  incorporated by Act of
Legislature, becoming  thus  one of the permanent public
charities of the city, and second to none in the regular
systematic efforts which it has ever since made in reliev-
ing one class of the diseases suffered by the  poor.  It
has, however, prospered more  in the good it has been
enabled to do, than in its financial condition.  By prac-
tising the strictest economy, it has avoided the common
error of  public charities, and has kept out of debt.  It
owns a moderate building, adequate to its present wants,
and free  from  incumbrance; but it has no fund for its
support.   It entirely depends upon an  annual grant of
$1000, made by the  Legislature, liable  at any moment
to be withdrawn; and upon this pittance it continues to 
13
relieve the  diseases of about 2000  patients, who  apply
every year.*

   In the year 1822, Dr. Rodgers was gratified in the first
great object of his ambition, an appointment as one of
the surgeons of the New York  Hospital, and  young as
he was for  so  important a  post, it gave general  satis-
faction to the  profession.   He now  occupied a field
where  he constantly improved his  knowledge and skill
in his  favourite  pursuits,  and  it  is  believed that  no
other Surgeon  of that  Institution  has more  untiringly
devoted himself to  the care of the sick poor  under  his
charge.  As an operator, he  soon attracted public  atten-
tion ; and his admirable knowledge  of Anatomy did him
good service in perfecting himself in this department of

  * The first officers and directors of the Institution, as named in the act of incor-
poration, were—

          WILLIAM  FEW,            President.
          HEXRY I.  WYCKOFF,        First Vice President.
          JOHN HONE,               Second Vice President.
          JOHN DELAFIELD, Jr,       Treasurer.
          JAMES I. JONES,           Secretary.

          WRIGHT POST, M. D.,        ) roNsimrira Surgeons
          SAMUEL BORROWE, M. D.,   [ Consulting buRGEONS.

          EDWARD  DELAFIELD, M. D,  UURGEOns
          J. KEARNY RODGERS, M. D,  ^UEGE0NS-

                          DIRECTORS.
          JAMES BOGGS,            JEROMUS JOHNSON,
          NATHANIEL RICHARDS,    ISAAC COLLINS,
          ISAAC PIERSON,            CORNELIUS HEYER,
          WILLIAM  HOWEL,          HENRY RANKIN,
           BENJAMIN L.  SWAN,       SAMUEL TOOKER,
*         WILLIAM  HOWARD,        EDWARD W. LAIGHT,
          HENRY BREVOORT, Jr.,      GIDEON  LEE,
          SAMUEL F. LAMBERT,       DAVID B. OGDEN.
                 JONATHAN M. WAINWRIGHT,

  About three years after the establishment of the New York Eye  Infirmary, and
at the suggestion of its founders, a similar ins'titution was commenced in Boston,
by Dr. Edward Reynolds, and Dr. John Jeffries; and a year or two afterwards, a
third was founded in Philadelphia.  They both have succeeded admirably, and
have become valuable and stable institutions. 
14
Surgery.  No Surgeon of that Institution performed more
operations within its walls, or with  greater  skill, during
the long period of nearly thirty years that  he  belonged
to it;  and a reputation as  one of  the  first Surgeons in
America was there  established, which increased  every
day during his life.
  In the year 1823, the reputation he had already gained,
caused him to be called  to the  Island of Curacoa, in
the West Indies, to  perform an important  operation.
He remained there several  months, and  performed  du-
ring that  short  period, many important  and  successful
operations.   " His career on the Island," says a friend,
writing to me on  this subject, " was successful to a most
gratifying degree, not only with regard to the  operation
for which he was sent for, but also  with other cases that
there  presented  themselves.  The novelty of  a strange
physician, and the prestige of his success in some severe
operations,  drew  a crowd of poor persons,  to  whom  he
gave   his  services gratuitously.   The  Governor  of the
Island offered for that purpose some rooms in  the Fort,
and on  his  departure, issued  a proclamation of thanks,
which, in Dutch   and  English,  was  published  in  the
Curacoa newspapers by order of the authorities."
