182 Chronicles of the Cape Fear Rwer

formerly the property of a Mr. Hasell, almost certainly of the
gentleman of whom we have been writing or his parents.

Of the physicians of Wilmington in 1840 Dr. John D. Bel-
lamy alone survives. Mentally his bow still abides in strength,
and the chances and changes of well-nigh fourscore years have
not otherwise in the main dealt unkindly with him. He came
to Wilmington late in the thirties, studied with Dr. William J.
Harriss, and at the death of Dr. Harriss, in 1839, succeeded to
his extensive and laborious practice. In May, 1846, Dr. Wil-
liam W. Harriss was taken into copartnership, and in the course
of three or four years Dr. Bellamy retired and devoted himself
to other business, principally farming. He owned large estates
the work of superintending and managing which was quite én
lucrative as medical practice, and far less toilsome.

The loss of a physician in large practice for obvious reasons
cduses deeper sorrow, and sorrow more extensive in its reach,
than that of any other member of a community, not even faith-
ful pastors being excepted, and this affection, which entwines
around the hearts of those who receive the doctor’s services,
doubtless is the great compensation for the privations and trials
and strains upon the sympathetic nature which inevitably attend
medical practice. Especially must this be so in villages and
smaller towns, where physicians come into closer social rela-
tions than in the larger cities. These observations apply with
special force to the loss sustained in the death of Dr. Harriss
who has been referred to, and of others who are yet to bs
mentioned.

Dr. Armand J. DeRosset, sr., in 1840 was seventy-three
years of age, and still in vigorous practice. He had been for a
quarter of a century in charge of the Seamen’s Hospital and
continued in service until late in the fifties, practicing on horse-
2 when ninety years of age. He died in 1859, aged ninety-

wo.
Dr. James F’. McRee, sr., was, like Dr. DeRosset, not only a
skillful and beloved physician, but one of the most influential
citizens of his day. It has been noted that both these gentle-
men were commissioners of the town in 1840. In 1840, and
possibly for years thereafter, Dr. McRee was magistrate of
police, the chief officer of the place. On April 26, 1843, he
took into copartnership his son, Dr. J. F. McRee, jr., and not a
great while after retired to enjoy abundant and well-earned rest,

Early Years 183

while engaging in the scientific studies to which he was natur-
ally disposed and in which he greatly delighted.

Before settling in Wilmington Dr. William A. Berry had
been in the medical service of the United States. He retired
from practice in the later fifties with ample means. He suc-
ceeded Dr. DeRosset as hospital physician in 1845, and died

in 1875.
The profession did not hold Dr. Edwin A. Anderson continu-

ously in its practice. In 1840 and for a year or two thereafter
he followed it, and then went into sawmilling and afterwards
into merchandizing and turpentine distilling. Subsequently he
resumed practice and was engaged in it up to, or nearly up to,

his death, about a year ago.
The recollections of the writer as concerns the doctors of

fifty-five years ago are more vivid regarding Dr. Louis J.
Poisson, perhaps, than any other. He comes before the mind,
not very distinctly, it 1s true, as of medium height, spare in
figure, with an intellectual cast of countenance and features

rather sharp, though not unpleasantly so. A gentleman of
affable manners without the least suspicion of lack of frankness,
one whose gentleness would win a boy of eight or ten, even in
spite of the dread which must needs accompany his ministra-
tions. For a while before the death of Dr. Poisson he was quite
infirm in health. In 1842 or 1843 he took into copartnership
Dr. James H. Dickson, who had returned from New York City,
and October 26, 1843, he died at the early age of thirty-four.

It has been said that fifty or sixty years ago physicians com-
pounded their own prescriptions and practiced on horseback.
The diseases they had to meet were not those which are now
encountered, nor the medicines they used the same as now. The
old-fashioned bilious fever was a terror in those days. We now
never hear it mentioned. Those were the days of bloodletting
and of cataplasms. Salts and senna and calomel and jalap were
household articles, and the children in the spring were regularly
called up to receive the matutinal dose of aloes. Quinine was
hardly known and Peruvian bark had to do its work, along with
dogwood bitters and other things which now will hardly be

No profit was to be had certainly in taking medical care of
the poor of the county and furnishing the medicines for them at
$50 a year, yet that was all allowed for the service. The slaves,