David Meredith Reese

Artist: Unknown; oil on canvas

David Meredith Reese was born in Maryland in 1800. He received his M.D. from the University of Maryland in 1819. He became a Vaccine Physician at Baltimore, 1824, and Censor the same year. He became a Professor of Medicine, Theory and the Practice of Medicine at Castleton College in Vermont from 1841-42. He returned to Baltimore and became a Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence at Washington University, Baltimore from 1842 to 1845. He was an honorary member of the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland.

He moved to New York, and became a Professor of Medicine, Albany Medical College. He moved to new York City and became a Resident Physician, Bellevue Hospital, New York; a Founder of New York Academy of Medicine; Vice-President, American Medical Association, 1857; and a Professor of Practice of Medicine, New York Medical College, 1860.

Dr. Reese edited “Cooper's Dictionary of Practical Surgery,” American edition, 1844 and became the Editor of the American Medical Gazette, New York. Among his books are the “Humbugs of New York” a remonstrance against popular delusions, whether in science philosophy or religion.

Dr. Reese died in New York, May 13, 1861. The painting was a gift of Dr. Harry C. Hyde, 1956.

Here is some additional information on Dr. Reese:

The life and work of Dr. David Meredith Reese, the elder, who graduated at the age of 19 from the College of Medicine of Maryland, the ancestor of the University.

Dr. Howard illustrated his talk with a collection of old letters and publications by Dr. Reese.

Judging from the records of his life and professional thoughts, this student under the first faculty of the ancient University of Maryland, set an example worthy of emulation at the present time. In a letter to a cousin, young Reese confessed to having "a constitutional weakness for dogmatic religion."

As shown by his paper on the epidemic of yellow fever at Fell's Point in 1819, Reese exhibited a dogged loyalty to the dictum of Davidge that the disease was not contagious. His treatment of the patients was heroic: calomel to the point of ptyalism, blisters everywhere, withdrawal of all food until after convalescence, no fluids allowed, but cold "molasses in water."

In 1832 Reese noted the fact that the areas most severely affected during the extant cholera epidemic in New York City were the areas of the "greatest amount of drunken filth and poverty." Reese continued in general practice until 1839, when he accepted his first teaching position at Albany Medical College.

Next, in 1841, he was a professor at Castleton Medical College of Vermont; in 1842 he taught at Washington University of Baltimore. As early as 1850, he was using as an anesthetic a mixture of one part chloroform and two parts of ether. From this time until 1860, he was resident physician at Bellevue Hospital, New York. In 1857, in a "Report on Infant Mortality" he assigned the degeneracy of the rich and the weakness of the poor as the causes of the increasing death rate in the United States.

Dr. Reese condemned the use of soothing syrups; advised breast feeding and advocated medical certification before marriage. Throughout his practice he steadily followed Rush's doctrine of completely banning alcohol. Throughout his teaching career he insisted on keeping his clinics and lectures open to both the "laity" and "the empirics."

He laid great stress on theories, but only when they could be combined with facts to establish definite working principles. As Dr. Howard said, "While not a man of genius, he was a man of parts."

From his obituary in the New York Times:

We regret to announce the death of this eminent physician, who for upwards of thirty years has had a large practice in this City. Confined for six months to his room by a singular complication of maladies, he was almost daily attended by Dr. Valentine Mott, Dr. Carnochan, Dr. John O'Reilly and Dr. Brush. His death was the result of tetanus, produced by gangrene, which supervened on the disappearance of dropsy of the lower limbs, caused by enlargement of the heart. A large portion of Dr. REESE's efforts, during several years, have been devoted to the improvement of medical education, and several young physicians of much promise have been his office students. He was successively a Professor in the Castleton and the Albany Medical Colleges, and in the Medical College and Charity Hospital in this City. His voluminous writings are well known in this country and in Europe, and no medical author of this country has enjoyed a larger reputation in Europe. For many years he was a member and a lay preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and as a public speaker he was earnest, lucid and extremely popular. His funeral will take place from his residence tomorrow.