vent the scourge from reaching his neighbors and friends. So
thoroughly was this mission performed, so minutely were his
observations recorded, and the horror of the situation so
vividly impressed upon the city authorities of Boston, that they
did not dare to publish the whole report lest the community be
further alarmed. If Jacob Bigelow never did any other ser-
vice for his state and city he deserves well for this work.
EMINENT ALUMNI 713
In 1833 Bigelow went to Europe, and in a curious printed
circular to his patients he gives some idea of the extent and
range of his practice, for he mentions four physicians upon
whom his patients were to depend during his five months' ab-
sence. With that his autobiography ends.
In 1835 Bigelow gave to the world, through the "Com-
munications of the Massachusetts Medical Society," his strik-
ing views on " Self-limited Diseases." The time was oppor-
tune, the public mind was receptive. Unsound and unscien-
tific doctrines were already attracting well-meaning but mis-
guided seekers for better things. In one brief treatise a pow-
erful mind forced the truth home to all who would listen.
Heroic treatment, blood letting, polypharmacy, were no longer
to hold sway. The young philosopher, who keenly extracted
what was true from the medical lectures during his senior
year at Cambridge, had now reached that age and position
when men must regard his opinions, and they did. Perhaps
no other treatise has ever had such an influence on medical
practice. It is a simple lesson, the old vis medico tri.v naturae.
That was a radical doctrine to advocate, but Bigelow was con-
vinced that it was the truth. He believed no channel of in-
formation too narrow, no season inopportune, no audience too
commonplace nor too scientific, to be used for the promulga-
tion of truth. With this reform his name must always be as-
sociated. Others quickly took up his teaching, and in the
space of a few years we find the law firmly fixed.
In an address to the medical students in 1844 on " The
Medical Profession and Quackery," Bigelow pointed oul in a
calm, dispassionate, uncontrovertible manner the errors of
Homoeopathy, as well as the limitations and inexactness of
much of medical science as then understood. The address in-
vited attacks both from within and without the regular pro-
fession. Bigelow's opinions prevailed.
As President of the American Academy of Arts and Sci-
714 HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
ences, as an active member in the National and State Medical
Societies, as a lucid, frequent writer in scientific, literary and
lay journals, Bigelow covered such a wide and varied domain
that the review of his contributions would carry us beyond the
limits of this sketch. There is one paper of his, however, which
calls for special mention, namely, his address on the " Limits of
Education," delivered at the dedication of a new hall for the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on November 16, 1865.
Thirteen years before this date, Bigelow had delivered an ad-
dress on medical education which plainly pointed out for tech-
nical teaching the reforms which were subsequently inaugurated
at Harvard (1872). In this prophetic address he shows the
evils and shortcomings of the existing system, and wisely in-
dicates the way to better things. The usefulness of didactic
lectures ; laboratory investigation and research ; the grouping
of students into small sections; and the line of demarcation
between exact sciences and speculative sciences, are all defined
in a way that seems very modern today. This proposition is
published with his " Self-limited Diseases " in a little volume,
together with many medical and general essays, under the title,
" Nature in Disease, and Other Writings," 1854.
Then came his last great public address, Limits of Educa-
tion. In his two- previous reforms we see him combating the
prejudice and apprehensions of those who saw in the removal
of the dead to a place remote and alone, little less than a sacri-
lege; and in his "Self-limited Diseases" the fixed traditions
of almost every writer of note and authority. All his learn-
ing, all his force of language, all his observations and deduc-
tions of nearly four-score years, were concentrated in one
utilitarian revolution whereby education was to be made con-
ducive " to the progress, the efficiency, the virtue, and the
welfare of man." Nothing could have been more typical of
the best Harvard spirit. Nothing could more clearly demon-
strate her ideals that she trains men to individuality. No
EMINENT ALUMNI 715
quoted extracts could do justice to the broad, rich, luxuriant
scholarly culture brought out in that memorable discussion.
