Chapter 14 History of Medicine and Medical Men Part 1

"At the annual meeting of the Camden County Medical Society, held at Gloucester City on May 11, 1886, en motion it was Resolved, that Dr. John B. Stevenson, of Haddonfield, be appointed a Committee of one to prepare a History of Medicine and Medical Men in Camden County and report the same at the next semi-annual meeting in November."

Two hundred years ago, in 1686, seven years after the first settlement in what is now Camden County, there was not a medical man in it. The few settlers were located along the shore of the Delaware River, and on Coopers, Newton and Little Timber Creeks, where the water formed the only means of easy communication with each other. There were no roads, no bridges to cross the streams, and the trail of the Indian was the only route through the wilderness. A few medicinal herbs brought from home had been transplanted into the gardens. With the virtues of these they were familiar. The new country abounded in native plants, whose healing powers had been for ages tested by the aborigines, and a knowledge of whose properties they conveyed to their white neighbors. Each autumn the careful housewife collected the horehound, boneset, penny-royal, sassafras and other herbs to dry for future use. This custom is still pursued in the remote parts of the county, and today a visit to the garrets of many farm-houses will reveal the bunches of dried herbs, a knowledge of whose merits has been handed down from generation to generation, - a knowledge that has spread beyond its neighborhood, and has been incorporated in our Pharmacopceias and Dispensatories.

In each settlement there was some elderly matron of superior skill and experience in midwifery who kindly volunteered her service in presiding at the birth of a new colonist. In the bark canoe around by the water-way, or sealed on a pillion strapped behind the saddle of the patient’s messenger, riding double through the woods, this obstetrician would be conveyed from her own home to that of her suffering neighbor. When a wound was received or a bone broken, there was no surgeon to dress the former or set the latter. The wound, bound up as best it might be, was left for the cool water of the brook or spring to allay the pain and inflammation. The broken bone was placed at rest in that position least painful to the patient, to await the process of nature to make an indifferent cure. As soon as Philadelphia had grown sufficiently to attract physicians, one was called from there to attend important cases of surgical injuries, and as highways were opened and the settlers increased in wealth, the most thriving of them would send for the city doctor in other serious illness. This practice has continued even to our time.

Such were the Primitive means and methods of medication in Camden County at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when John Estaugh, arriving from England, married, in 1702, Elizabeth Haddon, the founder of Haddonfield. Although not a physician, he "had some skill in chemistry and medicine," and made himself useful in his neighborhood, especially by his attendance upon the poor. His first residence was upon the south side of Coopers Creek, about four miles from Camden, but in 1713 he removed to the vicinity of Haddonfield, where he died in l742.

The permission to practice medicine was a prerogative that belonged to the crown, under English law, and when a charter was granted, in 1664, to the Duke of York for the province of New Jersey, this prerogative, implied or expressed, was granted to him and to his successors in the persons of the Governors. On March 4, 1706, Governor Richard Ingolsby, at Burlington, issued the following license: "To Richard Smith, Gentleman, greeting; Being well informed of your knowledge, skill and judgment in the practice of chirurgery and phesig, I do hereby license and authorize you to practice the said sciences of chirurgery and phesig within this her Majestys province of New Jersey, for and during pleasure." On May 24, 1706, a similar license was granted to Nathaniel Wade.* In 1772 the New Jersey State Medical Society procured the passage of an act, limited to five years, which provided that all applicants to practice medicine in the State shall be examined by two judges of the Supreme Court (they calling to their assistance any skilled physician or surgeon), to whom they may issue a certificate. This law was re-enacted in 1784, and continued in force until 1816, when a new charter granted to the State society transferred the power of licensure to it.

The first record of a physician in the county is in the "Town-Book" of Newton township, among the minutes of a meeting held on September 29, 1731. The record says, - "and to pay themselves ye sum of four pounds twelve shillings and two pence being due to them from the township upon acct. of the poor, and to pay Doctr. Kersay for administg physic to sd. Hart." The person referred to here was one of the Drs. Kearsley, of Philadelphia. The elder, Dr. John Kearsley, was a native of England, and came to this country in 1711. He was the third physician to settle and practice medicine in Philadelphia, and was a prominent and able man, both as a practitioner and a citizen. He was a member of the Colonial Assembly and a popular orator. He died in 1732. There was a younger Dr. Kearsley, a nephew of the first-named, who succeeded to his uncle’s practice. He espoused the cause of the proprietors and crown against the rights of colonists, a proceeding that made him very unpopular, and caused him to be subjected to such gross indignities as to induce chronic insanity. As Newton township then embraced the territory bordering on the river-shore opposite to Philadelphia, it is probable that the practice of both these physicians extended across the river into this county.

The next notice of a physician in Camden County is to be found in the "Registry of Wills," at Trenton. Under the date of 1748 is recorded the will of "John Craig, Doctor of Physick, of Haddonfield." He evidently had practiced medicine there, but whence he came or how long he lived there cannot now be ascertained. There is no positive record of what were the prevalent diseases in early times in Camden County. Small-pox prevailed occasionally, and, after the discovery of inoculation in 1721, was combated by that method of treatment. Inflammatory diseases were common among a population exposed to the vicissitudes of an unaccustomed climate. Dysentery occurred in July and August. Although all the houses in early days were built on the streams, there is circumstantial evidence to show that malarial fevers were at first infrequent; nor did they become prevalent until considerable extent of Forest had been cleared away, and the soil of much new ground upturned by the plough. The first information on this subject from a professional source is furnished by Peter Kalm, a professor in the University of Arbo, in Sweden, who, by order of the Swedish government, visited, among other places, Gloucester County between 1747 and 1749. At Raccoon (Swedesboro’) he found that fever and ague was more common than other diseases. It showed the same characteristics as are found to-day. It was quotidian, tertian and quartan, and prevailed in autumn and winter, and in low places more than in high ones; some years it was prevalent throughout the county (Camden County was then included in it), while in others there would be but very few cases. The remedies then employed to overcome it were Jesuit’s (Peruvian) bark, bark of the yellow poplar and root of the dogwood. Pleurisy was also very common, and was fatal with old people. Under this name were claimed many cases of pneumonia, a disease not then well understood.

In 1771 Kesiah Tonkins, widow of Joseph, who died in 1765, lived on a farm between Camden and Gloucester City, known as the "Mickle estate." Between that date and 1776 she married Dr. Benjamin Vanleer, who lived with her on this place. She was the daughter of Joseph Ellis, of Newton township. It is supposed that Dr. Vanleer practiced in the surrounding country, as he took an active part in the affairs of the people, being one of a "Committee of Correspondence" for Gloucester County in the year 1775, in relation to the troubles between the colonies and the mother government. He was a man of fashion, dressed in the Continental style, with knee-breeches, and was proud of his "handsome leg." He did not remain long in New Jersey. A Dr. Benjamin Vanleer residing, in 1783, on Water Street, between Race and Vine, Philadelphia, is supposed to be the same person.

Although this history is confined to that portion of Gloucester which is now Camden County, yet Dr. Thomas Hendry, of Woodbury, ought to be classed among its physicians, because his field of practice included this section, and for the reason that his descendants became practitioners in it. He was born in 1747, in Burlington County, of English parentage, his mother’s name being Bowman, from whom her son received his surname. He served in the Revolutionary War, being commissioned superintendent of hospital April 3, 1777; surgeon Third Battalion, Gloucester. "Testimonials from General Dickinson and General Heard, certifying that Dr. Hendry had served as a surgeon to a brigade of militia, that he had acted as a director and superintendent of a hospital, and recommending that he should be allowed a compensation adequate to such extraordinary services, was read and referred to the hon’ble Congress." He took an active part in political affairs, and was once clerk of the county. He died September 12, 1822.

The next physician in Camden County was Dr. Benjamin H. Tallman, who practiced in Haddonfield. He probably located there about 1786, the year in which he was licensed to practice in New Jersey. From the year 1788 to 1793 he was the township physician, as it appears that in each of those years he was paid by it for his services in attending the poor. He was elected a member of the Friendship Fire Company of Haddonfield, September 6, 1792. On October 4, 1791, he read a paper before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, on the sudden effects of an effusion of cold water in a case of tetanus. He died about 1796.

Cotemporary with the above-named physician was Dr. Evan Clement. He was the son of Samuel Clement, who married Beulah Evans in 1758. They had two children, Samuel and Evan.** The latter was born in Haddonfield, but the exact date is not known, neither is there any record of when or where he studied medicine. He married, April 8, 1795, Anna, daughter of James and Elizabeth Wills, and lived in the brick house at the corner of Main and Ellis Streets, recently purchased and taken down by Alfred W. Clement. Dr. Clement was in practice there in 1794, and died in 1798. He was the first native of the county to adopt the profession of medicine and practice it in his native place.

It is a noteworthy circumstance that for a hundred years after the settlement of the county no one born in it had studied medicine. The poorer classes were unable to procure the means for acquiring the requisite education, while the wealthier ones altogether neglected it. It is true that prior to the founding of the University of Pennsylvania, in 1765, the only means of obtaining a knowledge of medicine was either to pursue a course of study under some competent physician, where the student was apt to be considered half a servant, or else by attendance at a medical school in England. The prospects of professional or pecuniary success in the county were not flattering. But in addition to this, there was a sentiment in this community unfriendly to the medical profession as a calling. In sickness the ministrations of friends and relatives, with their teas and potions, and the quack remedies of popular charlatans, who flourished then as well as now, were deemed sufficient. If, after this medication, the patient died, it was attributed to a "wise dispensation of Providence." The midwives were considered to be adequate to manage obstetrical cases. There still lingered among the people the tradition of their English ancestors, that the red and white striped pole was the sign of the combined office of barber and surgeon. These prejudices found expression in two diametrically opposite opinions. The stout, robust farmer and the active and alert merchant and mechanic looked with contempt upon a youth who had aspirations for the life of a physician as one who was too lazy to work. The women, whose remembrances of the midnight ride of the doctor through rains and snow and chilling winds, thought the hardships and exposure too great for their brothers and sons. These prejudices passed away but slowly.

Dr. John Blackwood, who began his professional career in Haddonfield, became the successor of Dr. Evan Clement, not only by succeeding to his practice, but by marrying his widow in 1799. He was the son of Joseph and Rebecca Blackwood, and was born at Blackwoodtown, July 28, 1772. His wife was a member of Friends’ Meeting, but was disowned for marrying out of it. Dr. Blackwood remained but a short time in Haddonfield. He removed to Mount Holly, where he became prominent in public affairs, serving at one time as postmaster and also as judge of the Court of Common Pleas and Orphans’ Court of Burlington County.*** He died in Mount Holly March 16, 1840.

Up to the close of the eighteenth century Haddonfield may be considered as having been the medical centre of the territory of Camden County. It was not only the oldest town in it, but it was the third oldest in the State. All the physicians who had practiced within the limits of the county had either lived in Haddonfield or Newton township, of which it was the seat of authority. For nearly half a century later it still retained its pre-eminence, until the growth of Camden, and its becoming the seat of justice for the county, transferred the supremacy to the latter.

