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

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occupy most of his time and to enable him to follow the bent of his genius and devote himself almost exclusively to surgical work. Patients came to him from an area that ever increased: from the most distant parts of the United States and in some instances from abroad. Step after step the quiet country home took on the aspect of the hospital, and the whole neighborhood became permeated with interest that grew out of the accomplish- ments of a single man. This is, perhaps, as proper a place as any to make some reference to the almost incredible amount of surgical work that Mettauer accomplished. Persons now living who remember the circumstances, and had more than common opportunity to know whereof they speak, have told me that for a period of about forty years the number of surgical patients who gathered to Mettauer for treatment was sufficient to keep him con- stantly with from 45 to 60 cases under his care. Often it was true that about every good house in the community sheltered some person who was convalescing or awaiting his turn for operation. I have heard his operations for cataract put in number far beyond the 800 that can be accounted for: Dudley's great record in cutting for stone 225 times in a practice of forty years must yield to lVlettauer's total of 400 operations, and the number of strictures relieved is commonly put at something over 200. Three operations are recalled, performed in the last week of his life, when, at the age of eighty-eight years, his eyes were yet keen enough and his hands steady enough for him to make a successful operation for cataract, for stone, and for amputation of the breast. Writers of renown have given us the picture of the placid rural life in old Virginia, and it is no part of my task to attempt a description of the conditions and manners of the people there a hundred years ago. It must suffice for my purpose to say that lVlettauer's r-ative country was a typical part of the old South, in which but two classes, the highest and the lowest, the master and the slave, played an important part. Of the middling sort of folk-the yeomen-the civilization needed few, and to them were relegated such employments as were beyond the condition of the slave, and beneath the dignity ol the gentlemen-such employment as conducting shops and the small mills and stores throughout the countryside. Into Prince Edward Court House, a representative old-time village, poured an ever-increasing stream of patients, who sought the services of Mettauer. from the necessity of the case, the greater part of those who came from a distance were people of consequence, and in many instances they travelled in their own carriages and with their own retinue of personal attendants, and formed at times a crowd sufficient to try to the utmost such modest accommodations as were afforded by the doctor's private hospital, and by the two houses of entertainment at Kingsville and Worsham, referred lo in the phrase of that day as commodious taverns. l-lad Dr. Mettauer possessed an eye single to the main chance which has degraded the skill of some of our brethren, the dreams of avarice could scarcely set a limit to the wealth he might have amassed. An occasional story of a considerable fee is met with, but commonly there are circum- stances of the patient's reputation for wealth and parsimony which might warrant the sus- 20

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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

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picion that the uncommon size of lVlettauer's account was rather a piece of humor- sometimes pretty grim to the second party-than anything else. ln this direction is tl.e story of Mr. l, who, with a number of new one-hundred-dollar notes held cori- spicuously in his hand, dropped into the oflice to settle his account. He handed a note to the doctor, who, to his surprise, did not pocket it, but still held out a hand, into which, after a moment's delay, another note was placed, and then, with a moment of embarrassing silence, another, and then, when the silence grew to be eloquent, another. Four hundred was clearly the limit to which the visitor could be got by silence. howeier eloquent, or by embarrassment, however deep, and still Mettauer held out his hand. At last he gently suggested, One more, if you please, Mr. and the gentleman, half hypnotized, deposited his last note. lVlettauer appears, however, to have placed no value on money, except as a me? is of carrying on his work, and an exterior a little repellant concealed a heart as great and warm as ever throbbed in human breast. A vast deal of his time was given to practice, whence he could hope for neither fortune nor fame, and this not spasmodically, but regularly and for years. Again, the course of his work at home was interrupted, particularly very early in his career and late, when he could leave in the hands of his highly accomplished sons the interests of his local patients, and Dr. Mettauer would undertake journeys of weeks for the relief of persons who were unable to come to him. A drive from Prince Edward down into Georgia was about the most considerable of these undertakings, and we should be likely to agree, if confronted by a similar proposition, that it was quite considerablf enough. It is hardly possible that less than two months was consumed in this expedition, and it is a matter of legend that the fee which Mettauer received-one thousand dollars-was regarded to be stupendous. There are no means of mapping out th: trip into Georgia, but there is some reason to assume that the doctor combined with hii main object several calls which he was desirous to make somewhat along his route. But, even with a considerable allowance for combinations, such a trip as this was E great sacrifice of time and strength, and it makes one of the records that shed on lVlettauer's career that kindly light in which we recognize the genuine enthusiast and the self- forgetful man of science. Returning to the consideration of Mettauer personally, I would remark that all the contemporary evidence agrees that he was of phenomenal skill and daring as a surgeon. His one peculiarity in operations seems to have been an invincible objection to watching any other man at work, and this peculiarity carried him to the extent of refusing assistance even in a long and exhausting case. The reason probably lay partly in his nervous need to keep occupied in order to distract his attention from the patient's suffering, which in the preanaesthetic days must have been a serious trial to the sym- pathetic surgeon: and it is likely that Mettauer was moved also by the need for haste and the knowledge of what unerring and lightning skill lay in his supple hands. 21