Augusta, Georgia - History (part 8 of 17)

Governor William Schley belonged to a judicial family. He was himself judge of the Superior Courts of the Middle Circuit, his brother, John Schley, sat upon the same bench, and his nephew, William, John Schley's son, was judge of the Superior Courts of the Eastern Circuit. Governor Schley was born in Maryland in 1786, was educated in Augusta, and came to the bar in 1812. In 1825 he was elected judge of the Middle Circuit and served till 1828. In 1830 he was sent to the Legislature from Richmond county, and in 1832 was elected to Congress, and reelected in 1834. In 1835 he was elected governor, and was untiring in his efforts to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad, and had finally the satisfaction of signing the bill ordering that important public work. It will have been noticed in this review that several of the prominent lawyers of Augusta had a strong pejichatit for developing industrial enterprises, and the Schleys were particularly notable this way. After a long public career Governor Schley developed a taste for cotton manufacturing, greatly to the surprise of his friends and of himself as well. When asked to explain this the governor humorously replied he knew not how he had become so tied up with cogs, and spindles, and motive power. At one time he said he was so disgusted with his brother John's devotion to mechanics that he could not abide a wheel on his plantation, even if it were only a wheelbarrow, but of a sudden found himself immersed in cotton factories. Governor Schley projected and at one timeow.ned Richmond Factory, a cotton manufacturing establishment on the waters of Spirit Creek, still in operation. While late in entering the industrial field Governor Schley won victories there as elsewhere, his factory for a'number of years paying a regular dividend of sixteen per cent. The governor also requited the debt which every lawyer owes his profession by the compilation of Schley's " Digest of English Statutes " of force in Georgia, a work of erudition and value. Schley county is named after Governor William Schley.

John Schley, or Shly, as he spelled his name, started in life as a coachmaker at Louisville, then the capital of Georgia. At that time supplies were painfully wagoned up from Savannah, a distance of one hundred miles, and to obviate this tedious and expensive method of transportation Mr. Schley turned his attention to the improvement of the Ogeechee River and was foremost in urging the construction of the canal connecting that river and the Savannah. Till the rise of the railway system the method of transportation thus devised was of immense value. Mr. Shly also claims the honor of operating the first cotton manufactory in Georgia. It was a primitive afifair, run by horse- power, but did good work in its way. About 1830 Mr. Shly removed to Richmond county, and established on Butler's Creek a cotton- mill, Belleview Factory, which was the pioneer in that field, its success leading to the establishment of Richmond factory by Governor Schley, and, in time, to the construction of the Augusta canal and the rise of the great mill industry of Augusta.

While busied with industrial matters, Mr. Shly found time to study law, and in 1834 became judge of the Middle Circuit. In 1838 he was re-elected, and again in 1841, serving eleven years. Judge Shly gave close attention to the cases argued before him, and in one instance summarily removed an obstacle to his giving that attentive consideration to counsel he desired. One day an eminent lawyer from South Carolina was arguing a knotty point before him with great ability and learning. The bar, partly from courtesy and partly from the excellence of the argument, were paying strict attention to their Carolina brother, and the bench was evidently much impressed. Not less interested was the veteran clerk of the court, whose desk was just below that of the judge. From long attendance Mr. Clerk had become a pretty fair judge of a legal argument himself, and on this important occasion had sharpened his faculties by copious potations. As the argument waxed warm he could not retain his seat, and rising little by little, finally stood bolt upright between judge and lawyer. Absorbed in his argument the jurist went on, but the judge was not so oblivious of the obstruction which blocked his view. A sharp reprimand from the bench dropped the clerk into his seat as if shot, but in a few minutes he was bolt upright again, and wavering from side to side. For a few minutes the judge kept time with the oscillations, vainly trying to keep from behind the form, first on this side and then on that. Losing patience he siezed the court docket with both hands and, rising in the stirrups, came down on the muddled pate before him with a vigor which dropped Mr. Clerk at lightning

Judge Shly's reason for changing the spelling of his name was that, as originally written, it was abominably miscalled. His letters and papers would come as Schooly, and Scully and Sleigh and Slack and in a dozen other wrong ways, until in despair he hit upon Shly as a combination which no human ingenuity could pervert.

Judge William W. Holt was another celebrated jurist of the olden time. He succeeded Judge Reid as mayor of Augusta in 1825, and was re-elected in 1826; and for a time represented Richmond county in the Legislature, but his tastes turned to the law, and he is mainly remembered for his long and honorable career on the bench. In 1828 he was elected judge of the Middle

Circuit, succeeding Governor Schley, and served till 1834, when he was succeeded by Judge John Shly. In January, 1847, he was appointed by Governor Towns to fill a vacancy, and in November following elected by the Legislature for the full term, serving this time till November, 1849. I" August, 1853, he was appointed by Governor Cobb to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Starnes, appointed to the Supreme Court, and in November of that year was elected by the Legislature for still another full term ; and from that time forward was regularly re-elected term after term till 1863. The length of this service and the frequency of executive appointment and legislative election is the best evidence of Judge Holt's legal ability. The Supreme Court of Georgia was established in 1845, ^"d during the early portion of its history the decisions of the circuit judges were very frequently reversed, the proportion of reversals being about forty- eight per cent., this being probably due to the fact that there had been no common standard on many legal points during the time when each Superior Court judge was supreme in his own circuit. As has been stated, Judge Ebenezer Starnes had the least number of judgments reversed, and next to him came Judge Holt. Tlie memory of Judge Holt has lingered long at the bar and among the people. One portrait of him hangs in .the mayor's office in Augusta; another side by side with that of John Macpherson Berneir, the great advocate of Savannah, on the walls of Burke Superior Court. Herschel V. Johnson, twice governor of Georgia, was born in Burke county^ Ga., on the i8th of September, 18 12. In 1834 he graduated at the University of Georgia, and in the same year entered on the practice of the law in the city of Augusta, having, with the vigor and determination characteristic of the man, pursued his collegiate and legal studies simultaneously. In 1839 he removed from Richmond to Jefferson county, and soon rose into public prominence. In 1843 he was nominated for Congress, but was defeated with the whole Democratic licket. The next year, in the famous presidential contest between James K. Polk and Henry Clay, he was Democratic elector for the then seventh district. In 1845, and again in 1847, he was strongly supported for governor in the Democratic State Nominating Convention, but on both occasions withdrew his name. In 1848 Hon. Walter T. Colquitt having resigned from the Cnited States Senate, Governor Towns appointed Mr. Johnson to fill the vacancy ; and during the long and excited senatorial session of that year he attracted great attention by the s )lidity and brilliance of his talents, John C. Calhoun declaring him the ablest man of his age in the Senate. In 1849 Governor Johnson was elected judge of the Superior Courts of the Ocmulgee Circuit, which position he retained till nominated in 1853 as the Democratic candidate for governor. His opponent in this contest was that other distinguished Georgian, Hon. Charles J Jenkins, and after a singularly close vote (Johnson 47,638, Jenkins 47,128,) the subject of our sketch became chief magistrate of Georgia. In 1855 he was re-elected governor by a vote of 53,478 to 43,228 for Hon. Garnett Andrews. In i860 Governor Johnson ran as vice-president on the Stephen A. Douglas ticket, and in 1861 was a delegate to the secession convention, and cast his vote with the minority of eighty-nine against the majority of two hundred and eight that adopted the memorable measure of January 19, 1861: "An ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of Georgia and other States united with her under a compact of government entitled 'The Constitution of the United States of America.'"

In 1865 Governor Johnson was president of the constitutional convention -called under the reconstruction scheme of President Johnson to rehabilitate the State, and, under the fond persuasion that the labors of the body would be effectual to that end, in adjourning the convention sine die, addressed it in language which cannot be read even now without emotion :

" Our old mother, thank God, is not dead, but she has been reduced to extremity. We have been called together to nurse around her bedside, and to endeavor, if possible, to reanimate and reinvigorate her wasted body and now almost paralyzed limbs, and to drive back into her heart the vital blood, and bid it throb until the vital current shall stream through every vein and artery, and she shall bloom again in the beauty and vigor of health."

The Legislature which met under the constitution of 1865 elected Governor Johnson and Hon. Alexander H. Stephens United States senators, but neither was allowed to take his seat. After this Governor Johnson resumed the practice of the law, first in Augusta, in copartnership with that eminent jurist, Judge Ebenezer Starnes, aad afterwards in Jefferson county. In 1873 he was appointed judge of the Superior Courts of the Middle Circuit, which position he filled with exemplary fidelity and usefulness until his death, which occurred at his home in Jefferson county, on the i6th of August, 1880.

Of a number of the solicitors-general of the Middle Circuit we have already spoken. John Forsyth, George W. Crawford, Charles J. Jenkins, and Ebenezer Starnes are prominent on the list, three of them having become governor and two Supreme Court judges. James Gardner, another solicitor or attorneygeneral, as the solicitor- general of this particular circuit was called, was a prominent figure in the politics of his time, and was supported for governor in one of the most exciting nominating conventions ever held in the State. For many ballots he led all opposition, but it was finally seen that a two-thirds, then necessary, could not be obtained and he withdrew. Still no candidate could succeed, and finally as a compromise Joseph E. Brown was nominated, thus beginning the career which has made him so prominent a figure in the history of Georgia.

