Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/549

NAME HILL 527 HILL climatology, on all of which subjects he wrote papers of value, and at his Marietta home he collected and preserved an extensive cabinet of natural history. A journal of diseases ob- served by the doctor in his long practice, a bill of mortality in Marietta since 1824, with ther- mometric and barometric records for a long term of years, complete the catalogue of the useful results of the busy life of this pioneer physician of Ohio in the first half of the nine- teenth century. Some of the conditions of medical practice in Ohio at this period may be learned from the following extract from an address by Dr. Hil- dreth before the Medical Convention of Ohio in 1839: "I well remember that one of the first calls I had after coming to Ohio was to visit a pa- tient in Virginia, thirty-two miles from Mari- etta. 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 pa- tient was very ill with an ascites and an ana- sarca. 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 articuto mortis. He died in a few minutes 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 assailed by the howl of the wolf or the sharp yell of the panther within a short distance of the road. For defense I had nothing with me but a stout riding-whip with a long lash, which was oc- casionally cracked to enliven my weary horse and to keep up the excitement of my own weary spirits. No violence, however, was of- fered 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 common 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." Henry E. Handerson. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour,, 1849, vol. xli. Hai, Edward Henry (1884-1904). This man, whom we may call the founder of the Central Maine Hospital, was born in Harri- son, Maine, in 1844. He was educated at Bridg- ton Academy, also 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 (q. v.), later on governor of Maine, who left the medical case, to his part- ner, foreseeing the wonderful part which sur- gery was soon to play. No life of Dr. Hill would be complete with- out proper mention of his energetic assistance in founding 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 Au- burn and Lewiston. For years the subject was agitated, a small hospital was established, but it soon degenerated 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 sug- gestion was to tax every person five cents a week to care for a hospital. This scheme fell through, but the frequency of accidents without 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 sen- timent was at last aroused. With the house and land to show, the Legislature at last helped and the Central Maine Hospital was a reality. He also participated actively in the discus- sions of the Maine Medical Society. His re- marks, being generally offhand, for in those days no abstracts were studied beforehand, were always to the point, and instructive ; he told what he had seen personally at the bedside and never echoed the books. One of his best papers were on "Perineal Urethrotomy," read before the society in 1885. As surgeon he was an excellent operator and performed most of the capital operations of the day. In 1872 Dr. Hill married U'^i Charlotte C. Thompson, by whom he had two children. In 1895 he made an interesting visit to Eu- rope. Some delay and exposure at the cus- tom house in returning brought about a re- lapse of his old arthritis, contracted fen years