FACTS AND REMINISCENCES 
OF THE 
Medical History of Kentucky: 
AN ADDRESS 
BEFORE THE 
KENTUCKY STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
By LEWIS ROGERS, M. D., 
PRESIDENT. 
LOUISVILLE: 
JOHN P. MORTON * COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. 
'873. FACTS AND REMINISCENCES 
OF THE 
Medical History of Kentucky-. 
AN ADDRESS 
BEFORE THE 
KENTUCKY STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
By LEWIS ROGERS, M. D., 
PRESIDENT. 
LOUISVILLE: 
JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. 
1873. FACTS AND REMINISCENCES 
OF THE 
MEDICAL HISTORY OF KENTUCKY. 
Gentlemen of the Society: 
I esteem it a very high honor to be the presiding officer 
of the Kentucky State Medical Society, an association com- 
posed of members, past and present, many of whose names 
are among the most distinguished of this country. I deem 
myself specially fortunate in being permitted to enjoy this 
honor in the prosperous and hospitable metropolis of West- 
ern Kentucky. I am pleased with the centrifugal movement 
which this meeting inaugurates. Heretofore we have met in 
the more central parts of the state; hereafter we may indulge 
the hope that the members from the remote parts will more 
fully participate in our proceedings, and contribute the result 
of their varied observation and study to the common stock. 
I am sure that I shall not be mistaken in the expectation that 
this meeting in Paducah will add greatly to the future useful- 
ness of the Society by enlisting new and zealous workers who 
have not heretofore been associated with us. 4 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
As the time for our annual reunion approached, my mind 
became somewhat solicitous as to the subject of this address. 
What shall I or what can I write about that had not been 
presented to you Jn a more attractive form than I felt that it 
was possible for me to present it was naturally a question 
of much anxiety to me. The subject of medical education 
was "a thrice-told tale." In all of its many important phases, 
as connected with medical schools and office instruction, it 
had been discussed over and over again much more ably 
than I could discuss it. This would not do. And so in regard 
to the amount and the kind of education which should be 
required as preliminary to the study of medicine. This had 
formed the vexed topic of many an interesting debate before 
this body and elsewhere. Sanitary science, in all of its wide 
range, had often been pressed upon your attention and dis- 
posed of as it should be. I could add nothing to it. And 
so again with the Anatomy Bill, with the law for the govern- 
ment of apothecaries, and many other matters of equal and 
even greater moment. They all have reference to the present 
or future interests of the public and the profession, and I have 
felt so sure that they would continue to command the public 
and professional mind until their beneficent purposes were 
accomplished that I could but deem it unprofitable to raise 
my voice in their behalf. 
The history of medicine in Kentucky, the remarkable 
record which the profession has made since the very infancy 
of the state, are topics which may be recalled with just pride 
and very great pleasure. I propose to speak of some of these 
by-gone things as " Facts and Reminiscences of the Medical 
History of Kentucky." Many of the facts are already familiar 
to you in a fragmentary form; it may not be unprofitable or 
uninteresting to view them in a group. My own reminiscences 
may be received for what they are worth. Medical History of Kentucky. 
5 
Whatever may be the present status of Kentucky medi- 
cine-and I hold that it is high-the past at least is secure. 
When Kentucky was to a large extent a wilderness, and not 
yet wholly free from hostile incursions of the Indians, when 
the population was so sparse as scarcely to give encourage- 
ment to any educational enterprises except such as were 
necessary for the simplest branches of learning, the interests 
of medicine were not only not neglected but received con- 
spicuous regard. 
In 1798 "Transylvania Seminary" and the "Kentucky 
Academy" were united under one board of trustees, with 
the name of "Transylvania University," and in 1799 law 
and medical departments were added to the academical. 
Dr. Samuel Brown was appointed the first professor of medi- 
cine in Transylvania, and the first in the West. Dr. Francis 
Ridgeley was appointed a professor in the University shortly 
after Dr. Brown, and was the first to deliver a course of med- 
ical lectures in the West. From 1799 to 1817 various ap- 
pointments were made in the medical department, and partial 
courses of lectures were delivered. During this interval, 
among the locally-distinguished men who were appointed to 
professorships, none were more remarkable than'Dr. Joseph 
Buchanan. He died in Louisville in 1829; and I call up 
from the memories of my boyhood, with great distinctness, 
his slender, flexible form, massive head, and thoughtful, in- 
tellectual face. He was a man of great and varied powers 
of mind. He was a mechanical, medical, and political phi- 
losopher. His "spiral" steam-boiler, the prototype of the 
exploding and exploded tubular boiler, and his steam land- 
carriage, were among the wonders of the day. As a physi- 
cian, his papers attracted distinguished notice from the med- 
ical savans of Philadelphia, then the great center of medical 
science. As a political writer, he was deemed worthy to 
discuss, and did discuss with power and effect, the momentous 
problems of special and general political economy agitating 6 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
the country at the stirring period when Clay, Webster, John 
Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun, and Andrew Jackson were 
the ruling spirits. Dr. Buchanan was then editor of the Louis- 
ville Focus, a post for which he was selected by the discerning 
mind of William W. Worsley, the founder of the Louisville 
Focus and of the great publishing-house of John P. Morton 
& Co. If Dr. Buchanan had concentrated his wonderful mind 
upon some one of the great branches of medicine, he would 
have added much to the luster of Kentucky medicine. "His 
full nature, like that river of which Alexander broke the 
strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name 
on the earth." 
In 1817 a full course was given in Transylvania to a class 
of twenty pupils, and in the spring of 1818 the degree of 
M. D. was conferred for the first time in the West. John 
Lawson McCullough, of Lexington, was the first graduate 
in medicine in the valley of the Mississippi. History thus 
assigns to Kentucky the honor of inaugurating the teaching 
of scientific medicine in the West. The first to begin, she 
has occupied the most prominent position in this field of 
education to the present time. Her schools have been the 
most popular, her classes the largest, her professors the most 
learned, her graduates the leading practitioners of the South 
and West, her influence upon practical medicine and surgery 
greater than that of all other schools. 
Ranck's History of Lexington states "that vaccination 
had been introduced for several years in Lexington by Dr. 
Samuel Brown, of Transylvania, when the first attempts at 
it were being made in New York and Philadelphia. Up 
to 1802 he had vaccinated upward of five hundred persons 
in Kentucky." This invaluable discovery was announced by 
Jenner in 1798, and we find it successfully introduced into 
the backwoods of the West, by Kentucky enterprise, before 
1802. The Kine-pock Institution of New York was estab- 
lished in 1802. Medical History of Kentucky. 
