The History of Dartmouth College

by Baxter Perry Smith

Professor Crosby married Mary Jane, daughter of Stephen Moody, of Gilmanton, N. H.

The following paragraphs relating to one of Dartmouth's most eminent professors, the esteemed classmate of President Bartlett, who says: "Outside of my own family circle, I had no better friend," are from the pen of Dr. T. A. Emmet, of New York.

"Edmund Randolph Peaslee was born at Newton, New Hampshire, January 22, 1814. We have no record of his boyhood, or of his life previous to graduating from Dartmouth College, with the class of 1836. In this institution he occupied the position of tutor from 1837 to 1839, when he entered the Medical Department of Yale College and took his degree in 1840.

"The following year he settled in Hanover, N. H., and commenced the practice of his profession. Without waiting in expectation, he began his busy life by delivering a popular course of lectures on Anatomy and Physiology.

"These lectures indicated so clearly his talents that, in 1842, but two years after entering the profession, he was appointed professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Medical Department of Dartmouth College, and retained the office until his death. Within a year afterwards, in 1843, he was appointed lecturer, and shortly afterwards professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the Medical School in Maine, connected with Bowdoin College. He filled those two professorships until 1857, when he gave up Anatomy, but continued to lecture on Surgery until 1860. Dr. Peaslee first came to the city of New York in 1851, on receiving the professorship of Physiology and General Pathology in the New York Medical College, then just being established.

"This position he held for four years, when he was transferred to the chair of Obstetrics, and continued to lecture on this branch until the institution was closed about 1860. He, however, did not settle in New York, to the practice of his profession, until 1858. After 1860, he mainly devoted himself to his practice, lecturing little except during the summer or autumn course in Dartmouth College. But to do justice to his subject and compress the whole subject into the space of some six weeks, this being his time of recreation from business, he always delivered at least two lectures a day and frequently more. In 1870, he was elected one of the Trustees of his Alma Mater, which had in 1859 conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws. From 1872, he delivered a course of lectures in the Medical Department on the Diseases of Women. Two years afterwards, the course on Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College was divided, when Dr. Peaslee was offered and accepted the chair of Gynæcology. At about this date he also occupied for a short time a professorship in the Albany Medical School. On the reorganization of the Medical Department of the Woman's Hospital of the State of New York, in 1872, he was made one of the Attending Surgeons, and held this position, together with his professorship in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, at the time of his death.

"In 1857, he published in Philadelphia, 'Human Histology, in its Relations to Descriptive Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology,' in which were given for the first time, by translation, the experiments of Robin and Verdell on Anatomical Chemistry. But the one great work which will identify him with his generation is that on 'Ovarian Tumors, their Pathology, Diagnosis, and Treatment, especially by Ovariotomy,' published in New York, 1872. To this work he contributed but little original matter, beyond his personal experience, which had been large at that time. He, however, presented a digest of the whole subject in so thorough and masterly a manner that this work is destined to be a classic and a landmark as it were. It will be the future starting-point for the literature of this subject, as an original patent is in the searching of a title. There will be no need to go beyond his researches on this subject, as they are exhaustive.

"For one feature in his work he has often expressed the greatest satisfaction, that he had been able to establish for Dr. Ephraim McDowell the credit of being the first ovariotomist. In consequence of his labors, the world has at length given us credit for this great discovery, of no less value than many others which we can claim to have originated in our country, for the prolongation of life and for the mitigation of suffering.

"Dr. Peaslee, at some time in his life, had lectured on every branch of Medical science. With the exception of Dr. Physic, we have not another instance where the lecturer was equally proficient in the practice. But if we compare the extent of professional knowledge in Dr. Physic's generation and the acquirements of the present day, Dr. Peaslee will stand alone. Notwithstanding the incessant claims of his profession, he kept up through life his collegiate training in the classics, his taste for mathematics, and had acquired the knowledge of one or more modern languages. Few men in the profession were more familiar with the literature of our own language."

Dr. W. M. Chamberlain, who had rare opportunities for appreciating the character and worth of Dr. Peaslee, says: