[From Fernelius: Universa medicina, Geneva, 1679.] ANNALS OF MEDICAL HISTORY New Series , Volu me IX Novemb er , 1937 Number 6

A PORTRAIT GALLERY OF PHYSICIANS THE COLLECTION IN THE ARMY MEDICAL LIBRARY

By HAROLD WELLINGTON JONES, Col ., M.C., U.S.A. WASHINGTON, D.C.

ONGL before his likenesses no second thought, perhaps eyes wander indeed a fair share of them, immersed among the in those lusty tomes for which all li- books, the visi- braries are famous, are quite uncon- tor to the Army scious of the piercing glances from the Medical Library frames—are perhaps unaware of the dis- is conscious, as pleasure of many a look when too much he enters the noise comes from the reading room. vast reading Who are these men? Are they Titans or room, of many faces looking down nonentities placed there by those who upon him from on high. Some thirty had no other way of dealing with them? years ago when I first saw these por- Some peer out dimly, their lineaments traits I was timidly aware, as a budding scarce discernible, as if afraid of recog- aspirant for a commission, of the fierce- nition, while others have countenances ness of the gaze of some of them, and lighted with shafts of gold which the could indeed thank my stars that yon- setting sun has seemingly endowed with der old gentleman in the cocked hat life. Is the likeness before me a prized and epaulets was not to have my des- portrait by an artist of note, or is it per- tiny in his keeping. If he count them, haps the work of some hack unknown the visitor will find some score of per- to fame? Let us examine them and dis- sonages of greater or lesser fame who cover if we may what the portraits tell have long been immortalized on can- us. vas to be hung, most of them “skyed” as our artists put it, under varying de- Will iam Ship pe n grees of illumination for the specula- Here in a corner of the huge room is tion of posterity. our first acquaintance. His pink and Many readers, I dare say, give these white countenance, quite free from care, looks down over ruffled linen of eral of the Army, and he lived just over impeccable whiteness. Nevertheless the the river from Washington in Fairfax face shows a man of force and a lofty County, Virginia. The original portrait purpose reveals itself as we look at his of which this is a copy hangs in Wash- likeness. William Shippen must have ington Lodge, Alexandria, Virginia. been good to know. Doctor Craik accompanied Washing- William Shippen was Director Gen- ton in an expedition against the French eral of the Military Hospitals of the and Indians in 1754, and attended the Continental Army, and was born in wounded Braddock a year later at Fort Philadelphia in 1736. As I look at him I Duquesne. He was a warm friend of realize he was the same age as my great- Washington’s and after the war at the great-grandfather who commanded a General’s suggestion he removed to the Company at Bunker Hill. Did they neighborhood of Mount Vernon. In ever meet? Who knows? Fate decreed 1798 when war was threatened with that I shall not know the face of my France he was appointed Physician great-great-grandfather who lies on a General to the Army but held the posi- hillside in a tiny New Hampshire vil- tion but a short time. Doctor Craik at- lage, while William Shippen’s face lives tended Washington in his last illness forever. The portrait is a good copy of and was present when his General Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Shippen passed away. He himself died full of now in possession of the Shippen fam- years and honors in 1814. ily. It was presented to the Library many years ago by Mrs. George E. James Tilto n Nitzsche of Pennsylvania. Wistar says We now look at James Tilton, whose of William Shippen: “His person was portrait hangs hard by Doctor Craik’s. graceful, his manners polished, his con- Doctor Tilton was Physician and Sur- versation various, and the tones of his geon General of the Army, and the voice singularly sweet and conciliatory. dual title suggests an unwillingness to In his intercourse with society he was share honors with anyone. Indeed the gay without levity, and dignified with- flinty and uncompromising counte- out harshness or austerity.” As one nance that looks at me makes me feel looks at his likeness this tribute is not like tendering the gentleman an apol- difficult to believe. ogy for removing him from his golden frame. If we search for the name of the James Craik artist it will be in vain. The canvas was The portrait hung next to William obtained in New York a century or so Shippen has the look of a Scotchman, ago, but the artist’s signature, if it ex- and this observation I recorded one isted, has long since been painted out afternoon as I studied the faces in the in the restoration of the portrait, the Library, nor was I at all surprised to gift of Mr. James Tilton of Wilming- discover that James Craik was in truth ton, Delaware, a descendant, in 1875. born in Scotland. He is clean shaven There is no hint to be found anywhere after the fashion of his time, as was of its being a copy of any existing like- Shippen, and the small mouth denotes ness, and Doctor Thacher’s book shows narrowness perhaps. Secretive he must an entirely different portrait of Tilton. have been I think, a man not easy to As one looks at the lean face, the thin know. James Craik was Physician Gen- lips, the cold blue eyes, one sees a man bold and decided, which indeed he was. than a hundred years ago are as sound Born in Delaware, graduated in the first as a dollar today. He revised and re- class in the Medical School of Philadel- wrote the Medical Department Regu- phia, he entered his country’s service in lations, was largely responsible for the 1776, relinquishing a lucrative prac- reorganization of the Medical Corps in tice. Uncommonly successful in the 1821, and at all times stood ready to practice of medicine, he was again staunchly defend his beloved branch of called to the service of his country in the service from aggression. He labored 1812 as has been said. Thacher, quot- earnestly to secure increases of pay for ing his friend Belloch in whose arms medical officers and his efforts were ul- Tilton died, says of him: “In whatever timately successful. He banished the view we may consider the character of whiskey ration from the Army, he es- Doctor Tilton we shall find many traits tablished boards to weed out the in- to distinguish him from other men. He competents of the Medical Depart- was ... an original; wholly unlike ment. In the words of Harvey Brown, most other men in person, countenance, “In all his relations, whether as Chris- manners, speech, gesture and habits.” tian philanthropist, profound scholar, Doctor Tilton was President of the skilful surgeon, or true-hearted gentle- Society of the Cincinnati of Delaware, man, he was one of whom the medical and it was hoped that the history of the staff may always be proud and the portrait could be traced in some man- memory of whose good life may be ner through this organization, but the written on every page of its history.” effort has been without success and the Such was Lovell who founded the Army origin of the likeness remains un- Medical Library one hundred years known. ago.