Having confined our review to the judges and lawyers who have passed into history, we will not speak of those yet in life, further than to say that the reputation of Augusta for legal ability has been honorably maintained. We here subjoin a court roll of the judges who have presided in the Superior Court of h'roin the review given it will be seen that the bench and bar of Augusta have been honorably prominent in public affairs, State and Federal.

George Walton signed the Declaration of Independence. William Few and Abraham Baldwin were the only two of the Georgia deputies who signed the Constitution of the United States. Freeman Walker, Nicholas Ware, Robert Walker, Robert Raymond Reid, and William W. Holt were mayors of Augusta. Charles J. Jenkins, Ebenezer Starnes, and William W. Montgomery became Supreme Court judges. George Walton, John Milledge, John Forsyth, George W. Crawford, William Schley, Herschel V. Johnson, and Charles J. Jenkins were governors of Georgia. William Few, George Walton, Abraham Baldwin, John Forsyth, Freeman Walker, Nicholas Ware, William H. Crawford, and John P. King became United States senators, and John Forsyth, secretary of State; George W. Crawford, secretary of war, and William H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury. The counties of Baldwin, Crawford, Forsyth, Glascock, Johnson,

The history of the Augusta bar is largely connected with the Superior Court, but the records of the City Court show many of the names already mentioned. For some seventy years there has always been, under one name or another, a tribunal peculiar to the city in which a vast amount of legal business has been done. It began as the Mayor's Court, was then called the Common Pleas, and for many years past the City Court. Its history we here synopsize, adding a court-roll of this tribunal.

By act of December 19, 1 8 1 7, there was established in Augusta a court called the Mayor's Court, the mayor being ex-o^cio judge thereof, the jurisdiction whereof extended to cases involving not less than thirty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars. For his compensation as judge the mayor was to have, in cases not exceeding fifty dollars, a fee of one dollar and fifty cents ; in cases of over fifty and not exceeding one hundred dollars, two dollars ; over one hundred and not exceeding one hundred and fifty dollars, three dollars ; and over one hundred and fifty dollars, four dollars. It was made a court of record, and to have the same authority as the Mayor's Court of Savannah, in which court the sessions were to be monthly ; there was to be an appeal from the decision of the mayor to a jury of seven men ; the proceedings were to conform to those of the Superior Court ; and the court could sit as a court of inquiry in criminal causes. The court was to go into operation on January i, 1818.

By act of December 17, 1818, it was provided that the Mayor's Court should be held on the fourth Monday in each month, and iiave cognizance of all civil cases not involving title to real estate within the city, involving not less than twenty nor more than two hundred dollars, which should be tried by a jury of twelve, with the right in the court to grant a new trial in its discretion. In the absence of the mayor any member of the city council might preside, or the council could elect a ma.y or pro tern, as judge. Proceedings were to be by petition, a copy of which was to be served on defendant five days before court. The court could issue attachments, hold to bail, and hear claims and illegalities. The city council was to elect a clerk and city sheriff for the court, who were to hold two years, and have the same fees as in the Superior Court.

By act of December 9,^822, the jurisdiction of the Mayor's Court was extended to cases not involving realty, where the defendant resided in the city, and the sum involved was not less than thirty nor more than three hundred dollars, but in no case was the court to have jurisdiction where a corporation or body politic was a party. There was to be an appeal in all cases to the Superior Court.

By act of December 21, 1826, the name, the Mayor's Court of the city of Augusta was changed to the Court of Common Pleas for the city of Augusta,

By act of December 19, 1828, the jurisdiction was limited to cases involving not less than thirty nor more than two hundred and fifty dollars; but four terms a year were to be held, on the fourth Monday in January, April, July, and October; the clerk and sheriff were to have but two-thirds of the fees theretofore allowed ; and the attorney tax fee was to be on suits pressed to judgment, three dollars; settled before judgment, two dollars.

By act of December 21, 1829, the jurisdiction was extended to three hundred dollars, cases involving title to land or within a magistrate's jurisdiction excepted ; the terms were to be held six times a year, on the fourth Monday in January, March, May, July, September, and November; rent cases were triable at the first term ; and, when the judge of the Superior Court was absent, the judge of the Common Pleas, in conjunction with the justices of the Inferior Court, had jurisdiction in habeas corpus.

By act of December 21, 1830, the jurisdiction of the court was confined to cases where the defendant resided at the commencement of the suit within the corporate limits of the city of Augusta.

An act of December 26, 1831, made some important changes. It was provided that where no plea was filed the court should award judgment, without the intervention of a jury, on proof of the plaintiff's demand, a rule now embodied in the State constitution. It was also provided that there should be no appeal to the Superior Court, but to a special jury in the Court of Common Pleas.

By act of December 24, 1832, the terms were changed to the second Monday of F'ebruary and April, fourth Monday of May and July, and second Monday of October and December.

By act of December 22, 1834, the judge's fees were fixed at two dollars in cases not exceeding one hundred dollars ; where between one hundred and two hundred dollars, three dollars; over two hundred dollars, four dollars; on issues of fraud under insolvent debtors act, three dollars. All the laws as to interrogatories, de bene esse, and subpcena duces tucnvi were made applicable.

By act of December 24, 1835, the city council was to fill vacancies in the office of clerk or sheriff of the Common Pleas, the city marshal to act as sheriff till such election.

By act of December 30, 1836, the jurisdiction was extended to five hundred dollars, save as to cases within magistrate's jurisdiction ; the terms were made quarterly, on the second Monday in February, May, August, and November ; the court was empowered to foreclose mortgages within its jurisdiction ; suits were to be filed ten, and process served eight, days before court ; the judge was to receive from the city council a salary of $i,000; all his former fees to be turned over to the council ; and judgment might be rendered at the first term where defendant failed to plead.

By act of December 22, 1837, the provision authorizing the court to render judgment at the first term where defendant failed to plead was repealed, and process was to be served nine days before court.

By act of December 23, 1840, the terms were fixed for second Monday in February and May, and third Monday in July and October, and in event of vacancy in the office of clerk of the Common Pleas, the clerk of the city council was to act as such till the vacancy was filled.

By act of December 27, 1842, the terms were fixed for fourth Monday in February, May, August, and November ; and the court fees were, in suits not exceeding one hundred dollars, one dollar ; between one hundred and two hundred dollars, two dollars ; between two hundred and three hundred and fifty dollars, three dollars ; over three hundred and fifty dollars, four dollars, to be paid before issue of process.

By act of January 21, 1852, the terms were fixed for first Monday in March, fourth Monday in May, and first Monday in September and December. By act of February 15, 1856, " the Court of Common Pleas for the city of Augusta" was to be styled "the City Court of Augusta," and in November, 1857, and every four years thereafter, the city council was to elect the judge; the court was to have jurisdiction of all offenses not punishable by death or imprisonment in the penitentiary, committed in the city ; and to have a grand jury to pass on indictments therefor, the criminal practice to be the same as in the Superior Court, with certiorari to that court, the attorney- general of the Middle District was to be the prosecuting officer of the City Court and the judge's salary was increased to $1,500, The same act empowered council to. appoint a recorder to try all infractions of the municipal ordinances.

By act of December 7, 1863, the judge of the City Court was given concurrent jurisdiction with the judge of the Superior Court in habeas corpus cases.

By act of February 8, 1866, it was provided that a writ of error should lie from the City Court to the Supreme Court, and by act of February 6, 1866, the jurisdiction was reduced to $1,000.

By act of December 13, 1871, it was provided that the City Court of Augusta should have jurisdiction of suits against joint obligors, joint promisers, joint trespassers, or copartners, where one resided within the corporate limits, a second original to issue into the county of the other's residence.

By act of August 24, 1872, the City Court was vested with concurrent jurisdiction with the Superior Court in all cases where the jurisdiction of the latter was not exclusive under the constitution, in cases involving not more than $1,000; and was empowered to render judgment in all civil causes, without the intervention of a jury, unless the defendant made written demand for a jury trial before the call of the appearance docket. The grand jury was abolished, and criminal causes made triable on written accusation founded on. affidavit of a prosecutor, and signed by the solicitor-general.

By act of February 28, 1876, the City Court of Augusta was abolished from January i, 1877, and its unfinished business turned over to the Superior Court.

By act of September 22, 1881, a city court was established in the city of Augusta, with a territorial jurisdiction over Richmond county; was vested with jurisdiction in all civil cases, except divorce, ejectment and equity causes,, involving over one hundred and not exceeding two thousand dollars (this latter limit removed in 1887) ; its authority within these limits being concurrent with that of the Superior Court. It was also given cognizance of all criminal cases where the punishment is not death or imprisonment in the penitentiary, to be tried on accusation, based on affidavit, and by the judge, unless defendant demand indictment and jury trial. The judge and City Court solicitor were made appointable by the governor and to hold four years. The judge of this court is also vested with the management of the county business, taxes, roads, poor, etc. This court is still in operation. The court roll of the judges of the City Court from its origin as the Mayor's Court to the present time is

The Medical Profession

Augusta Physicians of 1760-1785 - First Sanitation Act - Medical Association of 1808 - Medical Society of Augusta Incorporated in 1822 - Medical Academy of Georgia - Bachelor of Medicine Degree - State Board of Physicians - Medical Institute of Georgia - Doctor of Medicine Degree - The Medical College Organized - * Roll of Graduates - Yellow Fever of 1839 - -Celebrated Report Thereon - Non-contagiousness Demonstrated.

