HISTORY: Chapter 14, History of Cayuga Co., NY 1879; Cayuga co., NY

submitted by W. David Samuelsen
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1789 - History of Cayuga County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical
Sketches of some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, by Elliot G. Storke,
assisted by Jas. H. Smith. Pub. by D. Mason & Co., Syracuse, N.Y. 1879

CHAPTER XIV.
CAYUGA COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETIES.
FIRST SOCIETY - ITS MEMBERS AND PROCEEDINGS - SOCIETY LIBRARY - DISBANDMENT
AND ITS CAUSE - FORMATION AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND SOCIETY - MEMBERSHIP
IN AUBURN - HISTORY OF HOMEOPATHY - ITS INTRODUCTION AND PROGRESS IN THE
COUNTY - HOMEOPATHIC SOCIETY AND PHYSICIANS.

The Legislature of 1806 authorized the formation of county medical societies
upon which certain powers were conferred and duties imposed. Previously, all
persons desiring to practice physic and surgery, were required to present
evidence of their competency to the Chancellor of the State, to a judge of the
Supreme or Common Pleas court, or to a Master in Chancery, and on receiving a
certificate entitling them to practice, to file it in the county clerk's
office, under penalty of receiving no remuneration, or in case pay was
received, to be fined $25 each time it was received. The law authorizing
medical societies conferred authority on them to grant licenses and recognize
diplomas from other States and countries, but such licenses and diplomas were
required to be filed in the county clerk's office under like penalty.

At that time there were not more than forty physicians in the County, which
was then considerably larger than now. One-half of them met at the tavern of
Daniel Avery in Aurora, August 7, 1806, and organized the Cayuga County
Medical Society. They were Nathaniel Aspinwall, and Ebenezer Hewitt, of Genoa,
David Annable, of Moravia, William C. Bennett, of Aurelius, Josiah Bevier, and
Jacob Bogart, of Owasco, Nathan Branch, Joseph Cole, of Auburn, Asahel Cooley,
of Fleming, Frederick Delano, of Aurora, Isaac Dunning, Luther Hanchett, Silas
Holbrook, Barnabas Smith and Ezra Strong, all five of Scipio, Consider King,
of Venice, Parley Kinney, of Sherwood, and James McClung, John Post and
Matthew Tallman, of Scipioville. Frederick Delano was elected President, James
McClung, Vice-President, Jacob Bogart, Secretary, and Consider King,
Treasurer. At a meeting held in Levi Stevens' tavern, in Scipio, the first
Thursday in November of that year, by-laws were adopted, five censors were
elected, Doctor Barnabas Smith elected delegate to the State Medical Society,
the present seal of the society ordered, and a tax of $4 a year levied on each
member, to procure a library and provide medical apparatus. The anniversary
meetings were fixed to be held on the first Thursday of November, and the
quarterly meetings on the first Thursday of February, May and August, and
dissertations and discussions upon medical and surgical topics were provided
for. The licentiates of the society were required to sign the following
declaration, and the society archives contain a long file of the declarations
signed by men honored in their day and generation for a faithful compliance
there-with :

" I do solemnly declare that I will honestly, virtuously and chastely conduct
myself in the practice of physic and surgery, with the privileges of
exercising which profession I am now to be invested; and that I will with
fidelity and honor, do everything in my power for the benefit of the sick
committed to my charge."

As the law required societies to enforce its provisions in their respective
counties, Enos T. Throop was appointed law-counselor in August, 1807 ;
thereafter the records show that prosecutions were numerous against irregular
practitioners. The by-laws required then, as now, that the place of meeting
should be determined from year to year. In November, 1806, the office of
Doctor Barnabas Smith, of Scipio, was selected as the place of meeting for the
succeeding year. The library also was directed to be kept there, and Doctor
Smith was appointed librarian. The selection of the place of meeting
occasioned much strife between Auburn and Aurora, (Scipio being accepted as a
compromise,) from this time until 1818, when the southern towns relinquished
their claims, and the meetings have since been held at Auburn by a tacit
consent, and until 1848, at Coe's or Hudson's tavern or the Western Exchange.
The library ceased its peregrinations and settled there also.

