Dr. Mutter's Marvels
Page 31
“incapable of reporting their full horrors to his readers”: Ibid.
shops to charge a penny for a meal . . . scraps begged at the back doors of the wealthy: Ibid.
a common custom for one enterprising individual . . . bargain price of two cents a head: Ibid.
police were known as watchmen because . . . “watch-boxes” to protect themselves: Da Costa, “Then and Now”
“were very respectable” while others “were the reverse”: Ibid.
“The more humble and gentle the name . . . would fight anything at any time”: Ibid.
“When there was a fire, hand engines . . . joy to the heart of a Comanche or Pawnee’”: Ibid.
“Great disorders and riotous demonstrations . . . the Delaware by a rival company”: Ibid.
In the Infected District, rum was commonly sold for a penny a glass: Weigley, Philadelphia
“Rum is at the root of the trouble”: Ibid.
the county supported nineteen temperance societies . . . seven thousand members: Ibid.
Total-abstinence societies . . . topped them with more than ten thousand members: Ibid.
“He that is down needs fear no fall”: Ibid.
The population of the city exploded . . . 250,000 by 1842: Ibid.
There were mills for spinning cotton . . . and chandeliers: Ibid.
The factories of Philadelphia produced . . . the nation’s steel: Ibid.
the city’s twelve sugar refineries . . . supplier of commercial sugar: Ibid.
Unskilled factory operatives, coal heavers . . . six days a week: Ibid.
factories recognized only the Fourth of July . . . sick time were, of course, nonexistent: Ibid.
Of those 300 employees, 225 were boys, “some not yet eight years of age”: Ibid.
The area’s matchstick factories . . . paying a wage of $2.50 a week: Ibid.
——CHAPTER TWELVE——
“The Physician Must Be a Charitable Man. . . . the physician should chiefly cultivate”: Mütter, Charge to the Graduates, 1851
earliest moment a woman could be certain she was pregnant . . . the quickening: Anthony Joseph, “The ‘Pennsylvania Model’: The Judicial Criminalization of Abortion in Pennsylvania, 1838–1850,” American Journal of Legal History 49 (2007): 284–320
Nineteenth-century philosophers and theologians . . . as the absolute truth: Ibid.
It was a common and widely accepted belief . . . when those first movements were felt: Ibid.
Therefore, the quickening was not just the unborn . . . child received its rational soul: Ibid.
womb “seemed capable of producing growths . . . mere ‘moles’ or ‘false conceptions’”: Ibid.
“Not everything which comes from the birth parts of a woman is a human being”: Ibid.
pregnancy was a nine- to ten-month process: Ibid.
the quickening became the main determining . . . the moral responsibility to that life: Ibid.
abortifacient drugs and surgical abortions . . . along the Eastern Seaboard: Ibid.
where advertisements for abortion services ran in the local papers: Ibid.
Abortions were so popular and common that one woman in New York City: Ibid.
offering abortions commercially in the late 1830s. . . . included pills and surgery: Ibid.
opened additional storefronts in Boston and Philadelphia: Ibid.
Physicians were moving toward the view . . . than at the quickening: Ibid.
medical testimony in nineteenth-century criminal cases had a growing influence: Ibid.
“mute testimony to medicine gone wrong”: Ibid.
She swallowed magnesia, and tansy, and pennyroyal: Ibid.
She was bled: The Medical Examiner: A Monthly Record of Medical Science II (1839) (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1839)
She consumed cups of tea made from powdered roots: Ibid.
the promise that it would “make her regular”: Ibid.
which she said was “sharp to the taste”: Ibid.
she couldn’t, as they said at the time, “get to rights”: Joseph, “The ‘Pennsylvania Model’”
a self-described “botanical physician”: Ibid.
gave Eliza a new round of tinctures . . . black-powder tea, ergot, savin oil: Ibid.
“shined and looked like a knitting needle”: The Medical Examiner (1839)
replacing the hot bricks at her feet to keep her warm: Ibid.
