MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.—PROFESSORS NATHAN SMITH, REUBEN D. MUSSEY, DIXI CROSBY, EDMUND R. PEASLEE, ALBERT SMITH, AND ALPHEUS B. CROSBY.—OTHER TEACHERS.

In "A Contribution to the Medical History of New Hampshire," by Prof. A. B. Crosby, we find a condensed history of the Medical Department of the College.

"Soon after its formation, the impression became general that the State Society, excellent as it was both in design and execution, did not fully answer the medical wants of New Hampshire. There were those who felt that the young men of the State should have systematic, didactic instruction, and that this could be accomplished only by the foundation of a regularly chartered medical college. This plan was eventually reduced to a demonstration through the energy and talents of one man. It is with profound veneration that I write the name of Nathan Smith. Himself a member of the society, I know not but he here gained inspiration and encouragement for the enterprise from his associates. At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College, in August, 1796, being then a Bachelor of Medicine, not having received the degree of M.D., he made an application to the Board, asking their encouragement and approbation of a plan he had devised to establish a professorship of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in connection with Dartmouth College. After considerable discussion, the Board voted to postpone their final action upon the proposition for a year, but in the meantime a resolution was passed complimentary to the character and energy of Mr. Smith, and promising such encouragement and assistance in the future as the plan might merit and the circumstances of the college admit.

"The records of the college are extremely barren of details respecting the preliminary steps towards a medical establishment, and there are no means of knowing what the action of the Board was the following year. It is evident, however, that some measures must have been taken in relation to the future welfare of the school, for in the year 1798 we find that 'the fee for conferring the degree of Bachelor of Medicine pro meritis be twenty dollars.' The honorary degree of Master of Arts was the same year conferred on Mr. Smith, while it remained for a subsequent Board to discover that his professional attainments merited the rank and title of Doctor.

"Later in the same session it was voted 'That a professor be appointed, whose duty it shall be to deliver public lectures upon Anatomy, Surgery, Chemistry, Materia Medica, and the Theory and Practice of Physic, and that said professor be entitled to receive payment for instruction in those branches, as hereafter mentioned, as compensation for his services in that office.' Mr. Smith was at once chosen to fulfill the laborious, and to us almost incredible duties of this professorship, while the compensation alluded to was for a long time held in abeyance. We also find that in this year the Board adopted the following code of Medical Statutes:

"1. Lectures shall begin the first of October, annually, and continue ten weeks, during which the professor shall deliver three lectures daily, Saturday and Sunday excepted.

"2. In the lectures on the Theory and Practice of Physic, shall be explained the nature of diseases and method of cure.

"3. The lectures on Chemistry and Materia Medica shall be accompanied by actual experiments, tending to explain and demonstrate the principles of Chemistry, and an exhibition shall be made of the principal medicines used in curing disease, with an explanation of their medicinal qualities, and effect on the human body.

"4. In the lectures on Anatomy and Surgery, shall be demonstrated the parts of the human body by dissecting a recent subject, if such subject can be legally obtained; otherwise, by exhibiting anatomical preparations, which shall be attended by the performance of the principal capital operations in surgery. [The lower animals were used to some extent.]

"5. The medical professor shall be entitled to the use of the college library and apparatus gratis.

"6. The medical students shall be entitled to the use of the college library under the discretionary restrictions of the president.

"7. Medical students shall be subject to the same rules of morality and decorum as Bachelors in Art residing at the college.

"8. No graduate of any college shall be admitted to an examination for the degree of Bachelor of Medicine, unless he shall have studied two full years with some respectable physician, or surgeon, and attended two full courses of lectures at some university.

"9. No person not a graduate shall be admitted to such an examination unless he shall have studied three full years, as above, attended two full courses of lectures, and shall, upon a preparatory examination before the president and professors, be able to parse the English and Latin languages, to construe Virgil and Cicero's orations, and possess a good knowledge of common Arithmetic, Geometry, Geography, and Natural and Moral Philosophy.

"10. Examinations shall be holden in public before the executive authority of the college by the medical professor, and candidates shall read and defend a dissertation, etc.

"11. Every person receiving a degree in Medicine shall cause his thesis to be printed, and sixteen copies thereof to be delivered to the president, for the use of the college and Trustees.

"12. The fee for attending a full course of lectures shall be fifty dollars; that is, for Anatomy and Surgery, twenty-five dollars; for Chemistry and Materia Medica, fifteen dollars, and for Theory and Practice, ten dollars.

"13. The members of the two senior classes in college may attend the medical lectures by paying twenty dollars for the full course.

"Besides these statutes, the Trustees voted that Mr. Smith might employ assistance in any of his departments, at his own expense, and that one half part of the fees for conferring the degree of Bachelor of Medicine be his perquisite, and the other half a perquisite to the president of the college.

"The first course of lectures was delivered in the fall of 1797, although Mr. Smith was not elected to his professorship until after his return from Europe, the following year. In the year 1798, two young men were graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Medicine. The next year the Trustees voted to appropriate a room in the northeast corner of Dartmouth Hall to the use of Professor Smith, and it was repaired and furnished for that purpose. The room was a small one, scarcely as large as a common parlor, but still it served for a lecture hall, dissecting-room, chemical laboratory and library, for several years, when another room adjoining was appropriated to the same purpose.

"In 1801, the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon Mr. Smith, and a committee was appointed to confer with him in relation to a salary. A grant of fifty dollars per annum was voted him, upon which he was to allow a debt he owed the college for money loaned. I presume that this latter was furnished him in order to enable him to visit Europe.

"The Trustees about this time made a change in the term of study required for a degree. The new statute fixed the period of three years for academical graduates, and five years for non-graduates."

In 1803 the New Hampshire Legislature granted $600 to Dr. Smith for the purchase of apparatus, and in 1809 $3,450 for "a building of brick or stone for a medical school, sixty-five feet in length, thirty-two feet in width, and two stories in height," Dr. Smith furnishing land for the purpose. He furnished one acre, on which a brick building seventy-five feet in length, two stories in the middle, with wings of three stories, was erected, at a cost of over $4,600, Dr. Smith becoming responsible for the balance. By the terms of the above grants the building and anatomical and chemical apparatus became the property of the State upon the removal of Dr. Smith from the institution, which is with propriety styled the "New Hampshire Medical College."

