A History of Washtenaw County Medical Society

By Doctor William F. Breakey

The following history of the Washtenaw County Medical Society was read before the society some time ago. It calls to mind the names of many who did so much to relieve the ills of mankind that it deserves circulation outside of the medical fraternity:

The present society had its inception in a call for a meeting of the physicians of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, issued about the middle of June, 1866, which meeting was held in Ann Arbor June 27 following, at which time this society was organized, or perhaps I should better say reorganized, as this was not the first medical organization in the count[y]. Indeed Washtenaw was the first county in the state to establish a county medical society. The Territorial Medical Society, organized in 1819, had the authority conferred by the Territorial Government to grant and revoke licenses to practice medicine, and to determine the qualifications of candidates for practice and also the fitness of medical students to enter upon the study of medicine. The Territorial Society likewise granted to licensed physicians in any county, on application, the right to form a local society. "Thus June 12, 1827, permission was granted Doctors Cyril Nichols, Rufus Pomeroy, William Kitteridge and Daniel Low to form a Washtenaw County Medical Society."

The various Washtenaw county histories have but little to say of pioneer physicians and nothing of medical societies. Like the usual subscription histories they dedicate to fame subscribers chiefly. The only mention I find of physicians in early history—apart from a few individual biographies—is in the history of Pittsfield Township, namely, "no physician settled in this town prior to Doctor Nathan Webb, 1835, (A biographic sketch of Doctor Webb says he came to Pittsfield in 1846). "Doctor Nichols, of Ann Arbor, was one of the first physicians to attend the afflicted in town. Doctors Lord, Denton, Cole and Brighton have gone to the spirit land. Doctors Pomeroy, Millington, Town and Fairchild from Ypsilanti were also early doctors who visited the township in a professional manner.

I have an old time-worn folio paper given me after graduation, in 1850, by Doctor Denton, who held the chair of Theory and Practice of Medicine and Pathology in the University from 1850 to 1860. It is entitled, "Medical Ethics Compiled and Abridged by the Ann Arbor Association of Physicians, from the code adopted by the National Medical Convention in 1847, Philadelphia."

The circular is made up of abstracts ad quotations from the code of ethics, followed by a "Tariff of Pecuniary Acknowledgements" adopted by the Association. This paper bears no date, but it evidently was published between 1847 and 1851 as an item in the tariff reads—"Visits in the county after dark or in the village after bedtime double." Ann Arbor ceased being a village and became— by incorporation—a city in 1851.

Just when this association was organized, or whether by the doctors authorized in 1827, I am as yet unable to learn, nor when it died or the causes which led to its untimely end. I have been unable to find any record of its transactions. Its purpose to maintain rational medicine and ethic practice and to require some entrance qualifications of medical students is evident in the paper quoted. It is a fair inference that it left some latent seed which germinated in the conception of the present society.

The constitution of the existing society says:

Article II: The objects of this society shall be the advancement of professional character, medical knowledge, the elevation of and the encouragement of zeal, emulation and friendly intercourse among the members of the profession.

Article IV: It shall be considered a dereliction of duty for any member of this society to admit into his office as a student of medicine any person who shall not first present a certificate of qualification as provided in article VI.

Article IX: The code of medical ethics of the American Medical Association shall be adopted by the society.

Two classes of membership were provided for—active and honorary. Among its charter members were: Doctor Alonzo Palmer (its first president), Doctor Abram Sager, Doctor Albert B. Prescott, Doctor Henry S. Cheever, Doctor William Lewitt and Doctor William F. Breakey, of Ann Arbor, and Doctor Francis M. Oakley, Doctor Edward Batwell and Doctor John W. Babbitt of Ypsilanti. These were followed within the year by many others. In its list of members was to be found the name of nearly every regular and reputable physician in the county and of many of those within contiguous counties, while its honorary membership included many prominent physicians and surgeons.

The meetings of the society were held quarterly. No departure from this plan was formally authorized, but when Doctor Gibbes was president monthly meetings were held. The original plan was to hold two meetings in Ann Arbor—usually the winter and spring meetings, the June meeting In Ypsilanti, and the fall meeting in some other part of the county. The society aimed to enlist the interest of all its members, particularly to bring into active relations, and within the reach of its influence all practicians of medicine.

