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1914
George McClellan [1849-1913]: A Memoir read before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, by J. Chalmers Da Costa, M.D., LL.D., Samuel D. Gross Professor of Surgery in Jefferson Medical College
J. Chalmers Da Costa M.D., LL.D.
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Recommended Citation Da Costa, J. Chalmers M.D., LL.D., "George McClellan [1849-1913]: A Memoir read before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, by J. Chalmers Da Costa, M.D., LL.D., Samuel D. Gross Professor of Surgery in Jefferson Medical College" (1914). Jefferson Biographies. Paper 1. https://jdc.jefferson.edu/jeffbiographies/1
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A Memoir read before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, by J. Chalmers Da Costa, M.D., LL.D., Samuel D. Gross Professor of Surgery in Jefferson Medical College.
Reprintei from The Jeff erson.iczn, April, 1914.
George McClellan
A Memoir read before the College of Physicians of Philadelpkia, by J. Chalmers Da Costa, M.D., LL.D., Svmuel D. Gross Professor of Surgery in Jefferson Medical College.
"Every moment dies a man." know enough to dare to be. The dead Death is ever gleaning his harvest. are beyond the reach of envy and malice, Rich and poor, young and old, happy and of misery and unhappiness, of the bitter wretched, celebrated and obscure, are word of hate, of the serpent's hiss of alike helpless to check the stern ordi- scorn. Upon the phantom-haunted nance of Fate. Death is the law. The shore of Death the sea of Sorrow casts no grave hungers for all of us. The door- wave. way of the road to Eternity is ever open. One who still lives has to apprehend Through it passes an endless procession. the manner of death Destiny has plotted Through it shall pass all the sons of men. out for him. It was Solon who said, The young love life. " Count no man happy till you know the manner of his death." Each one of us has " Youth asks itself, ' How can I ever die? ahead of him the grim tragedy of earthly Only the old into the grave must fall.' extinction, and to some of us it will While age is wondering with a gentle assuredly come in its most dreadful form. sigh So why should we pity the dead? We If all this wasted breath was life at all." say, with Chrysostom, " Honor the dead Storer. with remembrance but not with tears." To live always would be an indescribably The young are seldom oppressed by horrible thing. The gloomy legend of the thought of death. This, too, is the the Wandering Jew portrays the hopeless law. Were it otherwise, the work of the horror of an endless life. world would not be and could not be When a dear friend dies we are fright- performed, progress would cease and ened at the inexorable action of a existence would stagnate. As the years natural law; we are appalled at our loss ; pass, age lays his chilling hand upon us. we tell each other of the dead man's life, The sunlit hours' seem to dance more his sayings, his deeds, his character; quickly by. Year by year darkness we grieve for his lonely family; and we more quickly follows dawn, winter fol- seek to comfort ourselves by the reflec- lows summer, the river flows toward the tion that though he is gone he has but mysterious unknown. Ever oftener gone before us into the unknown. death invades the immediate human Tonight we meet to honor the dead circle of each of our lives. One must of with affectionate remembrance. We necessity be resigned. It is not our right gather to pay tribute to the memory of a to be sorry for a dead. man. We don't distinguished scientist, of a dear friend, of a valuable and valued Fellow of this Dumfries that Robbie Burns was an College. On the 29th of March, 1913, officer of excise, and it was in that town George McClellan was claimed by the he died. Gretna Green is near by— grave. Gretna Green, where, for so many years, I shall occupy but a brief time telling the village blacksmith married runaway of his work. I shall make no attempt couples from nearby England, a custom to relate at length the story of his busy, which ended only in 1856. Adjacent is useful, and successful life. A mere Ecclefechan (the Entophfuhl of " Sartor epitome of a man's work tells little of Resartus "), where the great Carlyle was the man. Such a story does not breathe. born and where his body rests. Not far It is, at best, a mere skeleton, not a flesh- away is the hill where Meg Merrilies, she clad, blood-warm, soul-stirred form. of whom we read in " Guy Mannering," I purpose trying to sketch the man, cursed the Lord of Ellengowan. On to draw the outline of his nature, to set every hand are relics and traditions of forth his characteristics, to portray his Bruce and Wallace, of the Border wars, character, to put him before you as he of the Black Douglas, of the Jacobites was, as the man I know him to have of 1715, of the gay and gallant Prince been. This large task has been en- Charlie and " The '45." trusted to weak and bungling, but to The McClellans were loyal followers tender and sympathetic hands. I loved of the house of Stuart, and fought for George McClellan, and had reason to, the Pretender