Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels

[Eva Elisabeth]

William Wallace?

[L Verge]

I know that Willie Lincoln was named after Mrs. Lincoln's brother-in-law, Dr. William Wallace, but did the doctor come to D.C. with the family? If you can prove that he did in 1861, that may definitely change the answer.

Ironically, the doctor that I am referring to died one month before Willie; and Dr. Stone was then chosen as the family physician.

[RJNorton]

Laurie, I have Victor Search's Lincoln's Journey to Greatness, a book devoted entirely to the 12-day inaugural trip to Washington. In chapter 2 there is a discussion of those folks who rode the train with Lincoln, and Dr. Wallace was definitely on the train.

[L Verge]

Okay, I will bend a bit and give Eva the win, but I still question his purpose being the family physician at that point.

The answer that I was looking for is from Wayne Temple's new book, Lincoln's Surgeons, with a back-up citation here: http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/Ne...ITOR51.pdf

His name was Dr. John Richards, and he was born in Belfast, Ireland, about 1810. He attended medical school at the University of Edinburgh and another one in Paris. His uncle (also Dr. John Richards) practiced in Alexandria, Virginia, and stressed that his nephew should come to America. He did in 1831, and received his M.D. from the University of Maryland in 1834. In 1841, he married Laura Peyton of Baltimore, whose father had been a mayor of Alexandria with an estate of six acres, three slaves, and a large, brick house at the end of today's well-traveled King Street. Col. Francis Peyton (the father) was also a physician and had served as a surgeon in the U.S. 7th Infantry Regiment during 1799 and 1800.

Dr & Mrs. Richards and their three sons lived in Alexandria too in 1850, with an estate valued at $5000 and two servants. In 1852, however, they moved into Washington, D.C. with his office in his home at 274 F Street (about three blocks from the White House). It appears that he was chosen as the physician for the First Family shortly after the First Inaugural.

He died from pneumonia on January 19, 1862, and was buried from his home. His place of burial is not known.
Be sure to read the link to the Papers of Abraham Lincoln to see final correspondence between the Lincolns and Dr. Richards's widow.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Laurie, but I don't deserve the prize. While he did accompany the inauguration party to DC it indeed doesn't seem he had ever served as a physician there:
http://mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.as...ubjectID=5

[L Verge]

(03-04-2016 05:53 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Thanks, Laurie, but I don't deserve the prize. While he did accompany the inauguration party to DC it indeed doesn't seem he had ever served as a physician there:
http://mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.as...ubjectID=5

"For years, Lincoln took "blue Mass" pills for constipation and hypochondria. He apparently stopped taking them shortly after he became president."

Interesting statement in your posting above. Wonder if Dr. John Richards is the one who weaned Lincoln off of those pills??

[Eva Elisabeth]

"Apparently, Mr. Lincoln long suffered from a more specific physical disorder – constipation. John Todd Stuart had a peculiar view of Mr. Lincoln’s constitution. He told William Herndon that Mr. Lincoln 'was a kind of vegetable – that the pores of his flesh acted as an appropriate organ for such Evacuation…' 16 He blamed some of Mr. Lincoln’s problems on his digestion and said he had prescribed 'blue mass pills' to deal with the problem. Henry C. Whitney reported that Stuart said: 'Lincoln’s digestion was organically defective so that the excreta escaped through the skin pores instead of the bowels'. Stuart said he 'advised him to take him to take Blue Mass and he did take it before he went to Washington and for five months while he was President but when I went to Congress he told me he had quit because it made him cross.' 17
 
Such blue mass pills included mercury as an ingredient and were intended as a laxative but they were also prescribed for a wide variety of ills. 18 Mercury, according to medical researchers, was prescribed to treat 'hypochondriasis,' which covered a wide range of 'mental and intestinal distress.' 19 Medical speculation has suggested that the mercury might have affected Mr. Lincoln’s physical and mental disposition – causing him irritation and insomnia before he ceased their use in 1861. One medical study in 2001 concluded that Mr. Lincoln might have been unable to handle the presidency had he not stopped using the patent medicine. The authors wrote: 'If blue pills prompted Abraham Lincoln’s remarkable behavior in the decade before he went to the White House, then his insightful decision to stop taking them may have been crucial to the outcome of the Civil War.'20"
 
