Sb 
 
 JAMES HENDERSON DICKSON, A, M„M.D. 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 BY 
 
 Thomas K. Wood, Ni. D. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/jameshendersondiOOwood 
 

 EOEN DECEMBER 1808 : DIED SEPT 26 TK 1362, 
 
(Biographical Sketch with Portrait. J 
 
 The mouth of September, 1862, was one of great calamity to 
 Wilmington The alarming for bocUngs of the visitation of yellow 
 fever in a pestilential form had ripened into a certainty. Depleted 
 of her voung and active men, there was only a military garrison in 
 occupation, and when the presence of fever was announced the 
 soldiers were removed to a safer locality. The coir try people 
 taking a panic at the news of the presence of the fever no longer 
 ■sent in their supplies,- The town was deserted, its silence only 
 .broken by the occasional pedestrian bound on errands of mercy 
 to the sick, or the rumbling of the rude funeral cart. The blocka e 
 was being maintained- with increased rigor. The only newspaper 
 then published .was the Daily Journal, under the editorship of 
 James Fulton, and its issues were maintained under the greatest 
 difficulties, "owing to scarcity of paper and sickness among the 
 printers. All eyes were turned anxiously toward the physicians 
 and those in authority for help, To all of the resident physicians 
 the disease was a new one, not one in the number had ever seen a 
 case of yellow fever, and among them were men of large experi- 
 ence. The municipal authorities recognized their helplessness; the 
 town was neglected, for it had been overcrowded with soldiers and 
 visitors since the early days of the spring of 1861. The black pall 
 of smoke from the burning tar-barrels added solemnity to the 
 deadly silence of the streets ; designed to purify the air and mitigate 
 the pestilence,' they seemed more like fuliginous clouds of ominous 
 portent, designed as a sombre emblem of mourning. Panic, distress, 
 mute despair, want, had fallen upon a population then strained to 
 its utmost with the bleeding columns of its regiments dyeing the 
 hills of Maryland with their blood, until the whole air was filled 
 with the wail of the widow and orphan, and the dead could no 
 longer be honored with the last tribute of respect. 
 
 The Wilmington Daily Journal of September 29th, 1862, gave 
 all its available editorial space to chronicle for the first time the 
 character of the epidemic, and in a few brief words to notice the 
 death of some of the more prominent citizens. One paragraph in 
 the simple editorial notice ran as follows : " Dr. James H. Dickson, 
 
2 JAMKS IIEXDEKSOX DICKSON", AM., MIX 
 
 a physician of the highest character and standing died here on 
 Sunday morning of yellow fever. Dr. Dickson's death is a greats 
 loss to the profession and to the community" Close by, in another 
 column, from the pen of the acting Adjutant Lt. VanBokkelen, of 
 the 3d N. C Infantry, numbering so many gallant souls of the 
 young men of Wilmington, was the list of the killed and wounded 
 from the bloody field ol Sharpsburg. 
 
 Distressed and bereaved by this new weight of sorrow^ Wilmington* 
 sat in the mournful habiliments of widowhood, striving amidst the 
 immensity of the struggle, to make her courageous voice heard 
 above all the din of war to nerve the brave hearts who stood as a> 
 girdle of steel before beleaguered Richmond, 
 
 James Fulton, the well-known editor of the Journal, the wary 
 politician and the cautious editor, striving on the one hand to kee}> 
 the worst from the world lest the enemy might use it to our disad- 
 vantage, often ruthlessly suppressed from his limited space such 
 matters as in these days of historical research might be of the 
 greatest service. There were two predominant topics which 
 eclipsed all the impending sorrow and distress — foreign interven- 
 tion, to bring about a peace on honorable terms, and warnings to 
 the State government of the inadequacy of the defense of 
 Wilmington harbor against the enemy. The former topic was 
 discussed with unvarying pleasure. The horizon of the future was 
 aglow with the rosy dreams of mandates from the English and 
 French governments which would bring independence to the 
 Confederacy and peace and quietness to the numerous homes from 
 the sea to the mountains, where sorrow and deatli had hung like a 
 pall. It is not strange, therefore, that the few publications that 
 had survived the scarcity of printing material, should have con- 
 tained so little of biographical matter. Comrades dropped on the 
 right and the left, but the lines were closed up, the hurried tear 
 wiped away, and the line pushed steadily forward. The distin- 
 guished physician, or general, or jurist, as well as the humble 
 private, got his passing notice in the meagre letters which a chance 
 correspondent sent to one of the few newspapers, and in a short 
 time he was forgotten in the fresh calamity of the day. 
 
