Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 26/Joseph Henry Wythe, 1822–1901

by O. Larsell

JOSEPH HENRY WYTHE 1822-1901^[1]

By O. Larsell, University of Oregon Medical School

This is the story of a pioneer in education in Oregon, a man who was probably the first who had a considerable equipment of scientific and medical training to be placed in a position of educational responsibility in the state. In the fields of Natural History, Medicine, Religious Philosophy, as well as in building up institutions, he pushed forward and gave of his energy unsparingly toward adding to and organizing that which already existed, thereby making it more available for the use of others. He was not primarily the working scientist, but rather one who undertook to interpret science and to make it a part of the two fields in which his chief interests were centered, namely, medicine and religion. He belongs to the category of the sturdy group who felled forests, built roads and bridges, and attempted to bring law and order into the wilderness which others had discovered. In traversing the various parts of this wilderness, he himself found many things of interest which had been overlooked by those earlier in the field, but primarily he was the teacher and the organizer and builder of institutions and character.

We can best understand the work of Joseph Henry Wythe by first passing in brief review his early life and the impulses which obtained direction in that period.

He was born March 19, 1822, in Manchester, England, of a sturdy Anglo-Saxon family which had left its imprint on the history of many parts of middle England. His parents decided to try their fortunes in the New World, and emigrated to this country in 1832, in a sailing vessel, bringing the ten-year-old boy with them. The elder Wythe settled in Philadelphia where he established

 

JOSEPH HENRY WYTHE

a shop, and insisted on the boy Joseph becoming a bookkeeper in this establishment. The boy's heart, however, was not in this work, and he spent his spare time in reading and study, especially along scientific lines. His daughter writes, "He was early interested in Astronomy and the police thought the telescope he made and used was a suspicious object. He discovered one day some large sun-spots and found them visible with only smoked glass, so he sent a note about it to the Philadelphia Public Ledger and had the satisfaction of seeing people on the streets looking through pieces of smoked glass at the sun."^[2]

He also studied the ancient languages, including Hebrew, with special tutors, and had his first introduction to chemistry from a Quaker druggist. With a number of friends, also eager for knowledge, he formed a club for literary and scientific study, each taking his turn as teacher. It would be interesting to know the names of others in this group, and to learn if, perchance, the interest which young Wythe soon developed in microscopic studies had its inception here.

Science and languages did not absorb all of his attention, for it was shared to a very marked degree by a deep interest in religious activities, and in 1842, at the age of nineteen, he was licensed to preach by the Philadelphia Methodist Episcopal Conference. On his appointment to a small pastorate in the suburbs of Philadelphia he availed himself of the opportunity to study medicine, in the spare time not occupied by ministerial duties. He graduated from the Philadelphia College of Medicine in 1850, and according to a faculty list of this school from an advertisement in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, was later professor of physiology and pathology.

As a student he appears to have received particularly good training in anatomy from a prosector of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of London, who taught for a time in the Philadelphia school. Here he obtained the foundation for his later skill and success as a surgeon.

Wythe continued his work as a clergyman for some time, but was forced to give it up because of ill health, and become surgeon to several collieries at Port Carbon, Pennsylvania. He practiced medicine here and in several other towns in the coal mining region until the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion.

His practice was extensive and he acquired much skill in surgery. He was apparently especially interested in and very successful with ovarian tumors, for he describes several operations of this sort as early as 1860.^[3] In a paper on "Cystic Ovarian Tumors," published in the Pacific Medical Journal^[4] in 1870, he describes ovariotomy and refers to the use of disinfectants as follows: "In the last case (Case of Mrs. Swan, multilocular cyst, operated by Dr. Wythe at San Francisco, June, 1865) I found it beneficial to inject through the opening into the peritoneal cavity a dilute quantity of Labarraque's Disinfecting Solution, and if another case should come into my hands I should in all probability resort to carbolic acid, largely diluted. I am satisfied that the disinfectant contributed largely to a successful issue." He describes another case which he had in November, 1858, while he was still in Pennsylvania, in which he performed paracentesis on a patient with enlarged abdomen, drawing off four gallons of fluid, and which he afterward operated. In discussing the diagnosis of this type of tumor, he states, "As any case of abdominal enlargement may be mistaken for ovarian disease the utmost care is necessary in diagnosis," and refers to "one patient who came a hundred miles to be operated on (for ovarian cyst) and was quite disappointed to learn nothing ailed her but an excessive deposit of fat over the abdomen." In this connection it is of interest to note that Dr. Wythe seems to have performed the first operation for ovarian cyst to have been done in Portland, about 1870, and is also credited with having done the first operation of this type on the Pacific Coast, in San Francisco in 1865.^[5]

