A doctor's experiences in three continents

Front matter

^ I

THE LIBRARIES COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY i

HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARY

Letter I. My Father

My father — His services in the Confederate army — His political opinions — His grief over the supposed death of a son — The wounding of his son at Gettysburg — Meeting of two brothers — My father's character and characteristics — His death — Dreams — Spiritualism — Religion.

Letter II. My Mother

Self-made men — Pride of blood and its effect upon character — The Innes family — My grandmother — Virginia hospitality — A temperance hotel — My mother — Her character — My birthplace — Edenton.

Letter III. Early Days

School — Death of my dog from grief— The treed Pasha — ^Visit to Washington and meeting wdth Mr. Tyler — His dispute with the Whig party — Webster's fidelity — The Princeton — Bursting of her great gun — Mr. Tyler's luck — Miss Gardner — First night at school and the fight and friendship which grew out of it — Dr. George A. Otis — Fighting as a peace measure.

LETTER IV. EARLY DAYS, (Continued.)

Fire-eaters of ante-helium times — Cowards — Dueling — A church school and its overdose of religion — The morbid but credulous seminarian— A night at the seminary— The good luck it brought me— ^Mistaken vocations— The"^ great (?) professor — Vanity — Ingratitude.

iv SYNOPSIS OF LETTERS.

LETTEK V.

AN EPISODE.

Make agreeable friends— My first sweetheart— My passion expresses itself in verse— A muff and a mistake— A remarkable dream and its realization— The letter of recall— The confession and the finale— K malignant but baffled teacher —Another visit to Nag's Head— Parson Midget and hiscongregation of psalm singers and land pirates — Changeswrought by winds and vandals.

LETTEE VI.

COLLEGE DAYS.

Start for college— Sickness by the wayside— Arrival and relapse—Fight with showmen— Death of Glover and humiliation of Smith — Another summer at the seashore— A cyclone and the wrecker's harvest— My sister's disappointment and death— Scattered bodies— Poetical effusion— Dr. William H. McGufiy— Professor Scheie de Vere— Professor William B. Rogers — Arraigned for gate burning.

LETTER VII.

STUDY OF A PROFESSION.

Join the Jefferson Society — Its reader, president and valedictorian—Choice of a profession — Argument between father and son — Medicine versus Law — Medicine victrix — Obstinacy as a dominant principle — Return to the university as a Med.— Defeat— Triumph— Graduate in medicine, &c. — Commence practice under William's auspices — William, the doctor, preacher and faithful servant — Earliest professional experiences.

LETTER VIII.

A WINTER IN PHILADELPHIA.

Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia— Professor Bache's^ Vitriolated Tartar — Students versus citizens — Results of the quarrel — A practical temperance lecture and a convert — Conceive the idea of hypodermic medication and scarlatination.

SYNOPSIS OF LETTERS. V

LETTEE IX.

A VISIT TO PARIS.

Visit to Europe — Steamer " Pacific " of the Collins line — First impressions of the fog-horn — A lecture on sea-sickness — Pleasant companions — Arrival at Liverpool — Visit to Little Bolton — The mother of an aristocrat — Codfish aristocracy abroad — An unexpected encounter — Promotion from the ranks to the kitchen — The neutrality and heroism of a good man.

LETTEE X.

IX PAEIS.

Doctor Epps and a dinner chez Phillipp^ — The Palais Eoyale, its chefs, cuisines and caves — Politics and gastronomy — French characteristics — The clubs of Paris — Public and private gambling — Hospitals and professors — Eicord, Velpeau, Piorry, Nelaton, Trousseau and Jobert de Lambelle — First acquaintance with Charcot, and subsequent kindness at his hands — An interrupted toilet and an unfilled engagement.

LETTEE XL

EETUEN TO EDENTON.