“I found her with a livid face . . . her extremities cold and she was pulseless”: Ibid.
There was no saving her: Joseph, “The ‘Pennsylvania Model’”
Rush convinced Chauncey to move her to his house: Ibid.
the next day, either in transit or soon after arriving at Chauncey’s house: Ibid.
Meigs found his first patients among the poor and destitute: Meigs, Memoir
the position of his wife’s family in society: Ibid.
did not, and indeed they could not be expected . . . that of their family obstetrician: Ibid.
fit to be trusted: Ibid.
higher and increasingly more impressive social rank: Ibid.
difficult cases of childbirth . . . “greatly disturbed and tried his strength and nerves”: Ibid.
In one of the cases, he made a wrong diagnosis . . . survived, relatively unharmed: Ibid.
“so disgusted” with himself for the error: Ibid.
“the painful responsibility which belongs to that branch”: Ibid.
For two straight years, he worked purely as . . . gynecological cases to his friends: Ibid.
his expenses increasing: Ibid.
“began to fancy that the wolf was approaching his door”: Ibid.
For the sake of his family and his finances, Meigs returned to obstetrics: Ibid.
“endowed with a clear perceptive power . . . doctrines of a good medical school”: Charles D. Meigs, M.D., Females and Their Diseases: A Series of Letters to His Class (Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1848)
his business and reputation only increased: Meigs, Memoir
Chauncey, who at first denied that Eliza was even pregnant when he began treating her: Joseph, “The ‘Pennsylvania Model’”
that it was a simple case of inflammation: Ibid.
excess food and drink as well as exposure to a damp draft in Sowers’s room: Ibid.
“period of religious ecstasy”: Ibid.
placid smile: Ibid.
“blissful immortality in the world to come”: Ibid.
“the milk flowed freely”: The Medical Examiner (1839)
“to spare the feeling of the family”: Joseph, “The ‘Pennsylvania Model’”
“resulting from a laceration of the uterus caused by an instrumental abortion”: Ibid.
Chauncey was arrested and indicted for the murder of Eliza Sowers: Ibid.
Chauncey had four distinct charges: Ibid.
murder by simple assault, and murder by means of poison: Ibid.
murder by means of assault and abortion, and murder by means of mere abortion: Ibid.
released on bail on the grounds “that it was . . . a murder case at all?”: Ibid.
“The death of the mother following criminal abortion . . . responsible for all its results”: Ibid.
“necessarily attended with great danger . . . they are practiced” . . . injure the woman: Ibid.
termed abortion the “destruction of . . . the fruit of [the woman’s] womb”: Ibid.
harm to the mother as well as the death of the unborn: Ibid.
the trial became a citywide obsession . . . week before a crowded courtroom: Ibid.
one of the three physicians who examined Eliza Sowers’s body: Ibid.
he did not clearly understand how conception took place: Ibid.
“very great nonsense on the part of the lawyers”: Ibid.
chastise any woman . . . who approached . . . “know their own duty as well as their physicians?”: Ibid.
“I love my profession as a ministry . . . nature of man so clearly and so plainly?”: Bauer, Doctors
the courts of Pennsylvania issued some of the strictest laws . . . a woman found herself in: Joseph, “The ‘Pennsylvania Model’”
——CHAPTER THIRTEEN——
“The Physician Must Be a Man of Strict Integrity and Virtue. . . . ye comforted me’”: Mütter, Charge to the Graduates, 1851
“It is now generally admitted that ‘plastic surgery’ originated in India”: Mütter, On Recent Improvements in Surgery
Indian criminals earned “peculiar punishments” . . . sliced off, ears, lips, limbs: Ibid.
a black market for doctors who claimed to be able to replace missing body parts: Ibid.
“And what the knife of the executioner called forth . . . in Europe and America”: Ibid.
fame depended on his having practiced the art . . . by grafting: “Gaspar Taliacotius (1546–1599)” in Alexander Chalmers, ed., The General Biographical Dictionary / T / Vol. 29 (1812): 114
from the skins of other people: Mütter, On Recent Improvements in Surgery
the skin from the arm of a porter onto the noseless face of his patient: Ibid.