Josep h Lov ell Thomas Laws on Next we see General Lovell. A hun- The fifth portrait in the long line dred years ago he founded the Army over the entrance to the Library Hall Medical Library, little dreaming of is Surgeon General Lawson. What a what a century would bring forth. Lov- name to conjure with! Indeed I cannot ell’s portrait has been copied in every look at him save in terror. From under instance I think where his features the cocked hat a face arises from a have been reproduced, but there are mountain of gold braid, and he fas- other likenesses of him in existence in tens upon me a gaze wherein are de- the possession of his descendants. Lov- picted indomitable will and persever- ell did not live long after he founded ing courage. The dark, deep-set eyes, the Library—he died in the same year. the straight nose and the firm mouth His portrait by an unknown artist show the measure of the man. Here is shows an alert, keen face, the face of a he who was too busy in the field in the man of action. Lovell was in point of Florida war to press his claims for fact our first Surgeon General under the Surgeon Generalcy. When Presi- definite planned legislative enactment, dent Jackson finally appointed him to and from the time he took office in succeed General Lovell, a sigh of relief 1818 at the age of twenty-nine, until went up from those who feared the his death eighteen years later, he made place would go to a civilian. General history. His views on sanitation of more Lawson’s portrait by F. J. Fisher is one of the outstanding ones in the gallery. never reach the lowest niche even on There is no mist about his countenance the standard of merit by the Army and he appears as he probably was, a Medical Board.” Ecce quam bonum! fearless man who knew his rights and stood up for them whether in the field Cle ment A. Finley or at his desk. He was no stranger to The next portrait and the sixth in battle for he even commanded a regi- order is General Finley, undoubtedly ment in war. one of the most striking in the gallery. General Lawson served as Surgeon From the splendid old frame looks out General through the Mexican War and a fine figure of a man. Handsome he is, was still in that office at the outbreak and his beautifully curled whiskers and of the Civil War, his tenure extending beard just turning gray give him the over a period of a quarter of a century. look of an aristocrat among aristocrats. He died suddenly in May, 1861, hav- The eyes are stern, the face impassive ing served as Surgeon General longer and immobile, the shoulders narrow. than any man in history. Quoting again Were he your ancestor you would be from Harvey Brown: “He was the last proud indeed, for who does not cher- of that gallant band of medical officers ish beauty in those from whom he is who had upheld the credit of the Corps sprung? The portrait is a really fine . . . during the arduous campaigns of work by F. J. Fisher who painted Law- the second war with England. He had son, and it has been reproduced many seen continuous service for forty-eight times. As far as I am able to discover no years and had wielded his vigorous pen other portrait of General Finley is in in the office of the Surgeon General ever since the death of the lamented existence. Lovell.” How trenchant was that pen General Finley was made Surgeon and how much the Medical Corps of General of the Army on the death of today owes to Lawson can best be ap- General Lawson in the Spring of 1861 preciated by reading his many pub- and at the very outbreak of the Civil lished letters and reports and by a con- War. The appointment, for he was sideration of the legislation for which more than sixty years of age, was made he was largely responsible. An example undoubtedly on account of General of his vigorous language, which by the Finley’s being the senior officer of the way was never equivocal and which Medical Corps. General Finley served could well have come from that un- less than a year and then retired, hav- compromising face upon the wall, I ing erected in that period no imperish- cannot refrain from quoting. It con- able monuments to his own genius. Yet cerned a man who, having failed on his I would gladly admit him to the com- examination for the Medical Corps, pany of my forbears. had attempted to secure the position by political preferment. Here was Thomas Jos ep h K. Barn es Lawson defending his beloved Medical Now comes General Barnes, done by Corps from the rape of the politicians. the same artist, Fisher. Surgeon Gen- “Dr. . . . has been twice examined eral Barnes had been Acting Surgeon and in both instances greatly failed General during the absence of Surgeon [italics mine], and from my own knowl- General Hammond in the field in 1863, edge of him I am free to say that he can and when that officer was dismissed from the Army by sentence of a court Joh n Moore martial in 1864, he was made Surgeon Here is a full length portrait of John General and served as such until 1882. Moore, Surgeon General from 1886 to General Barnes was responsible for the 1890. It is a copy of a photograph that continuance of the collection of the hangs behind a book cabinet, and I am Army Medical Museum started in the sure from General Moore’s crusty ap- war by General Hammond, and for the pearance he could not have been in- detail of Doctor Billings on the duty duced to sit for his portrait. The artist, of creating a great medical library. He like many another from Velasquez and also stood stoutly for the rights of the Rembrandt down to our own times, Medical Department as to the control failed to include his name and address of General Hospitals and Hospital and is now quite unknown. Colonel Ships. Anyway, he convinced the Sec- Moore was sixty years of age when his retary of War (Mr. Stanton) who is- appointment came, much to the sur- sued orders as to such control which prise of the Medical Corps. He had a still stand after more than seventy years. good but not a brilliant war record al- Thus was settled for all time the right though his administration was marked of medical officers to command within in two respects, instruction of troops in their own sphere of action. Therefore first aid and the creation of the Hospi- we can overlook the lack of merit in tal Corps. General Moore had a repu- the picture—to my mind his numerous tation for geniality which, I am forced photographs are far