Visit to Italy — Parsimonious friends — Eeturn home in the " North Star " — Fellow passengers — Conservatism of the medical profession — Governor Wise and the Know-nothing party — Yellow fever at Norfolk and Portsmouth — Heroism of the doctors — Views of the disease — A supposed dangerous rival — His collapse and flight — Shifting responsibility — The sad story of Dr. Wright — The broken-hearted wife.

LETTEE XII.

COMMENCE LIFE IN EARNEST.

Join my father in business — The Collins family — Somerset Place — Southern life and hospitality — The negroes and their peculiar customs — The same customs found among the blacks in Egypt — Obtain the Fiske Fund Prize — Deliver oration before the North Carolina Medical Society.

VI SYNOPSIS OF LETTERS.

LETTER XIII.

AT WORK.

The Johnstone family — Mr. James C. Johnstone — The Rector — His character and his death — His second daiitrhter. EHzabeth Cotton, becomes my wife — We visit Virginia and Xew York — Mr. Johnstone presents me with Albania and a number of negroes.

LETTER XIV.

THE WILL CASE.

Mr. James C. Johnstone's change of sentiments toward hisfamily — His insanity — His unnatural will — His heii-s contest— Memoraljle trial — Adverse verdict and ruin of the family — 01<l Edenton after the war — The treason <.>f the " Colonel " — Incidejits of his life.

LETTER XV.

ALBANIA.

Birth of a daughter — The John Brown raid — Command a military company — Mitchell, the bear hunter — Visit to Virginia .Springs and meeting with Mr. Johnstone — Joseph M. Levy — Go to Baltimore as a professor.

LETTER XVI.

THE ROLE OF A PROFESSOR.

Experiences as a teacher — First failure, then success — Professional and social experiences — The attack of 19th of April — Death of Mr. Davis — !My own narrow escape — Davis^ character.

LETTER XVII.

THE WAR BEGUN.

Excitement in Baltimore — A memorable Sunday — Made chief surgeon of the municipal forces — Sent on a mission — Ben. Butler at the Relay House — Ashby — Charles AVinder — John Winder — Prisoners of war — Richmond and its state of excitement— Governor Letcher — Governor Ellis — Success of mission— Communications from University of Alaryland — Surgeon-general of North Carolina navy — Hatteras and its mementoes.

SYNOPSIS OF LETTERS. Til

LETTER XYIII.

WAR EXPERIENCES.

Revisit Richmond — Appointed surgeon in Confederate army — Ordered to the hospital at the University of Virginia — State of the wounded — Condition of the army — The medical department — An operation at the hip-joint — Bravery of the wounded — Professor Venable — Professor Coleman — Dr. Lewis Coleman — Dr. Fairfax — Dr. Moon — Mr. Wirtenbaker —Dr. John Staige Davis— Dr. J. L. Cabell— Prof. J. B. Minor.

LETTER XIX.

WAR EXPERIENCES, (Continued.)

Ordered to Richmond and placed on board of examination and inspection — Pleasant duties and agreeable colleagues — Society — Devotion of Southern women — Ordered to Xorth Carolina — Examination of surgeons — A morbid chairman — Battle of Xew Berne — Flight and panic — Made Medical Director of department of Cape Fear — Visit to Richmond — Dr. L. Guild — Mechanicsville — General Lee — Appointed Medical Director, but decline — Made Medical Inspector — The morning after the tight — Malvern Hill — Laurel Grove and its associations — Return to Xorth Carolina — Write a manual of military surgery.

LETTER XX.

SURGEON-GENERAL OF NORTH CAROLINA.

Hon. Z. B. \^ince elected Governor of Xorth Carolina — Appointed Surgeon-General of the State — Dr. T. J. Boykin — Work done for the soldiers — An epidemic of small-pox stamped out— Pleasant relations with the governor — His fine character and loyal conduct — His visit to the Army of Northern Virginia— Xorth Carolina's contribution to the war — Fort Fisher and its fall.

LETTER XXI.

EXCITING ADVENTURE AT KINSTON.

