Autobiography of Silas Thompson Trowbridge M.D.

Appendix

APPENDIX 1'0 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY Ot' S, T, TRbWlllUDGE ~L :p, o • • • • CONTAININU I,.ET'l'EItH, Al)l)RI::~SI::S, D[SRl'fiTAnO~~, REPORTH • . ESSAYS .U'U ~[lSC:BLLA:liEO(iij l'ROPVV'I'/O:SS OF 'I'll!:: AUTHOR. APPENDIX. FOURTH OF JULY 1858. . . The following correspondence will sufficiently explain t.he Toast and speech that follows. - ED. DECATUR, JULY 6. 1858. S. T. TROWBRIDGE, M. D. DF;AR SIR:-We, the undersigned citizens ot Decatur, being deeply impressed with those sentiments ofsimple justicc, wlucll it pleased you, in reference to a toast given at the celebration in this place on the 5th iust., to pay to the worthy and generous philarithropists of revolu. tionary fame, who were and still are the illustri· ons representatives of the honored profession t.o which yOl1belong; and feeling sensibly the public importance of those attributes into which you characterized your co-laborers in the great cause of human slItTering, and fully believing that a knowledge of these sentiments \vill interest and enlighten the public mind on a subject of most \'ita! impurtance, viz: that the members of the medical p"ofession will lIot hold themselves responsible iI.l character or llame for the ruinous and fatal conseqnences which may attend the rightles efforts of the unlettered and illegitimate interlopers--we do therefore solicit frolll you for publication, a copy 'Jf the toast and your response thereto. With the highest consideration of respect aud esteem of YOl1r fellow citi~ens, J. S POST. ANSEL TUPPER. 'ft. IRWIN. -G. W . VER.M:tLLION. G. LEFORGElo:. A . A. STAFFORD. A. D. RISDON. ,J. l)[BQDEN. CHAS. C. POST. C. R. WHKt:LEH. W. J. CHJtNOWETH. J. B. CliRTI:-:. S, 1,-, BA.LDWI~, and otht'T!I. APPENDIX, DEC,UUR, JULY 9th, 1858. , 'GmrrLmlEN:-Yours of the 6th inat, isl>e1'ore m~. Tou nave my than~8 extended to YOII at thIs my earliest O!'l'tilmty, for the honor con, ferred by request" a copy of my response on the-6th, at our eel ratiou, in answer to the call beMr. Ansel Tupper's toast to "The Doctors." And now at YOllr solicitatioll, whieh haa been so O()lU'teously beatowed, I her~with enclose a copy near1lu can be, of the rem/lrks I made on that 008lli10n and paail them into YOllr hands to do with u you see proper. .. With many een6lIF.I A.ND GIlNTLluIEN:-In answer-ing to " lleutiruent SO Hattering to the members of the meJical profession, I feel that the proffered. honor tr.auDeeud. lOY capabilities, and yet I have the weaklless to ";lIake a trial. We acknowledge thll compliment, so liberally bestowed by an accomplished l1Iember of a rival profession, which is paid in the toast; and to the prayer of which, that "may the anatomical skill of that sssiduoul plass supplant discovered errors by lessons of f(,iene!! drawn from the bones of Quacks" I can most heart.ily say Amen! And now tlU"I1ing thi$ tosst and sentin)ent to the fitness of this day, which is trnly olle of gIOl'y-a type and symbol I)f all those days of struggle and self-sacrifice for tile institutions which constitute our creed of rel 'ublir.-aniSfIl, I am happy to say that round those contleil tires ~hich our Fathers kindled, many .prominent memhers of the Medi~Al Pl"Ofesaion clustered and afforded an efficient corpa ·of operatives in those days, which truly tried the.souls of men. All",," me here to halt and call somen&QleB. Benjamin Rush, was a signer oi the Declaration pf Independence and one of Philadelphia's fineat Doctors. Gen. Joseph Warren, woo, by llis eloquence and example contribnted so largely to arollse his townsmen to resist the aggression. of England, lind who at the battle of Bunker Hill, led on the repeated charges lmtil the Pea;1l1·C. Onr battles are fuught in the lazar hOll"t:, the' hospital and the plague stricken dist ritl'qllallltCt! with a gentlelllall in the ear., who "at UpOIl t.1, e loIl\.lue seat with him and frolll whom he gained tI,e rigllt direction f"OIll the landillg of the fen','" boat to the Merchant'. Hotel, on CU:lltl;lll landlord. The dortor, at.iIl entertainitlg doubts, began til question 'lIlin~ host ' again; and W88 told that he was not 1/, the Merchant's, but one C'l...