Draft:Erasmus Darwin Fenner

Erasmus Darwin Fenner (1807 – May 4, 1866) was an American physician who helped to establish several medical journals, and was one of the founders of the New Orleans School of Medicine. He was the father of judge Charles Erasmus Fenner.

Early life, education, and career

Born in Franklin, North Carolina, the ninth of eleven children of physician Richard Fenner, he pursued his early studies at the academy at Raleigh, North Carolina, under the Rev. Dr. McPheeters. After his father moved to Tennessee, under the guidance of a competent tutor, he acquired an education in the sciences, and in the Greek and Latin languages. He began the study of medicine in 1827, under his elder brother, Dr. Robert Fenner; attended his first course of lectures in 1829, and graduated in 1830 at the University of Transylvania in Kentucky. He entered the practice of medicine in Jackson, Tennessee, and in 1832 he married Ann Collier, a young lady from the State of Georgia, who is said to have been possessed of great attraction of person and manners. In 1833, Fenner moved to Clinton, Mississippi, where he soon enjoyed a large practice, and his son Charles was born.

Career in Louisiana

Fenner helped establish several medical journals in the Crescent City and was instrumental in establishing the New Orleans School of Medicine, described by John Harley Warner as home to the "most aggressive body of proselytizers for a plan of education built around a recognition of the South's medical distinctiveness", a phrase used in support of the theory that the blacks and whites were so different as to require different medical approaches. Fennere left no doubt of his position in the matter; echoing Agassiz, he declared: "If this be sectional medicine I cannot help it. It was not made so by me, but by Nature".

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In 1837 Fenner lost much of his income, and his wife died, and leaving him to raise his son alone. He moved to New Orleans in the spring of 1810.

He came to New Orleans with narrow pecuniary means, and with few friends and acquaintances; he lived on the most economical scale, and devoted himself to the education of his little boy. Dr. D. Warren Brickell, in a biographical sketch of Fenner, from which the main facts of this sketch have been derived, says:

When we first made Dr. Fenner's acquaintance, in 1848, he was still devoted to the instruction of his son, and his evenings were spent in cultivating his mind. During the first year of his residence here he realized a few hundred dollars from his practice; the next a little more; the next a little more; and so on, until, at the time of our acquaintance with him (the eighth of his residence here), he had a very genteel practice, had purchased a home in the centre of the city, and was working hard to pay for it. Often have we been deeply interested in the tale of his economical life in New Orleans, during at least five years. It was in the midst of this probationary struggle that Dr. Fenner found a kindred spirit in poverty and just aspirations, and the result was the beginning of that more public career which brought him to the favorable notice of our brethren at home and abroad, and fixed for him a reputation both enviable and enduring.

In the spring of 1844, Fenner commenced publication of the New Orleans Medical Journal, in conjunction with Dr. A. Hester, who had come to this city at the same time as Fenner, and who was also struggling financially.

Fenner wrote:

Happening to be thrown together in the city of New Orleans, and finding our fortunes alike desperate, a fellow feeling gave rise to an intimacy between us which it is hoped will endure through life. Without money, with but few acquaintances, and dependent on a precarious practice, which hardly afforded the most economical support, we determined to project the hazardous adventure of a Southern medical journal, and trust to the liberality of the medical profession for its support. The field was ample, rich, and entirely unoccupied; but it was difficult to see how the experiment could succeed without having one cent of capital to start with. We actually had the prospectus printed on credit, one of our booksellers being willing to go that far at all hazards, and we paid the bill—three dollars-out of the first spare money we had. The prospectus being out, and distributed throughout the country, we were fairly committed to bring out the work; but as yet could find no person willing to undertake the publication. All we had to give was our own labor, which was cheerfully offered, but something more substantial was required. We appealed to the booksellers, to the proprietors of the city newspapers, and, finally, to the Medical College, and leading physicians of the city, for a guaranty of five hundred dollars. But all to no purpose. The enterprise was conceived in poverty, and finally poverty brought it forth! At this stage of our gestation we had the good luck to meet with a poor French printer, who had a handful of type and nothing to do. Him we persuaded by means of flattering promises to bring out the first number; and thus the New Orleans Medical Journal saw the light! Each number made out to pay its own way, but left no surplus on hand. In this manner we struggled through the first volume, and were entering on the second with prospects somewhat improved, when an unexpected rival appeared in the field. The professors of the Louisiana Medical College issued a prospectus announcing the early appearance of a new medical journal from their school. A union was effected between the two, and the late Professors Harrison and Carpenter joined us in the publication of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. In 1818 we voluntarily withdrew from the journal, and in less than two years Drs. Carpenter and Harrison were removed by the hand of death, leaving the present worthy editor, Dr. Hester, alone in his glory."