“All went well for the space of thirteen months . . . original owner of the nose had died!”: Ibid.
“The sympathy between the nose and its parent . . . cut from [the skin of] the same porter”: Ibid.
this ridicule: Ibid.
“no attempt to perform these operations . . . the latter end of the last century”: Ibid.
“an art nearly lost, yet of the greatest value to mankind”: Ibid.
“Even now plastic surgery must be considered . . . fully established”: Ibid.
“I received a burn when five years old . . . medical aid was not called . . .”: Thomas Dent Mütter, Cases of Deformity from Burns, Successfully Treated by Plastic Operations (Merrihew & Thompson, Philadelphia, 1843)
“Dr. Burns, a neighboring physician, hearing of my circumstances . . . which was never done”: Ibid.
chronic hypertrophy: Ibid.
“When I was eleven years of age, an attempt . . . did not experience any relief”: Ibid.
The clavicle on her right side was also . . . inch and a half of the top of her sternum: Ibid.
“My condition has been most humiliating and made my life a burden”: Ibid.
“Death is preferable to a life of such misery as mine”: Ibid.
He fully explained: Ibid.
any of the usual operations for such deformities: Ibid.
entirely different: Ibid.
“Although [the surgery would be] severe . . . promised partial, if not entire relief”: Ibid.
placed her in “preparatory treatment”: Ibid.
——CHAPTER FOURTEEN——
two doctors whom Mütter had asked to assist him and four medical students: Mütter, Cases of Deformity
the “sound” unscarred skin, outside of the most heavily scarred . . . skin on its opposite side: Ibid.
“the most vital part of the neck”: Ibid.
“a most shocking wound six inches in length by five and a half in width”: Ibid.
“for I knew very well, that if permitted to heal . . . be made worse than before”: Ibid.
carrying the scalpel downward and outward over the deltoid muscle: Ibid.
six and a half inches in length, by six in width: Ibid.
leave the flap attached: Ibid.
the upper part of her neck: Ibid.
He placed the skin in the gap: Ibid.
Once he saw that the edges of the wounds: Ibid.
to support the sutures: Ibid.
that no other dressing at this stage was advisable: Ibid.
Mütter realized that scars, by nature, contract . . . need to heal in a stretched position: Ibid.
“The fortitude with which this truly severe operation was borne . . . period of its duration”: Ibid.
“Rest and quietude were enjoined”: Ibid.
eating or drinking of any kind had been strictly prohibited by Mütter: Ibid.
other than a slightly raised pulse and . . . she seemed perfectly well: Ibid.
“A little nervous, but no fever; no swelling . . . another day without sustenance”: Ibid.
“an enema to be administered at once . . . barley water to be taken every hour or two”: Ibid.
The treatment, thankfully, worked: Ibid.
“The wound united along the edges . . . pus at the most dependent part of the flap”: Ibid.
evacuated the pus through a small opening in its vicinity . . . dressed the shoulder: Ibid.
“a little mutton broth” followed by an enema of salt and water: Ibid.
noticed a “troublesome circumstance” where “a band . . . wider than a small wire”: Ibid.
straighten her lower teeth—including the removal of one . . . the lower jaw: Ibid.
move about and “enjoy the full benefit of the operation”: Ibid.
“The whole appearance of the patient is so . . . scarcely recognize her as the same individual”: Ibid.
“It will be sufficient to state that no unfavourable symptom made its appearance”: Ibid.
“The comfort and satisfaction I feel . . . a blessing that cannot be described!”: Ibid.
“For nearly eight years she had been unable . . . nearly in contact with the sternum”: Ibid.
“this case was even more unfavourable”: Ibid.
“determined to perform the operation which had proved so successful”: Ibid.
“speaking, swallowing, or motions of the neck of any kind”: Ibid.
a nine-year-old boy who had “a deformity of the mouth and throat”: Ibid.