In more recent times Haddonfield has had the doubtful honor of being the seat of one of the notorious John Buchanan’s (of Philadelphia) bogus medical colleges. Between 1870 and 1880 the doctor owned a farm on the Clement’s Bridge road, about four miles from the place, upon which he spent a portion of his time. During this period diplomas of the mythical "University of Medicine and Surgery of Haddonfield, N.J.," were offered for sale by his agents in Europe.

The period now being considered was a transition one for the nation, which was then being developed from the former colonies, through a confederation of independent States, into a great empire. The science and practice of medicine here participated in this change. At this time there appeared in Camden County a physician, who was destined to be its Hippocrates for forty years, and whose memory, though dead for half a century, is still preserved green in the farmhouses and hamlets of this county. This was Dr. Bowman Hendry, son of Dr. Thos. Hendry, of Woodbury.

Dr. Bowman Hendry was born October 1, 1773. He was educated at the Woodbury Academy, pursuing his studies under a Mr. Hunter, a classical scholar and a man of high literary attainments. At the age of seventeen he commenced the study of medicine, under the preceptorship of his father, and then attended lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, residing, as a pupil, in the house of Dr. Duffield. When about twenty years of age, and still a student, the Whiskey Insurrection broke out in Pennsylvania, and troops being called out for its suppression, young Hendry joined the ranks as a private soldier, and marched with them to Lancaster. The influence of his father, with Professor James, the surgeon of the troops, secured his release from the ranks, a premature examination at the University, which he successfully passed, and his appointment as assistant surgeon of the troops. This was a bloodless war, and soon ended. Dr. Hendry now began to look around for a field for practice, finally selecting Haddonfield. He began his active life as a physician in 1794, and upon the death of Doctors Tallman and Clement, and the removal of Dr. Blackwood to Mount Holly, he became the only doctor in the place. His practice now increased very rapidly, and stretched over a large extent of territory, extending from the Delaware River to the sea-shore, a distance of sixty miles. He was a man of indefatigable industry and indomitable perseverance in the pursuit of his calling. Kind-hearted and generous, he possessed that suaviter in re which won the affection of his patrons. Many are the anecdotes that are recorded of him.

For fifteen years he made his visits on horseback, having no carriage. At length he procured at a vendue an old sulky, which was only an ordinary chair placed upon wooden springs, without a top to protect him from the sun or rain. The price paid for the vehicle and harness was thirty dollars. An old "Friend" witnessing this extravagance, remarked, "Doctor, I fear thee is too fast in making this purchase. Thee will not be able to stand it, and make thy income meet thy expenses." This gives us an idea of the life of a physician in those days, and of the value of his services in the public estimation. In his journey’s through the "Pines" on the Atlantic slope he would sometimes become lost at night, and be compelled to sleep in the woods, tying his horse to a tree. He was always prompt to answer every call, no matter whether the patient was rich or poor, and being a furious driver, he had been known, in cases of emergency, to break down a good horse in his hurry to quickly reach the bedside, and that, too, in a case where he knew that he would not receive any pay for his services. It has been estimated that, in the course of forty years, he wore out over two hundred horses, he risked his life and gave his services in all cases. A family of negroes, living seven miles front Haddonfield, were attended by him for typhus fever, and, although warned that they were vagabonds, thieves and utterly worthless, yet he not only continued his visits, but gave them medicine and sent them provisions from a neighboring store.

Notwithstanding the arduous duties of such an extensive private practice, Dr. Hendry found time to attend to public duties. For many years he had charge of the Gloucester County Almshouse. He served as surgeon of Captain J.B. Cooper’s volunteer cavalry in 1805, formed from the young men of Haddonfield and Woodbury. He took an active part in religious affairs. He was a member and vestryman of St. Mary’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Colestown, until its congregation was drawn away from it by the building of new churches in the growing towns of Moorestown and Camden. Dr. Hendry was one of the originators of St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church in Camden, and was chairman of the first meeting held in the city hall, in that city, March 12, 1830, whereat the organization of this church was completed. At this meeting he was elected one of its vestrymen.

Dr. Hendry was a physician of great ability, and one who kept pace with the growth of knowledge in his profession. He stood pre-eminent in this county, both as a physician and surgeon, and his services as a consultant were in frequent request. He possessed those magnetic personal attributes which endeared him to the people to such an extent, that when his barn, horses and equipments were destroyed by an incendiary fire, they raised a subscription for him and quickly rebuilt the building and replaced the destroyed personal property. With these he combined the sterling qualities of the true physician. No doctor in this county has done more to elevate the practice of medicine from a trade to a profession. By his example he taught this community that there was attached to it a philanthropy and a benevolence that widely separates it from other occupations, and, by dying a poor man, when so many opportunities offered to secure gain, he illustrated the fact that the services of such men cannot be measured by money.

Dr. Hendry married, June 7, 1798, Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Charles Duffield, of Philadelphia, and had seven daughters and two sons, - Charles H. and Bowman Hendry, both physicians in Camden County.

Cotemporary with the early portion of Dr. Hendry’s career, and located at Colestown, three miles distant from him, was Dr. Samuel Bloomfield, who lived in a small hip-roof frame house on the road from Haddonfield to Moorestown, just north of the church. This house was torn down a few years since. Dr. Bloomfield, born in 1756, was the second son of Dr. Moses Bloomfield, of Woodbridge, N.J., and younger brother of Joseph, who became Governor of New Jersey. In 1790 the doctor applied for admission to the State Society, but did not press his application, and his name was dropped. It is not known how long he followed his profession here, hut his practice must have been limited in consequence of his convivial habits, and the great popularity of his competitor. He died in 1806, and was buried in St. Mary’s’(4*) Churchyard, now Colestown Cemetery. Two of his sons who survived him fell in the War of 1812.

There is no record of any physician having settled in Camden prior to the nineteenth century. Its proximity to Philadelphia seems to have made the village dependent upon its neighbor for its medical attendance. It is probable that some doctor may have attempted to practice there for a short time, but not succeeding, moved away, leaving no trace behind him, not even as much as did a Dr. Ellis, who, in 1809, had an office on Market Street, above Second. The only fact preserved of him is that in this year he dressed the wounded forearm of a child, but first bled the patient in the other arm before binding up the wound, yet the child recovered.

Dr. Samuel Harris was the first physician to settle permanently in Camden. As he was the connecting link between the old-fashioned practitioners of the last century and the association known as the Camden County Medical Society he is worthy of especial consideration. His father was Dr. Isaac Harris, born in 1741, who studied medicine and practiced near Quibbletown, Piscataway township, Middlesex County, N.J. From there he removed to Pittsgrove, Salem County, about 1771. Here he pursued his profession successfully for many years, and died in 1808. He possessed a good medical library. While a resident in Middlesex he was one of the pioneers in the organization of the New Jersey State Medical Society, being the sixth signer to the "instruments of Association," and became its president in 1792. In the Revolutionary War he was commissioned surgeon of General Newcombe’s brigade. His brother, Dr. Jacob Harris, also a surgeon in the same army, dressed the wounds of Count Donop, the Hessian commander, who was defeated and mortally wounded at the battle of Red Hank, and who died in an adjacent farm -house.(5*) Another brother, Dr. Benjamin Harris, practiced and died in Pittsgrove. Dr. Isaac Harris had two wives. The first was Margaret Pierson, of Morris or Essex County; the second, Anna, daughter of Alexander Moore, of Bridgeton, Cumberland County. By the first he had four children; one, Isaac Jr., studied medicine and practiced in Salem County. By the second wife, he had nine children, one of whom, Samuel, is now under consideration.

Dr. Samuel Harris was born January 6, 1781. He studied medicine with his father. It is said that he attended medical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, but his name does not appear in the list of graduates of that institution. He began the practice of medicine in Philadelphia, at the northeast corner of Fourth Street and Willing’s Alley, but indorsing for a relative, he lost all his property. He then determined to settle in Camden, and grow up with the place. He located in 1811 in the old brick building on Cooper Street, above Front. While he practiced medicine in Camden he still retained some of his patients in Philadelphia, and to visit them was compelled to cross the river in a row-boat, the only means of crossing at that time. In 1825 he purchased the large rough-cast house at the southeast corner of Second and Cooper Streets, which had been built by Edward Sharp. Here he kept his office and a small stock of drugs, it being at that time the only place in Camden where medicine could be purchased. Dr. Harris was a polished gentleman and a man of ability, and had a large practice in the town and in the surrounding country. He held to the religions faith of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was one of the founders of St. Paul’s Church in 1830, and was a vestryman in it until his death. Dr. Harris married Anna, daughter of John and Keziah Kay, and granddaughter of Captain Joseph Thorne, of the army of the Revolution. He died November 25, 1843, and is buried in Newtown Cemetery. His widow died July 16, 1868. He had no children. He bequeathed his estate, which was large, to his adopted daughter and wife’s niece, Miriam Kay Clement (now wife of Dr. Charles D. Maxwell, United States Navy), to niece Harriet (wife of Colonel Robert M. Armstrong), to niece Anna M. (wife of Richard Wells) and to niece Eliza T. (wife of Rev. Thomas Ammerman).

In 1812 Dr. Francis Hover settled in Camden, but remained only a short time. He was a native of Salem County and received his license to practice medicine June 4, 1794. He began his professional career in his native town; from thence he removed to near Swedesboro’, and then to Camden. From the latter place he returned to Swedesboro’. In 1821 he changed his residence to Smyrna, Kent County, Del., where he died May 29, 1882.(6*)

For a few years Dr. John A. Elkinton was a co-laborer with Dr. Bowman Hendry in Haddonfield. He was a native of Port Elizabeth, Cumberland County, N.J., born October 19, 1801, and was the son of John and Rhoda Elkinton. Selecting the profession of medicine, he attended lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1822. He commenced the practice of medicine in Haddonfield, where he remained until 1828. Being an energetic and active man, this country place did not offer a wide enough field for him, so he removed to Manayunk, a suburb of Philadelphia, where he resided for a short time. In the same year he moved into the city, where he continued in his profession. In the year 1832 he took an active part in combating the epidemic of cholera. He likewise became interested in public affairs. For many years he was a member of the Philadelphia Board of Health. In 1838 he was the projector of the Monument Cemetery in that city, and owned the ground upon which it was laid out. Afterward he was elected an alderman, when he gradually relinquished the practice of medicine. On October 5, 1830, he married Ann De Lamater. He died, December l5, 1853.

Dr. Edward Edwards Gough practiced medicine in Tansboro’ between 1826 and 1835. He was a native of Shropshire, England, in which country he acquired some knowledge of medicine. In 1824 he lived in Philadelphia, and there he married his wife, Elizabeth Dick. In 1826 he settled in Tansboro’, and commenced the practice of medicine, his visits extending throughout the surrounding country. While living there he attended medical lectures at the Jefferson Medical College, but he never graduated. He died in Tansboro’ in 1835. His widow is still living, in Indiana.