 We come to our task, therefore, of sketching the biography of 
 Dr. Dickson, w T ith a sense of the meagerness of the materials which 
 are needed to do justice to his memory, but with dopp respect and 
 
JAMES IIEKBEKSON DICKSON, A ST., Rl.D. 3 
 
 veneration for him who, as citizen, scholar, physician and patriot, 
 has left his lasting impress upon his native town. 
 
 James Henderson Dickson was the son of James Dickson, a 
 commission merchant of Wilmington. He was born in Wilmington 
 December, 1806. At the very early age of 12 or 13 he was entered 
 at the University as a student, graduating with distinction in the 
 class of 1823, when he was only 10 or 17 years of age. 
 
 Having made choice of the medical profession, he became a 
 studei t in the office of Dr. Armand. J. deRosset, the senior 
 doctor of that name, and the oldest physician in Wilmington. The 
 office education of a student of that day was not only that of 
 reading through the course, but of learning by laborious practice 
 the art of pharmacy, which included all the manipulations from 
 pulverizing the crude drug to the completion of the galenical 
 compounds. 
 
 He attended lectures at the Medical Department of Columbia 
 College, New York, now the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
 graduating before he reached his majority, in 1827. 
 
 He began the practice of medicine at South Washington, but 
 removed to Fayetteville sometime in 1827, where he practiced until 
 1837. During his residence in Fayetteville he cultivated a decided 
 talent for surgery, particularly aspiring to those operations in which 
 there had been but lew exploits before his day. except by the more 
 distinguished teachers. Among them may be mentioned an opera- 
 tion of direct transfusion (in 1833) from the arm of one sister to 
 another, thereby saving her life.* The other operation was more 
 notable, being one of the earliest of the orthopedic operations, 
 before there was ever a science of orthopedy, it was a tenotomy for 
 
 *At the early date of 1833 there are but few successful cases of trans- 
 fusion of blood. One by Bickersteth ; one by G. G. Bird, Midland 
 Medical and Surgical Reporter, Worcester, I830 ; one by J. Blundell, 
 London Lancet, 1829; one by W. Bingham, Edinburg Medical and 
 Surgical Journal, 1827 ; one by D. Fox, London Medical and Physiolo- 
 gical Journal, 1827; one by J. Fraser, Lancet, 1835; one by J. Howell, 
 London Lancet, 1828 ; one by Waller, London Medical and Physiologi- 
 cal Journal, 1825 ; and one in 1826. Seven cases are all that could be 
 gathered from "Index Catalogue Library fcurgeon General's Office," 
 and from " Neale's iJijxest." 
 
4 JAMES IIENl'EKSON DICKSON, A.M,, M.D. 
 
 a club-foot, in the person of bis own brother, Dr. Robt. D Dickson. 
 Tliis operation was done in 1835.* 
 
 From Fayetteville he removed to New York City* where for four 
 years he practiced, returning to his native home in 1841 at the 
 -solicitation of his father, whose health was then declining. Shortly 
 after his return to Wilmington ho entered into the practice of 
 medicine with Dr Louis J. Poisson ; the latttr gentleman dying in 
 1842, a large practice at once devolved upon him, increasing steadily 
 to the end of his career. 
 
 In 1845 he married Miss Margaret Owen, the daughter of General 
 James Owen, the first President of the Wilmington & Raleigh 
 Railroad and a member of Congress from the C pe Fear District 
 in 1817. 
 