AS early as 1760, when Augusta had been settled but a quarter of a century, we read of a Dr. William Day being a resident of Richmond county, and it may fairly be inferred that he was a gentleman of extended practice and consequent acquaintance, since it appears he was one of the three tax assessors of the county, then much larger than it is now. We also read in the same year of a Dr. Thomas Ford, who must also have lived in Richmond, then a border county, as the Colonial Assembly votes him ^20 los. for attention to " the people of this province wounded by the Cherokee Indians." In 1773 we read of Dr. Andrew Johnston, evidently of Augusta, since the Assembly -votes him ^^3 for examining the body of one William Miller, who had been shot about twenty miles above the city, the coroner desiring medical testimony at the inquest. We further learn from an ancient act of about this period that the division of the medical profession into physicians, surgeons and apothecaries was rigidly maintained. Coming down to the close of the Revolution, we find Dr. Johnston still a practicing physician in Richmond county, and that Dr. Francis Folliott and Dr. Thomas Taylor were contemporary. It appears that these gentlemen took the king's side in the Revolutionary struggle, and were included in the bill of attainder of the crown's principal adherents, passed in 1778. By this all the property of the loyalists was confiscated and the loyalists themselves ordered to depart the State, and not to return under pain of death. It does not appear that Drs. Folliott and Taylor were relieved of their disabihties, but in 1785 Dr. Johnston was permitted to return home and resume practice on certain conditions. He was to pay an amercement, or fine, of one per cent, of his property, but was not to vote or hold office for fourteen years. The usual amercement, where the bar of the attainder was lifted, being twelve per cent, the doctor may be considered as fortunate, and, we suspect, owed his good fortune to the influence of a brother physician. Dr. Cornelius Dysart, who took the American side. Dr. Dysart lived on the Washington road, about three miles above Augusta, and was a man of large possessions, and, at one time, one of the commissioners to administer the sequestrated -estates of the loyalists.

About this time the first known steps for the sanitation of Augusta were taken. At that period the town had a deep gully extending diagonally across it from what is now the neighborhood of the Riverside Mills towards Green street, while on the southern side of the city lay a species of morass interspersed with swamp growtii. In 1786 an act was passed empowering the trustees of the Richmond Academy to lease out these swamp lands or commons, for terms of seven years in five acre lots, the preamble of the act giving as a reason that "the clearing and cultivation of the flat lands southward of Augusta will contribute much toward preserving the health of the inhabitants, as well as add to the support of the town." About the opening of the nineteenth century appears another sanitary act. At this time the cotton-gin had become an established institution, and, especially about Augusta, the preparation of cotton for market had become a prosperous and growing business. It was supposed that the cotton seed would ferment and produce unhealthful odors, and in 1803 the Legislature passed an act that the owners or occupiers of cotton-gins in or about any town or village should keep the seed dry, and at least once a week remove them to such a distance from the town or village as would " prevent all the unwholesome effects arising from the stench and vapors arising from the seed in their putrid state, if suffered to remain in heaps," under penalty of a fine of three dollars per week.

In July, 1808, a call was published in the Augusta Herald for a meeting of the physicians of the city to form a medical association, and while it does not appear what action was taken, it is quite probable that such a society was organized. In 1822 there was such an organization, the officers and members of which were Dr. Anderson Watkins, president; Dr. Alexander Cunningham, vice-president; and Doctors Milton Antony, Thomas J. Wray, W. T. Young, William Savage, John Dent, B. D. Thompson and Thomas H. M. Fendall; and by act of November 27, 1822, the General Assembly incorporated the association under the name and style of "The Medical Society of Augusta, Georgia." The society was empowered " to receive, hold and enjoy real and personal estate for the use and benefit of said institution ; " and was made " capable of receiving any bequest or donation, whether in money or other things for the benefit of said institution ; " and empowered to " sell, lease, or exchange any estate by them acquired, whether by purchase, bequest, or donation ; " from which language it is clearly inferable that one of the objects of the society was to erect a medical college in Augusta.

This intent becomes certain when we consider an act passed on December 20, 1828, "to establish and incorporate the Medical Academy of Georgia." By this act Doctors William R. Waring, John Carter, Lewis D. Ford, Ignatius P. Garvin, Benjamin A. White, Samuel Boykin, William P. McConnell, Walter H. Weems, William P. Graham, Thomas P. Gorman, Alexander Jones, Milton Antony, John J. Boswell, Thomas Hoxey, James P. Scriven, William C. Daniel,

Richard Banks, Henry Hull, John Dent, Thomas Hamilton, Tomlinson Fort, Nathan Crawford, O. C. Foot, and John Walker were constituted a body corporate under the name and style of " the Trustees of the Medical Academy of Georgia." The act authorized the trustees to establish within the corporate limits of the city of Augusta, a medical academy for the State of Georgia, on such principle, and under such rules and regulations, and with such professors, instructors, and officers as may be best calculated to perpetuate the same, and promote the improvement of its pupils in the several branches of the healing art." It was further provided that the trustees should annually assemble at the Medical Academy for an examination into its affairs, five to be a quorum, and that the said " trustees, together with the regular professors and teachers in the institution, shall constitute a board of examination, whose duty it shall be, at the said annual meeting, after thorough examination, to decide on the merits of such candidates as may have studied in the said institution at least one year, and complied with all the conditions imposed by the board of trustees as prehminary to such examination, and confer the degree of Bachelor of Medicine,, on such as in their judgment may be worthy of the same." The trustees were to keep a record "in which shall be registered the name, age and place of nativity of each and every person who shall receive from this institution the degree of Bachelor of Medicine, and the time when the said degree was conferred, together with the name of the members of the board of examination present " The trustees were allowed to hold real and personal property for the uses of the Medical Academy to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, and the graduates of the institution were to be allowed to practice medicine and surgery as fully as if licensed by the State Board of Physicians.

The board of physicians here referred to had been appointed by an act of the General Assembly passed December 24, 1825, and from the names of the appointees it is quite clear that the faculty of Augusta had inspired this statute also. The following gentlemen constituted the State board: Doctors Tomlinson Fort, Milton Antony, James P. Scriven, Charles West, Anderson Watkins,. Southworth Harlow, Ambrose Baber, B. A. White, Norburne B. Powell, Walter H. Weems, William P. Graham, John Gerdine, A. B. Redby, O. C. Fort, Thomas Hamilton, William C. Daniel, John Dent, Thomas B. Gorman, Alexander Jones, and William N. Richardson. The act provided that no person should practice physic or surgery, or any of the branches thereof or prescribe for the cure of diseases for fee or reward unless licensed so to do by said board, under penalty of a fine ot not exceeding five hundred dollars for the first offense; and for the second imprisonment not exceeding two months. It was also provided that no apothecary should vend drugs under like penalty, unless licensed by the board after examination into his knowledge of pharmacy. The substance of this statute is law to-day, and were the act enforced a valuable safeguard would be afforded the public health, and much malpractice and con- sequent suffering obviated. It is unfortunately the case, however, that the officers of the law are derelict in arresting and prosecuting those prowling quacks, mountebanks, and charlatans who from time to time peregrinate the country, robbing the ignorant and unwary, and leaving in their trail untold agony.

Ryan act passed December 19, 1829, the name "Medical Academy of Georgia." was changed to "The Medical Institute of the State of Georgia." and the trustees of the institution were empowered "to confer the degree of Doc-- tor of Medicine upon such applicants, in such manner, at such times, and under such circumstances as may to the said board seem fit and proper, provided that the degree of Doctor of Medicine shall in no case be conferred on any person who shall not have attended two full courses of lectures in the institute, or one course in some other respectable medical college or university, and one in the institute in addition to the usual term of private instruction required by other institutions of a like kind."

By an act passed December 20, 1833, the name " The Medical Institute of the State of Georgia," was changed to "The Medical College of Georgia," which it has since retained. The act appropriated $10,000 " for the purpose of enabling the board of trustees of said institution to procure a suitable piece or lot of land, erect thereon such buildings, and make such other improvements as may be necessary for the various purposes of a medical college, and to procure a suitable library, apparatus, and museum for said institution, and such other things as may be necessary to the proper and successful operation of the same " It was also provided that fifty lots on the town commons of Augusta, to be designated by the city council, should be sold and the proceeds paid over to the college.

By an act passed in 1826 the Bank of Augusta was empowered to increase its capital stock up to $600,000, one-si.xth of any increase made to be reserved to the State at par up to the end of the legislative session next ensuing such increase, and by act of December 23, 1835, the Medical College of Georgia was given the same rights of priority and all advantage derivable therefrom as to the increased stock of this bank as the State had under the act of 1826.