It is also of interest to note that at least two years before Lister's important paper on "The Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery." Wythe employed an antiseptic fluid in washing wounds and in his surgical work. It will be recalled that Labarraque's solution is a compound of chlorinated soda, having some resemblance to the Dakin's fluid so much used in the military surgery of the Great War. The reference to carbolic acid in the passage above quoted from his address of 1870, was no doubt inspired by Lister's work. Whether or not the use of chlorinated soda in surgery was original with Dr. Wythe is problematical. As a standard solution for washing ulcers and for disinfecting purposes, as well as for internal administration for various diseases, Labarraque's solution is described in the reference books on materia medica of the time, but no mention is made of its use in surgery, if it was so employed.

Leaving Wythe's religious and medical interests at one side for the time being/let us consider another field of his activities. His interest in the microscope and the new realms which it revealed has already been mentioned. Where he obtained his introduction to this instrument, whether from Leidy, who one year younger, was his contemporary in Philadelphia, or from his own native interest, we can only conjecture. He must, at any rate, have thrown himself with enthusiasm into this field, for in 1851 he published the first edition of his book, "The Microscopist: or a Complete Manual on the Use of the Microscope." This was the first book of its kind to be published in America, and one of the first to be published in English.

It antedates Carpenter's well-known work, which appeared in 1856 and also Beale's, which was published in 1857. Wythe states in the preface: "Since the employment of achromatic instruments, microscopic research has ceased to be merely an amusement, but has been elevated to the dignity of a science; yet so far as the author knows, no book has been issued from the American press which would serve as a guide to those desirous of applying themselves to such studies. The present work aims to supply this deficiency. In its preparation the author has aimed less at style than at information." Of the latter it contains a large amount, whose collection must have involved much labor. That it supplied a need at the time is indicated by the appearance of a second edition in 1853. Third and fourth editions appeared in 1877 and 1880, respectively. These were much enlarged and were intended as complete guides in microscopy, including histology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, and in the fourth edition a guide to clinical microscopy was also included.

That this work received recognition both in this country and abroad is attested for by Wythe's election as a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society of London and by other honors. Another sort of recognition is brought to light by a sarcastic review of an English work in the same field, which appeared in the North American Medico-Chirurgical Review about 1860. In this book, which was written by an Englishman named Jabez Hogg, in the words of the review, "whole paragraphs and nearly an entire chapter, have been copied verbatim et literatim, without the slightest acknowledgement or reference—a Hoggish proceeding, certainly." This statement is born out by quotations from the two books in "deadly parallel" columns.

One of the more interesting of Wythe's original observations in the microscopic field was published in "The Medical Examiner and Record of Medical Science," of Philadelphia, in 1851. It has reference to the movement of the blood in the capillaries brought about by the constriction of the arterial walls, and can best be told in his own words: "The microscopic observations to which we are about to refer leads the writer of this article to entertain a different view (than Carpenter's idea of distention by the blood, etc.). It seems to be demonstrated by this that the pulsatory movement is a property residing in the arterial coats themselves, independent alike of the heart's action and the stimulus of the blood.

Having caught a mouse in a trap, (it was quite cold and stiff when taken out) I was desirous of making some preparations of epithelium, etc. On taking out the kidneys it occurred to me to place a thin slice upon a slide for microscopic examination. The slide was made quite through the middle of the kidney, and was about one-thirtieth of an inch in thickness, just thick enough to be translucent. On placing it under the microscope one of the largest vessels was observed in active motion, alternately contracting and dilating, with evident vermicular contractions, communicating motion to the blood corpuscles in the capillaries for a considerable distance. The movement seemed limited to the artery and was not communicated to the coats of the capillaries, although their contents had an oscillatory motion corresponding to the contents of the artery. The phenomenon was seen for about three hours, when the observation was suspended. The motion had been considerably diminished, both in extent and energy.

