O. Larsell

“ When Whitman treated Fontenelle and his men for cholera, at Bellevue, in 1835, he knew nothing of the organisms taken into the intestine with the water the men drank. The origin of the disease was so obscure and its onset so sudden as to strike terror into the heart of the bravest and strongest, for who could fight or escape so unseen an enemy. In England, in 1832, the mortality had amounted to one-third or one-half of those attacked, and in many cases, two-thirds had fallen victims. ”

“ This little volume ran through fourteen editions and was translated into Japanese. As its name indicates, it was a much abbreviated guide to diagnosis and treatment, which the physician could easily carry in his pocket. It contains tables of weights and measures, abbreviations, poisons and their antidotes, and an index of diseases and their treatment. Also there is an alphabetical list of medicines and their doses, and a table of symptomatology, and other features, which no doubt made it a very handy quick reference guide for the medical practice of the time. ”

“ Medicine & care for the sick is an other source of trouble & perhaps of more real danger to our person than ony other. We often see it stated that a knowledge of medicine in the missionary & attention to the sick, go far to secure the favor of a heathen people. Strange as it may appear, the reverse is the case with these tribes. Doct Whitman is a skillful & most attentive physician, spends very much of his time in attending upon their sick, sometimes riding 30 miles neglecting important business at home spending much in the purchase & much time in the preparation of medicines. ”

“ It was said to me in Salem that he was an accomplished gentleman, refined in all his manners. I ask how does it look to see an Educator of youth walking the streets of a city with a cigar in his mouth and using tobacco until the clothes betray it. Is it the mark of a scholarly gentleman to blat it abroad that he will resign his position unless some teachers are removed? Never! That was something that belonged to the Trustees alone. And when they are not removed, who licks th dust and remains. In such a character there is a fatal weakness that unqualifies him to be a teacher. ”

“ The entire equipment of the university, so-called, consisted of one building, in which were housed the college, the academy and all other departments, and which must now also provide space for the new Department of Medicine. As to clinical facilities, they may be judged by the fact that Salem numbered at the time about 1200 people, and all of Marion County about 7000. Portland itself, the metropolis, had a population of about 15,000, which, however, was rapidly increasing. One must admire the courage, not to say audacity, of the men who undertook to train physicians under such circumstances. ”

“ In March, 1840, Whitman writes [38] of ten deaths among the Indians during the winter and spring, near the station, and after they left for their hunting he heard of five more. He does not state the nature of the epidemic, but adds that they are "attached to their superstitions of jugling. Of late they have shown a wish to receive medicine ... but fear revives all their former prejudices.” The doctor had difficulty from the beginning with the native medical practices, if they can be so called. ”

“ The Toland Medical College, now the Medical School of the University of California, had begun instruction in San Francisco in 1865, thus antedating the Willamette department in actual operation. The latter school, however, maintained a continuous existence from the time of its establishment until 1913, when it was merged with the University of Oregon Medical School. Toland on the other hand, suspended for a time and then reopened, so to Dr. Wythe and his colleagues should be accorded the credit of having established the oldest continuous school of medicine on the coast. ”

“ Dr. C. M. Drury, in his recent biography of Spalding, quotes from a letter dated Prattsburg, New York, August 31, 1835, Spalding's proposal to "attend to the study of medicine as much as possible with a physician in this place," [1] while waiting for a more propitious time to leave for the mission field. In a subsequent letter dated from Holland Patent, New York, Spalding writes: [2] "I have put in my time principally in the study of medicine & shall to the best advantage while I remaine. I shall wish to take some $30 or $40 for medicines." ”

“ As a student he appears to have received particularly good training in anatomy from a prosector of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of London, who taught for a time in the Philadelphia school. Here he obtained the foundation for his later skill and success as a surgeon.
Wythe continued his work as a clergyman for some time, but was forced to give it up because of ill health, and become surgeon to several collieries at Port Carbon, Pennsylvania. He practiced medicine here and in several other towns in the coal mining region until the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion. ”

“ The Doctor is an eminent surgeon and well known on both hemispheres as a Medical and Scientific Author. He is a fine lecturer on Scientific subjects. Dr. Wythe looks upon this opening as Providential and all here with whom I have conversed view the matter in the same way. I trust and believe that under his management the University will prosper more and more. ”

“ I want you to have a man that will give you character. You have not now and neither material out of which one can grow.
D. RUTLEDGE. In addition to his duties as president of the university, Dr. Wythe was also, as already stated, pastor of the local church at Salem. He appears to have been successful in this work, for his church enrolled a membership of 200, with a Sunday School of 300 to 400 members. When we recall that Salem at that time had only 1200 inhabitants, it is evident that Wythe must have had the larger proportion of Salem church-goers in his church. ”

“ The corpses of the most respectable citizens, even of those who had not died of the epidemic, were carried to the grave on the shafts of a chair, the horse driven by a negro, unattended by a friend or relation, and without any sort of ceremony. People uniformly and hastily shifted their course at the sight of a hearse coming towards them. Many never walked on the footpath, but went into the middle of the street, to avoid being infected in passing houses wherein people had died. ”

“ Is pretty well calculated to acquire & retain influence, will be a pleasant missionary companion, cooperate well with others ..." J. W. Nesmith, one of the leaders of the wagon train of 1843, which Whitman guided for much of its journey, and afterward United States senator from Oregon, described the doctor as: [2] “A quiet unassuming man and of great purity of character. Of powerful physical organization, possessed of a great and good heart, full of charity and courage, utterly destitute of hypocrisy, shams & effeminacy, and always terribly in earnest. ”