  " Sir :—The humanity which, with so much readiness, you disinterestedly show-
ed to a great number of poor indigent inhabitants of this Island, who for the pur-
pose of obtaining their health, have made use and availed themselves of the aid
and  assistance which you were pleased, from your own inclination, to offer them,
exacts from me, the Chief of this Colony, the warmest acknowledgment of thanks;
even so your zeal and diligent abilities practised towards some most estimable and
valuable inhabitants, and crowned with favourable success in such manner as to
restore them to the circle of  their useful occupations, for the good of themselves
and  the community at large, not less deserves my gratitude.
  " I therefore, dear sir, offer you herewith my acknowledgment of thanks, for the
important services and assistance which, during your stay in this Island, you so
laudably and generously have offered to so many of its inhabitants, and  in which
you  have displayed so much talent and experience in your noble profession.
  " I embrace this opportunity to assure you of my high esteem, and have the honor
to remain,
                                  " Cantelaar,
              " Rear Admiral, Governor of Curacoa and its dependencies.
  . !' May 23rd, 1823." 
15
  Dr. Rodgers returned in July of the same year, and on
the 6th October following, married Mary Ridgely Nichol-
son, a daughter of John R. Nicholson, of Baltimore.  By
this marriage  he had six children,  two sons and  four
daughters;  all of whom  survive  but one  very lovely
young creature, who died in January, 1844, in the  18th
year of her age, of consumption, the disease which had
previously carried off her mother.
  He was married a second time, in 1847, to Miss Emi-
ly Hosack,  daughter of the late Dr. Hosack, of this  city,
whose celebrity as a physician has not been exceeded by
any other  medical  man in our  country.  Two more
daughters were added to his family by this marriage, and
he has left them behind at an age so young that they will
never he conscious  how excellent a father they have
lost.
  But the history of  his surgical life has more  interest
to the-members of this Academy than his domestic  rela-
tions, and to this I return as a theme which well deserves
to be dwelt upon.
  " It generally happens,"  says an author who wrote
centuries ago, " that when men of small ambition are  very
early distinguished by the voice of fame, their thirst of
honor is soon quenched and their desires satisfied; where-
as, deep and solid minds are improved and  brightened
by marks of distinction, which serve as a brisk  gale, to
drive them  forward in the pursuit of glory. They do not
so much think that they have received a reward, as that
they have given a pledge, which would make them blush
to fall  short of the  expectations of the  public;  and
therefore they endeavour, by their  actions, to exceed
them."
  And such was our friend.  He was indeed early dis-
tinguished,  but " always endeavouring to excel  himself,
and meditating some exploit which might  set him  in  a 
16
 new light, adding achievement to achievement," and never
 ceasing to improve.
   His ambition was to be, not merely one of the first,
 but the first surgeon of our country, and if he did not
 excel all others, who among us has excelled him ?   That
 his surgical career was most brilliant none will deny; and
 he did at last arrive at one great object of every surgeon's
 ambition, the successful performance of a great and diffi-
 cult operation, which had been attempted before by the
 greatest masters of his  art, but without success.  And as
 this operation was the  crowning act of his surgical life ;
 his last greatest effort of professional skill, I have thought
 it just  here to introduce the case at large.
   " Michael Larman, a German,  aet. 42, was admitted
 into the New York Hospital, Sept. 13th, 1845, wit^i aneu-
 rism of the subclavian artery.  He  had suffered pain in the
 arm for several months, but about four weeks previously
 to admission, while  carrying a heavy weight on his left
 shoulder, he was suddenly seized with severe pain in the
 shoulder and arm, and then for the first time, observed
 a  swelling above the  left clavicle, about the  size of  a
 pullet's egg.   The tumour was found to pulsate strongly,
 and to rise about  two inches above the bone.  It ex-
 tended externally to the outer third of the clavicle, and
 internally was covered  by the outer edge of the sterno-
 cleido-mastoid muscle.  The patient complained of severe
 pain in the axilla, running down the arm.  He  could not
 sleep at nijrht on account of the  pain, and his general
 health  had materially suffered.   The arm and hand were
 much swollen. A palliative treatment was adopted during
 about a month, in which time the tumor increased in size
 and passed more under the mastoid muscle.
