A biographical notice of Daniel Drake, M.D., of Cincinnati : prepared by appointment of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia / by Charles D. Meigs.

  • Meigs, Charles D. (Charles Delucena), 1792-1869.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A biographical notice of Daniel Drake, M.D., of Cincinnati : prepared by appointment of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia / by Charles D. Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    always dressed with precision, and never left bis house in the morning until his hair was powdered by our itinerant barber, John Arthurs, and his gold-headed cane grasped in his gloved hand.—Disc. Jan. 9, 1852. Br. Drake's printed Discourse,^ charming production. wBich he- delivered before the Cincinnati Medical Library Association, Janu- ary 9,1852, is filled with pleasing sketches of the men and manners of that early day; and it is difficult, in looking back upon the speaking pictures he has drawn, to imagine how it happened that amidst such utter laxity of the popular opinion upon drinking, cards, and pastimes, and under such faineant modes of life as cha- racterize the frontier men of America, he could wholly escape the contagion of such baleful example and companionship. The only association then existing at Cincinnati, for mutual im- provement, was one denominated the Young Men's Debating Society. Of this association, a considerable number of the young members subsequently arose to great distinction in the United States. It is enough, among these, to name the Hon. John Maclean, now of the Supreme Bench; Gen. Joseph G. Totten, the distin- guished present Chief of the corps of U. S. Engineers ; the gallant Gen. Jessup of the U. S. Army, and Drake himself, whose name is, perhaps, not less illustrious as an American physician and philoso- pher, than theirs in the field and the forum. In the discourse in question, Dr. Drake remarks upon the very low state of literature in the place, and the irregularities of con- duct of the early inhabitants; nevertheless, he there imbibed a stronger taste for learning and habits of virtuous living. He gives us a lively representation of the methods of exercising the medical art among them; and the mode of procuring their supplies of drugs and medicines from the then remote Atlantic cities. He portrays the superstitions prevalent among the vulgar, and describes the narrow bridle paths along which town physicians made their visitations to the sick in distant country places, anil tells us of his own student life. It was his business to put up and dispense from house to house, the medicines prescribed by his preceptor, Goforth, to the sick villagers. Beginning, says he, at Peach Grove, where the Lytle House now stands, my first as- signed duties were to read Quincy's Dispensatory, and grind quick-