ISTarrow escape from death and capture— Arrival at Goldsborough— Preparation for serious work— General G. W. Smith takes command and appoints me Medical Director — Retreat of Foster— Colonel INIoses and Governor Vance's dispatch — Governor Vance's kindness to prisoners of 'war at Salisbury— A train of wounded soldiers.

VIU SYNOPSIS OF LETTERS.

LETTER XXII.

MISSION TO GENERAL SHERMAN.

Governor Vance's distress at Lee's surrender — His eflbrts to preserve Raleigh — His commission to General Sherman — Exciting adventures — Return to Raleigh — The depot in flames— Kilpatrick baffled— His life attempted by marauders— Their fate.

LETTER XXIII.

COLONEL BAYLOR, U. S. A.

Kind reception by Colonel Baylor — Generals Blair and Scofield as Union constructors— General Sherman's conservatism in North Carolina — He keeps faith with the State commissioners— Embarrassed by Lincoln's death and Johnson's accession — His grand review — Return home — Contrabands — Edenton after the war.

LETTER XXIV.

BALTIMORE AFTER THE WAR.

Return to Baltimore — Changes — The wolf at the door — Four friends come to the rescue — The Levy will case — A favorable verdict an<l a reduced legacy — Sunshine again — New medical schools, and a bitter controversy — A memento of the war — Medico-legal cases — The friendless Confederate — The condemned negress.

LETTER XXV.

THE WHARTON CASE.

The AVharton case — Interview with ]Mr. Thomas — Argument submitted to him — ]\Ir. Steele — The trial at AnnaiX)lis — Cross-questioned by Mr. Syester — A bombshell in court.

LETTER XXVI.

THE WHARTON CASE, (Continued.)

A battery turned — A witness stumbles — Attacked in the rear

— Letters from Alfred Swain Taylor and Thomas Stevenson supporting my position — Victorious at Annapolis, but ruined in Baltimore— The potency of popular prejudice — Sympathy of the American Medical' Association — Fidelity — Grief for my boy.

SYNOPSIS OF LETTERS. IX

LETTER XXVII.

SEEKING A NEW FIELD.

Seek a professorship elsewhere — Letters from Doctors Gross and McGufiS- — Enter the service of the Khedive — Given a dinner at Barnum's — AVilUam joins me at Jersey City — Some account of William Hughes, my faithful servant — Hats versus tarbouches — Ophthalmia and tlies — Accjuisition of foreign languages — Fishing for a compliment and catching a Tartar.

LETTER XXVIII.

UNDER THE KHEDIVE.

Sail from Xew York in the Abyssinia — My illness and William's adventure at Liverp<:)oi — Sir James Paget — Paris in mourning — To Brindisi under ditticulties — Alexamlria and Gabara — Cairo in a khamp^efu — Egypt — Its religion and customs — The Copts — Achmet FahmV, the dragoman — His conversion — Loss of our Ijaby — Amoonah, his nurse — Her fidelity and devotion — An attack of ophthalmia.

LETTER XXIX.

IN EGYPT.

Hareems — Mothers — Divorces — The captain's dilemma — ]\Iustahalls and their vocation — A demonstrative patient — The penalty of seeing a woman's uncovered face — A bey's intrigue and its results — Domestic life.

LETTER XXX.

EGYPTIAN EXPERIENCES.

Tewfick Pasha, the present Khedive — Ismail Pasha, the late Khedive — His services — His return necessary and inevitable — General Loring's hospitality — A summer at Gabara — General Sibley — Colonel Jenifer-^The Reynolds, father and son — Major Camj^bell — A pilfering comrade — My first i^atient — My successful treatment of the Minister of AVar — His hist or V.

X SYNOPSIS OF LETTERS.

LETTER XXXI.

EGYPTIAN EXPERIENCES, (Continued.)

