The Life of Nathan Smith Davis, A.M., M.D., Ll.D., 1817-1904 ...

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Preface

I began writing the life. of Dr. Davis with great reluctance; I close my task with greater reluctance. For several months past he has been my constant companion, I might almost say, day and night. As I have studied his austere personality, and his rugged character, so transparent and genuine, my respect for the man has grown day by day. I do not, however, for a moment imagine that I have written a life of Dr. Davis that will be satisfactory to the medical profession or the public. A character so colossal needs the perspective of time and distance, before an adequate estimate of its merits or demerits can be formed. Fifty years hence, Nathan Smith Davis will measure up to the altitude of Benjamin Rush and Joseph Warren; then some one will write his life in a worthier manner than is possible at the present time, or by the present biographer. I have tried to be accurate; I have tried to be impartial; I have tried to be just; how far I have succeeded, my readers must judge. I have been much handicapped by the absence of original documents, such as letters, and the various manuscript sources of information usually left by public men ; but all these invaluable treasures were unfortunately destroyed a few years ago.

Just at this point, the mail brings me the following letter from the present Dr. N. S. Davis, worthy successor of a noble father, which it gives me great pleasure to receive and to print:

•

My dear Doctor Dan forth :

You have striven most conscientiously to present correctly the facts in my father's life and I believe that you have succeeded.

Unfortunately there have been few manuscript aids for the construction of your work, and my father's cotemporaries are almost all dead. However, in spite of these difficulties you have successfully described the important incidents of his life.

It has been a pleasure to aid you as far as possible.

Very sincerely yours, N. S. Davis.

I cannot close without expressing my profound gratitude to Madam Davis, widow of Dr. N. S. Davis, who still survives him, for her patient assistance and counsel as my work has progressed, and to her son, the pres-

PREFACE

ent Dr. Davis, I am under deep obligations for his helpful counsel. I take pleasure, also, in expressing my thanks to my friend, Dr. L. B. Hayman, who has been of great assistance in helping me to correct proofs, and in guiding me over sundry rough places, which I encountered because of my slight acquaintance with the "technique" of the printer.

905 W. Monroe street. I. N. D.

September, 1907.

Contents

Introduction. 1. Childhood — Youth — Medical Studies.

II. Marriage; Early Professional Life.

III. Removal to Chicago: Connection with Rush

CHAPTER I. Childhood— Youth— College Days

Nathan Smith Davis was born on the 9th of January, 1817, in a log house, in the town of Greene, County of Chenango, and State of New York. His parents were among the pioneer settlers in the midst of the virgin forests of that then far western region. His father's name was Dow Davis, who lived to the extraordinary age of ninety years, and died upon the farm which he had reclaimed from the primitive forest and its savage denizens. His first name he derived in some unexplained way from Rev. Lorenzo Dow, a very eccentric, yet very able, vagrant preacher, who started out as a Methodist, but ended in "no-man's-land," after wandering over the greater part of the then civilized world.

Dr. Davis' mother's maiden name was Eleanor Smith. She died in 1824 when young Nathan was but seven years old.

No greater calamity can possibly happen to a child of tender years than the loss of a mother, and the watchful, loving care, which only a mother can ^ive. At a complimentary banquet given to Dr. Davis by the medical profession of Chicago, October sth, 1901, when the doctor w?^ 84 years old, he made the following touching and beautiful references to his mother: "At the age of seven years, as a boy who had never been outside of his father's farm, born in a log house, and when still in a log house, I was called to the bedside of my dying mother to receive her last words. I was the youngest of a family of seven children ; I was in my seventh year. It made a vivid impression upon my mind. She was a Christian — a reader of the Bible. She 3aid to me that she wished me to be a good boy, to learn to worship God, and to do good to my fellowmen. I promised her I would. Of course I did not reaUze the importance or bearing of that promise at that early period of life, but an impression was made upon my mind, and from that day to this the rule of my life has been that whatever comes up that seems to be important and will improve my fellowmen, my impulse is to do what I can to "help it along."* Noble words ; and true to the letter, as Dr. Davis cxamplified throughout his long and fruitful life.

