<pre style="white-space: pre-wrap">xt7cfx73vb36 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7cfx73vb36/data/mets.xml McCormack, Joseph Nathaniel, 1847-1922. 1917  books b96-15-36619958 English Times-Journal Pub. Co., : Bowling Green, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Brown, Samuel, 1769-1830. Caldwell, Charles, 1772-1853. Cooke, John Esten, 1783-1853. Drake, Daniel, 1785-1852. Dudley, Benjamin W. (Benjamin Winslow), 1785-1870. Gross, Samuel D. (Samuel David), 1805-1884. McDowell, Ephraim, 1771-1830. Peters, Robert, 1805-1894. Short, Charles Wilkins, 1794-1863. Yandell, Lunsford P. (Lunsford Pitts), 1805-1878. Medicine History 18th century Kentucky. Medicine History Kentucky. Physicians Biography Kentucky. Some of the medical pioneers of Kentucky  / edited by J.N. McCormack. text Some of the medical pioneers of Kentucky  / edited by J.N. McCormack. 1917 2002 true xt7cfx73vb36 section xt7cfx73vb36 


DOCTOR EPHRAIM McDOWELL

         1771--1830

 
Some of the Medical Pioneers of Kentucky


                         EDITED BY

              J. N. McCORMACK, M.D., L.L.D.


               Illhistrate] W\ithl P'ofti-its


" By the historical method alone can many problems in medicine be
approached profitably. For example, the student who dates his
knowledge of tuberculosis from Koch may have a vera correct, but
he has a very incomplete, appreciation of the subject."-OSLER.


                PUBLISHED BY THE

KENTUCKY     STATE MEDIIC'AL ASSO)CIATI( )N

           BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY


                    PHIlNIlEI) Act
          Ii IF TCME,;-.I  ItNAL I'C I   IN" ('OMP-N 1
                 It.  lN1.I;I. iE ElN. K\.

 
                         Zo

thr lMembers of the Iirtiral trofession ot Wrnturky

                        (uiln,

            howrliFr AmiihLg, if worthilp,

                   are attempting

    to follow in the footsteps of these pioneers,

                 this little volume

      is affrttianatrlM brbirateb bg their frienb,

                     the Ehftor.

 
                    General Introduction


-H    E remarkable achievements of the pioneer medical men of Kentucky read
2 jso like a romaice, and have beeni handed down as such an abiding andl
       fruitful source of inspiration to their students and successors that. ever
since the writer entered the profession, nearly half a centurhy ago, it hias been thie
constant wish and hope of all of us. expressed by frequent resolutions of the
State Society and similar organizations, that to some especially qualified merli-
hjer of the faculty be delegated the important an(l pleasant duty of writing " The
History of Medicine in Kentucky. " Dr. David W. Yandell. doubl.y titted for the
task on account of his recognized ability as a wiriter, and by the fortuitous circumn
stance that he and his honored father represented ill their own iersons diree'
connecting links betweeff the pioneers and the older members of the -present day
profession, often half promised to undertake the work. but death called him be-
fore it was begun. Then for years, Dr. Lewsis S. MeAlurtry, hecause of his facile
and puissant pen, his familiarity with the literature of the subject, :and his kno'wl-
edge of the personnel of nearly all except the first generation of our forbears, be-
caine the unanimous choice of his colleanetes for this service, but thte exactions of
a large surgical practice and his teaching work andl other ditties made sh'Ac0 de-
ruands upon his time as to make him unwitlling to accept the assignnierrt.
   The failure of these efforts, and the knowledge that manv of the only too scant
'uase reports and other writings of this period of our medical history. some more
or less crude and fragmentary. but often of great value, w ere published in jour-
iltns long out of print, some gone hopelessly and many of thema difficult to trace
or obtain, and that much valuable unwritten information would he forever lest
with the passing away of inen already of advanced age. induced the writer to uin-
dertake, not the preparation of a mnedieal history, hut, recognizing that history,
after all. is little more than a succession and tactful combination of selected
bmiographies. the far more modest task of collecting and preserving in a somewhat
permanent form such still available data of that time as might in abler and more
fitting hands, be useful as the foundation of such a history of that day as would
be worthv of the actors whose momentous leeds it recorded.
   On account of the very nature of the work. as well as of the unavoidable (lelasy
in taking it up, while possibly other seareely less important facts might have been
aecessible, which wvould have included other worthy men in its scope aind also to
the limits of the space which can he devoted to even such a subjeot as this in an
issue of the Jor'RNArL, the compilation is recognized as so incomplete as comnpare-I
with what it should be, that the writer earnestly expresses the hope that some one
of his more gifted colleagues may be stimulated not only to add biographies of

