History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

Physiology 405he retained only surgery and W. B. Herrick was appointed Professor ofAnatomy and Physiology. Herrick was graduated in medicine from Dartmouthin 1836. The following year he became Demonstrator in Anatomyin the Louisville Medical Institute but after two years moved into Illinoiswhere, in 1844, he was appointed Professor of Surgery in the Illinois Collegeat Jacksonville. However, before he could assume his duties there, he wascalled to Rush. Later he served for a time in the Mexican campaign. By thetime ill health compelled him to return to Chicago, Dr. Armor was Professorof Physiology and Pathology at Rush, so Herrick confined his attentionexclusively to anatomy.In 1849, Nathan Smith Davis was appointed Professor of Physiology andPathology at Rush. After receiving his medical training at Fairfield in1834, he practiced medicine in various localities in New York until 1847,when he went to the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York Cityas Demonstrator in Anatomy. He also lectured on medical jurisprudence,and edited The Annalist, a local journal. After one year in Rush, Daviswas transferred to Medical Practice, in which capacity he continued until1859 when he, with others, withdrew from the Rush faculty and formedthe Medical Department of Lind University, the ancestor of the presentNorthwestern University Medical School. Davis was a vigorous advocateof reform in medical education and practice. Despite his active attentionto a clinical career, he always maintained his interest in physiology. This isclearly revealed in his graduation thesis on "Animal Temperatures" inwhich he attacked the theory, then still current, that body heat resultedfrom the union of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lungs, and also summarizedexisting evidence of the origin of heat in the tissues. Of his 136publications, thirty-one may be considered as original contributions tophysiology, as well as representative of the general quality and range of hisinterests.In addition, he wrote extensively on various aspects of medicaleducation and history.There is some confusion about Davis's successor, since complete files ofearly catalogs are not available. According to Bridge and Rhodes, AbishaA. Hudson succeeded to the Chair of Physiology. Hudson was practicingmedicine at the time in Sterling, Illinois, but, so far as can be learned now,his academic career was confined to the Professorship of Materia Medicaand Therapeutics in the school in Davenport and later in Keokuk, Iowa.His name does not appear in that capacity in any available number of theannual catalog of Rush Medical College for that period; nor did Dr.Weaver in his history of Rush give any information on this point.From the catalogs it appears that Herrick resumed teaching physiologyand, at times, also pathology; he was made Emeritus Professor in 1857.Joseph Warren Freer, who became Demonstrator in Anatomy in 1852, had