Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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surgeon. This influence fdoubtless of weight in lVlettauer's entire careerj may most readily be traced through all his subsequent writings in the clear, concise descriptions of anatomical and pathological relations and his tendency to the objective methods of study, which were so rare at that time, when only a few pillars had been placed for the foundation of the accurate scientific medicine of today. For nine years Physiclc had been lecturing vt the University on surgery, and for four years had been professor of surgery. Mettauer was under him at the choicest period of his career when he had won for himself the reputation of the leading surgeon in America, and had not as yet allowed the worries and depression consequent upon an exhausting practice and failing health to dim the ardor and brilliancy of his surgical achievements. From Physiclfs teaching Mettauei' caught the enthusiasm for the lateral method of lithotomy, in which he afterward became so wonderfully dextrous and laid the basis of his great skill in other branches of genitourinary and orthopedic surgery. Perhaps the inspiration may be traced also in some of his great plastic devices. The influence of Rush also had necessarily its permanent effect on a mind so receptive and able as lVlettauer's, and he carried from his course that inspiring love and devotion to science and search for truth which lighted dark days of arduous practice in Virginia, and upheld him in the determination which he afterward voiced. mlwhough doomed to labor in the country as a practitioner, I resolved to continue my studious habits and, if possible, not to fall behind the daily improvements of the profession. His methods of general treatment in certain inflammatory conditions follow closely those so prominently exploited by Rush, along with whom Mettauer pinned undying faith to all antiphlogistic measures, but particularly calomel and bleeding. In the treatment of the continued fevers, however, Mettauer fapparently on the strength of his information based on personal experience, departed from the drastic measures of Rush, whose enthusiastic description of calomel as the Sampson ol med- icine had been sarcastically approved by his opponents on the ground that it had killed its thousands. Mettauer advises, in an essay of IS36 on Continued Feversf' when the temperature is painfully elevated the surface should be sponged with cool or cold fluids, and, if desired, the patient may take pounded ice, or iced or cold water, into the stomach, and purgatives were to be used only at the beginning of an attack, or in special cases of continued constipation, a course of treatment in close accord with our modern ideas, and a considerable advance over the early methods of the last century. Further, Mettauer read with avidity and intensity the volumes in the library of the Pennsylvania Hospital, the oldest medical library in America: and we find his writings containing many references to the great Louis, who had taken the principal part in forming this collection. Besides this, Mettauer was having extended practice in the Philadelphia Dispensary during his stay in that city, and had additional opportunities for practice through the lfindness of several of the attending physicians, who apparently had taken a great fancy 18

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A Svltvtrli nf Br. Zlnliu Hrtvr flllrttaitm' nf Hirgiuizt rzxa cs:- MONG the gallant Frenchmen who followed the fortunes of Lafayette were two brothers, lVlettauer, surgeons. N After the battle of Yorktown the French Army was quartered E scsi Aj' at different points in Virginia. A regiment was sent to Prince Edward County, and attached to this were the surgeons, Mettauer. When the soldiers set out for home, Francis joseph Mettauer, by the persuasion of General Lawson, the Randolphs, and the l-lenrys, re- mained in Prince Edward County, and, later, married there. A son, john Peter Nlettauer, was born to him and Eliza Caulding in l787. But little is known of his childhood and youth, beyond the fact that, raised in an atmosphere of surgery, he imbibed a love for this profession, and early determined to adopt it as his life's work. ln the silence of history we are surely justified by the vent in assuming that the child inherited from an adventurous and accomplished sire much of his cast of mind, and that an hereditary disposition toward surgery was, in those early days when the modern practice was certainly no more than embryonic, vastly aided by that same tendency toward aggressive self-reliance, which brought the elder Mettauer to our shores as a surgical soldier of fortune. Young Mettauer was sent to the neighboring College of Hampden-Sidney for his literary studies, and graduated from this Institution with the degree of A. B. in ISO6. He immediately entered on the study of medicine, and received the degree of M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in I809. Mettauer's medical education was carried on under the most favorable conditions obtainable in America at that time. The medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, founded in l79l, was the continuation of the first medical school in this country, which had evolved, in I765, from the lectures on anatomy and midwifery by William Shippen, Jr., an ardent admirer and former student of .lohn Hunter. Mettauer entered his medical course in the same winter that brought the death of Shippen, and he always took a mournful pride in having heard the last lecture of that great pioneer teacher. The influence of the character and methods of Hunter were continued in the University by Physick, another exponent and close follower of that great anatomist and 17

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to the industrious Virginian. This is clearly shown by an incident which Mettauer records himself with just pride. On a certain day, as l chanced to be on Market Street, Dr. Wistar, who happened to be on the opposite side, crossed over, seemingly to meet me: after grasping my hands with his own, he thus accosted me: 'Dr. lVlettauer, my young friend, I am happy to meet you and to congratulate you on your examination, which, l take pleasure in informing you, was entirely satisfactory to the professors and agreeable to the University. You have the means in your hands for success in your profession. Continue your studious habits and nothing but bad health or early death can disappoint youg' and such a meeting and salutation from such a man as Dr. Wistar completely overpowered me, and my tears had to express the emotion of my heart in response. It was thus with a very rare equipment of scholastic and medical learning that Mettauer found himself launched with honor into his life work. Omnibus, it is said, est compensatiof' and every circumstance has some alle- viation. In the subject of the difficulties which surrounded the earlier practisers of any art, there is, at least, one compensation of which we are likely to lose sight-the speed with which recognition and celebrity come to the worthiest. It is hardly possible in our day in medicine that any man should go out fresh from the greatest college and wake to fame. With few exceptions, our own experience assures us of the length and roughness of the way that lies from Alma lVlater's portals up the hill, and fame and fortune are confused in the bestowal of their signal favors by the thronging multitude of them that sue. Not thus a hundred years ago. When young lVlettauer came home and began the enthusiastic practice of his profession, he became conspicuous at once. It may be that he was aided by the lucky star, one of those which shine occasionally now on the young doctor, that guided him to a patient who, even in the most favorable cir- cumstances, declined to die, and that the beginning of his fame rests on no deserts of his. However this may be, famous he almost at once became, and soon proved himself worthy the place that he had gained, and as he grew in age, made ever to his death higher and higher advancement in the reverence of the people, and in the estimation of his professional brethren. Beginning his practice in much the same circumstances as most young men of his time, he was at first differentiated, mainly by the two outward marks that he went his rounds in a carriage instead of on horseback, and that he wore, certainly at his meals, and even to bed for aught that is known to the contrary, an enormously tall stovepipe hat. His work consisted at first, of course, in the practice of general medicine, with such cases of surgery as were afforded by a large community to an enthusiastic and tireless worker in this held. Gradually, Dr. lVlettauer's preference for surgical work and his skill-marvellous for his day, and well nigh marvellous for any day-began to bring him cases from a distance: and his reputation, growing as his fame, was spread in widening circles on the sea of human misery: these cases became so numerous as to 19