The building is situated on Jefferson Avenue, at the
head of O'Fallon Street, and is a fine edifice, capable of
accommodating one hundred and sixty patients. It
was scarcely opened when the civil war broke out.
Soldiers wounded at the memorable capture of Camp
Jackson, and many patients from the military camps,
who at that time could not be accommodated in the
military hospitals, were admitted. In the fall of
1861 arrangements were made to care for a larger
number of patients from the army for a reasonable
compensation from the government. Afterwards the
board of directors rented the building to the United
States government for use as a military hospital for
two years.
The hospital was originally intended for a charita-
ble institution, and during the lifetime of Mr. Nollau
this idea was carried out as far as practicable, but
there being no permanent endowment for its support,
it is now maintained in part by patients paying when
they have the means, only a limited number being
treated gratuitously. Mr. Nollau, the founder, died
Feb. 6, 1869.
Besides the two physicians mentioned as having
been connected with the institution since its organi-
zation, Drs. Helmuth, Walker, Luyties, Gundelach,
Franklin, Parsons, Campbell, and others have served
at different periods as medical attendants. The hos-
pital has a number of well-arranged rooms, where
private patients may be treated in accordance with
any practice and by physicians of their own selec-
tion.
THE ST. Louis HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY
was organized in 1864, and was opened in March,
1865, with the following officers, viz.: Dr. C. W.
Spalding, president; Mrs. Dr. William Tod Hel-
muth, treasurer; and Dr. E. C. Franklin, secretary.
The board of trustees consisted of Drs. C. W. Spald-
ing, E. C. Franklin, and T. J. Vastine, Mrs. T. G.
Comstock, Mrs. W. T. Helmuth, Mrs. G-. S. Walker,
and Mrs. John T. Temple. A charter of incorpora-
tion was procured from the Circuit Court in March,
1866, and a constitution and by-laws were adopted
during the same month. Dr. S. B. Parsons was ap-
pointed attending physician for the first year. In
1868, Dr. E. C. Franklin was appointed to the entire
charge of the dispensary, the duties of which position
he faithfully performed for a number of years. The
dispensary has been carried on in the building of the
Homoeopathic Medical College of Missouri, and large
numbers have been treated daily by the different
members of the faculty. At this free dispensary,
during the college term, clinics are held daily, and
patients are examined and prescribed for before the
classes.
THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL was organized by cer-
tain benevolent ladies and gentlemen of St. Louis,
with Dr. W. A. Edmonds at the head of the medical
department.
HOMOEOPATHIC SOCIETIES. There are two organi-
zations of homoeopathic physicians in St. Louis which
are specially worthy of mention, the Hahnemann
Club and the St. Louis Society of Homoeopathic Phy-
sicians and Surgeons. The former is intended for
social as well as literary purposes. The latter, which
is composed of physicians in the city and vicinity,
elects its officers quarterly, except the secretary, who
is elected annually. The present secretary is Dr. W.
B. Morgan.
Of works by homoeopathic practitioners we find the
following from the pens of St. Louis physicians :
Helps to Hear. By James A. Campbell, M.D. 12mo, pp.
108. Chicago : Duncan & Brothers, 1882.
Diseases of Infants and Children. By W. A. Edmonds,
M.D., etc. 8vo, pp. 293. New York : Boericke & Tafel, 1881.
Richardson's Obstetrics. By William C. Richardson, M.D.
Diseases of the Brain and Nervous System. By J. M.
Kershaw, M.D.
A Complete Minor Surgery, the Practitioner's Vade-Mecum,
including a Treatise on Venereal Diseases. By E. C. Frank-
lin, M.D., 1882.
The St. Louis Clinical Review is the principal
homoeopathic journal of the city, edited by Dr. Philo
G-. Valentine. 1
The Eclectic School of Medicine. 2 Eclecticism
as a distinctive branch of medical practice may be
said to have first presented itself for public recognition
in St. Louis with the incorporation of the American
Medical College of St. Louis in May, 1873. The
first session of the college was held in the fall of that
year and the spring of 1874. The following gentle-
men compose its board of trustees : J. S. Merrell,
president; N. C. Hudson, vice-president; Dr. P. D.
Yost, secretary ; Dr. E. Younkin, treasurer ; Dr. Al-
bert Merrell, A. Sumner, Dr. W. V. Rutledge, Dr.