more pleasing— to record, his picture belies. There is and remember that the man with the certainly none of the swashbuckler burnside whiskers was, despite his mild about him, and we may be sure he did and somewhat pained expression, a man not live dangerously nor venture of action. abroad in winter without overshoes and muffler! Char le s H. Crane Geor ge M. Stern berg How shall I describe Crane who is next on view? Not Aaron, not Solo- If George M. Sternberg had never become Surgeon General of the Army mon, nor any but, perhaps, Moses can his name would have endured. The take rank with that bearded one whose portrait was presented by Mrs. Stern- facial adornment cascades from the in- berg,—the artist, one Summers, who for- fraorbital ridge to the fourth gold but- bore according to his lights to indicate ton of the uniform. He seems all beard, Sternberg’s place among men of sci- and as for the medals on his chest they ence, for there is no microscope set up are mostly hidden from view. The art- in the background. The present gener- ist is L. P. Spinner. General Crane has ation, I think, can have no very keen been described as the “wheel horse of appreciation of Sternberg’s prestige at the Surgeon General’s Office” by Pil- the close of the last century. His huge cher, who credits General Barnes as in volume on Bacteriology with its 900 charge of the pyrotechnics of that bu- pages was standard, admitting for a reau. General Crane had lived but a time no rival. His work created a furor few months following his deserved ele- in the Medical Corps and there was a vation when he was gathered to his “revival of learning,” so to speak, as fathers. aging medical officers went gaily in for bacteriology and began staining tuber- Thus he had Civil War service to his cle bacilli at the kitchen sink. The credit, but he did not lack for action in study of bacteria became almost a cult the field in his later years, and served and great was Sternberg’s fame. in several expeditions against the Indi- In 1892 the work was published. The ans. He had also an excellent record as first book off the press is in the Library a physician, as a medical officer in sev- —on the flyleaf: “To my wife from her eral wars, and as Surgeon General. He loving husband, Geo. M. Sternberg.” died in 1913. She was the devoted wife who was his My one contact with him was to biographer. Sternberg’s position in the grasp a hand which dropped mine on scientific world earned him the Sur- the instant, as he greeted a dozen newly geon Generalcy a year later. Soon after made medical officers as a matter of taking office he established the Army duty. I am sure he did not want us in Medical School, an important step in his office nor did we wish terribly to be the educational world of the Service. there, and to bandy words with our General Sternberg served through the chief was far from our minds. Like lay- Spanish-American War. The final ing cornerstones and washing beggars’ honor he was to have connected with feet on Maundy celebrations, the cere- his name was the recommendation for mony of greeting had to be gone the appointment of the Board for the through with like many another time- Study of Yellow Fever in Cuba, with honored custom! Walter Reed at its head. Will iam C. Gor ga s General McCaw said of him in his eulogy at Sternberg’s interment at Ar- The portrait of General Gorgas im- lington that: “He was preeminently a pressed me when I saw it for the first useful man; one who exemplified the time as an excellent likeness. The Gen- best of our American qualities,—a de- eral is in his service uniform and rib- sire to work for the common good in bons and his profile stands out with any way that suggests itself.” startling distinctness. His face is care- worn as if he were bearing the burdens Robert M. O’Reill y of the world, which indeed he was. The The portrait of General Robert painting was presented to the Library Maitland O’Reilly that looks down in 1921 by the Southern Society of from the south wall is by Gerard Barry Washington and the artist is Alexander and was acquired in 1909. It is a some- Robertson James. The late Mrs. Gorgas what fussy picture of a man in uni- was much pleased with the portrait, form, but is not a bad likeness of the and at the time she first saw it her first man to occupy the office of Sur- words were, “The profile is like Dr. geon General after it became a definite Gorgas and so lifelike it startles me.” tenure for four years. The ceremonial of the presentation General O’Reilly was of some pre- was elaborate and at the close the por- cocity, indeed I doubt if any member trait was accepted for the Library by of the Medical Corps before or since General Ireland, the Surgeon General, has begun his service as a medical offi- from the hand of Colonel Owen. cer at such a tender age, for he was but Gorgas lived through a great era nineteen when in 1864 he “went for a even if he did not reach the allotted soldier” and became a medical cadet. span of life. As a boy he saw the Civil

War, in his maturity he took part in Robert Fletcher was a great charac- those momentous events leading to the ter. Like Billings, he was an institu- liberation of alien races and he be- tion. Born in Bristol, England, in 1823, came the greatest sanitarian of his time at a tender age he entered the Bristol despite efforts to discredit him. In this Medical School and in due time was he shared the difficulties encountered articled to Surgeon Henry Clark for by most of the great who are envied by some years. He became a member of the little. Quietly and unobtrusively he the Royal College of Surgeons in 1844 went on his gentle way, undisturbed by and shortly after that he came to the the venom of his critics, and when United States, settling in Ohio, and Death bade him stand and deliver he serving some years later as a surgeon in was a man unafraid. The great sani- the Civil War. After the War he came tarian died in London in 1920. Fitting to Washington to be in the Provost tributes to his stirring life were the visit Marshal’s office, and in 1876 his con- of King George v at his bedside and the nection with the Surgeon General’s Li- conferring of Knighthood upon him, brary began. His subsequent career for and finally his funeral at St. Paul’s in the following thirty-six years until his London. death, and his association with the Gorgas needs no canvas and no mon- Index