 
others of this early period rightfully entitld to honored places therein, but that
the scope of it may be so extended as to include those of the later generations who
actively and worthily spent and ended their days in Kentucky, often under-esti-
mated it is feared, because of our intimate and short range association with them.-
and also scores of native born or adopted sons of the Commonwealth who were
educated or first won their spurs here, and then added luster and renown to our
profession and to the State in distant fields of labor. Many familiar and honored
names and faces in both of these classes, who well earned such a distinction, and
who would reflect honor upon the profession by being included in such a future
volume, will readily occur to all of the older members.
   This is not the time or place, even if one were competent for the task. to weigh
the individual merits of these pioneers, much less the comparative merits of the
constructive life-work of master minds like 11cDowell, Dudley and Bradford in
surgery and Drake, the senior Yandell and others in medicine and public affairs,
in contrast with those of almost equal requtations who were followers rather than
leaders, and some of whose reputations are based mainly upon one or nore bril-
liant and successful operation or exploit, but in considering their accomplish-
ments singly or as a whole a proper perspective upon the part of the reader is ot
the utmost importance.
   The environments by which they were surrounded, including the lack
of hospitals. trained nurses, anesthetics, modern surgical appliances, knowl-
edge of asepsis and the other inherent and almost inconceivable difficulties un-
der which their work was done, explains the incredulity of their contemporaries.
and make their achievements seem almost miraculous. For it must be remember-
ed that the subjects of all of the biographies, and most of the authors of these bi-
ographies and other papers, were not only the more or less self-educated pro-
ducts of country villages or districts, but were country practitioners when they
performed the operations or made the scientific discoveries or advances which
gave their names enduring places in medical history and in the annals of the
State and 'Nation. and the most illustrious of them remained in the localities
where thev had won renown to the end of their days, and now lie in honored
graves in the little communities which were still more highly honored by their
lives and achievements.
   In order to emphasize these surroundings and difficulties, and the claims of
these forbears of oars to eternal renown. it should be borne in mind that
B-ardstown. although situated in a rich agricultural section, the seat of
tihe Diocese or See of the Catholie ehlreh for all the country west of the
Alleghanies, with the most illustrious courts and bar in the west, and recognized
as a eentre of learning and culture, had but 820 inhabitants when Brashear per-
formed the first successful hip-joint amputation ever done in the world in 1806.
D)anville, the first Capitol of Kentucky. with the home of McDowell almost under
the shadow of the State Buildings when he was doing his early surgery, had only
432t inhabitants when he operated upon Mrs. Crawford in 1809, and but 804 at