In 1835 the Medical College was erected, and from that time to the present has uninterruptedly continued its career of usefulness. For many years The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, a professional publication of great merit, was published in connection with it by Drs. Paul F. Eve and Ignatius P. Garvin. While the present college building was not erected till 1835, the work of instruction began at an earlier period, and the list of graduates dates as far back as 1829. P'rom that time to the present, the college has sent forth 1,675 graduates - from Georgia, 1,264; South Carolina, 222 ; Alabama, 135 ; Florida, 13 ; Texas, 12 ; Mississippi, 8; North Carolina, 5; Tennessee, 4 ; and Arkansas, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia, one each.

Shortly after the completion of the Medical College, Augusta was visited with an epidemic which severely taxed the strength and skill of its physicians. On the 8th of June, 1839, ^ number of members of a family residing on the river near Lincoln street, were attacked by a virulent disease taken at the time to be a remittent fever. On the 5th of July a laborer who had been working in the same vicinity was attacked in the same way ; then a little boy who had been playing in the locality, was taken with like symptoms and died in a few days, his skin turning yellow toward the close of his illness and developing large purple blotches shortly after death Sundry like cases then occurred in that portion of the city adjacent to the first cases, and finally on August 19th the physicians of the city were summoned into consultation by the mayor. Up to this time no such disease had been known in Augusta within the memory of man, but forty cases had occurred, the development was now rapid, and it was clear that an epidemic prevailed. The disease was pronounced yellow fever. From this time on it ran the usual course of this dreadful disease, increasing in virulence until on November 8, terminating by a black or killing frost. There were from 1,500 to 2,000 cases, and 240 deaths. In the Augusta Chronicle of November 11, 1839, "1^7 t)^ seen the list of the victims.

On the 13th of November, at a meeting of the physicians of Augusta, Dr. A. Cunningham was called to the chair, and Dr. Paul F. Eve appointed secretary. The following resolution offered by Dr. F. M. Robertson was unanimously adopted.

Doctors F. M. Robertson, I. P. Garvin, and Paul F. Eve were appointed that committee, and on December 10, 1839, made their report. This report is one of the most valuable contributions known to the literature of that dreaded scourge, yellow fever. In 1877 it was ordered reprinted by the City Council. The committee say they considered the question submitted them from two standpoints, viz :

Those believing the disease imported were of three classes. The first believed it introduced and spread by contagion ; the second considered that the atmosphere was in a vitiated condition, and that the introduction of one case sufficed to impart an epidemic constitution to an already vitiated air ; and the third class attributed the introduction of the disease to some decayed tropical fruit at that time thrown on the market. The committee take up these three theories in the order named, and discuss them with signal care, skill, and abiHty. As to the supposition that the disease was introduced and spread by contagion, their argument is so unanswerable that it has now passed into a medical axiom that yellow fever is not contagious. We give a brief synopsis of the report on this interesting and important point. On July 27 two persons arrived from Charleston, then suffering from an epidemic of yeJlow fever, or, as we learn from the report, as it was then called, " stranger's fever," and on the 31st of July, a third, all unwell. No other sick person arrived from Charleston prior or subsequent to those dates, so that if these parties did not introduce or spread the disease, it did not arise from contagion. Of the two persons arriving on July 27, one died with all the symptoms of yellow fever. The other was at once removed to the extreme western portion of the city and recovered. The person arriving on the 31st also recovered. Many persons visited these patients and in fact one was quartered at a hotel, but no case of yellow fever could be traced to such contact or proximity. The western portion of the city to which one of the patients had been removed as stated, developed no fever till a long subsequent period in the history of the epidemic. Having thus treated of the only known imported cases, and shown that no contagion could be traced to them, the committee refers to the fact that the first arrival from Charleston was on July 27, and then specifies by name and date eleven cases occurring in the city prior to that date, adding that numerous other cases could be mentioned had it been deemed necessary. The report then proceeds to give the localities in which the bulk of the cases occurring prior to August 19, when the disease was declared epidemic, were found, and demonstrates that they were not contiguous to the places where the Charleston cases were located, but lay in a close radius about the house on the river where on June 8th the first case was discovered. On these facts the committee submit "that the epidemic had commenced, fairly and decidedly, before the introduction of a single case of disease from Charleston must be evident to every unprejudiced mind."

The report then takes up another argument advanced in favor of the theory of contagion, namely that a number of persons who nursed the sick were themselves attacked. As an answer to this it is shown that where the sick were removed out of the infected district, not one single person engaged in nursing a patient was known to have had the disease ; and the conclusion is drawn that it was not proximity to the sick, but habitancy in the infected district which subjected the attendant to the malady. "This we consider an unanswerable argument," says the report, against the contagious nature of the prevailing fever. If the disease was contagious, how could a removal of the sickhalf a mile or more from the infected part of the city, deprive it of its contagious properties ? On the grounds of contagion this cannot be explained, but considering the disease of miasmatic origin, the fact is easily accounted for. Those who nursed the sick in the infected district were exposed - and that, too, at the worst period of the twenty- four hours - to the same miasmatic exhalations that had produced the disease in the patient. When the patient was removed, however, to an atmosphere free from the malarial poison, the nurses escaped, though they were exposed to the exhalations from the diseased body of the patient, who often expired in the most frightful agonies, with black vomit, hemorrhage, and all the evidences of extreme putridity." The committee then instanced one remarkable case where there was no communication whatever with the sick. A criminal under sentence of death in the jail, immured in a cell, and having seen no one but the jailer and turnkey, was the first person in prison who took the disease. Again, after the first black frost, which occurred on November 8, great numbers of the citizens returned to the city. If the disease could spread by contagion, why was it not communicated to some of them by the numerous cases then still under treatment.

The report next takes up reports made by eminent physicians of Charleston, Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York on the yellow fever in those cities. In 1839 the fever prevailed in Charleston as it did in Augusta, and in the former city it was a general impression that it had been introduced by a vessel called the BiirniaJt. On October 18, 1839, Dr. T. Y. Simons, chairman of the Charleston Board of Health, read before that body " a report of the history and causes of the strangers or yellow fever, of Charleston," in the course of which he says : " The fever having occurred so earl)^ in the season and so soon after its occurrence on the Burtnah, created suspicion of contagion in the minds of some, but I could not, upon the minutest investigation, come to that conclusion, and a committee appointed by the Medical Society, after making a minute and thorough investigation, came to the conclusion that the fever was not introduced by the BurniaJi or by contagion, but was produced by the peculiar condition of our atmosphere, in other words was epidemic and arose from causes among us."

The committee here referred to was composed of Drs. A. Lopez, James Moultrie, E. Geddings, I. M. Campbell, Henry Winthrop and J. E. Holbiook, the president of the Medical Society. The following is from the report of that committee: "Your committee are therefore of opinion that the yellow fever which has prevailed and still continues this season, has its origin, not from contagion derivable from those cases imported in the ship BurniaJi on the 6th of June last, but from local and general causes." Dr. Geddings, chairman of this committee, in answer to a query from the chairman of the Augusta committee, says : " I have never either in the epidemic of the present summer in Charleston, or in any of those which preceded it, observed a single fact or circumstance favorable to the belief in any contagious property. On the contrary I have witnessed the most free and unlimited intercourse between the sick and those who might be considered subjects for the disease, without the latter being attacked."

In speaking of the yellow fever as prevailing in Charleston in 1799, Dr. Ramsey, the eminent physician and historian, says : " We have no reason to believe that the yellow fever was imported among us, or communicated by contagion. Strangers who left the city and afterwards sickened and died in the country, were not the occasion of death, or even disease to those who attended them in their last illness." In writing in 1800 to Dr. Miller, of New York, Dr. Ramsey says : " The disputes about the origin of yellow fever which have agitated the Northern States, have never existed in Charleston. There is but one opinion among the physicians and inhabitants, and that is that the disease was neither imported nor contagious. This was the unanimous sentiment of the Medical Society, who, in pursuance of it, gave their opinion to the government last summer, that the rigid enforcement of the quarantine laws was by no means necessary on account of yellow fever."

In Norfolk the fever had frequently prevailed at the date of the report now under consideration, and a report or certificate dated October 12, 1801, and signed by Drs. Taylor, Hansford, Selden, and Whitehead is quoted as follows : " We do hereby certify that the malignant yellow fever, which prevailed with violence for some time past, has now nearly ceased, and that the health of the town appears to be improving daily. We know of no instance in which the disease has been communicated by contagion."

In a report made in 1800 by the medical faculty of Baltimore to the mayor of that city in reference to the yellow fever prevalent there in the summer of that year, they say: " After the most scrutinizing investigation the faculty find no proof, or even cause of suspicion, that the fever which lately so unhappily afflicted our city was derived from foreign causes."

The celebrated Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, was in the early part of his career of the opinion that yellow fever was contagious, but in his later years, and as the result of the most careful investigation and study, publicly announced that he had arrived at the opposite conclusion. In 1793, 1794, and 1797 the fever desolated Philadelphia, and Dr. Rush based his later opinion on his experience of the disease from practical observation, his original idea of infectiousness being derived from the works of some West India writers, and there- ,fore purely theoretical.