John W. Thraillkill, Dr. George C. Pitzer, Dr. W.
W. Houser, and B. H/Dye, B.L. The faculty con-
sists of the following members : George C. Pitzer,
M.D., dean, Professor of Theory and Practice of
Medicine, and Clinical Lecturer at City Hospital and
the College; Albert Merrell, M.D., Professor of
Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Toxicology, and Clinical
1 The writer of the foregoing outline of homoeopathy in St.
Louis is largely indebted to Vol. II. of "Transactions of the
World's Homceopathic Convention of 1876" for facts, as well as
to various individuals for information furnished.
2 The material for this sketch was furnished by Dr. A. B.
Merrell.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
1567
Lecturer on Diseases of Children at the College ; P.
D. Yost, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases
of Women and Children, and Clinical Lecturer on
Diseases of Women at the College ; E. Younkin,
M.D., Professor of Principles and Practice of Sur-
gery and Clinical Surgery, and Clinical Lecturer on
surgical cases at City Hospital and at the College ; W.
V. Rutledge, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica and
Therapeutics; T. B. Owens, M.D., Professor of
Anatomy and Physiology ; John W. Thraillkill,
M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Otology, and
Clinical Lecturer on Ophthalmic and Aural Surgery ;
J. H. Wright, M.D., Professor of Microscopy and
Histology ; B. H. Dye, B.L., Professor of Medical
Jurisprudence.
Professor Thraillkill came to the city in 1861, and
has enjoyed a lucrative practice up to within a year,
when failing health compelled his retirement from
active professional life. Professor Rutledge came to
the city in 1868, and has been in active practice ever
since. Professor Merrell moved to St. Louis from
Cincinnati in 1871, and Professor Yost came at the
time the college started. These gentlemen have been
identified with the college since its foundation, and
Professors Pitzer and Younkin joined them shortly
after the first course of lectures.
The American Medical College has enjoyed uninter-
rupted prosperity since its foundation, and its gradu-
ates now number but a few less than three hundred
and fifty. The college was first located on the south-
east corner of Olive and Seventh Streets, afterwards at
913 Pine Street, and now occupies a building erected
by the faculty expressly for the purpose at 310 North
Eleventh Street in 1878, the corner-stone having been
laid July 15, 1878.
Among the practitioners of the eclectic school, Dr.
John W. Thraillkill published in 1869 a small volume
entitled " Essay on the Causes of Infant Mortality ;"
and Dr. George C. Pitzer published last year one on
" Electricity in Medicine and Surgery."
The Dental Profession. 1 The early history of the
dental profession in St. Louis is involved in consider-
able obscurity. From the very nature of the calling,
especially when St. Louis was in its infancy, it at-
tracted but little public attention. The profession
itself was only in embryo ; the individual members of
which it was finally composed were only slowly gravi-
tating towards each other, and had not as yet felt the
effects of organization and associated action. But
the spirit of inquiry had taken strong hold of the in-
1 This sketch of the dental profession of St. Louis was pre-
pared by Dr. Homer Judd, of Upper Alton, 111.
dividual members, and where societies and associa-
tions had been formed for mutual consultation and
improvement they were stimulated to new exertions
in the direction of dental progress. The enthusiasm
of the leading members of the new profession knew
no bounds. No specialty of the healing art had
more earnest or more able seekers after truth in its
ranks than this.
The earliest regular practitioner of whom any
record remains is Dr. Paul, who published the follow-
! ing card in the Missouri Gazette of Dec. 21, 1809:
" A well-bred surgeon dentist, Dr. Paul, has the
honor of informing his friends in particular, and the
public in general, that he is prepared to practice in
all the branches belonging to his profession, viz., ex-
tracting, cleaning, plugging, and strengthening the
teeth, also making artificial ones."
On the 28th of December, 1830, Dr. D. T. Evans
informed " the citizens of St. Louis and its vicinity
that he has established himself in this place for the
purpose of devoting himself to the practice of dental
surgery."