“ Wythe takes the anti-evolutionary point of view. He holds that the idea of developmental creation is inconsistent with the conception of a personal God who rules the universe and governs the inhabitants thereof. In the "Science of Life" (1880) he concludes: "This examination of human endowments shows as great difference between men and brutes as exists between animals and vegetables, or between vegetabls and the mineral world." ”

“ Many of the Indians who submitted themselves to the doctor's treatment died nevertheless. With each death a new enemy was made for the physician. The wife of Tamahas, already called the murderer, died while under Whitman's treatment. ”

“ There can be little question but that he furnished the initiative, as president of the university, for another and this time successful attempt to found a medical school. It will be noted that as professor of physiology, hygiene and microscopy, he was a member of the first faculty to actually give instruction to a medical class in Oregon. ”

“ On February 15, 1865, the Board [14] voted to establish such a department in Portland, to be called the Oregon Medical College, with certain provisions, including appointment of members of the faculty by the Board of Trustees. A faculty was appointed, but difficulties arose which made it impracticable to carry out the plan of locating the school in Portland. ”

“ Many were afraid to allow the barbers or hair-dressers to come near them having shaved the dead, and many having engaged as bleeders. Some who carried their caution pretty far, bought lancets for themselves, not daring to allow themselves to be bled with lancets of the bleeders. Many houses were scarcely a moment in the day, free from the smell of gunpowder, burned tobacco, nitre, sprinkled vinegar, etc. ”

“ Undoubtedly, by 1835 these methods of treatment, disseminated throughout the English speaking world by the authoritative reports on cholera published by Hammett and Kennedy in 1832, were known to Whitman. It is probable that he followed the methods of treatment above described. He told Fontenelle that strong men, if treated early, might hope to escape death. Only three of the fur company's men died, and these were already sick when Whitman joined the party. ”

“ Like many other epidemics which affect the white man relatively slightly, the measles was very serious among the Indians. Their sweat baths and cold plunges made matters worse with this type of disease, and many died. The mutterings against the doctor became more threatening. The approved methods [42] of treating measles in Whitman's day, namely, by protection against exposure, use of warm drinks, pennyroyal tea, gentle purging, etc., with bleeding and catharsis in severe cases, were beneficial, or at worst, comparatively harmless by the side of the heating and chilling of the sweat bath. ”

“ The tewats or medicine men, however, with their sorcery were the chief resource of the Indians when sick. They were called upon to chase out the evil spirits of disease from their patients. If the patient died the tewat might share the same fate at the hands of relatives of the deceased. In his attempts to carry healing to the Indians, Doctor Whitman faced some of his greatest difficulties, and probably laid the seeds which led to his destruction. Spalding wrote [41] in February, 1847, nearly ten months before the massacre:
... ”

“ I could not help covering my face with my hands at the time in dismay at the lack of that nice sense of the true and the pure that was so outraged at the time. Is that the kind of training that students ought to secure and especially young men who may be studying for the ministry. ”

“ We see a man, respected by all, who served his fellowmen, an honor to the healing art. In the best traditions of the country practitioner he faced danger, hardship, storm and flood to carry healing and relief to his patients. He made no effort to save or to spare himself, but gave without stint of that which he had, professional and material. From the time he first set foot in old Oregon, he was recognized as, and has been called to the present, “the good doctor. ”

“ If any one article fails, not being to be had in the lower country, or the supply runing out, we ought to be reproached & shall be, for in that case we compel the sorcerers to resume their sorceries & compel the people to resort to them. ”

“ On placing it under the microscope one of the largest vessels was observed in active motion, alternately contracting and dilating, with evident vermicular contractions, communicating motion to the blood corpuscles in the capillaries for a considerable distance. The movement seemed limited to the artery and was not communicated to the coats of the capillaries, although their contents had an oscillatory motion corresponding to the contents of the artery. The phenomenon was seen for about three hours, when the observation was suspended. ”

“ Whitman could not turn them away, and gave Munger carpenter work to do at the mission. On March 28, 1841, the doctor was obliged to write: [29] "Mr. Munger ... has become a monomaniac ... an unsafe man ... holds himself as the representative of the church & often having revelations ... only allows me to stay in the mission house for a time when he is ready to take it in some way away from me." This situation must have caused the doctor much uneasiness during his many absences from the mission. ”

“ Many persons were abandoned by their nearest relatives and friends. Bodies were frequently found lying in houses which had been deserted by all other dwellers in them. Women died in childbirth because no one would render them assistance in their hour of need. ”

“ If we fail to have the medicine desired it is impossible to imagine the abuse which often heaped upon us. We are pronounced gamblers & robbers, i e we withold from them what is their just due, i e medicine. Medicine is made by white people therefore it is due to them. ”

“ The smoke of tobacco being regarded as a preventive, many persons even women and small boys, had segars almost constantly in their mouths. Others, placing full confidence in garlic, chewed it almost the whole day ”

“ Additional evidence indicates that this is true, and that his first registration as a medical student was at the Medical Institute of Geneva College, probably in 1841-42. The next year he followed one of his instructors, Dr. John Delamater, to the new medical school at Willoughby, Ohio, completing the second course of lectures required in that day at that school in 1843. ”