Compliments of the Author. 
MEDICAL HEROISM 
, OF 1878. 
BY 
J. W. SINGLETON, M. D., 
of Paducah, Ky. 
READ BEFORE THE TRI-STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY, SPRINGFIELD, 
ILL., NOVEMBER, 1878. 
[Reprinted from the St. Lotas Medical and Surgical Journal, June, 187'J.\ 
ST. LOUIS: 
GEO. O. RUMBOLD A CO. 
187 9. MEDICAL HEROISM OF 1878. 
Lovers of ancient history dwell with rapture on the recital of 
the peerless valor of Greek and Roman soldiers, as they were 
marched from one field of slaughter to another, to be crowned 
with bays of victory or heroically endure the agonies of defeat. 
They present for our admiration the heroic deeds of Caesar and 
Pompey, of Marc Anthony and Brutus, of Scipio and Hannibal, 
and of Alexander, who marshaled their mighty hosts to glory or 
the grave on gory battle-fields in search of conquest or of power, 
that usurpers and tyrants might lord it over the lives and lib- 
erties of their fellow-men. The world’s vast record book is full 
of the wrongs that have been perpetrated against the rights of 
mankind, and the calamities that have been cruelly visited 
upon the human family. Though no compliment to modern civ- 
ilization, it is the truth of history, that society in all ages, 
has given more permanent applause to brilliant bloodshed 
than to golden deeds of benevolence, philanthropy and self- 
sacrifice. Why this has always been so is a question that pre- 
sents itself to every reflecting mind, and demands the serious- 
consideration of all lovers of our race. It may be the fault of" 
our sinful nature, that the brave soldier rushing to battle and to 
triumph in a wicked cause, wins greater renown than the faithful 
who falls in front of the fight against pestilence, or tho 
humble priest who ministers comfort and consolation at the gates- 
of death. Some men yet contend, that after all our efforts to hu- 
manize and ennoble our kind, we are still in the bonds of selfish- 
ness, “and all uncharitableness,” without any substantial sym- 
pathy or fraternity for each other. But this I do not believe. I 
cherish an abiding faith in the inherent nobility of mankind. I 
contend that there is no sin or evil under which men suffer 
that has not its compensating good in the means of its mitiga- 
tion or relief. The human family, and especialy educated hu- 
manity, is much better than bitter-hearted misanthropists pre- 
tend to believe, as the recent history of our great and beloved 
common country abundantly testifies. That men have in a great 
measure ceased to glory in deeds of violence, and the sad conse- 4 
Medical Heroism. 
quence of misdoing; that they are rapidly binding themselves 
together “with hooks of steel,” for the general good; that 
through the teachings of divine inspiration and the guidance 
of a nobler social philosophy, they are slowly recognizing the 
sublime truth that “ God has made of one blood all the nations 
of the earth. 
From this heaven-born ti’uth has sprung the universal faith 
and hope in men for which all lovers in mankind should be 
devoutly thankful, for its perfect development will constitute an 
epoch in the drawing of an era in the history of the world, 
which will lead it to health, safety, joy and happiness, and ul- 
timately to a glorious deliverance from sin and from evil of every 
kind. We should, therefore, be profoundly grateful to that 
kind Providence which has permitted us to exist as factors in 
such an age; an age of the grandest moral heroism, in the midst 
of events which though they may make men weep, yet cause 
the angels to rejoice over the nobility of human nature. They 
tell us of the “golden age,” the “silver” and the “iron age,” 
but in the fullness of our hearts, let us call this the age of human 
sympathy. It is the commencement of man’s social redemption 
and the amelioration of the present and future condition of our 
children and our children’s children, to the remotest posterity; 
in the charmed circle and firm solidarity of universal love, as one 
in a common/fluY/t and hope, a common protection in danger and 
suffering; and in the ministration of relief, when affliction and 
sorrow shall come upon us. Ancient philosophers had but a 
faint conception of the common fatherhood of God and the com- 
mon brotherhood of man. 
