The History of Louisville, from the Earliest Settlement till the Year 1852 Part 11

Benjamin Silliman, Jr., M. D., Professor of Medical Chemistry and Toxicology.

[17]Daniel Drake, M. D., Professor of the Theory and

T. G. Richardson, M. D., Demonstrator of Anatomy.

The venerated name of CHARLES CALDWELL, M. D., was also, for a long time, a.s.sociated with this school, and much of its earlier success is attributable to his exertion.

The law department of the University has been in active operation only since the winter of 1847. It has, however, obtained a wide spread and deservedly great reputation as a school. The number of pupils educated in this department since its commencement is one hundred and ninety-six.

The Professors of the Law Department of the University are as follows:

Hon. Henry Pirtle, L. L. D., Professor of Const.i.tutional Law, Equity and Commercial Law.

Hon. Wm, F. Bullock, Professor of the Law of Real Property and of the Practice of Law, including Pleading and Evidence.

Hon. James Pryor, Professor of the History and Science of Law, including the Common Law and International Law.

The prospects of this school for the ensuing year are more flattering than they have ever been. The distinguished gentlemen who are at the head of this inst.i.tution have reason to congratulate themselves as well on their past success as on their brilliant prospects for the future.

Besides these two schools under the immediate control of the city, the Medical Department of the Masonic University of Kentucky is also located here. This school has been in operation for a very short time, having been organized in 1850, but its claims seem already to be recognized throughout the West. The inst.i.tution opened with a cla.s.s of 103 young gentlemen, which number was increased in the second year of its existence to 110.

With so auspicious a commencement, and under the direction of its distinguished faculty, there seems to be no reason why it should not soon equal in point of numbers and utility the other and older college. The advantages of Louisville over other western cities as a location for medical schools does not need any further notice than these statistics will afford. What has already been accomplished by these inst.i.tutions will establish its advantages with the reader more fully than any deliberate reasoning could do. The faculty of the Kentucky School of Medicine is composed of the following gentlemen:

Benj. W. Dudley, M. D., Emeritus Professor of Anatomy and Surgery.

Robert Peter, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology.

Thos. D. Mitch.e.l.l, Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine.

Joshua B. Flint, M. D., Professor of Principles and Practice of Surgery.

James M. Bush, M. D., and Ethelbert L. Dudley, M. D., Professors of Special and Surgical Anatomy and Operative Surgery.

Henry M. Bullitt, M. D., Professor of Physiology and Pathology.

Llewellyn Powell, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children.

Erasmus D. Foree, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Clinical Medicine.

David c.u.mmings, M. D., Demonstrator of Anatomy.

St. Aloysius college, under the care of the Jesuits, is an academical inst.i.tution of some celebrity. It has six professors and several tutors.

The Kentucky Inst.i.tution for the Education of the Blind is also located here. This n.o.ble monument of philanthropy has been the means of much good to the cla.s.s for whom it was intended. It has had an average attendance of about twenty pupils. The course of instruction is ample and the results have been in the highest degree creditable to the teachers. The proficiency of many of the pupils is truly wonderful; and their apt.i.tude in learning many of the branches taught them, more especially that great solace of the blind, music, is everywhere noted. They are also instructed in various kinds of handicraft, by which they are enabled to earn an honorable support after leaving the school. The price of board and tuition for those who are able to pay is only one hundred dollars per annum; while indigent children, resident in the State, are educated gratuitously. The s.p.a.cious building erected for the use of this school was recently destroyed by fire, but will be speedily rebuilt on a more favorable site and in a better manner than before.

Beside the schools above mentioned there are a great number of private schools of various grades of excellence. Among these the Young Ladies'

Schools of BISHOP SMITH and of PROF. n.o.bLE BUTLER are perhaps the most widely known. They offer advantages for the education of young ladies which are not surpa.s.sed in any city. Indeed the educational opportunities afforded by the many excellent public and private schools of Louisville are in the highest degree creditable to the city and have attracted and still continue to attract to it many families from distant parts of the country. To those who know how properly to estimate the value of educational privileges, the training of their children is an all-important consideration; and, as nothing can supply the want of parental care, it is not uncommon for families to seek as a residence those places which at once possess great facilities for instruction, and are free from the dangers of ill-health. Louisville has both these advantages, and hence this city owes to these facts much of her best population.