In 1810 Dr. Cyrus Perkins (created a Doctor upon that occasion) was elected professor of Anatomy. Some trouble having occurred about this time between the college officers and the Medical students, the following articles were added to the laws.

"'1. That each person, previous to becoming a member of the Medical institution, shall be required to give satisfactory evidence that he possesses a good moral character.

"'2. That it be required of medical students that they conduct themselves respectfully towards the executive officers of the college, and if any of them should be guilty of immoral or ungentlemanly conduct the executive may expel them, and no professor shall receive or continue to receive as his private pupil any such expelled person, or recommend him to any other medical man or institution.

"'3. That the executive officers of the college be, and hereby are authorized to visit the rooms of the medical students whenever they think proper.'

"In the year 1812, some important changes were made in the economy of the institution. Up to this time the degree of Bachelor of Medicine only was conferred upon recent graduates, while the degree of M.D. was only allowed in course three years after graduation. This was now changed, and the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon all medical graduates. The term of study was again changed, and fixed at the present standard. Another of the new regulations and perhaps the least agreeable one to the students, compelled candidates to read their theses publicly in the chapel.

"The Faculty was also strengthened by the appointment of Rufus Graves, Esq., as lecturer on Chemistry, making this department, for the first time, a separate branch. Colonel Graves, although a good lecturer, was an unsuccessful manipulator, which caused his dismission in 1815, three years later. During the same year [1812, at Dartmouth] we find that Mr. Reuben D. Mussey, a name thoroughly identified with the success of the school, and with medical progress in New Hampshire, was created a Doctor of Medicine.

"In 1814, Dr. Smith having been absent for a year, it was voted that the salary and emoluments pertaining to the chair of Medicine, be paid to Dr. Perkins, and at an adjourned meeting the resignation of Dr. Smith was received and accepted. The Board then proceeded to elect Dr. Mussey professor of Theory and Practice and Materia Medica. In 1816, Dr. Perkins was excused from lecturing on Surgery, and Obstetrics was added to his chair, instead, while Dr. Mussey assumed the department of Chemistry, in addition to his other labors. In the meanwhile Dr. Smith was reËlected professor of Surgery, but declining to accept, Dr. Massey added a course of lectures on this branch to his already laborious duties. The following year he was somewhat relieved by the choice of Dr. James F. Dana, as lecturer on Chemistry, which office he continued to hold until 1820, when he was elected to a full professorship. In August, 1819, Dr. Perkins resigned his chair.

"By vote of the Board of Trustees, in 1820, they accepted the proffered fraternization of the New Hampshire Medical Society, by sending delegates to attend the annual examinations. The statutes were also altered very materially. By these amendments the Medical Faculty were allowed the sole control of the discipline, etc., of their department. Students coming to attend lectures were not required to give evidence of the possession of a good moral character, as under the old laws. The invidious have alleged that this latter amendment enabled a larger number to avail themselves of the advantages of a medical education than might otherwise do so. The requirements for graduation were at the same time lessened, being now limited to a knowledge of Latin and Natural and Experimental Philosophy, while the examinations were to be private, instead of public, as heretofore.

"It was determined that the Medical Faculty should henceforth consist of:

"1. The president of the College.

"2. A professor of Surgery, Obstetrics, and Medical Jurisprudence.

"3. A professor of Theory and Practice and Materia Medica.

"4. A professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy.

"5. A professor of Anatomy and Physiology.

"Dr. Mussey was elected to the first of the professorial chairs; Dr. Daniel Oliver, of Salem, Mass., to the second; Dr. James F. Dana, to the third, and Dr. Usher Parsons to the fourth. Dr. Parsons remained but two years, when Dr. Mussey was appointed professor of Anatomy, in addition to his other branches. No further change occurred until 1826, when Dr. Dana resigned the chair of Chemistry, which was filled by the election of Professor Hale, who continued to lecture until 1835, when his connection with the college ceased. The following year Dr. John Delamater was chosen professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic, and the present incumbent, Dr. O. P. Hubbard, professor of Chemistry, while in 1838 a great change was made in the Medical Faculty by the resignation of all the lecturers except Professor Hubbard. By the election of the Trustees, the Faculty now consisted of Elisha Bartlett, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Delamater, Oliver Payson Hubbard, Dixi Crosby, and Stephen W. Williams. Dr. Bartlett resigned in 1840, and was succeeded by Dr. Joseph Roby. Dr. Delamater also left, and Dr. Holmes tendered his resignation. The next year, 1841, Dr. Phelps and Dr. Peaslee commenced their long and useful connection with the school. No farther change was made until 1849, when Dr. Roby resigned and Dr. Albert Smith was elected. In 1867 Dixi Crosby resigned the chair of Surgery, and A. B. Crosby, who had served as adjunct professor of Surgery since 1862, was elected to fill the vacancy. In 1869, Dr. Peaslee, having resigned the chair of Anatomy and Physiology, was transferred to a new chair of the Diseases of Women, while Lyman Bartlett How, M.D., was elected to fill the vacancy. And finally Dr. Dixi Crosby has sent in his resignation of the chair of Obstetrics, to take effect at the ensuing commencement (1870), thus terminating an active connection of thirty-two years with the school.

"Nathan Smith, the founder of the school, was without dispute a great man. He was born at Rehoboth, Massachusetts, September 30, 1762. Incited to enter the profession by witnessing an amputation in Vermont, he devoted himself to acquiring the best preliminary education his means afforded, and eventually entered his profession full of zeal and ambition, resolved to act no secondary part in his chosen vocation. To found a medical college at Dartmouth was the chief desire of his early manhood. Regardless of his own pecuniary interests, he borrowed money to buy the necessary apparatus and appliances with which to commence his course of instruction. When the increasing demands of the institution required a building for its accommodation, it was through his personal efforts that it was secured. The means were raised and the project carried out by Dr. Smith, who, himself, on his own responsibility, furnished a large part of the money. A part, as shown by the records, was also secured by the same gentleman from the Legislature of New Hampshire.