   "The artery was  tied on the 14th October, in the pre-
 sence of a very large assemblage  of spectators.  An in-
cision was made, 3£ inches in length, on the inner edge 
17
of the sterno-mastoid, terminating at the sternum, and
from  this another was carried along  the  clavicle  2£
inches.   The flap being raised, the dissection was care-
fully carried down so  as  to expose  the surface of the
scalenus  muscle half an inch above its insertion.  Press-
ing the soft parts inwards and working with the fingers
and the handle of the knife with great care and gentle-
ness, to  avoid injuring the deep jugular vein  and the
thoracic  duct, the artery  was easily arrived at.  Great
care was now necessary to detach the artery and avoid
danger to the pleura and thoracic duct. To pass the liga-
ture, after an unsuccessful trial of Sir P. Crampton's nee-
dle, the one invented by Drs. Parrish, Hewson, and Harts-
horn, of Philadelphia, was  finally employed.  ' This part
of the operation,' says Dr. Rodgers,  ' it will be imagined,
was not very readily accomplished.  The great depth of
the vessel (nearly the length of my forefinger),  and nar-
rowness  of the wound, prevented  a very easy  manage-
ment of instruments.   The  point was  introduced un-
der the artery and soon directed upward, so as to  avoid
injury to the pleura.   The needle carrying the  ligature,
was now detached from the shaft of the instrument and
drawn upward so as to include the artery.  I readily tied
the ligature and  tightened it with the forefingers at  the
bottom of the  wound.  All pulsation ceased in the aneu-
rism and the arteries  of the  extremity.'
  " The patient complained of no unusual feeling in the
head after the application of the ligature, and indeed
from that time, with the exception of a trifling erysipelas
around the wound, no  unusual or unfavourable symptom
showed  itself  until the 13th day,  when a free arterial
hemorrhage occurred  from the wound, which  pressure
controlled, after the  loss of about  20  oz. of  blood.
Bleeding again occurred on the same day, when the pa-
tient was raised up to drink.  Pressure  was made sys-
                          2 
18
lematically by sponges,  compresses  and  bandaging,
and no  farther considerable  external hemorrhage took
place, though  the blood  was forcing its way into the
tissues around the wound, giving rise to great swelling of
the neck, and pressing on the oesophagus, interfered with
the process of swallowing.  The strength gradually gave
way, and the patient died on  the evening of the 15th day
from the operation.
  " The P. M. examination showed the tissues of the neck
around  the  wound very  much  infiltrated  with blood.
Through  the  pleura, which  formed the bottom  of the
wound,  the blood had forced its  way by a  recent rent,
and the  cavity of the left  pleura contained an enormous
coagulum, pressing upon  and displacing downward the
lung.  The artery itself was found to have been tied about
11 inches from the heart, and was completely divided by
the ligature which was loose in the wound.  The stump
of the subclavian presented  the  appearance of a round,
solid  cord, impervious to liquids and air.  On laying
open the vessel longitudinally, a firm, fibrinous coagulum
occupied its cavity, and was  firmly adherent to its inner
membrane for three quarters of an inch from the ligature*
Beyond the ligature, nothing but a soft coagulum was found
in the vessel.  The vertebral was given off just at the point
of ligature, and was open, containing a soft, recent coagu-
lum.  One-third of an inch from the vertebral, came off
the thyroid axis, and  nearly opposite the vertebral was
the internal mammary.  These vessels were all patulous.
About half an inch from the  thyroid axis commenced the
aneurismal dilatation.  The tumor was of  the size of a
small orange, and was completely blocked up with co-
agula,  and  the axillary artery emerging from its distal
side was  obliterated  for a considerable distance.  The
 thoracic duct, which had been  injected with wax from
 the abdomen, was  uninjured.  The heart  was large. 
19
 Slight atheroma  of the aorta.   Other  organs not  exa-
 mined."
    This  remarkable operation was  justly considered as
 entitling Dr. Rodgers to the merit of having excelled all
 his  competitors  in  this difficult  branch of surgery, and
 those who witnessed it, well remember the intense  in-
 terest excited by it in the whole profession of our city.