I was at first inclined to attribute this activity to evaporation of the watery particles from the slide, but this is insufficient to account for the regular pulsatory character of the movement. It is therefore due, in all probability, to the vital pulsations of the coats of the artery. I have not had an opportunity since that time to repeat the experiment.

The only parallel case with which I am acquainted, is recorded in Hassal's Microscopic Anatomy, as follows: "Wythe here quotes Hassal's description of an examination of the frog's tongue between slides in which preparation the circulation was maintained in the blood vessels of the tongue. Wythe concludes^[6]:

"These observations show: 1. That the pulsation of the arteries is a property residing in the coats of those vessels, which is independent of the heart's action, though supplementary to it; and also independent of the stimulus arising from distention with blood.

"2. That a peculiar propulsive force, in all probability, resides in the capillary vessels, of whose nature we are at present uninformed.

"3. That one of the chief causes of the capillary circulation, is probably the pulsation of the arterial branches from which they spring."

This observation preceded the similar one of Wharton Jones^[7], in the veins of the bat's wing, which was published in 1852, and also the observations of M. Schiff^[8] in 1854, on the blood vessels in the ear of the rabbit. Yet Luciani^[9] ascribes this observation originally to Schiff, although he refers also to Wharton Jones and Saviotti.

When the Civil War broke out Wythe was located in medical practice at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania. Here he and a Mr. Albright, afterward a general in the Northern Army during the war, organized a company of volunteers which they placed at the service of Governor Curtin. The governor gave Wythe a letter to the surgeon-general at Washington, which apparently prepared the way for him to take the examination for eligibility to a special corps of surgeons which was selected for special executive work in the medical service of the army. The scope of the examination, which was both written and clinical, may be judged from the fact that out of thirty applicants, only three passed, one of whom was Dr. Wythe.

His entrance into the medical service in the Civil War proved to be the preliminary step for our immediate interest in him. Upon passing the examination he was appointed assistant surgeon in the U. S. Volunteers, September 11, 1862. A short time later, on December 4, 1862, he was advanced to surgeon, with rank of major. His first assignment was to take entire charge of the U. S. Transport Hospital Ship Atlantic, carrying 870 sick and wounded from Alexandria, Va., to New York City. He was then sent to various hospitals in Washington, D. C, and was finally assigned to the duty of organizing Camp Banks, near Alexandria, Va. This was a hospital camp for paroled soldiers from prisons in the south, at one time containing three thousand men. The death rate when Wythe took charge was enormous, but in a short time under the new surgeon, it was so greatly reduced that Chief Justice Chase and his daughter presented the camp with a beautiful flag in token of this record and complimented the medical staff on the success of their efforts.

The following year Wythe was transferred to Sacramento, California, and stationed at Camp Union, Sacramento, where he was on duty^[10] until October 10, 1863. He was then put in charge of Angel Island, in San Francisco Bay, but because of illness contracted after the Battle of Bull Run in 1862, he resigned from the service, the resignation being accepted October 26, 1863.^[11]

The Pacific Coast apparently appealed to him as a place for his permanent abode. On leaving the military service he asked to be transferred from the Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to the California Conference and he soon re-entered the ministry. He was appointed to the Powell Street (First) Methodist Church, of San Francisco, where he remained for the greater part of two years. In the fragmentary material which is available covering the period of this pastorate there are hints of discord in the latter part of his connection with this church which may have led to his next move. At any rate he accepted appointment in 1865 as president of Willamette University and pastor of the Salem, Oregon, Methodist Episcopal Church.

The following letters^[12] pertaining to this appointment are illuminating and are quoted because of the light they shed on various aspects of Wythe's character, and because they indicate some of the circumstances of his appointment to the Oregon post. The first is a letter from Bishop C. Kingsley to Alvan F. Waller, one of the trustees of Willamette University, and reads as follows:

San Francisco, Sept. 20, 1865.

Dear Br.