Dr. Davis' name, "Nathan Smith," was derived from a maternal uncle, and not from the eminent Doctor Nathan Smith, of Cornish, New Hamp-

^"Report of Testimonial Banquet" October, 1901.

l6 CHILDI1CX)D — VOCJTH — COLLEGE DAYS

shire, the founder of the Medical Department of Dartmouth College, as so many of us have supposed.

I have not been able to trace the ancestry of either of Dr. Davis' parents with anything like satisfaction or certainty. That they emigrated from Massachusetts to central New York seems certain ; that they joined the Puritan hegira from England during the days of the Stuart persecutions seems altogether probable, but cannot be stated with certainty.

Young Nathan's childhood was monotonously uneventful. The farmers* sons, in the pioneer days of New England and western New York, were brought up to "work," and well they knew what that uncompromising little word meant. "Work" meant getting up with the sun, 'and "working" till the sun went down ; the same routine, dav after dav, with only the vacation which a rainy day, or Training Day, or Fast Day, or Thanksgiving Day, or Fourth of July, or the rigid solemnity of the Sabbath brought. Farming in those days was all done "by hand," and hard and weary work it was. When winter came there was three or four months of "schooling," but every winter brought a new teacher, and generally one whose qualifications were limited to such text books as Webster's Spelling Book. Adam's Arithmetic, Lir.dley Murray's Grammar and Morse's Geography. The teachers of those days, however, were usually pretty proficient in the use of a well-selected rod of birch, annealed and toughened in the hot ashes of the fire-place or stove.

And thus the first sixteen years of young Davis' life passed away. We do not learn that he did anv heroic deeds, or encountered anv romantic episodes, or gave any special promise of future greatness or usefulness. He was simply a "good boy," according to the promise made to his dying mother; industrious, faithful, truthful and eminently in earnest in whatever he undertook. But during these early years of hard work his appetite for knowledge began to manifest itself, and it grew as he grew, and very early in his life it became, not a "passion," but a deeply-settled, all-pervasive motive, which dominated his thoughts and his plans for the future. His fondness for study, his aptitude for acquiring knowledge, and a consequent languor and want of interest in farming pursuits very soon attracted his father's notice, and convinced him that the boy ought to have some facilities for acquiring an education better and broader than thv)se afforded by the district-school. His decision was probably hastened by the fact that on going to the field on a certain occasion, he found Nathan trying to ^nide a plough, which the slow-moving oxen were hauling, in the proper direction with one hand, while in the other he held a book in which his attention was absorbed. Dow Davis was not very familiar with book*?, but he did know, from long experience, that effective plowing required the undivided attention of two hands and a head, as well as a voke of oxen, and he at once

CHILDHOOD — YOUTH — COLLEGE DAYS 17

resolved that Nathan should plough in a different and more attractive field. ^ It is greatly to the Credit of Dow Davis that he had the perception to discover the type and bent of Nathan's mind, and that, out of his limited means, he found a way to send his ambitious and promising son to the neighboring Cazenovia Seminary, if only for a single term. But that single term was sufficient to demonstrate to the boy of only sixteen, that "knowledge is power,'' and that unremitting industry is the key to its possession. It is altogether probable that tlie discipline which the plastic youth of sixteen received during that single term in Cazenovia Seminary determined his future course in life, and shaped the habit of systematic industry which he followed to his dying day.

In the month of April, 1834, when he was only seventeen years old, Nathan Smith Davis commenced the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. Daniel Clark, of Chenango County, New York, and **worked" for his board.