 Those few friends who knew Dv. Dickson intimately always 
 regretted that his life-work had not been the professor's chair, 
 rather than the routine of general practice. The whole caste of 
 his intellect was that of the profound student, and it was very 
 remarkable to note with what facility he would go from the 
 drudgery of pharmacy to the realms of science and literature. In 
 those days few general practitioners were so well off that they did 
 not have to stand by the hour at the pill tile after a hard day's 
 practice, making up medicines for the messengers they found 
 
 *The operation of subcutaneous tenotomy of the tendo-achillis for 
 club-foot has been believed to have heen done by Dr. Dickson for the 
 first time in the United States. The friends of Dr. Detmold have 
 claimed for him the priority^based upon his reports in American Jour- 
 nal Medical Sciences, 1838; hut investigation shows that Dr. Nathan 
 R. Smith, of Baltimore, reported a case of "division of the tendo 
 achillis for the cure of club-foot, American Journal Medical Sciences, 
 1830 The latter operation even antedates Stromeyers' operations in 
 1830 1831. He introduced the surgery of club-foot ; but his earliest work 
 was in 1838. According to the rules, priority of operation would not 
 be bestowed on Dr. Dickson, as none of his cases were reported. The 
 gentleman upon whom Dr. D. operated in 1835 is now living, himself 
 a physician and the brother of the operator. After all, priority is not 
 so much a ground for professional distinction as the establishment of a 
 principle. The operator whose teaching and practice inculcates new 
 methods that stand the test of experience, whether he be originator 
 or imitator, is truly entitled to the honors. To Delpech we owe the 
 first surgical idea of the treatment of club-foot, and this dates back to 
 1823, eight years before Stromeyers' publication. 
 
JAMES HENDERSON DICKSON, A.M., M D. O 
 
 'waiting for their return from their rounds. The druggist had not 
 then become the scientific helper of the people and the doctor, and 
 hours of laborious work were spent in pharmaceutical manipulations, 
 that the present generation of physicians know nothing about. 
 The writer has seen him many times stand in his office, book in 
 hand, snatching a half hour with a favorite author in the lull of hi* 
 busy rounds. Studiousness and the habit of concentrated thought 
 were such marked characteristics that he paused with the general 
 public, and even with some of his patients, as a man of coldness 
 and austerity, and while it was true that he was a man of too severe 
 dignity and too seriously engaged with the affairs of his profession 
 to find time for trifles, he was approachable, responsive to the 
 demands of friendship, tender towards the afflicted, helpful to 
 •struggling young men, and susceptible to the blandishments of the 
 gay and mirthful in seaso". 
 
 His back office was headquarters for old friends who sought his 
 advice and opinions upon all subjects, from the management of 
 estates to the burning of a brickkiln ; he was the encyelopediac 
 referee of this coterie. The business system then in vogue of 
 •attending families by the year for a given sum placed the physician 
 of that date more in the attitude of general medical and sanitary 
 •adviser than -now. Those families having large numbers of slaves 
 at work in saw mills, rice-fields, brickyards, turpentine orchards 
 •and elsewhere, had frequently difficult problems before them, and 
 »it was not only about the maintenance of health that they were 
 concerned, but upon every topic of domestic and manufacturing 
 economy did they come with their difficulties to be solved. 
 
 To illustrate his accessibility a friend related the following- 
 incident : " I had been elected cashier of a bank recently organized, 
 fcut knew not where to go to secure bondsmen. I was a poor young- 
 man, having no property adequate to satisfy the demand of such a 
 large bond, and I almost despaired of securing the situation. One 
 night happening in the office of Dr. Dickson, he noted my troubled 
 look and remarked upon It I told him my story, and he replied : 
 " Well, William, if my name is acceptable to your board of directors, 
 you need not feel embarrassed for another day." 
 
 CHAPEL HILL ADDRESS. 
 
 Notwithstanding Dr. Dickson's studious habits, it was known to 
 very few that his studies took as broad a range as they did in 
 
G' JAMES IIENDEKSOX DICKSON, A.M., M.I7. 
 
 general science and literature, until in 1853 be was invited by the j 
 Alumni Association of the University of North Carolina to deliver 
 an address before that body. 
 