"Dr. Smith was a man of genius. I hazard nothing in saying that he was fifty years in advance of his profession. He was one of those characters who was not only an observing man, but, rarest of all, he was a good observer. Nothing escaped him, and when he had seized on all the salient points of a given subject, he astounded his listeners with the full, symmetrical character of his generalizations.

"As intances in point, let me briefly advert to one or two illustrations. When Dr. Smith entered the profession, everything in the way of continued fever in the valley of the Connecticut was termed typhus. Dr. S. soon became convinced that while true typhus did prevail, there was yet a continued fever essentially different in its character, and so he came to differentiate between typhus and typhoid. Noting carefully the symptoms in these cases, making autopsies whenever a chance occurred, and observing the morbid changes thus revealed, he soon found himself master of the situation. Then he wrote an unpretending little tract, in which he embodied his observations and his inferences. This brochure was undoubtedly the first comprehensive description of typhoid fever written, and covered in a wonderfully exhaustive way not only the clinical history, but the pathology, of this most interesting disease. This noble record of results, obtained by observations made mainly at Norwich, Vermont, and Cornish, New Hampshire, was almost the 'Vox clamantis in deserto.'

"Many years later, in the great hospitals of Paris, Louis made and published his own observations in regard to the same disease, and the whole medical world rang with plaudits of admiration at his genius and learning. But in the modest little tract of Nathan Smith, the gist and germ of all the magnificent discoveries of Louis are anticipated. And thus it is again demonstrated that men of genius are confined to no age and to no country, but whether in the wilds of New Hampshire or in the world's gayest capital, they form a fraternity as cosmopolitan as useful.

"I have recently learned an incident that still further illustrates Dr. Smith's sagacity. While residing in Cornish he had a friend who was a sea-captain, and who, on his return from foreign voyages, was wont to relate to him whatever of interest in a medical way he might have chanced to observe while abroad. On one occasion he told Dr. Smith that on his previous voyage one of the sailors dislocated his hip; there being no surgeon on board, the captain tried but in vain to reduce it. The man was accordingly placed in a hammock with the dislocation unreduced. During a great storm the sufferer was thrown from the hammock to the floor, striking violently on the knee of the affected side. On examination, it was found that in the fall the hip had somehow been set. This greatly interested Dr. Smith, and he questioned the narrator again and again as to the exact position of the thigh, the knee and the leg, at the time of the fall.

"From this apparently insignificant circumstance, Dr. Smith eventually educed and reduced to successful practice the method of reducing dislocations by the manoeuvre, a system as useful as it is simple, and as scientific as the principle of flexion and leverage on which it depends. Had this incident been related to a stupid man, he would have seen nothing in it, or to a skeptic, he would have discredited the whole account, but to a man of genius it furnished a clue by which another of Nature's labyrinths was traced out. This system is by far the best ever devised, symplifying and rendering easy the work of the surgeon, while reducing human suffering to its minimum.

"I do not propose to recall to your minds how much he did for Medicine and Surgery; that were the work of days, not a single hour.

"Time would fail me to relate the well authenticated traditions of his skill, his benevolence and his practical greatness. But almost from the inception of his professional life until he left for New Haven, he was the acknowledged leader of his profession in the State, and his reputation came soon to cover the whole of New England. He was the father of several sons, who have since been distinguished in the same profession. The venerable Professor N. R. Smith, of Baltimore, is the eldest, and perhaps the most celebrated, of the survivors."

The venerable Dr. A. T. Lowe adds the following valuable paragraphs:

"In the organization and early history of the Medical department of Dartmouth College Dr. Nathan Smith occupied a preËminent position. For ten or twelve years he was the actual manager and the only professor in the institution, giving three lectures each day, for five days in the week, through the term of ten to twelve weeks. He lectured with great acceptance in all the branches of the profession then taught in the few kindred institutions existing in the country, and he contributed liberally to the pecuniary support of the institution, frequently to his great personal inconvenience. With these accumulated duties to discharge, he faithfully attended to a large practice in Medicine and Surgery, which was daily increasing, and severely tasking his physical as well as his intellectual powers, and his fame, in the line of his profession, soon placed him at its head; and his skill and the history of his remarkable success, so frequently announced, and so well attested, was early recognized and acknowledged, not only throughout his State, but was scarcely limited to New England. By a seeming universal consent Dr. Smith's name stood among the highest in the medical temple of fame.

"Dr. Smith was not what the world would now call a learned man. We may say of him, in this respect, what Ben Jonson said of Shakespeare: 'He knew little Latin and less Greek,' but he had a mind and a power of intellect which as eminently fitted him for a physician, as Shakespeare's genius qualified him to become a dramatist of the highest character; and whatever the occasion, whether it related to the lecturer or teacher, to the surgeon or physician, Dr. Smith could readily exercise his whole moral force for the enlightenment of his pupil, or the health of his patient.

"The writer of these lines became his pupil in 1816; attending him almost daily in his professional visits, to witness his practice and listen to his clinical instruction."

After giving one or two instances of his quick diagnostic ability and his highly successful practice, he continues:

"Dr. Smith was a great and good man. He never appeared to toil for professional fame, but to do good to his fellow-man: and in view of his virtues as a citizen and his justly preËminent skill as a physician, one of his surviving pupils of those early days, who now counts more than four-score years, feels impelled to exclaim,—Honored be the memory of Nathan Smith, the founder, father, and for many years the sustainer of the Medical Department of Dartmouth College; ever recognized by all his friends and acquaintances—and their name was legion—as an honest man and most useful citizen."

Professor Smith married successively, Elizabeth and Sarah, daughters of Gen. Jonathan Chase, of Cornish, N. H. He died at New Haven, Conn., where he had been some years a professor in the Medical Department of Yale College, January 26, 1829.