Catalogue and Index Medicus uments to his memory. Even as with are matters of history. Osler speaks of the great Christopher Wren, they are him as “a courtly gentleman of the old all about us and indeed more enduring school, having a rare gift for friend- than structures of stone and steel. How ship.” many living owe their lives to him! Doctor Fletcher was a delightful ra- How many unborn will owe their ex- conteur and his reminiscences of the istence to his work! To have been asso- famous men he had met and of the ciated with him has been a privilege times in which he had lived were a rare for many to look upon with pride, and treat to his listeners. It was said of him the Library, too, may well be proud of also that no man ever aged more grace- that face in the gallery. fully than he, and indeed the old man died in harness, as he had lived, treat- Robert Fle tc he r ing his infirmities at the end as he The portrait of Robert Fletcher is always had treated them, “with con- generally regarded as the finest in the tempt.” His writings, while few, cov- gallery, and was painted by Wilton ered a broad front and evidence a wide Lockwood. The painting was presented culture, concerning themselves with the to the Library by a large number of history of medicine, with art, poetry Fletcher’s friends, including many from and the humanities; his tastes in litera- the Cosmos Club in Washington. It is ture as in many other things were cath- an excellent likeness and shows Doctor olic. His portrait somehow conveys the Fletcher near the close of his life, a idea of frailty. Those who remember scholarly gentleman nearing ninety him recall him as virile and sturdy, a who looks out upon the world as if his man among men. convictions were unshaken and his des- tiny well and happily decided. The Phili p Sync Physi ck pose, the coloring and the expression Here is a big man, an eminent Amer- are splendidly achieved. ican-Philip Syng Physick, and the por- trait is by Benjamin West, the time At the expense of much time and ef- circa 1800. Physick’s grandson in a let- fort and the sending away of photo- ter to Doctor Billings nearly fifty years graphs of Physick’s portrait, I have en- ago says it was presented to the Library deavored to secure information as to by Thomas Sully of Philadelphia. It when and where it was executed. At- shows a man grave, almost ascetic. The tempts to trace the painting to England face is sensitive, that of a scholar, a man where West did most of his work have given to much thinking. It is said of been in vain. West himself was born in him that he wore gold buttons and a Pennsylvania in 1728 and began to queue to the last—a powdered gentle- paint at the age of fifteen. His early ca- man of the old school! reer became legendary, thanks to his It was a surprise to me that I knew romantic biographer Galt and to West so little of Physick, but that was due to himself. He was, without doubt, the a New England ancestry and an educa- first American painter to study art in tion which enshrined Warren and Big- Italy, where he went in his early thir- elow and Jackson to the exclusion of ties and where he remained for three men who, like Physick, could have years until his arrival in England in walked in the company of Astley- 1763 for a brief visit. The visit was, Cooper, Abernethy and the Bells. Phys- however, for fifty-seven years, ending- ick chose to forsake John Hunter and only with the painter’s death. West the London hospitals, and he probably became immensely popular in Eng- chose wisely. It was in May, 1792, that land and eventually became historical he took his degree in Edinburgh, and painter to George hi , as well as inherit- I shook the dust from his thesis just ing the Presidency of the Royal Society now to read his “Dissertatio medica in- in succession to Reynolds. Among his auguralis de apoplexia” in order to bet- pupils were Gilbert Stuart, Sully and ter understand the man. It is dedicated John Trumbull. Notwithstanding to his teacher John Hunter, “viro op- West’s great vogue his paintings today timis moribus” of his early days, and have little historical interest and his the Latin is no man’s but his own. He pictures are not held in high repute as came back to Philadelphia, and as Rush great productions. Nevertheless the is said to have become the father of portrait of Physick I would place among American medicine, so Physick held a his best works. niche along with him as the father of American surgery. In time he secured Willi am Beaum ont almost everything his heart could de- William Beaumont’s picture is a sire, wealth, fame, almost unparalleled copy of the portrait by Chester Hard- professional success; and yet he lived a ing which was made of Beaumont dur- lonely life with but few intimates. The ing his later years in Saint Louis. It first American to be elected to the hangs in the Beaumont Room in the French Royal Academy of Medicine, Library of the Medical School of Wash- he was also a Fellow of the Royal Medi- ington University. Beaumont’s portrait cal and Chirurgical Society of London. evidences a man of set and serious pur- He cut John Marshall for the stone in pose, and reminds one of a statesman in 1831, and just before his end at seventy his Websterian character and pose. The he performed a cataract operation most copy is an excellent and a practically beautifully! exact reproduction of the original, but how it came to the Library and by tion, and showed his keen interest in whom it was painted is not on record. the work Beaumont was doing. In 1825 The Army claims Beaumont as does General Lovell wrote Beaumont that Saint Louis, indeed all America claims he would be transferred to an eastern this immortal who first peered into a post in order that his experiments living, functioning stomach. Even he could be better conducted, and a few could not prevent the lying self-styled months later Beaumont was at Fort physiologists of a later date from tell- Niagara, New York, accompanied by ing us falsely the true role of the stom- St. Martin. Here it was that St. Martin ach, nor the equally false views of those went A.W.O.L. who would have us believe that dilut- Throughout his lifetime General ing gastric juice with water during Lovell exhibited the greatest sympathy meals is harmful and that a noggin of for and helpfulness in Beaumont’s mountain dew will remove the mucous work. Not so General