 Ilis classmates found that Dr. Dickson had made good use of 
 the time which had elapsed since his graduation, and that he had; 
 returned to his Alma Mater the ripe scholar as well as the distin- 
 guished physician. His address from beginning to end indicated 
 the atmosphere of broad scientific study from which he canght his- 
 inspiration. His busy mind had intelligently grasped the progress 
 science was making, and he revelled in the glories of the achieve- 
 ments, not only of those sciences collateral to medicine, and which the 
 educated physician of broad reading would be expected to master as 
 an accomplishment, but mathematics, astronomy, geology, physics,, 
 were all passed in review. Nor was this all — profoundly imbued 
 with the national spirit, he turned with pride to the American 
 historians, scholars, scientists and artists with a familiarity which 
 showed the bent of his tastes, and how thoroughly he was abreast 
 of all the progressive work in all departments. 
 
 He gave in this address the key-note of his own career. In 
 deprecating the utilitarian standard of professional accomplish- 
 ments he says ; " * * * But we object to an exclusive devotion 
 to such pursuits as having a tendency to narrow and contract the 
 mind. Nor does it generally lead to the attainment of the highest 
 professional reputation. Marshall and Story were not mere lawyers 7 
 but men of enlarged and profound scholarship. Mere professional 
 attainments would probably never have elevated Jeffre}^ or 
 Brougham to the peerage ; Armstrong and Darwin* are hardly 
 known except as poets, and the literary fame of Burke and 
 Clarendon completely eclipses their professional reputation. A low 
 degree of knowledge and an imperfect discipline of the mind is 
 the necessary result, where the standard of present utility is set up, 
 as the measure of its value. 
 
 "It is irdeed an ignoble principle of action — a mode of thinking 
 which casts a deadly blight upon morals, literature and art, and 
 extinguishes all high aspirations after the beautiful and ideal, either 
 
 *Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the author of " Zoonomia " and " The Botanic 
 Garden." 
 
JAMES- HENDERSON DICKSON, A.M., M D. V 
 
 in life or literature. We are told by the poet, and with truth, 
 
 that 
 
 "Man loves knowledge, and the light of truth 
 More welcome strikes his understanding's eye 
 Than all the blandishments of sound, his ear, 
 Than all of taste, his tongue." 
 
 The general public had now learned, what his few intimate friends 
 already knew, that the revered physician was ripening in the higher 
 culture of the philosopher, the literateur, and the man of science. 
 
 WILMINGTON LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 
 
 In 1860 Dr. Dickson and his intimate friend, the Hon. George 
 Davis, conceived the design of founding a public library. Starting 
 out one day with the warm impulse of establishing for their native 
 town the social and literary advantages of a library of choice 
 literature, they secured as the work of one day's solicitation eighteen 
 hundred dollars with which to purchase books. These gentlemen 
 with rare judgment prepared a list of volumes, not only represent- 
 ing the standard authors of the day, but the best editions in superior 
 library binding, which Dr. Dickson selected during a special visit 
 to New York City. This collection, although plundered by the 
 army of occupation, reflects now their literary tastes and judgment, 
 and forms the basis of the Wilmington Library Association. 
 Before his death he, with his associates, had found a home for their 
 collection in the City Hall building, in the room now used as the 
 Mayor's office, but the outbreak of the war interrupted literary 
 pursuits, and the cherished objects of the Library were not fulfilled. 
 He was chosen the first President of the Wilmington Library 
 Association in 1860. 
 
 His address before the general public was on the subject then 
 near to his heart, and was entitled, Some Remarks upon Books 
 and Libraries. He followed Mr. Davis,* whose reputation as a 
 public speaker was State-wide, and none who heard the fervid 
 eloquence of Dr. Dickson when he apostrophized the book of all 
 books — the Holy Scriptures — will ever forget the murmur of 
 applause which seized the surprised audience that, for the first 
 time, discovered he was more than a skilled physician, the sympa- 
 thizing succorer of the distressed — he was a literary man of the 
 
 *Mr. Davis had delivered a lecture as a part of this course on "The 
 Good Old Times ; When Were They ? " 
 
'8 JAMES HENDERSON DICKSON, A.M., M D. 
 
 -highest culture, and a speaker of distinguished merits. Even to 
 this day, the impress of that famous address is remembered and 
 recognized as the inauguration of a literary movement in the 
 community. The address was not published, and it is not known 
 if the manuscript copy exists. His office was plundered by the 
 army of occupation and his papers strown into the streets by the 
 Federal soldiers or camp-followers. His own library, to which in 
 1858 and subsequently he had made such large additions, had been 
 sent to Laurinburg for safety, was captured at that place, and the 
 last known of it it was on board a Federal gun-boat being carried 
 down the river. 
 
 THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE, 
 
 When the call for the Convention for the organization of a State 
 Medical Society was made in 1841), Dr Dickson, although he was 
 not of the number, was known to have been in hearty accord with 
 the movement, but he was tied down by the burdens of an exacting 
 practice. He became a member of the Medical Society of North 
 Carolina in May, 1852, and in 1854 he was made its President. 
 The weight of his influence was given in the forming of a State 
 Board of Medical Examiners, and when this dream of its sanguine 
 promoters was realized in 1859, he was chosen to be the first 
 President of that new body. His associates were Otis F. Manson, 
 J. G. Tull, C. Happoldt, W. II. McKee, Charles E Johnson and 
 Caleb Winslow, all men of excellent attainments — a worthy Board, 
 to which was entrusted the first experiment in Medical State Exam- 
 inations in the United States. 
 
 Dr. Dickson delivered the annual address before the Medical 
 Society at its meeting in Fayetteville in May, 1 8 5 .-5 . His subject 
 was "Respiration" in its relation to Animal Heat, Heart's Action 
 and Nerve Force. His review of the theories was a masterly 
 exposition of what was then held, by the best teachers, beginning 
 with the theory of Mayo, (*1674, Medico- Chintrg Review), that 
 "the effect of respiration was to generate heat, and not to cool the 
 blood heated by its rapid circulation throughout the body, * * * 
 and that it does this by a process analogous to combustion." In 
 turn he discussed the theory of Lavoisier, that heat was caused by 
 the combustion of carbon in the lungs, pointing out the objection 
 
 *Original Essay Tractatus de Respiratione, 1668. 
 
JAMES IIKNDKHHUN DICKSON, A.M., BID. ' 51 
 
 held to that theory. He took up the experiments of Dulong, who 
 set forth that there was much more oxygen absorbed by the respira- 
 tory process than was necessary to convert the carbon i to carbonic 
 acid — sometimes amounting to fully one-third more Dulong's 
 conjecture that inspired oxygen was expended in the combustion 
 of hydrogen, thus accounting for watery vapor exhaled. Liebig's 
 view that the carbon and hydrogen of the food, in being converted 
 by oxygen into heat as if they were burned in the open air — the 
 only difference is that the heat is spread over unequal spaces of 
 time, but the actual amount is always the same in the torrid as in 
 the frigid zone. Against this theory the essayist weighed the 
 opinion of Graves, holding in the main to the theory of Liebig. 
 Claude Bernard's account of the glycogenic functions of the liver, 
 showing that the liver had the important function of preparing 
 respiratory pabulum. 
 
 After reviewing the various theories he goes on to say that he is 
 " inclined to regard the opinion of the older physiologists, which 
 ascribed a refrigerating effect to the respiratory process, to some 
 extent, as well founded." He did not believe that the primary or 
 more esse tial function of the lungs was to sustain animal heat. 
 "If, then, neither the maintenance of the animal temperature nor 
 the excretion of carbonic acid be regarded as the essential function 
 of respiration, where shall we seek an explanation of it?" His 
 inferenc ; was that the preservation of the motion of the heart, 
 including withal that of the muscular system and the maintenance 
 of nerve force, were the essential and primary object of respiration, 
 although he by no means underrated the calorific function of 
 respiration. Forty years ago and now, physiology was a very 
 different thing, but the philosophical spirit of the older teachers 
 compensated largely for their deficiency of our moder j facts. 
 
 The lengthiest medical contribution which Dr. Dickson gave to 
 the public was a " Report of the Medical Topography and Epidemics 
 of North Carolina," made to the Transactions of the American 
 Medical Association in 1860. The basis of this paper is in part the 
 collection of observations from physicians in several sections of the 
 State, together with his own observations, upon the geographical 
 distribution of disease in the various sections, with a somewhat 
 detailed account of them. This report remains to this day the 
 fullest description of our endemic and epidemic diseases, and was 
 
10 ' JAMES HENI) RSON DICKSON, A.M., M.D., 
 
 a fair index of the capabilities of the writer i ■ description and 
 editing the material of others. The older members of the Medical 
 Society of North Carolina will be familiar with this production, 
 doubtless, but, in the light of our knowledge of the changes 
 wrought in the characters of all diseases by the two visitations of 
 epidemic influenza in 1889-1890, they may be impressed with the 
 necessity of a wider range of the study of epidemiology. 
 