In 1803 the yellow fever prevailed in New York, and Drs. Miller and Mitchell of that city say : " The first public alarm took place from some deaths about the Coffee House slip, and in that neighborhood, where from the num- .ber and malignity of the cases, the atmosphere must have been charged with miasmata of great virulence ;" also, " many aged and young persons, whose -condition imposed confinement in their houses, without the occurrence of any preceding case in the families, were attacked with the disease in its most virulent form. Multitudes also took the disease who had not previously appoached any sick person, any suspected vessel, or any families allowed to be imbued with contagion." The report then instances Galliopolis in Ohio where many deaths occurred in 1797, when there was no communication with Atlantic ports, but the place was remarkable for " the filthiness of the inhabitants, and an unusual quantity of animal and vegetable putrefaction in a number of small ponds and marshes within the village." In the same year New Design, a small inland town of Missouri, containing a population of about two hundred, lost fifty- seven by yellow fever, whereas no person had arrived at it from any infected place within the year preceding.

The report then says : "If we examine minutely the history of yellow fever, wherever it has prevailed, we find that it invariably obeys most of the laws which govern other miasmatic diseases. It has usually commenced its ravages during the heat of summer, increased its violence as the season advanced, and ceased as soon as the temperature ranged below a given point, or after a severe frost. Contagious diseases conform to none of these laws. What climate, what temperature, or what season can arrest the ravages of smallpox, for instance ? "

The committee then takes up the second theory of the origin of the disease, namely that the atmosphere was in a vitiated condition and that the introduction of one foreign case was the match to the magazine. It considers it an unanswerable argument against this view that the disease was at first confined to one spot and spread gradually thence so that it was late in the season before it had progressed from the eastern part of the city where it first developed to the western portion, then about half a mile or so. The theory of the decayed West India fruit is found unworthy of serious mention. Such fruit is found all over the country every season, with no fever as a concomitant.

The report then proceeds to consider the second great question, " did the fever arise from local causes, and if so, what were those causes." The committee find that is was not any peculiar filthiness in the lots where the disease first appeared, they being up to the standard of the city's cleanliness. Nor was it any accumulation of water infused with filth on those lots, they lying low, such accumulations being a frequent occurrence before without evil results, and moreover, this particular season being extremely dry, no rain falling for seventyone days. Nor was it the unusual lowness of the river exposing banks of slime, etc., the bed as exposed being "a beautiful sandy gravel, containing scarcely any remains of either animal or vegetable matter"; and in 1830 the river was equally low, with perfect health prevailing. Nor was the fever caused by certain rotten cotton seed or decayed bacon, or the rank growth of the morns rmdticaulis as variously supposed, the bacon being at a point distant from the first seat of the disease, the morus growth thickest in that portion of the city last to feel the epidemic, and the cotton seed, a subordinate factor, if an operative factor at all, to the real origin. That origin the committee finds in what was known as the city trash pile, that is, an enormous accumulation of the refuse of the city in the river at the foot of Lincoln street. In April, 1834, the city council voted "that there be constructed a slide or platform on the river bank for the purpose of throwing the dirt and rubbish collected by the street officer clear of the bank into the river." The platform was erected on piling, projected one hundred and ten feet into the river from the edge of the bank, and was forty-five feet high from the bed of the river. The street officers' carts laden with all the animal and vegetable matter collected from the different lots and yards of the city daily, were drawn to the end and sides of this platform and emptied in the river. Thus commenced the accumulation in 1834. At first, this collection was cleared away from time to time down to the water's edge, but finally this was neglected. An old boat lodged against the pile which prevented the water sweeping under the platform, and in 1869 the mass amounted to over 200,000 cubic feet. Malaria arising from the dissolution of vegetable and animal matter, especially the former, what a magazine of death was here! In April, 1839, the city directed the accumulation removed, and the use of the platform discontinued. The contractor who undertook the removal of the filth only partially did his work. The accumulation was so high that the workmen could step from the platform on to it, and the plan of removal was to dig down into it and throw it broadcast into the river. During the operations of the workmen as they penetrated into the interior, the heat evolved was so great that tliey were compelled to desist from work for two hours at a time, though they wore thick shoes. When the contractor had leveled it off as far as possible there still remained 117,000 cubic feet, which had been concealed for years, and now first since its deposit saw the light of day. The river continuing to fall exposed those portions of the mass which had been leveled otT and thrown into it. For its measurements the committee could vouch having had an accurate survey made by a competent engineer. The first leveling off was completed by May 29. On June 8th the first cases of fever developed in the neighborhood of the pile. The nearest family was taken, a second removal was ordsrod, which was completed on July 2, with the result of exposing fresh festering surfaces. On July 5, one of the workmen was prostrated with fever, and on the same day a little boy who had been playing about the platform. On the 7th there were two more cases, another on the 14th, two more on the l6th, and then others in rapid succession before the arrival of the first infected person from Charleston. Efforts were made to cover the trash pile with earth) but it was too late; tlie atmosphere was already impregnated with the miasmatic poison, and more )ver the portions of the filth which had been cast into the river reniaineJ uncovered. The direction of the wind was from the trash pile towards the parts of the town affected, and as the direction varied, new districts lying in the charged track became infected, gradually poisoning the whole city.

of opinion that the cause of the late epidemic was not introduced into our city in any manner whatever from foreign sources, nor do we believe the disease to have exhibited, in the slightest degree, a contagious nature.

"2. Resolved^ That in our opinion the cause of the late epidemic arose from the accumulation at the upper ' trash wharf,' between Lincoln and Elbert streets, of upwards of 200,000 cubic feet of vegetable and animal matter, collected from the lots and streets pf the city since the year 1834, which was opened and exposed to the action of the sun in the months of May and June last."

While there has been subsequent medical dissent from one of the positions taken in this valuable report, it may be regarded as settling the question of contagion or infection in the sense in which smallpox is contagious. A modern view is that there is a yellow fever microbe or germ, which when meeting an atmosphere prepared for its reception flourishes like a rank, poisonous weed. One striking point in the report is the evidence that it affords that Augusta was never visited by yellow fever till 1839, o^" ^O'' iriore than a century from its foundation. A third resolution reported by the committee urges the citizens to be warned of " deleterious consequences arising from a general neglect of cleanliness, which, for some years past has been too common in our city, owing to its 2inprecede7ited state of health^ In his letter, heretofore mentioned, to Dr. Geddings of Charleston, the chairman of the committee says: "The irruption of a malignant disease in a community unaccustomed to such a visitation." In 1854 Augusta was again visited with yellow fever. On the i6th of September the disease was declared epidemic, and the bulk of the population fled, as in 1839, to the Sand Hills, the piney woods and other salubrious resorts so plentiful near the city. Despite this depopulation, the fever vindicated its fearful name. We have heard from an eye-witness that the dead were even carried to the grave in wheelbarrows for lack of vehicles.

In a medical point of view the epidemic of 1839 had been of service to the world. From the observations then made it became confirmed as an axiom that yellow fever was not contagious in the sense of personal communication like, for instance, smallpox. The outbreak of 1854 had also its uses. It will be remembered that in the celebrated report of the Augusta physicians of 1839, it had been argued, and with great power, that the fever was of local origin and had not been imported or communicated from Charleston, then infected. The origin was then traced to a noxious mass of animal and vegetable decomposition on the river bank, and the disease was traced in its course from the first cases, occurring in that vicinage, until it radiated throughout the city. The observations of 1854 confirmed the conclusion of 1839 of the non-contagiousness of yellow fever, but led to a very careful examination of the doctrine of local -origin, with the result of evolving a theory that yellow fever is of exotic origin, has no native habitat in the United States, and only effects a foothold by transportation of a germ or spore. This theory was advanced as early as 1856 by Dr. Henry F. Campbell, an eminent Augusta physician, at the seventh annual meeting of the Medical Society of the State of Georgia, held in Macon, and has since in several 'valuable papers been enlarged upon by him. The substance of his views is about as follows: From 1768 to 1838 there had been some twentyseven visitations of yellow fever in Charleston, but one hundred and thirty- six miles distant from Augusta, and yet up to 1839 there had been no yellow fever in Augusta. In 1833 a system of railway communication had been opened between Charleston and Hamburg, lying immediately across the Savannah River from Augusta, and by 1839 ^^^s in full operation, the distance which by stage had taken several days to traverse being now covered in some few hours. In 1839 the fever raged in Charleston; no check was placed on the running of railway trains out of the infected city to Hamburg, and that year the fever for the first time appeared in Augusta. Did not these facts point to a transmission of the disease from Charleston to Augusta by rail. The possibility of contagion being communicated by personal contact had been shown not to exist. In all former epidemics in Charleston fugitives had found their way to Augusta by the slow staging, and yet no residents of Augusta had been attacked, though the fugitive himself not unfrequently died in the city with the disease in its most malignant form.

The Medical Profession. Concluded

The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1854 - Portability of Fever Germ - Dr. Campbell's Theory of Quarantine - Board of Health - The Sewer System - Decrease in Death RaXt - Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Eminent Physicians - Milton Antony - Fendall - Cunningham - Watkins - Carter - Garvin - Newton - Dugas - Ford - Eve - Augusta's Present Faculty.