An insane patient — Popular ideas respecting lunatics and i(iiots — Ainein Pasha and his medical bill — Promotion — Examining recruits — Furloughed soldiers and veterans — The gratitude of the latter— Attempts at bribery — The Prince's perplexity — Forewarned of a plot for my destruction— Narrow escape — Dr. Abbate-Bey — Dr. J. J. Crane.

LETTER XXXII.

A FURLOUGH.

A six months' " leave " — A rival surgeon-general and his \ictims — The snake charmers — Start for Paris — English gentlemen— General Mott — Doc-tor Landolt — Return to Egj-pt prohibited — INIade a Licentiate of the University of France — Honorably discharged from the Egyptian army — A blessing in disguise — Eunuchs — ^Iv first patient in Paris — ^lade " Knight of the Order of Isabella the Catholic."

LETTER XXXIII.

LIFE IN PARIS.

The evening visitor — Nature's nobleman — The sympathetic friend — A typhoid case — The daily narcotic — The startling discovery — Adroit robbery — "Help me, Doctor" — A disgusted banker — The prompt arrest — Mazas — Release and restitution — An amazed convalescent.

LETTER XXXIV.

LIFE IN PARIS, (Continued.)

Distinguished patients — Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks — His appearance and character — General Grant — Estimate of his character — His devotion to his friends — General Torbert — His character and fate — Judge Noah Davis — Judge John E. Brady — Hon. S. Teakle AVallis — Lady Anna Gore-Langton-^ Visit to London — English mode of paying medical bills — Dignity of French physicians — Medical fees — Injustice to physicians — Advice to patients.

SYNOPSIS OF LETTERS. xi

LETTER XXXV.

LIFE IN PARIS, (Continued.)

Professional success— Calumnies— Libelous newspaper clippings—Defamation in France— Secret denunciations, &c — Police espionage— Scandal agencies— Hotel leeches— The Exposition of 1878— Great sorroM — The Cross of the Ledon of Honor— Other decorations— The degree of LL. D.— Devotion to Xorth Carolina— Love of native land— America as contrasted with other countries. •

Preface

Eesponding to the persuasions of partial friends and loving children, I have written a history of my life, and now present it to the world in the form of this series of familiar letters.

I have been prompted to the venture neither by an idle vanity nor a vaunting egotism, hut mainly by the conviction that, in experiences so unique and yet so diversified as mine have been, there must necessarily be embodied much that is calculated to impress, interest and instruct both the medical profession and the general public.

At the same time a sense of justice to myself and to others constrains the confession, that a desire to elaborate and perpetuate the record of my strangely eventful life has constituted no insignificant factor in the motives which have influenced the performance of this task. I know that to the hypercritical this will seem only a phase of the selfish considerations which I have disclaimed in the premises ; but, unmindful of their censure, I shall trust to the more generous to interpret it properly — to attribute it to the suggestions of that honest pride and honorable ambition which the peculiar circumstances of the case have served to develop and to legitimate.

The title selected for the book is suggestive alike of its character and its scope, since it recounts the history of a career in which the domination of a strange but imperious destiny has manifested itself in the transformation of a country doctor into a

XIV PREFACE.

Professor, a Surgeon-G-eneral and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and the transference of the scene of his labors from the swamps of Carolina to the shores of the Chesapeake, the borders of the Nile and the quartiers of the Seine.

I have selected the espistolary method of communication with my readers, because it is that form of communication with which I am most familiar, while it admits of a freedom of style and a latitude of narration which seem best suited to an autobiography.

I dedicate this work to my honored colleague, Doctor John Morris, for the reason that, as my mind reverts to Ihe scenes of the past, he looms up most conspicuously as the friend of their shade and their sunshine, and it is to him that my. heart instinctively offers the amplest tribute of its love and gratitude.

Paris, June 1, 1885.

IN

THREE CONTINENTS.

LETTER L

MY FATHEK.