When Dr. Isaiah Forbes settled in St. Louis in
1837 there were ten dentists in the city, including
Dr. Forbes. Most of these, however, seem to have
been transient practitioners, as the next year found
them all gone but three, Dr. Forbes, Dr. Edward
Hale, Sr., and Dr. B. B. Brown. Drs. Hale and
Brown both remained long enough to build up lucra-
tive practices. These three dentists were the only
ones who achieved any considerable degree of success
in the next seven years, and in them the dental fra-
ternity were well represented. Affable and courteous
in their deportment, skillful in all that pertained to
dental operations, and warmly attached to the calling
which they had chosen, they exerted a benign influ-
ence upon the future of the profession, which has
reached down to this day. Dr. Brown left for Cali-
fornia in 1849, during the gold mania, and died in
Sacramento about 1875. Dr. Hale became known as
one of the best practitioners in the Mississippi valley,
and remained in practice till about 1864, when failing
health compelled him to give up his profession, and a few
years afterwards he died in New Jersey. About 1840
Dr. A. M. Leslie located in St. Louis. Although a
dentist, he had also been trained as a gold-beater, and
he soon turned his attention to making gold foil. Not
long afterwards he established a dental depot, having
purchased a small stock of goods in the dental line
which had been sent out to St. Louis from Troy, N. Y.
That was the beginning of the extensive establishment
long known in the entire West as A. M. Leslie &
Co.'s Dental and Surgical Depot, which has but re-
1568
HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
cently been transferred to the St. Louis Dental Man-
ufacturing Company. Alexander Heburn established
a dental depot in St. Louis in 1877 or 1878, and the
St. Louis Dental Manufacturing Company has the
consolidated stocks of the two former companies,
making one of the largest dental establishments in
the West. Between 1840 and 1845 the number of
dentists in the city was increased by the arrival of
Drs. Aaron Blake, Isaac Comstock, J. S. Clark, and
Edgerly, and in the next few years Dr. Potts, Dr.
Samuel B. Fithian, Dr. H. J. McKellops, Dr. C.
W. Spalding, and a little later Dr. H. E. Peebles
and Dr. Dunham. Many others in the mean time
had made more or less persistent efforts to establish
themselves, but failing to meet with sufficient encour-
agement sought other fields of labor. Drs. Potts,
Blake, Comstock, Peebles, Edgerly, Dunham, Barron,
and Clark have all passed away, while Drs. McKellops,
Spalding, and Forbes are still practicing their profes-
sion in St. Louis. These were for the most part men
of sterling worth, and it was to a great extent through
their efforts, and especially through their liberal and
enlightened views as regards the amenities and re-
sponsibilities of professional life, that the St. Louis
dentists canae to be held in so high repute among
their confreres in the profession throughout the United
States. Among them, Dr. John S. Clark was some-
what prominent in the advocacy of new methods of
practice. If not the first who made use of rolled
cylinders of gold foil for filling teeth, he was certainly
entitled to the credit of bringing the new method into
general use and carrying it up to a high degree of
perfection, but he conferred a much greater boon upon
the profession by his investigations in relation to the
treatment of teeth with dead pulps. He claimed that
he first made use of barbed broaches for the removal
of dead and decaying pulps, and for carrying disin-
fecting agents into the pulp canals, thus preparing
them for being filled in such manner as to avoid sub-
sequent inflammation and formation of alveolar ab-
scess. Dr. Clark spent several years in New Orleans,
where he published a dental journal, but subsequently
returned to St. Louis, where he died in 1866. Dr.
Forbes is at this time the oldest practitioner in the
city, having been identified with nearly all of the
beneficent and progressive efforts of the profession for
forty-six years. He had constructed, upon plans fur-
nished by himself, a dental chair in 1838, which is
still in existence, and which shows unmistaken evi-
dences of constructive ability, and adaptation to the
purposes for which it was intended. It is now in
possession of Dr. Fisher, on Washington Avenue.
Dr. C. W. Spalding reached St. Louis April 4,
1849. He was an earnest advocate of the use of
cylinders in filling teeth, and had for a long time a
lucrative practice ; was for several years a professor in
the Ohio College of Dental Surgeons at Cincinnati,
and was president for one year of the American
Dental Association during its early history.
Dr. McKellops was energetic and tireless in his
efforts to attain a high position as an operator, and at
an early period of his professional career acquired an
enviable reputation among his St. Louis associates,
which gradually extended throughout the United
States.
He has been for many years an active member of
the American Association, of which he has been
elected president. Although Dr. McKellops was
closely associated with the group which has just been
considered, he is no less closely identified with the
next group, which comprises the active members of
which the profession is now composed.