AGAIN, from 1807 to 1854 the yellow fever had visited Savannah seven times, and yet there had been no outbreak in Augusta contemporaneous with one in Savannah, but in 1854 communication by rail was established between Savannah and Augusta. In that year the fever became epidemic in the former, and after it had there obtained a firm fo6thold, appeared in the latter city. Again, it was the fact that a distance formerly consuming days was now traversed in a few hours. No restraint was placed on trains leaving infected Savannah for uninfected Augusta ; and behold the uninfected city becomes infected. Did not this, also, tend to show the portability of a fever germ ?

Still, further, Macon was placed in railway communication with seaports, and the fever appears where it had never appeared before ; and yet again, such was the sequence in the case of Memphis and other far inland centers, of late years so piteously devastated.

Certain specific instances occurring in the epidemic of 1854 seem to point, as with a finger, to the existence and portability of a yellow fever germ. At Union point, a station on the Georgia Railroad seventy- six miles from Augusta, and in an elevated pine region celebrated for its salubrity, a Mr. Lampkin and his wife both died. Mr. Lampkin was transportation agent at that point, and in discharge of his duty daily entered the freight cars arriving from fever-stricken Augusta ; his wife was daily in the passenger cars serving refreshments. Why should these residents of so healthy a region perish of yellow fever unless the railway had carried the germ out of Augusta, and in their daily routine they were peculiarly exposed to its influences? In 1876 the fever obtained a foothold in Savannah, and at Oliver, a point on the Central Railroad, forty-five miles from that city, all the railway employees about the depot who slept in the freight cars arriving from Savannah were attacked with the fever; those who slept in other places were not attacked. A young farmer of the neighborhood, who had not been near Savannah during the season, slept in a passenger car left over night at Oliver; eight days afterwards he died of yellow fever. In 1877 the fever prevailed in Fernandina, Fla., and a gentleman fled thence to Augusta with his family and effects. The father soon died of the fever. About that time one daughter opened the trunks which had been packed in and brought from Fernandina, and some time after was attacked with the fever, and then in rapid succession every other member of the family was taken. The disease did not extend beyond the household. In 1854, after several black frosts had put an end to the epidemic, there were a number of new cases in Augusta, all confined to returned refugees who on reaching home had opened wardrobes, trunks, bookcases, and other receptacles which had been <;losed when the owner fled.

" First. That the poison or product giving rise to the assemblage of phenomena and sequences which are known to constitute yellow fever, is an exotic readily importable into this country and, after importation, transportable from one region to another.

" Secondly. That yellow fever is not in any of its stages communicable from one person to another after the manner or according to the rationale of ordinary contagion."

ing slowly, as in times past, by stage or private conveyance, with comparatively little baggage, though he brings with him in his blood a full supply of yellow fever germs or poison sufficient to produce in him all its phenomena^ and among them black vomit and death, has never been known, whether he was overtaken by the wayside, in the pine woods, or in the crowded city, to communicate the disease to others, or to infect the air of the inland community in which he had fallen.

" While, secondly, the yellow fever refugee of the present time, coming in the rapid transit of a few hours by railroad, and bringing with him often the largest Saratoga trunks of porous baggage that had been packed and closed in the infected atmosphere, has brought with him, besides the germs circulating in his own veins - proved to be innocuous to all but himself - he has, I say, besides these blood-germs, brought with him a vast multitude of propagating atmospheric germs, in all their activity and capacity, to poison all who may directly imbibe them, and to rapidly propagate poison in the atmosphere of the entire locality.

" In the first case the ventilation incident to several days of travel had removed from his scanty baggage and wearing apparel, probably, all yellow fever germs that were capable of communicating disease ; only the poison which he carried in his own blood remained, and this could infect no other person nor poison the air. In the case of the modern or railroad traveler, the immense volumes of germ-laden air in the passenger train, and still more in the boxed- up freight cars, besides what is brought in the trunks, must inevitably insure widespread atmospheric infection, and a widespread epidemic. Even though the air of the invaded locality may be what is called ' pure,' it cannot often escape vitiation ; when it may be what is called ' foul,' propagation and an epidemic are simply inevitable."

" First. Allow no railroad train or car, whether for passengers or freight, coming from an infected locality, to approach within many miles of any healthy or uninfected town or city.

" Secondly. Meet these trains at some undoubedly safe distance from their place of destination by fresh cars for both passengers and freight.

" Third. A careful and discriminating surveillance to be maintained over the baggage of passengers and over the freight in order to determine what will be safe, after ventilation and other means of disinfection, to be taken on the fresh cars. Porous articles and closed tnmks being most objectionable till disinfected.

'- Fourth. That passengers have free passport into, and refuge in, any city, town, village, or other communit\', without hindrance on account of their physical condition in relation to their supposed or manifested inception of yellow fever poison. Long exposure in yellow fever atmosphere, attendance on the sick, actual fever and black vomit should be no bar or hindrance, on account of infection, to the free passage of persons seeking refuge for themselves and families from yellow fever.

" Fifth. To secure the privilege and benefits of the unrestricted travel contemplated by the modified quarantine, all persons must submit to such provisions as may be deemed necessary by the sanitary officers. Baths and change of apparel may be exacted, but simple ventilation only will in most cases suffice.

^ "Sixth. In the establishment of a modified quarantine on the above systematized method, arrangements on the most liberal and enlightened scale will be required. Officers of intelligence and high character only should be appointed to superintend and carry out the details of the plan. Whether buildings temporary or permanent will be required, and whether municipal. State, or national sanitary authorities are best to have charge of its conduct, only experience in an untried method can determine. An efficient and easy-working system can only gradually and by slow progress be perfected."

" Resolved, That the yellow fever quarantine of the present time should be so modified as no longer to exclude persons coming from infected regions from taking refuge in healthy localities ; baggage, clothing, trunks, and boxes bemg strictly excluded and every detail being minutely systematized on this principle."

In 1877 the Legislature provided for a board of health for the city of Augusta, and by subsequent acts enlarged its powers. It consists of one citizen from each ward, two physicians from the city at large, a chemist, and the mayor and health committee of the city council, and has plenary powers over the subjects of sanitation and public health. It has a president, a secretary, and one inspector for each ward. It is authorized to institute all sanitary measures necessary to the preservation of the public health, or to prevent the generation or introduction of infectious and contagious diseases, and to regulate the subject of quarantine in its discretion. The ordinances of the board on the subjects committed to it have the force of law, and all violations thereof are cognizable in the Recorder's Court. When it declares a quarantine, any violation of such quarantine is cognizable in the State courts. The board has also control of the sewerage and drainage systems of the city, but the construction of new works requires the concurrence of the city council ; and has a supervisory jurisdiction over all public institutions in the city as respects sanitation. In the matter of quarantine and disinfection the board has authority to establish quarantine stations not exceeding forty miles from the city, and to prescribe regulations as to the transportation of freights to, or through the city 34 ^' and as to the ventilation, disinfecting, and cleaning of all boats, cars, engines^ and vehicles reaching the city; the penalty for infraction of such rules by individuals being a fine not to exceed $i,ooo, imprisonment in jail not to exceed six months, or confinement in the chain gang not exceeding twelve months; any one or more of such punishments in the discretion of the court, and by corporations a fine not exceeding $5,000. The salary of the president of the board is $1,200 per annum, of the secretary $400, and there are five sanitary inspectors, each receiving $50 per month. The cost of the board averages $5,000 per year. There are 7,068 lots in the city, about the same number of water closets and surface privies, and forty miles of sewers and surface drains. It is the duty of the inspectors to see that the lots are kept clean, and that all the sanitary regulations respecting the sewers, drains, etc., are conformed to. In 1886 they discovered and had abated 12,461 nuisances injurious to health. It has been found that under the board the construction of sewers and drains has been not only more scientifically carried on, but much more economically, as, for instance, in 1886, it constructed 6,706 feet of side drains at 9y cents per foot, which had previously cost the city 28|^ cents. It has also been found that it could construct from three to five feet of sewer for the price formerly paid for one. This economy has been the result of judicious reduction in the size of sewers, the substitution of pipe for bricks, and the construction of work by contract under competitive bids. The practical value of the board's labors is shown in a marked reduction of the city's death rate. From 1 87 1 to 1879, inclusive, it was 30 in the 1,000. From 1880 to 1885 it was 24; a decreased death rate equal to 210 lives per annum. The death rate of 1886 was 23.38 ; and for 1887 but 21.33, the smallest ever known in the city.

