Pioneer Medicine in Western Pennsylvania

selves more in the military than in the medical profession. Thus Diller recites the services of Dr. Edward Hand, who became a Major General in the Continental Army; Dr. Arthur St. Clair, attained the same rank, but his military fame was tarnished when, after the Revolution, he allowed an expeditionary force under his command to be ambushed and defeated by Indians; Dr. Hugh Mercer, better known to fame as Brigadier General Mercer, the hero of the battle of Princeton, in which he fell; Dr. William Irvine, at one time Com- mandant at Fort Pitt, later commanded, as Brigadier General, the Pennsylvania troops in the Whiskey Insurrection. When John Brad- dock came over with an expeditionary force he was accompanied by a young Scotchman named James Craik, who dressed the General’s wounds after his defeat by the French and Indians. Later Craik served as physician-in-chief in the Continental Army. He was Washington’s per- sonal physician, as well as his intimate friend. In 1770, he accompanied Washington on his visit to Fort Pitt. The first medical man to settle as a practitioner in Pittsburgh was Dr. Nathaniel Bedford, who had been attached as surgeon to the British garrison in Fort Pitt. He had as apprentice Peter Mowry, who succeeded to most of his preceptor’s large practice. Dr. Diller gives a vivid picture of the difficulties by which medical practice was beset Pione er Med icin e in Wes te rn Penn sy lva nia . in these early days, when the doctor riding alone By Theodor e Dill er , m.d . Fore word by J. J. on horseback in the sparsely settled region was Buch anan , m.d . New York , Paul B. Hoe be r , in danger of attack by Indians, as well as by Inc ., 1927. the wild outlaws who frequented the country. This little work preserves a great amount of A notable early practitioner was Francis Julius valuable historical material concerning the Le Moyne, the pioneer of cremation, who built medical profession in the early days, when the first crematory in the United States. Dr. Pittsburgh was Fort Pitt and the huge indus- Joseph Doddridge combined divinity with trial development of that part of the United medicine, the “angelical conjunction” of Cot- States was in the distant and unforeseen future, ton Mather. He was ordained by Bishop White so much so that in 1784, Arthur Lee is quoted, of Philadelphia, in 1800. While studying divinity by Diller, as writing of Pittsburgh: “There are he had attended medical lectures and on his four attorneys, two doctors, and no priest of return to Pittsburgh he exercised both profes- any persuasion, neither church nor chapel, so sions, apparently with great success. Dr. Diller that they are likely to be damned without the quotes extensively from Doddridge’s “Notes benefit of Clergy . the place I believe will on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the never be very considerable.” Fortunately others Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania,” had faith and their labors laid the foundations which were compiled in 1824. of its future greatness. Of the later figures in Pittsburgh medical Among the physicians whose names are annals, one of the most notable was the able associated with the early history of Pennsyl- but eccentric surgeon Albert G. Walter. He vania were a number who distinguished them- especially distinguished himself as an orthopedic surgeon, but in January, 1859, he performed an abdominal section for the relief of ruptured bladder, which is claimed to have been the first operation of its kind. It was reported in the Medical and Surgical Reporter, November six- teenth, 1861. Unfortunately Walter was irasci- ble and censorious, and in consequence became an object of dislike to most of his colleagues. Dr. Diller concludes his book with an account or the medical organizations and hospitals of Pittsburgh. He has done a great service to medical history in preserving a quantity of valuable material which was rapidly disappear- ing with the advance of time..

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