The proceedings of its meetings while formal were very democratic. All were doctors. No distinction existed other than is always spontaneously accorded to merit. The humblest, youngest and most modest were made to feel at home in the society and encouraged to contribute to its work and welfare. The reading of several short papers rather than long essays was encouraged, thus giving opportunity to more of its members to contribute to the interest of meetings. Numerous reports were made of cases in practice, with brief discussions in which all were invited to participate. Among the important subjects discussed by the society in its early years was that of criminal abortion. The action of the society formulated in resolutions prepared by Doctor Sager was referred to the State Society with the recommendation that that body present it to the State Legislature, and this expression was the means of securing important legislation. That the society had the courage of its resolutions is shown by the fact that one of its members, against whom charges were being prepared withdrew before they could be preferred, thus saving himself expulsion. He moved from the county but was subsequently repeatedly arrested, charged with the same crime, and though he several times escaped conviction, eventually served a term in the state prison for causing death by criminal abortion.

The society secured the analysis of numerous much vaunted proprietary medicines and exposed their worthlessness. In this creditable work Doctor Silas H. Douglas, Doctor Albert B. Prescott and Doctor Preston B. Rose were chiefly active. Various scientlfic investigations—physiologic, pathologic, pharmacologic, and therapeutic were undertaken, and many valuable papers and important contributions to medical literature of the time were presented. Among them, as samples, and quoting from memory, were "Diseases of the Cord and Placenta," "Case of Simultaneous Intra and Extrauterine Pregnancy," "Ophthalmia Neoratorum," "Case of Delivery by Caesarean Section"—one of, if not the first reported in the state, by Dr. Abram B. Sager; papers on "Consumption," "Climate," "Paralysis," and others by Doctor Alonzo B. Palmer; and papers of much interest then on the Climatology of New Mexico, Colorado, and the higher altitudes of the Rocky Mountain range in that latitude, also in North Carolina with discriminative observations of the class of cases benefited, and the need for care in gradual elevations, by Doctor Henry S. Cheever, studied when trying to arrest his own tuberculous disease which proved fatal. Doctor Oakley and Doctor Batwell contributed many interesting and valuable papers practical and helpful to physicians, and both ingenious in mechanic devices or surgical appliances, a qualification of much value at that time when instrument makers and supplies were not as numerous and near as now. Papers and addresses were also given by Doctors William Warren Greene, Alpheus Crosby, Samuel G. Armor, Frothingham, Maclean, Sewell, Howell, Abel, Dunster and others.

But valuable as were these contributions of investigation and practice, they were hardly more beneficial to members of the society than was the social commingling, and the opportunities to know and appreciate the individual characteristics of fellow-practicians and to observe that in supporting a brother physician in proper conduct they were supporting the profession of medicine as a whole, and tending to maintain that high professional esprit de corps essential to the success of organized effort.

The more recent work and contributions of living members, the limits of this paper do not afford space to even mention by title. It is no disparagement to any that may be overlooked. Valuable work has been done under the presidencies, in successive order, of Doctors George, Darling, Gibbes, Vaughan, Carrow, Dock, Novy, Huber, Warthin, and Peterson.

Among the practical things accomplished in the direction of securing better fees for public service was the adoption of a scale of fees by the Board of Supervisors of 1874, for postmortem examinations and for coroner's inquests (excluding chemic analysis for poisons). A committee of the society, consisting of Doctor Webb, Doctor John Kapp, and your historian, went before the board, representing the importance of correct findings, the responsibility attaching to such examinations, and testimony involving interests of property, personal liberty and life, in addition to risks of infection to operators, and presented a schedule of fees. The fees adopted by the board were fair and reasonable for the time, ranging from $5 for ordered inspection of cadaver, with reference to testifying as to cause of death; $10 each for section of thorax or abdomen and examination of their viscera: $15 for section of skull and examination of brain; $20 for examination of any two of these cavities; and $25 for all of them. This fee bill for ordinary legal inquests was quite generally copied in different parts of Michigan and other states, but unfortunately after a few years, boards of supervisors—whose rules are not like the laws of the Medes and Persians—declined to be bound by the rules of their official predecessors, and they claimed as a reason for not adhering to this scale of fees, that in so many cases the doctors found it necessary to examine contents of chest, abdomen and skull, and did not always find the cause of death then, but charged the whole schedule of fees. It is not improbable that there was some ground for the action of the board.