 The first operation in this country, on a large artery for
 aneurism, was performed  in the New York  Hospital by
 Dr.  Post, on the  carotid  artery, while Dr. Rodgers  was
 his pupil   That  operation also  was witnessed  by the
 writer, and  created as great  a  sensation then,  nearly
 forty years ago, as did this now, after so many kindred
 ones had  been  performed throughout  the world.   The
 pupil finished what the master began, and nothing more
 is left for the surgeon to do  in this  branch   of  surgery
 which these two have not done before.*
   A striking feature in the professional character of Dr.
 Rodgers was strict integrity, in the fullest meaning of the
 word.  His patients were always  sure of obtaining  his
 opinion of their cases with perfect frankness.  He made
 no flattering  promises in  doubtful  cases, and especially
   * Dr. Rodgers wrote so little for the journals, that it is not possible to collect
 any systematic account of the improvements he made or suggested in  surgery.
 But since the reading of this memoir, I have found one published in a New York
journal, of sufficient importance to be recorded.
  The  want of success which had attended all the known methods of managing
 ununited fractures, has caused various operations to be devised for the cure of such
 cases.  The following case, taken from the New York Medical and Physical Jour-
 nal, vol. 6th, page 52, describes a method of operating devised and first practised
 by Dr. Rodgers, and the most successful now in use.
  George Westerfield, aged 15 years,  was admitted into the New York Hospital,
July 25th, 182*7, with an ununited fracture of the right os brachii, about two inches
above the elbow joint  The accident  occurred in  June, 1824.   In June, 1825, a
seton was passed between the ends of the bones; but no union followed.  In June,
1826, this operation was repeated, and the seton retained six months, but again
without success.
 Mr. White's plan of sawing off the ends of the bone and reducing the injury to
the state of a recent compound fracture, appearing to Dr. Rodgers the only method
which then promised success, he performed the operation on the 31st of July, fol- 
20
avoided surgical operations whose  necessity and advan-
tage were  not fully apparent.   He adopted literally and
faithfully the maxim of his great master in surgery, Sir
Astley Cooper,—" Never to perform an operation upon
another which, under  like circumstances, he would not
have had performed upon himself."1   Nor did he, like too
many others who  rank high as surgical operators, ever
operate upon a case which he considered not a proper
subject for the knife, merely because the  patient wished
it.   If there be a reprehensible practice  among us, it is
this ;  and sad it is to  hear men  of undoubted skill and
general fair fame,  justifying themselves, when detailing
operations in cases where no  probability of success ex-
isted,  by this very  plea.  It  certainly should be the sur-
geon's own judgment  which  should decide such a case,
not the patient's wishes ; for,  much as a person may de-
sire an operation,  he trusts at last that the surgeon will
not perform  it if he do not have good  hope  thereby to
save his patient's health or  life.   Dr. Rodgers  was de-
cided  in  his  opinions  and practice  in  this matter, and
never yielded to the temptation his great operative skill
put in his way of operating for his own  sake,  not his
patient's.   He thought with Hunter, that " when the sur-

lowing.  But after the operation was completed, it was found impossible to keep
the ends of the bones in apposition; they soon regaining their former bearings,
an inch and a half asunder.
  " Apprehensive that I should  be foiled," says Dr. R., " if the bones were thus
far apart, I drilled a small hole through the 6hell of each end to the medullary
cavity.  Through these holes a wire was passed, and the ends of the bones retained
in coaptation. The ends of the wire were drawn through a canula which remained
in the wound.  The wound was dressed with adhesive straps and covered with
lint, and the arm placed on a right-angled splint, properly hollowed out"
  " Oct 8th, sixty-nine days after the operation, I was gratified to find that the
bone had united."
  Dec. 3rd.  The patient was presented to the clinical class, with every motion
of the arm perfectly regained."
  The operation has since been perfectly successful, as repeated by Dr. Mott and
Dr. Cheesman, and in several other instances by Dr. Rodgers himsell  It has
now become one of the established resources of surgery. 
21
geon takes up his knife he lays down  his  science," and
left no  appropriate  surgical  means untried  before  he
resorted to operation.
