American Medical Biographies/Bowling, William K.
Bowling, William K. (1808–1885)
When Dr. Bowling, medical editor, was asked how old he was, he said, "When the Third Napoleon, Emperor of the French, Salmon P. Chase, Robert E. Lee, Andrew Johnson, and Jefferson Davis came into the world, and when the American slave trade terminated by a provision of the Constitution of the United States, I came—born when giant men came, and when a giant sin and outrage died." This event occurred in the Northern Neck of Virginia, in the county of Westmoreland, the native county of George Washington. Tradition and history represent his ancestors as planters, and, while remarkable for kindness and generosity, none of them filled any conspicuous place in church or state.
In 1810 his father moved to North Kentucky, where William Bowling—the fifth of ten children, was educated privately by excellent tutors, and among them three authors of books. He says "Like Clay and Drake, I was dropped down in the wilderness of Kentucky and left to fight the battle of life as best I could without education, family influence or patronage. To three vagabond authors, whom my father fed for my benefit, and a public library of five hundred volumes, which I devoured before I was fourteen, I owe the foundation of all I am or hope to be. I attended one course of lectures in the Medical College of Ohio, and practised five years, and attended another course at the Medical Department of Cincinnati College, known as Drake's School, and graduated. Drake was my medical idol, and his memory is yet. I was used to the society of authors. I had slept with them, roamed the wild forest with them, raved and ranted with them, and felt almost as big at eighteen as any of them, and they felt as big as all out-doors. One was a poet, William P. S. Blair, brother of the celebrated Francis P. Blair, of Kendall and Jackson memory. Lyman Martin, afterwards my medical preceptor, a scholar from Connecticut, spent many hours at my father's with these men, but he never raved or ranted. God bless him! He was everything to me, taught me, and believed in me."
Bowling received his medical degrees in the spring of 1836; as a practitioner from 1836 to 1850 gained a great eminence in Logan County, Kentucky, near the Tennessee line, and became widely known in both states. During this time he had always under his tuition a number of office students, who spread his reputation as an original teacher of medicine far and wide. In 1848 he was offered the chair of theory and practice in the Memphis Medical Institute, the pioneer medical school of Tennessee. This offer he declined.
In 1850 he removed to Nashville, hoping by his presence to stimulate physicians of eminence, to whom he had vainly written, to take part in aiding Dr. J. B. Lindsley in founding a medical school. The latter brought his plans to Bowling who at once declared that he would give largely of means and labor in connection with the "Old University," and would not invest a cent in a private enterprise. Dr. Lindsley and his associates accepted his views, gave him the chair of theory and practice, and made him their mouthpiece in communicating with the board of trustees, by which the faculty was commissioned on October 11, 1851.
In the school thus established by the energy of a college-bred youth and the wisdom of a backwoods practitioner, coupled with the assistance of a most able corps of teachers, he became at once a master spirit. Understanding the nature of the medical student with an insight given to but few, he had a hold upon the class peculiar to himself.
In 1851 he founded the Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery, and sustained it for a quarter of a century. His contributions to medicine are principally contained in this journal, where he was never negative, but definitely aggressive or defensive, concerning all things pertaining to his profession.
Many thousand copies of Dr. Bowling's "Introductories" and also of pamphlet editions of articles from the medical journal were circulated by order of the faculty. He wrote on the various epidemics of cholera "as it appeared at Nashville" from 1849 to 1873.
Bowling always strenuously advocated the organization of the profession, and contributed his quantum of labor and time to local and national associations. He had avoided office. However, in 1856 he was elected third vice-president of the American Medical Association, in 1867 first vice-president, and in 1874 president. In 1873 he was made by the medical editors of the United States president of their national association. In 1877 he was transferred from the chair of principles and practise of medicine to that of ethical medicine and malarial diseases, which he occupied during that and the succeeding session in the school which he had helped to found, and for which he had labored so long, so faithfully, and so well.
In 1879 he was tendered and occupied jointly with the present occupant the chair of theory and practice of medicine in the medical department of the University of Tennessee, and elected "emeritus" in 1884. The year following he died.
In 1837 he married Mrs. Melissa Cheatham, and had one child, a son, named Powhatan.