CAMDEN COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY. - Between the years 1844 and 1846 the physicians of Camden County began to feel the need of a closer union. Scattered as they were, they but occasionally met; sometimes they would pass each other on the road; sometimes, when their practices overlapped, they would meet each other at a patient’s house in mutual consultation.(7*) To accomplish this desired object, a petition was drawn up and signed by the legal practitioners in

the county for presentation to the New Jersey State Medical Society, asking for authority to organize a society. As the law then stood, no one was legally qualified to practice medicine or capable of joining a medical society in New Jersey, unless he had passed an examination before a board of censors of the State Society, and received a license signed by the board.

In the year 1846 the State Society met at New Brunswick. The petition of the physicians in Camden County being laid before it, they issued a commission, dated May 12, 1846, authorizing the following legally qualified persons to form a society, namely: Drs. Jacob P. Thornton and Charles D. Hendry, of Haddonfield; Dr. James C. Risley, of Berlin; and Drs. Richard M. Cooper, Othniel H. Taylor and Isaac S. Mulford, of Camden. In accordance with this authority, the above-named gentlemen, with the exception of Dr. Mulford, who was detained by sickness, met at the hotel of Joseph C. Shivers, in Haddonfield, on August 14, 1846, and organized a society under the title of "The District Medical Society of the County of Camden, in the State of New Jersey." Dr. James C. Risley was elected president; Dr. Othniel H. Taylor, vice-president; Dr. Richard M. Cooper, secretary, and Dr. Jacob P. Thornton, treasurer. A constitution and by-laws were adopted similar to those of the State Society. At this meeting Drs. Thornton, Hendry, Taylor and Cooper were elected delegates to the State Society. A notice of the formation of the society was ordered to be published in the county newspapers.

Haddonfield was thus honored by having the first medical society in the county organized within its limits. The rules of the State Society directed that county societies should hold their meetings at the county-seat, yet Haddonfield was not the seat of justice. The county of Camden had, in 1844, been set off from Gloucester County, and the courts of law were held in Camden, and the public records kept there, but the county-town had not been selected. The Legislature had authorized an election to decide upon a permanent place for the public buildings. The people were divided upon the subject. A most violent opposition had sprung up in the townships against their location in Camden, the majority of the people of the former desiring them to be built at Long -a-coming (now Berlin). It was during this contest that the society organized, and Drs. Hendry and Risley, who had charge of the petition, had inserted in the commission the name of Haddonfield. The second meeting, which had been left subject to the call of the president, was also held in Haddonfield on March 30, 1847. At this meeting Dr. Mulford raised the question of the legality of the place of meeting, and a committee was thereupon appointed to lay the matter before the State Society, who decided that these meetings, although irregular, were not illegal, as the county-seat had not yet been definitely fixed but directed that hereafter the meetings should be held in Camden.

The third meeting of the society was a special one, called by the president, and was held on June 15, 1847, at English’s Hotel, which was situated at the northeast corner of Cooper and Point Streets, a building which has since been torn down and dwellings erected upon the site. At this time it was decided to hold semi-annual meetings: the annual one on the third Tuesday in June, and the semi-annual on the third Tuesday in December. These were always punctually held until 1852, when, upon the motion of Dr. A.D. Woodruff of Haddonfield, the semi-annual meeting in December was discontinued. On June 18, 1867, Dr. R.M. Cooper, chairman of the committee on bylaws, reported that the State Society having changed their day of assembling from January to the third Tuesday in May, it would necessitate the election of delegates to that society eleven months before it met. The Camden County Society then changed the time of the annual meeting from June to the second Tuesday in May, and this rule still continues. For twenty years the semi-annual meetings had been discontinued, when, in May, 1873, Dr. N.B. Jennings, of Haddonfield, moved that they should be resumed. This was approved, and the second Tuesday in November named as the time for holding them. As the society increased in numbers and its proceedings became more interesting, the propriety of holding more frequent meetings began to be discussed, until, in 1884, Dr. E.L.B. Godfrey, of Camden, proposed a third meeting, on the second Tuesday in February of each year. This was adopted in the succeeding year.

At this, the third stated meeting of the society, in 1847, a resolution was passed that caused great excitement in the city and county of Camden. It read as follows:
"Resolved, That the names of all the regularly licensed practitioners in Camden County be published in one of the papers of the county, together with the twelfth section of the law incorporating the Medical Society of New Jersey."

This law imposed, a fine and imprisonment upon any one practicing medicine in the State without a license from the State Society. The insertion of this in a county paper caused the gravest anxiety among the few irregular practitioners and their patrons, and provoked from Dr. Lorenzo F. Fisler a long communication in the Camden Democrat. Dr. Fisler, who had been practicing medicine in Camden since 1837, had not joined in organizing the County Medical Society, nor had he taken any part in it. He was a man of more than ordinary ability, active in public affairs and was at one time mayor of the city. He was a writer of considerable force. He took umbrage at being inferentially placed in the illegal class, claiming that he had passed his examination before the board of censors of Salem County in 1825, and had received their certificate therefor, but had never presented it to the State Society for a license, and that the document had been mislaid or lost. Upon this the Camden County Society made inquiry of Dr. Charles Hannah, of the board of censors of Salem County. He replied that he had been a member of every board that had ever met in the county, and that Dr. Fisler had never received a license from it. The latter immediately went down to Port Elizabeth, Cumberland County, his native place, and among some old papers of his father’s found the missing certificate, with Dr. Hannah’s name among the signatures. After the discovery of this document the society held a special meeting on September 2, 1847, and prepared an address to the public, explaining their reasons for falling into the error, and disclaiming any unfriendly feeling towards Dr. Fisler.(8*) Although the doctor obtained the required license from the State Society, he ever after held aloof from it, and never joined the Camden County Medical Society.

In the year 1816 the New Jersey State Medical Society had obtained from the State a new charter, which gave them exclusive jurisdiction over the medical profession in it, with a power of license which alone qualified a person to legally practice medicine. In accordance with this enactment, the State Society appointed boards of censors for different districts. It was the duty of these boards to examine all applications for membership in the society, and also to examine any one desiring a license to practice, as to his professional qualifications, and if he passed successfully to issue to him a certificate. No one, not even graduates of medical colleges, was exempt from this examination, until the year 1851, when the Legislature passed an amendment to the act of 1816, authorizing the graduates of certain colleges, which were named, to practice medicine in New Jersey by merely exhibiting their diplomas to the president of the State Society, who thereupon was directed to give them a license, which was complete upon its being recorded in the clerk’s office of the county wherein the recipient intended to practice, and upon the payment of a fee of five dollars. During the period between the organization of the Camden County Medical Society and the passage of this law its board of censors examined thirteen physicians, some of whom were to practice elsewhere in New Jersey. Their names were, -

Another amendment was enacted by the Legislature in 1834, which permitted a graduate of any medical college to practice medicine in the State by merely filing his diploma in the clerk’s office of the county in which he located. Upon the passage of this law the Camden County Society required, as an eligibility to membership, that the applicant should procure a diploma from the State Society. This rule continued in force until 1866, the centennial anniversary of the latter society, which had the year previous surrendered its old charter and obtained a new one which relinquished all powers of licensure. Since then and up to the present time any physician, a resident in the county one year, may apply for membership in the Camden County Medical Society. His application is referred to the board of censors, who report at the next meeting. If he is found to be of good moral character and possesses the professional qualifications required by the American Medical Association, he is recommended for election.

The constitution of the society provided that the officers should be elected annually. It was intended to re-elect yearly those who were first placed in office. Dr. Risley was continued as president until a special meeting in 1849, when his office was declared vacant in consequence of a tardiness in settling his financial accounts with the society. Although these were afterwards satisfactorily adjusted, he withdrew from it, and Dr. Isaac

S. Mulford was elected to fill the vacancy. Dr. O.H. Taylor, who was the first vice-president, and Dr. R.M. Cooper, the first secretary, were continued until 1850. Dr. Jacob P. Thornton was the first treasurer but he does not appear to have attended the meetings regularly, and in 1848 Dr. Cooper was elected to fill his place. At the meeting held in June, 1850, Dr. Bowman Hendry moved that the president and vice-president be eligible for election for only two years in succession and the by-laws were so amended, in June, 1854, the words "two (2) years in succession" were erased and "one year" substituted. This was done to open the offices to new and younger members; consequently, since that date these two officials have held their position for one year, a plan that has proved to be satisfactory and still continues. Dr. Cooper, the first secretary and treasurer, held these offices until 1862,

when he was succeeded by Dr. Thomas F. Mullen, who occupied them for two years; then Dr. Richard C. Dean filled them from 1855 to 1857; Dr. Jan V. Schenck, in 1858; and Dr. Henry Ackley from the latter date until 1861. At this time the society had become a permanent institution. It had never failed to hold a meeting at the appointed time. Valuable medical and historical papers were accumulating and the want of a suitable person who would permanently take care of them was keenly felt. It was therefore determined that while under the constitution the secretary must be elected annually, it would be well to re-elect him so long as he should satisfactorily perform his duties and would accept the office. Dr. H. Genet Taylor, a young graduate in medicine, who had joined the society the year previous, was elected, and has been continuously re-elected, faithfully performing the duties of his office for twenty-five years up to the present time. During the Civil War he was absent serving his country as surgeon in the Army of the Potomac in the years 1862 and 1863, and in 1865 he was president of the society, when his duties were performed by a secretary pro tempore. Dr. Taylor was treasurer as well as secretary until 1874, when the two offices were separated and Dr. Isaac B. Mulford was made treasurer. This he held until his death, in 1882, when Dr. Alexander Mecray, the present incumbent, was elected to fill the vacancy.

In a few years after the formation of the society there arose a need of collecting each year the medical history of the people and the hygienic condition of the county. At a meeting held June 18, 1852, Dr. Edward J.

Record made a motion that a committee of three be appointed "to report of the diseases incident in the county and also interesting cases that may come under their notice." The committee were Drs. O.H. Taylor, A.D. Woodruff and E.J. Record. At the next meeting, in 1853, the name of "Standing Committee" was given to it and each member was requested to transmit to the chairman of it any interesting cases occurring in his practice. R. O.H. Taylor was its first chairman. The members of this committee were frequently changed, its number remaining the same until 1875, when it was increased to five members. In 1878 Dr. John W. Snowden was elected chairman and has been continued until now.

The Camden County Medical Society is entitled to representation in the State Society by delegates to the number of three at large, and one additional for every ten members. It also sends delegates to the American Medical Association and to the neighboring district societies in this State.

One of the most interesting proceedings of the early days of the society was the ordering, in 1851, of an enumeration of all the physicians practicing in the county. The committee appointed for that purpose reported at the meeting held June 15, 1852, that the total number was twenty-seven. Of these, one was a botanical, or herb doctor, who was not entitled to, nor did he claim, the privileges of an educated physician. Two were homoeopaths, one of whom was a graduate of a regular college, and was a licentiate under the law of 1851. The remaining twenty -four were graduates of accepted medical colleges, twenty-two of them holding licenses from the State Society, although five had neglected to register their names in the clerk’s office, in accordance with the provisions of the new law. The names of all these doctors have not been preserved. In the year 1872 another census of the county was taken by direction of the society. A report made to it at the annual meeting held on the 14th of May, in that year, stated that the total number of practicing physicians was fifty-three. Of this number, thirty-three were "regular graduates, practicing as such, one regular, but practicing homoeopathy at times." There were thirteen professed homoeopaths and five eclectics. The regular physicians were located as follows: Twenty-one in Camden City, four in Haddonfield, three in Blackwood, three in Gloucester City, one near Waterford and one in Berlin.