  There was  one disease especially in which  he took
strong ground in opposition to the every-day practice of
surgeons,—Cancer of the female breast.  We  all know
how rarely operation is successful  in  this disease.  He
early doubted of its  propriety in  any case, and  one of
the  first   subjects  which deeply engaged his  attention
was the propriety of the operation in any case  of  this
disease.   He  lost no opportunity of  conversing with
every surgeon he met  with, on  his experience in such
cases, and corresponded with many of the first operators in
Europe and our own country on the same subject. He very
soon adopted the opinion  firmly, that the operation, if
performed at all, should be the exception, not  the rule ;
and almost reached the result at last,  that it  was never
justifiable in true Scirrhus.  Among those whom he ad-
vised with on this subject, was Mr. Travers, whose letter,
going deeply into this matter, as well as referring to the
great operation on the  subclavian artery, is  here given.
It was  in  answer to one from Dr. Rodgers, detailing  that
case, and making the enquiry whether, as some alleged,
the operation  had  ever been performed  previously by
any other surgeon.  Mr.  Travers' letter is  decisive on
this point, and  leaves  Dr. Rodgers alone entitled to the
reputation of having actually performed the operation,
whatever others may have attempted.
                   [Mr. Travers to Dr. Rodgers.]
  " My Dear Sm:—Indeed I recollect you with pride and pleasure, and have often
and always rejoiced to hear of your high reputation and extensive usefulness, as
creditable to my foresight, from the judgment I had formed of your character, if not
in some small degree also to my instructions and example, as contributing to its
formation and establishment. But I cannot indulge my self-love with  the gratifi-
cation of thinking that I am entitled to" so large a share of your fame as your kind
 partiality would award me.
  I congratulate you on the accomplishment of the ligature of the subclavian, on 
22
the inner side of the scalenus.  I know of no other authenticated case.  I was pre-
sent at the operation of Sir A. Cooper, in 18<v.>, and wrote the short and only notice
of it in the  'Intelligence' of the 7 th of Nov. of  the 'London  Medical Review,'
of which I was surgical editor.   At that time of day, the problem was to tie the
artery at all;  certainly it would have been thought triumph sufficient to  have
secured it at the farthest point from the heart where it was accessible,  and the
step? described are, as you  say, quite evidence to show that  it  was at  the usual
place, viz: after emerging from the  scaleni, that the  operator designed to'pass hia
ligature.  The paragraph above mentioned concluded with the statement that the
artery had never been  tied  above the clavicle, i. c., the subclavian properly so
called.  At  that period, I was conversant enough with  surgical records to  have
been reputable authority, I suspect, on  the points  of history.   The state of the
vessel in your ease, on the 15th day, is very important and interesting, to prove
the capability of nature, as well as art's craft, to carry  out the intention of the
surgeon, i. e., to complete the obliteration of a primary trunk, so near the centre
of the circulation.
   Referring to your second topic, I do not hesitate to state my acquiescence, and
that of the most intelligent and experienced of any standing, in your views of the
ineffieacy of the extirpation of  genuine, well-marked cancerous  tumors, and I
believe  I  should  be  warranted in saying, that  of twenty  cases which  would,
twenty years ago,  have been operated on by verdict of a consultation, not five, or
not more, would  now be subjected  to  it by the consent of the surgeons.  But
exceptions, seeming or real, occur, which,  in very favourable circumstances, as
time of life, and general health, with local advantages,  as recent appearance,
small  bulk,  perfect mobility, and freedom  from all sign of contamination,  cuta-
neous or  glandular, together with the patient's firmness of  mind,  and ready
consent or even desire to take  the chance of success rather than forfeit it,—still
lead the best-informed to recommend rather than dissuade, though never to urge
it, unqualifiedly or sanguinely,  as in former times.   I think this  is the present
state of the professional mind  on the subject, and that it is due to the fact, that
every man, taxing his  experience,  can call to mind some few instances in which
the patient  has survived the operation for some  years, without a re-appearance
of external  disease.  I  have said ' seeming or real,'  because these few favoured
cases may possibly (or rather probably) have belonged to the former class, and
thus the fallibility of the surgeon's diagnosis may explain the  favourable results
without admitting any real exceptions in contradiction to what the preponderance
of unf ivourable results, and all that we see and know of the pathology of morbid
poisons  and their phenomena  would  lead  us  to  expect.   I believe that the
patients whose lives are prolonged,  will be found, on post mortem inspection, to
