The History of Dartmouth College Part 32

"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 _eclat_, but to save human life. He believed much in skilled surgery, something in nature, but most of all in G.o.d. 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 a.s.sociated with surgical progress. As ill.u.s.trative 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 Ma.s.sachusetts 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 a.s.sume 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 naevus 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 circ.u.mference, 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-v.a.g.i.n.al 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 a.s.siduous 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 pa.s.sed 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 cla.s.s, 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 cla.s.s, 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 aesthetic 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 acc.u.mulated, Dr. Crosby still continued his work, though his const.i.tutional 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 ent.i.tled him. His end was perfect dignity and perfect peace.

"To those of us who had been most intimately a.s.sociated 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 grat.i.tude 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 cla.s.smate 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 cla.s.s of 1836. In this inst.i.tution 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 inst.i.tution 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 s.p.a.ce 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 Gynaecology. 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 cla.s.sic 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 t.i.tle. 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 cla.s.sics, 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 a.s.sociates, 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 Gynaecological Society; the New York Academy of Medicine; the New York Pathological Society; the New York Obstetrical Society; the New York Medical Journal a.s.sociation, 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, Gynaecologist, 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 cla.s.sified, so as to be always at his command.

"More than any other member of the profession known to the writer did he ill.u.s.trate 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 cla.s.ses 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 pa.s.sed 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.