7 
The Eastern Lunatic Asylum has long enjoyed a distin- 
guished place among institutions of the kind in this country. 
Dr. W. S. Chipley, for so many years the eminent superin- 
tendent of this asylum, has made it known at home and 
abroad by his valuable reports and other papers upon mental 
alienation. This asylum was founded in 1816, under the name 
of the "Fayette Asylum." It was the first ever established 
in the western country, and the second state asylum opened 
in the United States. 
In connection with the history of medicine pertaining to 
Lexington, Dr. B. W. Dudley must ever occupy a conspic- 
uous place. Distinguished in every branch of surgery, he 
was particularly eminent, as we all know, as a lithotomist. 
If not the first surgeon to perform this operation in Kentucky 
and the West, he was the first lithotomist in the number and 
successful results of his cases of the period in which he lived. 
His fame was co-extensive with surgical literature. 
If Kentucky had conferred no other benefaction upon 
mankind, the operation of ovariotomy performed for the first 
time by Dr. Ephraim McDowell, of Danville, in 1809, would 
entitle her to immortal honor. I believe that no one now 
denies to Dr. McDowell the originality of this heroic surgical 
achievement. Every surgeon in this country concedes it. In a 
conversation which I had, in 1865, with a number of eminent 
surgeons of Great Britain, among whom may be mentioned 
Mr. Spencer Wells, Mr. Baker Brown, and Sir James Syme, 
no one had any reserve on the subject except Mr. Syme. 
While he did not deny the claim of Dr. McDowell, he did 
not admit it. It is not a little amusing sometimes to notice 
with what reluctance European writers recognize the great 
works of American surgeons and physicians. In a recent 
article in the Edinburgh Review upon the progress of medi- 
cine and surgery, the operation of ovariotomy is fully discussed 
without the mention of Dr. McDowell. Mr. Spencer Wells is 
made the hero of the operation. 8 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
The value of this operation can be better estimated by 
the statistics of eminent specialists. It is to be viewed as 
a remedy for a disease of utter hopelessness, if permitted to 
pursue an undisturbed career. Medicines have no influence 
over it. Though a few may live many dreary years, the 
average duration of ovarian tumors is from two to three 
years. Dr. McDowell operated thirteen times, as far as can 
be ascertained. He preserved the lives of six out of seven 
of his first patients. How many of the other cases were 
successful is not known, though it is certain that several were 
saved. Up to June last Mr. Wells's ovariotomies numbered 
500, with 128 deaths. From March, 1870, to April, 1871, 
he had a succession of 32 cases in private practice without 
one death. Dr. Keith, of Edinburgh, up to July last had 
operated 146 times, with only 26 deaths. Dr. W. L. Atlee, 
of Philadelphia, has operated about 300 times. Mr. Clay, of 
Manchester, up to December, 1871, had operated 250 times, 
with 182 successes. The results may be tabulated, so as to 
be seen more clearly: 
Spencer Wells, 73.25 per cent. Kimball, . .66.11 per cent. 
Clay, . . . 72.80 " Dunlap, . . 80.00 " 
W. L. Atlee, . 71.00 " Peaslee, . . 67.85 " 
Bradford, . . 90.00 " Thomas, . . 66.66 " 
Keith has attained the highest success yet achieved in 
Europe, having saved 81 of his first 100 cases, and 30 of his 
next 36 cases. In the United States the general average is 
63 per cent., in Great Britain 60, in France 50, in Germany 
41.66. Spencer Wells thinks the average will yet be 90 per 
cent, of cases in private practice, without excluding those 
extreme cases in which the operation is performed as a forlorn 
hope. 
My purpose in presenting these details is to call attention 
to the fact that Dr. Taylor Bradford, of Augusta, Ky., has 
already attained the 90 per cent, success which Wells thinks Medical History of Kentucky. 
9 
may be ultimately attained. In Kentucky, where the operation 
was first performed, the highest success has been reached. 
Peaslee presents the great benefits conferred by ovariotomy 
in the following words: "It may be shown that in the United 
States and Great Britain alone ovariotomy has within the last 
thirty years directly contributed more than thirty thousand 
years of active life to woman, all of which would have been 
lost had ovariotomy never been performed." 
The Institution for Deaf-mutes, in Danville, Ky., was 
founded in 1823. It was the first institution of the kind 
established in the West. It followed closely upon those of 
Hartford, New York, and Philadelphia. From a small be- 
ginning it has become a noble and most beneficent school. 
Mr. Jacobs, so long its superintendent, has made it known 
throughout the civilized world. The results attained in the 
education of deaf-mutes are astonishing. They no longer 
speak by a manual alphabet or manual signs only, but are 
trained to utter their thoughts in articulate sounds wonder- 
fully perfect. 
Dr. McDowell and Mr. Jacobs have given the name of 
Danville an illustrious perpetuity, and bequeathed to their 
successors in that beautiful town a reputation xVhich their 
pride should be emulous to sustain. It is not an undeserved 
eulogium to say that Dr. John D. Jackson and his associates 
of the Boyle County Medical Society uphold very ably the 
prestige already acquired. 
Dr. Alban Goldsmith was an assistant to Dr. McDowell 
in several of his ovariotomies, and operated himself one or 
more times. He visited Europe at the time that Civiale was 
attracting great attention to his original operation of litho- 
tripsy. Dr. Goldsmith, under the teachings of this master, 
perfected himself in this specialty; and returning to his home 
in Kentucky operated on a gentleman in Lincoln County in 
1829, the first operation of lithotripsy ever performed in 
Kentucky or in the United States. Dr. Goldsmith, desiring 10 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
a wider field for his labors, removed to Louisville in a short 
while. In that city I had the pleasure of seeing him operate 
in this special way and in other branches of surgery. While 
residing in Louisville he conceived the project of another 
medical school, recognizing the importance of a large hos- 
pital and its clinical facilities in the teaching of medicine and 
surgery. To carry out this admirable design he procured 
from the legislature, in 1833, the charter of the "Medical 
Institute" of Louisville. A faculty was organized, but did 
not lecture. When a portion of the faculty of the Medical 
Department of Transylvania University seceded from that 
school, in 1837, they organized under the charter of the 
institute, and continued to act under it until the University 
of Louisville was chartered, in 1845. Dr. Goldsmith may 
thus be considered the legal founder of a school so long 
sheltered by his charter. 
