PAPER History of Surgery in Rhode Island Robert W. Hopkins, MD; J. Robert Bowen, MD; Warren W. Francis, MD n 1925, founder John Keefe1 and in 1974, the late Tom Perry2 delivered presidential ad- dresses to the New England Surgical Society (NESS) recounting the essential happenings of surgery in Rhode Island from its founding to the mid-19th century. We will not repeat the details of those excellent essays, but events from that era must be reviewed to permit an understandingI of the course of events since. EARLY HISTORY The first formal effort at medical edu- cation in the colonies4 apparently oc- Rhode Island was founded in 1636 by curred in Newport, RI, in 1752, when Roger Williams, who was of too indepen- Dr William Hunter of Newport,4 cousin dent a mentality for the Colony of Mas- to William and John Hunter of London, sachusetts. Quoting from a 19th-century presented the first advertised lectures on encyclopedia, anatomy and surgery. The general court banished him from the col- BROWN’S FIRST ony...because he had called into question the MEDICAL SCHOOL authority of the magistrates in respect to the right of the civil power to impose faith and wor- In the mid 1700s, some Baptists in Penn- ship....Opinions which would not allow the sylvania thought that their preachers magistrate to intermeddle, even to restrain a should be men of both piety and scholar- church from heresy or apostasy, were not to 3(p639) ship. Recognizing that religious educa- be endured. tion might proceed in Rhode Island with- out interference from the state, they Williams was to be sent back to En- established Rhode Island College in 1764. gland, but he escaped, making his way Baptists became a majority of both gov- south, painfully. Settling on a river bank, erning boards of the college, and presi- he, “having of a sense of God’s merciful dents of the college were Baptist minis- providence unto me in my distress, called 3(p640) ters until 1937. After a gift of $5000 from the place Providence.” Two years Nicholas Brown, class of 1786, the col- later, Dr John Clarke, similarly exiled for lege was renamed Brown in 1804, devel- religious views, arrived on Aquidneck oping a fortunate and lasting relation- Island (later Island of Rhodes, or Rhode ship with the Brown family. Island), becoming the first physician in the With increasing interest in science colony. In 1663, Williams and Dr Clarke and recognition of the regional need for secured a royal charter for “Rhode Island appropriate medical education, Brown, un- and Providence Plantations” embodying der President Asa Messer, decided to open the religious freedoms they had estab- a medical program.5 Three professors were lished in the colony. Their insistence on appointed in 1811. Dr Solomon Drowne, the separation of church and govern- class of 1773, attended medical school in ment persisted, eventually finding its way Philadelphia and was swept into the revo- into the US Constitution. lutionary war as a surgeon. Highly re- From Lifespan (Drs Hopkins, Bowen, and Francis), Department of Surgery, Academic garded, he was appointed to the Board of Medical Center, The Miriam Hospital (Dr Hopkins), and the Rhode Island Hospital Fellows of the college in 1783. An expert (Drs Bowen and Francis), Providence. on the medicinal effects of plants, he was (REPRINTED) ARCH SURG/ VOL 136, APR 2001 WWW.ARCHSURG.COM 461 ©2001 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/30/2021 tion. In 1822, an eventful year, he moved to Providence to join Dr Wheaton in practice, was appointed profes- sor of anatomy and surgery at Brown, and married Mary Holmes, older sister of Oliver Wendell Holmes. Parsons was a perpetual student, an able teacher, and a prolific writer. Former students later said7 that his presence gave “new life to the institution.” The new life, however, was a short one, for the school effectively closed a few years later. Undergraduate dis- cipline at Brown deteriorated late in President Messer’s administration, and students were given to “idleness and dissipation.” At least one of their merry pranks did not help. According to a tale told later by Charles Parsons, a barrel with “a skeleton in the course of preparation” had been inadvertently left outside the anatomical building...till college students began to kick and roll it down the steep of College street, and at the level of Ben- efit street it ran against some obstacle...Outcame the head of the barrel, followed by another head, and great was the con- sternation and excitement.7(p38) No cause and effect relationship of this episode to subsequent events has been documented, but President Messer resigned, and Rev Francis Wayland was ap- pointed as his successor. To address the lack of disci- pline among students, he submitted to the corporation Figure 1. Usher Parsons, MD (1788-1868). a resolution,7 adopted in March 1827, to the effect that all its officers be actual residents within the walls of the Col- appointed professor of botany and materia medica. Ap- leges...