After a lapse of nearly half a century many of the principles
sustained are the foundation, and often the whole superstruc-
ture, of modern educational principles and teaching. Let us
fancy that venerable sage, too old to meet his antagonists upon
the Academy floor where he had won so many victories, gath-
ering them within his own parlors, and there defending the
axioms he had so publicly expounded the year before. In
summary : Bigelow's contention was " whether education is
to be regarded as a privileged boon restricted to the few, or is
to be offered freely to the many. If it is to be offered to the
many, then there must be an extension of the terms and con-
ditions which have entered into the definition of education,
and assign the means and the honors of it only to those who
had attained such learning as the mass of pupils cannot now
acquire, and could not profitably use where there is such need
of quite other kinds of knowledge and skill." There was no
trace there of failing mental power; no voice from the past
crying out against the neglect of the old. He was as modern,
as progressive, as far ahead of his time, as when he first came
into our story nearly three-quarters of a century before. Lecky
dissented ; Lyell, Huxley, Spencer and others agreed.
Whether or not it was a case of post hoc, propter hoc, the
elective system in higher educational curricula expanded
broadly.
Many interesting things are told by Bigelow's biographer
of the years following the old man's retirement from active
professional life. In the closing five years, totally blind and
bedridden, he retained a mind so serene, so happy, so resource-
ful, that every visitor came away with some new and valua-
ble treasure from that intellectual store house. Who of us
at the end of life would not be cheered by such a let tor as
this :
716 HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
" Boston, Feb. 27, 1876.
" Dear Dr. Bigelow : We the undersigned, physicians of Boston and its
vicinity, desire on this anniversary of your birthday to join with your
intimate circle of friends, in respectful remembrance of the occasion.
' Though for many years prevented by your infirmity from meeting with
us, we all remember you with pride as one of the ornaments of our pro-
fession, and as a leader of medical thought in New England for the last
half century. Very many of us recollect you as a teacher and able
instructor in the Medical School and at the Hospital. Those of us who,
in past days, have met with you in professional life, still hold grateful
memories of your unwavering courtesy and kindness to us personally,
and your honorable deportment as Senior Consulting Physician.
" One and all of us, therefore, dear Dr. Bigelow, on this pleasant
anniversary, wish to send to you our congratulations on the fact that,
although deprived of sight and unable freely to move, you have not
suffered much pain during your long confinement; that you still enjoy
a free communion with friends, and that, while looking at past and
present events with pleasure, you can still judge of them with the clear
intellect of former days.
" That the remainder of your life may have the same peaceful accom-
paniments, so grateful not only to yourself, but to the many friends
who watch around you in your more immediate family, is the sincere
hope Of it X r r .,, r „ „
lours very faithfully.
Dr. Bigelow died on January 10th, 1879, nearly ninety-two
years old.
JOSEPH LOVELL.
Joseph Lovell, the first Surgeon General of the United
States Army, was horn in Boston, on December 22nd, 1788.
His grandfather Lovell was a leading member of the " Sons
of Liberty," and was taken to Halifax as a hostage by the
British in 1776, when they evacuated Boston. Upon his return
the elder Lovell served in the Continental Congress, and was
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. His son,
James S. Lovell, married Deborah Gorham, " a noted Boston
belle," and to this couple was born Joseph, the subject of this
memoir.
After a preliminary education in the schools of Boston, Jo-
JOSEPH LOVELL.
A. H. 1807; A. M. (Hon.) 1818; M. D. ISI
EMINENT ALUMNI 717
seph Lovell entered Harvard College and was graduated in
1807. He began immediately the study of medicine with
Ingalls, in Boston, and in 181 1 was graduated at the Harvard
Medical School, a member of the first class which received the
degree M. D. from Harvard.* He volunteered May 15th,
18 1 2, as Surgeon in the 9th Infantry, and was put in charge
of the general hospital at Burlington, Vermont, established for
the troops moving towards the frontier in the War of 181 2.
The appointment of a physician not yet twenty-four years of
age to such an important post indicates the state of the Medi-
cal Department of the Army at the beginning of hostilities.