When you met my father in Baltimore just after the war, you saw in him the ruins of a remarkable man. He was then only sixty-five years of age, and up to the beginning of the conflict he had been unusually vigorous. But the four years of exile from home, of anxiety on account of his sons — all of whom were in the Southern army — and of unremitting attention to the sick and wounded under his charge, together with the total loss of his property and the utter ruin of his section, broke him down completely. Although an ^'old-line Whig," and originally opposed to secession, wheu the issue was definitely made between the North and the South, and the sacred soil of Virginia — his ^' Mother State " and the object of his supreme devotion — was actually invaded, he never hesitated a moment ; but, abandoning his business, his property, and his home, he joined his fortunes with those of the Confederacy, and accepted a surgeon's commission in its service. He did his duty faithfully, but he came out of the conflict shattered in body, prostrated in spirit, and incapable of any serious exertion.

Nothing contributed more to this result than the wounding and the supposed death of one of his boys. Crittenden^ his fourth son, who was at that time only eighteen years of age, and a lieutenant in the '' flag company " of the Fifty-second North Carolina Regiment — a position to which he had been elevated from the ranks for conspicuous bravery — was in the final and fatal charge at Gettysburg.

Two days after that fearful battle my father received a letter from one of the survivors of his son's company to the effect that he saw '' Lieutenant Warren killed, with the colors of the regiment in his hands, within a few yards of the enemy's works ;" and in a short time other letters arrived from officers of the regiment, confirming this statement in the most positive manner. As he was a noble boy, this intelligence utterly prostrated his parents, and they abandoned themselves to grief. About four weeks afterward * a letter arrived by flag of truce from a comrade, saying "Lieutenant Warren was not killed outright, but was mortally wounded, and is now dying in one of the Federal hospitals at Gettysburg." This communication brought no consolation with it, although it did inspire some faint hope — just enough to torture the aching hearts of those who loved him. Then came an additional source of anxiety. Another son was missing.

Dr. Llewellyn P. Warren, senior surgeon of Pettigrew's Brigade, had been left with the wounded of his command, and nothing had since been heard of him. In vain did we try by all possible means "to obtain some information respecting the fate of our loved ones ; and you can well understand how dreadful was this state of suspense and anxiety to m THREE CONTINENTS. IT

US all, but especially to our father and mother. Days which seemed like years^, weeks that appeared to have no ending, passed away, and when hope liad died, and despair had set its seal upon the hearts of the weary watchers, like light from heaven, a letter came from one of Baltimore's fairest daughters — sent surreptitiously through the lines — conveying the joyful intelligence that Llew. had accidentally discovered his wounded brother, and with loving care had snatched him from the jaws of death ; that Crittenden was slowly but surely recovering ; and that both had been transferred to Fort McHenry, where friends were ministering to their comfort in every way that sympathy could suggest. I need scarcely tell you of the prayers of gratitude which were offered up, and of the joy which reigned. in my father's heart and house on that occasion ; for it was as if the very portals of the grave had been opened, and the dead had arisen and come forth "to w^alk with living men again." My brothers were exchanged after many months of captivity, and -an examination of Crittenden's wounds revealed the fact that five conical balls had entered his body, one of which had passed entirely through the upper lobe of the right lung. According to his account, when within a short distance of the enemy's line, he seized the colors from the hands of a dying sergeant, and with his first step forward received what seemed to him a fearfnl blow in the breast, and he fell senseless to the ground. He knew nothing more until he was aroused by the rough shake of a Federal i5oldier, who, seeing that life was not extinct, gave him a drink of water, placed his cap under his head as a pillow, and muttering, "Poor boy, this is the last of you," went forward to his dat3^ He then lapsed into a state of unconsciousness, which finally passed into a dream of the charge so vivid and real that it seemed that he was for hours storming the enemy's line with balls whistling and shells bursting and comrades falling around him, while his chest felt as if it were encircled with an iron band which interfered with respiration and almost deprived him of the power of speech.