in 1715. After the anni- for twice in my life when I most needed hilation of the rebellion many chieftains friends, he stood by my side my loyal escaped the Tower and the block by friend. His taking off has left a gap in fleeing to France or America. The head my human circle and an emptiness in my of the McClellans came to America and life which can never be completely settled in Worcester, Mass. He was the filled. grandfather of the grandfather of George He came from a long line of distin- McClellan. His son, George McClellan's guished forebears. The blood of fight- great-grandfather, held the king's com- ing Scotchmen and of revolutionary mission in the French and Indian War patriots ran hot in his veins. The and was a brigadier-general in the war of ancient home of his race was Kirkcud- the American Revolution. He lived in bright, on Solway Fifth. The Firth is an Woodstock, Connecticut. Three great arm of the Irish Sea which separates S. elms which recently stood and may still W. Scotland from the English county of stand in that town, were planted by the Cumberland. Kirkcudbright has Dum- wife of the revolutionary soldier be- fries to the east, Ayr to the north, cause he, then a captain, had come safe Wigtown to the west. The entire region out of the Battle of Bunker Hill. is a land of song and story and tradition. George McClellan, the son of Wash- Into the Firth Paul Jones used to come ington's brigadier, the grandfather of the on the Ranger and escape from his MeClellan of whom we speak, was born English pursuers—Paul Jones, who had in Woodstock, educated at Yale, studied been born in Kirkcudbright. medicine in the University of Pennsyl- In Kirkcudbright, William Douglas vania, settled in Philadelphia, married wrote "Annie Laurie." The world still a Philadelphia belle, Elizabeth Brinton, sings " Maxwellton's braes are bonnie," resided here all his days, died here, and and Maxwelltown is just across the is buried in Laurel Hill. He was a cele- county border in Dumfries. It was in brated surgeon of great originality, Dumfries that Robert Bruce slew Red intrepidity, dexterity,- energy, indepen- Comyn, the nephew of Baliol. It was in dence of spirit and force of character. He founded the Jefferson Medical Col- that myriads have believed and multi- lege, and was its first professor of surgery. tudes do believe in predestination. Samuel, a brother of the distinguished When we view George McClellan's surgeon, was also eminent as a medical fore-elders we find influences that came man. He was for a time Professor of to build and strengthen his courage, Anatomy in Jefferson. industry, integrity, loyalty, truthfulness, John Hill Brinton McClellan was the love of freedom, hatred of injustice, father of him we honor tonight. He manly independence, outspoken hon- was Professor of Anatomy in the Pennsyl- esty, readiness for a fair fight, amaze- vania Medical College, an institution ment at treachery, inability to under- founded by the elder McClellan after he stand the trickster, the time-server, and broke with Jefferson, one which became the liar. very successful but perished during the He had many fine qualities, and so had Civil War. his ancestors before him. They were John H. B. McClellan was surgeon to true gentlemen, and so was he. St. Joseph's Hospital and surgeon to He was born in Philadelphia, October Will's Eye Hospital. 29th, 1849, of the union of John Hill John H. B. McClellan's brother, Brinton McClellan with Maria Eldredge, George B., became an illustrious soldier, of Boston. He was the eldest son and the " Little Mac " of the early sixties, was given the name of his distinguished commanded the army of the Potomac, grandfather. He went to school under fought titanic combats, obtained the Dr. Short, and passed three years in the enthusiastic attachment and complete Art Department of the University of confidence of great armies, suffered, Pennsylvania, 'leaving there in 1868 to many think, from gross injustice and study medicine in Jefferson College. unfairness, stood upon the flaming brow During his student days he listened to of Malvern Hill, and rode between the the Elder Gross, Joseph Pancoast, John lines at Antietam. B. Biddle, James Aitken Meigs, Benja- I have set forth the McClellan an- min H. Rand, Samuel H. Dickson, and cestry because George valued it and was Ellerslie Wallace. He was enthusiasti- proud of it—and naturally. It is pleasant cally interested in surgery and anatomy, to know that one's father was a gallant and had the privilege of studying those gentleman. Why should it not be branches under the two greatest sur- pleasant to know that one's grandfather geons and the greatest surgical anat- and great-grandfather were the same omist of the country. He graduated in sort? medicine in 1870, and at once began I believe that hereditary tendencies, practice, devoting himself particularly ingrained in the race, constituted the to surgery and studying anatomy with bed-rock basis and the fibre of George unflagging zeal. In 1872 he went to McClellan's character. From heredity Europe and studied under the master man gets the leaven of certain tendencies anatomist Professor Hyrtl of Vienna. which have profound