Green, Horace (1802–1866)
One of the interesting episodes connected with the history of American medicine is associated with the name of Horace Green who, in 1840, announced that he was able to pass a sponge-tipped probang into the larynx and thus apply medication directly to the laryngeal mucosa, and even to that of the trachea. The stormy discussion occasioned by this simple statement extended over a period of nineteen years and spread beyond this country to England and France.
Horace Green was born in Chittenden, Vermont, December 24, 1802, and died at his home at Sing Sing, now Ossining, New York, November 29, 1866, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. His father was one of four brothers, sons of a Massachusetts physician, who served in the Revolutionary War. Two of them fell with Warren at the battle of Bunker Hill; the third fell in the battle at Monmouth; the fourth fought through nearly the whole of the long struggle and raised four sons, the youngest of whom is the subject of this sketch.
Horace Green studied medicine with his brother, Dr. Joel Green, of Rutland, Vermont, and graduated at Middlebury, Vermont, in 1824, from the institution known later as the Castleton Medical College. The succeeding five years he spent in partnership with his brother, and in the fall of 1830 went to Philadelphia where he attended lectures at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1831 he returned to Rutland where he continued in practice until 1835 when he removed to New York City.
In 1838 he spent some months in Europe, and on his return, late in the year, began at once his investigations into the pathology and treatment of diseases of the throat.
From 1840 to 1843 he was connected with Castleton Medical College as professor of medicine and as president of the institution. In 1850 he helped to found the New York Medical College. Here he occupied the chair of theory and practice of medicine and was elected president of the faculty and also of the board of trustees. In 1860 he retired from active service and was made emeritus professor. In 1854 he and his colleagues founded the American Medical Monthly. Dr. Green was A. M. (honorary) from Union College; LL. D. from the University of Vermont; a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Society of the Cincinnati.
In the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1850, vol. xlii, a good pen picture is given of Dr. Green. He is described "as tall and rather spare; very black hair, now a little grey; a sharp black eye, rather a brunette; and gentle and kind in his address. His manners are quiet and dignified, those of a gentleman accustomed to good society. They say a poet must be born. Cato (nom de plume of the author) opines that this is equally true of a gentleman; and he further thinks that nothing so deforms a man, especially a medical man, as rough or clownish manners. If any man should be gentle, in the highest sense of the word, it is he who ministers to our diseased bodies and minds." The account closes "long may he live to enjoy the honors and emoluments of the profession which he has well and truly labored in."
In the obituary notice of Dr. Green published in the New York Medical Journal, 1866, iv, it is stated: "Few men in the profession of medicine in this country have attracted so much attention to their professional career as did Dr. Green. Announcing, in his earlier writings, a plan of treatment for diseases of the air passages which was at once regarded as 'bold and novel,' it met, naturally, much skepticism and opposition. This induced investigation into the subject in dispute. An impetus was given to the study of laryngeal diseases, and, as a result, the means of their diagnosis and treatment have been immeasurably increased. Dr. Green lived to see the views he promulgated thoroughly proved by the aid modern science has placed in our hands."
Horace Green published his "Treatise on Diseases of the Air Passages" in 1846. In the introduction to this work he says: "More than six years ago, namely, in 1840, I brought before the New York Medical and Surgical Society, . . . the subject of the treatment of diseases of the larynx, by direct application of therapeutical agents to the lining membrane of that cavity. . . . Such, however, was the degree of skepticism on this subject, manifested, at the time, by a large proportion of the members, that for many years I have refrained from bringing the matter again before the society."
Green laid a great deal of stress on the proper education of the larynx in order that the probang could be properly, and with as little difficulty as possible, introduced into it. Disregard of this point caused numerous failures by the committee who investigated his method of treatment. The larynx should not be entered at the first sitting, but the solution shall be applied about the epiglottis and pharyngeal region on several successive