 The description given to this paper of "Febiis Remittens 
 Convulsiva," puts on record for the first time a description of a 
 disease that was very fatal until its true nature was discerned. 
 Dr. Dickson says: "In this class of cases the first, and some- 
 times the second, paroxysms of fever may be unattended with 
 the appearance of alarming symptoms, but the third paroxysm is 
 apt to be ushered in with a convulsion which seems to replace the 
 cold stage of the same disease in adults, and which is always so 
 alarming and dangerous an occurrence as to make it prudent to cut 
 short the disease once by bringing the system very rapidly under 
 the potent influence of the febrifuge." He modestly accords the 
 originality of this suggestion to Dr. Henry F. Campbell, of 
 Augusta. 
 
 Typhoid fever was a stranger to the Eastern part of North 
 Carolina until in the fifties, as Dr. Dickson intimates, and " When 
 it first began to prevail in the Eastern section of this State, cases 
 exhibiting the blending or commingling of this type of fever with 
 remittent fever were by no means uncommon, and in these cases it 
 was necessary to keep in view its hybrid character in the treatment ; 
 such cases could not well be treated without quinine." Here we 
 have an anticipation of Dr. Woodward's theory, for which at the 
 International Medical Congress in 1876 he introduced the name of 
 typho-malarial fever. 
 
 In this essay is described for the first time the invasion of cerebro- 
 spinal meningitis, which invaded Davie county in 1856, as reported 
 by Drs. Summerell, Kelly and Sharpe. 
 
 At the Salisbury meeting of the Society, May 15, 1855, Dr. 
 Dickson delivered his valedictory address, on the completion of the 
 second term of his presidency. 
 
 How nearly his life and death comported with his own model we 
 will let an extract from this address tell : 
 
 " In times of public calamity arising from the visitations of 
 
JAMES HENDBHSON DICKSON, A.M., M.I). II 
 
 fearful epidemics, who but a physician is looked up to, in aid of 
 the public authority, to suggest the means of escaping from, or of 
 lessening, their destructive progress? What other class of citizens 
 is there which can inspire the panic-stricken with confidence or the 
 despairing with hope? And may I not add, what other class have 
 exhibited more ab egation of self or heroic devotedness to the 
 great cause of humanity in its trying hours? If proof were 
 needed, I might point to a long list of professional martyrs, who 
 have exhibited the calmest courage amidst scenes which have 
 paled the cheek of the soldier, and have not flinched from the 
 discharge of duty at the risk of life. We must remark, too, that 
 they were not influenced by the ordinary motives which influence 
 the soldier in the exhibition of noble daring in the field of battle. 
 There are no applauding thousands to witness their deeds of heroic 
 daring — to shout in their ears the grateful sound of many-voiced 
 applause — they are not surrounded by the pomp and ciicumstance 
 of glorious war — no laurel decorates their brow — no monument is 
 reared to perpetuate their fame After spending their lives in the 
 daily performance of deeds which might well put the philanthropy 
 of a Howard to the blush, they descend to the tomb unheralded by 
 the world's applause. The world has other matters to attend to, 
 other schemes to plan and accomplish, and the memory of its 
 humble, unpretending benefactors passes away with the passing 
 hour. This is no fancy picture, gentlemen. Its literal counterpart 
 was enacted in the y ar that has past, on our very borders, in the 
 cities of Savannah, Charleston and Augusta, and must be fresh in 
 the recollection of us all. If the world chooses to ignore such 
 devotion to the great cause of humanity, let us tho more fervently 
 cherish the recollection of their virtues, and firmly resolve to 
 imitate their noble example by a like devotion to duty, should 
 circumstances unfortunately devolve upon us the task." 
 
