April 2011 - Anesthesia History Association

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BULLETIN BULLETIN OF OF ANESTHESIA ANESTHESIA HISTORY
HISTORY
Fisher. .. Continued from Page 17
According to the Census, both Fishers and
the Fairbanks were Massachusetts natives.
On May 27, 1861, Fisher enlisted as a
surgeon in the 9 th Regiment of the N.Y. militia
(18-20). The regiment was heavily engaged
in the battles of Fredericksburg,
Gettysburg and the Wilderness, but
Fisher’s medical activities are not mentioned
in the regiment detailed histories.(18-20)
A Dr. Fisher (without a first
name) is listed elsewhere (21) as working
at the Chester Hospital during the battle
of Gettysburg.
The date of Fisher’s discharge from the
service is unknown but must have been in
early 1864 as he was a member of the reception
committee when the regiment returned
to New York City on June 11, 1864,(19)
shortly before its demobilization on June
23, 1864.(18-20) The same year Fisher became
president of the New York Union Veterans
Club. (22)
In the early 1870s, Fisher moved to the
Grand Central Hotel (now the Broadway
Central Hotel) at 670, Broadway where he
worked as hotel physician.(23) While living
there he became involved in the fatal
shooting of “Colonel” James “Diamond
Jim” Fisk, Jr., the crooked financier and
crony of Jay Gould and Tammany boss
Tweed.(24) At the time of his death Fisk
was entangled in long and complex legal
proceedings against his previous business
partner Edward S. “Ned” Stokes (1841-
1901) and his ex-mistress Helen Josephine
“Josie” Mansfield, who had left Fisk for
Stokes.
On the morning of January 6, 1872,
Fisk’s lawyers obtained a grand jury indictment
against Stokes on charge of
blackmail. Hearing the news during his
lunch, an enraged Stokes ran to the Grand
Central Hotel after learning that Fisk was
returning there from a visit to his friends,
the Morses. Stokes reached the hotel
around 400 PM, shortly before Fisk, and
waited for him at the top of the stairway.
As Fisk climbed the stairs, Stokes fired two
pistol shots: the first entered Fisk’s abdomen,
the second one pierced his left arm as
he turned around to escape. Stokes tried to
flee but was caught by the hotel staff and
later jailed at the Tombs.
Fisher arrived at the hotel around 4:45
PM, shortly after the shooting. Entering
his suite he found a note summoning him
to room 212 where Fisk had been taken.
Fisher’s testimony at Stokes’ first trial (23)
gives a detailed, although at times confusing,
account of Fisk’s last 18 hours. Except
for a few brief absences, Fisher remained
with the victim until the latter’s death.
Entering room 212, Fisher found the
patient pale and slightly tachypneic, conversing
with two physicians, Dr Thomas,
the main hotel physician, and Dr John P.
White, Fisk’s personal doctor, whom Fisher
remembered as “Dr Wood.” Fisk complained
of severe abdominal pain. His
physicians found a large gunshot wound
in the right abdomen. Around 6:00 PM the
wound was probed after the patient had
inhaled one drachm (3.7 ml) of chloroform
but the bullet was not found. Fisk continued
to complain of severe pain and received
several large draughts of morphine and at
least two subcutaneous injections of
Magendie’s solution (injectable morphine).
The wound was again probed twice but
without success. At Stokes’ trial, the coroner
E.Y.T Manse explained that the bullet
had entered the right abdomen, six inches
above the navel, traveled through the ileum
and the colon and lodged itself in the
left thigh muscles. He felt that Fisk had
died from shock.
A total of seven physicians attended
Fisk, limiting themselves to multiple consultations,
observations of the vital signs
and reluctant administration of morphine.
Fisher simply reassured the patient,
helped him to walk to the more comfortable
room 214, repeatedly sponged his face
with cold water and catheterized his bladder
at 3:00 PM. When Fisk sank into coma
at 5:00 the next morning, Fisher made futile
attempts to arouse him with inhalations
and frictions of ammonias.
Fisk’s wife Lucy arrived from Boston
at 6:30 AM but was unable to talk with her
comatose husband. Turning to Fisher, she
asked him if anything could be done to
save her husband. Fisher loftily answered,
“Alas, Madam, I fear not.” The forgiving
Lucy, kissing her dying husband’s lips,
murmured, “He was such a good boy.” Fisk
died around 11:00 AM on January 7, 1872.
Stokes’s first trial ended with a hung
jury and a mistrial.(24) Fisher does not
seem to have testified in the two subsequent
trials. In February 1874, Stokes was sentenced
to death but was reprieved by the
Court of Appeals which declared a mistrial.
After a third trial, Stokes served four
years at Sing Sing.
Fisher’s Death (January 20, 1877)
Fisher died in 1877 under strange circumstances.(15)
He resided at the time at
49 South Washington Square.(5) On January
19, 1877, at 10:00 PM, he visited the
Cooper Drug Store on Sixth Avenue and
prescribed for himself ten drops of tincture
of digitalis and two drops of aconite
that he swallowed on the spot. Upon leaving
the pharmacy, he became dizzy, vomited
and went to bed as soon as he got home.
His condition worsened and at 3:00 AM
his family called Drs. Clarke and Knox.
They found the patient alert but very dyspneic.
They diagnosed cardiac or renal failure
but Fisher suspected poisoning from
an overdose caused by a pharmacist’s error.
Fisher died at 9:00 on the morning of
Saturday 20, 1877. Dr. Clarke refused to
sign the death certificate and requested an
autopsy. This was performed at the
deceased’s home on the morning of Sunday,
January 21, 1877, by Dr. Henry
Woltman, coroner, and his deputy, Dr. Joseph
Cushman.(5) Dr. Woltman found
thickening and stenosis of the mitral valve,
myocardial hypertrophy and pulmonary
edema. He attributed the death to heart
disease. His report wrongly described
Fisher as being 51 year old and a resident
of New York for 35 years. Fisher was buried
in Dedham, Massachusetts, on January
22, 1877.(5)
Fisher’s prescription of digitalis suggests
that he thought he had congestive
heart failure. Aconite was widely used at
the time for various neurological and arthritic
conditions and, more rarely, for
heart failure and edema. At Stokes’ trial
(23) Fisher had mentioned that his right
hand was partially paralyzed, following
what he called a “heat stroke” but may have
been a cerebral embolism, a complication
of his valvular disease.
Conclusions
We have found it curious that a doctor
described by the New York Times as “well
known” and a “society physician” left so
few traces of his professional life after his
return to the United States. He did not belong
to the A.M.A. or any of the New York
or Massachusetts medical societies and
joined the Boston Medical Association for
a few months only.
Odd, also, is Fisher’s change of first
name over the years: from Francis Willis
to F. Willis then to Francis W. and finally
Frank W. We were unable to find a photograph
or portrait. Thus most of Fisher’s
life remains a mystery.
References
(1) Defalque RJ, Wright AJ. The introduction
of ether in Paris revisited. Bull Anesth Hist
2008;26:10-12.
(2) Fisher FW. The ether inhalation in Paris.
Boston Med Surg J 1847;36:109-113.
(3)Fisher PA. The Fisher Genealogy: Records
of the Descendants of Joshua, Anthony and
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