Yours of the 7 inst. came to hand last night, and I telegraphed to you to elect Dr. Wythe President of the Willamette University. I sought an early opportunity of conversing with him, but not until I had made enquiries of those who know him well. Br. Thomas, and Dr. Peck speak of him as well qualified for the Post, and the more I see and learn about him, the more I am persuaded he is the man for you. I think he will throw his whole soul into the work.

To enable him to take the position and to save the University as much expense as possible I propose to put Br. Doane on the Dist. instead of Br. Roberts who will go to Idaho and place Dr. Wythe in charge at Salem. He is a charming preacher, and by this arrangement for one year will get a hold on the community at Salem, that he could not otherwise get, and this will relieve you from a heavy bill of moving expenses. I hope therefore he will receive a full allowance as preacher in charge. It will be no more than a courtesy due to the Dr. that a resolution be passed by the Board allowing him to educate his children free of expense for tuition.

The Doctor is an eminent surgeon and well known on both hemispheres as a Medical and Scientific Author. He is a fine lecturer on Scientific subjects. Dr. Wythe looks upon this opening as Providential and all here with whom I have conversed view the matter in the same way. I trust and believe that under his management the University will prosper more and more.

***

I suggest that the Trustees advance Dr. Wythe enough on his salary, say $400, to enable him to meet his moving expenses at least in part.

Trusting the whole affair has been divinely ordered

I am Yours Truly,

C. KINGSLEY.

An extract from a letter to Mr. Waller from Mr. D. Rutledge gives a different estimate of Dr. Wythe, and apparently indicates the reactions of a man who was somewhat shocked at the doctor's slight deviations from the strict letter of orthodox practice. The portion that is of interest to us reads as follows:

Nashville April 15, 1867

Rev. A . F. Waller,

Dear Bro.

***

I have been not a little puzzled to know how that Englishman Wythe ever so completely pulled the wool over the eyes of such men as J. S. Smith, J. N . Moores, and yourself. That school can never have permanent success while such a man is at its head. I was at San Francisco when the battle was fought about his staying at Powell Street Church. I heard the traits of his character from friends & enemies. And when I heard of his appointment to the Presidency of your University I cried out Shame! When I saw the man and had a short time to study him I found I had received a true portraiture of his characteristics. To my mind he has not a single qualification for the position he occupies. It was said to me in Salem that he was an accomplished gentleman, refined in all his manners. I ask how does it look to see an Educator of youth walking the streets of a city with a cigar in his mouth and using tobacco until the clothes betray it. Is it the mark of a scholarly gentleman to blat it abroad that he will resign his position unless some teachers are removed? Never! That was something that belonged to the Trustees alone. And when they are not removed, who licks th dust and remains. In such a character there is a fatal weakness that unqualifies him to be a teacher.

Nay more, the sermon that I heard him preach the last time I was in Salem in connection with the reception of members into the Church indicated to me that he lacked that nice moral sense that is so necessary in an instructor of youth. The substance of the sermon was that students should learn the true & beautiful &c together with good manners, to be gained from their teachers (I suppose a hit at Prof. Powell). It was a strange sermon indeed. You were present at the time. And then at its close, called up persons to be admitted into full connection, & stated that some of them had not been baptised but would be at some future time, but that day he would assume that they were baptised. And then used the ritual of the Church which reads in the address to the Congregation "The persons before you who have already received the Sacrament of baptism" &c. And then asked the first question addressed to the Candidates "Do you here in the presence of God & of this congregation renew the solemn promises contained in the Baptismal covenant ratifying and confirming the same, and acknowledge yourselves bound faithfully to observe and keep that covenant."

I could not help covering my face with my hands at the time in dismay at the lack of that nice sense of the true and the pure that was so outraged at the time. Is that the kind of training that students ought to secure and especially young men who may be studying for the ministry. No Never! You were a witness to just what I have called your attention to. I have to say that I feared for your success with that man at the head. Nay more, I know you will not succeed!

You may think I have written very plainly about your Pres. but it is to a Trustee, and my conviction. I want you to have a man that will give you character. You have not now and neither material out of which one can grow.

D. RUTLEDGE.

In addition to his duties as president of the university, Dr. Wythe was also, as already stated, pastor of the local church at Salem. He appears to have been successful in this work, for his church enrolled a membership of 200, with a Sunday School of 300 to 400 members. When we recall that Salem at that time had only 1200 inhabitants, it is evident that Wythe must have had the larger proportion of Salem church-goers in his church.