From Louisville Dr. Goldsmith removed to Cincinnati, 
and for a time was professor of surgery in one of the schools 
of that city; but finally settled permanently in the city of 
New York, pursuing to the close of his life the special branch 
of surgery in which he was so skilled. His son, Professor 
Middleton Goldsmith, is well known to the profession of this 
state as an able teacher and practitioner of surgery. 
Dr. Gross, in his report on Kentucky Surgery, made to 
this Society in 1852, remarks: "In the treatment of hernia 
Kentucky may justly claim the credit of having effected one 
most valuable improvement. The truss invented by Mr. 
Stagner, and afterward modified by Dr. Hood, has acquired 
a world-wide celebrity. The value of the invention of Stagner 
and Hood can be fully appreciated by those only who are 
familiar with the nature and treatment of hernia, and with . 
the state of our knowledge thereof prior to their time." 
In the same report Dr. Gross records "that some years 
ago Dr. Bowman, of Harrodsburg, showed me an instrument 
for injecting the parts immediately around the abdominal Medical History of Kentucky. 
11 
canals and apertures with a weak solution of iodine and 
other articles. It was constructed upon the principles of an 
ordinary syringe, with an extremely delicate nozzle, intended 
to be introduced through a small opening in the skin. The 
instrument was successfully used in several cases." We here 
find the hypodermic syringe foreshadowed, if not actually in- 
vented. When Wood published his first papers on the subject 
of hypodermic medication, I carried out the practice, with the 
syringe having a delicately-curved nozzle used by dentists, 
in the treatment of an obstinate case of lumbago. Dr. S. 
Brandeis, of Louisville, imported the first hypodermic syringe 
ever used in Kentucky, as he also did, through me, in 1862, 
the first laryngoscope. 
The Louisville Marine Hospital was founded in 1817, and 
was among the first of the great public charities in the valley 
for sick and disabled marines. It was sustained partly by 
taxes upon sales at auction, and partly by a fund created, 
under a law of the United States, from weekly or monthly 
sums paid by all sailors navigating the Ohio and other 
western rivers. This institution was admirably managed. 
Its trustees were selected from the best citizens of Louisville, 
and its physicians and surgeons were the Mite of the pro- 
fession- mature men engaged in a large and busy private 
practice. Among them I recall the names of Drs. Richard 
Ferguson, George W. Smith, Coleman Rogers, Joseph Mid- 
dleton, John P. Harrison, R. P. Gist, and Llewelynn Powell. 
Conspicuous in this medical staff, for personal virtues, for the 
qualities of the Christian gentleman, for all of the attributes 
of the accomplished physician, it gives me pleasure to single 
out for special notice Dr. Harrison. My earliest recollections 
of medicine are associated with this remarkable man. I knew 
him well, and his history has always been a favorite theme 
with me. In this hospital he labored very faithfully, and 
laid the foundation of a medical career of great usefulness 
and distinction. Kentucky never produced a more worthy 12 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
son. He was an assiduous worker at the bedside and in the 
dissecting-room. He spent many of the long winter nights 
in the study of all forms of anatomy by minute and careful 
dissection. Not content with the modicum of anatomical 
knowledge acquired while attending his several courses of 
lectures, it was his custom to revise this important branch 
of study every winter. As a boy, I was often his companion 
in the fourth story of the hospital. Dr. Harrison was a gen- 
eral as well as a medical scholar. He delighted in all kinds 
of polite literature. He was peculiar in his habits of reading. 
The lighter works of general literature occupied his leisure 
hours in the warm summer months, while the long winter 
evenings were devoted to the severer studies of the sciences. 
He was never idle. Of an ardent and active temperament, 
he could not be idle. He was a man of the purest personal 
and professional honor. Toward his professional brethren 
he bore himself with fastidious care. In medical ethics he 
was a martinet. There were subordinate qualities about Dr. 
Harrison which should and can pertain to every physician. 
Every one can not be tall and graceful in form as Dr. Harrison 
was, with dark hair and complexion and keen gray eyes; but 
every one can have agreeable manners, a dignified bearing, 
and be neat in dress and person. Dr. Harrison was always 
so. He dressed simply but elegantly, and every thing about 
him looked the refined gentleman. His office was attractive, 
the furniture good and in order, the books in his large library 
systematically arranged. When his patients called upon him 
they were impressed by these things. His horse was always 
well groomed, his harness bright, and his gig perfectly clean. 
In all regards he sustained the respectability of his calling. 
These personal details may seem unworthy of notice in an 
address like this, but they have an important moral. I am 
sure that the influence and usefulness of medical men in 
cities, villages, and country places, are materially lessened by 
inattention to such matters as were striking qualities of Dr. Medical History of Kentucky. 
13 
Harrison. Personal qualities are often tokens of professional 
character. Slovenly dress, unkempt hair, a dirty office, with 
a few broken chairs, and a rickety table with a dusty slate 
on it, are not likely to inspire the sick with pleasant ideas 
of their medical adviser. Such conditions spring from and 
react upon the character of the physician. 
Dr. Harrison kept himself fully up with the advances of 
medicine. The first stethoscope I ever saw, and the first one 
brought to Kentucky, was imported by him. It was of the 
pattern originally devised and made by Laennec himself, and 
was in my possession for many years. Dr. Harrison talked 
of going to Europe to study this new physical diagnosis of 
diseases of the chest, but was for a time skeptical as to the 
reality of Laennec's great revelations. 
In this connection my memory calls up the interesting 
fact that Prof. Henry M. Bullitt, of the Louisville Medical 
College, was the first physician in Kentucky, as far as I am 
informed, to carry the stethoscope into the daily study of 
his cases. He returned from Philadelphia in 1838, having 
become an expert in this method of diagnosis, under the 
teachings of Gerhard and Pennock. I was then pursuing 
the same study in the wards of the Marine Hospital, and 
owe my first advances to the instruction of Dr. Bullitt. Dr. 
Bullitt brought with him, besides this practical knowledge, 
a mind thoroughly and ardently imbued with Louis's in- 
ductive method of studying disease. This method, substi- 
tuting carefully-ascertained facts and the results inductively 
evolved from them for mere closet theories, was then bringing 
about a thorough revolution in the science of medicine. In 
this Dr. Bullitt played an efficient part by his pen and his 
teachings. 
Dr. Harrison appreciated at an early day the importance 
of clinical medicine, and was among the first in the West to 
give clinical lectures, in the wards of the Marine Hospital, 
to a class of students. The clinical advantages of Louisville 14 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
caused him to look to that city as the future seat of a great 
medical school. 