The experience of the Revolution had been forgotten; the
greater number of those surgeons who had served in that war,
men whose experience would now have been of value, were
either dead or superannuated. There were no records of the
medical officers preserved, and, with no executive head and
no organization at hand, the Medical Department was in a
bad way when the army assembled at Greenbush, New York
in 18 12. James Mann,§ of Massachusetts, who had just been
appointed Hospital Surgeon to superintend the Medical De-
partment for this Northern Army, thus describes the situa-
tion :
' The mere organization of hospitals was the least perplexing part of
duly. The illy defined powers with which the hospital surgeons were
invested, even in their own department, subjected them to many disagree-
able interferences of the officers of the line. Collisions will always exist
between officers of different departments of an army, when their several
powers and duties are not explicitly pointed out. Officers tenaceous of
authority, assume as much as may be implied by rules and regulations.
In addition to multiplied embarrassments, the various duties attached
to the office of hospital surgeon with those merely professional, was
always so pressing, thai little time was allowed to record particularly
the diseases and medical transactions of the army, as they occurred."
* Prior to l8ll the degree given was M. B.
§ Graduated A. 15. Harvard, 1776.
718 HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
Young Lovell showed executive ability from the start; his
hospital became known as the model hospital ; his capacity
soon attracted the attention of General Wilkinson, and later
in the northern frontier campaign secured for Lovell the en-
dorsement of Generals Scott and Brown. A report on the
Burlington Hospital says : "The following regulations were
adopted in the General Hospital at Burlington, where in no
instance from its first establishment, even when monthly re-
ports counted from six to nine hundred men, was an infectious
disease generated or propagated." Among the regulations in-
stituted by Lovell were: frequent washing of walls and floors,
daily sanding of the floors, frequent and generous supply of
fresh air to every room and ward ; "no person was permitted
to spit on the floors of the wards. Spit-boxes were furnished
every bed, and filled with sand twice a clay, sometimes oft-
ener;" the soldiers suffering from infectious and contagious
diseases were separated from the other sick, and surgical cases
were not allowed in the some rooms with febrile cases ; vene-
real and skin diseases were given a separate ward.
After the battle of Bridgewater* it was thought advisable
to transfer eleven hundred patients from Buffalo to Williams-
ville. where a General Hospital was established with Lovell
and two other surgeons in charge. Lovell had been made full
Hospital Surgeon, June 30th, 1814. Mann wrote under date
of February 14th, 1814, "Surgeons and Mates of regiments
under existing discouragements have no inducements to con-
tinue long in service. Curiosity alone, will induce them to
sacrifice the term of one year in service. This being gratified
its exciting powers lose their effects."
In December. 1814, the duties of medical officers in the
army were defined for the first time by a general order from
the War office. Then came peace with its heterogeneous,
*July 25th. 1814.
EMINENT ALUMNI 719
"patch-work kind of" legislation, all of which was as detri-
mental to better discipline as it was to the health of the troops.
In 1817 Lovell, the chief medical officer of the Northern
Department, addressed to Major General Brown a paper on
the causes of disease in the army. This report dealt with the
various questions of reorganization of the Medical Depart-
ment ; it was the basis of that change later, and marked Lovell
as the surgeon best fitted to execute the plan. This reorgan-
ization is interesting ; it reads as follows :
" By the reports received from the different posts, it appears the troops
have been remarkably healthy during the past year ; for the whole num-
ber of cases (2138) very nearly one half (1051) are slight accidents and
transient complaints, which detain the soldier but a few days from duty ;
— 193 from wounds ; — and 55 venereal ; — leaving but 838 of fevers and
other important complaints.
"Of these 266 consist of the different kinds of inflammatory fever;
as colds, pleurisy, &c. : which are the almost inevitable consequence of a
cold and changeable climate, and which no ordinary care can prevent. As
they must always be incident to the inhabitants of the Northern section
of the Union, and particularly to the soldier, ought not the most efficient
means be taken to enable him to obviate as far as possible, these injurious
effects of climate, by the quantity and quality of his clothing?