The period from 1840 to 1865 was one during
which were wrought many changes of the most vital
character in the dental profession, and in no other
place were these changes more marked than in St.
Louis. Before the commencement of this period
dentists were to a great extent unassociated, and, as
an almost necessary consequence, selfish and reticent,
each one claiming that he was in possession of the
knowledge which enabled him to perform many im-
portant operations which others could not perform.
Operating-rooms and laboratories were closed with the
most sedulous care against all intruders, lest some less
enlightened practitioner should avail himself of the
opportunity of inspecting instruments, and perhaps
also gain some knowledge of methods of manipu-
lation, and thus become more formidable as a com-
petitor in business.
The St. Louis dentists, almost to a man, discarded
these narrow and unprofessional views, and no body
of practitioners in any country exerted a greater in-
fluence in bringing about those radical changes which
resulted in a complete revolution in sentiment and
practice throughout the whole profession. Organ-
ization into associations, thereby bringing the mem-
bers into closer relationship with one another, aided
these beneficent movements, and the formation in
1850 of the St. Louis Dental Society was an impor-
tant step in the development of the profession.
This society was organized with Dr. Dunham as
presiding officer, and has ever since numbered among
! its members the leading practitioners of the city. In
1858 the American Dented Review was established
j by A. M. Leslie, and was edited by C. W. Spalding,
Isaiah Forbes, and Henry E. Peebles. The Review
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
1569
was at first a quarterly, and did good work until 1863.
It was conducted with ability, and exerted a powerful
influence for good upon the mass of the profession.
For about a quarter of a century the standing of the
dental fraternity was determined by those who have
been already mentioned, but about 1865 the influence
of a younger class of practitioners began to be felt,
which has steadily increased as the years have passed
by. Of these some have attained a degree of ex-
cellence and skill in their operations which cannot be
surpassed by any other operators wherever found, and
although the number of those who have reached the
goal which is nearest to perfection is small, it is not
relatively smaller than in the most favored cities of
this or any other country. At the commencement of
this epoch in the history of the profession, or shortly
afterwards, societies of dentists had been formed in
nearly all of the States and cities in the Union, the
members of which met at stated periods, when every
practitioner freely imparted what he had gained by
experience and observation to his fellow-members, in
the true spirit of professional fraternity. The St.
Louis dentists took an active part not only in the city
and State societies, but also in the American Associ-
ation, the Western and Mississippi valley societies,
and the State associations of the neighboring States.
The Missouri State Association was organized in
1865 in St. Louis, principally through the efforts of
St. Louis dentists, and it is still wielding a great in-
fluence for good upon the profession through the
State.
The Missouri Dental College, of St. Louis, was
organized in July, 1866, chartered the following
month, and reincorporated April 21, 1881. The pres-
ent officers are H. H. Mudd, president ; A. H. Ful-
ler, secretary; Gr. Baumgarten, treasurer. The loca-
tion of the college .is on the northeast corner of
Seventh and Myrtle Streets, in the building of the
St. Louis Medical College, and the infirmary is situ-
ated on the adjoining lots on Myrtle Street. The plan
of organization in this school differed somewhat from
that of other dental schools in that it was more closely
connected with the medical system of education, the
students being required to take the regular medical
course of the St. Louis Medical College, so far as the
chairs of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, materia
medica, and surgery were concerned, while the peculiar
training which was necessary to fit them for the special
practice of dentistry was furnished by a corps of pro-
fessors and demonstrators who were dental practi-
tioners.
The dental school, however, was a separate organiza-
tion, and managed its own business concerns, the occu-
pants of the medical chairs named above being also mem-
bers of the dental faculty. The theory upon which
the school was founded was that the proper basis of a
dental education was the same as of a medical educa-
tion ; that a knowledge of anatomy, physiology, chem-
istry, materia medica, and surgery was necessary in
both ; that the best possible opportunity for obtaining
a knowledge of these branches was found in a medical
school, and that the special instruction should com-
mence where the divergence from the courses in general
medicine took place which led to the studies that were
required by the special dental practitioner. The impor-
tance of this " new departure" will be more clearly ap-
preciated when we turn for a moment to the history
of the dental schools which have been subsequently
established.