The healthiness of Louisville is everywhere a subject of remark. Its past reputation for insalubrity is long since forgotten, and its singular exemption from those epidemic diseases whose ravages have been so terrible in other places, have gained for it a very enviable distinction among cities. The following recent report of the Committee on Public Health of the Louisville Medical Society will tend still further to confirm what has just been said: "Since the years 1822 and 1823," says this doc.u.ment, "the endemic fevers of summer and autumn have become gradually less frequent, until within the last five or six years they have almost ceased to prevail, and those months are now as free from disease as those of any part of the year. Typhoid fever is a rare affection here, and a majority of the cases seen occur in persons recently from the country. Some physicians residing in the interior of this State see more of the disease than comes under the joint observation of all the pract.i.tioners of the city, if we exclude those treated in the Hospital.

"Tubercular disease, particularly pulmonary consumption, is not so much seen as in the interior of Kentucky. Our exemption from pulmonary consumption is remarkable, and it would be a matter of much interest if a registration could be made of all the deaths from it, so that we could compare them with those of other places.

"For the truth of the remarks as to the extent and frequency of the diseases enumerated we rely solely upon what we have observed ourselves, and upon what we have verbally gathered from our professional friends.

"This exemption of Louisville from disease, can be accounted for in no other way than from its natural situation, and from what has been done in grading, in building, and in laying off the streets.

"Louisville is situated on an open plain, where the wind has access from every direction; upon a sandy soil, which readily absorbs the water that falls upon it; susceptible of adequate drainings; supplied bountifully with pure lime stone water, which is filtered through a depth of thirty or forty feet of sand; its streets are wide and laid off at right angles--north and south, east and west--giving the freest ventilation; and the buildings compact, comfortable, and generally so constructed as to be dry and to admit freely the fresh air. It is situated upon the border of the beautiful Ohio, and environed by one of the richest agricultural districts in the world, supplying it with abundance of food, and all the comforts and luxuries of life. It must, under the guidance of science and wise legislation, become, if it is not already, one of the healthiest cities in the world. Its proximity to the rapids of the Ohio may add to its salubrity, and it is certain that the evening breezes wafted over them, produce an exhilarating effect, beyond what is derived from the perpetual music of the roar of the falls."

It may be proper to add the following table of the comparative statistics of annual mortality of the resident population as ascertained from official sources.

In Louisville the deaths are one to 50.

Philadelphia do do 36.

New York do do 37.

Boston do do 38.

Cincinnati do do 35.

Naples do do 28.

Paris do do 33.

London do do 39.

Glasgow do do 44.

The _Market Houses_ of Louisville, five in number and all located upon Market Street, are profusely supplied with every production of this lat.i.tude. Markets are held every day, and prices are much lower than in Eastern cities. The Kentucky beef and pork which is everywhere so celebrated, is here found in its true perfection. The vegetables and fruits peculiar to this climate, are also offered in excellent order and in great abundance. Irish and sweet potatoes, green peas, corn, cuc.u.mbers, lettuce, radishes, asparagus, celery, salsafie, pie plant, melons, peaches, apples, cherries, strawberries, and many other vegetables and fruits are plentifully supplied. The Irish potato is sold at from twenty-five to forty cents per bushel, green peas command about twenty cents per peck, strawberries fifty cents per gallon. The choice pieces of beef can be had at from six to eight cents per pound, less desirable pieces bring three and four cents. Pork is bought at about five cents per pound. Turkies bring fifty to seventy-five cents each. Spring chickens, from seventy-five to one dollar and fifty cents per dozen. Ducks, fifteen to twenty-five cents each. Eggs are sold at four to eight cents per dozen.

b.u.t.ter, fifteen to twenty cents per pound. The lamb and mutton sold in this market, cannot be surpa.s.sed in point of quality in the United States.

The extreme fertility of the country around Louisville, and its perfect adaptation to the wants of the gardener and the stockraiser, must always give to this city the advantage of an excellent and cheap provision market.

The following is a list of all the publications issued from this city:

Journal Daily and Weekly Whig.

Courier " " "

Times " " Democrat.

Democrat " " "

Beobachter am Ohio " " "

Louisville Anzeiger " " "

Union Daily Neutral.

Bulletin " "

Sunday Varieties Weekly "

Presbyterian Herald " Presbyterian.

Western Recorder " Baptist.

Watchman and Evangelist " c.u.mb. Presby.

Christian Advocate " Methodist.

Kentucky New Era Semi-Monthly Temperance.

Christian Repository Monthly Baptist.