Two personal glimpses of his work at Salem are given in the following quotations^[13] from students at the university during his term as president:

"Dr. Wythe was president and also pastor of the Methodist Church. How would that seem now? He was a very fine scholar. He often made explanatory remarks in reading the Bible lesson, but we never could tell by his tone where the reading ended and the remarks began by which you may know that he was a very perfect and natural reader."

Another student of the time writes:

"The president of the faculty, Rev. J . H . Wyeth who in a short time resigned to take perchance other and more lucrative fields of work, was a man of small stature, but large of knowledge. He was kind and affable in disposition, he was a true friend to the students and by them greatly beloved."

It was during Wythe's presidency of the university that the medical department was finally organized. The initial steps toward establishing a medical school in Oregon were taken by Governor A. C . Gibbs and others in 1864. They sent a communication to the Board of Trustees of Willamette University asking that body to organize a medical department. This communication also asked that the department be located at Portland, and that certain gentlemen be elected as officers and professors of the same. On February 15, 1865, the Board^[14] voted to establish such a department in Portland, to be called the Oregon Medical College, with certain provisions, including appointment of members of the faculty by the Board of Trustees. A faculty was appointed, but difficulties arose which made it impracticable to carry out the plan of locating the school in Portland. At a meeting of the Board on November 14, 1866, it was voted to establish the department in connection with the other divisions of the university at Salem. A new faculty was elected as follows: H. Carpenter, M. D., professor of civil and military surgery; E. R. Fiske, A. M. M. D., professor of pathology and practice of medicine; John Boswell, M. D., professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children; J. H. Wythe, A. M., M. D., professor of physiology, hygiene and microscopy; D. Peyton, M. D., professor of materia medica and therapeutics; J. W. McAfee, M. D., professor of chemistry and toxicology; A. Sharpies, M. D., professor of descriptive and surgical anatomy; W. C. Worimer, M. D., demonstrator of anatomy; Hon. J. S. Smith, professor of medical jurisprudence. This was the first faculty to give medical instruction in the Pacific Northwest.

The part which Dr. Wythe played in reviving the idea of a medical department and in establishing it at Salem, since it had not begun to function in Portland, is not altogether clear. It appears safe to state, however, that his previous connection on the faculty of the Philadelphia Medical College, together with his reputation as a surgeon and his position at the head of the university, were probably the chief factors which led to a renewal of the effort which had failed before he came to the institution. There can be little question but that he furnished the initiative, as president of the university, for another and this time successful attempt to found a medical school. It will be noted that as professor of physiology, hygiene and microscopy, he was a member of the first faculty to actually give instruction to a medical class in Oregon. This first class was graduated in the spring of 1867.

The facilities for medical instruction at Salem at that time were of the most meager sort, and judged by present standards, did not exist. The entire equipment of the university, so-called, consisted of one building, in which were housed the college, the academy and all other departments, and which must now also provide space for the new Department of Medicine. As to clinical facilities, they may be judged by the fact that Salem numbered at the time about 1200 people, and all of Marion County about 7000. Portland itself, the metropolis, had a population of about 15,000, which, however, was rapidly increasing. One must admire the courage, not to say audacity, of the men who undertook to train physicians under such circumstances. Yet when one compares the standards, or rather lack of standards, which prevailed at the time in all but a very few schools in the east, the infant department at Salem would not suffer too much by comparison.

One cannot believe that the purpose of the founders was selfish or commercial, as was the case with so many other medical schools during this period of American history. It appears rather to have been in keeping with the missionary motive which inspired the founding of Willamette University as an institution of learning, and indicated a real desire to "promote the interests of the country," to quote the language of the minutes of the Board of Trustees.

Rivalries and jealousies developed, however, and we find hints of a disagreement which arose during the first year over the signatures which should appear on the diplomas of the graduating class. Dr. Carpenter, who had been elected dean of the department, appears to have objected to Wythe's signature appearing on the diplomas, but whether as a professor in the school or as president of the University is not clear. Relations became quite strained, and Dr. Wythe submitted his resignation as president, but the matter was finally adjusted and he remained until the following year.