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"Both the founders of the New Orleans Medical Journal have passed away, but they have made their impress on society. Both triumphed over poverty, and the real and fictitious obstacles of life. One did not live long enough to enjoy the full fruition of his early efforts; the other, though not reaching the full term allotted to man, tasted freely of the sweets of consciousness of a life approved and applauded by his fellow.men."

In addition to numerous editorials, book notices, and reviews, the following publications and articles from his pen illustrate the noble and unselfish motives by which he was impelled :

"Brief Notes on a Medical Tour in the United States." Communicated in editorial correspondence to the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal No. 2, vol. iii.

VOL. XXIX.-42

It was on this tour (May, 1946) that he became one of the members of the first meeting of the embryo American Medical Association, held at New York. He then presented his credentials from both the Mississippi State Medical Society and the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Louisiana.

"Case of Rupture of the Heart, and Compound Fracture of the Thigh, in which the Patient survived Twenty-eight Hours and a Half."- New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. iii. No. 3.

"An Account of the Yellow Fever that prevailed in New Orleans in the year 1846."'- New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. iii. No. 4.

This is the first of an elaborate and truthful series of reports on epidemics of yellow fever which came under his personal observation. “An Account of the Yellow Fever at New Orleans in the year 1848."

At this time Dr. Fenner embarked in a new professional enterprise, and one which, although he abandoned it at the end of two years' hard work for want of the pecuniary patronage of his professional brethren, will always remain as a solid monument of his learning, industry, and zeal for the permanent advancement of the American medical profession.

In 1849 and 1850 he edited and issued, solely on his own responsibility, Volumes 1 and 2 of Southern Medical Reports: Consisting of General and Special Reports on the Medical Topography, Meteorology, and Prevalent Diseases in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Texas.

The failure of this enterprise did not dampen the ardor of Dr. Fenner, and he continued to labor with his pen, each year contributing the results of his observations; and in 1854 he issued

A pamphlet of eighty-four pages, entitled, "History of the Epidemic of Yellow Fever at New Orleans, La., in 1853."

This elaborate paper, as well as all his numerous essays, illustrated the industry, energy, and honesty of his nature, and the deep interest which he ever, during his long residence in this city, manifested in the health and material welfare of New Or. leans. Of his devotion to New Orleans, almost his last hours give evidence.

The last paper he penned, which was prepared for the pages of the Southern Journal of the Medical Sciences, and the proof. sheets of which he corrected just before he was taken sick, contains the following paragraph:

“If our people would avail themselves of this knowledge, and carry out the measures it inculcates, we have every reason to believe such diseases might be prevented, or eradicated where they exist. All efforts hitherto made to prevent their extension by means of quarantine and sanitary cordons have failed, and we have but little reason to hope that they will ever succeed. For twenty years we, and some others, have labored to convince the people of New Orleans that the only way to make the city healthy, is to make and keep it clean. But we have labored in vain. In the mysterious course of events, the hand of the tyrant has been brought to our aid, and the results are marvellous. Will our citizens profit by this experience, and continue to enforce their own health ordinances, as the Federal military authorities enforced them?, If they do not the consequences will surely be deplorable."

Thoroughly acquainted with the system of medical education in the United States, as well as with the resources of teaching possessed by all the cities, north, south, east, and west; feeling the importance of practitioners intended for the South, clinically taught in the South; and appreciating the immense clinical advantages of New Orleans (really sufficient for two thousand students), at last, in the spring of 1856, Dr. Fenner found the time, the money, and the kindred spirits available for maturing the cherished plan of years, and all his energies were bent to the establishment of the New Orleans School of Medicine.

Under the general law of the State of Louisiana, the charter of an institution of the kind was at once obtainable, and the organization of the school was forthwith effected, as follows: E. D. Fenner, M.D., Professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine, and Dean of the Faculty. J. M. W. Picton, M.D., Professor of Diseases of Women and Children. Thos. PENESTON, M.D., Professor of Clinical Medicine, etc. SAMUEL CHOPPIN, M.D., Professor of Surgery. C. BEARD, M.D., Professor of Anatomy. Howard Smitu, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica, etc. J. L. Crawcour, M.D., Professor of Medical Chemistry, etc. A. F. Axson, M.D., Professor of Physiology. D. WARREN BRICKELI, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics. ANTHONY PENESTON, M.D., Adjunct Professor of Anatomy.

