History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

"•Dr. Nathaniel Hubbard died in Stamford, in the year 1772, at an ad- vanced age. For forty or fifty years ho was the prin.ipal iiliy-i. iaii in the jilaQ, anil particularly eminent in his profession. '" Dr .I>p!ih NVils ui commenced practice ab.ait the year 17<.iit. and coii- tiinied lieie until 17'JG. when he remove 1 to the city of New York, lie was a native of Stamf-inl. He died about thi' year l.Sf!_', leaving four sons, all pinsicians.— viz., John (the father of Hon. J.'hn ),i. Wjl^nn, now of Albany, but for many years a resident of \Vest[.o:t, and judge of the County Court of Fairtield Countyi. Stephen, James, and Henry. Jolm and Stephen settled in the city of New York, James ami Henry in tlu- county of Westchester.' "Dr. Samuel Webh, born in Siamford, .Manh 7. 17C.'t. .son of Col. Cliarles Webb, a distinguished o!fi._er of the Revobitioiiary war, was .s.-»- ia-ltw of the abuve Dr. John Wils in. He graduat<- 1 at Yale College about the year 177'.>, and imme li ittdy commence I the t^tndy and practic.- of medicine with Dr. Wilson, and continued in a s lecessful jiractice up to the day uf his death, Dec. liH, l.S2i;. Dr. Webb ever enjoyed the esteem and c<aiftdence of the community to a remarkable degree, not only in his profession. but in hi^civil relati ms. On s -veral oreasions li ■ represents the town ill the Legislature of the State, and for many yeais fille 1 the office of a jusliee uf the peace. He died very smMenly of enlargement of the heart, in Ids sixty -seventh year, having previously enjoyed during life uninterrupted good health. It is a remarkable fact, shown from entries upon his day-book, that for fourteen years previous t-- his death not a ilay passed but he made professional visits. "There were several physicians of the name uf Tomlinson who formerly resided and practiced medicine in Stratford. Their respective names, as I learn, were Agur Tomlinson, William Agur Tomlinson, s -n of the above, Cliarles Tomlinson, nephew uf Agur. and Hezekiah Tom- linson. " I have been able to obtain but little t>f their biographies, other than I that tliey were highly respectable sus citizens, and two or three of the number were of cunsideraMe eminence as pliysiei;nis. The first giadu- ate.l at Yale College in 1744. and died in 177r., aged fifty-three years. Hezekiah also gra<huited at the same instiluii m in ITiio, and died in iTsl. aged thiity-ftiur years. I " Dr. William Agur TomliliSMi is said to have been s uiiewhat end- I nent in his profession. He, I am informed, espoused the eause of the king in the war of the Revolution, and retired with m ist of the .\meric t- fJuglish patriots t." Nova Scotia at its dose, wliere he resided for a pe: i id. I He subseiiuently returned to Stratford and re-;umed professi mal duties. ' He is stated t J have applied to the State Legislature for and obtained a special act granting a restoration of his soipiestered estate, and also tin; privilege uf collecting his m-dieal bills, contracted pivvi.ms to his expa- triation. He is reported to have exercise! tliis indulgence oppiessively on ininy of his debtors. He died in IT.o'J. "Two gentlemen of the name of Clark, who were brothers,— viz., Joseph au't James,— and also a ph.vsi.ian by the name of Russel, practiced me liiane at an early period in Stratford. The Clarks are reported as physicians of eminence for the period; but I am unable to stale anything ' regarding Dr. Russel. Joseph Clark is reporteil as a phyfician of emi- nence, and much esteemed in his profession, a citizen of good principles, and a kind, affable, and gentlemanly man. He espoused the cause o I the king during the Kevolution, in consetpienco of which his family I suffered much indignity from the zeahms populace. He fled with his family to the British provinces, where he probably died. I "Before pro.eeding to a noti;e of the later physi ians of Fairfield I County, such as were connected with the organization of its medical sjciety, 1 will briefly allude to tlie general c 'mlitiju of medicine aii^l 32 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNir, CONNECTICUT. medical litcmturo in the county preriouB to its society organization, as fur 08 occetisiblo fuels fiiniiiilt iiifonnitlion on tliu subject. "Doubtlcds the mctlical liistoni- of tlii^ i8 einiilnr to tliiit of mottt other counties in tbin Stale; but im lissychiiion, iis well in nieiliciil ns in civil reliitions, was more intimate between tbe population within the boun- daries of each of thefw geographical iw,'t:iijns, it in reasonable to 8npiK>!to that iiilluoncett wuitlJ originato fj-oni such intercouiso wliich would establish peculiarities not only in tlieir ordinary domeslic relations, but also iu the sentiments and habits of i>raclice among the physicians of each county. "In the early periods of tliescttleniont of the Stato intercourse among her phyi4icians was circumscribed, and access to medical literature dilll- cult. Sledical moniU therefore, us well as pre^icriplion, doubtless in a considerable degree, received modiflcation from the cliaracter and quuli- flcalion uf iudjvtduali^ who were the u'lniiuistratore of the liealing ait. Hence it is padmhlu that each county presented a medical character considei-ably devi.iting fium that of its neigliborlng counties. " .