The History of the Medical Department of Transylvania UniversityPeter, Robert
History
The History of the Medical Department of Transylvania University
Peter, Robert
Medicine -- Kentucky; Medicine -- Kentucky -- History; Transylvania University. Medical Department
[Footnote 19: March 28, 1828, Doctor Dudley was elected President, _pro
tem._, in the interval between the unanimous election of Reverend Alva
Woods, D. D., February 7, 1828, and his installation October 13, 1828.]
[Footnote 20: "He contracted poison in performing a surgical
operation, from which he suffered greatly and never recovered. He died
suddenly after about two hours of illness, at a quarter to one on
Thursday morning, January 20, 1870, of apoplexy. In his relations of
son, husband, father, master and friend it is believed he has left no
better man." (Extract from a short obituary by his brother, Reverend
Thomas P. Dudley.)]
[Footnote 21: Doctor C. C. Graham says: "What few private students
there were in Lexington went from shop to shop (at that day so called)
and got three only, Dudley, Richardson, and eccentric Overton to give
us a talk." (Letter to Doctor Peter.)]
[Footnote 22: Since dead as more than a centenarian.]
[Footnote 23: His great niece, Mrs. Waller O. Bullock, in speaking of
the portrait of Doctor Overton, the only one extant, says: "It was
done in Philadelphia just as he was completing his medical course, and
I think it must have been soon after that he entered upon his work at
Transylvania. He took a post-graduate course at Paris, France, and was
considered one of the most brilliant men of his day. He had great
command of language and his conversation sparkled with wit and humor,
nor was he less happy with his pen. On one occasion the city of
Nashville offered a handsome prize for the best essay on some disputed
medical point; no one was barred; doctors of all ages entered the
lists, and Uncle James--though an old man--bore off the honors. In
cultivated elegant society he was at his best, and when distinguished
foreigners visited President Jackson at the Hermitage it always
devolved on Doctor Overton to do the agreeable, his command of French
peculiarly fitting him for this post. He early left Kentucky to make
his home in Tennessee, where he practiced his profession for many
years, dying at an advanced age."]
[Footnote 24: "When the first medical lectures were delivered in our
city a room was rented for the purpose on Main Street. At the time of
the reorganization in 1819 a commodious apartment in the upper story
of the large building (on Short Street) now occupied (1854) by the
Branch Bank of Kentucky, then as a tavern, was temporarily fitted up
as a lecture-room, and Doctor Dudley lectured in his own rooms back of
his office ... (on Mill Street, east side, a little above Church
Street). The rapid increase of the class soon induced Doctor Dudley to
enlarge his accommodation by the erection of a very commodious
amphitheatre, in which he lectured until 1839-40, when the new hall
was built (corner of Broadway and Second)." (Lecture of Doctor Peter
to Medical Department, November 6, 1854.)]
[Footnote 25: According to G. W. Ranck's _History of Lexington_.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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