The Camden County Medical Society has always taken an active interest in such public affairs as legitimately came within its province, and were calculated to be of benefit to the county or State, and has never failed to throw its influence in behalf of whatever might conduce to the public welfare. As early as 1854 Dr. John W. Snowden introduced into the society a resolution "that the delegates of this society are hereby instructed to suggest at the next meeting of the State Society the propriety of an application to the next Legislature for such modification of the present law as shall enforce the registration of all the marriages, births and deaths occurring in the State." This measure has since that time been acted upon by the Legislature of New Jersey, and an efficient system of recording these data is now in operation.

The next public event that aroused the society was the breaking out of the great Rebellion in 1861, and the calling for troops by the government. To this call the response was prompt. Of the eighteen physicians whose names were registered on the roll of its members at the close of the Civil War, five had enlisted in the service of their country: Doctors Richard C. Dean and Henry Ackley had entered the navy, Doctors H. Genet Taylor and Bowman Hendry in the army, and Dr. John R. Stevenson, in the Provost Marshal General’s Department, all as surgeons. The two in the navy were still on its rolls, having engaged for a life-service. The three who had been in the volunteer service all had honorable discharges.

The society keeps a careful guardianship over its county interests. It having been reported, in 1879, that the Board of Chosen Freeholders had inadvertently appointed an incompetent man as resident physician of the County Insane Asylum, at a meeting held May 12th, of that year, Dr. James M. Ridge "moved the appointment of a committee to report what action is, in their opinion, advisable for this society to take in reference to the appointment." Doctors James M. Ridge, Alexander Marcy, N.B. Jennings, D. Benjamin, E.B. Woolston, D.P. Pancoast and H. Genet Taylor were appointed. At the next meeting of the society, held November 11th, of that year, the committee reported that they had held a meeting upon June 4th, and had appointed a sub-committee, consisting of Doctors D. Benjamin and O.B. Gross, to attend the meeting of the committee of the Board of Freeholders at Blackwood, and that the latter had superseded the late medical incumbent, and had appointed Dr. Jona J. Comfort, a former member of the society, as resident physician of the Insane Asylum. It also recommended that a number of physicians, members of the society, be appointed to visit the asylum, in order that it might be more properly under their inspection. A vote of thanks was tendered to Director Isaac Nicholson, of the Board of Freeholders, and to the members connected with him, for their assistance in procuring the desired change. Dr. Henry E. Branin, of Blackwood, at present has charge of the County Asylum and Almshouse.

A notable feature of the meetings of the Camden County Medical Society is the social gathering which accompanies them. The hour of assembling was, at one time, twelve o’clock, noon, but now it is eleven A.M. After the business is disposed of, a collation is partaken of, at the expense of the society. It is the custom to invite to these a number of distinguished physicians from other places, who have previously joined in the discussions upon scientific and medical subjects, and have given the members the benefit of their knowledge and experience. The meetings have always been held at hotels, where suitable accommodations could be obtained. As was previously stated, the first two were held at the house of Joseph C. Shivers, in Haddonfield. The next meeting was held at the hotel of Israel English, at the foot of Cooper Street, and when Mr. English became the landlord of the West Jersey Hotel, the society followed him to it. Between 1855 and 1857, inclusive, they were transferred to the hotel of James Elwell, at the foot of Bridge Avenue. This building has been demolished, and the site is now occupied by the offices of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The annual meeting of June 21, 1859, was held at the hotel at Ellisburg, then kept by Stacy Stockton. Returning to the West Jersey Hotel, this continued to be the favorite place until the retirement of Mr. English as host. Mr. Samuel Archer, who then kept the old house at Cooper’s Point, having offered to provide a suitable entertainment, and the Camden and Atlantic Railroad Company proffering the use of their rooms adjoining, for meeting purposes, the society met there from 1873 to 1880. Since then the meetings have been held three times at Gloucester (Buena Vista House and Thompson’s Hotel), but otherwise at the West Jersey Hotel.

The expenses incurred by the society were met by an assessment upon each member for a pro-rata share of them, until the death of Dr. R.M. Cooper, in 1874. In his will, which was dated April 28, 1874, and probated June 4th, of the same year, was the following clause, "I give and bequeath to the Camden County District Medical Society, of which I have been a member since its commencement, the sum of three thousand dollars, to be invested by the said Society in the loans of the United States, the State of New Jersey, or the City and County of Camden or some other public loan, and the interest of said sum to be used by the said Society in the payment of the expenses ordinarily incurred by the said Society. In case my executors should think proper to pay said legacy in any securities belonging to my estate, bearing interest at their market value, I do authorize and direct them to pay said legacy in such securities instead of cash." To accept of this legacy, the society, at a meeting held May 10, 1875, determined to appoint two trustees, one for one year and one for two years, who, with the treasurer, should constitute a board of finance. These were elected the succeeding year, and were Dr. John V. Schenck for two years, Dr. Thomas F. Cullen for one year, and Dr. Isaac B. Mulford, treasurer. Dr. Cooper’s executors set aside three one thousand dollar seven per cent. bonds of the West Jersey Railroad Company, which were left with, and are still in the possession of John W. Wright, who is one of them, who pays the interest as it becomes due.

The New Jersey State Medical Society has three times met as the guests of the Camden County Society. The first time in 1849, when the semi-annual meeting of the former society convened at Elwell’s Hotel, on November 13th of that year. The annual meeting, in January, 1864, was held in Camden, at Morgan’s Hall, on the corner of Fourth and Market Streets. The reception committee were Drs. R.M. Cooper, T.F. Cullen, J.V. Schenck, O.H. Taylor and A.D. Woodruff. They found great difficulty in finding hotel accommodations for members, some of whom had to go to Philadelphia to secure them. The expenses incurred by the committee were paid by Dr. R. M. Cooper out of his private funds.

In the year 1874 Atlantic City had become a favorite seaside resort, with several hotels each large enough to accommodate the whole State Society. There being no medical society in Atlantic County, it was determined by the Camden County Society to invite the first-named society to hold their next annual meeting there. A committee consisting of Drs. J.W. Snowden, J.V. Schenck, J. Orlando White, I.B. Heulings, J.R. Stevenson and T.F. Cullen, was appointed to make preparations. The meeting was held May 26, 1875. It was memorable for seven reasons. It was the first time a county society had ever selected a place outside of its own jurisdiction to entertain its parent society. The Camden and Atlantic Railroad Company provided, free of expense, a special train to convey delegates and invited guests both ways, issuing tickets good for three days, on any train.

As far as is known, this was the first instance in the United States where a railroad had offered such a courtesy to any body of medical men. For several years a few of the members had been accompanied by their wives and daughters to these meetings of the State Society, which hold for two days. As the families of physicians enjoy but few opportunities to join them in a holiday exeursion, it was determined by the committee to offer the greatest inducements for the ladies to accompany the delegates to Atlantic City. Invitations were issued for them to attend and to partake of a banquet, which the Camden County Society had ordered for the evening, and the minutest details of the shortest route to Camden and thence to the seaside were furnished them. The attendance, especially of ladies, was larger than it had ever been at any previous meeting. The State Society, however, passed a resolution prohibiting any county society from providing any banquet in the future, because of the burden it would entail on poorer societies. The citizens of Atlantic City did all in their power of give pleasure to their guests.

Date of admission.	Name	Year of graduation.	College were graduated	Remarks.
1846	Jacob P. Thornton.	1828	University of Pennsylvania	Removed West
1846	Richard M. Cooper.	1839	University of Pennsylvania	Died May 24, 1874
1846	James C. Risley.	1844	Jefferson Medical College	Died Nov. 26, 1866
1846	Charles D. Hendry.	1832	University of Pennsylvania	Died April 29, 1869
1846	Othniel H. Taylor.	1825	University of Pennsylvania	Died Sept. 5, 1869
1846	Isaac S. Mulford.	1822	University of Pennsylvania	Died Feb. 17, 1873
1847	A.D. Woodruff.	1844	Jefferson Medical College	Died Jan. 1881.
1847	Bowman Hendry.	1846	Jefferson Medical College	Died June 8, 1868
1847	Daniel M. Stout.	1847	Jefferson Medical College	Present member.
1847	Benj. W. Blackwood.	1828	University of Pennsylvania	Died Jan. 19, 1866
1848	John V. Schenck.	1847	University of Pennsylvania	Died July 25, 1882
1848	Edward J. Record.	1848	Jefferson Medical College	Expelled.
1849	John W. Snowden.	1844	University of Pennsylvania	Present member.
1849	John J. Jessup.	1848	Jefferson Medical College	Died 1852.
1849	Robt. M. Smallwood	1849	University of Pennsylvania	Died Feb. 8, 1856.
1850	Jacob Grigg.	1843	University of Pennsylvania	Removed to Burl’n Co.
1850	Thos. F. Cullen.	1844	University of Pennsylvania	Died Nov. 21, 1878
1850	Sylvester Birdsell.	1848	Jefferson Medical College	Died May 29, 1883.
1851	Ezekial C. Chew.	1843	Jefferson Medical College	Removed West.
1852	B. Fullerton Miles	1852	Jefferson Medical College	Removed.
1854	G.W. Bartholomew.	1853	University of Pennsylvania	Expelled.
1854	Richard C. Dean.	1854	Jefferson Medical College	Honorary member.
1857	N.B. Jennings.	1856	Jefferson Medical College	Died April 17, 1885.
1857	W.G. Thomas.	1854	Pennsylvania Medical College	Died Aug. 17, 1858.
1859	Henry Ackley.	1858	Jefferson Medical College	Died Dec. 1, 1865.
1860	H. Genet Taylor	1860	University of Pennsylvania	Present member.
1860	Henry E. Branin.	1858	Jefferson Medical College	Present member.
1863	J. Gilbert Young.	1862	University of Pennsylvania	Honorary member.
1863	John R. Stevenson	1863	University of Pennsylvania	Present member.
1864	Alex Marcy.	1861	University of Pennsylvania	Present member.
1866	Joseph F. Garrison.	1845	University of Pennsylvania	Honorary member.
1866	James M. Ridge.	1852	University of Pennsylvania	Present member.
1866	Jonathan J. Comfort.	1859	Jefferson Medical College	Removed.
1867	Peter V. Schenck.	1860	University of Pennsylvania	Died March 12, 1885
1867	H.A.M. Smith.	1864	Jefferson Medical College	Present member.
1867	Alex. M. Mecray.	1863	University of Pennsylvania	Present member.
1867	J. Newton Achuff.	1867	Jefferson Medical College	Died.
1867	T.J. Smith	1866	University of Pennsylvania	Removed in 1868.
1867	John M. Sullivan.	1858	Jefferson Medical College	Removed.
1868	J. Orlando White	1868	University of Pennsylvania	Present member.
1870	I.W. Hewlings.	1869	Jefferson Medical College	Honorary member.
1870	Randall W. Morgan	1870	University of Pennsylvania	Died Oct. 20, 1884.
1871	J.W. McCullough.	1860	Jefferson Medical College	Died March 5, 1881.
1871	John R. Haney.	1861	University of Pennsylvania	Present member.
1871	D. Parrish Pancoast.	1859	University of Pennsylvania	Present member.
1871	R.B. Okie.	1870	University of Pennsylvania	Removed to Penna.
1871	Isaac B. Mulford.	1871	University of Pennsylvania	Died Nov. 21, 1882.
1871	Thomas Westcott.			Resigned.
1871	W.H. Ireland.	1867	University of Pennsylvania	Present member.
1871	Geo. W. Boughman.	1863	Jefferson Medical College	Present member.
1871	Edwin Tomlinson.	1872	Jefferson Medical College	Present member.
1873	C.H. Shivers.	1873	Jefferson Medical College	Present member.
1875	Maximillian West.	1875	University of Pennsylvania	Rem. to Atlantic City.
1875	E.B. Woolston.	1854	University of Pennsylvania	Present member.
1876	E.L.B. Godfrey.	1875	Jefferson Medical College	Present member.
1876	W.P. Melcher.	1876	University of Pennsylvania	Rem. to Burlington Co.
1876	James A. Armstrong.	1861	University of Pennsylvania	Died Oct. 30, 1885.
1976	Thomas G. Rowand.	1850	Philadelphia College	present member.
1876	E.J. Snitcher.	1874	Chicago Medical College	present member.
1876	D.W. Blake.	1876	Jefferson Medical College	present member.
1877	W.A. Davis.	1876	University of Pennsylvania	present member.
1877	Dowling Benjamin.	1877	University of Pennsylvania	present member.
1877	John S. Miller			Removed.
1878	J.F. Walsh.	1876	University of Pennsylvania	present member.
1878	S.B. Irwin.	1844	Jefferson Medical College	present member.
1879	W.H. Iszard.	1870	Jefferson Medical College	present member.
1879	Onan B. Gross.	1878	University of Pennsylvania	present member.
1879	James H. Wroth.	1878	University of Pennsylvania	Rem. to New Mexico.
1880	J.W. Donges.	1866	University of Pennsylvania	present member.
1881	C.M. Schellinger.	1879	Jefferson Medical College	present member.
1881	H.H. Davis.	1879	Jefferson Medical College	present member.
1881	C.G. Garrison.	1872	University of Pennsylvania	Honorary member.
1882	W.A. Hamilton.	1870	University of Maryland	present member.
1883	H.F. Palm.	1881	Jefferson Medical College	present member.
1883	E.P. Townsend.	1863	Jefferson Medical College	present member.
1884	Conrad G. Hoell.	1882	University of Pennsylvania	present member.
1884	A.T. Dobson, Jr.	1882	University of Pennsylvania	present member.
1884	P.W. Beale.	1876	Jefferson Medical College	present member.
1885	Daniel Strock.	1877	Jefferson Medical College	present member.
1885	Joseph H. Wills.	1880	University of Pennsylvania	present member.
1885	Wm. Warnock.	1880	University of Pennsylvania	present member.
1886	Jesse J. Wills.	1884	Jefferson Medical College	present member.
1886	James A. Wamsley.	1878	Jefferson Medical College	present member.