A commemorative "Address," by Professor A. B. Crosby, contains the following account of Professor Smith's successor:

"Reuben Dimond Mussey was born in Pelham, N. H., June 23, 1780. His father, Dr. John Mussey, was a respectable physician and an excellent man.

"Determined to have an education, although too poor to immediately attain it, he labored on a farm in summer and taught a school during the winter. This he continued to do until, at the age of twenty-one, he entered the Junior class in Dartmouth College, in the year 1801. He continued to teach for his support while in college, and acquitted himself creditably as a scholar, being reckoned in the first third of his class.

"He was graduated in August, 1803, and immediately became a pupil of Dr. Nathan Smith, the founder of Dartmouth Medical College. The following summer young Mussey taught an academy at Peterborough, and studied with Dr. Howe of Jaffrey.

"He completed his studies with Dr. Smith, sustained a public examination, and read and defended a thesis on Dysentery. The degree of Bachelor of Medicine having been conferred upon him in 1806, he commenced practice in Ipswich, now Essex, Mass. Here he practiced successfully for three years, when he settled his business and went to Philadelphia, where he engaged in medical study for a period of nine months. While at Chebacco, now Essex, Mass., he married Miss Mary Sewall, who survived the marriage only three years. He subsequently married Miss Hetty Osgood, a daughter of Dr. Osgood of Salem, who served as a surgeon in the army during the Revolution. Under the instruction of Benjamin Smith Barton, he attended a full course of lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, and was graduated as a Doctor in Medicine in the year 1809. The professors at that time were Rush, Wistar, Physic, Dorsey, Barton, and Woodhouse.

"Drs. Chapman and James gave the course in Obstetrics. Dr. Mussey here distinguished himself by a series of experiments tending to rebut some of the generally received physiological doctrines of the time.

"On his return from Philadelphia he settled in Salem, Mass., and soon afterward formed a partnership with Dr. Daniel Oliver, subsequently a professor in the Dartmouth Medical College.

"These gentlemen gave popular courses of lectures on Chemistry, in Salem, with great acceptance. Dr. Mussey remained in this field between five and six years, and attained a large practice during the last three years, averaging, it is said, a fraction over three obstetric cases a week. He had already distinguished himself as a surgeon, and in the autumn of 1814 he was called to the chair of Theory and Practice at Dartmouth. He gave in addition a course on Chemistry, most acceptably to the students, and engaged in an extended and a laborious practice.

"In 1822, Dr. Mussey was appointed professor of Anatomy and Surgery. Until the close of the session of 1838, he held this chair, and also lectured on Materia Medica and Obstetrics, to meet occasional exigencies in the college.

"In the summer of 1818 he lectured on Chemistry in the college at Middlebury, Vt. In December, 1829, Dr. Mussey left Hanover for Paris, where he remained several months. He passed several weeks in London, visited the great hospitals and museums, both there and in the provinces, and became acquainted with many distinguished men.

"Not far from this time he was invited to fill the chair of Anatomy and Surgery at Bowdoin College, which he did for four years in succession. In 1836 and 1837, Dr. Mussey went to Fairfield, New York, and gave lectures on surgery at the Medical College in that place. During the year 1837 a professorship was tendered him in New York city, Cincinnati, and Nashville, Tennessee. He decided to accept the call to Cincinnati, and for fourteen years was the leading man in the Ohio Medical College. He then founded the Miami Medical College, labored assiduously for its good six years, and then retired from active professional life, though still retaining all his ardor and enthusiasm for his chosen profession. At the close of his professorial duties in 1858, Dr. Mussey removed to Boston, where he spent the remainder of his life, and died from the infirmities of age, June 21, 1866.

"He had ever been from his youth a consistent, devout Christian, and his record is without spot or blemish.

"It was as a surgeon that Dr. Mussey came to be most extensively known. Both as an operative and a scientific surgeon he attained a national reputation.

"He cared not to make a figure, but to benefit his patient; not to gain Éclat, but to save human life. He believed much in skilled surgery, something in nature, but most of all in God. So it transpired that on the eve of a great operation he frequently knelt at the bedside, and sought skill and strength and success from the great Source of all vitality. We are told that the moral effect upon the patient, and the peaceful composure that followed, were not the least of the agencies that so often rendered his surgery successful.

"But he was not content blindly to accept the dictum of those who had gone before. Every principle was carefully scrutinized, and whatever he believed to be false he did not hesitate to attack, and so his name came to be associated with surgical progress. As illustrative of this point, some instances may be adduced.

"In the year 1830, and before that period, Sir Astley Cooper had taught the doctrine of non-union in cases of intra-capsular fracture, and it was generally accepted as an established principle at that time. Dr. Mussey carried a specimen to England which he believed showed the possibility of such union taking place. Sir Astley on first seeing it said, "This was never broken," but on seeing a section of the same specimen remarked, 'This does look a little more like it, to be sure, but I do not think the fracture was entirely within the capsular ligament.' John Thompson of Edinburgh, on seeing it, declared 'upon his troth and honor' that it had never been broken. This eminent surgeon, like the disputatious Massachusetts Scotchman, 'always positive and sometimes right,' was in this instance mistaken, as the principle advocated by Dr. Mussey is now established.

"As a surgeon he was bold and fearless, ever willing to assume any legitimate responsibility, even though it took him into the undiscovered country of experiment. He did not do this rashly, but only when the stake was worthy of the risk. There is still living in Hanover a monument of Dr. Mussey's pluck and skill. This man had a large, ulcerated and bleeding nÆvus on the vertex of his head, which threatened a speedy death. There seemed no way to relieve the patient except by tying both carotids, which was regarded as an operation inevitably fatal. The danger was imminent, and as Dr. Mussey could see no way to untie the knot, he determined to cut it. He tied one carotid, and in twelve days tied the other, following both operations in a few weeks with a removal of the tumor. The recovery was perfect, and the case was, we believe, the first recorded instance where both carotids were successfully tied. This operation gave him great fame both at home and abroad.