The medical department of Willamette University was the second medical school to be established on the Pacific Coast, and apparently, west of the Mississippi River. The Toland Medical College, now the Medical School of the University of California, had begun instruction in San Francisco in 1865, thus antedating the Willamette department in actual operation. The latter school, however, maintained a continuous existence from the time of its establishment until 1913, when it was merged with the University of Oregon Medical School. Toland on the other hand, suspended for a time and then reopened, so to Dr. Wythe and his colleagues should be accorded the credit of having established the oldest continuous school of medicine on the coast. A son of our subject, W. T. Wythe, was one of the early graduates of the Willamette Medical Department, completing his work in 1868.

Wythe left the University and the Salem church in 1868 to become pastor of the Taylor Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Portland, which was located at Third and Taylor Streets. In Portland he also engaged occasionally in medical practice, and became somewhat out of favor with local ministers by so doing. It is related by one who knew him well that after his return to California, which was in 1869, he was once called back to Portland to perform an operation for ovarian cyst.^[15] Some of the Portland surgeons were not pleased with this aspersion on their professional skill. This is believed to be the first operation of its kind to be performed in Portland, and took place about 1870.

In 1869, as indicated, he was transferred from the Taylor Street Church to California, where he preached in Sacramento, Santa Clara, and in his former pastorate in San Francisco. Sometime between 1872 and 1875 he was invited to join the faculty of the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, which afterwards became the Cooper Medical College, and is now the Medical School of Stanford University. For a time he was also lecturer in biology in the college of this university, located then at San Jose, now at Stockton. As a member of the medical faculty, he organized the department of microscopy and histology, of which subjects he was made professor. He continued this service for twenty-five years, when he was made professor emeritus. For several semesters he also filled the chair of the practice of medicine, in the absence of the regular incumbent of this position.

During the early part of this period in California Wythe preached and taught, practicing medicine only more or less incidentally, apparently, but in 1881, on the death of his oldest son, he withdrew from the Methodist Conference to give his time entirely to medicine. It seems that he was led to do this through the necessity of providing for his grandchildren, the children of W. T. Wythe. This son had been a surgeon in the navy, and dying suddenly, left a widow and five children practically penniless. These grandchildren of our subject came to occupy positions of trust and honor in their respective professions, indicating that their grandfather gave them good training.

During the '80s Dr. Wythe was called in on legal cases a number of times as a handwriting expert.^[16] By the use of the microscope he was able to detect a number of forgeries. One time, it is related, that when the judge asked him his profession Dr. Wythe replied, "Physician and Surgeon." "Ah," said the judge, "I thought you were a minister of the gospel." "Judge, that is my vocation," was the reply.

After his return to California Wythe also did much writing. In addition to revising "The Microscopist" for two editions, as already indicated, he also prepared a syllabus of his lectures at the Cooper Medical College, which was privately printed in 1892 under the title "Outlines of Normal and Pathological Histology." Another book, originally written in Pennsylvania, but revised and issued in new editions many times, and which appears to have been popular with the medical profession was "The Physician's Dose and Symptom Book." This little volume ran through fourteen editions and was translated into Japanese. As its name indicates, it was a much abbreviated guide to diagnosis and treatment, which the physician could easily carry in his pocket. It contains tables of weights and measures, abbreviations, poisons and their antidotes, and an index of diseases and their treatment. Also there is an alphabetical list of medicines and their doses, and a table of symptomatology, and other features, which no doubt made it a very handy quick reference guide for the medical practice of the time. The second edition of this book was quite favorably noticed in the North American Medico-Chirurgical Review for 1857, but the third edition excited some criticism because of errors which remained from earlier editions and which should have been corrected.

Some of Wythe's other books were written for Chautauqua readers, and some were written in an effort to reconcile the views of church people with the facts of natural science. "The Agreement of Science and Religion," published in 1872 states that it is "An attempt to exhibit in brief compass the true relations and harmony of nature and revelation It claims that science and faith mutually support each other."