Lawson, whose membrane. thin lips and down-turned mouth pro- William Beaumont came into the claim him uncompromising either as Army as a Surgeon’s mate during the friend or enemy. Jesse Myer1 in his War of 1812, and he resigned three book concludes that Beaumont had years later to enter private practice. In aroused jealousy in the breast of Gen- 1820 he was back in the Army again. In eral Lawson by the favors and atten- 1822, thanks to a passion for duck din- tions accorded the great experimenter ners enjoyed by the French Canadian at the hands of his good friend Lovell, St. Martin which resulted in the acci- who permitted Beaumont to take leave dental discharge of a shotgun at one of absence and to change his station as yard, the charge entering the hunter’s occasion demanded in the interests of body, Beaumont was enabled to revolu- science. tionize the study of gastric digestion. It was not long therefore before it The permanent gastrostomy established became evident from orders issued that at the expense of St. Martin’s ribs, dia- Beaumont was no longer in favor with phragm and lung, while crudely per- the administration, and at the end of formed was a notable success. Beau- 1839 he resigned, but his resignation mont spent several years of his life was under pressure as was shown in his running races with his subject who was memorial to President Van Buren. generally not around when wanted. Beaumont justly complained in his me- During one of his absences in the Cana- morial that after twenty-four years of dian wilds St. Martin acquired a wife faithful service, and in his fifty-sixth and child, but that did not deter Beau- year, he found himself rudely thrust mont, and with the patience of a Job from the public service, and he asked he kept following St. Martin and look- to be restored to his place as a com- ing through the window for several missioned officer in the Army. Beau- years longer. mont however was never reinstated, In 1824 Beaumont sent his report of and after many acrimonious statements, St. Martin to Surgeon General Lovell, both oral and written, he congratulated and received from him a highly appre- himself upon having escaped service ciative letter. In this letter the Surgeon under the then chief of the Medical General made some suggestions of 1 Myer, J. S., Life and Letters of Dr. value concerning future experimenta- William Beaumont. St. Louis, Mosby, 1912. Department, General Lawson, and sin- Corps over a period of more than cerely commiserated his associates in twenty years, having served on every the Army who remained subject to “his medical board for the examination of caprice and tyranny, the natural fruits candidates except one, convened during of ignorance and vanity.” A man would that time. For more than two score surely be a fool who would attempt to years he served the Army with distinc- add anything to clarify the opinion just tion. Both Surgeon General Lovell and expressed. Surgeon General Lawson spoke of his After his final separation from the services in the highest terms, and the Army in 1839, Beaumont continued latter stated to the Secretary of War practice in Saint Louis, and long after- in 1854, that: “To him the Medical ward in the cholera epidemic in 1849 Staff owes much of its present efficiency he rendered unselfish service to all, dy- and reputation, and it is hoped the in- ing in 1853. Beaumont’s enduring fluence of his example will not be lost.” monument in the Army is, as is well It is well to reflect at times upon known, the Army General Hospital in the achievements for good of those El Paso, Texas, named in his honor. modest and quiet souls who have pre- ceded us in this world. Doctor Mower’s Thom as G. Mowe r portrait is a reminder that we of the One of the finest portraits in the gal- present owe much to the solid virtues lery is that of Thomas G. Mower. Un- of an earlier generation. fortunately there is no record of the artist who painted it nor of how it came Benjami n F. Bark er into the possession of the Library. The At the end of the west wall is a por- painting is remarkable for the richness trait of a man with reddish side whis- and freshness, indeed the ruddiness of kers and cheeks as pink as if they came the colors. Doctor Mower has a fine from a rouge box. This is the renowned alert face and he is dressed in the heav- Benjamin F. Barker, painted by J. H. ily gold encrusted uniform of his day. Lazarus in 1874. Until the picture was Recently it was discovered that the cleaned and restored recently it was dif- beautiful portrait was almost ruined by ficult to appraise its merits. The high the cracking and curling up of the color of Doctor Barker’s face makes the paint. A Washington artist undertook portrait remarkable and decidedly dif- the task of restoring the painting, and ferentiates it from all the others in the has done it so successfully that hardly gallery, and the delicacy of the colors a trace of the injury sustained is visi- may account for the difficulties encoun- ble. tered in its reproduction. Thomas G. Mower was a notable of- Benjamin F. Barker was a New Eng- ficer of the Medical Corps, more nota- lander, born in 1818, and a graduate of ble indeed than some of our Surgeon Bowdoin. After a European education, Generals. He entered the Medical De- largely in Paris, he returned to Amer- partment as a surgeon’s mate during ica in 1845. He entered practice in the second war with England, at the New York City in 1850. He was one age of twenty-two, and was in the bat- of the founders of the New York Medi- tles of Chippewa, Lundy’s Lane and cal College and was on the staff of Belle- Fort Erie. He played an important part vue Hospital until his death in 1891. in selecting the officers of the Medical His career was one of the most notable in the annals of American medicine, College of Surgeons. Other copies are and it has been said of him that no also to be seen in the National Gallery American physician save Holmes had in London and at Oxford. The portrait so many and such varied friendships. is a famous one and shows the subject He was an intimate of Thackeray and in reverie, a rare pose with John Hun- Dickens and often visited them. As a ter. A number of well-known engrav- consultant in obstetrics he was without ings have been made of this likeness of a rival in his generation. John S. Em- Hunter, and the Library has several met says of him that “he