 In politics Dr. Dickson was a staunch Whig of the old school, 
 and when the political agitations which led up to the war were 
 stirring the people with the strongest indignation against the 
 attitude of the North, he counselled prudence and moderation. 
 That he was one of a very small minority favoring the settlement 
 of the troubles in a friendly way, made him none the less resolute 
 for the Union. 
 
 Looking over the files of the Wilmington Daily Journal of 1861, 
 
12 JAMES HKNDHRSON DICKSON 1 , A.M., M.I). 
 
 our eye lit upon the announcement of a Union meeting to be held 
 January 11th. The meeting was addressed by F. D. Poisson, J. G. 
 Burr, George Davis and James H. Dickson. The account reads : 
 " Resolutions were passed in favor of the settlement of the existing 
 difficulties in the Union, and endorsing as a baeus for such settle 
 ■ment the propositions brought forth by Senator Crittenden. In 
 this meeting Dr. Dickson followed Mr. George Davis, "deprecating 
 secession as a disunion of the South, and as inadequate to remed}^ 
 the evils complained of by the South. If the North would not 
 listen to the united demands of the South, then the fifteen Southern 
 States would be justified in snapping the bonds that bind us to the 
 North. The meeting adjourned with three cheers for the Star 
 Spangled Banner." He lived to see his efforts for his country for 
 reconciliation fail, and no Southern man aligned himself with the 
 destiny of the Confederacy with more earnest courage. Hopeful 
 of success he was not, but, like most of the staunchest who were 
 for the Union as long as there was any prospect for its restoration, 
 he unflinchingly cast all of his fortunes with his people 
 
 So great were the demands of his large practice, for him to 
 accept a position in the army was not to be thought of. He 
 remained faithfully at his post, ministering to the sick at home. 
 On the 6th May, of 1861, he presided over the meeting of the 
 Board of Medical Examiners at Morganton, the last meeting held 
 until the war ended. 
 
 It is not worth while, at this late day, to discuss the cause of the 
 yellow fever in Wilmington in 1862. For half a century there had 
 been no such visitation, and there was no physician then in practice 
 who had seen a case of the disease. It was evident in August of 
 that year that there was an unusual number of cases of fatal fever. 
 Dr. Dickson made a report to John Dawson, Mayor, declaring the 
 presence of yellow fever on September 17th (the letter in the Daily 
 Journal is undated). His report went on to say that there had 
 been no new cases since the 10th of September, and he hoped that 
 this lull in the fever was due to the sanitary measures that had been 
 adopted by the town. 
 
 On the 23d September Dr. Dickson went home with a chill which 
 he recognized as the first stage of yellow fever. He was faithfully 
 attended by Mrs. Dickson during his entire sickness and she fell a 
 victim to the disease, but finally recovered. He was under the 
 
JAMES HENDERSON DICKSON, A.M., M I). 1 X 
 
 constant care of the physicians then in town, and especially by the 
 senior Dr. McRee, who attended him day and night until, on 
 Sunday morning, the 28th, his spirit returned to God who gave it. 
 
 The following appeared in the North Carolina Presbyterian of 
 the issue succeeding the announcement in the Wilmington Daily 
 Journal: 
 
 "In our last number we published a short list of prominent 
 citizens who died of yellow fever in Wilmington ; and, amongst 
 others, was observed the name of Dr. James H. Dickson, a citizen 
 of high standing and an eminent physician. But, more than this, 
 he was a man of exalted piety. For some years he had been an elder 
 in the Presbyterian Church, and was most faithful and zealous in 
 the discharge of his duties. On the appearance of yellow fever in 
 Wilmington he determined to stand bravely at his post, and was 
 engaged in the noble work of alleviating the sufferings of his 
 fellow-man when he, too, was stricken down by the fearful epidemic. 
 But death had no terrors for this good man. He died, as lie had 
 lived, a shining example of true piety and religious devotion. We 
 fully concur in the remark made to. us by a friend on hearing of 
 his death : ' No man was better prepared to die than Dr. Dickson.' " 
 
 Only a week elapsed between his official announcement of the 
 fever to the Mayor and his own seizure, and in five days after he 
 was dead By the advice of the physicians all persons left town 
 that had not already been scattered in a panic previously, and the 
 death of Dr. Dickson spread sadness and dismay over the town 
 and the country around. Many anxious families had centred their 
 hopes on his professional wisdom and skill ; most of them, too poor 
 to leave town except by the impulsion of the direct necessity, 
 had their hopes now crushed by his death. 
 