DISEASES AND THEIR REMEDIED.- There is but little information concerning the diseases that prevailed in Camden County prior to the formation of its Medical Society. The limited number of physicians who practiced in it between 1730 and 1846 had but little time to write any account of their observations and experience, and still less opportunity to publish them. It is, therefore, from traditions that have been well preserved in this section, compared with the accounts of diseases and epidemics in other parts of this and adjacent colonies, that a knowledge of them can be best obtained.

There is a widespread belief that the climate of this section has changed, and that diseases now are very different from what they were in early times. A hundred years ago the old were wont to lament the change and deterioration of the seasons, since the days of their youth, in the same strain as their descendants do now. A careful examination of weather notes shows that there has been no climatic variation since the early settlement of the county. There were then, as now, cycles of hot and dry summers, alternating with cool and moist ones; cold, bleak winters with warm and wet ones. There was the chilly spring and the mild autumn. With the exception of a few maladies, like cholera, that have been imported from countries with which, in former times, there was only infrequent and slow communication, there is no evidence that there are any diseases now that did not occur in early days. Their symptoms and courses have been greatly modified by a change in the habits and customs of the people, and by improved medication and sanitation.

In colonial times the houses were nearly all built of wood, a few were log, but most of them were constructed of rough sawed boards, with board partitions, and without plaster. There were no carpets on the floor. The only mode of heating them was by a wood fire in an open fire-place, by which the family sat in the Arctic cold of winter, one side of the body alternately chilled and warmed as it was turned to or from the blazing logs. Their clothing was of homespun wool; only on ceremonial displays did the well-to-do wear linen or silk shirts or stockings. Underclothing was not worn until the present century, even after cotton cloth had been substituted for woolen stuffs. Overcoats were a rare luxury, but a few of the wealthier men possessed them. Bangups they were called, made of good imported cloth; they were reserved for state occasions; they were expected to last a lifetime, and sometimes descended as an heirloom to the son. Rubber over-shoes and clothing were never dreamed of until within the present generation. The only mode of traveling was in the open boat or on horseback exposed to the weather.

Their diet did not compare any more favorably with that of modern times than did their clothing. Vegetables were plentiful in the summer, but there was no method of preserving the perishable ones through the other nine months of the year. Their bread was made from rye, wheat having come into general use only within the last fifty years. The staple meats were salt pork and ham. In the earlier period of the settlement this was relieved by game, but as the country filled up, it became scarce and had a mercantile price; then it was sold. Mutton was but little eaten. Prior to the Revolution sheep were so valuable that in old wills bequests are left to daughters of a ewe-lamb and feather-bed in lieu of any real estate. After the embargo laid upon wool during the war it became unpatriotic and disreputable to eat mutton, and this sentiment continued to prohibit its use long after the reason for it had been forgotten. It was only in the winter that they had fresh meat. When they wanted beef they fatted the oldest and most worthless cow on the farm, and when cold weather set in they killed it, and after the meat had been cooked to the indigestibility of leather, they ate it three times a day until putrefaction commenced. It is not surprising that beef was not considered a wholesome food. One superlative article of food they possessed in abundance, whose value as a substitute for any deficiency in a diet is unsurpassed, but which has not been appreciated by either the medical profession or the laity, until recently. That was milk. This was not a salable commodity, and that is, perhaps, the reason why it was considered to be a plebeian drink. The dividing line between gentility and common people was milk. To have offered an invited guest at the table a glass of it would have been an unpardonable offence. The family, including the children, at the first table had their tea and coffee; the bound boy at the second table had an unstinted supply of milk. The result was that a quarter of a century afterwards the bound boy owned the farm.

Alcoholic drinks were freely used. Apple-whiskey was in every one’s house. Imported wines and brandies purchased by the wealthier people were reserved for special occasions. It was customary to take a drink of spirits before breakfast to counteract the deleterious effects of fog and dampness. If a neighbor was visited, or the visit returned, the decanter was set out as a mark of hospitality. It was not believed that any excessive labor, like haying and harvesting, could be done without it. The jug was taken to the meadow or field along with the water-bucket, and when the men had cut a number of swaths across the grass or grain, a halt was made to take a draught of the liquor. At social gatherings, at weddings, at funerals, and even at child-births the flowing bowl was passed around.

The contrast between these early habits and customs and those of to-day is most marked. Without enumerating them, it will suffice to state that a temperance man in the eighteenth century was one who never got intoxicated; now he is a total abstainer from alcoholic beverages. Now the well-filled decanter is not only kept out of sight, but it is banished from the house. One township in this county has for fifteen years prohibited the sale of liquor within its limits.

As might be expected, inflammatory diseases were formerly very frequent, and their symptoms violent. Pleurisy, bronchitis, pneumonia and rheumatism prevailed extensively, especially in years in which the thermometric changes favored their development. They were much oftener fatal than they are now. Cholera-morbus, dysentery and diarrhoea, which are rarely fatal now, then caused the death of many. Scarlet fever, measles and whooping-cough, which are the bane of childhood, exhibited the same infantile violence as the diseases of adult life. Sickness, especially epidemics, as far back as 1726, are noted as having been sthenic or asthenic, but there is no record of that popular word typhoid, as applied to depressed forms of illness, having been used in this county until 1855, when Dr. T.F. Cullen reported that malarious diseases had that year assumed a typhoid form. These facts would indicate that the changes in the mode of living of the people, which had been gradually improving up to the discovery of gold in California in 1848, and very rapidly since then, had produced a moiety of people of weak constitution, who, under the surroundings of earlier days, invariably died young.

Intermittent and remittent fevers wee common on the Delaware slope of the county. In 1798 there is a record that they were prevalent on the high ground, while yellow bilious fever attacked those along the river-shore. In 1823 Dr. Charles F. Clarke, of Woodbury, in his notes, says that bilious fevers were epidemic, and so numerous were the cases, that as he rode along at night, farmers would keep a light burning as a signal for him that there was sickness in the house. The reports made to the Camden County Medical Society state that malarial fevers prevailed along the streams in 1848. After this little is said about them until 1856, when they again became frequent, and continued to increase until 1862, when they were declared to be epidemic. Then they began to decline, until in 1867, and for five years afterwards, they had so diminished that the physicians congratulated themselves that these diseases were finally disappearing. In 1873 they reappeared, steadily increasing in number and severity until 1877, when they were again pronounced to be epidemic; since then they have been declining, and at present (1886) are quite infrequent. Professor Kalm, reporting to the Swedish government in 1748, concerning Gloucester (Camden included) County, says fevers and agues were more common than any other disease. In some years they ravaged the whole county, in others "scarcely a single person was taken ill."

At the time that Kalm wrote, the Atlantic slope of the county, called the "Pines," was not inhabited, except by a few wood-choppers. From the earliest times this section has been popularly credited with great exemption from pulmonary and miasmatic diseases. More recently Dr. John W. Snowden, who has practiced medicine in that section for forty years, and who is the able chairman of the Standing Committee and reporter of the Camden County Medical Society, states that he never saw a case of intermittent or remittent fever originate there. He also confirms its reputation for freedom from pulmonary affections.

Typhoid fever was not known as a distinct disease until it was investigated and described by Louis, a French physician, in the early part of the present century. There is no doubt but that cases of it occurred here so soon as the concretions from filth were sufficient to form a nidus for its growth. The milder forms of it were classed with obstinate remittent fever, and helped to swell its mortality list. In the tradition that has comedown to us of the dreaded and fatal nervous fever, as it was called, may be found a description of a severe case of typhoid fever where the cerebral symptoms were prominent. In the reports of the medical society this disease is noted as occurring more or less throughout the county every year, although in some seasons it is more frequent than in others, especially in Camden. Haddonfield seems to have had great immunity from it, as there is no record of any ease happening ,there that was not contracted elsewhere.