" Next on the list to inflammations comes diarrhoea and its attendant
dysentery (diarrhoea 246, dysentery 94). As these, particularly diarrhoea,
were the pests of our army during the war. constituting with inflamma-
tion, nearly the only complaints ; and as they appear to be the chief
cause of disease even in peace, it must be a matter of the highest im-
portance accurately to ascertain their cause; and the best means of
removing them, or obviating their deleterious effects.
" It required but little ingenuity lo surmise that bad food and worse
water would produce more or less disturbance in a man's stomach and
bowels ; especially when he had been used to much better fare. It was
therefore a very easy matter to account for all the diseases of the soldier
by accusing the contractor of furnishing unhealthy provi ind the
water of containing deleterious ingredu .1-. This mode of explaining
the difficulty rendered police duty vastly easier to the officers of
line, and furnished the surgeon with a brief and saitsfactory mode <•'
accounting for the death of his patients. The consequence was that
much time and some talent were wasted in talking and writing aga
contractors and lake water, which might have been better employed in
720 HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
rendering the soldier comfortable, and protecting him against the in-
clemencies of the climate.
" For the fact is, that neither of these accusations were in general
just. The provisions were not commonly bad; nor did experiment show
any ingredients in ihe water, at all adequate to the effect supposed. Nor
was it true, that the food or the water were peculiarly bad, whenever
and wherever these complaints prevailed and proved most fatal. Nor is
it believed, there is cause of complaint against the provisions furnished
at present.
" It is moreover, exceedingly doubtful whether bad food alone would
produce the effects that have been ascribed to it. For in prison and
on shipboard, where the numbers are frequently confined for a length if
time to far worse fare than is even pretended in these cases, complaints
of this nature are by no means the general consequence ; while many a
prisoner and slave condemned to the hardest labour, have proved by
experience how very soon the digestive organs will become accustomed
to food of a much worse quality than contractors would dare to issue,
or the soldier's senses permit him to receive ; and that even the deleterious
effects upon the constitution were very gradual, though aided by many
contingents to which the soldier, in this country at least, is seldom
exposed.
" It is by no means intended to assert, that bad food or coarse food
badly cooked would not produce disease ; much less that it would not
peculiarly aggravate complaints of the stomach and bowels, or even act
as an exciting cause of them. But it is meant to say, that this alone
does not necessarily or even generally produce such complaints ; — that the
food of the soldier was not during the war, and certainly is not now, of
a quality calculated to produce them ; — that the prevalence of these com-
plaints at any particular time bore no proportion to the good or bad
quality of the provision ; nor were those places, where they were almost
always committing ravages, worse supplied in this respect, than any other
and therefore — that we arc to look to some other cause for the produc-
tion of these military plagues.
" And this it is apprehended will be found to arise from an undue
exposure to cold and moisture. For the recruit is immediately confined
to his rations, and experiences no bad effect from the change. It is not
until he begins to feel the want of dry and comfortable lodging and
clothing, and to be exposed to the changes of weather without sufficient
clothing or exercise, that he suffers from diseases of the lungs and
bowels. It is not a fact that those stations which became famous as the
graveyards of the army, were worse supplied with provisions or abounded
with worse water than any others; while it is well known that at these
places the soldier was peculiarly exposed to the above-mentioned noxious
agents. It could not be owing to the state of the provisions or water
EMINENT ALUMNI 721
that these complaints were so destructive in the spring and fall, rather
than in the summer and winter; but it must be attributed to the unwhole-
some combination of cold and moisture peculiar to the frontier at these
seasons ; and it must be from this exposure that even now in time of
peace, these complaints continue at some posts to occupy so large a
share in the sick reports.
" In proof of what is here advanced, wc need only to refer to the mor-
tality at Sackett's Harbor during nearly the whole war, and to the state
of the army in that vicinity during the fall of 1813. In both cases it
must have been the climate — the weather — that produced the mischief ;
as there is not the least ground for supposing there was anything pecu-
liar^ bad in the provisions or water at that particular time, and at that
particular place.