On the organization of the board of health Dr. L. D. Ford was made president and continued in office until 1880, when he, Drs. Dugas and Rains resigned. During the times these gentlemen remained in office they each rendered great and valuable service to the sanitary interests of the city. The minutes of the board show numerous able and voluminous papers presented by them on various questions of hygiene, as, for instance, sewerage, drainage, quarantine, disposal of household wastes, garbage, excreta, etc. In 1878 several families were stricken down with typhoid fever, attacking nearly every member of each household. Through their physicians the board of health Avas appealed to investigate the causes of the fever. A committee, consisting of Drs. L. D. Ford, L. A. Dugas, and G. W. Rains, was appointed. In prosecuting their duties they found that the fever was caused by the frightfully filthy condition of the Elbert street sewer, which was but an elongated cesspool filled to nearly one-half of its diameter with mud, stagnant water, kitchen slops and human excreta. The committee recommended the cleansing, flushing and disinfection of the sewer. The committee was then charged with the duty of opening and examining the condition of every sewer in Augusta, and in 1878 made the following report : "After full discussion we are unanimously of the opinion that all these sewers (referring to the then system) are viciously located, improperly constructed, and as to their influence upon the public health, your committee here express the opinion, without going into details, that they are now damaging the health of our citizens, with the prospect of sober judgment in declaring their conviction that malignity, plotting mischief against the citizens of Augusta, urged by disciplined ingenuity, could not have spent the large amount of money, the cost of these sewers, in any way better for its purpose than in building them." This report was signed by Drs. L. D. Ford, L. A. Dugas and G. W. Rains. These gentlemen urged immediate action in removing faulty sewers, and a complete system. Dr. G. W. Rains submitted an elaborate plan for a complete system of sewers and drains, which the board adopted, and recommended council to put in execution. In 1879 1879 President Ford stated to the board that the report had been received by the council without any action ; " therefore," said he, " I have called you together to consider if any or what action you will take to relieve the board of health from the responsibility which is still resting upon them." Failing in their efforts to secure prompt support from council, Drs. Ford, Dugas and Rains resigned membership in the board of health. Council requested these gentlemen to withdraw their resignations. This they declined to do. Council then elected Drs. Eugene Foster, V. G. Hitt, and G. H. Winkler as their successors. Dr. Foster was unanimously elected president of the board of health, and has three times since been unanimously elected to that position, his last -election being in 1888. The president bi^ the board of health promptly took up the sewerage question where it had been left by Dr. Ford, and persistently pressed the matter upon the attention of the council. The city engineer was instructed to begin at once to open each sewer in the city and fully report its condition, size, shape, grades, connections, and outlet. Upon receiving the report of the engineer, the board of health promptly condemned as a nuisance injurious to health every sewer shown by his report to be such. The board of health fully concurred in the report of President Ford, in his annual report for 1879, in which he said : " It condemned these sewers in almost every particular - that they were vicious and dangerous in their location, vicious in their construction, and injurious to the public health; that they were built in violation of the settled principles of sanitary science ; that, by whomsoever built, they were left a legacy of evil to the city, and should be removed as soon as possible." Dr. Foster insisted that the present sewerage and drainage systems should be examined by a sanitary engineer of undoubted ability, and plans presented for a complete system. To this purpose he suggested that Colonel G. E. Waring, a world renowned sanitary engineer, be invited to Augusta. This suggestion was adopted, and Colonel Waring, in 1880, began the work of examining the then sewerage and drainage systems, and, after fully examining the problem, rendered to the board of health his report, in which he condemned as a whole the then sewer system, and recommended a system of pipe sewers (similar to that of Memphis, Tenn.), with an outlet sewer from corner of Taylor and Twiggs streets through Twiggs to Watkins street, through Watkins to East Boundary, and through East Boundary street to the river. The board of health decided not to recommend to council the Waring system' until it had obtained further expert opinious on the question, and recommended council to employ Dr. Azel Ames, of Boston, Mass., another noted sanitary engineer, to examine and report upon the question. This was done by the council. Dr. Ames promptly began the work and submitted plans and details therefor in May, i88i. Dr. Ames's paper, like Colonel Waring's, recommended the abolition of the then existing sewers, and the substitution therefor of a system of pipe sewer, with a main outlet sewer commencing at intersection of Savannah road and Ninth street, through Twiggs to Watkins, through Watkins to East Boundary, thence northward to the river. Second outlet sewer through Greene to East Boundary, thence to the river.

Dr. Ames's report also embraced the subject of increased water supply. He recommended locating the pumps at Rae's Creek, and taking the water supply from the lake. The sewerage system proposed by Dr. Ames was by him estimated to cost $220,000, and the increased water supply - giving the city 5,000,000 gallons of water daily - $70,000, making the sewerage and waterworks system cost $290,000. The board of health and council adopted the plans of Dr. Ames, and council, being charged with the duty of providing the ways and means, decided to submit the question to the voters of the city and ask authority to expend $400,000 if necessary, in constructing these important works. At a special election held July 8, 1881, the citizens, by a more than two-thirds vote, sustained the proposition to construct these works, and issue $400,000 in bonds to pay therefor. An injunction was sued out against the issue of these bonds, and upon being carried before the Supreme Court it decided that to issue the proposed bonds would violate that provision of the State constitution which prohibited any city with a bonded debt equal to seven per cent, of its taxable property from incurring any new bonded debt. Thus halted in its work, the board of health was forced to rebuild, remodel and perfect the existing sewers as best it could from money to be annually appropriated by the council. This has from year to year been done as speedily as possible. The board of health, under recommendation of its president, adopted a comprehensive plan of sewerage and drainage, and that all work done should be a part of the complete system, and $10,000 annually has been expended on this important work. Dr. W. H. Doughty, a member of the board, having in view the idea previously suggested by Colonel Rains, and adopted by consulting engineers Waring and Ames, of delivering the sewage in the river north of the city, instead of into the swamps on the south of it, submitted to the board of health, in 1883, a plan for an outlet sewer for the eastern and southeastern section of the city extending as far west as Mcintosh street. Dr. Doughty's plan recommended an outlet sewer running through Walton street to east boundary and thence northward to the river, the grade to be twenty feet at third canal level, and to be constantly irrigated with a stream of eighteen inches from the canal. The board of health and city engineer found that the plan suggested by Dr. Doughty was not feasible under the grade and elevation suggested by him, and the board, upon advice of the engineer, changed the route suggested by Dr. Doughty, and turned the course of the sewer northward to the river through Houston street, thereby greatly curtailing the cost, and also lowered the proposed grade four feet, thereby rendering the proposed plan practicable. The engineer and board of health decided to build the sewer six feet internal diameter, so as to make it practicable for an outlet for all sewers as far west as McKinnnie street. The city engineer estimated the cost of the proposed sewer at $38,978.07. The board adopted the plan of Dr. Doughty as amended, and recommended to counci4 to promptly build it; council adopted the plan, and submitted it to a popular vote, and asked authority to levy a special tax of x of i P^r cent, for one year. The election was held February 27, 1884, and resulted in its adoption by a more than two-thirds vote. Council then appointed the mayor, president of board of health, and streets and drains committee of council, a commission to build the outlet sewer. This commission, with City Engineer Davidson, promptly began its labors and, as rapidly as possible, had this important structure completed. Upon completion of the sewer the commission found that it had built the structure for $10,000 less than the estimated cost, and more than five thousand dollars less than the bid of any responsible bidder for the work - certainly a rare experience in constructing a public work. Since its completion two floods have fully tested its strength, and, in each instance, it successfully stood the enormous water pressure brought to bear upon it. The sewer system is a modification of what is known to engineers as the combined system, i. e., for conduction of sewage and storm water. All sewers running southward are about thirty-six to forty-eight inches diameter and carry sewage and storm water, those running east and west are for conduction of sewage only - the storm water in these sections being carried by surface drains to the sewers running southward. By this latter plan the city will save fully a half million of dollars by the time the sewerage system shall have been completed. This plan is that suggested by the president of the board of health. All storm water passes through sand traps or pits before reaching a sewer, thus depositing the sand in the traps instead of in sewers. Manholes have been placed at intervals of three hundred feet in every sewer to readily admit of inspection of these conduits. Up to 1887 it was impossible to build sewers. in the section of the city be- tween Twiggs, South Boundary and West Boundary streets and the canal, as no outlet sewer had been provided. In 1887 the president of the board proposed a plan for this latter structure, and, in consultation with City Engineer Davidson, submitted to the board of health plans and details therefor. These plans were adopted by the board of health and council, and the city council made an appropriation for building a part of this sewer in 1888. In a few days work will be begun upon this structure. When it is completed all sections of the city will be fully provided with outlet sewers, and the danger of discharging sewage into the swamps south of the city to stagnate, and thereby injure the public health, will be removed. The lateral sewers can then be constructed from year to year as the city's finances will permit, and, when completed, Augusta will have a sewerage and drainage system equalled by few cities in America. When this important work is completed a marked decrease in our death rate will be observed.

The good results of the sanitary measures adopted in Augusta are seen in a death rate now as low, as respects the white population, as any city in the country, while the total death rate has been decreased in a remarkable and encouraging degree.

From 1 87 1 to 1879, inclusive, the annual death rate of the total population was 30 per 1,000; from 1880 to 1888, inclusive, it was 23 91, showing a de- <a'ease of 6.09. This result has been achieved despite a heavy increase in density -of population, which always militates against healthfulness. Tlie population of the city being 37,000, it is demonstrable that the very efficient work of the board of health results in a saving of two hundred and twenty-two lives annually.