Typhus fever has been an infrequent disease during the history of the county. There was an epidemic of it in Camden in 1812, in which a number lost their lives, but otherwise that city has been remarkably free from it. Dr. Bowman Hendry had some cases of it adjacent to the almshouse at Blackwood. At this institution it is occasionally introduced by vagrants, and in 1881 it became epidemic, there having been one hundred and three cases and thirty-three deaths from it. Dr. McCullough, one of the attending physicians, fell a victim to the disease.

The proximity of Camden County to the port of Philadelphia has made it liable to be invaded by yellow fever. There is no record of its having become located within the county limits, although the lower end of Gloucester County, from which it was set of, has been charged with having reproduced it along the river-shore in 1747 and 1798. There were epidemics of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1762; between the years 1793 and 1798; between 1802 and 1805; and in the years 1819 and 1820. At these periods there were isolated cases contracted by visits to infected districts of that city. During the epidemic of 1853 there does not appear to have been any deaths from it in Camden County. In 1854 there was one case of yellow fever in Camden in the person of a sailor who, two days previous to his attack, had landed from a steamer sixty hours from Savannah, Ga.

The insidious and obscure diseases of the kidneys observed and described by Dr. Bright, of England, in 1828, and after whom they are named, were not diagnosed by physicians until chemistry and microscopy had advanced to such a state of progress as to offer the only means of detecting them. The first application of these sciences in Camden County for this purpose was made by a member of its Medical Society in 1865. Since that date Bright’s disease is known to be the cause of a limited number of deaths here annually. Fatal results from some formerly obscure cases of dropsy are now known to be caused by this disease. There are some families who have noticed that for two or three generations a number of their members have died of dropsy. Some of these deaths within the last twenty years have been the sequelae of Bright’s disease. The inference is, therefore, that the dropsy of former generations was produced by the same cause, and that, to a limited extent, Bright’s disease is hereditary.

In 1735 -36 a terrible epidemic swept over the colonies, called the "throat distemper." In the accounts of it that have come down to us, and in the traditions of a not infrequent disease called, in this county, "putrid sore throat," may be discerned the modern diphtheria. Under the latter name the malady is but little mentioned in the records of the Medical Society until 1862, when Dr. Cullen reported that it had been seen occasionally during the year, but that he did not believe that it had ever been epidemic in Camden City. Since that date it has appeared more or less every year throughout the county, but not to any great extent.

Small pox was a much dreaded disease in colonial times. The introduction of inoculation here, about 1750, robbed it of some of its terrors, and the discovery of vaccination, by Jenner, at the close of the last century, made it still more harmless. Yet it still lingers, and at times becomes epidemic. The Camden County Medical Society reported it to be so in Camden City in 1856, 1864, 1871 and 1880. In the latter year there were six hundred and eighty-eight cases and one hundred and thirty-four deaths from it. The number of gratuitous vaccinations made to check the disease was about eight thousand.

Asiatic cholera is an imported disease indigenous to Southern Asia. Its first appearance in Camden County was in 1832. The accounts of its ravages then are very meagre. Dr. Isaac S. Mulford, writing in 1855, says that it was not so violent as were the subsequent epidemics of 1849 and 1854, all of which he witnessed. He also says that in the first-named year it possessed a sthenic character. Among the papers of the late Dr. Charles F. Clarke, of Woodbury, is one stating that the people were greatly afraid of it, believing it to be contagious, and that he had helped to bury the bodies of the dead, which the people in their terror had thrown upon the river-shore.

Its second appearance was in 1849, the first case occurring in Camden in the middle of June. At that time the city had a population of nine thousand people, many of whom fled; yet between its advent and the commencement of cold weather, when it ceased, there were one hundred and nineteen cases and fifty deaths. In Winslow there were a number of deaths from cholera, but no account of them has been preserved. There were also a few isolated cases in the other townships. Camden was next visited by this disease in 1854, when the first person attacked died from it on June 25th. It did not assume an epidemic form until October, and ceased on November 23d. In this year there were ninety-four cases and fifty-seven deaths. During its continuance the Camden City Medical Society held several, special meetings to consult about it, and the members exerted themselves to the utmost to check its ravages. In Haddonfield there was a single case that had been contracted in Camden. The susceptibility of the latter city to become a cholera centre, the virulence and the fatality of the scourge there, gave it a reputation for unhealthfulness that seriously checked its growth, so that between 1849 and 1866 its population only increased from nine thousand to eighteen thousand.

When it was reported, in 1865, that cholera was approaching the United States, the Camden City Medical Society, alert to the dangers to be apprehended from another visitation, at their stated meeting held September 7th of that year, appointed Drs. John R. Stevenson, Isaac S. Mulford, Alexander Marcy and Thomas F. Cullen a committee to adopt measures to prevent an anticipated invasion of cholera. Their final report states that upon inspection they found Camden to be as filthy as any city of its size in the Union. The drainage was superficial and imperfect; garbage and coal ashes were thrown into the streets, but few of which were paved; the cesspools, shallow in depth, were in many places overflowing upon the ground, and pig sties had been allowed to be erected in the yards of the poorer classes. The committee consulted with the City Council, who courteously received their suggestions, and through their sanitary committee, of which John S. Lee was chairman and Colonel Joseph C. Nichols the efficient executive officer, put in force the ordinances which were plenary. Before the summer of 1866 they had cleansed the city and abated all nuisances. In this year the first case of cholera occurred on June 25th, when the city authorities, having previously provided a stock of disinfectants, as recommended by the medical committee, virtually transferred the direction of sanitary measures to the latter, who investigated each case of the disease, and had the premises and clothing of the sick promptly disinfected. There were in this year thirty-nine cases of cholera and thirty deaths. It did not become epidemic, as it only became located in two places, in both of which it was stamped out within thirty-six hours. Just beyond the city limits, in Newton township, there were twenty-seven cases, and twenty-five deaths in a negro hamlet. With the exception of one at Winslow, there were no others in Camden County. In the year 1873 there were three reported instances of cholera in Camden City, and in one person it proved fatal.

The experience of 1866 in Camden and elsewhere demonstrated the power and efficiency of well-directed sanitary measures in preventing the spread of infectious and contagious diseases, and subsequent observation confirmed it.

In the year 1880 the Legislature of New Jersey passed an act creating a State Board of Health of nine members, which enactment provided that every city, town or borough shall have a Board of Health of not less than five nor more than seven members, of which the recorder of vital statistics, one city physician and the city health inspector shall be members. In each township, the township committee, the assessor and township physician compose the Board of Health. Any city, borough or township which had a local Board of Health at the time of the passage of this act was exempt from its provisions. Camden was one of those exempted and did not accept the provisions of the health law until 1885. During the years 1884 and 1885, Dr. O.B. Gross acted as special inspector of that city for the State Board of Health.

The use of herbs as remedies has already been described. Cider, although a beverage, may be classed as a medicine. In former times it was drank hot at night as a cure for colds. The ground Jesuit’s bark was mixed in it to make the dose more palatable, and it had the popular reputation of being "good for the liver." Every large farmer had his cider-mill, where he made his own cider, and which he loaned for the use of his less fortunate neighbors. Scattered at convenient points throughout the district were farmers who added a still to their cider-mill, and who distilled the cider of their friends into apple whiskey on shares. At the present time there are only a few cider-presses, and but two whiskey stills in the county. One still is owned by Joshua Peacock, near Haddonfield; the other by Hugh Sharp, adjacent to Marlton. An early industry was the distillation of the essential oils of sassafras, pennyroyal, horse-mint, winter-green, spearmint, etc., from indigenous plants that were once very abundant. Their product was sold locally for use as liniments and rubefacients, and the surplus sent to the Philadelphia market. These oil-stills gradually fell into the hands of the negroes. Between 1840 and 1850 one was operated in Jordantown by a colored man, Stephen Polk, and by his son Elzey. The last one in the county was owned by a colored man styled "Dr. Thomas," residing near Marlton. This was abandoned about twenty years ago.

About the year 1822, Nathan Willets began the cultivation of the castor bean on the farm where he resided, on the Haddonfield and Clements Bridge road, two miles from Haddonfield. He also prepared the oil for market. He continued the business for some twenty years.

Until the beginning of the present century physicians made their visits on horseback with a saddle-bag attached to it, in which were carried their medicines and the few instruments they used. They prepared their own pills and potions. Among their preparations were those of mercury, a very ancient remedy, which had been always in moderate use. Calomel came into repute in 1736 as an application for the throat distemper, but mercurials were not pushed to salivation until within the present century. This mode of medication continued up to 1850. Since then mercury has fallen into disuse by the medical profession, but when the great increase in the consumption of officinal and patent pills, most of which contain some compound of this metal, is taken into consideration, it is doubtful if any less of it is taken by the people now than formerly, only the manner of administration has changed.

Venesection began to be employed about 1750 and became so popular with physicians that it was employed in all cases, the lancet being their invariable accompaniment. Now. so completely has it fallen into discredit that but few of the present members of the Camden County Medical Society have ever bled a patient.

Boerhaave, elected professor at Leyden in 1701, announced the doctrine that all diseases were the result of humors in the blood. This was accepted by physicians everywhere, who, in accordance with it, prohibited the use of cold drinks in sickness, but made their patients drink hot teas, keep the window closed to prevent the ingress of fresh air, and plied them with bed-covers to induce perspiration. There are old residents here who well remember the discomforts and misery of such treatment.

A few of the best-known old standard drugs and some popular nostrums were early sold by the country merchants. They are at this day to be found in the stock of the cross-made stores in this section. The first drug store in Camden County was opened by Thomas Redman in November, 1735. He was the son of Dr. Thomas Redman, of Philadelphia, and was born March 31, 1714. He was educated an apothecary, and, having removed to Haddonfield, commenced business where now stands the dwelling of the late Samuel C. Smith. In addition to drugs he kept other merchandise, but the former was a special department, where prescriptions were compounded. This business and the knowledge of the preparation of medicines was transmitted to his son and grandson, who continued the same occupation in the same place until 1846. Charles S. Braddock, a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in the class of 1851, opened the first store in Haddonfield for the exclusive sale of drugs in the year l853. This is still continued by his son. R. Willard is the proprietor of the other store in this town.

In Camden, Dr. Samuel Harris, in 1811, sold some medicines from his office. Between the years 1812 and 1821, Freedom L. Shinn kept a drug store at the northeast corner of Second and Plum (Arch) Streets. After that there was no place other than at Dr. Harris’ office where medicines could be purchased until 1832, when Dr. Sickler opened a drug store on Federal Street near the ferry. According to charges on his books, opium was worth fifty cents an ounce, and seven and one-half ounces of essence of peppermint eighty-seven and one-half cents. He also sold paints and oils. Paint oil was worth one dollar and ten cents per gallon; putty seven cents a pound, and a light of glass, ten by twelve, cost seven cents. This store was discontinued in 1834. In the latter year Drs. Joseph Kain and David Smith started a store of the same kind at the northeast corner of Third and Plum (Arch) Streets. Early in the year 1835, Dr. Smith retired and moved away. Shortly afterwards, in March of the same year, James Roberts, of Philadelphia, purchased the store from Dr. Smith, and six months subsequently sold it to Joseph C. Delacour, who still continues the business, but he has removed his establishment to the southwest corner of the same streets. The medical directory for 1885 enumerates thirty-six druggists in Camden.