"It is not my purpose to attempt an account of the surgery done by this eminent man, only to touch on some of its salient points. Thus he successfully removed an ovarian tumor, at a time when the operation had been done only a few times in the world. He removed a boy's tongue which measured eight inches in circumference, and projected five inches beyond the jaws, and the patient recovered.

"He removed the scapula and a large part of the clavicle at one operation, from a patient on whom he had amputated previously at the shoulder-joint. Dr. Mussey supposed that this was the first operation of the kind [as it was in some respects] in the history of Surgery.

"He several times removed the upper, and portions of the lower, jaw. Dr. Mussey kept no extended records of his operations, but I subjoin a few statements alike interesting to us and creditable to him.

"He performed the operation of lithotomy forty-nine times, and all the patients recovered but four. He operated for strangulated hernia forty times, and with a fatal result in only eight cases. He practiced subcutaneous deligation in forty cases of varicocele, and all were successful. Dr. Mussey operated four times for perineal fistula, twice for impermeable stricture of the urethra, and did a large number of plastic operations with the best results. He also successfully treated a recto-vaginal fistula.

"These are only a fraction of the innumerable operations which he did, yet they show results such as the greatest surgeons in the world would be proud to declare.

"But it is not alone as a surgeon that Dr. Mussey attained excellence. It was as an accurate observer that he early made himself known to the medical world. The habit of his mind was positive; he respected authority, and to the latest period of his life was assiduous in acquiring professional knowledge from books no less than from observation. He delighted to fortify himself in any given position by citing authorities, and always showed that he had informed himself exhaustively in the bibliography of the subject. Yet it was his habit to subject every medical statement to the most rigid tests. While pursuing his studies in Philadelphia, he joined issue with Dr. Rush on some of the physiological doctrines which were generally received at that time. This distinguished man had taught the doctrine of non-absorption by the skin. This was supposed to have been proved by an experiment in which a young man, confined in a small room, breathed through a tube running through the wall into the open air, the surface of the skin being rubbed at the same time with turpentine, asparagus, etc. As no odor of these substances was perceptible in the secretions, it was inferred that no absorption had taken place through the skin, and that it was impossible. Dr. Mussey, believing this doctrine to be fallacious, immersed himself in a strong solution of madder for three hours. He had the satisfaction of getting unmistakable evidence of the presence of madder in the secretions for two days, the addition of an alkali always rendering them red. He repeated this experiment with the same result, and made it the theme of a thesis on his graduation. Some of the Faculty who differed with Dr. Rush on the subject were much pleased with these experiments, and predicted even then for our friend a distinguished career."

Professor Mussey died at Boston June 21, 1866.

We quote from Dr. J. W. Barstow's obituary notice in the "New York Medical Journal," November, 1873, of Professor Mussey's successor.

"Dr. Dixi Crosby, for thirty-two years professor of Surgery in Dartmouth College, died at his residence in Hanover, N. H., September 26, 1873. Dr. Crosby was born February 7, 1800, at Sandwich, N. H., of pure New England stock,—strong in the best Puritan element, where self-reliance, love of justice, and unbending will, formed the basis of character and the mainspring of action. His father's father was a captain in the Revolutionary army, and served with two of his sons at the battle of Bunker Hill. His maternal grandfather (Hoit) was one of Washington's body-guard, and later in life a judge of some distinction. His father, Dr. Asa Crosby, who married Betsey Hoit, was a surgeon of eminence in eastern New Hampshire. At the age of twenty, he entered upon the study of Medicine in the office of his father.

"The practice of a country doctor in New Hampshire of course embraced every department and variety of professional work. But Surgery offered to young Crosby a special charm, and the ardor with which he threw himself into this branch of the profession showed early fruits. From the day when he commenced his Anatomy, his practice and his study went hand in hand. Fearless and original, ready in expedients and ingenious in their use, he observed, he resolved, and he acted.

"In the first year of his study he accompanied his father to a consultation in the case of a man whose leg had been frozen, and whose condition was most critical. It was agreed by the older physicians that amputation at an earlier stage might have saved the patient's life, but that it was now too late to attempt it. Young Crosby urged that the operation be performed, but the elders shook their heads. He even proposed to attempt it himself; but this was received with a storm of disapproval, in which even his father joined, and the thing was pronounced impossible. The doctors then departed, leaving the student to watch with the patient during the few hours which apparently remained of life. During the night young Crosby succeeded in reviving the courage of the man to make a last effort for life. The limb was removed, and the man recovered.

"His second year of study developed still further the growing resources of the young surgeon. Upon one occasion both father and son, while visiting a patient at night, in a distant village, were suddenly called to a case of extensive laceration of the leg, with profuse hemorrhage. The case was urgent, and the patient was sinking. No instruments were at hand. He called for a carving-knife, which he sharpened on a grindstone and finished on a razor-strap, filed a hand-saw, amputated the limb, dressed the stump, left the patient in safety, and drove home with his father to breakfast. The man recovered.

"Before a nature so fearless, and so fertile in expedients, obstacles speedily vanish, and young Crosby found himself in possession of a large and responsible practice, even before taking his medical degree, and at the early age of twenty-three years. The following year (1824) he graduated in Medicine at Dartmouth (having passed his examination in November preceding), and for ten years remained in Gilmanton, in practice with his father. He then removed to Meredith Bridge, now Laconia, N. H., where he practiced for three years; and in 1838 was called to the chair of Surgery in Dartmouth College, then recently made vacant by the resignation of the late Dr. Mussey. In this field Dr. Crosby found at once full exercise for all his large resources of head and heart and hand. As an instructor he was clear, direct, and definite,—imparting, to his pupils his own zeal, and teaching them his own self-reliance. 'Depend upon yourselves, young gentlemen,' he invariably said. 'Take no man's diagnosis, but see with your own eyes, feel with your own fingers, judge with your own judgment, and be the disciple of no man.'