In 1834 Dr. Harrison removed to Philadelphia to find a 
more suitable theater for the realization of his ambitious 
purposes. He was called very soon, however, to fill an 
important chair in one of the schools of Cincinnati. While 
teaching here, and for many years before, his pen was prolific 
in the production of valuable papers on various medical sub- 
jects. As a teacher of materia medica he was distinguished 
for his sound and practical therapeutics. He was an able 
practitioner, and brought before his class the ripe fruits of his 
extensive experience. He published a "Treatise on Materia 
Medica and Therapeutics," the first and only systematic work 
on this subject by a western physician. The practical portions 
of this work are excellent, and worthy of all respect even at 
the present day. The book is remarkable as being probably 
the last ever published in this country in which the doc- 
trines of pure solidism are asserted and those of humoralism 
opposed. The idea of the absorption of medicines by the 
blood.-vessels is vehemently rebuked. 
In 1838 Dr. Charles Caldwell delivered the first clinical 
lectures of the University of Louisville in the wards of the 
Marine Hospital. I was his clinical assistant. In 1839 the 
first clinical amphitheater ever founded in the West was at- 
tached to this Hospital. From that room, for more than 
thirty years, the practical lessons of Drake, Gross, Eve, 
J. B. Flint, Bartlett, Ethelbert Dudley, Annan, Austin Flint, 
Palmer, Hardin, Middleton Goldsmith, D. W. Yandell, and 
their associates and successors, have been diffused through- 
out the length and breadth of this country. 
Dr. Samuel L. Metcalfe, who died in Philadelphia in 1856, 
had a scientific character of which Kentucky may well be 
proud. Though known to many of the older physicians, he 
is possibly unknown to some of the junior members of the 
profession. In 1833 Dr. Metcalfe published, at New York, a Medical History of Kentucky. 
15 
treatise, entitled "A New Theory of Terrestrial Magnetism," 
containing speculations of a remarkable character, and con- 
tending for the identity, in certain relations, of heat, elec- 
tricity, and magnetism. In it were the germs of the great 
philosophical theory called "the correlation of forces," now 
received by the scientific world. This book was reviewed 
by Dr. T. S. Bell, in the Louisville Journal, shortly after it 
was published, and pronounced the first work of its kind on 
the subject. 
In 1838 this work was expanded into a noble treatise, 
entitled "Caloric: its mechanical, chemical, and vital Agencies 
in the Phenomena of Nature." Dr. Metcalfe took the manu- 
script to London and endeavored to find a publisher. One 
was at last found, who agreed to publish it provided the 
author would permit him to submit the manuscript to the 
inspection and approval of a scientific reader employed for 
such purposes. The manuscript was kept for some weeks, 
and after many calls Dr. Metcalfe succeeded in recovering 
it, with the information that the judgment of the reader was 
unfavorable. Prof. J. B. Flint was in London at the time, 
purchasing the library for the Medical Department of the 
University of Louisville, and to him Dr. Metcalfe communi- 
cated these facts; with the additional statement that he had 
ascertained, beyond a doubt, that Michael Faraday was the 
reader to whom his manuscript had been submitted. The 
doctrine of "the correlation of forces," which forms a con- 
spicuous element of the fame of Faraday, was clearly and 
cogently taught in this new work of the Kentucky philoso- 
pher; and prior to the time that Dr. Metcalfe's manuscript 
was perused by him he had never taught any thing of the 
kind. In 1843 Dr. Metcalfe published his treatise in two 
large volumes. It was received in Europe with an unusual 
amount of favor. In 1853 a second edition was published, 
a copy of which is owned by my distinguished friend, Dr. 
T. S. Bell. 16 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
Dr. Metcalfe resided near Simpsonville, Shelby County, 
while in Kentucky. The state, and especially the medical 
men, have abundant reason to cherish his well-earned fame. 
His reputation was so firmly established in Europe that he 
was importuned to become a candidate for the Gregorian 
Chair in the University of Edinburgh, which he declined. 
In January, 1843, Dr. Wm. A. McDowell, a cousin of the 
great ovariotomist, and one of his aids in the performance of 
his operations, published an octavo volume, of two hundred 
and sixty-nine pages, entitled "A Demonstration of the Cura- 
bility of Pulmonary Consumption in all of its Stages." Dr. 
McDowell removed to Louisville some years anterior to this 
date, with a name and prestige which soon won for him an 
excellent practice in all of the branches of medicine. Pulmo- 
nary consumption was one of his favorite subjects, and he 
soon put forth the claim of unusual success in the treat- 
ment of this disease. Such unusual results were announced 
as to excite in the minds of his professional friends an 
unjust suspicion of charlatanry. When his book appeared 
it was received not only with incredulity but with severe 
and sneering criticisms. Time, however, has done justice to 
Dr. McDowell's character and claims. The work, though 
defective in literary merit, crude in many of its ideas, and 
asserting powers for many medicines which they do not pos- 
sess, contained not only the germ but the substance fully 
developed of the therapeutics of consumption now considered 
orthodox. He states that he first derived the views which 
he inculcates, modified by what he denominates the antipodal 
plan, from Dr. Joseph Parrish, of Philadelphia. To quote 
the language of his preface: " We concluded upon com- 
bining his theory with an antipodal plan which we ourselves 
had determined to adopt, consisting of a course of dietetics 
and regimen calculated to produce acquired gout; for we 
regarded gout as the extreme athletic or tonic morbid con- 
dition, consumption as the extreme atonic." Though this Medical History of Kentucky. 
17 
mode of presenting the subject be crude and coarse when 
compared with our more refined and seemingly more recon- 
dite rationale of treatment, the same great analeptic truth 
underlies both. I have no doubt that Dr. McDowell cured 
many cases of genuine phthisis pulmonalis, and prolonged 
the lives of many more, as the tonic and restorative plan, 
now universally adopted, is well known to do. His book 
was in advance of the times in this country certainly, and 
I do not know that a formal presentation of the subject had 
then been made in Europe. Dr. J. Hughes Bennett, of Edin- 
burgh, and other distinguished co-workers, were beginning to 
inculcate very strongly the same method of treatment, but 
had not given a published form to their views. This book 
of Dr. McDowell's has not secured the place in the litera- 
ture of pulmonary consumption to which its intrinsic merit 
entitles it. 
The Kentucky Institution for the Blind was incorporated 
in 1842. The movement for such a school in our state was 
inaugurated by Dr. S. G. Howe, of Massachusetts, who had 
so successfully begun the beneficent work in the latter state. 