It would be hardly possible to make a more drastic commentary on the system of medical education as it was carried on seventy years ago than the simple statement of the above fact. A youth seventeen years old, with practically no previous preparatory training, is allowed to enroll himself as a medical student, complete the required course in less than three years, and assume the highest responsibilities in the reach of man, while he is yet a beardless youth ; and in the present case such was the literal fact, for young Davis graduated from the ^'College of Physicians and Surgeons of Western New York" in January, 1837, "with distinguished honor," says one of his eulogists. Between the date of his registration as a medical student under Dr. Clark, his preceptor, and his graduation "with distinguished honor," there was a period of two years and nine months, and at his graduation he was just twenty years old; in other words, an "infant" in the eyes of the law. Yet the "College of Physicians and Surgeons of Western New York" — a school which perished of inanition long ago — never did a greater or worthier thing than when it created Nathan Smith Davis a doctor of medicine, and the 31st of January, 1837, proved to be an epoch-making day in the history of American medicine. In all fairness, however, it should be said that the "College of Physicians and Surgeons of Western New York" was a school of excellent standing in its day, ranking along with the Berkshire Medical School at Pittsfield, Mass. ; the Dartmouth School of Medicine/"' and other well known country schools, which have long since been absorbed by the larger schools with clinical facilities. Many eminent men occupied its professorships, and many eminent men received its diplomas.

*The Dartmouth School of Medicine is still in the front rank, and is doing excellent work.

l8 CHILDHOOD — YOUTH — COLLEGK DAYS

Among its professors was T. Romeyn Beck, whose lectures on medical jurisprudence charmed young Davis, and awakened in him a lasting interest in that branch.

Young Davis attended three courses of lectures prior to his graduation^ and found himself wondering at the fact that the three courses were all alike, and that all tlie students attended all the lectures, and travelled exactly the same course from year to year. In other words, even before his own graduation, the inconsistencies and incongruities of the system of medical education as it was carried on became apparent to him, and the germs of the "graded course" took root in his mind, to ripen into a solid and enduring monument to his creative genius in the years to follow.

We know nothing of N. S. Davis' student days, but it is perfectly safe to assume that he was a hard-working student, who made the most of his time and opportunities; that he was faithful in his attendance upon the lectures and recitations ; that in the correctness of his deportment he was an example to his classmates and a delight to his teachers, and we can easily imagine that he may have asked those teachers some puzzling questions now and then, and that his grave, earnest, serious face, prominent forehead and Gladstonian nose would attract their attention, and extort from them some predictions as to the future of that unusual student. His biographer also feels perfectly safe in hazarding the assertion that the student by the name of Davis never was "passed up," never smoked cigarettes, never came home at night when he was unable to find the keyhole, never fell in love with the "college widow," and never indulged in any of the rowdyish freaks which have always accentuated and frequently disgraced student life.

A short time prior to his graduation, he entered the office of Dr. Thomas Jackson, of Binghamton, New York, as a student, and remained with Dr. Jackson until he received his degree of doctor of medicine. As Dr. Jackson was a practitioner of more than average ability and enjoyed a large and varied practice, young Davis' advantages in a clinical way were undoubtedly much improved by the change from Dr. Clark, his first preceptor.

In davs of vore, everv candidate for the dec^ree of doctor of medicine

mm m «^»

was required to write a "thesis," and he might be required to read and defend it before the faculty of his college. The subject of Dr. Davis' graduating thesis was "Animal Temperatures," and in this he combated the (then) generally accepted theory that the evolution of animal heat had its origin in the union of oxygen and carbon in the lungs, maintaining that its evolution was in the tissues. The inherent merit of his argument was such, and the premises upon which it rested were so accurately established by experimental investigation, that the faculty of the college selected it as one of those to be

CHILDHOOD — YOUTH — COLLEGE DAYS 1 9

publicly read on the clay of graduation.* That Dr. Davis, at the age of 20 could write such a thesis, and especially one that was thought worthy of graduation honors, seems very remarkable. For it must iK)t be forgotten that he was only a youthful farmer's son, whose educational advantages had T)een very meagre, and that his opportunities for scientific experimentation must have been scanty indeed.