"In his class, he was courteous without familiarity, patient with dulness, but quick to punish impertinence; always kind, always dignified, always genial. The practical view of a subject was the view which he delighted to take; and the dry humor with which he never failed to emphasize his point, at once fixed it in the memory of the class, and made it available for future use. With his office-students, Dr. Crosby was the very soul of geniality and confidence. He saw and measured men at a glance, and was rarely wrong in his estimate of character. Strong in his own convictions, he was yet tender of the infirmities and the prejudices of others, and his generous instincts lost no opportunity for their daily exercise.

"His love of nature was as instinctive and as thorough as his knowledge of men. He transferred the treasures of the woods to his own garden. He studied the habits of birds and insects, and his parlors were adorned with a cabinet of American birds more complete than is often found in the museum of a professed naturalist. He reveled in the 'pomp of groves and garniture of fields,' and his daily drives through the picturesque scenery of the Connecticut valley fed his Æsthetic taste, and proved a compensation for fatigue.

"Dr. Crosby, though a surgeon by nature and by preference, was in no modern sense a specialist. His professional labors covered the whole range of Medicine. His professorship included Obstetrics as well as Surgery, and his practice in this department was exceptionally large. His surgical diocese extended from Lake Champlain to Boston. Distance seemed no bar to his influence, and his professional journeys were often made by night as well as by day. Of the special operations of Dr. Crosby we do not propose here to speak in detail. It is sufficient to mention that, in 1824, he devised a new and ingenious mode of reducing metacarpo-phalangeal dislocation. In 1836 he removed the arm, scapula, and three quarters of the clavicle at a single operation, for the first time in the history of Surgery. He was the first to open abscess of the hip-joint. He performed his operations, without ever having seen them performed, almost without exception. Dr. Crosby was not what may be called a rapid operator. 'An operation, gentlemen,' he often said to his clinical students, 'is soon enough done when it is well enough done.' And, with him, it was never done otherwise than well.

"At the outbreak of the rebellion, Dr. Crosby served in the provost-marshal's office at a great sacrifice for many months, attending to his practice chiefly at night. As years and honors accumulated, Dr. Crosby still continued his work, though his constitutional vigor was impaired by the severity of the New Hampshire winters, and by his unremitting labor. At length, having reached man's limit of three-score years and ten, he withdrew from active practice, and in 1870 resigned his chair in the college, to which his son succeeded. From that time it was plain that Dr. Crosby's life-work was nearly done. In his well-ordered and delightful home he found that rest to which his long service in behalf of humanity entitled him. His end was perfect dignity and perfect peace.

"To those of us who had been most intimately associated with our departed friend, who had enjoyed his teachings, his counsels, and his generous kindness, the news of his death came as a heavy shock. But he still lives in the remembrance of his distinguished services, in the unfading affection and gratitude of his pupils, and in the many hearts whose burdens he has lifted. Verily, 'Extinctus amabitur idem!'"

Professor Crosby married Mary Jane, daughter of Stephen Moody, of Gilmanton, N. H.

The following paragraphs relating to one of Dartmouth's most eminent professors, the esteemed classmate of President Bartlett, who says: "Outside of my own family circle, I had no better friend," are from the pen of Dr. T. A. Emmet, of New York.

"Edmund Randolph Peaslee was born at Newton, New Hampshire, January 22, 1814. We have no record of his boyhood, or of his life previous to graduating from Dartmouth College, with the class of 1836. In this institution he occupied the position of tutor from 1837 to 1839, when he entered the Medical Department of Yale College and took his degree in 1840.

"The following year he settled in Hanover, N. H., and commenced the practice of his profession. Without waiting in expectation, he began his busy life by delivering a popular course of lectures on Anatomy and Physiology.

"These lectures indicated so clearly his talents that, in 1842, but two years after entering the profession, he was appointed professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Medical Department of Dartmouth College, and retained the office until his death. Within a year afterwards, in 1843, he was appointed lecturer, and shortly afterwards professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the Medical School in Maine, connected with Bowdoin College. He filled those two professorships until 1857, when he gave up Anatomy, but continued to lecture on Surgery until 1860. Dr. Peaslee first came to the city of New York in 1851, on receiving the professorship of Physiology and General Pathology in the New York Medical College, then just being established.

"This position he held for four years, when he was transferred to the chair of Obstetrics, and continued to lecture on this branch until the institution was closed about 1860. He, however, did not settle in New York, to the practice of his profession, until 1858. After 1860, he mainly devoted himself to his practice, lecturing little except during the summer or autumn course in Dartmouth College. But to do justice to his subject and compress the whole subject into the space of some six weeks, this being his time of recreation from business, he always delivered at least two lectures a day and frequently more. In 1870, he was elected one of the Trustees of his Alma Mater, which had in 1859 conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws. From 1872, he delivered a course of lectures in the Medical Department on the Diseases of Women. Two years afterwards, the course on Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College was divided, when Dr. Peaslee was offered and accepted the chair of GynÆcology. At about this date he also occupied for a short time a professorship in the Albany Medical School. On the reorganization of the Medical Department of the Woman's Hospital of the State of New York, in 1872, he was made one of the Attending Surgeons, and held this position, together with his professorship in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, at the time of his death.

"In 1857, he published in Philadelphia, 'Human Histology, in its Relations to Descriptive Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology,' in which were given for the first time, by translation, the experiments of Robin and Verdell on Anatomical Chemistry. But the one great work which will identify him with his generation is that on 'Ovarian Tumors, their Pathology, Diagnosis, and Treatment, especially by Ovariotomy,' published in New York, 1872. To this work he contributed but little original matter, beyond his personal experience, which had been large at that time. He, however, presented a digest of the whole subject in so thorough and masterly a manner that this work is destined to be a classic and a landmark as it were. It will be the future starting-point for the literature of this subject, as an original patent is in the searching of a title. There will be no need to go beyond his researches on this subject, as they are exhaustive.

"For one feature in his work he has often expressed the greatest satisfaction, that he had been able to establish for Dr. Ephraim McDowell the credit of being the first ovariotomist. In consequence of his labors, the world has at length given us credit for this great discovery, of no less value than many others which we can claim to have originated in our country, for the prolongation of life and for the mitigation of suffering.