 
the time of his death. Mayslick, in Mason County, where Drake was reared and
first practiced, had 130 inhabitants then and but 309 now, and Cincinnati, where
he next located, had less population and commercial importance than Lexington,
to which place his restless spirit soon took him. Augusta had less than 600 in-
habitants when Bradford began his surgieal career, and only 960 at the time of
his death. Lexington, a remarkable town in a wonderful country, then as now,
had but 1795 inhabitants when the 'Medical School of Transylvania UniversitY,
the second in the United States and the first west of the Alleghanies, was estab-
lished there in 1799, and only 6.3997 when Dudley was in the zenith of his surgical
work. Louisville. now a great metropolis. and for more than a generation one
of the recognized centres of medical education of this country, had but 359 in-
habitants when this Medical School was opened at Lexington in 1779, less than
19.000 when it was moved from Lexington to Louisville in 18:17-8, and but 43,194
in 1850.
   For the convenience of readers, as well as because it seemed a more natural ar-
rangement, chronological order and logical sequence -were ignored, and all of the
sketches and papers in the volume placed under the following heads:
   1. The McDowell Group.
   2. The Transylvania University Group.
   3. The University of Louisville Group.
   4. The General Kentucky Group.
   This involved recognized inconsistencies and defects, to the extent even of plac.
ing a few writers in more than one group, but equal or greater difficulties seemed
unavoidable under any other plan which suggested itself.
   Grateful acknowledgements are here made to Dr. 'Mclurtry for invaluable
advice and assistance in making this compilation; to the Filson Club for the use
of both subject matter and its plates in preparing the Transylvania Group, and
to all others who have aided in the work.
   Confident of the intrinsic value of the facts contained in it, in spite of the de-
fects mentioned. and of the cordial reception it will meet at the hands of the pro.
fession. arrangements have been made to put this volume in handsome binding,
for presentation to such public libraries as the Association may select, and for the
use of all members who may desire to incur the small personal expense necessary
to eniable them to possess and transmit it in this permanent form as a heritage.
It is also expected that the Association at its next meeting will create a committee
to present copies of this bound volume, the original McDowell letter, and all of the
pictures contained in this publication, properly grouped and handsomely framed,
to the Kentucky State Historical Society, at Frankfort. in the hope that they may
form the nucleus of an honored and honoring collection of "The Medical Men of
Kentucky," in the halls of the Capitol, which it is hoped will grow by decades or
periods through all the ages.                           J N. McCormack.


I

 
Foreword To The McDowell Group


    0 the late Professor Samuel D. Gross, Ml. D.,LL. D., D. C. L. Oxon, is due
      the credit of rescuing froa obscurity the name and fame of Dr. Ephraim
      McDowell, and of establishing permanently his place in history as the first
ov-ariotomist and the founder of abdominal surgery. Professor Gross was for a
ulumber of years Professor of Sturgerv in the Univesity of Louisville, going later
to Philadelphia where he completed his long and brilliant career as Professor of
Surgery in .Jeffersori Medical College. While residing in Louisville Professor
Cross met many of the contemporaries of Dr. MceDowell, and thereby learned
millch of the personality and professional work of that pioneer of American surg-
t-yV. Professor Gross resurrected Dr. _MeDowell's report of his eases of ovari-
otony from the files of "The Eclectic ltpertory and Analytical Review" pub-
lished in Philadelphia, and iil his Report on Kentucky Surgery to the Kentucky
State Medical Society in 1852 set forth in a thorough and masterful paper Me-
l)owell's priority as the first surgeon in the world to successfully invade the
peritoneumli and remove an ovarian tumor. This paper was subsequently incor-
lporated in Professor C1ross' American Mledical Biographv, published by Lindsay
and Blakiston of Philadelphia in 1861.
   In 1873 the late Dr. John D. Jackson, of Danville, Ky., wrote and published
 'Biographical Sketch of Ephrain MtcDowell," whiph added materially to ex-
 isting knowledge of MeDowell's character and surgical achievements. In this
 admirable sketch Dr. Jackson portrayed the Qlaims of McDowell to the gratitude
of the women of the world and also the honor due to his memory from the medical
profession. Dr. Jackson urged that Dr. McDowell's remains should be re!novedl
from  the neglected family burying-ground at "Traveler's Rest," the former
iomEntrv home of Governor Shelby, and suggested that the women of the world
who have been rescued from lingering death by the operation he devised should
erect a monument over his grave. Dr. Jaekson was so deeply imbued with this
idea that his enthusiastic appeal in the press, in the medical societies and in pri-
vate correspondence won the approving interest of Professor Gross, Dr. J. Marion
Sims and other prominent American surgeons.
  In 1875 Dr. Jackson presented his appeal to honor HeDowell's memory to the
American M1edieal Association. and a Committee, of which Dr. J. Marion Sims
w as Chairman, reported a recommendation that a fund to be known as the MC-
Dowell Memorial Prize Essay Fund le established to perpetuate McDowell's

