Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/208

NAME -CABELL 186 CABELL of Mankind," published in 1857, was called forth by Gliddon and Notts' "Types of Man- kind," and in it he skillflilly combated the views of Gliddon and Notts as tending to unbelief, and showed that the Bible and science are not antagonistic. Every thing that he wrote was characterized by excellence of style, force of reasoning, and the importance of the subjects discussed. The following are some of his contributions to medical literature : "Syllabus of Lectures on Physiology and Surgery," 1857; "Gunshot Wounds of the Head," Richmond Medical Journal, vol. i. ; "On the Treatment of Acute Pneumonia," Ibid., vol. iii. "Oxygen as a Remedy in Disease," Virginia Medical Monthly, vol. i. ; "Sanitary Conditions in Relation to Surgical Operations." Virginia Medical Monthly, vol. ix. ; Defective Drainage as a Cause of Disease within the Limits of Vir- ginia," "Transactions of American Medical Association, 1875." The University of Virginia owns a portrait of Dr. Cabell, and there is another in the col- lection of portraits in the library of the Surgeon-General, Washington, D. C. Robert M. Sl.ughter. Trans. Med. Soc. of Va., 1889. "The Cabells and Their Kin," Alex. Brown. Cabell, WiUiam (1700-1774) William Cabell, pioneer physician, the founder of the Cabell family in Virginia, was a grandson of William C. Cabell, of War- minster, England, and the son of Nicholas Cabell. He was born in Warminster, March 9, 1700. He studied medicine in London, and was a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons. There is a tradition that he practised for several years in London with success, and then entered the British Navy as a surgeon. He came to Virginia in 1724 or 1725, and after living for a short time in Williamsburg and in Henrico County, purchased land and settled in Goochland County. In 1726, he was deputy to Capt. John Redford, high sheriff of Henrico, and in the same year married Elizabeth Burks. She died in September, 1756, probably of per- nicious malarial fever, — he says in his diary that she died of bilious fever and coma. We find him in 1728-29 one of the justices of the county of Goochland, and in the latter year appointed county coroner. In 1735 he was called to England and did not return until 1741, his wife in the meanwhile managing his affairs in Virginia. He next took up land along the James River in Nelson County, fifty miles west of any then existing settle- ments. This tract of land extended for twenty miles along the river and contained 8,000 acres of river bottom land. He built a home upon this estate, which he named Liberty Hall, and lived there for the rest of his life. He also established upon it a town, calling it Warminster, which became, and was for fifty years, an important point of internal com- merce. There being no field for practice of medicine in this unsettled country, he acted as assistant surveyor to his friend. Col. John Mayo, and after his death in 1744, to Col. Joshua Fry until 1753, when he turned over this business to his son, John. The country having be- come better peopled, he now resumed the work of his profession, and did an extensive practice in the counties of Nelson, Albemarle, Augusta, Bedford, and Prince Edward. He also maintained in his home a private hospital for patients from a distance, and performed many operations. He evidently did not hesi- tate to guarantee cures, as is shown in his schedule of charges. For instance, his ordi- nary charge for an amputation of the leg or arm was seven pounds ten shillings, but with a guarantee, twelve to fifteen pounds. He also had wooden legs made for patients, the price being ten shillings. The hospital patients paid for their board and "necessaries fur- nished," but professional services were con- tracted for, generally on the no cure no pay plan. His charges per visit were from one to five pounds, Virginia currency, according to distance. His materia medica embraced various purges, boluses, cordials, pills, blisters, drops, powders, plasters, sweats, emetics, etc., and these specifics, Turlington's balsam. Bate- man's drops, Stoughton's bitters and Ander- son's pills. Proprietary remedies were evi- dently in use even in that day. That he was practising as late as 1770 is shown by the following entry in his diary : "Attended (September 1770) Col. John Fry's wife with dead child three nights and two days." In person, he is described as having been tall and spare, but lithe and active, and of great powers of endurance. His face was handsome until disfigured by scars resulting from the bursting of a gun in his hands. He was, too, a man of moral and physical courage, the latter being strongly evinced when he, as he said, "was the occasion of carrying the settlements at least fifty miles to the west- ward, when no other man would attempt it." A scientific man and a reader, he had a large library and constantly added to it the latest medical books. A good churchman and a warden, he was, nevertheless, a dear lover of