be the subjects, if not the victims, of tb1  chronic  di.-ease in other, viz. visceral
textures of the body, provided  that the  case was a real one.  Farther; that cases
of unabsorbable tuii...r<  of a strumous  character, such  as more frequently affect
the deep-seated, conglobate glands of the neck, have been reported and removed
as scirrhous cancer, many, many times, and that when doubts have existed in the
surgeon's mind, as to  their real nature, the operation has  been done advisedly
and wisely,  under the belief that, as life advanced, the cancerous virus would be
secreted in  these  permanent,  semi-organized deposits.  But with this allowance
for the  exceptions,  the  admission that some (and one is as  good as ten for the
argument) have not re-appeared during  a survival of ten, fifteen or twenty years,
when no doubt of the character  of the tumor had existed in the minds of eminent 
23
pathologists, and the patient has been carried oft by some casual malady, must be
granted.   I have seen such.  The great question comes to be considered,—Is the
scirrhous cancer always preceded by a morbid change in the circulating blood, and
of the nature of a deposit in the pecular localities which it affects; or is it a local
change in  the  nutrient or conservative circulation, incidental to time of life, to
texture  or function of  the  organ affected, or  to injury; the part itself generating
or being the exclusive laboratory  of the poison, which is, in process of time,
absorbed  into  the  veins and impregnates the entire system ?   On the answer to
this question depends,  as it seems to me, that of the propriety of the operation in
any circumstances,  even the least favourable, the assumption being granted that
we  are  speaking of really malignant or scirrhous cancer.  There are  grounds for
believing  that  in some cases the latter is the true theory, and that the poison is
a production of the part   Perhaps  the strongest is the origin from local irritation
or violence done to it,  a real,  but a rare case; its selection of particular textures
is of less  though  some weight.  2nd. The perfect freedom from any perceptible
derangement of previous,  or  even present  health, in any function of the body.
3rd.  Its insulated character and remote position in its commencement, and the
absence of any sign of lymphatic or nervous affection in its first stage, the hard-
ness and sparing vascularity of the tubercle,  its investment by a cyst from which
it derives its small supply of vessels, its process of change, softening in the centre,
and from  that period and not before,  the contamination of neighbouring textures
and the change in the  lymphatic vessels and  glands, together with the addition of
morbid sensation or pain, though occasional and transient only—then and after,
sooner or  later, the constitutional irritation denoting the imbibition and diffusion
of the poison.  How unlike is all this to the  soft  cancer,  by which term I  include
all  the  varieties of the  medullary  species!  But  there  are cases bo  analo-
gous to  this  last,  and seeming in  character  so to  play  upon  its confines,
that  on  several  occasions,  I  have  seen operations on   middle-aged  and
previously healthy women followed  by complete and  permanent recovery, to
the astonishment  of all who had  seen  them, and about  which,  therefore,  it
was impossible to form any other conclusion  than that they were scrofulous,
not cancerous growths or disorganizations.   These were  tumors of  extraordinary
magnitude, and of  elastic,  not stony  firmness, presenting on  section an  uddery
base, with cysts and deposits  exhibiting the  various stages of softening and sup-
puration.  Again, there is undoubtedly an innocent or hydatidal cyst, attaining
great bulk and rotundity, marked by lightness disproportioned to its bulk, perfect
mobility as if pendant  from a stalk,  without other inconvenience than from size—
no glandular affections, often,  indeed generally,  much discoloration  from turgid
cutaneous veins, and dropping out  en masse  on a free section,—others malignant,
in which  the scirrhous hardness of the septa and mammary structure, resembling
some forms of  multilocular, ovarian cystic tumors: the  color and  consistence  of
the fluid secretion of the cysts, but especially the berry-like and fimbriated pro-
duction of their interior  surfaces, their enormous excrescential growth, when
wounded or opened by ulceration,  cauliflower fungi overlapping the  surrounding
tegument and bleeding continually  at dressing; these are malignant  and seem to
be°hybrid or a fusion of the varieties  of the scirrhous and medullary cancer in the
same morbid degeneration.
  To conclude, for I must have exhausted your  patience, I should say that our
diagnosis is not yet so  assured and  comprehensive as to pronounce in certain cases
against operation, that these are not only varieties, but abnormal and rarely seen, 
24
and that the age, constitution, health, and attending symptoms, will and ought to
influence our decision most materially, either for or against the knife.
