[ [80] From the Transylvania Journal of Medicine, Volume XI, 1838.
[ [81] Letter of Doctor Mitchell to Benjamin Gratz, February 7, 1838: " ... I graduated in 1812. In 1813 was appointed by the Governor of Pa. to the office of Lazaretto Physician of the Port of Phila, which post I held until 1816, when indisposition compelled me to resign. I then had opportunity of becoming acquainted with the Southern fevers, particularly the yellow fever of N. Orleans and the West Indies. For 17 years after I was actively engaged in practice, and may refer to Eberle's Therapeutics for his opinion of me as a medical man, at a time when I was not personally acquainted with him. The journals of those times contain many medical papers furnished by me, as examination will show. In 1831 my name was before the Trustees of Jefferson Medical College for the chair of Materia Medica vacated by the resignation of Dr. Eberle, and I would have been appointed, as I have since been informed by Gen. Duncan, one of the Trustees, if I had not agreed to join with Dr. Eberle a new faculty at Cincinnati. If any object that a Prof'r of Chemistry can not make a good Prof'r of Theory and Practice, I have only to refer to the case of the celebrated Dr. Rush, who passed directly from Chemistry to Theory and Practice, as the published records of the University of Penna. will show."
[ [82] He was sole editor of this journal in the latter years of its existence.
[ [83] Doctor Mitchell was an exceedingly rapid speaker. With difficulty could those unused to this peculiarity follow his swift flow of language and ideas. But once accustomed, his pupils liked this better than the more deliberate speech of other professors. He never failed to impress upon students the importance of a not too hasty diagnosis, the premonitory symptoms of widely differing diseases being nearly identical; whereas treatment proper for one disease might result fatally if applied to another.
[ [84] Doctor Bush's mother was Miss Palmer, sister of the wife of Governor Adair. His grandparents, Philip and Mary Bush, came to America from Germany and settled at Winchester, Virginia, 1750.
[ [85] The first Faculty of the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville: Benjamin W. Dudley, M. D., Emeritus Professor of Anatomy and Surgery; Robert Peter, M. D., Medical Chemistry and Toxicology; Samuel Annan, M. D., Pathology and Practice of Medicine; Joshua B. Flint, M. D., Principles and Practice of Surgery; Ethelbert L. Dudley, M. D., Descriptive Anatomy and Histology; Llewellyn Powell, Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children; James M. Bush, M. D., Surgical Anatomy and Operative Surgery; Henry M. Bullitt, Physiology and Materia Medica; Philip Thornbury, M. D., and John Bartlett, M. D., Demonstrators of Anatomy.
[ [86] That this arrangement met with much opposition among citizens of Lexington will be seen by a perusal of the Kentucky Statesman and other Lexington newspapers of the day. A hand-bill was also issued February 1, 1850, calling a "public meeting" in order to discuss more "fairly" the various aspects of the question.
[ [87] Doctor Bush's other children are Captain Thomas J. Bush and Miss Nannie M. Bush, of Lexington, Kentucky.
[ [88] Extract from Doctor Smith's letter of resignation, January 7, 1841: " ... By the influence of the reputation and efficient exertions of the present Faculty and by the munificence of the citizens of Lexington, the Medical Department of Transylvania is now placed upon a foundation which renders its position perfectly secure. Its friends may, without fear of contradiction, pronounce it to be decidedly the best endowed medical school in America. Its patronage and the emoluments of its chairs are second to those of but one, and there are none to be associated with which I should consider it a higher honor. Under these circumstances my resignation can not exercise the least injurious influence upon its prosperity. The chair will immediately command the services of some one whose labors will be more efficient than mine. You will please, dear sir, convey to the members of the Faculty assurance of my great respect and affectionate consideration.
"Yours most truly, N. R. Smith."