For the period 1880 to 1888, inclusive, the following has been the relative death rate among white and colored populations: White, 17.36 per 1,000; colored, 33.90, the death rate among the colored population being nearly double that of the whites. During the period 1880 to 1888, inclusive, the death among the whites being only 17.36 per 1,000, it shows that for the whites the death rate is as low as in almost any other city in America. Further it appears that for the first five years of this period, 1880 to 1884, inclusive, the average annual death rate per 1,000 white population has been 18.81, while for the last four years, /. e. from 1885 to 1888, inclusive, it has been only 15.53, showing a constantly decreasing death rate among the white population amounting to 3.28 per 1,000 annually.

In 1887 a charter commission or select body of citizens empowered to investigate the entire working of the city government in all its branches, thoroughly examined the operations of the board of health, and reported as follows: " We approve of and highly commend what has been done, and what is proposed by the board of health, and we take much pleasure in bearing testimony to the great skill and ability of Dr. Foster, to whose untiring energy and knowledge of the science of sanitation, the city is greatly indebted for the re- duction in the death rate of our city in the last six years, from 30 to 21.33 P^r 1,000. We cannot speak in too much praise of such a work, or recommend too strongly that the powers of the board be increased so that the death rate may be more and more reduced."

Of the Southern Medical and SurgicalJournalvci^xs.\\ox\ has been made several times in the course of this sketch of the medical profession of Augusta. It was the first publication of the kind in the South, except possibly one in New Orleans, and was begun in 1845 by Doctors Paul F. Eve and Ignatius P. Garvin, and conducted by them till 1851, when Dr. L. A. Dugas took charge. Dr. Dugas edited the Jojtrnal until 1856 by himself, and from that time until the war in conjunction with Dr. Henry Rossignol. During the war the publication of the Journal was suspended, but after the war it was revived and continued a short time under the charge of Doctors Dugas, Ford, and Doughty. The immense number of medical publications of recent times has, to a great extent, rendered such a journal unnecessary, but it was in its day of very great value, and is even now a rich treasury of medical learning.

Of some of the eminent physicians of Augusta of the past we now speak. Dr. Milton Antony is a central figure in the medical annals of Georgia. He founded the medical college, and his ashes repose in the college yard. Dr. Antony was born in Wilkes county, Ga., in 1784, and had few, if any, educational advantages. But the love of learning was in him, and by his own efibrts he wrought himself forward to the front rank of his noble profession. In 1822 his name headed the list of members of "The Medical Society of Augusta, Georgia," and in 1825, when the Legislature created the State Board of Physicians, he was made one of its members. In 1828 the Legislature made him one of "the trustees of the Medical Academy of Georgia," the act authorizing the trustees to establish within the corporate limits of the city of Augusta a medical academy for the State. At this time Dr. Antony in conjunction with Dr. Joseph A. Eve, one of his pupils, had a species of medical institute then in operation in connection with a hospital in the lower portion of Augusta, where the widow's home now is, but the inability to confer degrees probably crippled its usefulness as an educational institution, and led to the passage of the act of 1828, and the acts of 1829 and 1833 already mentioned. In 1829 the name Medical Academy of Georgia was changed to " the Medical Institute of the State of Georgia," and that in turn in 1833 to the present style " The Medical College of Georgia." Of this institution Dr. Antony is undoubtedly the founder, his energies never relaxing till he had seen a substantial edifice erected and supplied with library and museum. While only surviving the founding of the college five years, Dr. Antony had the satisfaction in that time of seeing it graduate sixty-two physicians. In the yellow fever epidemic of 1839 Dr. Antony lost his life, dying on September 19th of the prevailing disease, but laboring in his humane profession to the last. The fever broke out in August; it was its first appearance in the city; there were few, if any, experienced nurses; the faculty had little, if any, experience with such a malady, and it seems quite apparent from contemporaneous accounts that Dr. Antony put forth superhuman exertions in this terrible exigency, and so overtaxed his strength as to fall an easy victim to the plague. Even in those days of death and sorrow his demise was keenly felt and bitterly lamented. He was interred in the college grounds, and on the slab covering his grave is this inscription :

In the lecture- room of the college, on the right of the professorial rostrum is inserted in the wall a marble memorial tablet thus inscribed :

Dr. Thomas H. M. Kendall was a practicing physician in Augusta as early as 1808, and is probably the author of the call made in June of that year for a meeting of the faculty of the city for the purpose of forming a medical association. Dr. Fendall was still alive in 1822, as his name appears as one of the members of "the Medical Society of Augusta Ga.," incorporated in that year.

Dr. Alexander Cunningham, vice-president of the society in 1822, was also a physician of eminence, and was in practice certainly up to 1839, as in that year we find him chairman of the meeting of physicians called to consider the origin of the yellow fever epidemic of that year's summer. We have heard old citizens speak very highly of Dr. Cunningham's professional attainments.

Dr. Anderson Watkins, the first recorded president of the Medical Society of Augusta, was one of the members of the first State Board of Health appointed in 1825.

tury since. He was one of the original board of trustees of the Medical Academy of Georgia, now the medical college. His son, Dr. F"lournoy Carter, who died some years since, also stood high in the profession.

Dr. Ignatius P. Garvin lived to a good old age, and has an honorable record. He was one of the original board of trustees of the medical academy of 1828, a colleague of Drs. John Carter, Ford and Antony. For many years, in conjunction with the celebrated Dr. Paul F. Eve, who subsequently removed to Nashville, Dr. Garvin conducted the Southern Medical and Surgical Review. He was one of the first faculty of the medical college. In 1848 he was mayor of Augusta, and for a number of years just preceding his death was the city treasurer.

Dr. George M. Newton is a physician who should be mentioned in this connection. He was the stepson of Mr. Isaac Tuttle, who at his death in 1855 left his house on Walker street for an orphan asylum, and endowed it with $50,- 000, half his fortune. The other moiety he left to Dr. Newton, who, at his death in 1859, left his entire estate, $200,000, to the asylum.

Dr. Louis Alexander Dugas was one of the most eminent physicians ever practicing in Augusta. His father was a French planter of San Domingo, who emigrated to the United States on the insurrection of the blacks in that island, and settled in Wilkes county, Ga.. where Dr. Dugas was born in 1806 The doctor was educated up to his fifteenth year by his widowed mother, a lady of great accomplishments, who had been herself educated in Paris. Dr. Dugas at first studied with Dr. Charles Lambert de Beauregard, a French emigre ^\\ysician, and on his death studied with Dr. John Dent. He then attended lectures in Maryland and Philadelphia, and graduated at the medical department of the University of Maryland in 1827. He then studied abroad for three years, and in 1831 began a long and illustrious career in Augusta. At the time Dr. Dugas entered actively on the practice the medical college was an assured fact, and on its organization he was elected professor of anatomy and physiology. Subsequently he took the chair of physiology and pathological anatomy which he held till 1855, when he was elected to the professorship of the principles and practice of surgery, which he held till his resignation from the faculty in 1880. In 1834 Dr. Dugas revisited Europe for the purpose of purchasing a library and museum for the medical college, a fund of $6,000 having been appropriated for that purpose, and from his acquaintanceship in Paris, successfully accomplished his important mission. In 185 i he again visited Europe and in the same year assumed the editorship of the Southern Medical and Surgical Joiir?ial, the duties of which he acceptably discharged till 1858, the Journal taking high rank in the medical press. Dr. Dugas was a voluminous writer on professional topics, and contributed to a number of medical periodicals besides the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, among others The New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal and \.\\& Atlanta Medical and Surgical

Journal, and several very valuable papers are to be found in the transactions of the American Medical Association, the Medical Association of Georgia, and the International Medical Congress. Dr. Dugas wrote as many as one hundred and twenty-seven papers on professional topics of great interest, a list of which will be found on pages five and six of a valuable and interesting sketch of the life of this celebrated physician, written by Dr. Eugene Foster, of Augusta, president of the Augusta Board of Health, and president of the Medical Association of Georgia. Dr. Dugas paid special attention to surgery, and when Augusta was a great hospital center during the war, containing thousands of wounded soldiers, was the consulting surgeon of the Confederate government. Some of his professional discoveries were of immense value. In particular he furnished a rule by which to ascertain whether dislocation of the shoulder joint exists, a rule which works with mathematical certainty, and should be known as Dugas's Law. It is best stated in its author's own words: "If the fingers of the injured limb can be placed by the patient, or by the surgeon upon the sound shoulder, while the elbow touches the thorax, there can be no dislocation; and if this cannot be done, there must be a dislocation. In other words, it is physically impossible to bring the elbow in contact with the sternum or front of the thorax if there be a dislocation ; and the inability to do this is proof positive of the existence of dislocation, inasmuch as no other injury of the shoulder joint can induce this inability." When it is known that prior to the discovery of this law the science of surgery knew no certain method for diagnosticating injuries of the shoulder joint, the service done in this particular by Dr. Dugas can be readily seen.

At the time the report, hereinbefore mentioned, on the causes of the yellow fever in Augusta in 1839 was made. Dr. Dugas was the sole dissentient among the physicians of that day on the point of the fever being of local origin. It was his view [that it did not originate in Augusta, but was imported from 'Charleston in railroad cars, thus foreshadowing what may be called the germ theory, or that yellow fever may be brought into a locality by the introduction of spores.