 
memory, and that "to the profession of the State of Kentucky he left the privi-
lege of suitably marking his resting place." Under the conditions of the- or-
ganization of the American Medical Association at that time such disposition of
the subject was equivalent to its burial, although Dr. Sims did not so intend. At
that time all executive business was transacted in the general session, and the
personnel of the convention changed from year to year with the place of meeting.
   Tn December of 1875 Dr. Jackson died, and his pupil and devoted friend, Dr.
Lewvis S. Mc'Murtry, then of Danville, now of Louisville, a recent graduate in
medicine, assumed the continuance of Dr. Jackson's cherished plan to place a
suitable local memorial to McDowell. Dr. McMurtry brought the subject before
the Kentucky State Medical Society, at Hopkinsvllle,'in the following year, and a
Committee, with Dr. Mc'Murtry as Chairman. was appointed to erect a monument
to Dr. McDowell in Danville. Dr. Mfc'lurtry undertook this difficult task with a
very limited acquaintance with the medical profession of the State, and carried
it to a successful conclusion despite many obstacles and much discouragement.
He raised the money from subscriptions of members of the profession to provide
the granite shaft which now marks McfDowell's grave in McDowell Square in
Danville. In addition he secured for this purpose the beautiful square near the
center of Danville, and removed thereto the remains of Dr. McDowell and his
wife. In response to his appeal the citizens of Danville contributed a fund to
grade, enclose and beautify the square. Professor Gross. Dr. E. R. Peaslee, and
other distinguished American surgeons encouraged Dr. McMurtry 's efforts by
sending contributions to the McDowell Memorial Fund.
   This was Dr. McMurtrv's first important public service rendered in behalf of
the medical profession of his native State, and won for him the gratitude and
esteem with which the profession has since honored him.
  In 1879 the Kentucky State Medical Society convened in Danville, and this was
the most brilliant occasion in its history. Professor Cross came to personally
dedicate the McDowell monument, and in the presence of a large concourse of
Kentucky physicians, with many distinguished surgeons from other states, among
them Dr. Lewis A. Sayre, President of the American Medical Association, and
D)r. Gilman Kimball, of Lowell, Mlass., a famous ovariotomist of that day, many
prominent laymen, including the Governor of the Commonwealth, delivered the
eloquent address which will be found with the other proceedings of that occasion
in this number of the JOURNAL.
   Thus was fixed in history for all time the fame of Kentucky's greatest pioneer
surgeon.                                               J N. McCormack.

 
                       EPHRAIM EMcDow=LL.
      3y permission of the American Gynecological Society.)

                                  1771--1830
From a paiing, supposed to have been made about time his first ovariotony was performed.

 
I. THE McDOWELL GROUP


BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. EPH-
           RAMLI lMeDOWELL.
   By JoijN D. JACKSON, M. D., Danville.
   Dr. Ephraim McDowell was born in Roe1r
bridge county, Va., on the 11th day of No-
vember, 1771. His ancestors belonged to the
clan of the Duke of Argyle, in Scotland, but,
slaving embraced the covenant, were so perst
cuted during the reign of Charles I., that they
root retuge in the counties of Antrim ana
Londondery, in the north of Ireland. In
1737 they removed to the Valley of Virginia,
and settled upon an immense tract of land in
Roekbridge county, granted by James II. to
Gexijamin Borden. who. in partnership with
tile McDowells, furnished the emigrants re
scuired to make the grant effective.
  His father, Samuel McDowell, (his mother's
maiden name was Sarah -cClung,) was for
many ysars engaged in political life as a mem-
ber of the Legislature of Virginia, but in 1782
he was appointed by the Virginia Assembly a
Land Commissioner for Kentucky, then a coun.
ty or appanage of Virginia, and in the follow-
ing year removed with his family to Danville,
Ky.. where he received the appointment of
Judge of the Distriet Court of Kentucky,
which held its first sitting, and all those of its
early years. in the town of Danville.
  Young   Ephraim McDowell received his
early education at the classical seminary of
Mressrs. Worley and James, who taught at
Gerorgetown, and afterwards at Bardstown.
He then went to Virginia, and entered the of-
fiee of Dr. Humphreys, of Staunton, as a
medical student, where he remained for t'wo
or three vears. Of Dr. Humphreys we know
hut little, save the fact that he was a gradu-
ate of the University of Edinburgh, and that
in his day he enjoved a considerable local
reputation. and an extensive practice in
Staunton and its vicinity. That he was a
good instructor, also, is highly probable; at
least we know the fact that another of his pu-
pils, Dr. Samuel Brown, one of the founders,
and one of the first corps of lecturers of the
Medical Department of Transylvania Uni-


