History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

408 History of Medical Practice in Illinoisand had taught materia medica and physiology at that institution at differenttimes. He was named the first Professor of Physiology and Histologyin Lind University; however, before the first session opened, he was transferredto materia medica and therapeutics. The first active Professor ofPhysiology, therefore, was John H. Hollister, who was graduated fromBerkshire Medical Institute in 1847 and practiced medicine in GrandRapids, Michigan, until 1855. After one year, Hollister took over anatomyand Johnson returned to physiology until 1865 when he became Professorof Pathology and Hollister again took up physiology. The following yearJohnson resigned because of ill health, and Hollister succeeded to the Chairof Pathology. Apparently physiology was "farmed out" for a few years, butin 1868, Daniel T. Nelson, who had been graduated from Harvard MedicalSchool in 1865, was appointed Professor of Physiology and Histology, inwhich capacity he served for eleven years.Henry Gradle, a Rush alumnus of the class of 1874, after several yearsof study abroad—not in physiology but in ophthalmology—was namedProfessor of Physiology in 1879 and remained five years. During the followingfour years, R. W. Bishop filled the Chair. He had received thebaccalaureate from the University of Vermont in 1877, went to Berlinwhere he was graduated in medicine in 1882, and later went into dermatology.Next came George W. Webster, a Rush alumnus of the classof 1882. He went into general practice but when Bishop retired, in 1888,Webster succeeded to the title of Professor of Physiology. Later physicaldiagnosis was added to his duties, and after 1895 he was Professor of ClinicalMedicine. He was President of the Illinois State Board of Health from1900 to 1914.Winfield Scott Hall was graduated from Northwestern University in 1887and completed the medical course the following year. For four years hewas Head of the Department of Biology in Haverford College. He thenwent abroad for study in Leipzig where he completed medical trainingfor another degree in 1894 and the Doctor of Philosophy in 1895. UponNorthwesternreturning home, he was made Professor of Physiology atUniversity to succeed Webster. (He retired in 1919.) He also lectured inthe Schools of Nursing in both Wesley and Mercy Hospitals and inY.M.C.A. College. Hall devoted his early effortstheto equipping the physiologiclaboratory along more modern lines and to research on growth,chemical metabolism, nutrition, alcoholism, gonadal endocrinology andrelated subjects. He was a large man, black-bearded, of rather stern mienand somewhat of a zealot on the moral aspects of science, but he possessedan impressive personality. He was one of the first male lecturers on sexhygiene in this country and was Director of the Bureau of Social Hygiene.Despite the promising outset of his career, Hall made little impression on