in two cases removed an entire upper extremity, in-
cluding the scapula. He came to St. Louis in 1848.
He was an enthusiastic teacher. He organized the
Humboldt Medical College, and through his personal
influence secured the means to erect the building for
that institution, which still stands on the corner of
Soulard and Closey Streets. The college was broken
up during his absence in Europe, and on his return
he was offered a professorship in the Missouri Medical
College, which he accepted. After a few years he re-
turned to Europe, and died there Aug. 4, 1878.
Dr. Edward Montgomery was born at Ballymena,
near Belfast, Ireland, Dec. 20, 1816. He received
his preliminary education in Belfast, and graduated in
medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1838. He
practiced medicine for about four years in his native
town, but removed to the United States in 1842, and
after spending some years in the South, settled in St.
Louis in 1849. Here he has continued in the practice
of medicine ever since, and has enjoyed a very large
and profitable practice. He has been an active mem-
ber of various medical societies and associations, hav-
ing been president and vice-president of the St. Louis
Medical Society, and of the State Medical Association.
He has contributed papers on a variety of medical
subjects to the medical journals. During the last few
years he has withdrawn to some extent from practice
on account of failing health, but he still attends a
good many of his old families, who prefer his advice
to that of any of the younger practitioners.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin Shumard, who died on the
14th of April, 1869, was esteemed as a physician,
having, during the last years of his life, filled the
chair of obstetrics in the Missouri Medical College,
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
1539
and was far famed throughout the scientific world
as a geologist and paleontologist. He was a corre-
sponding or honorary member of many scientific asso- i
ciations in the United States and in Europe, and was j
honored and beloved at home as the president of the i
Academy of Science of St. Louis, an office to which
he was re-elected at the beginning of the year, when
his lingering illness had already taken away all hope
that he would ever again personally preside over the
meetings of that body.
Dr. Shumard was born at Lancaster, Pa., on the
24th of November, 1820. His father was a merchant,
but he inherited his scientific tastes from his maternal
grandfather, Mr. Getz, well known as an inventor,
and who made delicate scales used in the Philadelphia
Mint. His father afterwards moved to Cincinnati,
and while living there, Dr. Shumard graduated at
Oxford, Ohio, and returning to Philadelphia, he went
through one course in the medical college of that city.
His father then moved to Louisville, Ky., where
young Shumard completed his medical studies in
1846. He then practiced for a short time in one of
the interior towns of Kentucky, but subsequently re-
moved to Louisville, where he devoted his leisure to
the study of the fossils and shells in the adjacent
county. He laid broad and deep, by arduous appli-
cation, the foundations upon which his scientific repu-
tation is built. His collection of organic remains was
visited by Sir Charles Lyell and Edward De Ver-
neuil when those distinguished savans were in Louis-
ville, and the last named manifested his appreciation
by the presentation of his magnificent work on the
geology of Russia.
He was then appointed by Dr. David Dale Owen
assistant geologist in the United States govern-
ment survey of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, for
which he had been commissioned by the national gov-
ernment in 1846. He remained in that survey until
the fall of 1856. The published reports of this im-
portant survey, in which Dr. Shumard took so promi-
nent a part, will remain monuments of the industry,
acquirements, and genius of their author. Besides
his share in the publication of the reports, Dr. Shu- ,
.mard published a monograph, entitled " Contributions
to the Geology of Kentucky," which abounded in
original observations, and which made his name fa-
miliar to European geologists. This work is con-
stantly referred to by home and foreign writers on
the fossils of America.
In 1850, Dr. Shumard was appointed by Dr. John
Evans to aid him in a geological reconnoissance of
the Territory of Oregon, of which he prepared the
paleontological report. He spent eighteen months in
Oregon, and returned to Louisville in 1852, where he
occupied nearly a year in making out the reports on
paleontology for his brother, Dr. George Getz Shu-
mard, who was employed under Capt. R. B. Marcy
in the Red River exploration. In 1853, Dr. Shu-
mard came to St. Louis, and was appointed assistant
geologist and paleontologist of the Missouri Geo-
logical Survey, under Professor Swallow. He labored
,here until the summer of 1858, when he was ap-
pointed State geologist for Texas, and made a recon-
noissance of almost the entire eastern and middle
portions of that State, and had just got his speci-
mens collected and arranged, when the war broke out,
and he returned to St. Louis. In the survey of
Texas, he found within the limits of that State the
most complete series of geological formations to be
found in any State in the Union, ranging as they do
from the oldest paleozoic strata to the latest tertiary,
and presenting an aggregate thickness estimated at
not less than ten thousand feet. He succeeded in
rescuing his library from Austin at the end of the
war, but never returned to prosecute the survey.