About the year 1855, Thomas Hallam added a drug department to his store in Gloucester City, where he compounded physicians’ prescriptions. This was the commencement of the apothecary business in that place, in which, at present, there are five pharmacies. One was opened in Merchantville in 1881 by C.H. Jennings, and another in Blackwood by Dr. J.E. Hurff in 1884.

CAMDEN CITY MEDICAL SOCIETY.- The Camden City Medical Society was organized in the city of Camden, June 21, 1853, by Drs, L.F. Fisler, L.S. Mulford, O.H. Taylor, S. Birdsell, T.F. Cullen and J.V. Schenck. At this meeting a committee of three, consisting of Drs. O.H. Taylor, Birdsell and Fisler, was appointed to draught a suitable constitution and by-laws. This meeting then adjourned to the 16th instant, when a constitution and by-laws were adopted and an organization effected by the election of Dr. Isaac S. Mulford, president; Dr. L.F. Fisler, vice-president; Dr. J.V. Schenck, secretary and treasurer; and a standing committee composed of Drs. Cooper, Birdsell and Cullen. The officers are elected yearly, at the annual meeting in September.

The society is in effect, although not in fact, a subdivision of the County Society, composed of those members of the latter who practice medicine in the city of Camden. In the list of its members from the organization to the present time there are but seven who were not members of the other society. Their names are, -

It meets quarterly, in the evening, generally at the house of one its members, but since the establishment of the Dispensary it occasionally meets there. Its meetings have never been discontinued, but sometimes have lapsed for want of a quorum. It has a supervision over all medical matters that belong exclusively to Camden City, and which are not of special interest to the townships outside of it. Reports made to it of the health of the city, of epidemics, of medical and other cases of special importance, are brought to the attention of the standing committee of the County Medical Society. Therefore, the transactions of the City Society, as far as relates to disease and its treatment, have already been given in the history of the former society.

Formerly a subject of frequent discussion in their meetings was the fee-bill or the rates to be charged for professional visits and cases of surgical injuries, it being desirable that a uniform price should be fixed upon by all its members for similar attendance upon the sick.

The City Medical Society has always taken an active interest in all public measures that concerned the health or bodily welfare of the citizens of Camden. In 1857, at the request of the Philadelphia Board of Health, it appointed delegates to meet in that city with those of similar societies on May 13th, for conference in relation to the establishment of a uniform system of quarantine laws. In the succeeding year another delegation was elected to attend a like convention in Baltimore.

At the meeting held July 3, 1858, a committee composed of Drs. Mulford, O.H. Taylor and Cullen was appointed to investigate and report upon the filthy condition of the hydrant water. The paper which they prepared condemned the management of the water-works. It was read at the next meeting of the society, and a synopsis of it was sent to the Public Ledger and to the directors of the company who then controlled the water supply of Camden.

In 1859 a resolution was introduced into the society looking to the establishment of a Dispensary in Camden. This will be more fully described in the history of that institution. In 1865 a committee was appointed to recommend measures for the prevention of an invasion of the city by cholera, an account of whose work is given in the sketch of cholera in Camden. This committee, in addition to the duty assigned to it, was, at a meeting held August 9, 1866, requested to make inquiry as to the mode of registering deaths in Philadelphia, which having been done, the plan was recommended to City Council, with the request that they pass a similar ordinance.

At the meeting held March 4, 1876, the family of the late Dr. Richard M. Cooper presented his library of medical works to the Camden City Medical Society. A committee was appointed to prepare an appropriate place for it, and to arrange a catalogue of it. The Dispensary was selected as a suitable building in which to deposit it.

There never had been any coroner’s physician for Camden County. In case of sudden death, where the coroner desired an investigation of its cause by a physician, he could call upon any one convenient to the inquest. The doctor’s services were paid for in each individual case. There having arisen some dispute between the officials and the members of the Camden County Medical Society as to the value of the services rendered, a fee-bill was drawn up by the society and laid before the proper authorities. At the meeting held December 2, 1869, Dr. Thomas F. Cullen moved, "That members of the Camden City Society refuse to make or assist at any postmortem examination as directed by the coroner or coroners of Camden County, or by any court or courts of said county, until the fee-bill as already presented to the Board of Chosen Freeholders, as agreed upon by this society, shall be accepted and agreed upon by them, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders be notified by the secretary of this society of the same." This resolution was adopted and copies were ordered to be sent to the Board of Freeholders and to the managers of the Dispensary.

By this time it became apparent that the growth of population, with its increasing wants, demanded a physician clothed with the proper authority, and sufficiently remunerated to take charge of the physical interests of the public departments. The society having this object in view, at its meeting in March, 1874, adopted a motion, made by Dr. James M. Ridge, that a committee should be appointed to "confer with the relief committee of City Council upon the appointment of a city physician." The result of these repeated efforts of the profession to arouse the attention of the officials to the needs of the community was the appointment of a county physician.

The Legislature & New Jersey, by an act approved April 21, 1876, created the office of county physician. The laws thus enacted and in force give the county physician precedence and authority in all coroner’s cases until he has given orders for a view or inquest to a coroner or justice of the peace. He is obliged to assume the responsibility of all coroner’s work. Besides this, he furnishes medical attendance and gives medicines to the inmates of the county jail. His salary is eight hundred dollars per annum, in lieu of all fees.

Dr. Randall W. Morgan was county physician from 1876 to 1881; Dr. Wm. H. Ireland, from 1881 to 1884; and Dr. Gross, the present incumbent, since the latter date.

PENSION BOARD. - In June, 1884, a United States Pension Board of Examining Surgeons was established in Camden. It is one of three assigned to New Jersey, the other two being respectively at Newark and Trenton. It was composed as follows, viz.: Dr. H. Genet Taylor, president; Dr. James A. Armstrong, treasurer; Dr. Onan B. Gross, secretary. Upon the change of administration of the government, the board was reorganized in July, 1885, by the appointment of Dr. James M. Ridge, president; Dr. John W. Donges, treasurer; and Dr. Onan B. Gross, secretary. The beard meets every Wednesday at the Dispensary for the purpose of examining applications for pensions.

CAMDEN CITY DISPENSARY. - The first movement towards establishing a Dispensary in Camden was made in 1859. Dr. O.H. Taylor, when a young graduate in medicine, had been a visiting physician for the Philadelphia Dispensary, and was impressed with the usefulness and the beneficent charity of such an institution in a young city. At the meeting &the Camden City Medical Society held March 3d, in that year, he brought to its attention the propriety of petitioning City Council for the establishment of a Dispensary. This was discussed and laid over until the next meeting, on June 2d, when a committee of three, composed of Drs. O.H. Taylor, R.M. Cooper and L.F. Fisler, was appointed "to frame a memorial to the City Council of Camden, in order to cooperate with the City Medical Society in the establishment of a City Dispensary." At the December meeting the committee read a report, and after considerable debate in regard to the encouragement likely to be extended by those appealed to for aid, the subject was indefinitely postponed.

After the call of President Lincoln for three hundred thousand men was made, December 19, 1864, it became evident that another conscription for troops would be enforced in Camden. A number of men formed an association called "The North Ward Bounty Association," to insure such of its members as might be drafted against enforced military duty, by paying a bounty to volunteers to fill the places of those whose names might be drawn from the wheel. The drawing had been made in Camden, and part of its quota had been filled, when the surrender of Lee at Appomattox closed the war and stopped recruiting. During this month the members of the North Ward Bounty Association held a meeting and passed a resolution appropriating the sum left in the hands of Thomas McKean, treasurer, amounting to $3956.96, to charitable purposes. After consultation with Dr. Taylor and other members of the City Medical Society, Mr. McKean determined, with the committee of the association, to appropriate it toward the founding of a Dispensary. He and Samuel B. Garrison were selected as a committee to make inquiries as to the manner and practicability of establishing the same. On May 4, 1865, a special meeting of the Medical Society was convened for the purpose of taking "action in reference to a resolution passed at the last meeting of the North Ward Bounty Association, devoting funds on hand to the establishment of a Dispensary in the City of Camden." A committee was then appointed to confer with the above-named gentlemen, consisting of Drs. O.H. Taylor, Fisler, Cooper, Schenek and Cullen.

Subsequently a minority of the members of the Bounty Fund Association became dissatisfied with the disposition that had been made of the funds, and they held a meeting on May 24, 1865, and passed a resolution, addressed to Messrs. McKean and Garrison, to distribute the money among the "contributors and drafted men." This action caused some litigation, which was decided by the court in favor of the Dispensary. At a meeting of the society held in December of the same year the committee on Dispensary reported that negotiations were in progress for the purchase of the Perseverance Hose-House, and that a gentleman had purchased twelve cots, which he designed presenting to the institution. At the next meeting, in March, 1866, it was reported that the hose-house on Third Street, below Market, had been purchased, and that a room was being fitted up for the meetings of the society, and that A. Browning, Esq., had offered his services gratuitously for procuring a charter for a corporate body. The committee were instructed to organize the Dispensary in conjunction with such citizens as may be appointed to act with them, and the plan of organization drawn up by the society in 1859 was reported and accepted. Subscription books were ordered to be prepared for each member, for druggists and other citizens. On March 17th the keys of the Dispensary were handed to the society, with the request that it should carry on the institution until a charter could be obtained from the next Legislature authorizing a board of managers. On March 21st the following visiting physicians were appointed: North Ward, Dr. H. Genet Taylor; Middle Ward, Dr. John R. Stevenson; and South Ward, Dr. A. Marcy. O.G. Taylor was elected druggist and superintendent. The consulting physicians, who were appointed at the next stated meeting in June, were Drs. R.M. Cooper, L.F. Fisler and Thomas F. Cullen.