Kentucky was among the first to follow the example of the 
"Old Bay State." From its foundation to the present time 
this institution has been an object of just pride. Much of 
its progressive success has been due to an eminent member 
of our profession. "To inaugurate a great charity is a noble 
work; .but to watch over it, to foster it, to stand by it from 
the beginning, to be its firm friend through every disaster 
and its counselor in every emergency, to give it unwearied 
attention for over thirty years, and sacrifice to its good an 
incalculable amount of anxious thought and valuable time, 
is surely equally noble. Such services the state of Kentucky 
has received from Dr. Theodore S. Bell." This is the testi- 
mony of one who is familiar with the devotion of this remark- 
able man to this institution. I can add my own testimony 
to the same effect. In my many professional drives in the 18 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
direction of the Blind Asylum I rarely fail to meet Dr. Bell 
making his daily visit to his pet institution. By his efforts 
the Bible was stereotyped, and a copy given to every worthy 
pupil of the school. Kentucky enjoys the honor of being 
the first state in the world to make a provision by law of 
this kind. 
The history of the Blind Asylum has a bright page for 
this constant friend. The history of Kentucky medicine for 
the last forty years will also devote to him a large and 
varied space. Ever busy, working more hours every day and 
sleeping fewer than any one I ever knew, there is scarcely a 
department of medicine upon which he has not left his im- 
press. As a public hygienist, as a medical philosopher and 
journalist, as a controversial writer, as a practitioner and 
teacher, he has long occupied and now occupies a conspic- 
uous position. Seemingly untouched by time, he is to-day 
as fresh and strong in physical and mental power as he 
ever was. 
Kentucky was one of the first states of the West, prob- 
ably the very first, to comprehend the incalculable value 
of a careful registration of the marriages, births, and deaths 
of her citizens. The importance of such registration, fully 
appreciated by many of the states of Europe and by a few in 
this country, was ably set forth in Kentucky, and impressed 
upon the public and legislative attention, with great force 
and effect by the first regular president of this Society, Dr. 
W. L. Sutton, of Georgetown. In effecting the passage of a 
very perfect law, by the legislature of 1851-2, he was ably 
re-enforced by Dr. W. S. Chipley, of Lexington, and Dr. 
T. S. Bell, of Louisville. It will not be deemed immodest 
in me to say that a "Lecture on Sanitary Reform," delivered 
by me to the medical class of the University of Louisville at 
the opening of the session of 1851-2, and published by the 
class, had some influence, by the logic of its statistics, in 
determining the passage of the act. Dr. Sutton was the first Medical History of Kentucky. 
19 
registrar, and most successfully carried the law into execution. 
Before, however, even a partial realization of the great results 
anticipated by him, Dr. Sutton was removed by death from 
this sphere of public usefulness, and was succeeded by Dr. 
S. M. Bemiss, now of New Orleans. Dr. Bemiss proved to 
be a worthy follower of Dr. Sutton. He carried the work 
forward with zeal and ability, and his reports attracted much 
attention both at home and in foreign countries. The war 
of 1861 put an end to this as to all other civil pursuits, and 
since its close the law has not been revived. It is a reproach 
to the intelligence of the state, and most deeply damaging to 
her interests, that it has not been restored. 
Dr. Sutton was one of the ablest men of the profession in 
Kentucky. Plain, modest, practical, an excellent observer, a 
good writer and a sound practitioner, the state has produced 
few superior to him. In sanitary science he was the foremost 
man among us. His brochure on Typhoid Fever, and a few 
other papers on medical subjects, gave him high rank in 
medicine proper. 
In October, 1846, ether was first used by inhalation as 
an anaesthetic. In the winter or spring of 1847 Dr. Joshua 
B. Flint administered it for the first time in Kentucky, and 
possibly in the West, in an amputation of a lower limb per- 
formed by him in the presence of a number of professional 
friends. I was present. The ether was then called "letheon," 
and administered by the aid of a complicated inhaler. 
Chloroform was first brought forward by Sir James Y. 
Simpson, as a substitute for ether, in November, 1847. It 
was used for the first time in midwifery in the city of Louis- 
ville, and as far as is known in the state of Kentucky, by 
Prof. Henry Miller, on the 20th of February, 1848. 
Prof. S. D. Gross was the first surgeon in Louisville to 
use chloroform as an anaesthetic in surgery. He operated 
upon a servant under its influence in the family of Thos. P. 
Smith, removing a large tumor. 20 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
Professor Miller was a pioneer in several other important 
branches of his specialty. In an able and very candid paper, 
denominated " Retrospect of Uterine Pathology and Thera- 
peutics in the United States, especially in regard to intra- 
uterine medication in chronic internal metritis," published 
by Dr. Miller, in 1871, it is certainly established that he was 
the first in the West to use the speculum uteri systematically 
in the treatment of diseases of the os and cervix uteri. This 
was as early as 1835, a period when the speculum was almost 
unknown practically to the profession in any part of the 
United States. The first speculum was brought to Louis- 
ville by Dr. Allan P. Elston, a distinguished young physician, 
who after a residence in Europe for several years returned 
to Louisville and resumed his professional labors. Failing 
health compelled him to retire after a short but honorable 
career. Dr. Miller was present when Dr. Elston examined 
one of his patients in the Work-house Hospital, and becom- 
ing enamored of the speculum forthwith devoted himself to 
this interesting branch of surgery. It is needless for me to 
tell this audience with what distinguished results. For a 
time the treatment by the aid of the speculum was limited 
to the os and cervix uteri. In 1843 Dr. Miller extended 
this local treatment still deeper, and made applications to 
the cavity of the organ. In the paper above mentioned he 
proves conclusively that he was in advance of every one else 
in the United States in intra-uterine medication. Kentucky 
justly claims priority in both forms of uterine therapeutics. 
Dr. Miller is the author of the first systematic work upon 
midwifery ever published in the West, a work which ranks 
in original thought and practical value among the best ever 
published. 
Kentucky has been ever prompt to obey the requirements 
of philanthropy. Under the wise counsels and benevolent 
influence of Robert W. Scott, the legislature, in i860, founded 
the Kentucky Institution for the Education of Feeble-minded Medical History of Kentucky. 
21 
Children and Idiots. This is the only institution of the kind 
south of the Ohio River. There are several in the North, 
which have undoubtedly achieved surprising results in ele- 
vating the mental status of these unfortunate beings. They 
who have not observed the amount of mental improvement 
which may be effected by systematic training, in subjects who 
seem to be hopelessly feeble, would scarcely credit the real 
results. Our own institution promises to be a benefaction 
worthy of generous encouragement. 