[and] that no compensation be paid to any Professor, pointed the first professor of anatomy and surgery was Tutor or other officer, who shall not during the course of each Dr William Ingalls, a professor at Harvard, who jour- and every term occupy a room in one of the colleges...and neyed from Cambridge to instruct the students in Provi- assiduously devote himself to the preservation of order and the dence. Appointed professor of chemistry was William Cor- instruction of students lis Bowen, MD, of Providence, who received his medical degree from Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1809. Several years —perhaps the first truly full-time faculty. later (1815), Dr Levi Wheaton was appointed professor With their practices, homes, and families outside the of the theory and practice of physic. A graduate of the institution, these provisions could not be met by the medi- college, although not a medical school graduate, he had cal faculty, which was not exempted. The medical school served as a surgeon in the Revolutionary War and was a de facto ceased to exist after 1827. Its faculty and gradu- highly regarded physician in the community. ates, however, continued to enrich the medical life of Dr Ingalls, weary of the commute from Cambridge Rhode Island and other regions for years to come. Dr Par- to Providence, resigned in 1816. His immediate succes- sons continued to practice surgery and to write exten- sor, Dr John Matthewson Eddy, died 2 years later. There- sively, receiving the coveted Boylston Prize on 4 occa- after, students apparently traveled elsewhere for lec- sions. A graduate, Alden March, MD, 1820, was a founder tures in anatomy and surgery until Usher Parsons, MD,6 of the Albany Medical College and professor of surgery arrived in 1822. there for 30 years. He was also president of the Ameri- Parsons (Figure 1) was an apprentice to Dr John can Medical Association. Elisha Bartlett, MD, 1826, a Warren in Boston (1811) and was commissioned in the much-admired physician and professor at several medi- US Navy. In the War of 1812, he served with Commo- cal schools, was appointed professor of materia medica dore Oliver H. Perry, a Rhode Islander, in the Battle of and medical jurisprudence at the Columbia College of Lake Erie in September 1813. Two physicians were se- Physicians and Surgeons in New York. Many others riously ill on the day of battle, leaving Parsons alone to became prominent physicians and surgeons in Rhode care for all of the casualties. Of 97 wounded, only 3 died, Island and elsewhere. a remarkable record for the time. Parsons’ report on the care of these wounded became a classic in its time. He THE RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL8 remained a Naval surgeon for another 10 years, using op- portunities to continue his medical education in Eu- Except for a military hospital in Portsmouth, a small Ma- rope and the United States. He received his MD from Har- rine hospital, an asylum for the insane, and the Butler vard in 1818. In 1820, he was appointed professor of Hospital (established for the mentally ill in 1844), no hos- anatomy and surgery at Dartmouth but resigned 2 years pitals existed in Rhode Island. Patients were generally later, presumably because of the remoteness of the loca- cared for in their homes. In 1851, a committee of the (REPRINTED) ARCH SURG/ VOL 136, APR 2001 WWW.ARCHSURG.COM 462 ©2001 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/30/2021 Rhode Island Medical Society, chaired by Dr Parsons, pe- surgeons were quick to learn and refine new tech- titioned the City of Providence to establish a hospital for niques. Specialties also developed apace, with the De- “the reception of patients who require medical and sur- partments of Gynecology and Orthopedic Surgery estab- gical treatment, and who are not otherwise provided for.” lished at the RIH in the late 19th century. In 1901, a The petition went unheeded. Largely through the efforts Department of Anesthesia was established with the ap- of a returning Civil War veteran, Thomas Poynton Ives, pointment of Albert H. Miller, MD, who introduced in- who had studied but not practiced medicine, the original duction of anesthesia with nitrous oxide prior to ether- committee with several additions sent another petition, this ization, a remarkable advance at the time. time to the Rhode Island General Assembly. Ives had con- Although the medical school remained for later years, vinced his father to leave a sum of $50000 in trust for the educational efforts continued to develop.