Though Confucius may have dimly shadowed forth the sub- 
stance of the Golden Rule, four thousand years ago, it was left 
to Jesus Christ in his “Sermon on the Mount,” to give eternal 
significance to the divine precept, “therefore, whatever ye would 
that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.” For the 
last eighteen hundred years, whenever and wherever men have 
obeyed this God-given injunction, they have been blessed of 
Heaven and loved by their fellow-men. To-day, the world lies 
under the shadow of its benign influence, because it was born of 
God, for the good of the human race! May it live and flourish 
forever! 
There was much that was grandly heroic, and worthy of all 
imitation in the earliest ages, but contrasting the glories of Medical Heroism. 
5 
ancient days, and even of the middle ages, with the triumphs of 
the present, we find that in the former, the battle was against 
life, while in the nineteenth century it is for life. While it was 
once the pride of Caesar’s followers on the field of slaughter to 
show how a Roman soldier could do his duty, bravely and to the 
death, it is the glory of modern civilization to furnish hosts of 
noble and devoted men, who are willing to labor, suffer and die 
(if necessary) for their follow-creatures. St. Paul truly said of 
the age in which ho lived : “greater love hath no man than that 
he lay down his life for his friendj” but were Paul, the last, but 
not the least, of those inspired messengers, who were sent to 
to bear the glad tidings of salvation to a sin-crushed world, living 
to-day, he would see that a man can lay down his life, not only 
for his friend, but for strangers. He would behold gallant and 
self-sacrificing men and women, full of the holy zeal of God-like 
philanthropy, throwing themselves with brave and generous 
impulse into the breach between human life and the horrors of 
a death plauge, and saying to the afflicted, in the language of 
Pythias to Damon* “ if I cannot live to save you, I will die to 
accompany you. He might see men going from place to place 
in search of the plague-stricken, and in the exercise of the tender 
offices of relief, heroically exclaiming, in the words of the brave 
old Regulus, when he knew that the extremest tortures and 
death awaited him in the land of the enemy: “Itis my duty to 
go, let the gods take care of the rest 3” feeling that it is better 
to die honorably in the defence of our brother man, than to enjoy 
the pleasures of ignoble ease and safety for many years. 
The story of the Russian servant whose master’s carriage was 
overtaken by the wolves in the wilderness, is worthy of being 
recalled here. That gallant and faithful serf, in order to appease 
the rapacious hunger of the wolves even for a time, that his 
lord’s horses might remain untouched, and he saved from a 
violent death, willingly threw himsllf among the blood-thirsty 
animals, and the nobleman was borne to a place of safety. Many 
of us no doubt remember to have heard of the brave pilot of 
Lake Erie, who, when the steamer was on fire, and swift destruc- 
tion threatened its cargo of living freight, held fast to the 
wheel, in the very jaws of the flames, safely piloted the vessel 
to the shore and saved the lives of her passengers, at the cost 
of his own fearful agony and death. And then, too, the never- 6 
Medical Heroism. 
to-be-forgotten example of the dauntless Flewellyn, the surgeon 
of the ill-fated Alabama. When that Confederate war-vessel re- 
ceived her death-wound from the guns of the Kearsage, and was 
slowly sinking beneath the waves, her chief medical officer had 
frequent opportunities to save his life, by passing on the life-boat 
to the schooner Greyhound. But no; he heard the cries of the 
suffering, and remained with his helplessly wounded comrades, 
and, almost in sight of his home and his loved ones, whom he had 
not seen for two long years, sunk beneath the waves of the 
English Channel, in the silent companionship of those he had 
loved and served so well. 
Speaking from a worldly and selfish standpoint, such cases of 
apparently reckless personal sacrifice, seem foolish in themselves, 
but when we consider the spirit of self-abnegation, and the 
animus of sublime moral heroism that prompts them, we cannot 
but regard such actions as among the strongest arguments that 
can be offered in support of the immortality of the human soul. 