  But the common and well known case of 'cancer mamma1' cun never be pro-
nounced curable by removal, and must be regarded as a transfer, not an extinc-
tion of the morbid poison, or a temporary arrest of a local action by a change of
surface or kind, at the risk of other disease sooner or later contingent and conse-
quent upon it, as a pulmonary effusion, or a scirrhous tubercle of the liver; and
the cases therefore which are unambiguous in their character, and especially such
as are advanced the length of glandular or cutaneous contamination, arc not war-
ranted subjects for operation.
  Adieu, my dear Sir.  I very seldom touch now upon these subjects.  Your let-
ter has roused my interest afresh.  You are  welcome to any use you please of this
yarn, for 'auld lang sync's' sake.  With every kind and good wish, I remain,
                      Sincerely yours,
                                           B. TRAVERS."

  It  is  hardly  necessary farther to  illustrate  the great
professional  skill  of the subject of our memoir.    He
was so well known to every member of this Academy,—
his   operations, in   public  and  in  private,  had  been
witnessed  by so  many, that  his  praise  was  in every
mouth, and  will be  long remembered  by all  who hear
me,  without any written memorial.
  Nor was the excellence of his personal character less
widely known  and appreciated.   No instance has ever
occurred where a professional man has died in this city
whose  loss  was more universally deplored.   For days
the press teemed with it, and not a single journal of any
character failed to give  its  testimony of the high estima-
tion in which he had been held.  In the language of one
of them, " Of sterling integrity, of a noble and generous
mind, tender and  sympathising,  sincere and earnest, he
won friends only to make them enduring."
  But, as said  the preacher over his last mortal remains,
" We  have come  hither  to  bury our dead."   The
Academy has called  upon  me  to present this memorial
of one who is no longer one of its members ; who was__
and is not.   In the prime  of life;  at the very zenith of
his  fame ;  at the   very  moment  when he had readied a 
25
degree of eminence which  left him  nothing higher to
aspire to, he was cut off.
   He died on the 10th of November, 1851, of a very rare
disease, Inflammation of the veins of the portal system.
   On  the 10th  of  October, he first began  slightly to
complain  of illness, although not sufficient to prevent
his usual attention  to professional  business.   In  the
evening,  he  sent for his friend and former pupil, Dr.
Dubois.  He  found him complaining of a muddy feeling
across  the forehead, of nausea, with slight vomiting of
bilious  matter,  and of  slight colic-like  pain in  the
abdomen.  His skin was rather feverish and his pulse
about  100 in the minute.   The next day he continued
somewhat feverish, complained  of inward heat, which he
referred to  the epigastric region, and about this  time
began to experience  slight chills.  His skin soon became
sallow, and, the  color rapidly increasing, in a few  days
he was completely jaundiced.   But the most urgent and
marked symptom was the occurrence of chills, returning
without regularity, sometimes three or four in a day;
followed by increased heat, which soon terminated in
profuse perspiration.*  These symptoms continued with
varying intensity until the 6th of November ;—frequently
recurring chills, which  gradually became somewhat
regularly periodical, followed by heat and perspiration,
were  his  only symptoms.  There  was no complaint of
pain, nor  of tenderness  on pressure  any where,  and,
especially  over  the  region  of the  liver,  which  was
carefully examined.   Every  part  of the abdomen  was
carefully explored, again  and again, but  no evidence of
any local  disease could be detected.
  * About a week after the first symptoms of illness the writer of this sketch was
summoned to the case. In a few days the character of the disease was so threatening
that its danger was communicated to the family, who requested Dr. Swett to be
added to  the consultation.   The account  of the  case is an abstract of that
published by  Dr. Swett, in the Medical Times of January, 1852.
• 
26
  On the 6th November, the chills entirely ceased ;  but
in the evening he became much prostrated,—there was
some vomiting; the abdomen was becoming tympanitic,
and he showed still increasing evidences of exhaustion.