 At this distance from the sad calamity of his death, it is even 
 now difficult to estimate his true worth. His portrait, which accom- 
 panies this sketch, denotes the serious demeanor, the reflective 
 mind, the intellectual cast. He was taciturn at times, but it was 
 rather the wisdom of knowing when to speak, than the lack of 
 opinions and thoughts. Apparently austere at times, it was only the 
 inflexibility of steel when truth was at stake. In the sick room he had 
 not the loquacity which pleases the valetudinarian, but in time of 
 peril, quickness of discernment, accuracy of knowledge, fertility of 
 resource, and withal gentleness of touch. His visits were short, 
 
14 JAMES HENDERSON DICKSON, A.M., M.I). 
 
 his words were few, bis sympathy, though unexpressed, was great. 
 Many have been the expressions of surprise and delight from the 
 people in moderate circumstances, who, asking their accounts from 
 him, found that the arduous services rendered had been estimated 
 according to the purse of the recipient. 
 
 The fame which survives the medical man is largely estimated by 
 his literary contributions. This is a method which would be unjust 
 to the memory of Dr. Dickson. Although living the life of the 
 student, and having no superior and few equals in scholarship in 
 the profession, so great were the burdens of his practice, that there 
 was little time for authorship. The glimpses w r e have, though, of 
 his ability as a writer, show the quality of his trained mind and the 
 graceful flow of his sentences. His vocabulary was rich, his research 
 extensive, and before his death he easily held the highest position 
 for literary culture among his professional contemporaries. 
 
 By his people — his family — his patients — his memory is not 
 revered for scholarship, but for his skill as a physician and his 
 consecrated Christian character. The mournful recollection that 
 he unflinchingly perilled his life for them, is a heritage far richer 
 than the applause of enraptured multitudes. His was the exempli- 
 fication of a Christian courage which has nerved many another heart 
 to go to the silent duty to meet " the pestilence that walketh in dark- 
 ness," counting life not too dear to peril it all for the sick and helpless. 
 
 His own words are best fitted to close this memorial. They are 
 but the prophetic forecast of that to which he attained : 
 
 " But in striving after the attainment of a high order of scholar- 
 ship and the acqusition of human learning, let us not forget that 
 man has a moral, as well as an intellectual, nature — that human 
 learning, scientific knowledge, as we call it, is but the outward 
 garment, the artificial investiture of truth — that our emotional 
 feelings and affections have a higher dignity, a holier sanctity, than 
 our intellectual powers. Let us not neglect the teaching of that 
 prima philosophia, that supreme wisdom, which not only sheds its 
 bright light on the pathway of life, but spans with its iridescent 
 radiance the dark clouds which overhang the tomb — penetrates the 
 otherwise impenetrable and obscure, and intermingles its cheering 
 beams with the glorious effulgence of eternal day — that wisdom 
 
 which 
 
 " Makes us brave 
 In the great faith of life beyond the grave." 
 
JAMES HENDERSON DICKSON, A.M., M.D. 15 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 A Sketch of the Topography and of the Diseases which have 
 Prevailed in the Town of Wilmington, North Carolina, during the 
 decade embraced by the years 1841 and 1850 ; 10 pp. Transactions 
 Medical Society North Carolina, Wilmington, May, 1852. 
 
 Address on Respiration : Source of animal heat, contractions of 
 th<* heart, nerve force [no title], delivered before the Medical Society 
 of North Carolina, at its Fourth Annual Meeting, in Fayetteville, 
 May, 1853 ; 15 pp. Transactions, 1853. 
 
 An Address delivered before the Alumni Association of the 
 University of North Carolina, June, 1853. Pamphlet, 43 pp. 
 Raleigh, 1853. 
 
 Valedictory Address, delivered before the Medical Society of 
 North Carolina, at Salisbury, May, 1855 ; pp. 6. Transactions, 
 1856. 
 
 Report on the Topography and Diseases of North Carolina, 
 delivered before the American Medical Association, 1860. 
 
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