Dr. S. T. Newman was born in Mississippi Nov.
30, 1816. His preliminary education was obtained
in Augusta College, Kentucky, and he graduated in
medicine at the Transylvania University, Lexington,
Ky., in 1839. He practiced medicine fof five years
at Amsterdam, Miss., and then removed to Richmond,
Ky., where he lived until 1856, when he came to St.
Louis. He identified himself at once with the St.
Louis Medical Society, and in 1860 was elected presi-
dent of that body.
Dr. T. L. Papin is a grandson of Laclede, who was
the founder of St. Louis. He was born in St. Louis
in January, 1825, and obtained his literary education
here, and his medical education partly here and partly
in Paris. He graduated from the Medical Department
of the St. Louis University, and then went to Paris,
where he pursued his studies some years longer. He
has been a teacher of medicine all through his profes-
sional life. In 1852 he was Professor of Clinical
Medicine in the St. Louis Hospital, and in 18*73 was
appointed Professor of Clinical Gynecology in the
Missouri Medical College, which position he resigned
last year.
He has been the attending physician at all the
Catholic asylums of various sorts, and was the origi-
nator of St. John's Hospital. After that hospital
was well established, he suggested to some of his
friends who were connected with the Missouri Medi-
cal College that they buy the property adjacent to the
hospital and erect a new college building. This was
done, and Dr. Papin was chosen president of the
1540
HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
Missouri College Building Association. In order to
raise the money necessary for the building, he and
Dr. Moore mortgaged their own property. The suc-
cess of the effort, and the remarkable prosperity of
the college since its removal, have been mentioned ,
elsewhere. Dr. Papin justly feels that he contributed
very largely to the success of the school, not only by i
carrying out the Building Association plans, but by i
the hospital facilities which he provided and secured i
for them. He is not now connected with the college,
and only retains his gynecological clinic at the hos- !
pital, which is probably the most largely attended of j
any in the city.
Dr. James C. Nidelet 1 is descended from some of i
the most noted pioneer families of Missouri. His ;
grandfather, the well-known Gen. Bernard Pratte,
was born in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., and was educated at
the Sulsipitian College, Montreal (Canada) ; and re-
turning to St. Louis, married Emilie I. Labadie, a
native of the town, and daughter of Sylvester Labadie
and Pelagic Chouteau. His father, Stephen F. Nide-
let, of French extraction and a native of San Domingo,
arrived in Philadelphia when but seven years old, and
ultimately became a member of the prominent silk
house of Chapman & Nidelet. While visiting St.
Louis he met and married on Aug. 12, 1826, Celeste i
E., daughter of the Gen. Pratte above mentioned. He
returned with his wife to Philadelphia, where, on the I
15th of January, 1834, James C. Nidelet was born. ;
Young Nidelet acquired his early education in Phil- i
adelphia, at the classical school of John D. Bryant, a
famous instructor in that city. In 1844 he was taken
by his parents to St. Louis, where his father spent
the rest of his life, dying in 1856, after having won
the respect of a large circle of friends. His widow
is yet living, a sprightly and well-preserved lady of
seventy-three years. In her day she was one of the
belles of St. Louis, and, despite the lapse of years,
her recollections of pioneer times are very distinct
and interesting.
James C. Nidelet attended the St. Louis University
for a year or two, and in 1847 and 1848 St. Mary's
College, Emmittsburg, Md. In 1849 he entered St.
Louis University again, and spent five years there,
but left in 1853 while on the point of graduating.
He then prepared for the Military Academy at West
Point, but failing to receive an appointment as cadet,
applied himself to the study of medicine. His first
tuition was obtained in the practical experience of a
drug store, and for three years he was employed in
the well-known houses of Bacon, Hyde & Co. and
1 Contributed by F. H. Burgess.
Barnard, Adams & Co. He then attended the St.
Louis Medical College, under Dr. C. A. Pope, and
the Missouri Medical College, under Dr. Joseph N.
McDowell. He graduated in 18(50, and began the
practice of medicine.
