Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/923

NAME PEIRCE 901 PEIRCE sculpture and architecture, without professing to skill in them. No man who ever saw the exquisite accuracy and fidelity with which he sketched the subjects of his peculiar pursuits in entomology or botany, could doubt the re- finement of his taste. Peck published in the Massachusetts Mer- cury, August. 1798, "Natural History of the Slug-Worm," a pamphlet of 10 pages, that obtained the Agricultural Society's premium of fifty dollars and the gold medal. Peck was an incorporator of the American Antiquarian Society in 1812, and one of its first vice-presidents, a fellow of the Amer. Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and of the American Philosophical Society. He was also a warden of Christ Church, Cambridge, from 1816-1819. He died at Cambridge, October 3, 1822, from a third attack of hemiplegia. Collections of the Mass. Historical Society, vol. x, second series, 1843, 161-170. A Memoir, by Dudley Atkins Tyng. Peirce, David (1740-1803) The simple facts of the life of this old- time country practitioner are that he was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1740, settled at Spruce Creek, in Kittery, Maine, about 1760, and practised there until his death in 180.'^. He wrote no medical papers, for there was no magazine in those days in which to print them. He was an ordinary country doctor of an age forgotten and of which few traces remain. He is nevertheless worthy of being mentioned in every historical work on "Amer- ican Medicine," because in his three large ac- count books, still e.xtant, we can trace his medical career day by day for nearly forty years in a manner almost unique in the annals of medicine. Arriving in Kittery about 1760, he studied medicine, possibly with Dr. Sargent, of New Castle, or with some of the Portsmouth prac- titioners, compounded and sold drugs, prac- tised medicine and did minor surgery exten- sively. He opened a country store and sold merchandise of every sort, acted as legal ad- viser to many patients, was town physician, town agent during the Revolution, and at one time postmaster. Turning now to his books it is an agreeable task to sift from its thousand entertaining facts a few that will bring before us the work of one of our early American physicians. Dr. Peirce was chiefly a physician. It is doubtful if he ever performed any capital op- erations. On one occasion he consulted with Dr. Hall Jackson (q. v.) and Dr. Ammi Ruhamah Cutter (q. v.), both of Portsmouth, in a case of compound comminuted fracture. He was present and assisted at the operation performed, as he quaintly informs us, by "The Gentlemen of the Faculty." He once charged a patient "For making a large hole in your leg," thirteen shillings. One old scrap of paper gives the names of four- teen patients whom he visited in one day, a good record for a country doctor considering the miles between their homes, and the bad roads to travel. He inoculated patients for the smallpox and "carried them through," as was the phrase, for eight shillings. He had an excellent reputation as an ob- stetrician. His usual charge for such cases was one pound and four shillings sterling. In entering these cases on his books he men- tioned the sex of the child and the hour of its birth. If a child were born out of wed- lock he wrote distinctly: "To delivering your daughter, of a bastard infant." In a few rar; instances he called in as consultant in a tedious labor Dr. Hall Jackson across the river. Twins are rarelj' mentioned in his books, but if they arrived the sex and the birth hour of eacft was mentioned. Peirce was of good standing with his med- ical brethren, for he consulted as needed with the two Portsmouth physicians before men- tioned, as well as with Drs. Oilman, Little and Lyman of whom we find no trace elsewhere than in Peirce's books. Although he used many medicines, he did not use much at a time. He bled a good deal less than most physicians of his day. His first cases were simply treated with phlebot- omy. He salivated his patients but little, if any. He used a "Small" purge and a "Large" purge. Emetics were daily employed in his practice. It is amusing to read : "To three emetics for the three children," suggestive at that season of the year of sudden overeating of fruits, in that one family. His charges were moderate. He mentions three sorts of visits, one when called definitely to go at a distance, a second as he was "passing" by, and a third which he calls "accidental." What the last means is hard to tell, as rarely, if ever, is any specific accident mentioned. During the Revolution he was an active patriot, scouring the country for ammunition and supplies for the Kittery militia. At one time he rode to Concord, Massachusetts, on this service and for the hire of a horse he paid in the debased currency of those days the sum of ninety-five dollars. He also acted as surgeon for the Massachusetts Bay Colony Troops, stationed near Kittery.