The Louisville College of Pharmacy was established in 
August, 1870. It has organized a school of pharmacy, with 
efficient professors, to teach the theory and practice of phar- 
macy, materia medica, chemistry, and the collateral sciences. 
Such an institution has long been needed in Kentucky, and 
there now exists no reason why every apothecary should not 
be a graduate of this or some other equally worthy college, 
and his qualifications fully ascertained, before he is permitted 
to dispense medicine. The interests of the public, no less 
than of the profession, demand the enactment of such a law. 
On the 28th of March, 1872, the legislature of Kentucky 
passed an act incorporating the "Central Kentucky Inebriate 
Asylum." This asylum is intended for the medical treat- 
ment, control, and restoration of the inebriate. It is invested 
with the power to receive and retain all inebriates who enter 
it, either voluntarily or by the order of the committee of any 
habitual drunkard. The committee of the person may keep 
him in the asylum at discretion. This act does not indicate 
by what power this committee is created. Some previous 
law must exist; and I presume that an act, approved March 
18, 1872, to provide for the preservation of the estates and 
security of persons of unsound mind, who by habitual or ex- 
cessive use of poisonous drugs have become incompetent to 
manage themselves or estates with prudence and discretion, 
supplies the defect or provides for it. This act empowers the 
circuit or chancery court of the county to appoint a committee 22 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
of one or more persons to take charge of any person who 
by the habitual or excessive use of opium or hasheesh, or 
any other drug, has become incompetent to manage himself 
or estate. The fact of such incompetency must be brought 
before the court by affidavit of two or more respectable per- 
sons, and an inquest must be held by a jury in open court to 
inquire into the fact. The committee of custody and control 
is invested with the power to confine such person in any 
private asylum or in one of the lunatic asylums of this 
commonwealth. It will be observed that this act specifies 
opium, hasheesh, or any poisonous drug, but does not mention 
by name alcohol and its preparations. A fair and scientific 
construction would include these; yet a doubt is left, and 
difficulty might spring up if any one chose to contest the 
point and insist upon a literal interpretation of the law. 
Habitual and inveterate drunkenness is certainly one of the 
forms of insanity. It is a condition in which the will is 
under the mastery of the passions. It is recognized by the 
best authorities as insanity, and has received the names of 
dipsomania and oinomania. The interests of the individual 
and of the entire community would be advantageously con- 
sulted if this view of drunkenness were carried into practical 
effect, and the drunkard made amenable to the law which is 
applied to the ordinary lunatic. Whether the asylum just 
incorporated be one merely for voluntary confinement or one 
to which a jury may send any proper subject, Kentucky has 
led the advance, as far as I am informed, in this direction, in 
the valley of the Mississippi. 
It is a creditable fact, reflecting the estimate in which 
Kentucky medicine is held by the profession of the United 
States, that our state has directly furnished two presidents 
of the American Medical Association, in the persons of Drs. 
Henry Miller and David W. Yandell, and indirectly a third, 
in the person of Dr. S. D. Gross, all members of this Society. 
No member of the profession in this country has received Medical History of Kentucky. 
23 
more honors at home and more foreign decorations than 
Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, another member of this Society. 
The establishment of a new school in 1837, and of several 
others at later dates, led to important results in the history 
of Kentucky medicine. These schools have been the means 
of developing and bringing into more conspicuous position 
many of our own most gifted physicians, and have invited 
from other places some of the most eminent physicians of 
the United States. Among the former may be mentioned 
Bush, Peter, Ethelbert Dudley, Miller, Powell, Hardin, Rich- 
ardson, Bullitt, the Yandells, Foree, Breckinridge, Cummins, 
Bell, Bemiss, Bayless, Bodine. Among the latter, Bartlett, 
Silliman, J. B. Flint, Drake, Cobb, Colescott, Austin Flint, sr., 
Eve, Gross, Palmer, J. Lawrence Smith, Middleton Goldsmith. 
Some of the best contributions to American medicine and 
surgery were made by several of these gentlemen while they 
were connected with the schools of Kentucky, and these may 
be fairly considered as belonging to the medical literature of 
our state. If all of the works were not written here, much 
of the matter which gives them interest was obtained while 
their authors were connected with the schools and hospitals 
of Louisville. This is particularly true of the works of Gross, 
Drake, and Austin Flint. 
Connected with the schools of medicine which have existed 
in Kentucky many reminiscences of men and things arise in 
my mind. Among the most pleasant of these is my recol- 
lection of Dr. Wm. H. Richardson, so long the professor of 
obstetrics in Transylvania. Few men ever had nobler traits 
of character. He was warm-hearted, brave, and a sincere 
friend. I knew him from my earliest boyhood, and have 
passed many happy and instructive hours at his magnificent 
home in Fayette County. His hospitality was profuse and 
elegant. I listened to his public teachings as a professor 
with interest and care, because I knew that he taught the 
truth as far as he possessed it. He was not scholarly nor 24 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
graceful and fluent as a lecturer; but he was ardent and 
impressive, sufficiently learned in his special branch, and had 
at his ready command a large stock of ripe personal expe- 
rience. I honor his memory beyond that of most men whom 
I have known. 
I have often recalled with wonder the supreme satisfaction 
with which I looked upon the whole science and art of medi- 
cine, after listening to one course of lectures by Dr. John 
Esten Cooke, for so many years the venerable incumbent of 
the Chair of Practice in Transylvania, and in the University 
of Louisville. Few teachers ever held such sway over the 
minds of intelligent professional men as Dr. Cooke over the 
entire medical mind of the valley of the Mississippi. Every 
one entertained profound respect for his great intellect and 
general learning, for his purity of character and honesty of 
purpose. His theory of medicine was peculiar to himself, and 
elaborated with great care. It seemed to be built upon an 
impregnable logic. It was dogmatically taught, and carried 
captive the minds of the hundreds of young men who listened 
to his positive enunciations. There were no graces of oratory 
about him, yet he had a subtile way of infusing the poison 
of his false doctrines which could not be resisted. These 
doctrines were of singular simplicity and universal adapted- 
ness. The practice growing out of them, so long dominant 
in the South and West, was equally simple and adaptable. 
Three familiar medicines constituted the trinity of his prac- 
tical creed. Quinia and opium were not known in his materia 
medica. With the retirement of Dr. Cooke, in 1844, a new 
medical era commenced in the wide region over which his 
teachings so long prevailed; and now not a vestige of either 
his theory or practice remains, except in the pages of his 
book and in the minds of a few of the ancient members of 
the profession. 
Who that ever saw Dr. Charles Caldwell can fail to have 
a living remembrance of him? Who that ever listened to Medical History of Kentucky. 