had a disposi- copies of these. tion on which the sun never set,” which John Hunter and his older brother aptly describes his agreeable and open William were among the most famous character. medical men of the eighteenth century, One of the peculiar events of Bar- and of the two John was, by common ker’s career was that in his later years consent including his own, the leader. he was the subject of a virulent per- He early refused most heartily to be sonal attack inspired by envy on the stuffed with Latin and Greek, and got part of those less successful than he, his education by his own efforts and the claims made for him that he through long and patient toil and ob- was a graduate of the University of servation. He was a pupil of Pott at Paris Medical School were disputed. Saint Bartholomew’s, served a term in Barker had to leave Paris for personal the British Army in Portugal, and when reasons before the end of his term, and he was in his early thirties came to it was said of him that he did not apply London to practice. Jenner, Astley for his degree and believed it had never Cooper, Abernethy, Physick and many been granted. Some years later his other famous men were his pupils. He friends assured him that his diploma had a large income for those days but had been issued. spent little on himself. Although the controversy was said Hunter dissected almost everything to have been cleared up and decided in the animal kingdom including Ben- in Doctor Barker’s favor, the fact re- gal tigers, and he founded a museum mains that he apparently never sub- of anatomy which became famous mitted and defended the required throughout the world. After his death thesis for the degree. A careful search it was acquired by the Royal College of the University of Paris theses, of of Surgeons of London through funds which the Library possesses a complete appropriated by the British Parliament. set since the French Revolution, fails Hunter was impatient, often rude to show his name. Before his death this and overbearing, but was candid and distinguished physician was honored aboveboard; those who dealt with him with degrees from a number of Euro- were seldom in doubt as to where they pean and British Universities, includ- stood. He read little, in fact he had al- ing the seldom bestowed d .c .l . of Edin- most no booklearning, nor indeed could burgh. he write for publication without help from others. As an investigator and as Joh n Hunt er an original thinker he was without a The portrait of John Hunter is a peer in his time, indeed he has had few copy of the original by Sir Joshua Rey- equals since. Perhaps his most famous nolds in the possession of the Royal original work was his treatment of aneurysm by tying the vessel involved. partient la gloire d’avoir tracé cette As is well known, Hunter died of coro- ligne, qui seule peut nous conduire à nary disease following a dispute with a la vérité.” member of the faculty of St. George’s Hospital, thus fulfilling the prediction Bern ard J. D. Irw in he had made years before that: “My The latest portrait acquired by the life is in the hands of any rascal who Library is that of Brigadier General chooses to annoy me, or to tease me.” Bernard John Dowling Irwin of the Medical Corps. This is a full-length Bichat portrait painted and presented by Amy High up and on a level with the sec- McCormick, a Chicago artist who is ond tier of bookstacks we see Bichat. General Irwin’s daughter. General Ir- No etching and no reproduction of this win is in full-dress uniform, and the portrait can be found in our numerous portrait is a striking one which never likenesses of this famous man. The fails to attract attention. painting was presented to the Library Bernard John Dowling Irwin (a thirty-five years ago by a Mr. Andrews, fighting doctor like General Wood) then the Director of the Corcoran Art was born in Ireland in 1830 and served School, and is apparently an original, in action in the Civil War. At the Bat- although undoubtedly suggested by tle of Shiloh he established what is said other likenesses. Among a large collec- to have been the first field tent hospital tion of likenesses, etchings, copies of ever used in war. This attracted the at- portraits of Bichat in the Library, noth- tention of many foreign nations and the ing resembling this picture has been idea was soon adopted by armies the discovered. world over. All this is a matter of his- Bichat, the apt pupil of Desault and tory and official record, and yet how one of the great anatomists of all time, soon are such things forgotten! In addi- created an epoch in the history of medi- tion, General Irwin spent many years cine. Through empiricism and dog- of arduous duty in the Southwest in matism from the time of Hippocrates the Indian campaigns and in the course and Galen and Harvey, medical science of his career he led troops in action as reached a truly scientific basis with well as performed surgical operations Bichat. If you read the eulogies of the under conditions which would well give man by Larrey, by Roux and others pause to the doctor of today. Read the you will not lack for encomiums upon story of his campaigns as related by him the precocity and fertility of his genius. and his biographer Crimmins and you Bichat died early, and “if pitiless Death will realize faintly what it meant in had not struck him down at the age of those departed days to be an officer of thirty,” as wrote Napoleon, he would the Medical Corps in frontier warfare. have been counted perhaps the greatest For distinguished bravery in action physician of his century. With Keats against the Indians General Irwin won and Shelley he joined that rare com- the Congressional Medal of Honor, one pany of youthful immortals. I can find of the first to so receive it. In addition no greater tribute to his enduring he was distinguished in his profession, qualities that mark the great, than that as his writings show. Not content with penned by Miquel in his eulogy de- that, this versatile officer wrote papers livered in 1823: “C’est a Bichat qu’ap- upon meteorites and he discovered and presented to the Smithsonian Institu- in 1820. He later went to Edinburgh tion the Irwin meteorite. and received his doctorate in medicine General Irwin died in 1917, in his there in 1823. His thesis for his doc- eighty-eighth year, after a life full of tor’s degree was “De corporis dolore” such