When he came to himself again it was in the early morning, and a group of surgeons were standing about him while oYie was examining his wounds, who, seeing that he had regained consciousness, asked his name, told him to prepare for death as his wounds were mortal, and said to him : " I know your brother by reputation, and if you have any last message to send to your family tell it to me, and I will have it delivered in time. My heart bleeds for you and yours, my poor boy. " ' ' Say to them at home," gasped the dear fellow, "that I tried to do my duty, and tell my mother " — here he lost consciousness again, and was unable ta complete the sentence. Although the surgeons regarded the case as desperate, they did not leave him to die alone in the grass where he had fallen, but they had him carefully lift^ into an ambulance and transported to the nearest field- nospital, where he was placed under a shelter hastily improvised of fence-rails, and given food, stimulants, and an opiate — the jolting of the vehicle over the newlyploughed field having restored him to consciousness, and caused him the most intense suffering. During the night a new peril presented itself: the stream which ran through the hospital suddenly swelled beyond its borders, and with resistless impetus swept a large number of the wounded to destruction. He, fortunately, was just beyond the invaded area and was saved, while one of his own men — a poor lacl reared near my plantation in- North Carolina — who lay wounded and helpless by his side, was swept away by the flood. As he did not die, he was removed after a few days to a division hospital, which was well constructed and abundantly supplied. Here he was allowed two slightly wounded men from his own company as nurses, supplied liberally with nutritious soup and good bread, and given a dose of morphia every night at bed time ; but his wounds were not dressed, and his bloody and matted clothing was never changed until he was discovered and taken charge of by my brother, Dr. L. P. Warren, more than two weeks after the battle. There was no intentional inhumanity in this, for in every other respect he was kindly treated, but it resulted simply from the fact, that when brought from the field he was placed on the list of the ''mortally wounded," and as surgeons were scarce and wounded men abundant, he was left to die in peace without the additional pang of a surgical dressing. This view of the case proved "a blessing in disguise" — was a circumstance so fortunate in itself and in its consequences as to bear the aspect of a special dispensation— for the lung wound, consequently, sealed itself hermetically^ while the non-intervention of the doctors perpetuated that condition of quiescence which was most favorable to its cicatrization.

My brother, Dr. L. P. Warren, tells me, that after he had given his services to all of the wounded who had been left in his charge, he obtained permission to visit the Federal hospitals, hoping to find something to do in the way of rendering assistance to such of the Southern wounded as might, perchance, have been received in them. He had heard, too, of the death of his brother, but there still lingered in his bosom a liope of finding him alive, and of being the instrument of his rescue and return.

He was making his final visit, and had passed the last ward, when he suddenly heard his name called and saw, running toward him. two soldiers whom he recognized as having belonged to the 52d North Carolina Regiment. In a moment they had embraced him, and were dragging him toward* a little hut near by, ci'ying out : "The Lieutenant is not quite dead. Come, for Grod's sake, and save him." Upon entering the pavilion he saw u])on a rude couch the form of a human being, attenuated, wan, with sunken cheeks and lusterless eyes, apparently in the throes of death, which he recognized to be that of his brother, so long lost and so deeply mourned — the dear boy over whom a stricken household far away in the South was shedding its bitterest tears, and, like Rachel of old, refusing to be comforted.

Imagine, my dear Doctor, if you can, what were the feelings of these two brothers when they thus met in that distant land, remote from friends and kindred, the one supposing that the clods already covered the remains of him he loved so well, and the other believing that he would never behold the face or hear the voice of any one from home again. Surely a scene more touching than this was never witnessed by mortal man, and the rough soldiers around them bowed their heads in silent awe, and wept like children.

After many weary days of anxiety and watching, Llewellyn had the gratification of seeing the wounds heal kindly, the wasted frame grow comparatively strong, and the blanched cheek lose its pallor and glow with the hues of health again. In a word, the boy's life was saved ; and though for

I

IN THKEE CONTINENTS. 21

years he felt the effects of his wounds, he is now a healthy and vigorous man — as splendid a specimen of physical development as can be found in the South.