In December, 1861, he joined the Confederate
army, and served as chief surgeon under Gens. Price,
Maury, and Forney in the Army of East Tennessee
and Mississippi. During the last year of the war he
was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department.
His service embraced four years of desperate and
bloody warfare, and he was in every engagement in
which his army corps participated. Among the most
memorable of these conflicts may be mentioned those
attending the capture of Vicksburg, and the sanguin-
ary fields of Corinth, Big Black, luka, and the famous
retreat from Hatchie. During all this period of ex-
posure to the dangers and privations incident to the
war, Dr. Nidelet was never wounded and never lost
a day from sickness, his splendid constitution carry-
ing him safely through trials to which weaker natures
would have succumbed. He was always to be found
where the danger was greatest, and where there was
the greatest need of the prompt assistance of the
surgeon. His composure amid the storms of shot
and shell and the awful distractions of the battle-
field was proverbial, and repeatedly Avon the com-
mendation of his superiors.
Frequently, with the din of conflict raging about
him, he performed operations that would have made
many a hospital practitioner famous. His four years'
service in the war gave him a practically unlimited
experience in every branch of surgery, especially that
appertaining to the treatment of gunshot-wounds, and
in July, 1865, he returned to St. Louis rich in knowl-
edge of the surgeon's art but extremely poor in purse.
The " Drake Constitution," which was then in force,
forbade him to practice medicine, because he could
not take the oath, and at one time, while struggling
against adverse fortune, he was on the point of leaving
for the Pacific coast. During the winter of 1865-66,
however, he formed an engagement with his old Alma
Mater, the Missouri Medical College, and assisted in
gathering the scattered faculty together once more.
In the winter of 1866-67 the college was reopened,
and as Professor of Anatomy he was for four or five
years engaged in his favorite pursuit of teaching med-
icine. He had large classes, and contributed materi-
ally towards bringing the historic old institution into
popular favor again. He then engaged in the private
practice of medicine with distinguished success.
In 1875-76, Dr. Nidelet was appointed police com-
missioner, and for two of the four years of his term
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
1541
was vice-president of the board. He signalized his
administration by a determined effort to suppress the
lottery business, which then flourished without let or
hindrance in St. Louis, and such success crowned his
labors that more than fifty dealers were convicted and
fined. As a consequence he incurred the hostility of
the " lottery ring," and charges of corruption were
made against him. His indictment was sought at the
hands of several successive grand juries, but he was
accorded a most searching investigation, which resulted
in the utter failure of his enemies to make even a
plausible case of official misconduct against him.
The following estimate of Dr. Nidelet's standing as
a physician and surgeon is furnished by a gentleman
who has known him from a boy, was several years in-
timately associated with him, and is familiar with his
professional career.
" Dr. Nidelet is a good physician in every sense of
the word, being thoroughly and scientifically educated
for his profession. His success has been as great as
that of any practitioner of his years in St. Louis, and
he has a very large and growing patronage. His
judgment is accurate, and in the diagnosis of diseases
and the selection of suitable remedies he is distin-
guished. I cannot say that he has any specialty,
but he strikes me as being a fine specimen of the
symmetrically-developed doctor. His professional
standing is excellent, and he enjoys the respect of his
associates in the profession as a high-toned and hon-
orable man."
Dr. James M. Youngblood was born in Tennessee
on the 16th of December, 1833. He was reared in
Tennessee and Kentucky, and graduated at the St.
Louis Medical College, receiving also the ad eundem
degree from Dr. Joseph N. McDowell, of McDowell
College.
On the breaking out of the civil war Dr. Young-
blood was at heart and in feeling a Southern man,
but was opposed to secession and in favor of upholding
the government. Hence he sought a position iu
which he could do the most good on both sides. He
accordingly joined the army as a surgeon, and in 1863
was placed in charge of Gratiot Street prison, and
served in that capacity till 1864. In that year he
was sent South with Col. Thomas C. Fletcher's regi-
ment, the Forty-seventh Missouri, and arrived just
after the battle of Nashville. Dr. Youngblood was a
man of benevolent disposition and charitable to the
poor. When his death, which occurred Jan. 24,
1879, became known in the neighborhood, many poor
children and their parents called at the office of their
benefactor, manifesting regret for the loss of a dear
friend.