Still there was no abdominal pain nor tenderness.  The
tendency to sinking continued  during the night, and on
the  morning of  the 7th November he  was decidedly
worse.  His pulse was feeble and irregular,his skin was
inclined to be cold, his features were  altered,  and he
vomited at times.  Still his intellect was perfectly clear,
his  manner composed and tranquil, and he experienced
no  abdominal  pain  nor  tenderness, although  the tym-
panites continued.
  The next day he rallied a little, and some little hope
was again felt that he  might recover.   But now, for the
first time, he complained of pain in the right side of the
abdomen, which was  relieved by  pressure.   He con-
tinued,  on  the  following day (the 9th  November),
gradually to  become more  feeble,  but without  any
complaint.  He gave his oft-repeated  answer, " I am
perfectly  comfortable."   But  about  the middle of the
day the  mind began to  wander, and a tendency  to
restlessness came on,  with hicenp.    A severe attack of
abdominal pain  ensued.   The abdomen became more
distended, and  felt   very hard on  pressure,  which,
however, produced   no  decided  pain.   During the
evening he gradually sank, and died in the night.
   " On post mortem  examination, all the evidences  of
general peritonitis existed.  Lymph and  sero-purulent
matter was effused in  the peritoneal cavity.  There was
but little lymph effused on the surface of the liver or of
 the spleen, and  none upon the surface of the stomach.
 The liver was not enlarged.   It was of a dark and rather
 greenish  hue, and somewhat  flabby.  The  portal vein
 was hard and firm, and when  examined was found filled 
27
with lymph, partly  firm, partly  broken  down  into  a
grumqus detritus.   The  branches of this vein, as they
ramified through the liver, were filled with healthy pus.
The hepatic veins were not affected.  The substance of
the liver was also quite healthy.   The mesenteric vein,
supplying the small intestines, was also filled with pus,
and  the mesentery itself was much thickened,  and its
cellular tissue contained  numerous collections  of pus.
The other abdominal organs  were healthy."
   Such was the  insidious disease which removed from
this  world one of the brightest  ornaments of our pro-
fession.  Now  that  he is gone,  and with  melancholy
pleasure we  have  dwelt upon his excellencies and his
professional eminence, a  still more important question
arises, both to us and to him.  What was the character
of his life and  death in this world, as preparing  him for
another life in another and  an eternal world.  Let us
answer in the words of another,* who had watched over
the welfare of his soul, while we struggled to save the
life of the body.
   " But above all, how  stood the  soul,  the spiritual
occupant  of the tabernacle,  as it witnessed the taking
down  of  one part  after another of the tent in which it
dwelt ?   How did it look forth for the last time from its
windows,  until  they were darkened,  upon the familiar
objects which had ministered  to its  pleasures  and
occupied  its  thoughts   and  labors so  many  years?
How did it contemplate its critical change ?   What did
it  think of  its  destination?   What  solicitudes,  what
hopes  and  fears,  what  agitations did  then disturb or
soothe it ?
   " My friends, it becomes me to lift  the  curtain of his
last hours, and to give you here a glimpse, at least, of that
hidden life of the soul which revealed itself during his con-
                   * The Rev. Dr. Potts. 
28
test with disease.   To others I leave the question of the
nature and workings of the subtle miner, who, out of sight,
carried his approaches up into the very citadel of the cor-
poreal life. It is of the higher life I speak, when I say that
its diseases were not mortal; that we saw how rapidly it
was  undergoing the cure  of the  Great Physician, and
how tokens of the approach of complete and indestruc-
tible  health increased  steadily,  until  the  sanctifying
Spirit of God finished his work  as  the last blow was
struck by the removal  of a body which oppressed its
functions.  As the outward man perished, we saw the
inward man renewed, day by day.  From the first day
when our friend and brother laid himself down upon the
bed  from which he  was not destined to rise, and at a
time when he had no idea his  last attack had come, he
expressed with directness and  simplicity, his  faith and
hope,—and  left us not in  doubt that he had within him
' the peace of God which passeth understanding.'
   " Through his illness, and as the last of earth appeared
to his eyes,—when he  felt that  the golden bowl was
breaking,—here at the  Cross, symbol  at once of his
sinfulness and his  deliverance from sin, he  laid his
burden  down, saying, 'I  am happy,' 'I am at peace.'
Having uttered these and similar assurances, he literally
departed as  one who falls asleep.