Indian Advocate " "

Bible Advocate " Neutral.

Theological Medium " c.u.mb. Presby.

Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery Monthly.

Transylvania Medical Journal "

This review of the social statistics of Louisville will be concluded with a notice of the number of persons engaged in the various avocations of life, as shows in the following:

Agents 58 Agricultural Implement Makers 5 Apothecaries 113 Architects 6 Artificial Flower Makers 2 Artists 10 Auctioneers 26 Barbers 198 Bakers 362 Bar Keepers 231 Basket Makers 15 Bellows Makers 5 Blind Makers 5 Blacking Makers 4 Blacksmiths 251 Bird Stuffers 2 Brush Makers 15 Brokers 28 Bricklayers 265 Brick Makers 45 Brewers 37 Bristle Cleaners 4 Book Sellers 18 Boot and Shoe Dealers 58 Book Binders 102 Butchers 201 Candle and Soap Makers 38 Caulkers 18 Carpet Weavers 8 Carvers 13 Cartmen 452 Carpenters 874 Camphine Makers 4 Cabinet Makers 275 Cement Maker 1 Clerks 1130 Clothing Dealers 57 Cigar Makers 159 Composition Roofers 2 Cotton Packers 22 Cotton Caulk Makers 3 Collectors 22 Confectionaries 96 Coach Makers 78 Coopers 116 Comb Makers 3 Dancing Teachers 10 Daguerreotypists 23 Dentists 13 Distiller 1 Doctors 162 Druggists 75 Dry Goods Dealers 275 Dyers 11 Editors 18 Edge Tool Makers 11 Egg Packers 4 Engravers 15 Engineers 139 Farmers 17 Feed Dealers 15 Fishermen 10 File Cutters 3 Foundrymen 369 Fringe Makers 4 Gardeners 31 Gentlemen 36 Gilders 8 Gla.s.s Setters 3 Gla.s.s Cutters 2 Gla.s.s Stainer 1 Gla.s.s Blowers 21 Glue Makers 2 Grocers 504 Guagers 3 Gunsmiths 17 Hatters 117 Hackmen 95 Hardware Dealers 34 Hucksters 45 Hose Makers 2 Ice Dealers 6 Ink Makers 6 Insurance Agencies 27 Iron Safe Maker 1 Lamp Makers 2 Laborers 1920 Last Makers 3 Leather Finders 16 Lawyers 125 Liquor Dealers 45 Locksmiths 47 Livery Keepers 43 Lightning Rod Maker 1 Lathe Makers 2 Match Makers 12 Machinists 33 Marble Cutters 21 Merchants 85 Millers 37 Milliners 186 Milkmen 8 Millwrights 17 Midwives 23 Music Dealers 9 Music Teachers 30 Music Publishers 3 No Occupation 127 Oil Cloth Makers 15 Oyster Brokers 5 Organ Builders 4 Oil Stone Makers 10 Opticians 2 Oil Makers 27 Paper Makers 22 Paper Box Makers 8 Painters 267 Pedlars 47 Plasterers 94 Plane Makers 26 Planing Mill and Lumbermen 33 Piano Makers 36 Printers 201 Paper Hangers 48 Potters 17 Professors 26 Pump Makers 16 Pickle Dealer 1 Plumbers 9 Pork Packers 25 Preachers 57 Presidents Company 45 Policemen 32 Queensware Dealers 26 Railroad Car Makers 6 Refrigerator Makers 6 River Men 330 Rope Makers 65 Saddlers 195 Semptresses 311 Scale Makers 7 Silver Platers 5 Silversmiths 63 Shoemakers 356 Ship Carpenters 133 Soda Makers 8 Speculators 43 Starch Makers 10 Stereotypers 3 Stone Cutters 219 Stocking Weavers 2 Surveyors 13 Students 638 Saw Millers 8 Stucco Workers 4 Stove Makers 4 Sail Makers 2 Surgical Instrument Makers 4 Tailors 375 Tanners 42 Tavern keepers 275 Teachers 67 Telescopic Instrument Makers 1 Tinners 115 Turners 22 Tobacconists 61 Trunk Makers 35 Upholsterers 29 Umbrella Makers 5 Variety Dealers 46 Vinegar Makers 8 Wig Makers 3 Wire Workers 12 Wagon Makers 144 Whip Makers 3 Wood and Coal Dealers 30 White Lead Makers 2 Wall Paper Makers 1