MEMOIR OF HENRY MILLER, M.D. HENRY MILLER was born in or near the town of Glasgow, in Barren Co., Kentucky, on the first day of November, 1800, at a time when there were but few inhabitants in that part of the State, then, as now, known as the Green River country, his father, Henry Miller, Esq., having been one of the first three settlers of the village. He never had the advantages of a collegiate education, but at the village and country schools acquired a good knowledge of the English, to which he supperadded the study of Latin, logic, and metaphysics. At seventeen, he commenced the study of medicine under the tuition of Doctors Bainbridge and Gist, whose practice extended over a vast area of country. The scarcity of apothecaries and dentists in those days made it necessary for physicians to compound their own medicines, and pull teeth for all who required it. Bleeding, too, was then greatly in vogue, and in many instances patrons of physicians made regular visits to the doctors' "shop" to have a pint or a quart drawn, just as their condition seemed to demand. In this way Henry Miller became first practically interested in medicine, and filled the place of chief pharmaceutist, dentist, and bleeder for his county. At the age of nineteen he travelled on horseback to Lexington, Ky., and attended the first full course of lectures ever delivered in the Medical Department of Transylvania University. On his arrival at this new and the first fountain of medical instruction in the great West, he was one of a band of less than forty students assembled to listen to medical lectures. At the end of this course, he returned to his home and was taken into partnership by his senior preceptor (Dr. Gist having removed to New Castle in Henry County). Thus occupied until the fall of 1821, he returned to attend his second course of lectures, and in the following spring received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, offering for his inaugural thesis a paper on the "Relation between the Sanguiferous and Nervous Systems," which was replete with so much physioVOL. XXVI.-29 logical research as to prompt the faculty to publish it. After receiving his Degree, he returned to Glasgow to commence in earnest, on his own responsibility, the practice of his profession, with full assurance of success. The next session, however, of the Transylvania Medical School opened and ended with considerable dissatisfaction among the students as to the facilities afforded for the study of practical anatomy, and at the close of the session Dr. Miller was tendered the demonstrator's place. He accepted the offer, and at once went to Philadelphia, where he closely applied himself to dissecting, and in the fall returned to Lexington to begin his new duties. To his astonishment, he found Professor Dudley opposed to his appointment, and he had either to enroll himself as that gentleman's competitor or resign. He did not hesitate to determine on the latter course, and again he returned to Glasgow and resumed the practice until 1827, when he was induced to remove to Harrodsburg, in Mercer County, then the most popular watering place in the West. Here for nine years he engaged in a very extensive and laborious practice, acquiring a most enviable reputation, which led in 1835 to his being called to this city to aid in organizing a medical school for which a charter had already been obtained by a number of resident physicians. Unfortunately though, the corporators were the Professors in the school, and he at once saw that failure under such a state of things was inevitable, and very soon he had it so changed that the trustees should be from any rank or profession other than the medical. In this school, he accepted the Chair of "Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children" at a time when every prospect was gloomy and embarrassing, and most of his colleagues lukewarm and despondent. Nothing daunted, however, by all these discouragements, he believed Louisville was destined to be the great medical centre of the west for teaching, and to the accomplishment of this end his every energy was fixed. Transylvania at once saw the danger, and in him recognized a powerful opponent, and in a very short time all the Faculty of the last-named Institution, except Dr. Dudley, determined to remove the school to the Falls City. Then came Caldwell, Cook, and Yandell to unite their fortunes with the nascent Medical Institution of Louisville, which in time was merged into the Medical Department of the Louisville University. Up to 1858, Dr. Miller was uninterruptedly engaged as a medical teacher. At that time he resigned, and again for nine years devoted himself closely to a most lucrative practice. In 1859, at the meeting of the American Medical Association in Louisville, he was elected President of the Association. In 1867 he was again induced to take a special chair which was created for him in the University-the chair of Medical and Surgical Diseases of Women. In one year, he resigned this to take the same chair in the Louisville Medical College, which chair he held up to the time of his death. Dr. Miller was not a voluminous writer, having written but two works. These were sufficient to make him widely known both at home and abroad, as an author of great power. The first of these was his "Theoretical and Practical Treatise on Human Parturition," the second and larger was his " Principles and Practice of Obstetrics." Besides these, he made occasional contributions to the "Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery," the "American Journal of the Medical Sciences," the " Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal," and the " American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children." In all that he ever wrote there was originality of thought on every page. As a practitioner, he was ever eminently progressive, and among the foremost in adopting improved methods of diagnosis and treatment. He was the first to use the speculum uteri in this city; the first to perform ovariotomy here; the first to use intrauterine remedies; and the first to employ anæsthesia in midwifery. Up to his death he continued almost daily to use chloroform in every case of labor which came under his care, unless its use was positively forbidden by some peculiarity or condition of the patient, and died a strong advocate of its use, never having lost a patient or met with an accident therefrom. Of his first case in which he used it, he wrote that the patient was kept under its influence six hours. His success in ovariotomy was five out of six cases, and yet he wrote that he regarded the operation with great aversion, and rather shrunk from than courted its performance, and expressed the wish that with him such cases might be few and far between. It was written of him more than twenty years ago, that" it was but truth to say that he had acquired a reputation of which any man might be proud," that "it was not the result of trick or sham or artifice, of any of those acts by which men of smaller mould endeavor to catch and to retain the popular regard," that “it had its basis in those solid qualities of mind and heart, which will endure as long as humanity endures," that "it was the steady growth of years spent in the conscientious pursuit of what was right and true in science and in the fearless discharge of the duties of life," that" during his long connection with medical schools, the breath of detraction or slander never dared assail him, either professorially, professionally, or personally. His colleagues one and all relied with entire confidence on his judgment and his sense of honor, justice, and propriety, and the students whom he taught, without exception, regarded him not only as a most able and instructive teacher, but ever as a friend and mentor." That "in this community, where he had lived and worked for a quarter of a century, there was but one opinion of his skill and sound judgment as a practitioner of medicine, and of his high qualities as a man.” That" in his particular department of practice, he had been and was then without a living superior." That "he did not follow blindly what was recognized as authentic," that "he received nothing as true without having subjected it to the crucible of his own judgment, and with that frankness, and independence, and fearlessness which those who knew, will recognize as characteristic with the manhood that had marked his whole life," that "he did not hesitate to call in question opinions or doctrines which appeared to him unsound, no matter from whom they emanated," nor failed to give "reasons for the faith that was in him." Such was the estimation in which he was held by the profession a score of years ago, and the years since then have but served to more firmly impress all who knew him of its correctness. The flight of time did not efface one beauty of his character, nor in the slightest dim the brightness of his intellect. On the contrary, each year added brighter lustre to his name, and endeared him more closely to all who knew him. On the 8th day of February, 1874, he died with Bright's disease of the kidney. What more can be said of him than that, as a man, a citizen, a physician, a teacher, author, friend, he was faithfully tried and found to be fully true? Loaded with honors, and richly deserving them all, he lived, and when the summons came, he left us with a full assurance of a happy hereafter. S. D. GROSS, E. S. GAILLARD, |