25 
him as a teacher can fail to recall with admiration the great 
intellect, the varied scholarship, the beauty and power of pen, 
the polished eloquence of the grand old man? He impressed 
every one by the stateliness of his personal appearance. He 
looked a very monarch, as, with scepter waving in his hand, 
he moved majestically along. 
Dr. Caldwell was largely instrumental in carrying the 
Medical Department of Transylvania to its high point of 
prosperity. He was one of the great levers by which the 
School of Louisville was elevated to a still loftier position. 
By reason of certain attractive qualities, and peculiar powers 
foreign to pure medical teaching, he was eminently successful 
as an architect of medical schools. Despite these facts, the 
truth of history compels the averment that he was never a 
teacher of true practical medicine, nor of that kind of medical 
philosophy which forms the useful medical mind. In these 
regards he has not left an enduring record in the annals of 
Kentucky medicine. 
While Dr. Caldwell was yet holding a conspicuous place 
as a medical teacher a revolution was going on in the whole 
science of medicine. Old medicine was expiring and new 
medicine taking its place. Before the pressure' of profes- 
sional opinion created by this revolution, Dr. Caldwell, like 
his old colleague, Dr. Cooke, retired from professorial life 
in 1849. 
When the trustees of the Louisville Medical Institute were 
organizing the first faculty, in 1837, Dr. Caldwell, the chief 
artificer of the enterprise, was furnished with carte blanche, 
and sent on a mission to find a professor of surgery. A 
careful search eventuated in the selection of Dr. Joshua B. 
Flint, of Boston, Mass. Dr. Flint was a graduate of the 
Academic and Medical Department of Harvard. He was 
indorsed to Dr. Caldwell, by the best men of Boston, as a 
mature and thorough general and medical scholar, as a con- 
servative, skillful surgeon, and as an acceptable teacher. He 26 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
was tendered the chair of surgery in the institute, accepted 
it, and sundering his many ties in Boston came to Louisville 
and united his fortunes with our school and our people. The 
impression which he made upon the profession in Louisville 
was favorable in the highest degree. He disclosed qualities 
which at once commanded confidence and respect. He was 
quiet and modest, avoiding rather than courting conspicuous 
notice. His fine scholarship, literary and professional, made 
itself evident to all appreciative observers. He was not osten- 
tatious in this regard. His sound judgment as a practitioner 
of surgery, and his rare dexterity and coolness as an operator, 
were readily recognized. In the field of operative surgery 
he was distinguished, beyond all other men of his time, for 
his conservatism. Many limbs and parts were saved by him 
which would have been lost by less considerate surgeons. 
He did not desire the eclat which great surgical feats elicit. 
As a teacher, Dr. Flint came forward at a time when 
medicine and medical teaching were in a transition stage; 
when mere theories were giving place to facts, and things 
were taught and not mere speculations. His style was quiet, 
eminently and purely didactic. He was not a declaimer, had 
no ad captandum arts, said nothing for effect merely or to 
elicit applause. His lectures derived their ornament from 
correct rhetoric and classical illustrations. They were never 
soiled by coarse anecdote or indelicate allusions. He was a 
dignified teacher of the facts and truths of a serious science. 
He did not seek popularity with his classes. He hoped to 
win their confidence and approval by giving them sound in- 
struction. Possibly he made the distance too great between 
the master and the pupil. This had not been the usage in 
this wild western country. It was so in the place of his 
education, and in the foreign schools. He was known to 
favor the use of the professorial cap and gown. 
As a candidate for business before the public, he stood, 
coldly, upon his demeanor as a gentleman and his real merits Medical History of Kentucky 
27 
as a practitioner. He had no arts about him to win popu- 
larity. He rather repelled than attracted people. He was 
punctiliously careful in his intercourse with the patients of 
other physicians. In this relation he was, as Charles Lamb 
said of his father, "a man of losing honesty." Socially no 
man was more charming. Though dry and not much of a 
talker generally, on festive occasions his conversation was 
brilliant and his wit sparkling. At a dinner or evening party, 
among cultivated people, he was delightful. 
I must mention one other quality in Dr. Flint. To his 
sick brethren he was constant in his attentions, aiding them 
by his wise counsel and cheering them by his hopeful words. 
Dr. Flint retired from the institute at the close of his third 
course of lectures, but was reinstated in the same chair after 
the lapse of a few years. 
Dr. Daniel Drake, though claiming Cincinnati as his home, 
was really a Kentucky physician, having passed the most 
active years of his life in our state, and achieved his great 
fame as a teacher and writer while connected with our schools. 
It is unnecessary to detail his brilliant medical history. It is 
known to every one. I wish to mention the single honorable 
fact that he was the first physician of the West ever called to 
fill an important chair in an eastern medical school. In 1830 
he was appointed professor of theory and practice of medicine 
in the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia. Dr. S. D. 
Gross, was appointed to the chair of surgery in the same school 
at a later day, and, as far as I now remember, was the second 
western man thus distinguished. 
As the intimate personal friend and fellow-student of Dr. 
Jas. M. Bush, I had the opportunity to learn, at an early day, 
the genius as an artist, the quick perceptive faculties and the 
logical qualities of mind which form the basis of his high 
professional reputation. He was a student first in the office 
of Dr. Alban Goldsmith, and then in that of Dr. B. W. 
Dudley. He won the high regard of both of these eminent 28 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
men. As soon as he graduated in medicine he became pro- 
sector for Dr. Dudley, and then his associate in the practice 
of surgery. When Dr. Dudley retired from teaching, Dr. 
Bush was appointed to the vacant chair, and discharged its 
duties with eminent ability. When Dr. Dudley retired from 
the field of his brilliant achievements as a surgeon, Dr. Bush 
had the rare courage to take possession of it. No higher 
tribute can be paid to him than to say that he has since held 
possession without a successful rival. 
In the sciences collateral to medicine Kentucky has played 
a distinguished part. In the interesting departments of botany, 
geology, and chemistry, Dr. Charles Wilkins Short and Dr. 
Robert Peter are known throughout the scientific world. As 
teachers, the modest, almost shrinking manner, the seemingly 
acerb dignity, and the Addisonian style of the one, and the 
lucid expositions and brilliant illustrations of the other, must 
be remembered by all who ever listened to them. 
I can not close these hasty and imperfect reminiscences, 
so unworthy of their subjects, without the mention of one 
with whom I had the honor to be upon terms of personal 
and professional intimacy for more than thirty years. I refer 
to Dr. Llewellyn Powell. Dr. Powell held the chair of ob- 
stetrics, first in the Kentucky School of Medicine, for some 
years, and afterward in the University of Louisville. In both 
he was recognized as an able, eloquent, and instructive teacher. 