The membership of the society was large, and included most of the leading
physicians in the County ; many of whose names recall recollections of active,
useful and honorable lives. That they maintained a creditable professional
standing is evidenced by the following citations from the society records
entered in the words of Doc-tor Silas Holbrook, of Scipio:

"August 3, 1816, Doctors B. King, Silas Holbrook, August Miller, Andrew Groom,
and Frederick Delano met at the house of Mr. Roger Kinney, of Scipio, where
Doctor Delano per-formed lithotomy on the daughter of William Kinney, aged 7
years ; the stone weighed 13 pennyweights, 14 grains. They then proceeded to
Jonathan Winslow's, where Doctor Delano performed the same operation on a
daughter of Mr. Winslow, about the same age; the stone weighing 5
pennyweights, 5 grains. The stone in the last mentioned case appeared to be a
light porous substance and composed of different laminae, with an intermediate
diploe, and nearly the size of the former."

In 1834, Doctor Frank H. Hamilton was appointed to report on the botanical and
agricultural products of the County ; Doctor Humphries, on its mineralogy and
geology ; Doctor Ira H. Smith, on its diseases, and Doctor Lansingh Briggs, on
its statistics, &c. In 1836, the society offered a $25 prize for the best
essay on the endemic fevers of the Western country. Doc-tor Frank H. Hamilton
obtained the prize, and the essay was published in the medical periodicals of
that day.

At the annual meeting in November, 1811, a committee of three was appointed to
act in concert with the trustees of Cayuga Academy, at Aurora, to devise the
best means to obtain from the Legislature a grant to the academy for the
purpose of erecting and continuing an anatomic-al, surgical and chemical
school in said academy, and the committee were empowered to use the authority
and influence of the society for that purpose. The project failed at that
time, but was not given up. At the annual meeting in 1817, Doctors Pitney, I.
H. Smith, and Cole were appointed a committee to consider the propriety of a
medical school, at Auburn, and in 1819, the society petitioned the Inspectors
of the State Prison, at Auburn, to give the bodies of deceased convicts for
dissection. The Legislature subsequently by law appropriated all such bodies
unclaimed by friends for that purpose. A special meeting of the society was
held in January, 1820, to further the project of a medical school in Auburn, a
committee was appointed to circulate a petition to the Legislature in its
be-half, and Doctor Erastus D. Tuttle, then physician to the prison, was
delegated to go to Albany at the expense of the society to promote this
object. These efforts were put forth more especially with a view to utilizing
the prison hospital for clinical instruction, and the unclaimed bodies of
deceased convicts for instruction in anatomy. At the society meetings of 1825
to 1831, the undertaking was continuously prosecuted, but with-out avail.
Hobart College, of Geneva, founded in 1825, finally succeeded in diverting the
projected institution to that place. But meanwhile, aided by the grant of
unclaimed deceased convicts for dissection, and the prison hospital for
clinical instruction, Doctor E. D. Tuttle, the prison physician, assisted by
Doctor James Douglass, of Philadelphia, and Doctors Jedediah and Ira H. Smith,
as lecturers and teachers, and Doctor Thomas N. Calkins as anatomical
demonstrator, opened and conducted a medical school, in a building erected by
Doctor Tuttle for that purpose, next above the Bank of Auburn, on Genesee
street, and from 1825 to 1829 classes of students were yearly instructed
there, while the Legislature was annually besieged for a charter. At the death
of Doctor Tuttle, June 22d, 1829, at the age of 39 years, Doctor John G.
Morgan was appointed physician to the prison, and, associating with himself
Doctor Thomas Spencer, Frank H. Hamilton and others, continued the school in a
building on North street, on the west side, between Genesee and Water streets.
The lectures and course of instruction at these schools were of a creditable
character, and Doctors Spencer and Hamilton here commenced careers, which were
so signally distinguished elsewhere, as professional instructors and
practitioners.

The North Street School was at one time the subject of a popular outburst on
account of the dissections carried on there, which, however, subsided without
much harm. When Geneva secured the charter for which Auburn had striven, the
voluntarily maintained Auburn School received its death blow, and Doctors
Spencer and Hamilton became professors at Geneva. But Geneva, not possessing
the advantages of a hospital for clinical instruction, was obliged at length
to yield the coveted prize to Syracuse.