"Dr. Peaslee, at some time in his life, had lectured on every branch of Medical science. With the exception of Dr. Physic, we have not another instance where the lecturer was equally proficient in the practice. But if we compare the extent of professional knowledge in Dr. Physic's generation and the acquirements of the present day, Dr. Peaslee will stand alone. Notwithstanding the incessant claims of his profession, he kept up through life his collegiate training in the classics, his taste for mathematics, and had acquired the knowledge of one or more modern languages. Few men in the profession were more familiar with the literature of our own language."

Dr. W. M. Chamberlain, who had rare opportunities for appreciating the character and worth of Dr. Peaslee, says:

"The call for a sketch of Dr. Peaslee's professional life and work will be abundantly satisfied by the recorded tributes of his more immediate colleagues and associates, Drs. Barker, Thomas, Emmet, Flint, and others. These are but a part of the testimony which after his death came from far and near. Wherever men were gathered for the study and discussion of medical subjects it was felt that a fountain of knowledge was closed, a leader of opinion was gone, and they made haste to acknowledge their obligations and their loss. He was a member of many such organizations, and almost uniformly advanced to the front rank in position.

"President of the New Hampshire Medical Society; of the New York County Medical Society; the American GynÆcological Society; the New York Academy of Medicine; the New York Pathological Society; the New York Obstetrical Society; the New York Medical Journal Association, etc., etc., he reaped all the honors. Yet no one ever thought of him as a seeker of office. The tribute was always spontaneous, necessary: 'Palmam qui meruit ferat!'

"And these honors were not awarded for any great effort or success in some partial field. He was decorated for service in each specific line, as Physician, Surgeon, Pathologist, GynÆcologist, Bibliographer. His attainments were comprehensive and symmetrical.

"He had the very great advantage of a liberal general education. This gave him his broad outlook upon all departments of science. He had by nature a mathematical and logical habit of mind. This made him the accurate and complete student that he was, both in original investigations and literary research. At the outset of his career he sought the best schools. Just then (1840) reigned a new enthusiasm in the physical and experimental study of the Medical Sciences at Paris. Laennec, Andral, Louis, Malgaigne, Velpeau, and Bernard, were the worthy models and masters of the young American.

"Thus well-endowed, well-grounded, and well-guided, he entered upon a life of professional study, which he pursued with unremitting ardor and diligence even to the end of life.

"It would seem to be a great thing to say of any man that he was never idle, and never unprofitably employed; but it might be more justly said of Dr. Peaslee than of any other person known to the writer. He wasted no work. His conclusions were not reached by intuition or guess, but slowly and surely elaborated, exactly formulated and classified, so as to be always at his command.

"More than any other member of the profession known to the writer did he illustrate each clause of Bacon's category, that 'Reading maketh the full man; writing the exact man; and conversation the ready man.'

"From the first he was an agreeable and satisfactory teacher, year by year, increasingly so; this work he did for thirty-six years; in six Medical Colleges, in five different departments of the curriculum, before nearly a hundred different classes of students. Such training, such practice, made him a teacher in every professional circle. In societies he was wont to be a silent and often apparently an abstracted listener until near the close of the debate; then he would rise and review the whole subject with a memory so comprehensive, a knowledge so complete, and an appreciation so judicial, that nothing more remained to be said. His books and monographs for the time and era of their publication were standard, and will always remain exceptionally valuable. Only the lapse of many years may antiquate but never stale his elegant work on 'Ovarian Tumors,' of which one of his most famous compeers has said that he would 'rather have written it than any other medical work of any time or in any language.'

"In his personal relations to the members of the profession, Dr. Peaslee was genial, charitable, and just. His patients looked to him in perfect confidence and respect, personally as well as professionally. He was as remarkable for the diligent care as for the thorough study of his cases; and at every visit he dispensed with gentle humor the best medicines, faith and hope.

"From youth through middle life he passed in the light of growing knowledge; in the serenity of accomplished duty; in the prestige of gathering fame and fortune; and he died before age or decay had limited his scope of life."

Prof. Peaslee married Martha Thankful, daughter of Hon. Stephen Kendrick, of Lebanon, N. H. He died in New York City, January 21, 1878.

Reliable sources furnish some facts regarding another gentleman long and honorably connected with this Department.

Prof. Albert Smith, M.D., LL. D., was born in Peterborough, N. H. He graduated at Dartmouth College, in 1825, and took his medical degree there, in 1833. He was early successful as a practitioner, and before middle age acquired a high reputation as a medical scholar and thinker.

In 1849, he was appointed professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Dartmouth Medical College, where he continued to lecture till his resignation, in 1870, from which time until his death he was professor Emeritus. In 1857, he delivered his course of lectures at the Vermont Medical College, and also the course at the Bowdoin Medical School, in 1859.

The honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Dartmouth College, in 1870, and also an honorary degree of M.D. by the Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1875. He was also an honorary member of the New York Medical Society. As a medical instructor he was included in the first rank of New England professors. His writings also gained him a wide and enviable reputation. Among his publications were a lecture on Hippocrates; also one on Paracelsus, and a commemorative Discourse on the death of Dr. Amos Twitchell, besides various articles in the medical journals and in the transactions of the New Hampshire Medical Society.

With high professional attainments and distinctions Prof. Smith united a personal character of the highest purity, integrity, and nobility. He had been for a long time a member and constant attendant upon the Unitarian Church, and for thirty years a Sunday-school teacher. He was a strong advocate of temperance, and took a deep interest in the cause of education. He represented Peterborough, his place of residence, in the Legislature several times. He devoted the spare hours of his latest years to the preparation of a "History of the Town of Peterborough," which was published in a large octavo volume in 1876. He married Fidelia Stearns, February 26, 1828. Prof. Smith died at Peterborough, February 22, 1878.