\mong the causes of seclional peculiarities in the State of tlie medi- cal profession, not the le:ist was an unequal numerical posieseion, by its Boverul counties, of physicians of a more retlned and exalted education. "It may readily bee >nceivc J that theme lical character of each county woulil bo elevated or ilepressc'il in a mti^> pr>>]>orli^nate to the enjoyment or alKionco of the salutvry inlluencc which such must exert upon tho eenlimonts of the coii.niiiiiity in which they retnided. In counties num- bering l>ut a limited poitini of physicians of this desu'iiptiun, it la to bo presumed that the public sonlinient regurditig medicine would be moulded by and made conformable to the inculcations of the cmpiiicul pretenders, while in sections enjoying the teachings of a greater portion of the honorable and educated, a uioro accurate and elevated estimate would bo formed relative to the merits and claims of the various medical administrators within its pieuincts. " In lieldH preoccupied by tho quackish pretenders who liad cautiously intrenched themselves in the favor of a marvel-seeking public, by ex- hibiting the niyrttories with which they over envelop their art, the honor- able ami Hcienlillc pliysician could Imrdly bo expected to seek his fortune. To such lields, therefore, would tho various spocies of pretender, who ever shrink fn>m the light of science, retire with the object not only of reaping the pecuniary harvests which they presenteil, but with the view a.\^> of escaping the dangers of a detection of his devices. In common with other border counties of tho Slate, Fairllold County originally enjoyed less the councils of tho better educated physicians than counties more central and populou*; consequently it expoiionced more and longer than tliose the evllo of empiricism and quackery. '■ Although its several larger and i)opulous villages early posscA^cd their 8(vcallc<l regular physicians, yet those were mo^^tly derivations from the root and Indian doctors, whose professional habits had been formed in the schools whence they originated. A portion of tho more rational of these sought association and gradually became assimilated In practical views with their systematically educated brethren ; but while iu<suming such |>uMiion they did not lu'»itate, from motives of enhancing their in- tere»ls, t'l foMer tho i>opulur notion shrewdly inculcated in their .l/nm Muter, that diseases of peculiar location were of spcciul nml indigenous chnnicter, and that their specillc lemedies existed print ipally in the forests and fields in which they originated. Many of these practitioners, however, who posseiisetl greater honesty of character, connected with a native taste for the science which they professed, in the emergencies oc- cuning in their practice resorted to soma * prinUd ffiwle to henWi,^ and IKTchnnce to tlie wt>iks of ll4K;rhave or Sydenham, which not unfre- quently beranie their otandard counselor in practice, and als.* their in- etnictors In the leisure of their donieotic retirement. "By such di:<cipline, aided by obst*rvali.<n of the character of disease a» well ON by oc nsloual consultatinns with better iufitrurtetl jdiysicians, many of this solf-educateJ cla-w iK^cAine elevated to a respectJililo rank as II rnctit loners and useful In the community where thoy resided. Hy uieans of such improremont In tho qualification uf Its profumon*. tho healing art advanced in re«i|K>ctablllty ; the aUunlitles of the medical impostor were exi»>S4>J In the judgment •*( the retleeting; and tho {Hipular senti- ment, wlii. h had been tmineil in the belief of its marvehms rcHult.s was gradually led Iu contemplate medi.al srienco In the view t.f tho onliiwry nciencti^ which, like IhcM*, being based on sensible and rational prlnci- plrs, was to t>o acquire*! but thnmgh a patient and careful invi-stlgiuiou. "It has been reuuirke.1 that the more considorablo villages usually enjoyed the advantngiM of the sen Icos of regularly educale«l phyKichins. By n'OMm, huwevor, of Ihe scanty means ufTonled f,)r tho acquirement • •f nnillcal knowlixlge In tho early |K>ii,>ds of our Stale's hlstort*, the re- mark may n.*t be ditined invidious, tliat far the larger ptHtJun of medical practitioners, at the commcncemont of their pi ' .,--,1 less theoretical mcJieal literature than that acquired by the diligent stu- dent of medicine at the present time after a pupilage of a few months in theofficeof tho private i)ractitiitner.exclutiveof the instruction which he receives from a course of lectures in a public medical iiiMlilution.