Professor James Conquest Cross, M. D.
Born in the vicinity of Lexington, Kentucky, was early distinguished for superior natural energy and mental ability. He was a graduate of Transylvania and most ambitious to take place as member of its Faculty. Appointed to the chair of Institutes of Medicine in 1837, having been called from the Medical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati, where he held a professorship, he occupied the position in Lexington until 1843–44, and died a few years thereafter. He was Dean of the Medical Faculty in 1838.
Doctor Cross contributed several papers to the medical journals, but wrote no large work. He was distinguished for readiness and brilliancy rather than for solidity. His strong ambition and self-confidence, with his considerable abilities and extensive reading, gave promise of a most distinguished career, which unhappily a certain want of mental ballast measurably prevented.[79]
Doctor John Eberle[80]
Was a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and was a little over fifty years of age at the time of his decease. Born and educated among the Germans of Lancaster, he retained the peculiar accent and idiom of that people to the day of his death, as also their habits of industry and perseverance in favorite pursuits. At an early period of his history, Doctor Eberle was deeply involved in politics and for some time conducted a German political paper. Prior to his removal to Philadelphia, which occurred about the year 1818, he published several interesting papers in the New York Medical Repository and other journals. Shortly after his settlement in Philadelphia, he became the editor of the American Medical Recorder, known throughout the country as one of our ablest periodicals. In 1822, his work on Therapeutics and Materia Medica first appeared, after having encountered many obstacles that for a time seemed to preclude its publication. The author assured the writer of this notice that he failed in all his attempts to procure a publisher, who would give him anything for the copyright, until the person who finally became its proprietor offered two hundred and fifty dollars for the work. Being the first book of the author, he accepted the offer in the hope of being more successful in his subsequent undertakings.
In 1824, on the establishment of Jefferson Medical College, Doctor Eberle constituted one of its Faculty, and continued in the school until his removal to Cincinnati in 1831. While in Jefferson he taught the Theory and Practice, Materia Medica, and Obstetrics at different periods, and was also engaged as editor of the American Medical Review, a journal devoted especially to the interests of that school. While in the Jefferson Faculty he published the first edition of his work on Practice, which, it is well known, has passed through several editions, and unlike its predecessor yielded a handsome compensation to its author.
In 1831, Doctor Eberle was invited (in connection with Doctors Thomas D. Mitchell and George McClellan) by Doctor Drake, to unite in the formation of a new medical school at Cincinnati. In the winter of 1831–32, the deceased gave his first course of lectures in the West as Professor of Materia Medica and Medical Botany in the Medical College of Ohio, in which school he remained until the fall of 1837, when he became connected with the Medical Department of Transylvania. While in Cincinnati, he prepared his work on the Diseases of Children, for which the publishers gave him a fair compensation, and it is understood that he was engaged a year ago in getting ready for the press A System of Midwifery. That he was importuned by his publishers in Ohio to prepare such a work is known to the writer of this notice.
In addition to the publications of Doctor Eberle above named, there were others of less magnitude. Among these we name a small work of a botanical character, for young students; and it may be noticed here that botany was a favorite study with the deceased.
Doctor Eberle was not fond of the practice of his profession, or he might have become rich in its pursuit. He was devoted especially to books, and as a journalist he has not perhaps been equaled in the United States of America. In his deportment he was plain, unassuming, unostentatious; and his whole aspect was indicative of one who had long been a companion of the midnight lamp. Few there are in our profession whose labors have given them such extensive celebrity as fell to the lot of Professor Eberle. His Practice of Physic is in almost every medical library in the West, and has been noticed with high commendation by foreign journalists. His death has left a chasm in the profession, and especially in the school of the West, that is greatly lamented.
Doctor Eberle died at Lexington, Kentucky, February 2, 1838, while filling the chair of the Theory and Practice of Medicine.