influence in shap- Josef Hyrtl was by birth a Hungarian. ing his destiny. Ancestral character- He was professor first in Prague and istics, perhaps somewhat changed, are then in Vienna. He was not only a produced again and again in a line of famous human anatomist, but was one descent. On the stream of heredity of the first comparative anatomists of come abilities, passions, weakr_esses, his day. He was celebrated for the capacities, strengths, and immortal long- beauty of his anatomical specimens ings. Heredity tendency does so much (some of which are in our Museum), and to determine our lives, it is small wonder was a noted author and a most impressive and original teacher. The teaching of would carve a statue. He taught sur this great anatomist captivated the face relations as well as regional anat- young surgeon, caused him to take up omy, and discussed the medical and anatomical teaching as a career, and surgical bearings of every triangle, led him to follow Hyrtl's methods structure and neighborhood. All the through all his teaching days. In the tissues of the body were as familiar to way he thought of anatomy, in the way him as the objects which were on his he studied it, in the way he taught it, road from Spruce Street to the Jeferson he was essentially a follower of the great College. I thought then, and I think H yrtl. now, that nobody ever gave more useful In 1873 McClellan returned to Phila- anatomical lectures. In 1890 he was delphia, established himself in practice, elected Professor of Artistic Anatomy in and taught private students anatomy the Academy of Fine Arts, and there he and surgery. In that year he married taught for many years with great suc- Miss Harriet Hare, the grand-daughter cess. of the celebrated professor of Chemis- In 1906 he came to his Alma Mater as try in the Uriversity of Pennsylvania. Professor of Applied Anatomy (where In 1875 he became a fellow of this Col- many thought he should have been long lege. We all know what a useful Fellow before). There he taught with dis- he was. The Mutter Museum speaks tinguished success to the time of his more than words could do of his interest death. His chief literary work is the and industry. In 1880 he became sur- " Regional Anatomy." It was published geon to the Philadelphia Hospital, in 1891, went through four editions in the where he served for ten years. During United States, was translated into this' period, and for a number of years French and went through two French later, he was surgeon to the Howard editions. It is a wonderful and beauti- Hospital. In 1881 he founded the Penn. ful book. The numerous pictures are School of Anatomy and Surgery, where real works of art. They were made from he taught until 18.93. It was a very photographs. He made the dissections, successful institution. The fame of his took the photographs, and colored the teaching drew great numbers of students, pictures. They are absolutely accurate. especially from Jeferson. College. It They show real anatomy—anatomy as was in his school of anatomy I first had it is, not as it ought to be, or as we might the privilege of meeting him and hearing wish it to be, or as we may make it seem him. to be through carelessness or lack of The school was a small building on knowledge. Another highly important Medical Street. Its site is now covered work is his " Anatomy in Relation to by Jeferson College. It was an axiom Art"; it is a splendid production. when I was a student that if you would An address which attracted attention really like and understand anatomy you and which many of us heard was called must go to McClellan's demonstrations. " The Cerebral Mechanism of Emotional I was charmed with his teaching. His Expression. " perfect familiarity with his subject, So much for the man's work. What the beauty of his dissections, the clear- of the man himself ? ness of his demonstrations, the pictures A prominent element in his nature was which he drew on the board with such sensitiveness. He was keenly afected marvellous speed, accuracy and dexter- by external impressions, and his spirits ity, excited the warmest admiration of responded to them like the sensitive his class. His anatomy was art. He flame to a sound. Sensitiveness may dissected a body as a great sculptor create much happiness, and may build many sorrows. It was sensitiveness always tactful. This is a statement and which gave him his fine artistic impres- not a criticism, for tact, after all, is sions. It was sensitiveness that made either a social anesthetic or a lie with a him surer acute mental pain when college education. He would not meek- angry words were said, when antagonis- ly acquiesce in the popular or profitable tic things were done. He could not error. He did not pretend to love those understand the unfrank attitude, the whom he believed had wronged him. disregard of a promise made or implied, He never turned the other cheek. He the language used to conceal thought. followed clearer lights and walked in He looked upon such things as he did sterner paths. If he distrusted or dis- the cloaked form, the masked face and liked a man he practiced the hand of the deadly stab in the dark. An atti- Douglas in