98
He married a daughter of Edward J. Xaupi, who
survived him, together with five children. A few
months before his death he was chosen a member of
the School Board.
On April 1, 1881, Dr. A. B. Nichols died at his
home in Sparta, Wis. Dr. Nichols was well known
in St. Louis, where he had many friends. He was
born in Northfield, Vt., in 1842. After traveling
about the country for some time he settled at Racine,
Wis., where he studied and made wonderful progress
in medicine. In 1862 he entered the army as an
aid to an assistant hospital surgeon. He attended to
hospital duties for about two years. Dr. Nichols was
present at the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, and his
skillful treatment, during and after the battle, of
wounded soldiers gained him favor with the surgeon-
general and many other high officers. In 1864 he
removed to Sparta and settled there, following his
profession until his death. Dr. Nichols left a wife
and one child, a son.
That the complaint of over-crowding in the medical
profession is no new thing is apparent from the fol-
lowing paragraphs, which appeared editorially in the
Missouri Medical and Surgical Journal of August,
1845:
"We have a list of the names of one hundred and forty-six
persons who are endeavoring to obtain a livelihood by the prac-
tice of the healing art in this city, which includes the homceop-
athists, Botanies, Thompsonians, etc. Of this number prob-
ably ninety or one hundred hold diplomas. With a population
of forty thousand, each would have two hundred and seventy-
four persons to attend upon, supposing the whole number to be
equally divided; but when we consider the fact that about one-
third of the number have a large practice, we are not surprised
that a large number are not able to collect enough to pay their
expenses, and the consequence is that many, after spending
'from one to three years and the means which they brought to
the city,' leave and settle in the smaller towns in the surround-
ing country. Some, who are favored by circumstances, hold
on, hoping that with the rapid growth of the city they will
finally obtain a lucrative practice; others, determined to be
employed, resort to whatever will obtain their ends, regardless
of proper respect for themselves or their profession, by giving
their professional services for little or nothing and a constant
endeavor to build themselves up by injuring the professional
reputation of their colleagues. Real merit never goes lopg
unrequited, and it is an acknowledgment of weakness for any
one to slander the whole profession because forsooth he has not
sufficient merit to retain a lucrative practice.
"While the facilities for obtaining a medical education in
St. Louis are not surpassed by those of any city in the West,
and the city in its rapid strides to greatness has anything but
a sickly appearance, it cannot rationally be supposed that ita
inhabitants are bound to sustain all the ambitious of the pro-
fession who prefer to practice in the West ; nevertheless they are
always glad to rent them offices."
Medical Societies. There are a number of med-
ical societies in St. Louis, which will be noticed in.
the order in which they were organized. Those of
1542
HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
the regular school of medicine are the St. Louis
Medical Society, the German Medical Society, the St.
Louis Medico-Chirurgical Society, the St. Louis Ob-
stetrical and Gynecological Society, the Beaumont
Medical Club, and the Scientific Association of Ger-
man Physicians.
ST. Louis MEDICAL SOCIETY. In 1836 a med-
ical society was organized, which was incorporated by
a special act of the Legislature Jan. 25, 1837, under
the name of the Medical Society of the State of Mis-
souri. For some years its meetings were held
monthly from May to November and semi-monthly
from November to May, but after 1846 it virtually
suspended. In 1850 a new organization was formed,
which, under the name of the St. Louis Medical So-
ciety, has done a good deal of valuable work and
wielded a large influence. Its first officers were B.
G. Farrar, M.D., president; Hardage Lane, M.D.,
vice-president; B. B. Brown, M.D., recording secre-
tary ; J. B. Johnson, M.D., corresponding secretary ;
Y. D. Boiling, M.D., treasurer. The presidents sinco
its first organization to the present time have been
the following: B. G. Farrar, M.D., in the years
1836 and 1837; Hardage Lane, M.D., in 1838,
'39, '43; Meredith Martin, M.D., in 1840, '42, '45,
'65; William Beaumont, M.D., 1841; Stephen W.
Adreon, M.D., 1844 ; Josephus W. Hall, M.D., 1846 ;
R. P. Simmons, M.D., 1850; David Prince, M.D.,
1851 ; George Engelmann, M.D., 1852 ; John
Barnes, M.D., 1853; Thomas Reyburn, M.D.,
1854. '57 ; John S. Moore, M.D., 1855 ; William
M. McPheeters, M.D., 1856 ; E. H. McGintie, M.D.,
1858; M. L. Lenton, M.D., 1859; S. T. Newman,
M.D., 1860 ; M. M. Fallen, M.D., 1861 ; J. S. B.