His mouth was kept permanently open . . . throat from chin to sternum: Ibid.
“The operation . . . was performed before the medical . . . hopeless, was effected”: Ibid.
“Two years and more have elapsed since the first . . . cases are also doing well”: Ibid.
“[Mütter] felt it a glorious thing to be able to . . . higher grounds”: Elizabeth S. Harris and Raymond F. Morgan, “Thomas Dent Mutter, MD: Early Reparative Surgeon,” Annals of Plastic Surgery 33, no. 3 (September 1994)
——CHAPTER FIFTEEN——
The Physician Should Be a Self-Relying Man. . . . profession of which he is a member”: Mütter, Charge to the Graduates, 1851
ever-growing prestige of the college: “Part I: Jefferson Medical College 1835 to 1845” http://jdc.jefferson.edu/wagner1/15
stature as an American institution: Ibid.
Paris’s Hôtel-Dieu’s need for leeches was so great . . . part of the hospital staff: McCullough, The Greater Journey
John Kearsley Mitchell recommended that his students . . . suffering from typhoid: Lawrence G. Blochman, Dr. Squibb: The Life and Times of a Rugged Idealist (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1958)
leeches directly into a woman’s uterus, using a sleek wooden speculum: Charles D. Meigs, M.D., Obstetrics: The Science and the Art (Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea, 1856)
rent floors above the two stores next to the college . . . fifteen patients: “Part I: Jefferson Medical College 1835 to 1845” http://jdc.jefferson.edu/wagner1/15
serve as the college’s only hospital for another thirty years: Ibid.
Students eagerly volunteered to provide nursing care: Ibid.
meals brought from a nearby restaurant: Ibid.
“Mütter’s fancy was full and free, and in its brilliant play . . . might deem excessive”: Pancoast, A Discourse Commemorative
“These advantages were
not coveted by him, however, for personal . . . his support”: Ibid.
family had always been valued above wealth: Weigley, Philadelphia
Mütter had met and married Mary Alsop . . . the elite Connecticut Alsops: Slatten, “Thomas Dent Mütter”
the upper class would accept some members of the . . . considered to be virtue: Weigley, Philadelphia
upper social stratum in Philadelphia and indeed were generally seen as “vulgar”: Ibid.
“The lines of demarcation in [Philadelphia] ‘society’ . . . the exclusives and the excluded”: Ibid.
“How am I able to communicate a just notion . . . delicate beauty of their ladies”: Ibid.
He was born on the island of St. George’s: Meigs, Memoir
a little frontier town, whose population numbered “only two hundred and seventy souls”: Ibid.
in this semi-wild, sparsely inhabited country: Ibid.
was still occupied by Native Americans . . . and Chickasaw: Ibid.
short distance from Hiwassee . . . Colonel Return J. Meigs . . . lived: Ibid.
all through the Revolutionary War: Ibid.
a sword for gallant conduct: Ibid.
“erect as a tree”: Ibid.
the White Chief: Ibid.
It was in this land “of law and lawlessness . . . downright barbarism” . . . formative years: Ibid.
“Here was a spot, a climate—forest and stream, hill and dale . . . broad and deep”: Ibid.
“a truly savage life”: Ibid.
“He had made the acquaintance of a certain Jim Vann . . . pony in the country”: Ibid.
“a most violent and brutal fellow”: Ibid.
at first flatly “and with high indignation” refused even to listen to such a project: Ibid.
“never ceased to beg and entreat and knock, until finally . . . she yielded”: Ibid.
Meigs would live “in the Nation” for over a month. He was twelve years old: Ibid.
Vann’s savagery and wildness: Ibid.
“As I grew older, I came to think that some of his stories . . . been quite within the truth”: Ibid.
“Poor Vann has ceased from troubling . . . his death was a public blessing”: Ibid.
extensive literary work: J. Whitridge Williams, M.D., “A Sketch of the History of Obstetrics in the United States up to 1860,” American Gynecology, Volume 3 (American Gynecology Publishing Co., 1903), 38–42, 266–294, 340–366