He gave unqualified satisfaction to colleagues and pupils. 
There are two classes of medical teachers: the one profes- 
sional, trained in the arts of elocution and happy illustration, 
studiously skilled in the many ways of putting things; not 
subordinating matter to manner wholly, but relying largely 
upon felicitous modes of presenting their subjects. The other 
class includes physicians of mature study and observation, 
who have accumulated a large stock of practical knowledge 
from which to draw the matter of their teaching. Out of the 
fullness of their knowledge they are teachers. The graces Medical History of Kentucky. 
29 
of rhetoric and the tricks of elocution are not conspicuous 
elements of their style. Dr. Powell happily blended the best 
qualities of both of these classes. By nature he was wonder- 
fully endowed with the gift of language. Words the most 
appropriate were uttered promptly and gracefully at the bid- 
ding of every thought. Though he was not trained to the 
special work of teaching, he seemed to possess the happy 
facility of the professional teacher. With such a manner he 
was prepared to impress upon his pupils with singular effect 
the practical knowledge derived from many years of clinical 
observation. 
Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge was reared and educated in 
Louisville. Of a distinguished family and singularly pleasing 
address, graceful and easy as a speaker, as a writer forcible, 
pointed, and scholarly, he would but for his untimely death 
have plucked the highest honors in the profession. 
Dr. Carey H. Fry, an original member of this Society, 
died, on the 5th of March, in the city of San Francisco. He 
was present and took an active part in our memorable meet- 
ing of 1852. He was with us again, in Louisville, in 1872, 
with undiminished interest in our proceedings. Truth war- 
rants and personal affection impels me to say that he was 
the peer of the highest in all noble qualities of character. 
He was a refined gentleman, an accomplished physician, and 
a gallant soldier. 
Whatever of renown the University of Louisville may have 
acquired, a portion of it is due to two distinguished members 
of another profession, the Hon. John Rowan and the Hon. 
James Guthrie. Judge Rowan was the first president of the 
board of trustees, and gave the influence of his national 
name to the foundation and early fortunes of the school. 
Mr. Guthrie became the president upon the death of Judge 
Rowan, and continued so until the close of his long and 
useful life. No institution ever had a more devoted friend. 
His fealty to it never faltered. Amid the cares of state and 30 
Facts and Reminiscences of the 
a large professional business, he always found time to work 
for the interests of the University. Whatever seemed likely 
to promote these, interests met with his warm approval; 
whatever opposed them was sure to meet his stern and 
inflexible hostility. His name is indissolubly linked with 
an interesting part of the history of Kentucky medicine. 
The medical journalism of Kentucky has always been of 
a high order. Though commenced at a later date than that 
of her sister state of Ohio, Kentucky was in advance of all 
other states of the valley. The Transylvania Journal of Medi- 
cine and the Associate Sciences was the first journal published 
in Kentucky. It dates from 1828, and continued to be the 
leading journal until its close, in 1838. Its successive editors 
were Professors John Esten Cooke, Charles Wilkins Short, 
Lunsford P. Yandell, and Robert Peter. The next was the 
Louisville Journal of Medicine, in 1838, edited by Professors 
Henry Miller, L. P. Yandell, and Dr. T. S. Bell. This had a 
brief existence. Then came the Western Journal of Medicine 
and Surgery, edited at first by Profs. Drake and Yandell, and 
then by Professor Yandell and Dr. T. S. Bell. It lived from 
1840 to 1855. The Western and Southern Medical Recorder 
was published by Dr. James Conquest Cross, in Lexington, 
in 1841-2. The Kentucky Medical Recorder, a continuation 
of the Transylvania Journal, was edited by Profs. Henry M. 
Bullitt and Robert J. Breckinridge, in 1851-2, in Louisville. 
Dr. L. J. Frazee edited a semi-monthly journal, called the 
Louisville Medical Gazette, in 1859. Drs. Bemiss and Benson 
published the Louisville Medical News, in 1859-60. The 
Louisville Review, edited by Gross and Richardson, in 1856, 
and the Louisville Medical Journal, by Dr. Colescott, in i860, 
were short - lived. The Sanitary Reporter was published, 
semi-monthly, by the United States Sanitary Commission, 
in Louisville, in 1863-4. 
A distinguished editor of the first journal of Kentucky 
still survives, in the full vigor of his intellectual powers, and Medical History of Kentucky. 
31 
is yet a large contributor of his mature learning and expe- 
rience to the journalistic literature of the state. A brilliant 
and instructive teacher, first in Transylvania and then in 
the University of Louisville, no member of the profession in 
the West has written more gracefully and powerfully than 
Dr. Lunsford P. Yandell. No Kentucky author has written 
more or upon a greater variety of important topics. His 
scientific reviews, elaborate monographs upon various sub- 
jects of medicine, papers upon geology and other branches 
of natural history, his introductory and valedictory addresses, 
and contributions to general and popular literature exceed 
one hundred in number. Besides these, I can not omit to 
mention a most valuable unpublished report made to this 
Society, in 1853, upon the Medical Literature of Kentucky. 
It is a work of exhaustive research, and an accurate index 
to the papers of all the writers of Kentucky. It should be 
continued to the present time, and published by this Society. 
The two journals which now represent this branch of 
medicine in Kentucky, the American Practitioner and the 
Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal, rank among the 
ablest of this country. 
In a community which has founded and fostered so many 
great medical institutions, true science would necessarily 
always command respect and confidence. In no part of this 
country have the many forms of quackery met with so little 
encouragement. Every where, of course, will be found igno- 
rance, credulity, and the other weak elements upon which 
medical fungi grow; but Kentucky may be justly proud of 
her remarkable exemption from them. 
Time and your exhausted patience admonish me that I 
must bring this historical olla podrida to a close. I trust that 
what I have said may serve to add something to the good 
name of our beloved state, and stimulate us to contribute 
yet more to the renown which our illustrious fathers have 
achieved for it. 32 
Medical History of Kentucky. 
I wish to say a few words as to the work of our present 
meeting. We have come, many of us, a long distance to 
do this work. Let us do it thoroughly and well. Let our 
sessions be devoted to scientific business, undisturbed, as far 
as possible, by matters which can not advance the interests 
of our beneficent calling, and may mar the usefulness and 
happiness of our annual reunion. I have a hope that this 
meeting may be signalized by the dignity of its conduct and 
the number and value of its contributions to medical science.