And now, the die is cast: Nathan Smith Davis is a "doctorj" and the proud possessor of a "sheepskin," tied with a bright ribbon, sealed with the college seal, signed by the "professors," and the whole thing done in college Latin, either good or bad — and to the majority of students in those days, it did not make much difference which.

The farewells are said, the usual promises "to write" are made, but not kept, and the young doctors scatter to the four winds, never to meet again on earth. The future career of one of them we shall endeavor to trace in the succeeding chapters.

*"Group of Distinguished Physicians and Surgeons," p. 2.

CHAPTER II. Marriage; Early Professional Life

Some time during the month of February, 1837, ^ ^^^'^ and very youthful doctor appeared in the httle village of Vienna, Oneida county, New York. His name was Nathan Smith Davis, and then and there a remarkable man began his long and eventful career. Dr. Davis formed a partnership with Dr. Daniel Chatfield, of Vienna, and we can easily imagine that Dr. Chatfield soon found that his youthful partner had some positive notions of his own, in spite of his inexperience. We know nothing concerning his life in Vienna, except that he found time to fall in love with Miss Anna Maria Parker, daughter of Hon. John Parker, of Vienna, and that they were married on the Sth day of March: 1838. Dr. Davis died June i6th, 1904; therefore, they lived together the almost unprecedented term of sixty-six years, three months and eleven days! It does not need to be said that thev lived in beautiful harmonv, and that wedded life was never more felicitous, never more ideal, and never came nearer fulfilling the lofty requirements of its Divine author than in the case of Nathan Smith Davis, aged twenty-one years, and Maria Parker Davis, aged seventeen years, at the time of their marriage.

There were born to them three children: Ellen Parker Davis, born April 1 2th, 1842.

Frank Howard Davis, bom June sth, 1848; died Aug. 17, 1880. He attended the University of Michigan for two years and grarhiated from Chicago Medical College in 187 1. He entered into practice in Chicaj:i:o and gave great promise of usefulness, and his untimely death was a loss to the profession and to the city.

Nathan Smith Davis, Jr., born Sept. 5th, 1858. now ii: practice in Chicago, and late Dean of the Northwestern University Medical School.

The field of operations in \*Icnna seems to have been ton narrow for the expanding energies of our young doctor, and in July, 1837, less than six months after he went there, his i)artnership with Dr. Chatfield was dissolved, and he went to Binghamton, New York, where, it is stated, **he at once commanded professional confidence and popular ])atronage" — an oratorical explosion that must probably be taken cum i^rano salis. It is altr^gether more likely that he had the usual experience of marriage; early professional life 21

young doctors, and that his entry into practice was slow and progressive. But we may be very sure that his time was not spent in idleness, or frivolity.

During these early years of his professional life. Dr. Davis was a hard-working and very systematic student. He studied Latin, all alone, and made himself a respectable Latin scholar; he studied botany and made himself an expert botanist: he made himself familiar with the principles and ground work of chemistry, geology and political economy, besides giving particular attention to surgical anatomy, as his practice was largely surgical. He also kept in familiar touch with the current literature of the day, and hence he soon became known as one of the most intelligent and progressive young men in Binghamton. During the winter month/, he pursued the study of practical anatomy by dissecting one or two cadavers, and he frequently responded to requests to lecture on physiology, botany, chemistry and allied subjects before the classes of the Binghamton Academy, at that tijTie a school of considerable local repute, and of which he was one of the founders. He also had a hand in organizing the "Lyceum Debating Society of Binghamton," and we may be quite sure that he did his full share of the debating. It is easy to imagine that his intellectual gymnastics before the Lyceum Debating Society of Binghamton, cantributed materially towards making him the powerful and incisive debater which in his later years rendered him such a terror to his opponents.