Nersitv at Lexington arose to high distinc-
tioll.
  In 1]793-4 McDowell attended lectures at
the University of Edinburgh contemporaneous-
ly with his countrymen, Dr. Samuel Brown,
above alluded to, and Drs. Hosack and D)a-
vidge, of New York, and Brockenborough, of
Virginia. all of whom  subsequently gained
eminence in the profession. While in attend-
anee on the course at the University he also
took a private course under John Bell, who
at that time did not belong to the Faculty
and it seems that the brilliant predilections
of this most able and eloquent of the Scot(h
surgeons of his day impressed him very plo-
foundly. That portion of his course in which
lie lectured upon the diseases of the ovaries,
dwelling upon the hopeless death to which
their victims were inevitably fated, and mere-
ly suggesting the possibility of success follow -
ing so shockingly severe an operation as any
attempt at their extraction would prove, was
never forgotten by his auditor, for undoubted-
l it 'was the principles and suggestions at
this time enunciated by the -naster which, six-
teen years after, determined the pupil to at-
tempt his first ovariotomly. He (lid not re-
linain long in Edinburgh after finishing his
c ourse, but returned to Danville at the ex-
piration of two years, preceding his return
home by an extended tour afoot through Scot-
lhnd, in company with two of his American
compatriots, Drs. Brown and Speed. As far
as we know, the degree of M. D. was not
actually conferred upon Ilim until 1823, when,
entirely unsolicited on his part, the U nivers-
ity of Maryland honored itself by conferring
upon him the honorary degree of M. D. The
Medical Society of Philadelphia. at that time
the oldest and most distinguished of the kid!
in this country, had sent him its diploma in
1807.
  Upon his return to Danville in 1795, Dr.
McDowell at once entered upomI the practice
of his profession and, commencing as he did,
with the eclat of an attendance upon the then
most famous medical school of the world-
for Edinburmh at that time held the position
since occupied by Paris. and now held b
Vienna, as the eintre of medical science-hle
soon assumed the first professional position


Reprinted from the Richmond and Louisville Medical
Journal, 1873.

 
KENTUCKY MEDICAL JOURNAL.


in his loeality, and speedily advancing the
extent of his reputation within a very few
years, became known throughout all the
Western and Southern States as the first
surgeon west of Philadelphia. For a quarter
of a century indeed, or until Dr. Benjamin
W. Dudley of Lexington, came upon the field,
and as a lecturer upon surgery yearly came
before large classes of young men assemblea
at the Medical Department of Transylvania
Uliversity from all portions of the Ohio and
:lississippi Valleys, had an opportunity for
extending a reputation such as no man in
the West ever had before him. we may say
that Dr. McDowell stood without one to dis-
1ute his position as facile princeps in surgery
west of the Alleghanies.
  During this time his practice extended in
every direction, persons coming to him for
treatment from all the neighboring states, and
he frequently taking horseback journeys for
hundreds of miles, generally the only mode of
travel for long distances at that day, when
neither turnpikes nor railways existed. to
operate upon persons whose difficulties were
of such a nature as to prevent their visiting
himu at D)anville. As far as is known, he was
in the habit of performing every surgical op-
eration then taught in the science. In lith-
otomv he was extremely successful; up to
1 828 he was known to have operated twenty-
twvo times without a single death. For stran-
gulated hernia lie also operated in a large
miunber of cases, and we have good reasons
for believing that he successfully extirpated
the parotid gland long before McClellan or
any other American surgeon had attempted
it. Indeed. there was scarcely anything from
a simple amputation to tracheotomy which
was to be done but that, if Dr. McDowell was
accessible, he was sent for to perform it.
  it was in the winter of 1809, when he had
benen practicing his profession for fourteen
years, that he was sent for to see Mrs. Craw-
lord, residing in Green county, Kentucky,
some sixty miles from   Danville, who was
thought by her d'ietors to have gone long be-
yond her time in pregnancy, or to be the sub-
jeet of extra-uterine foetation. MeDowel!
found her trouble really to he an ovarian tu-
mnor, rapidly hastening to a fatal termination.
To quote the graphic description of Dr. Gross:
-After a most thorough and critical examnin-
ation. Dr. MleDowell informed his patient, a
woman of unusual courage and strength of
mind, that the only chance for relief was the
excision of the diseased mass. He explained
to her, with great clearness and fidelity, the
mmaut re and hazard of the operation: he told
her that he had never performed it, but that
he was ready, if she were willing, to under-
take it, and risk his reputation upon the issue,
a(dldiig- that it was an experiment, but an ex-
pl-einieiit well worthy of trial. Mrs. Craw-