his own theory: tude of personal opposition on the part "My castles are my king's alone, of one he loved and trusted hurt him to From turret to foundation stone. the depths of his nature. In such a The hand of Douglas' is his own situation his looks seemed to say, "Had And never shall, in friendship's grasp, it been mine enemy who had done this The hand of such as Marmion clasp." thing then might I have borne it, but it was even thou, mine own familiar He would have been a poor diploma- friend." Opposition is inevitable in the tist according to Sir Henry Wotton's def- life of every man, and it acts differently inition of an ambassador, viz.: " A on different men. Some it nerves to man sent abroad to lie for his country." effort. Some it preverts and damages. He was a man destined for the minor- Some it utterly destroys. In some it ity. He preferred combat to cowardly breeds anger and resentment. It causes silence. He had a good, honest temper, some to scoff and jibe with cynic bitter- and in controversy he was positive and ness. To most it brings at least a dis- uncompromising. No man had a more enchantment with life, the attitude tender heart. No man was more quick which is common in those of middle age to forgive, if forgiveness was asked. He or beyond. The iron of it entered into forgave the unfortunate without being McClellan's soul and he felt a sad sense asked, and extended his help and pity. of disappointment. He was conscious He hated guilt, but did not always hate of great ability, fine training and peculiar the guilty. He loved animals and under- fitness for distinguished place. He had stood them. Birds, horses, dogs com- seen lesser men pass him in the race. manded his affection. He never tried He was obliged to wait for weary years for popularity. He never sought to before he received suitable recognition. reach a lucrative celebrity by shedding He always felt with a tinge of bitterness ink and language, by posing, by tricks, that the delay had wasted something of by beating the big drum to attract the his life by keeping him so long from the attention of the crowd. He never in his proper field for the exercise of his highest life played to the gallery. He was a abilities. modest gentleman of the old school, a He was no hypocrite. He was prone school now so very old as to be neglected to say what he thought. He always and all but forgotten. He believed believed what he said. He told fearlessly in its formal courtesies, grave dignity, what he held as a truth. He might be spotless cleanliness, cherished obliga- mistaken, but was never false. Telling tions, chivalrous loyalty, ample hospi- the truth often requires resolution and tality, high integrity, its gentle voices, courage, but is seldom popular. In its culture, refinement, conventions and asserting profound conviction he was not traditions. Comparatively few knew him really his friend he loved him, trusted him, intimately. It was only to the chosen believed in him, and stood by him through of his heart that he opened his entire thick and thin. When he said he was nature. for you he was. You did not have to He was a dignified man. He liked send, from time to time, an investigating and fitted refined and intellectual society. committee to take the temperature of The baldly unconventional jarred him. his advocacy. He made no one a friend It shocked him because of its savor of because he was rich. He refused no vulgarity. The really vulgar he utterly man friendship because he was poor. repudiated. We cannot picture him He was by birth, instinct and training supping in a cafe with Cassanova, or the truest of gentlemen. The very roystering in a tavern with Villon. He nature of a gentleman looked out from would have had none of the friendship of his kindly face, showed in his genial Rochester, and would have hated the greeting, sounded in his refined voice, habits and principles of Tom Paine. was manifest in his cordial and polished He would have admired the learning hospitality. He showed at his best as of Johnson, but would not have been a host in his own house. In that house anxious to dine with him. In the he entertained his friends. He did not Middlesex election he might have voted care to do it in present-day style in a against Luttrell, but would not have club or hotel. He was gentle to his been the friend of Wilkes. When he family, his friends, his servants. His passed his word he kept it loyally. He old servants loved him and were really was loyal in all things—loyal to his retainers. To women he was deferential, profession, loyal to his professions, loyal courtly and chivalrous. A complete to his friendships. He had the loyalty story of his life would bloom with gentle of that Scottish race from which he deeds. He was clean of life, clean of sprang, the race that would not betray word, clean of thought. Charles Edward, though it was death to hide him and though there was a fortune "And thus he bore without abuse ready for any man or woman who would The grand old name of gentleman, give him up to the English. He fought hard battles for his assistants, taking Defamed of every charlatan and giving blows. When he held a man And soiled with all ignoble use."