The society has had various stages of prosperity and adversity—of enterprising zeal and decline of energy. Some earnest difference arose that divided its members in positive opposition at the time, and enlisted the sympathies of the profession at large and furnished the laity opportunity to ask "Who shall decide when doctors disagree?" Time has removed most of the actors in the little drama, and in the dim retrospect, the remembrance seems almost amusing in the sidelights cast during the lapse of more than a quarter of a century.

No history of the society would be complete without mention of the break in its ranks on the introduction of homeopathy into the university. As it divided the faculty of the department of medicine and surgery and members of the State Society, it is not strange that the subject should have aroused as great interest in the home society as it did in the profession of the state and throughout the country. The secession of members of the faculty and the formation by them of the Ann Arbor Academy of Medicine followed. The Academy was denied representation in the meeting of the American Medical Association at Buffalo the following year through protest from this society. Later the faculty was glad to make use of the attitude of this society, supported by the State Medical Society, to induce the regents to relieve the department of medicine and surgery of many of the most obnoxious features of the relations at first established. The contention led to bitter feeling at the time, members on both sides no doubt failing to apprehend the real position of those differing, and each claiming to be actuated by highest regard for the good of the profession and the university. Like the shield in the fable, the situation had two sides. Fortunately members of the society were too wise not to recognize established facts, and too sensible to permit such a situation to destroy the usefulness of the society, and the controversy has long since been a closed incident.

Many of its members have served their communities in public office with fidelity and credit. Doctors Webb, Ewing, and Howell represented their districts and the county in the State Legislature, while others rendered service on the Boards of Education and Public Health. Doctors Batwell, Breakey, Cheever, Dunster, Ewing, Garigues, Maclean, Oakley, Owen, Palmer, Prescott, Rose and Smith served in the Civil War from 1861 to 1865, and Doctors Bourns, Owen, Nancrede, and Vaughan in the War with Spain.

Its roll of honor of those who have answered the last call and paid the debt of nature, grows larger year by year. Naming them from memory, but not in the order of their departure, I place in this memorial record Doctors Armor, Ashley, Babbit, Batwell, Benn, Bigelow, Cheever, Crosby, Chamberlain, Douglas, Downer, Dunster, Ewing, Fairchild, Frothingham, Garigues, Gates, Greene, Halleck, E. Hall, Daniel Hall, Hawxhurst, Helber, Howell, Kinne, Lewitt, Lyster, Loomis, Oakley, Palmer, Post, Rexford, Root, Sager, W. B. Smith, Elias Smith, Van Tyne, Voorhies, Wells, Webb, and Zimmerman.

There may be others who have been overlooked in the preparation of this list.

It is an honor to have known them and to have been associated with them in professional work. Of the charter members I believe only Doctor Prescott and myself survive. The story was told of Thadeus Stevens, when so old and helpless that he had to be carried up the steps of the Capitol to his seat in Congress, that he asked the two vigorous young men who bore him—"Boys, I wonder who will carry me up when you are dead?" I trust Doctor Prescott will continue in faithful service for many years yet, and while I do not attempt much sprinting on foot, or desire service on standing committees, I hope to be able to share in the history the society will continue to make as long as possible, so—

"When I remember all the friends so linked together

I've seen around me fall, like leaves in wintry weather,

I (do not) feel like one who treads alone some banquet hall deserted,

Whose lights are fled, whose garlands dead, and all but me departed."

For I renew my youth and keep in touch with the procession in the presence of these zealous younger doctors, the infusion of whose young professional blood is to keep up the circulation of the society till they in turn give it over, healthy and prosperous, to their successors. Its opportunities are large to do good for the profession, for its members, and for the public. A society no more than an individual can always secure immediate results of its labors. But its ideas, its opinions and its facts of scientific demonstration can be recorded. It can enter its protests against vice, error and quackery and sometime, soon or late, it will achieve success.