This incident with its alternations of despair and hope, its vicissitudes of sorrow and satisfaction, though crowned in the end with all that could be conceived of happiness, proved too great a strain upon my father's nerves, and initiated the undermining of his once vigorous system. It was not long afterward that I noticed an occasional intermittencein his pulse, anda pronounced development of the arcus senilis, while a condition of despondency became the fixed habit of his mind, and several severe attacks of malarial fever ensued, which still further exhausted his vitality. '

1 wish you could have seen him in his prime — in the full swing of his powers, and the flood tide of his success. As you did not have that pleasure, and as the contemplation of his gifts and virtues is always a source of satisfaction to me/ you will pardon, I feel assured, a brief sketch of him here — you will permit me to reproduce upon these pages the outlines, at least, of the picture which an ardent love, conjoined with the most profound respect, has painted upon the tablets of my memory.

His father, Edward Warren, for whom I was named, was a lawyer of distinction and a gentleman of the highest standing. He was regarded, in fact, as the leader of the bar in his section of Virginia, and he several times represented Charles City County in the Legislature of Virginia, having been elected by the unanimous vote of his constituency— which, in that land of politics and partisans, was a very high compliment. He unfortunately died young, leaving to his wife the task of rearing and educating his four children, the eldest of whom was William Christian, the subject of this sketch .

His mother belonged to the Christian family of Virginia, and she well illustrated the sterling virtues and decided opinions for which it has long been distinguished. How faithfully she discharged this duty is established alike by the sentiment of love and reverence with which she inspired her children, and by the reputation which each one of them established in after life for honor and probity in all relations. I well remember my visits to Oreenway — the seat of the family — when a child, and of the awe and love with which I regarded her. Scrupulously neat in dress : tall and stately in person ; observing the strictest decorum and etiquette herself, and exacting the same from others ; grave and reserved to the last degree, but never morose or fault-finding : with a countenance upon which neither a smile nor a tear ever lingered ; and the embodiment alike of superlative dignity of character and of extreme kindness of heart, her presence and her manner frightened me nearly out of my wits, while her tenderness and consideration called out my warmest affection.

My father being her eldest child, she looked upon him as the future prop of the house, and she took especial pains to indoctrinate him with her own high principles, and to give him a thorough education. So great was his respect for her that he accepted her teachings without questioning, while the desire to please her became and continued the ruling principle of his life.

It is not surprising that, with such a mother, his bosom should have become the nursery of all that gives dignity to human nature, and that he should have developed into the splendid gentleman he was, and which all who knew him recognized him to be.

He stood about six feet in his shoes, and, though not stout, was well proportioned and very graceful ; he was as erect as a Lombardy poplar, and his carriage was that of a trained soldier ; he always appeared neat and well clad, displaying, in fact, great taste in the matter of dress and personal adornment ; he was especially fond of dogs and horses — as all Virginians are — and he prized only those of the best blood and the finest appearance ; he was brave to a fault, and as chivalrous as any knight of the olden time ; he was the soul of generosity, and the latch-string was always on the outside of his hospitable door ; he loved his family to idolatry and was the mostfaithful and loyal of friends ; he was a diligent student, keeping himself always cm courmit with the progress of his profession, and his fondness for general literature was extraordinary for one so occupied with business ; he was a man of strong feelings, and in his early years he could not bring himself to bear the semblance of an affront, but later on, when his heart had been wrung by affliction, a great change occurred in this regard, and he became a devout and consistent Christian ; and he was truly a great physician — perfectly posted, a keen observer, remembering everything he had seen and read, with a cool head and a warm heart, wedded to no dogma, absorbed in his mission, indifferent to praise or censure, and absolutely self-reliant ; he entered the chamber of sick- • ness with the manner of a master, the mien of a friend, and the bearing of a gentleman, inspiiing his patient at once with faith and hope, and showing in the treatment of the case a capacity fur analysis, a genius in diagnosis, and a fecundity of resource, which have rarely had their equal in the profession.