ford listened to the surgeon with great pa-
tience and coolness, and, at the close
of the interview, promptly    assured  him
that she was not only willing, but ready to
submit to his decision; asserting that any
node of death, suicide excepted, was prefer-
able to the ceaseless agony which she was en-
during, and that she would hazard anything
that held out even the most remote prospect
of relief. The result has been long before
the profession. Mrs. Crawford submitted to
the operation, and thus became the first sub-
ject of ovariotomy of whom we have any
knowledge. "
  Mrs. Crawford was forty-seven at the time
of the operation, and died on the 30th of
March, in 1841, aged seventy-eight.
  Although the success in Mrs. CraMford's
case had been everything which could be de-
sired, it was not until seven years afterward,
and when he had twice repeated the opera-
tiom, that he published any account of it. in
1816 he prepared a brief account of his first
three cases. a copy of which he forwarded to
his old preceptor, John Bell, who was then
traveling on the Continent for his health, and
had left his patients and professional corre-
spondence in the charge of Mr. John Lizars.
'J'hough MIr. Bell lived until 1820, he never
returned to Edinburgh, and for some reason
the communication of his old pupil -failed to
reach him. Another copy of the report, how-
ever. was sent to Philadelphia for publica-
rion, and appeared in the Eclectic Repertory
adh Avalytical Reniewi, for October, 1816.
and will follow this paper.
  The brevity and the rather loose manner in
which his first eases were recorded, exposed
Dr. McDowell to criticism, and Dr. Hender-
son and Dr. Miehener, of Philadelphia. each,
in articles in the Repertory, reviewed him
rather sarcastically and doubtingly, while Dr.
James Johnson, the caustic editor of the Lou-
(Ion Medico-Chirurqical Recvieuw, did not hesi-
tate to take advantage of the opportunity, and
deviared outright his total disbelief of Dr.
MeDowell's statements. A few years there-
after, when the accuracy of the report had
been fully confirmed, he, however, frankly ae-
knmowledged his previous error, saying: "A
back settlement of America, Kentucky, has
beaten the mother country, nay Europe it-
self with all the boasted surgeons thereof, in
the fearful and formidable operation of gas-
trotomy with extraction of diseased ovaries.
    There were circumstances in the nar-
rative of the first three cases that raised mis-
givings in our minds, for which uncharitable-
imesp we aak pardon of God and of Dr. Mc-
Dowvell, of Danville."
  In the Reperlory for October, 1819, he re-
ported two more cases, and, in connection with
them. incidentally alluded to his critics and
their criticisms to this effect:


]2

 
MEDICAL PIONEERS OF' KENTUCKY3


  "I thought my statement sufficiently ex-
plieit to warrant any surgeon performing
the operation, when necessary, without haz-
arding the odium of making an experiment,
and I think my description of the mode of op
eration, and of the anatomy of the parts con-
ecrned, clear enough to enable any good anat-
onmist possessing the judgment requisite for
a surgeon, to operate with safety. I hope no
operator of any other description may ever
attempt it. It is my most ardent wish that
this operation may remain to the mechanical
surgeon ever incomprehensible. Such have
been the bane of the science, intruding them-
selves into the ranks of the profession, with


destruetive to their patients, and disgraceful
to the science. It is hv such the nob)le science
has been degraded, in the minds of many, to
the rank of an art."
  In the summer of 1822 lie made a long
horseback journev of some hundreds of miles
into Middle Tennessee and back, and perform-
ed ovariotomy with a successful result upon
Mirs. Overton, who resided near the Hermi-
tage, the residence of the late President Jack-
sonI. Mrrs. Overton was enormously obese, and
he had to cut through four inches of fat
up0on the abdomen. The only assistants lie
had in the operation, as wve have been inform-
ed, were General Jackson and a Mrs. Priest-