In the year 1840 (three years after his graduation), he won the first prize of the New York State Medical Society, for the best essay on "Diseases of the Spinal Column; their Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment." In 1841 he captured another prize as a reward for a paper entitled, "Analysis of the Discoveries Concerning the I'hysiology of the Nervous System." These two essays were widely read, and attracted considerable notice and comment from the medical profession of his native state.

Soon after his settlement in Binghamton, he was elected a delegate to the Broome County Medical Society, of which organization he was Secretary from 1841 to 1843, ^^^^ Librarian from 1843 ^^ ^^47 > besides being a member of the Board of Censors for several years. In 1844, 1^^ was chosen a delegate to represent the Broome County Medical Society at the annual meeting of the State Medical Society, at Albany. And this appearance of Dr. Davis, as a delegate to the New York State Medical Society, in 1844, must be regarded as the beginning of his long and remarkable public life | a life which was none the less public and none the less notable because it was nearly all spent in connection with, and for the uplifting of, the medical profession.

When this grave, serious, albeit modest young man made his appearance in Albany, and presented his credentials as a delegate from

22 marriage; early professional life

Broome County, he must have been considerably surprised to find that his reputation as a writer, and a clear-headed and incisive reasoner, had preceded him, and we can easily picture his embarrassment at finding himself so well and so favorably known. It is stated that '*vvhen he took his seat as a delegate in the lx)dy which represented the highest medical learning of the State, his voice was heard with resi)ectful attention.""' Even at this early date, and iluring his first term of attendance upon the New York State Medical Society, he commenced that remarkable campaign in the interests of higher medical education, which led very scx)n to the establishment of the American Medical Association, and at a later stage to the adoption of his plan, substantially, of liiedical education, not only in Chicago, but all over this country. But this subject will claim our attention in extcnso, in a subsequent chapter.

After about ten years of active practice in Binghamton, Dr. Davis decided to transfer his activities to a still larger field, .and he accordingly removed to New York City in the summer of 1847. His life in Binghamton was evidently a very active and busy one. His practice — which w^is the very ^'general" practice of a country physician sixty years ago — was a strenuous and laborious one. Only those who have experienced the multifarious perplexities and responsibilities which used to beset the country doctor, can actually sec Dr. Davis as he made his weary rounds* up hill and down, night and day, in the heat of summer antl cold of winter, in rain or snow, and wind or dust, carrying and dispensing his medicines from saddlebags or trunk, and ministering to all sorts and conditions of men, women and children, with all sorts of complaints, real and imaginary, surgical, medical, obstetrical and psychical, to say nothing of the toothpulling with the invincible old "turnkey,*' and the spring and autumn venesections, which almost came to he a "fetich" not only with the people, but with many of the practitioners of half a century ago. It is easy enough to imagine that his active mind travelled far taster tlian his body could traverse the gravelled roads, and that during these years of early, toil, he was planting the seed which should bear such splendid fruitage in his more mature years.

During his Binghamton decade, he was a busy and systematic student; the natural sciences, Latin, English literature, political economy, and medical jurisprudence, each by turn, claimed his attention, and he became, in no narrow sense, not a ''classic scholar," from the standpoint of the pedagogue, but an all-around learned man, with a broad, practical knowledge of matters and things, and with the ability to make use of his marriage; early professional life 2 J

knowledge in furthering the best interests, first of his profession, and secondly of his community.

During these initial years, also, he dabbled a little in politics, and during the ^'Tippecanoe and Tyler too" campaign, he "stumped" Broome County, in the interests of the Democratic party, for Dr. Davis was a "dyed in the wool" Democrat." He likewise lectured on various topics to various lK)litical, social, scientific and religious bodies, wrote many articles, mostly on medical subjects, and mostly ephemeral, and we may be sure that he (lid not forget that death-bed scene of his childhood, and that he did not neglect the worship of God, or the study of the Bible.