The spirit and standing of the society is further illustrated by the adoption
at the January meeting in 1842, of a resolution appointing a committee of
five, of which Doctor S. Gilmore, now of Fleming, was chairman, to publish at
the expense of the society, a journal of medical news and papers prepared by
members of the society. One number of this paper was published in pamphlet
form, at a cost to the society of $80, and proved too expensive to be
continued. This number contained a paper on Asiatic cholera, and several
others, among which was one by Doctor Consider King, of Venice, on Acute
Peritonitis, in which he advocated the use of efficient doses of calomel and
opium in its treatment, an early recommendation of what is now considered a
standard practice. In 1841, Doctor Joseph T. Pitney, who died in Auburn, April
20th, 1853, performed successfully on a woman in Scipio, the capital operation
of tying the subclavian artery on the left side above the clavicle, in the
second part of its course, for aneurism. To American surgery very much is due
for establishing the propriety of successful operations upon the large
arteries, and to American surgery is exclusively due the credit of originating
the operation of ovariotomy. Doctor Lansingh Briggs was the first to perform
the latter operation in this County-October 3d, 1867-and was successful in the
result. He has performed the operation thirteen times, in eight of which he
was successful. These evidences of a high standing of professional
intelligence and skill might be largely added to. Previous to 1806, when the
evidence of qualification to practice was certified by the courts, the
following interesting incidents are recorded : October 6th, 1797, judge Wm.
Stevens, of the Court of Common Pleas, certified that Doctor John H. Frisbee
had exhibited to him a certificate from the Chevalier St. George,
Surgeon-in-Chief of Kings Hospital, at Port Au Prince, of Doctor Frisbee's
service under him at said hospital and of his qualification to practice
medicine and surgery in any part of the world. A certificate of license for
another member of the society was based upon the diploma granted by the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of London, England ; and one, decidedly
Hibernian, was upon the certificate of two gentlemen, who each stated that the
other was a physician in Galway, county Galway, without stating from what
source their own right to be deemed physicians was derived.

The number of members who have joined the society, is about 230, who have held
diplomas granted by the Medical Colleges of this State, of Massachusetts,
Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and by the State and County
Societies.

The society library was commenced in 1806, from the support derived from a
yearly tax on the membership of an amount equal to $20. It grew to a
respectable size and was valuable in its composition. Its books and journals
were circulated throughout the County and it continued to flourish till 1848,
when the society virtually disbanded-and sold the library at auction. The
explanation of this action is to be found in the act of the Legislature,
passed in 1845, affecting the practice of medicine in this State, and which it
was thought would prove detrimental to the interests of the profession. It
has, however, worked beneficially, in resting the prestige of the profession
upon its real rather than its assumed merits ; but it was not until 1864 that
the society aroused from the torpor which followed this action and renewed its
career of usefulness. It now numbers thirty-six members, who are drawn from
all parts of the County.

The following are the members who resided in Auburn at the time of joining the
society, with the date of joining :

David H. Armstrong, June 6, 1866; Chester Bradford, May 1, 1828; Asahel M.
Bennett, May 5, 1814 ; Leander Bigelow, August 7, 1828 ; Lansingh Briggs, May
5, 1831 ; J. D. Button, February 3, 1831 ; Truman S. Brinckerhoff, August 31,
1864; C. C. Bates, September 10, 1873: Joseph Cole, August .7, 1806 ; A. H.
Cogswell, May 6, 1824 ; A. L. Cooper, August 1, 1833 ; T. N. Calkins, August
7, 1834; J. Ambrose Crane, June 1, 1837; Edward C. Cadwell, January 4, 1838;
Walter Channing, May to, 1876; R. H. Chase, June, 1871 ; J. P. Creveling,
June, 1871 ; Theodore Dimon, June 3, 1841 ; David Dimon, June 2, 1842 ;   
Dirker, September 12, 1871; Iddo Ellis, November 6, 1806; Charles E. Ford.
January 6, 1820; Walter Fosgate, Au-gust 7, 1828; Blanchard Fosgate. June 2,
1843; C. L. George, October 3, 1866 ; Cornelius Groot, June 6, 1866; John
Gerin, October 7, 1872 ;_ Erastus Humphreys, August 6, 1824 ; Frank H.
Hamilton, August 1, 1833: Charles A. Hyde, January 7, 1841; Edward Hall,
August 31, 1864; C. M. Hobble, June 2, 1871 ; Burton B. Hoxie, June 2, 1871;
William O. Luce, November 10, 1875 ; Stephen Mosher, May 1, 1817; John G.
Morgan, February 3. 1825; O. Munson, June 8, 1838; Daniel Monroe, June 3,
1869; Francis O'Brien, October 12, 1864; Joseph T. Pitney, November 5, 1812;-
Aaron Pitney, February 6, 1824; Ira H. Smith, November 5, 1812; A. R. Shank,
January, 1868 ; C. J. Spratt, June 2, 1869; Charles P. Sanford, June 2, 1869;
Erastus D. Tuttle, August 6, 1818; Anna H. Searing, January 14, 1874; Amanda
Sanford, June, 1871; Charles Van Eps, August 7. 1828 ; Charles E. Van Anden,
January 18, 1861 ; Joseph M. Wood, August 7, 1827 ; Sylvester Willard, May 6,
1824 ; Andrew D. Wood, February 2, 1832 ; Noel Weaver, June 4, 1838 ; J. W.
Wilkie, June 1, 1865 ; H. L. Wood, June 2, 1875, John I. Brinckerhoff, Jr.,
June 2, 1869.