Such examples of heroic devotion to the grand idea of man’s 
personal honor, dignity and devotion, ennoble human nature, 
bind the good and the brave of all nations together in the bonds 
of common sympathy, and make us proud that we are men. 
They make us feel that “ there is nothing so noble as forgetful- 
ness of self,” and the scale of our love and admiration for man- 
kind, ascends rapidly when we thus consider the noble and 
precious deeds of which our fellow-men are capable, for they 
are truly “the golden and the priceless jewels of history, and the 
salt of life.” They make us exclaim in the beautiful words of 
Charles Kingsley: 
“ Still the race of hero-spirits 
Pass the lamp from hand to hand, 
. Age from age the world inherits, 
Wife and child and fatherland ! 
Still the youthful hero gathers 
Fiery joy from wold and wood, 
He will dare as dared his fathers, 
Give him only cause as good! ” 
Socrates was right when he said to his judges in contemplation 
of his probable death at the hands of the Greeks (and the senti- 
ment expressed by that wise philosopher thousands of years ago 
is as applicable to us as it was to him upon the day of its utter- Medical Heroism. 
7 
ance): “A man who is good for anything ought not to calcu- 
late the chance of living or dying. lie ought to consider 
whether in doing anything, he is doing right or wrong, acting 
the part of a good man or a bad man, and having decided 
what is right, he should do right at the peril of his life.” The word 
“ duty ” has been said to be “ the sublimest in the English lan- 
guage.” When a man reaches that degree of self-abnegation, 
that he is wholly devoted to the performance of his duty to his 
fellow-men he is no longer an ordinary man, but fit for the com- 
panionship of the Gods. 
Tho sublime moral spectacle of the sacrifice of such a man in 
the perilous attempt to save others, is enough to make the angels 
weep, and drape the world in solemn black ! It is written that 
a few, and occasionally many, must, in the very nature of things, 
be sacrificed for the good of the multitude. The loss may be 
great and horrible at times, and, for the moment, shock the ten- 
der sensibilities of the whole world j but, nevertheless, the offer- 
ing must be made, whether it appease the hungry Moloch of de- 
struction or not. It is our duty to try to save those who are in 
peril, even at the risk of our own lives. 
When the Indian princess sucked the poison of the deadly 
cobra from the arm of her lord, upon the instant in which he was 
bitten, and died from its effects, she did it that he might livo for 
his country and his tribe, though she herself perished in her act 
of self-devotion. It was a nobly grand and heroic action that 
stands recorded in the shining record ofJevents “that were not 
born to die.” And so may the members of our beloved profes- 
sion ever be ready to fly to the relief of our fellow-men when 
bitten by the serpent of disease and pestilence, and, with the best 
means at our command, work bravely and faithfully to extract 
the poisonous distillments that have been emplanted in their tor- 
tured bodies, or, failing in our attempt to save them from de- 
struction, comfort them “through the valley and shadow of 
death,” even to the portals of the tomb. In the words of the 
sainted Dr. Slater, “Duty is better than life.” When we, as 
medical men, voluntarily accept the sacred responsibilities of the 
physician’s life, we do so in full realization of the fact that fidelity 
to the human race is the chief corner-stone of our professional honor. 
We can not afford to be cowards in time of great public danger 
and distress. As watchful sentinels around the citadel of com- 
mon safety, we must be “faithful unto death,” if we would justly 8 
merit the plaudit of “ well done, thou good and faithful servant." 
Fully twenty thousand of our fellow-citizens in the Southern 
States have perished with fever in 1878. Many of the 
fairest portions of the beautiful South have been worse than 
decimated by the plague in the last four months. More than a 
hundred of our medical brethren have found untimely graves in 
their heroic efforts to save others from the horrors of “ the Black 
Death" which has been running riot in the fairest country under 
the sun. The story of Grenada, New Orleans, Memphis, Holly 
Springs, Greenville and Hickman can never be forgotten while 
pity has a tear to shed for the loved and the lost, and men can 
sing praises to the immortal actions of the brave and the good! 