adventures and distinctions as sel- and gives no indication of the bent of dom fall to a disciple of Aesculapius. his mind. On the fly-leaf of the copy in As I look at him I cannot forbear to the Library in Morton’s handwriting quote from Cowper: is: “To Dr. Bradley with the best re- An honest man, close buttoned to the chin, gards of his friend, the author.” He Broadcloth without, and a warm heart dedicated his thesis to James Morton within. (his uncle), Philip Syng Physick and Joseph Parrish. The thesis itself is re- Samu el G. Morton markable for its simplicity and dignity, Here is a man of skulls for he was in and it is without the arts of declama- his day the most eminent craniologist tion so frequently observed. in America. From the time he was Morton was warm-hearted and gen- thirty until he was in his mid-forties erous, a kindly and gentle friend. He he collected and studied the skulls of a was a poet, too, of no mean pretensions. multitude of American Indians, Egyp- In looking over his numerous biogra- tians and Toltecans, and recorded his phies I have been struck with the oft- observations. To the close of his life a uttered thought that the Quakers, by few years later at the early age of fifty- closing the bar and the pulpit to its two he studied the human skull, and members, inclined many brilliant men his collection in time grew to propor- of Pennsylvania to the study of medi- tions undreamed of. From the Pyra- cine, and that this possibly was responsi- mids of Egypt, the Phoenician tombs ble for Morton’s choice. of Malta and the Temples of the Incas His fame as an ethnographist and as came the dead in an unending proces- an anatomist perhaps overshadowed sion. As time went on, so Gross relates, his professional talents, but he was his office became “a place of skulls,” widely known as a skilled practitioner until at the end he had nearly a thou- and had a large practice. His published sand. At his death his collection went works, numerous indeed, are practically to the Academy of Natural Sciences in all in the realm of ethnology and Philadelphia. Retzius of Stockholm ob- craniology. served in 1847, in a letter to Morton: His portrait hangs next to Billings’ “You have done more for Ethnography and the artist is unknown. Doctor Mor- than any living physiologist.” Hum- ton is said to have been above the boldt too was a warm admirer of Mor- medium height, of large frame and ton and showed this in his numerous somewhat stooped. His face was oval, letters. Agassiz soon after his arrival in his features prominent and his hair and America said of Doctor Morton’s collec- complexion fair. The portrait shows in tion of skulls: “Nothing like it exists a marked degree a thoughtful, digni- anywhere. The collection alone is fied and gentlemanly expression, the worth a journey to America.” face of a thinker and scholar. Samuel George Morton was born in 1799 and was educated in Philadelphia, Willi am A. Hammon d a strict Quaker, graduating in medicine Hung in the well and opposite the second floor of the Library building is ington and was later (1878) vindicated the huge, more than life-size canvas of and his dismissal from the Army voided William A. Hammond. It was received by Congress. more than a dozen years ago apparently Dr. Hammond specialized in mental without any formality, and curiously diseases and was a busy writer. He was enough neither the then Librarian nor the author of “A Treatise on Insanity” anyone connected with the Library has which is interesting reading even to- any recollection as to how it came to day, more than fifty years after it ap- be presented nor who painted it. How- peared. For many years he lectured ever, it is quite certain that some mem- upon his specialty in several of the ber of Doctor Hammond’s family made medical schools of New York City the gift. where he was in practice. In 1888 he The picture is a good example of moved to Washington, D. C. where he that school of art which insists upon practiced actively until his death in an assemblage of objects in the back- 1900. His greatest achievement perhaps ground and often in the foreground, is his establishment of the Army Medi- lest the qualities of the subject be un- cal Museum during the Civil War. All derestimated. Thus we see two large in all he was undoubtedly one of the tomes upon which rests the General’s dominating personalities of his time. right hand, while the left firmly grasps a sword. Are the books the then un- George A. Otis born Medical History of the Civil War In the office of the Librarian hangs perhaps? In the near background is a a small portrait only 20 by 18 inches, sitting Buddha, and as the books pro- but it is by the famous Sully. Here is no claim the erudition of the man, so per- man invested with the panoply of war haps the statuette suggests the Nirvana nor even some pallid genius staring he was certainly not destined to reach. out over a billow of shirt front. The Far in the background is a shadowy portrait is that of a twelve-year-old boy Hygeia. To me the picture is mostly whose gravely inquiring face looks interesting for the things it contains down upon me as I write these lines. It which are unrelated to the figure in is a beautiful portrait and one that sel- uniform. dom fails to evoke inquiry from the Surgeon General Hammond, who casual visitor. This is George A. Otis, was appointed the Chief of the Medi- and he was I think a real darling of the cal Department during the early days gods. The portrait was painted upon of the Civil War, was a brilliant man, wood about 1843 an^ the colors are re- an organizer and a masterful politician. markable for their delicacy. Unfor- A good hater he undoubtedly was, and tunately we do not have any record of enemies he made without number. His the manner in which this portrait came dismissal from the Army by sentence of into the possession of the Library, but a court martial in 1864 was undoubt- it was undoubtedly presented by some edly a miscarriage of justice and was member of the Otis family. Nothing in due to the uncontrolled passions and Sully’s biography gives any clue, and prejudices engendered by the struggle. as he is said to have painted some 2600 Far from ruining General Hammond, works during his life, most of them por- it did nothing of the kind. He became traits, identification becomes the more a very successful practitioner in Wash- difficult.