" Besides it is well known that among the inhabitants of the Norttt-
ern section of the State, the greater proportion are under the necessity
of guarding themselves by great attention to clothing from the bad effects
of the climate, in order to prevent or remove the very diseases in ques-
tion; and every practicing physician depends almost entirely upon this
circumstance for curing, and altogether for preventing complaints of this
nature.
" In confirmation of what has been advanced it may also be added,
that the only medicines which have any permanent effect upon these com-
plaints are those which act upon the pores of the skin ; and thus in
some measure counteract the effects of cold and moisture ; and these
require every assistance from warm bathing, warm clothing, lodging, etc. ;
simply cleansing the stomach and bowels does very little towards remov-
ing the complaints when fully formed. A coarse diet indeed is injurious,
but it is in consequence of debility induced by the disease itself. It
aggravates but docs not produce it; and of course change of diet will
not cure it. And even in the state of convalescence, it is very common
after a cold and rainy night when the sick are in tents, to find several
who appeared fast recovering dead within twenty-four hours; and some
even before the morning visit of the surgeon. And this was in a greater
or less degree so constantly the consequence on the whole of this
frontier, that after a stormy night, the attending surgeon could calculate
very certainly upon finding some dead, and many very much reduced.
" If then we are to attribute not only the great waste of life during
the war, but the majority of the complaints at present to the want of
adequate means of guarding against the effects of climate, it ought most
certainly to be represented to those whose province it is. to make such
alterations and additions to the allowance of clothing as will be con-
sistant with true economy, by being best calculated to remedy the evil.
To this end no soldier in this Division, at least none north of Phila-
delphia, should be allowed to wear any other than a woolen shirt. This
722 HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
point has been often insisted on by the surgeons of the army ; and 5n
confirmation of it, we need only refer to the number of those enjoying
every comfort, who find it necessary in order to avoid complaints of the
lungs and bowels, not only to wear flannel next the skin, but to follow
the advice of Doctor Franklin in not taking it off until mid-summer and
putting it on again the next day. A second article equally necessary to
the end proposed is an outer coat. Indeed there are few citizens of
any grade in this climate, who do not feel the necessity of this, and who
do not at any rate provide for it or a substitute, though most generally
comfortably housed at those times when the soldier is most exposed. And
lastly the most important circumstance perhaps of all is to enable the
soldier to keep his feet warm and dry by a liberal allowance of woolen
socks and laced shoes, reaching at least to the ankle. Almost every one
has at times felt the uncomfortable consequences of wet and cold long
applied to the feet, and many know but too well their deleterious effects
upon the constitution through the lungs anti bowels ; so that it is scarcely
necessary to insist upon this point. In fact there can be little doubt that
due attention to these things, and to such circumstances of the soldiers
quarters as may tend to the same end, would materially lessen the num-
ber of sick at present, and be of most essential benefit in the event of
war. It is well known how much attention was bestowed upon this sub-
ject by the British upon this frontier; so that their soldiers were even
supplied with fur caps and socks and gloves in addition to the articles
above recommended ; and the consequence was that the complaints
which destroyed the greater part of our army were scarcely known among
them, though they were often near neighbors for months.
' The cases of rheumatism are few, for the troops are mostly young
and healthy men ; and this is a mode of inflammation which generally
attacks those of debilitated constitution, or who are somewhat advanced
in life. Tt renders many unfit for service, who but for this would be
efficient men, and was at times very troublesome during the war. Very
few if any diseases require greater attention to comfortable clothing
and lodging than this; they are the ground requisites for preventing
the complaint in those predisposed to it, and absolutely necessary to
removing it when induced. The cases of intermittent fever have not been
numerous except in the 5th Department and particularly at Detroit. This
complaint always prevails more or less among the troops ; and though it
depends altogether upon local causes for its origin, much may be done to
lessen the susceptibility of the system to it; and therefore wherever
it occurs it becomes fully as important a part of the surgeon's duty to
explain and recommend the means of preventing it, as to administer the
remedies calculated to cure it. The whole number of cases reported is
164 ; of these 141 were in the 5th Department, and 120 at Detroit. How