Bristol County, Massachusetts - Chapter 71: Homceopathy in Bristol County and Its Practitioners., 1883

Chapter 71: Homceopathy in Bristol County and Its Practitioners.

The very terms of living fifty years ago were so different from those of the present that comparison between them is impossible, mainly because of the multiplicity of the causes which have led to these changes, each having its due weight and influence. Hence this article can only indicate the rise, progress, and influence of one part of the therapeutic art.

Fifty years ago ci vi lization, the civilization of merely living, was very different from what it is to-day. A large part of the life was not so completely shut out from the clear air of heaven. Wood was the common fuel, and the generous fireplaces formed ventilators which carried off through their roaring throats every form of impurity, not permitting it to linger long enough to attack the inhabitants. Hence the conditions of disease also were entirely different, for there is no more powerful disinfectant known than the oxygen of the atmosphere, when it can reach the threatening nocua in sufficient quantity. The " filth" which now frightens us, and which truly seems the home of all disease, which is truly the ally of every known disease-producer, and which we are now fighting with all the energy of a known enemy, was not such a disease-cause with them, because of its quick diffusion and minimizing by the very ease with which oxygen got access to it. When, however, the wings of the wind bore the invading epidemic from other lands and other places, the people fell before it, as much from fright, perhaps, as from the disease itself. In the last visitation of cholera, truly fright killed as many as filth. The fright of the people was not so much dread of the disease itself, as a lack of confidence in the power to oppose it.

Moreover, if I may use the phrase, there was at this time a great coarseness in the science of medicine, from which it was just beginning to emerge. This coarseness was most noticeable in the two branches of diagnosis and therapeutics. In the larger cities, and among those who had facilities of intercourse with other, and especially with foreign, physicians, this coarseness was fast giving away to physiological medicine, diagnosis was becoming far more accurate, diseases which had always been classed as one were being separated, and in proportion as delicacy and accuracy of diagnosis existed, so polypharmacy began to give way to a more scientific therapeutics, - that is to say, an effort was made by which the new observations and facts in physiology should be thrown into a theoretical form, and on that theory a new therapeutics be constructed. But for a long time the teaching remained the same, and the close of the remedial statement of every serious disease remained the same, - " mercury, in some of its forms, is our sheet-anchor in this disease." The light of schools and colleges was being rapidly diffused, but the physicians of a preceding generation, then in active practice, could not see or comprehend this light. A physician of this class, whose death occurred a few years since, was accustomed to maintain that the only proper treatment for phthisis was copious and repeated venesections.

Under these circumstances homoeopathy was introduced to the notice of the profession and the people. Its remedies, so markedly diverse in form and appearance from those in vogue, so minute as almost to claim the power of magic, and withal so effectual as to defy disproof, at once gave rise to serious questions in the minds of both the profession and the laity. These questions presented themselves as it regards the self-limitation of disease, the Heedlessness of the huge doses, the actual injuries inflicted by the action of remedies pushed to their pathological results, the value of diet in disease, and the removal of the causes of disease. In proportion as the refinements of physiological medicine had not reached the mass of the people and the profession, so did the wonderful refinement of homoeopathy strike them the more forcibly. The sufferers from the coarseness of the one flew with extreme hope to the subtilty of the other. The long-suffering infant world was the first to experience the benefit of the change, and the limitation put to their diseases and death was the most marked and wonderful. The power of the new therapeutics was shown still more decidedly in the cures of virulent diseases, and cholera, dysentery, the exanthematic and continued fevers, choreas, and all forms of neurotic diseases, convulsions, etc., owned its sway. The educated and intelligent classes were among the first to accept the new method, from the positive proofs with which it was accompanied, and they are its best patrons to-day.

It was extremely unfortunate that homoeopathy was introduced as a new system of medicine, rather as a new system of therapeutics based upon the elucidation of a formerly well-known law, but perhaps the present great advance in the science of medicine could not otherwise have been attained. Perhaps, too, the true position of its guiding law could not have been shown so effectually, and could not have been so great a boon to humanity, nor be adopted so thoroughly as the one great law of therapeutics as it is at the present day, by any other means than by being thrown upon its own resources. The ridicule with which it was met, the attempted argument by which it was to be annihilated, and the ostracism meted out to its supporters and its professional exponents accomplished more for its introduction into the true science of medicine than any other methods could possibly have done. Although a portion of the old rancor still holds, expressing itself in the ethical formularies of many societies, yet this article will not be ten years old when all that will have practically passed away, and the science of medicine will have bowed its head to homoeopathy in proud acknowledgment of the wonderful gain made in therapeutics by its aid.