Alleyne, M.D., 1864; William Johnston, M.D.,
1866; A. Hammer, M.D., 1867; Edward Mont-
gomery, M.D., 1868 ; John H. Walters, M.D., 1869 ;
John T. Hodgen, M.D., 1870 ; E. H. Gregory, M.D.,
1871 ; E. F. Smith, M.D., 1872; Francis G. Porter,
M.D., 1873; G. Hunt, M.D., 1874; J. M. Scott,
M.D., 1875; G. M. B. Maughs, M.D., 1876; T. F.
Prewitt, M.D., 1877; Thomas Kennard, M.D.,
1878 ; L. Ch. Boisliniere. M.D., 1879 ; H. H. Mudd,
M.D., 1881; William Dickinson, M.D., 1882; and
William L. Barret, M.D., 1883.
It is a somewhat remarkable fact that two of the
greatest men in the profession that the medical society
has numbered among its members never occupied
the president's chair, viz. : Dr. Joseph N. McDowell
and Dr. Charles A. Pope, the former being a skilled
surgeon and the founder and for thirty years the
dean of the first medical college established west of
the Mississippi River, the latter a most skillful and
expert surgeon and for nearly thirty years Professor
of Surgery in the St. Louis Medical College.
The St. Louis Medical Society, like all such or-
ganizations, has had its times of special interest and
profit and its periods of depression and little value.
At times its meetings have been fully attended, papers
of interest and scientific value have been presented,
and discussions have taken place which attracted
the attention of physicians throughout this section of
country. At other times its halls have been the
scene of heated and bitter wrangling, mutual recrimi-
nation, charges and counter-charges of professional
discourtesy or of unprofessional conduct. On one or
two occasions the bitter animosities and differences of
opinion growing out of personal antagonism between
members have nearly wrecked the society ; but the
faithful work of some loyal members has kept it alive,
and it still continues to be a valuable and profitable
organization. Its meetings have been regularly held
on Saturday evening of every week.
For a number of years in the early history of the St.
Louis Medicaland SurgicalJournal, abstract reports of
the meetings of the Medical Society were published in
that journal. For several years now full reports, taken
by a short-hand reporter and revised by a committee on
publication, have formed a considerable and valuable
part of the Journal's contents. The meetings of the
society were held in 1835 in Masonic Hall, in 1850
at Westminster Church, afterwards in a hall at the
corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets, then in the
commercial school, then for a time in the office of
Drs. Jordan and Shumard. When the Academy of
Science had its building at Seventh and Myrtle Streets,
adjoining the St. Louis Medical College, the building
erected by Col. O'Fallon, the Medical Society held its
sessions in the Academy Hall. After the burning of
that building, arrangements were soon made by which
the society meetings have been held at the Polytechnic
Building, at Seventh and Chestnut Streets, in a room
well adapted for the purpose. One valuable feature
of the society is the arrangement made some years
ago with the Public School Library, by which the
society turns over to the library the membership fees
of three dollars per annum for four years, thus se-
curing to the members not only the usual privileges of
membership during that time, but also a life-member-
ship ticket after that time, the library agreeing to
expend all money so received for medical publications
under the direction of the library committee of the
Medical Society.
Any reputable regular practitioner resident in the
city of St. Louis is eligible for membership in this
society. Application for membership may be made
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
1543
in writing by the party seeking admission, or verbally
by some member. The application is referred to the
committee on elections, to whom must be exhibited
the diploma of the applicant. A favorable report of
this committee is equivalent to an election, although
formally a favorable vote of three- fourths of the mem-
bers present is necessary in order to constitute an ap-
plicant a member. An admission fee of five dollars
is required, and a payment of dues to the amount of
three dollars each year thereafter. The present mem-
bership of the society is not far from one hundred
and seventy-five.
The officers of the society for 1883 are : President,
William L. Barret, M.D. ; Vice-President, G. F. Dud-
ley, M.D. ; Recording Secretary, A. H. Ohmann-
Dumesnil, M.D. ; Corresponding Secretary, Garland
Hurt, M.D. ; Treasurer, W. E. Fischel, M.D.