Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/535

 HILL 4

"I well remember that one of the first calls I had after coming to Ohio was to visit a patient in Virginia, thirty- two miles from Marietta. The journey was performed chiefly in the night, by the assistance of a guide, through a dense forest. We passed but one or two clearings after leaving the Ohio river. The patient was very ill with an ascites and an anasarca. His friends had started to bring him to Marietta for medical aid, but his strength failed on the way. I reached the miserable cabin in which he lay about midnight, and found him in articulo mortis. He died in a few min- utes after. There being no chance for sleep, and as it was a clear night the last of October, I mounted my horse and commenced my solitary ride home. It being the season for wild game, many deer had recently been killed by the hunters near the side of the path. This had enticed an unusual number of wolves into that vicinity to feed upon the offal, and my ears were every few moments assail- ed by the the howl of the wolf or the sharp yell of the panther within a short distance of the road. For de- fense I had nothing with me but a stout riding-whip with a long lash, which was occasionally cracked to en- liven my weary horse and to keep up the excitement of my own weary spirits. No violence, however, was offered by the wolves, and by daylight I had reached the first cabin, a distance of sixteen miles, with a fine appetite for breakfast on venison steak, a com- mon dish at that day in every log hut. The remaining portion of the ride was performed by the light of the sun and without further adventure."

H. E. H.

Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1849, vol. xli.

Hill, Edward Henry (1844-1904).

This man, whom we may call the founder of the Central Maine Hospital, was born in Harrison, Maine, in 1844. He was educated at Hridgton Academy,

7 HILL

at Bates College, in the class of 1863, and graduated at the Harvard Medical School in 1867. He began practice at Durham, Maine, but soon moved to Lewiston, where he entered into partnership with the well known Dr. Garcelon, later on governor of Maine, who left the medical cases to his part- ner, foreseeing the wonderful part which surgery was soon to play.

No life of Dr. Hill would be complete without proper mention of his energetic force in hospital work in the Central Maine Hospital. The Maine General Hospital, at Portland, had a field of its own, but there was imperative need of an emergency hospital in the cities of Auburn and Lewiston. For years the subject was agitated, a small one was established, but it soon degener- ated into a mere pest house. One plan after another fell through, but Dr. Hill in 1871 printed an article on this topic which at once attracted great attention. His suggestion was to tax every person five cents a week to care for a hospital. This scheme fell through, but the frequency of accidents with- out any place for emergencies became more acutely felt as time went on. Thus, at the State Fair, near Lewiston, a woman had to be delivered of a child in a horse stall on the straw; a man picked up in the streets died on a table in the City Hall. Dr. Hill kept the agitation going for seven years, yet there was no hospital. Finally he made up his mind that if there was to be no public hospital he would have one of his own; he therefore bought a house with land around it, paying down, personally, what he could. Public sentiment was at last aroused. With the house and land to show, the Leg- islature at last helped, and the Central Maine Hospital was a reality.

He also participated actively in (In- discussions of the Maine Medical So- ciety, for which it has become so well known throughout the United States. His remarks, being generally off hand, for in those days no abstracts were