                               TRAVELERS' REST
  Near Danville. the home of Isaac Shelby, first and sixth Governor of Kentucky. Here Dr. McDowell was mar-
riedtoSarahShelby.daughteroftheGovernor,in 1802,and here they bothlay buried until their bodies were
removed to Monument Square. DanvIlle. In 1879.


no other (lualifieation, but in boldness in un-
dertakitg, ignorance of their responsibility
and indifference to the lives of their patients;
piroceeding aeeording to the special dictate of
some author as mechanical as themselves, they
eut and tear with fearless indifference, in-
capable of exercising any judgment of their
own in cases of elnergeney; and  sometimes
without possessing the slightest knowledge of
the anatoylly of the parts concerned.
  "The preposterous and impious attempts
of such pretenders can seldom fail to prove


hey. General Jackson seems to have been
greatly pleased with the I)oetor and had hini
to go to his house and remove a large tunior
growing from the neck and shoulder of one
of his negro naen. Dr. McDowell's charge for
his operation upon  Airs. Overton was five
hundred dollars, but the husband, with :i
comitmendable generosity. gave a cheek upon
one of the Nashville banks for fifteen hun
red tlollars, which upon the Doctor's pre-
senting for payment, and discovering the pre
sultied error for the first time, sent a Messen-


13

 
KENTUCKY MEDICAL JOURNAL.


ger back to Mr. Overton to have it corrected,
aout that gentleman replied that, far from be-
ing a mistake, he felt that he had not even
then made a lull compensation for the great
service which Dr. McJowell had rendered.
  llow manv times during his career he had
occasion to perform  ovariotomy is not now
certainly known. He seems to have been
fonder of the scalpel than the pen; indeed, to
have betn of that elass of mankind, of which
ite have all seen specimens, even among the
ablest and most cultivated, who have a nat-
ural antipathy to writing. He is said to have
kept no notes of his cases, and with the ex-
ception of the  two  communications   above
quoted, and in 1T26, when many tried to
wrrest his honors frotmy him, a card to the pro-
icssion, and addressed especially to the
- Medical Faeulty and Class at Lexington,"
whieh lie was induced to publish, defending
his veracity and claims to having been the
first to perform and establish the feasibility
of the removal of diseased ovaries, is about
all he wrote for Dublication regarding his
operations. However, his nephew, Dr. Wm.
A. Mcl)owell, who was for five years his pu-
pil, and two years his partner, tells us that up
to J820 his uncle had done seven cases, six of
which lie witnessed, and that six of the seven
were successful. After the removal of this
nephew  from  Kentucky to Fincastle, Vir-
giiiia, Dr. Alban Gi. Smith succeeded to his
osition as partner to Dr. Ephraim McDow-
ell. and while with him Dr. Smith himself
t nvice performed ovariotomy.  The younger
MceDowell stated that he had reliable testi-
mlony of his uncle having during his life op-
erated at least thirteen times, exclusive of the
two cases Dr. Smith operated upon, when
they were it. partnership, and that of the
eases operatedl upon by his uncle subsequent
to his retiring from partnership, he had per-
sonal knowledge of the recovery of two. This
would make a total of thirteen cases, with
eight recoveries.
  Dr. McDowell seems to have     been very
careless of either his present or posthumous
fame. and to have originally drawn up the
report of his cases at the repeated solicitation
of his nephewv, l)r. James McDowell, who, up
to the time of his premature death, had been
the partner of his uncle, as his cousin Will-
iam. to whom we have alluded, afterwards
was Thie idea that his success would be pleas
ills to his former preeeptor, John Bell. to
i-Cime lie felt he owed his determination to
perform  the  operation, according   to his
nepliew, seemed more than all else to have in-
tdieed him to put his cases before the profes-
siocal world.
  Long after all dispute of the authenticity
of Dr. MeDowell 's cases had ceased, the med-
ical literature of the past was ransacked to
find some one who had preceded him in the


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