The men who in Bristol County championed this system were mostly physicians in the true and full sense of the word, who, in working for homoeopathy, were working for the ultimate advancement of medical science. Hence, while their business and the necessarily close study occupied the greater part of their time, they still keptthemselves posted thoroughly in all the theories and advanced ideas of the dav. Homoeopathy was not taken by them simply as a theory of disease, but as the best practical method of prescribing for disease, and its law as the only one which seemed to have a perfectly practical and universal bearing. Their principal labor was in the line of the development of this law ; for this they were willing to suffer ostracism, and for this and its rewards were they anxious to labor. Safe in the fold of their own medical society, safer in the love and confidence of their patients, safest in the certainty of the results which were sure to follow their labors, they could well afford to wait the results of the truth of the law to which they had given their allegiance.

Later years have proved the justice of these claims, for pari passu with their presentation has been the acknowledgment of their rights, and homoeopathic physicians now stand in the eyes of the communities and the local governments on a level, at least, with the educated men of any school.

The first of these physicians, in point of time, to settle in the county, was Dr. Manning B. Roche. He was a pupil of Dr. Constantine Hering, and was a graduate of the Allentown Academy. No one could be a pupil of Dr. Hering and not be thoroughly versed in all that pertains to the education of the physician, and Dr. Roche's education was complete, and especially so in the matter of the Materia Medica. He was a man of strong character, and well calculated to command the respect and attention of those with whom he came in contact. He settled in New Bedford in 1841, and though at first he met with little encouragement, he gradually acquired a foothold, and at length obtained a large practice. He retired on account of failing health in 1861, and died at Riverside, N. J., July 5, 1862, aged seventy-three years.

Dr. Roche met with but little active opposition to his practice, which may have been due to the liberal example of the late Dr. Lyman Bartlett, who, at the time of his death, had stood for a quarter of a century at the head of his school in this locality. He steadfastly refused to be bound by the bigoted rules of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and always met homoeopathic physicians in consultation whenever requested so to do.

At this same time, in the northwestern portion of the county, in the little town of Norton, Dr. Ira Barrows was practicing " after the straitest sect of allopathy." But in 1842 his attention was called to the new theory of therapeutics by his friend, Dr. P. P. Wells, now of Brooklyn, N. Y. But he was not a man to take things on any one's statement, and he accordingly obtained the " Organon" and Hull's Jahr, and commenced his experiments. The result of these experiments filled him with wonder, and he very soon gave in his adherence unreservedly to the new school. It has been a mistaken notion that all of those who practice homoeopathically must, of necessity, give in their whole adherence to all of the theories by which Hahnemann tried to account for the action of remedies ; but in every case individual opinion has been duly exercised, and the facts of the master taken without regard to the theories which he advanced. Hence the far larger part of the converts which were made to homoeopathy were those who had previously been firm adherents of the theory of the dominant school, and while putting their whole faith in the power of the therapeutic law, nevertheless did not feel themselves required to adopt all of the theory of disease presented by Hahnemann. Homoeopathy in Bristol County was represented by these same independent thinkers, and facts, not theories, were required for their guidance.

In August of 1842 an epidemic dysentery spread very generally over the region around Norton, and | Dr. Barrows treated sixty-three, cases with the loss of but one, - a very wonderful showing for that disease and those times. The knowledge of his method of treatment spread very rapidly over the adjacent towns, and soon his circuit extended to at least twenty miles. He was the pioneer of homoeopathy in Taunton, Middleborough, Raynham, the Bridgewaters, Easton, Mansfield, Foxborough, Wrentham, Attleborough, Seekonk, Rehoboth, Dighton, and Pawtucket. He met with a great deal of opposition from his professional brethren, and was finally, without a fair hearing and on a technical charge, expelled from the Massachusetts Medical Society, the first martyr in this section of the country to the bigotry of medical intolerance. This action of the society, and the fact that it was based technically, not really, on " gross immorality," was exceedingly galling to Dr. Barrows, and he never could afterwards speak of it with composure. It was a gross libel on the life of a man whose whole life was given to the relief of suffering humanity. He soon left Norton, and commenced practice in Providence, which he held to the day of his death. He died Oct. 14, 1882, and his funeral, held in church, was attended by crowds of interested professional lay friends.