17 Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, Herndon’s Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln, pp. 631-632 (Letter from Henry C. Whitney to William H. Herndon, August 27, 1887).
18 Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, Herndon’s Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln, p. 466.
19 Norbert Hirschhorn, Robert G. Feldman, and Ian A. Greaves, “Abraham Lincoln’s Blue Pills,”Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Summer 2001, pp. 315-332.
20 Norbert Hirschhorn, Robert G. Feldman, and Ian A. Greaves, “Abraham Lincoln’s Blue Pills: Did Our 16th President Suffer from Mercury Poisoning?” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, p. 329.

http://abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abra...ns-health/

[RJNorton]

Thanks, Eva. Personally I think it's possible Lincoln was taking blue mass as early as the 1840s. In 1841 Lincoln apparently wrote Dr. Charles Drake in Cincinnati, described his "hypochondriasis," sought advice, but received the reply that the doctor could not prescribe any treatment without a personal interview with Lincoln. Certainly it's conceivable one of Lincoln's druggist friends in Springfeld, such as Roland Diller, was providing Lincoln with blue mass (perhaps "off the books"). Dr. Wallace, who was part owner of the drug store for a time, could have been involved in Lincoln obtaining the blue mass. This is all speculation on my part, but I am guessing Lincoln was taking it long before 1861. I think it's possible Lincoln saw blue mass as a medicine for almost any sort of physical or mental "ill feeling."

There is good evidence Lincoln was able to find sources for medicine when he wanted. Here is a letter to Lincoln dated April 3, 1861, from Samuel H. Melvin, a physician and owner of the largest medical and pharmaceutical supply business in Springfield:

Hon A. Lincoln Washington City DC
Dear Sir

I only arrived at home this morn-having been detained in Ohio longer than I expected. I now hasten to send you the Pills as requested. I send you 5 boxes made by Mr Canedy and one box of my own manufacture.

"Mr. Canedy" is Peleg Coffin Canedy, a Springfield pharmacist.

[RJNorton]

In 1856 Abraham Lincoln had a tooth extracted. The dentist used an ivory-handled turnkey. What was the dentist's name?

[L Verge]

According to the source I cheated with, that dentist's name was Dr. Wexley Wampler in Humboldt, Illinois. The source also says that Lincoln hated going to the dentist (I'm with him!) and probably only went four times in his life. His first time required an extraction, and the dentist yanked so hard that he took a piece of Lincoln's jawbone.

The article also mentions an 1862 visit to D.C. dentist Dr. G.S. Wolf. It was for an extraction also, but this time Abe came prepared. He now knew of chloroform being used on soldiers to block pain, so he brought a small vial with him and held the doctor at bay until he took a whiff.

[RJNorton]

Correct, Laurie, and I have also read that Lincoln may have gone to the dentist only 4 times in his life.

You win best wishes that you will never have any tooth extractions.

[Eva Elisabeth]

May I ask what is the o-source for these dentist names and visits? (Couldn't find but would like to know - thanks!)

The first o-source about the tooth-and-bit-of-jawbone extraction is a letter Abraham Lincoln wrote to Joshua Speed's in September 1841.

He was nevertheless fortunate to have specialists (i.e. dentists) available as much of dentistry developed and its inventions developed in the US - the first college worldwide to teach dentistry was founded in Baltimore in 1840.
Before people went to barbers or blacksmiths for tooth extraction...

[RJNorton]

(03-06-2016 06:49 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  May I ask what is the o-source for these dentist names and visits? (Couldn't find but would like to know - thanks!)

For the question I used the article here.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thank you, Roger.

[RJNorton]

There is more information here. Included is a photo of the instrument Dr. Wampler used to remove Lincoln's tooth in 1856.