In these and other books which show a great deal of knowledge of natural sciences, and especially of zoology and botany. Wythe takes the anti-evolutionary point of view. He holds that the idea of developmental creation is inconsistent with the conception of a personal God who rules the universe and governs the inhabitants thereof. In the "Science of Life" (1880) he concludes: "This examination of human endowments shows as great difference between men and brutes as exists between animals and vegetables, or between vegetabls and the mineral world."

Dr. Wythe died October 14, 1901, survived by three children and several grandchildren. His wife, whom he had married in 1846, had died in 1898. He had lived a busy life, his chief interest the welfare of his fellowmen, and he gave of his time and energy freely to every movement that had for its objective the improvement of the public welfare. It is related by one^[17] who was associated with him in meetings of various uplift bodies in Oakland, where he spent the last twenty-five years of his life, that when the silence which characterizes such meetings while a quorum is gathering, would come, Dr. Wythe would say, "Pst! Pst! Don't wake the corpse," and would then lead out into conversations of the most elevating type, to the edification of all present.

In personal appearance Dr. Wythe was short, about five feet, six inches in height, but robust and full chested. He is said to have been a dynamo of energy. He was a persistent smoker, and not always careful about his personal appearance, for which he was sometimes criticised, as we have seen. With reference to his use of tobacco this anecdote^[18] is presented: In 1866, on the boat from Salem to Portland, the weather was so disagreeable that all the male passengers crowded into the men's cabin, and all, including Wythe, who was a passenger, smoked persistently, to the discomfort of the narrator of this experience, who was a non-smoker. It appeared to him that they were all trying to drive him, the only nonsmoker, out of the cabin, and that Wythe was the most persistent in his efforts. No doubt this love of the weed had something to do with the disagreements in which he was involved in some of his church connections. Because of his short stature he is said to have frequently stood on a stool to preach.

Wythe was a man of great energy, versatile in his activities, and a prolific writer. His non-medical writings were strongly tinctured with the religious motive, from the viewpoint of the non-evolutionary biologist, as the quotation above cited will show. He was an excellent surgeon, teacher, and preacher, and while he missed the outstanding prominence as a scientific man which his young manhood seemed to promise, nevertheless his name deserves, honorable mention among the pioneers of the Pacific Coast in science, and especially medical science and medical education. There was greater demand for his versatility under the pioneer conditions of sixty years ago, in Oregon and California, than there was for his powers of scientific observation. When recognition of this demand was coupled with the altruistic motive of a religious nature, he could but choose to supply the immediate need. Like the farmer of pioneer days who must turn his hand to all forms of manual labor, perforce, to provide for his family necessities which were frequently not to be purchased, and to obtain mastery over nature, so the intellectual worker under pioneer conditions could not refuse the variegated demands made upon him.

In addition to the foreign honors already mentioned Wythe was invited by the Government Board of Health of Hawaii, in 1874, to inspect the leper colony at Molokai, H. I., in company with the king and queen. He also received several honorary degrees from American colleges, and was for several years a trustee of Mills College, California.

All honor to the men who began the work we are privileged to carry on, and to build into a noble edifice, worthy of the aspirations and faith of those whom we succeed.

1. Read before the University of Oregon Medical History Club, Portland, January 16, 1925.
2. Personal communication from his daughter, Dr. Margaret Wythe.
3. North Amer. Med.-Chir. Rev. volume IV, jage 478, 1860.
4. Pac. Med. Jour., 1870.
5. Cal. State Jour. of Med., volume 1, 1903.
6. Med. Exam, and Rec. of Med. Sci., volume VII N. S., page 767, 1851.
7. Wharton Jones, Phil. Trans., I page 131.
8. M. Schiff, Arch. d. ges. Physiol., Bd. 26, S. 456, 1854.
9. Luciani, Human Physiology, volume I, page 342, 1911.
10. Personal communication from Bureau of Pensions.
11. Ibid.
12. From original ms. in possession of Oregon Historical Society, copies kindly supplied by Miss Nellie B. Pipes.
13. Notes kindly supplied by Mr. R. M. Gatke.
14. Minutes of Board of Trustees, W. U.
15. Personal communication from Mr. J. K. Gill
16. Personal communication from Dr. Margaret Wythe.
17. Dr. L. D . Inskeep, Sr., of Berkeley, Calif.
18. By Mr. George H. Himes.