At the time of his removal to New York City, in the sunmier of 1847, ^^' l^avis was thirty years old, and he probably concluded that it was time for him to "settle for life." New York City was at that time rapidly approaching its position as the American metropolis. Its population was something over four hundred thousand, and it was growing very rapidly. It was also assuming a notable importance as a centre of medical education, and that of course presented a strong attraction to a young and ambitious medical man. It was therefore quite the natural thing that Dr. Davis should decide to remove to the great city, where the advantages were so superior and so many. Yet his stay in New York was only for two years; not long enough for anything very decisive or eventful to occur. He entered into general practice, with what degree of success we have no very definite information. It goes without saying that he connected himself with the local medical organizations, and that he was welcomed by the profession with the courtesy to which his merits and his recognized ability entitled him. His first experience as a medical teacher occurred in New York, when he was given charge of the dissecting rooms of the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, and entered upon the teaching of practical anatomy. He also delivered a course of lectures upon Medical Jurisprudence — his favorite study — during the spring term of 1848, by special invitation of the faculty of the same institution.

It is hardly necessary to call attention to the fact that very few medical men are qualified to lecture upon a subject so far out of the trodden paths of medical education as Medical Jurisprudence, and especially an ordinary practitioner so young as Dr. Davis then was. In fact it must be regarded as a very high compliment to him that he was "specially invited" by the faculty of his college to deliver these lectures, and it must also be accepted as indubitable evidence of the broad range of his knowledge, and the masterful grasp of his mind, even at this early day.

But Davis* stay in New York was destined to be brief, and after spending a little more than two years in the metropolis of the Empire State,

24 marriage; early professional LIFi:

he gathered up his "lares and penates" and began his long and weary journey by railway, stage, canal boat, and "packet" to the then shabby and muddy town by the great inland sea, which was to become the metropolis, not only of the Prairie State, but of the great and wonderful west. Thither we will follow him, and there we will study and admire, even if we cannot imitate, his long, eventful and altmistic career.

Chapter III

Removal to Chicago — Connection with Rush Medical College.

One who walks through the stately streets of Chicago in this year of grace, 1907, can hardly imagine its condition fifty-eight years ago. Its population was then about ^3,000, whereof the great majority were employed in operating the growing industrial interests of the city. The buildings were mainly of wood, with little attempt at elegance or architecture. The streets were mostly unpaved, and were either wretchedly dusty or wretchedly muddy. Many of the highways were rendered impassable by a moderate rainstorm, and signs reading "no bottom" were frequently seen in the middle of the streets warning teamsters to avoid the quagmires which would engulf them if they dared venture to disregard the timely caution. But the city was growing with great rapidity, and was already giving promise of its future greatness, which has so far surpassed the expectations of its most enthusiastic citizens. Nevertheless, it was anything but an alluring place, for a permanent residence, for a man of high intellectual or scientific attainments, especially when compared with New York City, with its schools, libraries, museums and other products of wealth and maturity. At first glance, then, it must cause considerable surprise that a man of the ability and prospects of N. S. Davis should exchange the great advantages of New York, where he was well known and well established, for the meagre advantages of Chicago, where he was a total stranger.

In the month of July, 1849, I^^- J^hn Evans, of Chicago, professor of Obstetrics in Rush Medical College of that city, attending the third meeting of the American Medical Association^ while in Boston met Dr. Davis, and invited him to accept the chair of physiology and general pathology in Rush College, those two branches being then united in one chair. Dr. Davis accepted, but did not arrive in Chicago until September, about the usual time for the beginning of the lecture term. His first lecture in Rush was delivered in October, 1849. Rush Medical College, (named after the eminent Dr. Benj. Rush of Philadelphia, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1775) was founded in 1843, chiefly, if not wholly, by Dr. Daniel Brainard. It was therefore in the sixth vear of its existence when Dr. Davis connected himself with it. Its first permanent building, at the corner of North Dearborn and Indiana Streets, had recently been built, and the prospects of the college as to permanency and prosperity were very flattering. The rapid growth of Chicago and of the vast area tributary

:26 REMOVAL TO CHICAGO