It was not till 1845 that Fall River was settled by homoeopathy. In that year Dr. Isaac Fiske became interested in it, and the more that he studied the law and the more that he put it into practice the more did he love it, till finally he practiced under its aegis solely. At this time Fall River was a small manufacturing town, with its great possibilities not yet developed, and its population almost wholly made up of those who were connected with the mills. With this class homoeopathy was not popular, and Dr. Fiske met with much and unreasonable opposition in his new practice, both from his professional brethren and the people. But his own high scholarly attainments, his social power, and his love for his newly-found truth, enabled him to overcome all difficulties, and to establish himself in a good practice.

Although the town of Taunton had weekly, and oftener if needed, the services of Dr. Ira Barrows, yet there was no settled homoeopathic physician here till the advent of Dr. George Barrows, in 1846. Dr. Barrows was a graduate of Amherst in 1840, and of Berkshire Medical College in 1843, which he had entered as a sturdy allopath. But his attention had been drawn to homoeopathy by the increased success of his brother since his change of practice, and by the urgency of Dr. William Peck, of Cincinnati. While at Pittsfield he made the change, and openly avowed and practiced the new way, and it was perhaps then that the college first heard the truth so plainly uttered.

Upon his graduation lie came to Taunton and began business. He met with a great deal of opposition, but it was not malignant, and his kindly ways, his gentlemanliness, and his quiet persistence in asking his opponents " to come and see," made him hosts of friends and compelled to be respected the practice of which he was almost the sole exponent. In difficult cases he had the experience of his brother to aid him, and the remembrance of him as a physician and a man stands high in this community to-day.

He was always ready to welcome the young physician, and to give him all the aid in his power, sometimes to his own professional hurt, but homoeopathy was his enthusiasm, and to its advancement he was ready to sacrifice everything.

Such were the men who were the actual pioneers of homoeopathy in Bristol County, men of thorough education, of good social standing, of high religious and moral sentiment, and those whom their professional brethren could not ignore or relegate to the class of quack or charlatan.

The homoeopathic literature of those days, to those who could not read German, was limited to the copy of Hull's "Jahr," and the " Symtomen Codex," - blessed be its memory, - and to sundry reports of cases which were scattered through the little periodical literature which was then printed. Hence most of the time of the homoaopathist was used in the endeavor to find, among the moderate number of the remedies then " proved," the simillimum of the disease under consideration. But little time was left for other study than that of the materia medica, for the disease in hand must be cured, all other things to the contrary notwithstanding, and it must be cured homoeopathically, or else the failure would be used as a long lever against the truth of the law, a thing which could not be endured by one of those sturdy pioneers.

In 1847, after Dr. Barrows had left Norton for Providence, Dr. Benjamin M. Rounds commenced practice in Norton, and has been its principal physician to the present time.

In 1850. Dr. G. M. Matthes made New Bedford his permanent residence. He received his degree from the united universities of Halle and Wittenberg in March, 1836, but continued his studies for two years longer in Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. He commenced practice in the latter place in 1838, but in 1841 moved to his native place, Schwedt, Prussia. Notwithstanding he had all of the usual bitter prejudices against Hahnemann, yet in 1845 his attention was compelled to his theories by the favorable results obtained by the neighboring owners of the large and costly herds of merinos, who had entirely discarded their professional veterinary physicians and adopted the homoeopathic practice. He soon became a thorough student of the despised practice. In 1849 he came to this country, located for a short time in Boston, and became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He continues in New Bedford, a highly-esteemed practitioner.

In 1851, Charles Harris, M.D., came to Taunton, and remained for several years. He was a graduate of Berkshire Medical College in 1847. He had a good and successful practice, but was obliged to return to Wareham, where he had formerly practiced, on account of ill health. He is now located at East Bridgewater, where he has many and lasting friends.

In 1852, Henry B. Clarke, a graduate of the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, commenced practice in New Bedford, and soon took the high rank which he has since maintained.