Thomas Sully was born in England Some there are who are for banishing near the end of the eighteenth century, the subject to the cellar until he pro- but he grew up in America where he claim his identity. I dissent however, spent the last eighty years of his life and have ordered him renovated and except for his intervals of study in Eng- placed on view in the hope that in land. He was well known as an histori- time we shall know him. After all, cal painter, and was at first influenced is it best that we know everything? Are to some degree by Benjamin West. It not some puzzles, still unsolved, good was as a painter of portraits, however, for our minds? No clue to his identity that he achieved lasting fame. Sully is to be found, indeed he might be even painted Queen Victoria in 1837 Jonathan Letterman but I am sure he on her accession to the British throne. is not. No living former Librarian can His works have been described as mas- suggest his name and he is a mystery terpieces of color. The freshness and even to our Assistant Librarian who beauty of the likeness of the young Otis has been on intimate terms with him which hangs in the Library testify to for thirty years. Perhaps, after all, he the soundness of Sully’s reputation as a is my best excuse for the time and effort painter of portraits for the “cultured I have put upon this paper, certainly I and discriminating.” do not wish coming generations to look George A. Otis was born in 1831 and at Doctor Fletcher’s portrait, for exam- lived but fifty years. He was a pre- ple, and inquire who this old gentle- cocious lad and had his m.d . from Penn- man is! sylvania before he reached his majority. We have seen the last of the por- He early manifested a taste for litera- traits but one. Some have artistic merit, ture and become co-editor of the Vir- many have none. Each one, however, ginia Medical Journal with Dr. Mc- is a likeness of a man who has done Caw, the father of General Walter D. something in the world, and it is fit- McCaw, one-time Librarian of the Sur- ting that we occasionally look up from geon General’s Library. He served in the printed page to reflect upon what the Civil War and after the close of the conflict entered the Regular Army we owe to these worthies of an age that Medical Corps. He is closely associated is past and gone. with the development of the Army Joh n S. Bill ing s Medical Museum and with the prepara- tion of the “Medical and Surgical His- The last likeness we are to see is tory of the Rebellion,” on the Third Billings’ fine portrait by Cecilia Beaux Volume of which he was engaged at his which was painted in 1895 when he left untimely death. Colonel Otis was a for- the Library for good. As is well known eign member of the Medical Society the funds for this portrait were pro- of Norway and a corresponding mem- vided by Billings’ numerous friends in ber of the Surgical Society of Paris. Al- this country and in England. Not long though the present generation knows ago Miss Beaux wrote me in response little of Otis, his name is illustrious and to my request for some personal his fame secure. reminiscences of the sitter, and she has The Unknow n replied as follows: The portrait of “The Unknown,” as It [the portrait] was one of the first I have called him, piques my curiosity. commissions I had on my return to Phila- delphia after my first trip to France for tent, and it was his nature to contribute study—and I was very proud in having it this unconsciously. entrusted to me. It was painted at my Doctor Billings never expressed an studio, 1710 Chestnut St. I fully felt that opinion about the portrait, but I think it I was dealing with a great personality, possible that he took notice of the proc- very quiet and serious, as in the perform- esses. I felt what an inspiration his char- ance of duty. He never failed or would acter would be to any worker, and was admit fatigue. I think he felt also that I thankful that I was permitted to observe would earnestly pursue what I had under- for a short time the external evidence of taken, and he would do all he could to as- such a spirit. sist me. His personality seemed to me of This portrait has been published the noblest and highest, and of course the most direct and simple. I only remember many times but I ask you to look at it this. I am sorry that all the details except again. You may admire the figure or the gown, have disappeared. I was com- you may not. You may think he wears pletely absorbed in the power of the head, his clothes well or ill: you cannot but and all my zest and energy were turned praise the rich and beautiful coloring. towards dealing with such a splendid ex- What I see always is Billings’ face, his ample. He had agreed to pose for his brow, his deep-set eyes. I see Billings portrait and he did his part with appreci- the man of mighty mind and I think ation and grace. This of course was an as- of that oft-quoted line: “I shall not look sistance to me, the deepest and most po- upon his like again.”