Rush Medical College - Pulse Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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in the Jardin des Plantesg and was elected an honorary member of the Societe de Chirurgie of Paris, and of the Medical Society of the Canton of Geneva. In May of 1854, the American Medical Association offered a prize for the best essay on some medical subject of interest, which he won with his essay on the treatment of ununited fractures and deformities. During the administration of Pierce he was appointed surgeon to the Marine Hospital, of Chicago, which position he held until his death. In 1847 the hrst general hospital in Chicago was erected through the instrumentality of Dr. Brainard. lt was a two-story structure, containing two hundred beds. ln the Fall of 1866, during an epidemic of cholera in the city, Dr. Brainard contracted the dread disease, and in the space of a few short hours had passed away. ln him Rush lost one of her mightiest workers. As a man, he was tall, vigorous in frame, with keen, penetrating eyes and a kindly expression. To a great many he appeared cold and reticent at times, and many thought him hard- heartedg but this rapidly wore away when you became acquainted with the man. He was kind to the poor, hated dishonesty, and above all things despised a man who, after having graduated, would quit study and never make an effort to rise above the ordinary routine of his every-day work. He was particularly friendly to the students of his classes, and many a one has been thus helped on to success by his kind words and deeds of assistance. As a scholar he was thorough, painstaking and exact. He was a master of many of the collateral branches of science. He was I7

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In the Spring of 1836 he commenced practice in Whitesboro, New York. Soon tiring of the East, he came to Chicago in the Fall of the same year. His medical career in Chicago was begun by hanging his shingle on the door of the law office of his friend, the I-lon. D. Caton. The first year of his practice was confined to the poorest classes, but he never refused a call, although there was no likelihood of a monetary remuneration. He waited patiently for an opportunity to place himself among a better class of patients, and at last it came, when he successfully performed a hip-joint amputation: proving the necessity for it by first amputating the limb below the trochanters, and finding the products of degeneration in the medullary canal, his counselors having taken the ground that the hip-joint amputation was not necessary. This operation gave him a reputation, as it was among the first ever performed in this country. ln 1839 he visited Paris, and for two years availed himself ot the great advantages offered there for medical research and clinical observation. On his return he delivered a course of lectures on anatomy in the University of St. Louis, and in 1842 he was elected to the chair of Anatomy in that university. Shortly after this he perfected his plans for the founding of Rush Medical College, and on December 3d, 1843, before twenty- two students, he delivered his introductory lecture, and from this humble beginning has grown the largest and most proficient medical college in this country. ln 1852 he again visited Paris, and at this time he obtained the rarely-granted permission to prosecute his researches on the subject of poisoned wounds by the aid of experiments on the reptiles 16

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a botanist and a geologist, he also excelled in literature, and his contributions to medical periodicals are, many of them, masterpieces of terse, vigorous and lucid expression. As a surgeon, he did not hesitate to perform all the great operations of his day. XYhile he was a bold operator, he was cautious, and always refused to operate where he was not justified in so doing. He was not a specialist, and his work embraced the whole broad domain of surgery. He had not only a Chicago, but an American, not only an American, but a foreign reputation, and he took rank with such men as Parker, Post and Gross. Should some chronicler gather up the names of the most distinguished surgeons. the name of Brainard would be found the peer of Astley Cooper, Hunter and the elder and younger Larreys. lt was said in his funeral oration: The profession which he adorned will miss his voice. The college of his love will sorrow over its bereavement, and we stand silent and humbled when we think that he who had niet and conquered death so many times for others, who was so fully armed with every weapon which could ward off from man the arrows of the destroyer, to whom so many grateful hearts among poor and rich turn as their preserver from a premature grave, should be forced to throw down his arms, and in a few swift hours bend his neck to the blow of resistless death. 18