For four long and painful months this terrible enemy to hu- 
man life held high carnival in a goodly portion of five States 
south of the Ohio river, and even invaded territory north of that 
line heretofore exempt from the dread monster of the African 
jungles. Now that the storm of pestilence has happily passed 
away, and the blighting incubus of a great and sorrowful affliction 
has been lifted by the kindly hand of a merciful Providence from 
the abodes of our Southern brethren, and even while the shadow 
of the dark and common sorrow rests as a mournful blight upon 
“the land of the magnolia and the palm," let us survey the battle- 
fields upon which our hero-brothers have fought with varying for- 
tunes, and sum up the imperishable results of the terrible contest 
through which they have passed. Never in the history of our 
common country have we had more substantial evidences of a 
common sympathy among the people of these American States, 
than those which have been shown by our sad experience since 
the first day of July, 1878. Never in the history of medical sci- 
ence and art have we had juster and nobler reasons to be proud of 
the moral grandeur and nobility of our profession. Never before 
has the spirit of our national brotherhood been developed to such 
an extent as to make us feel and know that there is ever a chord 
in the American heart which needs only to be touched by the 
magic power of sympathy to cause it to yield the most precious 
fruits of benevolence and charity. While it has been the sad lot 
of the South to suffer and to mourn, as “Rachel weeping for her 
children, and would not be comforted because they were not," it 
has been the holy privilege of the North to succor and relieve. 
And now that the wasting simoon of human destruction has 
passed from Southern habitations, and we recount the loss of life 
Medical Heroism. Medical Heroism. 
and the ruin of homes that can never be restored, there is not 
one of us who does not feel, in-the midst of his grief, prouder of 
his profession than ever before; prouder of this .Republic and its 
people, as one in common charity, one in common fraternity and 
common solidarity of mutual interests, loving dependence and 
brotherly protection. 
Those of us who lived near the pathway of the hurricane of pes- 
tilence that so lately swept through the South have seen how no- 
bly grand have been tbe efforts of the great and powerful North 
to relieve the distress of her Southern sisters. The treasures of 
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachu- 
setts have mingled with the heart-offerings of Kentucky, Mis- 
souri, Virginia and Maryland. Munificent donations have been 
thrown into the lap of Southern sorrow, and, bedewed with team 
of gratitude, they have caused the inmates of many a Southern 
home to rejoice even on the confines of death. The Howard As- 
sociation has come nobly to the front in obedience to the call of 
duty, and man}r of its best and bravest men have given up their 
precious lives in their holy work. The Young Men’s Christian 
Association has proved a faithful and energetic auxiliary in the 
great effort of human benefaction. All these are gratifying facts 
concerning the yellow fever epidemic of 1878. But there is 
something more to be told of it: The revelation of our nation’s 
brotherhood will form a chapter in the history of our beloved Re- 
public that will be read in after years by admiring millions, and 
prove an honor that can never die. This glorious record of a 
wide, noble, common philanthropy in danger and suffering will 
do more to cement the hearts of the American people in the 
bonds of a common affection than all our customs, laws, language 
and armies combined, because it springs from the all-protecting 
and all-saving principle of the Golden Rule—love to God and' 
fraternity for mankind! 
The noble contest to save tbe lives and promote the happiness 
of our fellow-citizens was a struggle in which there was no glad- 
iatorial bloodshed to defile the dead and shame the living; no 
Isthmian pine wreaths to encircle the brows of victors in honor 
of the number they had slain in the bloody battle of man against 
man, or man against beast. No, no ! It was a bra\;e and gallant 
fight to save life, and not to destroy; one in which even the van- 
quished were victors in the holiest cause in which men could la- 
bor and die—the cause of suffering humanity. 10 
Medical Heroism. 