The faculty thus organized purchased a piece of ground on the corner of Common and Villeré streets, immediately opposite the gate of the Charity Hospital, and at once proceeded To erect thereon a commodious building, and through the liberality of private citizens friendly to the enterprise, the means were found of purchasing a valuable museum, and by the 1st of November of the same year the institution was ready for the reception of students. No less than seventy-six matriculates enrolled their names the first session.

By legislative enactment the wards of the Charity Hospital were thrown open to the professors and students, and twenty thousand dollars were appropriated, mainly through the influence of Dr. Fenner, for the purpose of enlarging the building and increasing the museum, etc. The season before the recent American civil war broke out (the fifth session of the school), the New Orleans School of Medicine had largely over two hundred students, and the aggregate of students in the city of New Orleans was largely over six hundred.

If there had been no war New Orleans would be now teaching one thousand students of medicine annually-thus realizing the original prediction of Dr. Fenner: "If the New Orleans School of Medicine is unmolested, in ten years we will have an aggregate of one thousand students in New Orleans, and a third school will have sprung up."

From the date of the founding of the New Orleans School of Medicine to the beginning of the war-five years—Dr. Fenner's labors as a teacher were great, but he found time to contribute to the pages of the New Orleans Medical News and Hospital Gazette, a monthly journal published there during seven years prior to the great struggle. He even became one of the editors of this journal.

Ending his career at the close of the civil war, it is but just, briefly, to note his connection therewith. Contrary to the general opinion around him, he considered the secession of the State of South Carolina as the first step in civil war, which he regarded as the greatest calamity that could befall the land; and when the question was put to the people of his own State he voted against it, still hoping that moderation might prevail. He loved the whole country as his country, and it was a bitter reflection that it was now to be bathed in blood. But the vote of the State of Louisiana was cast for secession, and having been educated in that political school which taught pre-eminently that State allegiance was paramount when the right of a State was being invaded, he at once yielded his own primary convictions of expediency and followed the fortunes of his State. As soon as Virginia became the theatre of actual war, he repaired thither, and devoted himself to the suffering sick and wounded from Louisiana. He visited the commands of Louisiana wherever stationed, and looked into the wants of the sick and wounded, and originated the Louisiana Hospital at Richmond. In the fall of 1861 he returned to New Orleans, and during the winter devoted himself, as a member of a special committee, to the business of forwarding supplies of all sorts to the suffering Louisiana soldiers. When the city of New Orleans fell in the spring of 1862, he remained at home, from a conviction that he could be of essential service to the many destitute and helpless families, whose male friends were all in the army. In May, 1863, as he persisted in his refusal to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, he was driven from the city. He took passage, with many others, on board a schooner, and landed within the Confederate lines at Pascagoula. Thence he went to Mobile, and at that city he remained almost constantly until the close of the war, in the spring of 1865. Of his labors there Louisiana soldiers will warmly attest. Without ever belonging to the army proper, he was awarded the privilege of attending the sick and wounded from Louisiana, and special wards were assigned him in a beautiful private hospital of the Sisters of Charity. To these wards he devoted himself unceasingly. In the presence of the sick and wounded Confederate soldiers he was ever cheerful and encouraging, always urging resignation to privations; away from them, his heart ached for them, and he labored ever to mitigate their condition.

It was in the midst of his arduous labors in Mobile, and in the last years of the war, that Dr. Fenner experienced the first great shock to his accustomed robust health. There is no doubt that the condition of the struggling South depressed him greatly. At last he was seized with diabetes, which greatly prostrated him, and his friends were alarmed. At the close of the war he retired for awhile to Canton, Miss., and spent some months in quiet repose at the home of his nephew.

There his health improved, and he returned to New Orleans to find his business affairs in utter confusion, and his property in process of confiscation. Among other troubles, that of recov. ering possession of the New Orleans School of Medicine (then occupied as a negro school) devolved upon him; he spared no labor, and succeeded in opening the school with a good class at the usual time in November. He regarded the establishment of a first-class medical journal in New Orleans as indispensable to the profession of the Southwest ; and on the 4th of May, 1866, appeared, with Dr. Fenner as senior editor. On the very day on which this new evidence of the energy and professional life which animated him appeared, he passed away.

Fenner died at his home in New Orleans, on the same day as the first edition of the Southern Journal of the Medical Sciences, with Fenner as senior editor, was published.

External links

• Rudolph Matas Library of the Health Sciences, New Orleans School of Medicine: A Guide: 1856-1870s. Clinical teaching in Charity Hospital

Category:1807 births Category:1866 deaths

This open draft remains in progress as of July 5, 2023.