PIONEER MEDICINE in VIRGINIA by BLANTON P

PIONEER MEDICINE IN VIRGINIA By BLANTON P. SEWARD, A.B., M.D. ROANOKE, VIRGINIA Now the true and lawful goal of the modern physiology when he published sciences is none other than this: that his book, “De Motu Cordis,” in 1628. human life be endowed with new discov Thus the foundations for two of the eries and powers. fundamental branches of medicine were Francis Bacon, Novum Organum. laid only a short time before and after ARELY sixty-five years before the colonization of America. For a long the first permanent colony was time before the laying of the first established at Jamestown, An foundations of scientific medicine, a dis dreas Vesalius completed his tinction was made between physicians exhaustive treatise on anatomy, “De and surgeons. This distinction, though Humani Corporis Fabrica,’’ a wTork not a wholesome one, was continued, which, according to Osler, represents and it is the reason why the word, the full flower of .the Renaissance. “chirurgeon” or surgeon was placed Vesalius’ successor, Heironymus Fabri- after the names of some of the early cius, added to these discoveries, and colonial medical men, and the word, Harvey, a pupil of the latter, acknowl physician, after the names of others. edged that it was the position of the The first physicians who practiced in valves of the veins which Fabricius had Virginia were selected by the London pointed out, that induced him to think Company, a private enterprise which of the circulation of the blood. Twenty- sponsored the colony and managed its five years before Harvey was born, affairs until James I assumed control in Michael Servetus, a fellow-student of 1624. R showed a high conception of Vesalius, wrote his book, “Christian- the type of physician that should be sent isimi Restutitio,” in which he described to the colony in selecting men of good the pulmonary circulation. In the same training and whose talents equalled year that Servetus made known his dis those of their British contemporaries. covery, John Calvin and his fanatic The most outstanding of these physi Protestants burned him at the stake be cians were Walter Russell and Law cause the ideas expressed in it were con rence Bohun. sidered to be at variance with Christian Russell came with the first reinforce teachings. Had not such a fate befallen ment of colonists in January, 1608. He Servetus, “the martyr for the crime of was one of fourteen men who set out honest thought,” he, instead of Harvey, with Captain John Smith in the follow might have been the discoverer of the ing June to explore the Chesapeake general circulation. Bay. On this trip Russell rendered serv William Harvey, whom Cohn1 char ice to Captain Smith, who acterized as a “man unusually favored . taking a fish from his sword (not by fortune, one who utilized with great knowing her condition), being much of intelligence the rare opportunities the fashion of a Thornebacke with a which the contemporary world af longer taile. Whereon is a most poysoned forded,” helped to lay the foundation of sting of 2. or 3. inches long, which she strooke an inch and (a) halfe into the Indies, and there he wrote later: “I wrist of his arme. The which, in 4. houres found help for my health, and my sick- had so extremely swolne his hand, arme, nesse assuaged, by means of fresh dyet, shoulder, and part of his body, as we al, and especially Oranges and Lemonds, with much sorrow concluded (antici an undoubted remedy and medicine for pated) his funerall, and prepared his grave in an He hard by (as himself ap that disease, . .”6 Scurvy had long pointed) ; which then we called Stingeray been known to affect mariners; it was lie, after the name of the fish. Yet by the also known that lemon and orange helpe of a precious oile Doctour Russel juice would either cure or bring about applyed, ere night his tormenting pain an improvement in the disease. One was so wel asswaged that he eate the fish hundred and forty years after Bohun to his supper: which gave no lesse joy and advised Lord Delaware to go to the content to us, than ease to himselfe. Hav West Indies where he could easily ob ing neither Surgeon nor surgerie but that tain fruit, James Lind wrote his classic preservative oile, we presently set sail monograph in which he urged the use for James Towne.2 of lemon and orange juice in treating Smith gave Russell and Anas Todkill the disease. credit for this report which represents The majority of physicians who prac the first literary effort of a physician in ticed in Virginia during the first two America. decades must either have remained here Lawrence Bohun was said by Brown3 a short time before returning to Eng to have been a “long time brought up land, or fallen victims of the epidemic amongst