At the battle of Rocroy, in 1643, when the last of the old Span- 
ish infantry under Captain Gonzala de Cordova were all cut off, 
they were found standing fast, to a man, not one having broken 
ranks. And so we behold, encircled by the halo of unfading 
glory, the shining hosts of those who have fallen in defence of 
human life ! One by one they went forth, as ministers of mercy, 
to duty and to death. One by one they gallantly fell at their 
posts while the conflict was raging with relentless fury; and, 
crowned with fadeless laurels, the}T passed silently to “ the great 
beyond” amid the benedictions of the saved and the blessings of 
the dying. Who were the principal actors in this melancholy 
drama? Were they only Southerners? No! Were they only 
Northerners? No! Were they American physicians? Yes, 
most gloriously yes! Their humanhood was bounded by no geo- 
graphical or sectional lines—no mountains, no rivers, no chilling 
snows or sunny plains. The holy charter of their God-like phi- 
lanthropy embraced within its merciful domain the whole world. 
It was circumscribed by no lines, no language, no creed or con- 
dition, but that of the welfare of the human race, the health and 
safety of a common people, and their speedy deliverance from 
danger and death. Who would not be an American doctor ? 
From all parts of our country they came to the rescue, as Ameri- 
can citizens, proud of a common republic, forgetful of the unhappy 
past, overflowing with the divine spirit of brotherly charity, as 
devoted exemplars of American medicine and faithful friends of 
mankind. 
It is said that “history repeats itself.” The remark is often 
true in an ordinary or general sense; but no age, clime or coun- 
try has ever before witnessed the sublime spectacle of a whole 
nation devoted to the work of benevolence, and whole States, 
large cities, and even villages contending for the honors of mu- 
nificence in their generous-hearted offerings to thousands in dan- 
ger and distress. 
Ancient heroism may vaunt its blood-stained trophies of vic- 
tories won upon the fields of sanguinary strife. Modern histo- 
rians record with admiration the “ charge of the gallant six hun- 
dred,” but more glorious and grandly heroic is the perilous 
voyage of the relief boat “ Chambers ” and her brave volunteer 
•crew, under the command of the fearless Benner, down “the 
Father of Waters,” through “the valley and shadow of death,” to 
the relief of our Southern brethren from plague and starvation. Medical Heroism. 
11 
Such manifestations of the brave and gallant sympathy of a whole 
people is American, wholly American ! There is not room 
enough anywhere else on the face of the earth for such deeds of 
moral sublimity and noble self-sacrifice. Such philanthropy is 
God-born in a land long enough, broad enough, and rich enough 
for its stupendous growth. Its executors are Americans, with 
American brains and American hearts, making American heroes 
whose grand record can never be erased from the fond admira- 
tion and loving remembrance of their grateful countrymen. 
Such heroes as the nobly gifted and deeply lamented Dr. John 
Lay Cook of Henderson, Kentucky, who fell at Hickman, Octo- 
ber 1, 1878, fighting for mankind, and other heroic medical men 
from the North, South, East and West, who gave their lives for 
the good of others, during the summer and fall of 1878, in the 
Southern States, while bravely battling against the attacks of the 
devouring monster which was preying with pitiless voracity upon 
the vitals of their fellow-men. Such men have illustrated in their 
noble lives and sacredly sacrificial death the sublime moral hero- 
ism of the present enlightened age. They made themselves the 
immortal heroes of a fierce conflict in which the loud artillery 
and rattling musketry of war were not heard, and the groans of 
the suffering and dying were not caused by the abuse of human 
power or passion, for they were the faithful and fearless soldiers 
in the van-guard of humanity, who fought to overcome an enemy 
that lurked unseen to mortal eyes, masked in bowers of bloom- 
ing beauty, and was yet “ more terrible than an army with ban- 
ners.” Brave and noble spirits! Gallant and fearless exem- 
plars of duty in the humanhood of the world! Live forever in 
Creation’s great heart! THE ST. LOUIS 
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