Only two women have been members of this society. Their names are included in
the above list.

CAYUGA COUNTY HOMEOPATHIC SOCIETY. - The therapeutics of the Homeopathic
school of medicine is founded on the theory of similia simlibus curantur. The
principle was discovered and applied by Samuel Hahnemann, an accomplished and
skillful German practitioner of the old school of medicine, who abandoned a
lucrative practice under Government patronage, at Gommeon, near Magdeburg, on
account of conscientious scruples against administering drugs according to the
vague formulas then in use. Having proved certain remedies upon himself and
others, he commenced the practice of his new theory at Leipsic, whence he was
soon driven by the bitter opposition he encountered to Paris, where he met
with success and secured converts, among whom was Doctor Gram of Copenhagen,
who, having won the highest grade of merit in the Royal Academy of Surgery in
that city, came to New York in 1825, and introduced the new practice into
America. It spread rapidly, not-withstanding the prejudice and bitter
opposition against it, and was first introduced into Cayuga County, in May,
1841, by Doctor Horatio Robin-son, sr. Dr. Robinson commenced the practice of
allopathy in 1826 in the towns of Stonington, Conn., and Westerly, R. I.,
which he continued there r 2 years, in company with his father-in-law. In
1838, he removed to the town of Potter, Yates county, N. Y., and in the fall
of 1840, having been called in consultation with Doctors Williams, Heath and
Childs, residing at Seneca Falls, he became acquainted with Doctor Biegler,
who removed that fall to Rochester, from Albany, having settled there some
five years previously from Germany. Doctor Biegler was a disciple of
Hahnemann, and after a consultation with Doc-tor Robinson, furnished him with
books and medicines and gave him directions to guide him in his experiments
with the latter. Doctor Robinson became a convert to the new system of
therapeutics and removed to Auburn in May, 1841, where he commenced practice.
He formed a copartnership with Dr. E. Humphrey, then physician to the prison,
whom he accompanied by invitation the next day after his arrival, to see a
patient, a son of Sherman Beardsley, then one of the wealthy and influential
merchants of the place. The patient was a boy about to years old, who had been
sick seven weeks with fever, supervening measles and whose case Doctors Pitney
and Bigelow, who had been in consultation with Doctor Humphrey, had considered
a doubtful one. " The patient," says Doctor Robinson, "had no pain, but a dry,
hot skin, dry, tickling cough, no expectoration, no soreness about the chest,
constipation, constant thirst, no appetite, and extreme emaciation. 1 The
second day from this visit Doctor Humphrey left for New York, and I took
charge of the patient. On visiting him in the morning, there being no change
in his condition, I dissolved a few globules of aconite in a half tumblerful
of water and directed a teaspoonful every four hours. In thirty-six hours the
fever was entirely subdued. Hepor. sulph. soon removed the cough, and
pulsatilla and chammomilla completed the cure, and in eight days he was
dismissed cured." This was the first case in Cayuga County treated
homeopathically. Doctor Robinson's first convert to homeopathy was Doctor
McCarthy, of Throopsville, the determining cause being a successful treatment
by Doctor Robinson of a patient who had been treated by himself and Doctor
Clary, and consigned to Doctor Robinson's care because considered incurable.
Doctor McCarthy's duties were excessive as his ride extended over the northern
part of the County. In 1858 or 1859 he was thrown from his carriage and
received a severe contusion upon the right side of the head and face, which
resulted in a corcinomatous tumor, involving the parotid gland, the
submaxillary, and a portion of the thyroid gland. This injury so much impaired
his naturally strong constitution that he sank into a premature grave in 1863.
The second convert to homeopathy in this County was Doctor Cator, of Moravia,
who was led to make inquiries concerning it from the effect of Doctor
Robinson's treatment of a patient of his-a daughter of Judge Smith, sister of
the late Doctor Smith, of Auburn-who, though suffering from tubercular
phthisis in an incurable form, was so much improved as to be able to visit
around the village, and inspired her friends with the hope of her recovery ;
and upon his, Cator's wife, who was suffering from a severe case of gastritis,
which yielded to the remedies successfully. This was in the fall of 1841.
Doctor Hiram Bennett, a partner of Doc-tor Cator's, ventured an investigation
with like result. Doctor Cator removed about this time to Syracuse, and
introduced homeopathy into Onondaga county, and Doctor Bennett, to Rochester,
where he died. The late Doctor Smith, of Auburn, who was then pursuing his
studies with Doctors Bennett and Cator, being thus left without a preceptor,
took up the homeopathic practice, and continued in Moravia till 1862, when he
removed to Auburn. During the first four years' practice in Auburn, Doctor E.
C. Witheral, a brilliant student, graduated and settled in Cincinnati, where
he worked up a splendid practice, and continued until he died, much lamented
by both schools of medicine.