The year 1854 was an eventful one to homoeopathy in Bristol County. In that year three young physicians, all supplemental graduates of the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, took up their residence in three different cities of the county. They were educated to the full extent of the knowledge that could be furnished by the allopathic schools of the country, and yet deliberately chose to practice according to the despised law of the new school. In order to fit themselves for this work they took graduation from the only homoeopathic school of eminence in the land. This school, while teaching the whole curriculum of the old school in self-defense, made the peculiar tenets of homoeopathy its prominent point. Its hospital enforced these points, and its daily clinic made evident the wonderful power of the attenuated doses. The proof could not be ignored, and, once accepted, the proof of daily practice made it only the stronger. These graduates accepted fully the proof thus offered, and the fact that during a practice of thirty years they have not swerved from it is proof that it has never failed them.

In the spring of 1854, Dr. John L. Clarke commenced practice in Fall River, and at once took a very high stand among the practitioners of the place. Owing to the peculiar construction of the population homoeopathy did not spread much among the general people, but was received by the intelligent portion, and its hold upon them has never been lost. There are in Fall River now six homoeopathic physicians, all of them in full practice, and all of them men who have come, not merely to try the situation, but who have come to stay, and no one of whose experience there has been less than five years.

In 1872, Dr. Thomas A. Capen, a graduate of the Massachusetts Agricultural College and of the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, commenced practice, and to-day remains a successful practitioner.

In 1874, Dr. David W. Vanderburgh commenced practice in Fall River. Dr. Vanderburgh was graduated in the regular course in Ann Arbor in 1866. In August of 1862 he passed examination for medical cadet, United States Army, and served as such till

Miscellaneous

April, 1863, when he was appointed assistant surgeon, Tenth Regiment, Michigan Infantry, which post he held till he was mustered out, Aug. 1, 1865. After his graduation he was appointed acting assistant surgeon in the United States Army, serving with the Seventeenth United States Infantry. A year after he took up the study of homoeopathy.

Dr. D. A. Babcock graduated from the New York Medical College in 1874, was in partnership with Dr. Clarke, of New Bedford, till 1878, when he succeeded to the practice of Dr. George Barrows, of Taunton. After the death of his uncle, Dr. J. L. Clarke, he removed to Fall River, where he has largely increased the practice and has made his permanent residence.

In 1854, Dr. Edward Sisson, a student with Dr. Roche, and a graduate both of the Berkshire Medical School and of the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, completed his studies, and commenced a very successful practice, which he still maintains.

There are several other physicians in New Bedford who have recently settled there, who will do honor to the cause. Among them may be mentioned Helen M. Wright, M.D., a graduate of Boston University School of Medicine, 1881.

In this same eventful year Dr. E. U. Jones came to Taunton, at the repeated and urgent request of Dr. Barrows, and for two years was his assistant befoi'e commencing practice on his own account. Previous to this Dr. Jones had been in a good practice in Dover, N. H. It was in this summer that cholera was a dread visitant to the town, but the pages of homoeopathy stand with but one death recorded upon them. The practice of Dr. Jones has been among the best and most intelligent of the citizens. He was for seven years secretary of the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society, and, as an especial honor, was elected its centennial president in 1876. He is the chairman of the first board of health of the city of Taunton. He is also Lecturer on Sanitary Science and Malarial Diseases in Boston University Medical School. His experience of thirty years is not without its value to a large clientage at the present day.

Joseph W. Hayward, M.D., was graduated from the Medical School of Maine in 1864, but was entered as medical cadet in the regular army in 1863 ; served in general hospitals till March, 1864; reentered in June of the same year as assistant surgeon United States Volunteers. After passing the regular army board served in the field in front of Richmond until Nov. 25, 1865. He then came to New York, took lectures at Bellevue, and came to Taunton in March, 1866. He is at present Lecturer at Boston University School of Medicine, a member of the city school board, and in a large and successful practice.

Dr. Fred. D. Tripp is a graduate of Boston University School of Medicine, 1881 ; spent one year in the hospital at Ward's Island, and in March, 1883, became city physician.

Dr. Caleb Swan, a grandson of Dr. Caleb Swan, of Easton, and son of Dr. James C. Swan, of Brockton, coming from a line of physicians, is recognized as one who will be prominent in the future history of medicine in the county.

His grandfather was among the earliest of those who recognized the value of the new therapeutics, and, while not taking a decided stand upon the point, yet practiced it more and more till his death, and claimed himself as a homoeopath. His circuit extended over the whole county, and his judgment was much relied upon.