The Dispensary was opened immediately and managed by the medical committee until the procurement of the charter, approved February 5, 1867, in which Drs. Isaac S. Mulford, O.H. Taylor, Richard M. Cooper, Lorenzo F. Fisler, Thomas F. Cullen, John V. Schenck, William S. Bishop, Bowman Hendry, James M. Ridge, H. Genet Taylor and John R. Stevenson were named as corporators. Under this charter an organization was effected March 7, 1867, by the election of Dr. Isaac S. Mulford, president; Dr. L.F. Fisler, vice-president; Dr. J.R. Stevenson, secretary; and Dr. R.M. Cooper, treasurer. On the 12th of December of the same year the Perseverance Hose-House was conveyed to the corporation, the consideration being two thousand dollars. The first annual meeting of the corporators and contributors, as provided by the constitution and by-laws which had been adopted the 18th of April of the year previous, was held January 14, 1868, at which it was reported that the net amount received from the draft fund had been $3776.94, of which $2128.03 had been expended, leaving a balance on hand of $1648.91. Since the opening of the institution the cash contributions were one thousand one hundred and twenty-seven dollars, besides donations of various articles to the value of sixty dollars. Of this there was a balance of $3.33 on hand. The total number of patients prescribed for had been six hundred and eighty-two, and the total number of prescriptions compounded, two thousand and twenty-three. On the 21st of January the reorganization of the Dispensary under the new charter took place, at which Drs. Thomas F. Cullen was elected president; John V. Schenck, vice-president; R.M. Cooper, secretary and treasurer. Dr. Cullen served as president until 1870, when Thomas A. Wilson was elected. He was succeeded in 1874 by John Morgan, who continued in office until his death, in 1881. The next president was Thomas McKeen, who died in 1884, when Dr. Alexander Marcy, the present incumbent, was elected to fill the vacancy. Dr. John V. Schenck continued to be vice-president until his death, in 1883, when Dr. Alexander Marcy became vice-president, who, upon his election to be president in 1884, was succeeded by the present official, Maurice Browning. Upon the resignation and removal from the city of the secretary, Dr. John R. Stevenson, in 1867, Dr. R.M. Cooper was appointed to the vacancy, holding the combined office of secretary and treasurer until his death, in 1874, when Dr. H. Genet Taylor was elected secretary, a position he still holds, and Joseph B. Cooper became treasurer, but resigned in 1882. The present treasurer, R.H. Reeve, succeeded him. O.G. Taylor, the druggist and superintendent, elected March 21, 1865, served continuously for nearly twenty years, during which time he never made a mistake. His health failing, so that he was unable to perform his duties, he resigned January 10, 1886, and died shortly afterwards in the same year. Dr. H.F. Palm now fills the post.

In the year 1868 City Council appropriated three hundred dollars a year to the Dispensary, in consideration of the services it rendered to the poor of the city. This appropriation continued until the year 1879, when an ordinance was passed authorizing its sanitary committee to divide the city into three districts and make a contract with the board of managers of the Dispensary to furnish medical attendance and medicines to the poor of the city for the sum of sixteen hundred dollars per annum. This agreement was ratified on June 1st of that year, and the following physicians were elected by the board of managers, viz: For the First District, Dr. O.B. Gross; Second District, Dr. C.M Schellinger; Third District, Dr. M. West - with a salary of two hundred dollars a year for each. Prior to this time all the physicians who had attended to the Dispensary had given their services gratuitously. The younger members of the society had each, in their turn, filled these positions, serving until a new member - usually a young graduate in medicine - would relieve them from this duty. These physicians had been elected by the City Medical Society and were accountable to it, but when the officers became salaried, then their selection was transferred to the board of managers of the Dispensary. This contract with the city was renewed annually at the same price, until 1885, when the latter opened it to the lowest bidder. The board offered to renew it at sixteen hundred dollars, which was not accepted; consequently the election of the district physicians was abandoned, and the Medical Society again resumed its free attendance.

When the Dispensary building was fitted up, the first floor was divided into two rooms, the front one being used as a pharmacy and the rear one as an office in which to examine patients. Meetings were also held here. During the winter of 1866 and 1867 a course of gratuitous medical lectures was delivered here to the students of Rev. T.M. Reilly’s Theological School. Dr. John R. Stevenson lectured on materia medica and practice of medicine, and Dr. H. Genet Taylor on anatomy and surgery to these young men, who were preparing themselves for missionary work in the Territories. In the year 1884 an additional room was built in the rear, to be used for holding consultations. At first the second floor was filled with hospital cots for the reception of persons who might receive accidental injuries; but as sufficient means could not be raised to provide nurses and open a culinary department, the project was abandoned, and the beds were sold in 1869. In 1868 this room was rented to Dr. Reynell Coates for five dollars a month, who lived in it until 1877. The Microscopical Society occupied it after 1878.

The "Board of Pension Examining Surgeons" rented it in 1885. When unoccupied it is used for holding special meetings of both the City and County Medical Societies. Miss Elizabeth Cooper, who died in 1884, left a bequest to the Dispensary of one thousand dollars.

During the year 1885 the attending physician had treated one thousand one hundred and forty-seven medical and surgical cases, and four thousand two hundred and ninety-five prescriptions had been compounded. The cost of this was $1335.34, which left a balance of $242.80 out of receipts amounting to $1578.14.

THE COOPER HOSPITAL. - The project of establishing a hospital in West Jersey had been for some time contemplated by the brothers William D. and Dr. Richard M. Cooper, descendants of William Cooper, the first settler at Coopers Point, but during their lifetime they had taken no active steps in that direction. William D. Cooper, shortly before his death, which occurred in 1875, expressed a wish that fifty thousand dollars should be set apart from his estate and used for hospital purposes. The devisees of his estate, who were his sisters Sarah W. and Elizabeth B. Cooper, in accordance with their brother’s wish, took the matter into consideration, and deeming fifty thousand dollars insufficient for the erection and maintenance of such an institution, generously decided to contribute two hundred thousand dollars for that purpose. In addition to this, they also, with their brother Alexander Cooper, conveyed the plot of ground on which the hospital now stands. The ground extends north and south from Mickle to Benson Streets and east and west from Sixth to Seventh Streets, and is valued at about fifty thousand dollars, making the total amount two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In accordance with the desire of the donors a charter was obtained and the act of incorporation provided that the corporators should constitute the board of managers, and that they should have exclusive control of the funds as set forth in the act, and in accordance therewith, the two hundred thousand dollars was placed in their hands.

The act provided for the construction of suitable buildings for hospital purposes on the grounds above mentioned, and also contains the following: "The object of said corporation shall be to afford gratuitous medical and surgical aid, advice, remedies and care to such invalid or needy persons as under the rules and by-laws of said corporation shall be entitled to the same." The board of managers commenced work on the erection of the hospital building in the latter part of 1875, but during the progress of the work many improvements not at first contemplated were made, so that when the structure was completed, in 1877, the entire cost including laying out of the grounds had amounted to ninety-five thousand dollars, a much larger sum than was at first estimated would be required. This left a balance of one hundred and five thousand dollars for the purpose of an endowment fund, which was invested in New Jersey mortgages bearing seven per cent. interest. In 1878 the legal rate of interest was reduced to six per cent., which materially lessened the income to be used in defraying the operating expenses of the hospital, and the board of managers, after taking into consideration the income thus unexpectedly reduced, concluded that the amount was not sufficient to maintain the hospital as at first projected, and deemed it advisable to add the yearly income to the endowment fund until a sufficient sum was invested to guarantee the income necessary to support the institution. The managers believed that the delay in the opening thus caused would result to the benefit of the public in the larger accommodations which the increased fund would permanently secure. The sum now invested (1886) the board of managers consider sufficient to warrant the opening of the institution.

The building is constructed of Leiperville gray stone, with hollow walls lined with brick, three stories high. The entire depth is two hundred and twenty-four feet by an avenge width of forty-six feet. The front, or administration building, is fifty-six feet by forty-six feet, and contains rooms for offices, managers, physicians, matrons, apothecary and operating rooms, stores, etc., and is connected with the hospital by a corridor twenty feet by fourteen, on each side of which are linen rooms for the use of the hospital.

There is a male and female ward, each thirty-one by seventy-seven feet, connecting with sitting-moms thirty by thirty-one feet. Adjoining and connected with these wards, are four small wards, each twelve by twenty-two feet; there are also four wards in the administration building, each sixteen by eighteen feet; the cubic air space is about two thousand four hundred feet, and the floor space about one hundred and seventy feet to each patient. The basement of the hospital building contains the dining-rooms and apartments for servants. Particular attention has been paid to the sanitary arrangements of the hospital. It is heated throughout with steam, besides having open fireplaces in most of the wards and rooms; the ventilation is effected by means of steam coils placed in two large aspirating shafts, connected with which are flues opening into the wards; fresh air is supplied from apertures in the ceilings leading outside. The boiler and laundry rooms are located in a separate building connected with the main building by an under-ground passage. The hospital will be opened at first with about fifteen beds. Under the rules contemplated the medical staff will consist of consulting, visiting and resident physicians and surgeons. The board of managers are, - President, Alexander Cooper; Secretary and Treasurer, John W. Wright; Peter L. Voorhees, Rodolphus Bingham, Joseph B. Cooper, Augustus Reeve, William B. Cooper and Richard H. Reeve.(9*)

SOURCE: Page(s) 237-308, History of Camden County, New Jersey, by George R. Prowell, L.J. Richards & Co. 1886
Published 2010 by the Camden County Genealogy Project

PRESIDENTS OF CAMDEN COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.
James C. Risley, 1846-47.	James M. Ridge, 1867.
Isaac S. Milford, 1848-51.	Jonathan J. Comfort, 1868.
Charles D. Hendry, 1852-53.	Alexander M. Mecray, 1869
A. Dickinson Woodrufff, 1854.	J. Orlando White, 1870.
John W. Snowden, 1855-75.	Richard M. Cooper, 1871-74.
Othniel Taylor, 1856.	Isaac W. Heulings, 1872.
Thomas F. Cullen, 1857.	Edwin Tomlinson, 1877.
Sylvester Birdsell, 1858.	H.A.M. Smith, 1878.
John V. Schenck, 1859-73.	D. Parish Pancoast, 1879.
Bowman Hendry, 1860.	C.H. Shivers, 1880.
Napolean B. Jennings, 1861.	Isaac B. Mulford, 1881.
Henry E. Branin, 1862.	E.L.B. Godfrey, 1882.
J. Gilbert Young, 1863	John R. Haney, 1883.
John R. Stevenson, 1864.	Dowling Benjamin, 1884.
H. Genet Taylor, 1865.	E.B. Woolston, 1885.
Alexander Marcy, 1866-76.	W.H. Ireland, 1886.

NAME.	Date of Elec.	Where graduated	Remarks.
Lorenzo F. Fisler.	June 16, 1853	Univ. of Penna.	Died 1871
Jesse S.Z. Sellers.	Sept. 7, 1854	Univ. of Penna.	Died
Reynell Coates.	Dec. 5, 1867	Univ. of Penna.	Died 1886
D.N. Mahonne (honorary)	Sept. 3, 1868	Univ. of Penna.	Res’d 1868
Charles F. Clarke.	June 3, 1869	Univ. of Penna.	Died 1875
William G. Taylor.	Mar. 4, 1875	Jeff. Med. Col.	Died 1877
Charles A. Baker.	Mar. 2, 1870	Jeff. Med. Col.	Removed

Examined.	Names.	Location.
1848.	Dr. Bowman Hendry,	Camden County.
1848.	Dr. A. Dickinson Woodruff,	Camden County.
1848.	Dr. Daniel M. Stout,	Camden County.
1848.	Dr. William Elmer,	Cumberland County.
1848.	Dr. T. Barron Potter,	Cumberland County.
1848.	Dr. Theophilus Patterson,	Salem County.
1848.	Dr. Edward J. Record.	Camden County.
1849.	Dr. Theodore Varrick,	Hudson County.
1849.	Dr. John J. Jessup,	Atlantic County.
1849.	Dr. John W. Snowden,	Camden County.
1850.	Dr. Thomas F. Cullen,	Camden County.
1850.	Dr. Sylvester Birdsell,	Camden County.
1850.	Dr. Jacob Grigg,	Camden County.

Chapter XIV History of Medicine and Medical Men Part 1

Chapter XIV
History of Medicine and Medical Men Part 1