A few years after the Missouri School had com-
menced its operations, the Harvard Dental School
was established upon a similar basis in connection
with the Medical Department of Harvard University,
another essentially upon the same principle at Ann
Arbor in connection with the Medical Department of
Michigan University, and soon another connected
with the Medical Department of the University of
Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, besides schools con-
nected with medical colleges and essentially upon the
same plan established at Indianapolis, Iowa City,
Kansas City, Chicago, and San Francisco. Since
then a majority of the dental colleges in this country
have followed to a greater or less extent the example
set them by the Missouri Dental College. The high
prices charged for admission to the Missouri School,
together with the rigid examinations to which stu-
dents are subjected before they can obtain a degree,
are not favorable to the production of large classes,
but no school has turned out a larger proportion of
good operators or more judicious practitioners than
this. The first faculty of the Missouri Dental College
was made up of the incumbents of the five chairs of
the St. Louis Medical College mentioned before,
while the three special chairs were filled by Drs.
Henry E. Peebles and William H. Eames, and Dr.
Homer Judd, who was also dean of the faculty.
The first president of the college was Dr. Isaiah
Forbes, who filled that position for fifteen years. His
successor, the present incumbent, is H. H. Mudd,
M.D. The present dean is H. H. Mudd, M.D. The
first secretary was Frank White, M.D. ; the present
secretary and treasurer have already been named.
The faculty is constituted as follows : Isaiah Forbes,
D.D.S., Emeritus Professor o.f Institutes of Dental
Science ; A. Litton, M.D., Professor of Chemistry and
Pharmacy ; J. S. B. Alleyne, M.D., Professor of Ther-
1570
HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
apeutics and Materia Mcdiea ; G. Baumgarten, M.D.,
Professor of Physiology ; H. H. Mudd, M.D., Pro-
fessor of Anatomy; W. H. Eames, D.D.S., Professor
of Institutes of Dental Science; A. H. Fuller, M.D.,
D.D.S., Professor of Operative Dentistry ; W. N. Mor-
rison, D.D.S., Professor of Mechanical Dentistry; J.
G. Harper, D.D.S., Demonstrator of Operative Den- ;
tistry; C. Mathiason, D.D.S., Demonstrator of Me- ;
chanical Dentistry ; J. Friedman, M.D., Demonstrator
of Chemistry ; H. H. Mudd, M.D., Demonstrator of
Anatomy.
The new infirmary erected one year ago, in con-
nection with the dispensary of the medical college, i
affords every facility for practical laboratory work;
and a dental clinic has been organized, which has
already become a valuable means of instruction, be-
sides affording relief to a large number of charity
patients.
The curriculum is so arranged that the dental stu-
dent can, by the study of a few additional subjects,
put himself in a position to enter, at the completion
of his dental course, the third or senior class of the
St. Louis Medical College, and eventually obtain the
degree of Doctor of Medicine by one additional year's
work.
In 1869 the Missouri Dental Journal made its first
appearance. It differed somewhat from other dental
journals in that each number was divided into three
separate departments, each one of which was under
the supervision of one or more members of the edi-
torial corps. It was hoped that by this method each
department would receive adequate attention, and
that none would be neglected, as had too often been
the case with the older journals. The success of the
Missouri Dental Journal in finding favor with the
profession was demonstrated by the rapid increase in
the number of its subscribers, as in a few years its
patrons were found in nearly every State in the Union,
as well as in South America, Europe, Asia, and else-
where. The Journal was edited by Dr. Homer Judd,
assisted in the operative department by Drs. Henry
S. Chase and Edgar Park, and by William H. Eames
and William N. Morrison in the mechanical depart-
ment.
Most prominent as an inventor of useful imple-
ments in the profession of St. Louis stands the name of
Dr. James Morrison, the senior member of the former
firm of Morrison Brothers. After practicing a few
years in St. Louis, he turned his attention to the con-
struction of dental chairs and other dental appliances.
He went to England, where he remained six years,
during which time he invented and patented a dental
chair, which was admirably adapted to meet the wants
of the dental practitioner. He then returned to St.
Louis, and from 1869 to 1873 was engaged in con-
structing an iron chair, for which it is claimed that it
has the greatest range of motions of any chair brought
out before or since, and which is now in very general
use. His next effort was to construct a dental engine,
by means of which a rotary motion could be conveyed
to a variety of instruments from a fixed lathe,
making use of a flexible shafting and jointed arm,
with belts and pulleys, in order to enable the operator
to use the engine in his operations within the mouth.