Radio Script #1289

Little Talks on Common Things
November 15, 1981

Many years ago this program gave information from a medical account book kept by Moses Appleton, Waterville’s first full-time physician in the early years of the 19th century. I then told you that Dr. Appleton often made contracts for medical care. One such contract amuses people when they learn of it today. He agreed, for delivery of ten cords of four-foot wood, to take care of a family of six during the ensuing year for one disease only, the itch.

Now, in addition to that account book, the Waterville Historical society has received a large collection of Appleton record books and manuscripts, that will be carefully preserved and available for research at the Redington Museum on Silver Street. This new collection includes letters, deeds, business papers, and personal notations made by Dr. Appleton, his son Samuel, and by other persons among the doctor’s very wide acquaintance.

Dr. Appleton’s interests extended widely beyond the area of medicine, although that was his principal occupation. He was an investor in Waterville real estate, an incorporator of the town’s first bank, one of the builders of the first bridge across the Kennebec between Waterville and Winslow, owner of two pews in the Baptist meeting house, the town’s first denominational church, and he had a part in almost every public enterprise in Waterville during the first half of the 19th century.

Among his public offices was that of Justice of the Peace and Dedimus Justice, although he was not an attorney. He arrived in Waterville in 1796, when the place was still a part of the town of Winslow, and was immediately appointed JP by Gov. Caleb Strong of Massachusetts, as witness by a paper preserved in the family records. That commission was repeatedly renewed by Massachusetts governors until 1820, when it was continued by Maine’s first governor, William King. In that instance, Appleton took the oath before Waterville’ s most prominent lawyer, Timothy Boutelle. Then, appointment was continued through the administration of Maine Governor Samuel Smith in 1833.

Dr. Appleton was frequently called upon to serve as appraiser of estates, and sometimes as the guardian or conservator of some person declared incompetent to manage his own financial affairs. Such a case occurred in 1811, when he was appointed conservator for a man in Clinton. His order from the Judge of Probate said: ”Whereas a complaint has been made by the selectman of the Town of Clinton that Simeon Simpson is a person who, by excessive drinking and debauchery, will spend and waste his estate, and whereas the Court of Probate has ordered that a guardian be appointed. for him, I hereby do appoint, Moses Appleton to be guardian for him, his household and family, if any there shall be. The guardian is empowered to recover all debts due to Simpson and to manage the estate as if it were his own.
In case of Simpson’s death, the guardian shall then deliver the estate’s residue to Simpson’s executor or administrator.”

It is of some interest to note the oath that all officials of Massachusetts had to take at that time when Maine was a part of that state. “I do truly and sincerely acknowledge that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is and of right ought to be an independent state. I do swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to that Commonwealth and will defend it against all traitorous conspirators. I renounce all allegiance or obediance to any King, Queen or government of Great Britain or any other foreign power, prelate or potentate. My allegiance is to no other civil or ecclesiastical power, but only to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United State of America.

“I willingly testify that no man or body of men has any authority to discharge me from this oath, which I take and declare without any mental reservation whatever.”

Dr. Appleton was one of very few Waterville early citizens who was a college graduate, having received his degree at Dartmouth in 1891. He at once became a schoolteacher. In fact, like most college students of his time, he began teaching during the long winter vacations while he was still a college student. Then, after various teaching assignments, he was placed as head of a school right under the eyes of Harvard College. One would expect such.a job to be held by a Harvard graduate. Appleton appeared to have got it because the chairman of the Cambridge school committee at that time happened to be a Dartmouth, not a Harvard man. Preserved among his papers is the list of the 57 pupils. of whom he was in charge in that Cambridge school.

In January 1793, about a year and a half after his Dartmouth graduation, Moses Appleton decided that he wanted to become a physician, and he proceeded to prepare for that profession by the method usual in the days before the establishment of medical schools. He started study with a practicing physician in Cambridge, Dr. James Brooks. Soon after Appleton began that study, New England’s first medical school opened at Harvard, and Appleton frequently attended lectures there, although he never enrolled in the school.

Preserved among the papers are some scattered notes that Appleton made during his medical studies. Some of them were in the general area we today call the science of Physics, though in the 1790’s the word physics was a synonym for medicine.

Here are a few of those notes. “Steel is iron impregnated with an additional quantity of photogeston. Gunpowder is composed of five parts of nitre, 16 of charcoal, and nine of sulphur.”

Now for some of the things Appleton learned from Dr. Brooks: “Digestion depends not on the force exerted by the stomach, but on the dissolving principle of the juices. The nerves are organs by which nutrition, muscular control, and sensation are affected. A person not well proportioned is liable to disorders. Hence, if we can ascertain the exact proportions of the human body, we may be able to learn how diseases originate from various deviations. Animal food is more easily soluble than vegetable, older animals than younger, not from greater cohesion of texture, but from greater viscosity of their juices.”

Appleton kept a list of the textbooks he used in the study of medicine. All of them, of course, are obsolete today. Moses Appleton’s reading was by no means confined to medical works. Even when he ‘was teaching and studying medicine in Cambridge in the last decade of the 18th century, he kept a record of his reading in other fields. That list contained such titles as Hume’s History of England, Cicero’s Orations translated into English. Locke on the Human Understanding, the Letters of Lord Chesterfield to His Son, Gullifer’s Travels, and Franklin’s Autobiography.

He was allowed to witness some of the surgical operations performed by Dr. Brooks and on several occasions was allowed to participate. Here are a few.

“Abrasions opened on Samuel Cutter’s knee. The incision was made on the exterior side just below the patella.

“A young lad, James Payson, son of the celebrated architect, was seized by a panther which had been brought to a show in Medford. Stitches were taken and the infection confined by sticking plaster. It was dressed with the common liniment.”

“Was present at operation performed by Dr. Warren on one Magee, a sailor. The leg was amputated a few inches above the knee.”

We should bear in mind that, in the 1790’s there was no anesthetic for surgery, and such operations must have been exceedingly painful.

In face of modern scientific knowledge, one of Appleton’s notes seems most unusual. It said: “The common atmosphere is a fluid of intergeneous mixture, different at different times, and cannot be analyzed with accuracy.”

In later years Dr. Appleton never kept a diary, but in those Cambridge days he did keep a kind of intermittent account of his doings. “June 17, 1793. Came to Boston to teach. Took board with Dr. Alexander Thomas at 15 shillings a week.”

“July 1. Changed boarding places to Mr. Bingham’s, a more agreeable place, removed from the noise and bustle of business.”

“July 4. A day set apart for the anniversary of our independence. Boston always celebrates it with peculiar festivities. John Qunicy Adams, young son of our Vice President, delivered an excellent oration in the Old South Church.”

“July 17. Attended Commencement at Harvard. The exercises were performed tolerably, but with no display of erudition or eloquence.”

“July 27. All Boston schools had examinations today. All were visited by the Selectmen and school committee. The governor was present at several schools, including mine. The town officials and all the schoolmasters were dined at Faneuil Hall.”

Next week we shall continue the Appleton account with the story of how he happened to come to Waterville, and what he did in his early years here. But for today, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1981