the most learned Surgeons and diseases that decimated the ranks of the Physitians in the Netherlands.” Com colonists. As a result of an insufficient ing to Virginia with Lord Delaware in number of physicians, the colonists were 1610, he soon gained the confidence of often in dire straits for medical aid. On the colonists. A few months after his ar several occasions the governors and the rival, he was commended by the Gov council wrote letters to the London ernor and the Council for his “care and Company requesting it to send more industrie for the preservation of our physicians and apothecaries.7,81 9 men’s lives (assaulted with strange The Company early gave the specific fluxes and agues), . .”4 According to instruction: “Neither must you plant Strachey,5 Bohun investigated the me in a low or moist place because it will dicinal properties of several plants, par prove unhealthful.”10 That this instruc ticularly sassafras and galbanum mecho- tion was disregarded was neither the acon, or rhubarb, which he used “in fault of the colonists, nor of their physi cold and moist bodies for the purginge cians; the lowlands along the coast were of fleame and superfluous matter.” As infested with malaria but offered them far as we know, Bohun was the first phy escape by sea in case of overwhelming sician to investigate the medicinal prop attacks by the Indians, while certain erties of plants in this country. death awaited them in the interior at His investigations were terminated the hands of the savages. after about a year, when he accom It is interesting to note that in the panied Lord Delaware, who was suffer early years the colonists began making ing with scurvy, to the West Indies. It plans for a hospital, and in 1612 they was upon Bohun’s suggestion that the actually began constructing “a retreat Governor sought a cure in the West or guest house for sicke people”11 at Henricropolis on the James River a few cians who practiced in Virginia during miles from Richmond. The building the remainder of the seventeenth cen “with four-score lodgings (and beds al- tury excelled either in education or in readie sent to furnish them) for the talent those sent here by the London sicke and lame, with keepers to attend Company. Some who practiced here in them for their comfort and recoverie,”12 the latter part of the century probably was ready for use in 1618. As nothing were native Virginians who received further was said about the hospital, it their training by serving as apprentices was probably destroyed in the confla to local physicians. A few of the well- gration following the massacre in 1622. to-do planters sent their sons abroad to It is interesting to note also that the be educated. Bruce15 was inclined to London Company in 1620 issued orders think a large number of young Virgin for the building of hospitals in the col ians went to England to receive instruc ony. According to the orders, “. in tion in the foremost schools and col each of the four ancient Boroughs . , leges, although he mentioned only one, as also in each of the Plantations, a John Lee, who entered Queen’s Col Guest-house (hospital) shall be built, lege, Oxford, in 1658, received the for the lodging and entertaining of fifty Bachelor of Arts degree in 1662, and persons in each, . .” in order that “later the degree of Doctor of Physic.” “the people now sent, and which here One may infer that he obtained his de after shall come, may be better provided gree in medicine at Queen’s College. A against sicknesse, (seeing in the health careful review of the records of that pe of the People consisteth the very life, riod, however, shows that he did not strength, increase and prosperity of the obtain the degree at that school.16 whole generale Colony), . .”13 Spe Michel,17 in commenting upon educa cific directions were given for the size tion in the colony, stated: “. it was of the buildings, each one of which was the custom of wealthy parents ... to to have twenty-five double beds for the send their sons to England to study accommodation of fifty patients. When there. But experience showed that not the Government took charge of the col many of them came back. Most of them ony three years later, the Privy Council died of small-pox, to which sickness the ordered “Guest-houses to be built for children of the West are subject.” harboring sick men and receiving stran Many physicians who emigrated from gers.”14 Thus the institutional care of England to Virginia also did not have the sick was carefully considered, and degrees in medicine; like many Vir provisions were made for it, but un ginians, they acquired their knowledge fortunately the plans did not materi by serving as apprentices to well-known alize.

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