The following paragraphs relating to one of Dartmouth's most largely endowed, highly cultivated, and warmly beloved teachers, Prof. Alpheus B. Crosby, who was born at Gilmanton, N. H., February 22, 1832, and was the son of Dr. Dixi and Mary Jane (Moody) Crosby, are from a Memorial "Discourse" by Dr. J. W. Barstow:

"Seven generations of tough New England fibre, combining sturdy physique, thorough individuality and undiluted common sense, form a groundwork on which no modern youth need hesitate to build, while the mellow background of a virtuous lineage well prepares the canvas for whatever of high aim and noble deed shall fill up the fresher foreground of his own life's picture.

"The native temperament of the boy, as I remember him, showed some rare combinations and counterpoises. With an exuberance of animal spirits he had, also, a natural balance of caution. He was ardent, but not hasty; he was self reliant and fearless, but never precipitate; frank and affable, though not easily won by a stranger; fond of experiment, but also intensely practical. He was prompt to decide, but always took time for detail, and pursued perseveringly to the end whatever engaged his attention and his effort.

"His constant association with his father, and with his father's friends, made the boy perfectly at home in the office and in the society of professional men; and almost from his cradle he was accustomed to assist in minor operations and in the general detail of a student's service. Being a discreet lad, he often accompanied the elder Crosby in professional visits; and thus the face of the 'parvus IÜlus,' became, early, as familiar as that of the 'pater Æneas,' and grew, later, to be as welcome.

"When chloroform in Surgery was first introduced, Dr. Dixi Crosby went to Boston to study its effects, and was one of the first surgeons in New Hampshire to employ it in his practice. Young Ben was then a school-boy of fifteen. His father, with full confidence in the coolness and self possession of his son, at once commenced training him as an assistant for the administration of the anÆsthetic; teaching him to watch the pulse and respiration, and to note all the necessary conditions for its safe employment. And from this time, even long before our friend commenced the systematic study of his profession, he assisted his father, and administered the chloroform in many important operations, sometimes even making long journeys for the purpose. It is interesting to add, also, that in all the years of their practice together, and in all their operations, performed under the use of chloroform, there never occurred a single accident from its administration.

"On graduating at Dartmouth, in 1853, our young friend pursued his medical studies in the office of his father. He attended lectures both at Dartmouth and at the College of Physicians in New York City, and served for one year as interne in the U. S. Marine Hospital at Chelsea, Massachusetts. With the exception of these necessary absences from home, he gave every day of these preparatory years to the assistance of his father in his wide and laborious practice. To this course he was stimulated no less by filial ardor than by his growing professional zeal.

"His medical degree was taken at Dartmouth, in 1856, and instead of beginning to practice, we may say that he continued to practice with his father in Hanover, going in and out as a favorite, both with patients and in society.

"Immediately on receiving his medical degree, Dr. Crosby was appointed demonstrator of Pathological Anatomy in the Dartmouth Medical College, an office which he ably filled for five years.

"At the outbreak of the rebellion, in 1861, he was appointed surgeon of the first regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, for three months' service. This being concluded, he was at once commissioned as Brigade Surgeon of U. S. Volunteers, and soon after promoted to the rank of Medical Director, serving as such on the staffs, successively, of Generale Stone, Casey, Sedgwick, and Peck. His army service was marked by the same strong individuality, the same resolute activity, the same executive talent, which we have seen stamped upon the boy and the youth. Added to all those other qualities, was that same genial humanity which made friends of every one. His brother officers trusted him, depended upon him, and loved him. The private soldiers idolized him, for they saw his quick and constant sympathy for them, and knew that his large and loving heart embraced them all in its tender care.

"In the noble record of his army service, let us not forget, that to our lamented friend belongs the credit of having originated and erected the first complete military hospital on the modern 'pavilion plan' that was built during the war of the rebellion.

"This hospital was visited and admired by surgeons throughout the army, as a model of complete ventilation and drainage. Its plans were extensively copied, and the record of its usefulness is preserved in the archives of the War Department.

"In all his widening range of work and of social activities says Professor Parker, 'his large heart seemed as incapable of being overloaded with friendships as it was inexhaustible in its overflowing friendliness. His personal magnetism held fast old friends, while the keen points of his magnetic nature constantly caught new affinities and drew to him fresh intimacies.'

"In the autumn of 1862, he was appointed adjunct professor of Surgery in Dartmouth, and from that time forward his honors, literally, outran his years.

"The number of his appointments to professional chairs in different institutions, is something beyond precedent in the history of any young American practitioner.

"In 1865, he was invited to the chair of Surgery in the University of Vermont, and in the same year to a similar chair in the University of Michigan.

"Both these positions he accepted, and ably filled for several years.

"In 1870, on the resignation of his honored father at the age of threescore and ten, Dr. Ben was at once called to the chair of Surgery in Dartmouth, and entered upon its duties, still continuing to perform full duty in both his other professorships. He also delivered a course of surgical lectures in Bowdoin College, Maine, during the same year.

"In 1871, he received the appointment of Surgical professor in the Long Island Medical College, in the city of Brooklyn, which he accepted, together with the post of visiting surgeon in the hospital to which the college was attached. His work during this period was extremely arduous, but was performed with the utmost ability and credit.

"In 1872, he was invited to a professorship in the New York University, and also to another (that of Surgical Anatomy) in Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City. The former of these he declined, but he accepted the latter and retained it until his death.

"In 1873, Dr. Crosby was invited by the Trustees of Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, to accept the chair of Anatomy, on the resignation of the distinguished Dr. Pancoast.

"This, though not accepted, may be reckoned the crowning honor in his wreath of professional laurels."

For all the qualities which distinguish the model physician, surgeon, teacher, and companion, few names, in all the annals of Medicine, stand higher than that of Alpheus Benning Crosby.

Professor Crosby married at Baltimore, Md., Mildred Glassell, daughter of Dr. Wm. R. Smith. He died at Hanover, August 9, 1877.

In closing this record the valuable services of Parsons, Delamater, Bartlett, Holmes, Hubbard, Roby, Williams, Phelps, Field, How, and Frost should not escape our notice.