Doctor C. E. Swift, now of Auburn, and Doctor George Allen went from Doctor
Robinson's office and pursued a successful practice, although Doc-tor Allen's
life was a short one. He was cut off by consumption after about two years'
practice. Doctor Peterson, of Union Springs, a lawyer by profession, turned
his attention to the study and practice of homeopathy, but having no diploma,
suit was brought against him before Squire Bostwick, of Auburn, and after a
full trial the jury brought in a verdict of three-fourths of a cent to the
plaintiff and donated their fees to the defend-ant. Doctor C. W. Boyce came to
Auburn and commenced the practice of his profession in the winter of 1847. In
the spring of 1851, Doctor Horatio Robinson, Jr., graduated from the West-ern
Homeopathic College, in Cleveland, Ohio, and commenced practice in Auburn. A
little later, Doctor Hewitt located in Genoa, where he still resides ; Doctor
Gwynn, at Throopsville ; Doctor Parsels, at Weedsport ; Doctors Frye, Sprague
and T. K. Smith, at Auburn ; and others in various parts of the County. Doctor
Strong, a convert from allopathy, was located at Sennett. He subsequently
removed to Owasco, where he re-sided several years, then left for the west.
Thus the new system of therapeutics continued to spread ; the literature of
the school, to increase ; and new remedies, to multiply. In 1862 the
Legislature of this State granted a char-ter to the State Homeopathic Society
and in the following May, the Cayuga County Homeopathic Society was formed
according to the requirements of the statue. In 1825, when Doc-tor Gram
introduced homeopathy into New York, he stood alone in this country. In 1841,
when Doctor Robinson introduced it into this County, there were not more than
thirty to thirty-five practitioners in the country. But now the State numbers
them by the thousands, the country, by tens of thousands. Within the last
twenty years the system has made rapid progress. Its literature has been
largely increased by the addition of new works on pathology, therapeutics, and
a new materia medica ; eight or ten colleges, one State insane asylum and
numerous hospitals have been established under its auspices ; and the
intensely bitter opposition which heralded its inception and marked its early
growth, has measurably diminished, although a strong professional prejudice
against it still exists.

Following is a list of the physicians of all schools now practicing in Auburn
; Loyal W. Allen, David H. Armstrong, C. C. Bates, C. W. Boyce, Lansingh
Briggs, J. S. Brinkerhoff, James D. Button, Thomas N. Calkins, Joseph P.
Creveling, David Dimon, Theodore Dimon, Geo. S. Everts, Blanchard Fosgate,
Charles A. Foster, Moses M. Frye, C. A. George, Edward Hartman, B. K. Hoxie,
James N. Jenkins, W. O. Luce, David Munroe, Horatio Robinson, Horatio
Robinson, Jr., Amanda Sanford, Charles P. San-ford, Alexander R. Shank, Truman
K. Smith, William M. Sprague, Charles E. Swift, Daniel M. Thornier, Henry D.
Whitbeck, T. J. Wilson, and A. A. White.