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Moses Gunn, M. D., was born April
20, 1822, the son of Linus and Esther (Bronson) Gunn, in East
Bloomneld, Ontario county, New York. His American ancestors
descended from the Gunn clan, in the north of Scotland. After
receiving his preliminary education at the common schools, at home,
and taking a classical education at the academy. Moses Gunn
determined upon pursuing the medical profession, and entered the
Geneva Medical College, whence he graduated in 1846. Immediately
after receiving his diploma as Doctor of Medicine he started for the
West, carrying with him, in a neat trunk, the body of a huge
African, whereon his surgical skill could be exercised at a
favorable opportunity. There were no "baggage-smashers" upon the
Doctors route, otherwise an unpleasant contretemps might have
occurred.
Dr. Gunn arrived at Ann Arbor, Michigan, in February, 1846, and at
the same time that he commenced practice inaugurated the first
systematic course of Anatomical Lectures ever given in Michigan. He
had a class of twenty-five or thirty students, and it is presumable
that at the first lectures the African was resurrected and
scientifically dissected. Upon the organization of the Medical
Department of the University of Michigan Dr. Gunn was elected
Professor of Surgery by a most flattering majority over, his
competitor. But for once the Latin adage, palmam qui mentit ferat,
was carried out. He occupied the Chair for seventeen years, until
1867, the first three years teaching both Anatomy and Surgery, and
notwithstanding the engrossing duties of his private practice and
his professorship, as a recreation, he studied German, in which
language he attained great proficiency.
In 1848 Dr. Gunn married Jane Augusta Terry, the only daughter of J.
M. Terry, M. D. In 1853 he removed to Detroit, continuing his duties
at Ann Arbor, however, and in 1856 received the degree of M. A. from
Geneva College, and in 1877 that of LL. D., from the University of
Chicago.
On September 1, 1861, Dr. Gunn
entered the army, that he might gain a practical knowledge of
military surgery, and was with General McClellan's army in the
Peninsula campaign of 1862, wherein he rendered efficient medical
service.
MAY 5,
1862.--Battle of Williamsburg, Va.
No. 34. -- Report of Col. Henry D. Terry, Fifth Michigan Infantry.
"Our wounded have been well cared for and sent to the general
hospital, for which I am indebted to the skill, care, and attention
of the surgeon, Dr. Moses
Gunn, the assistant
surgeon, Dr. Everett, and the hospital steward, Dr. Adams."
In the spring of 1867 he resigned
his position in the Medical Department of the University of
Michigan, and moved to Chicago to accept a position in the Faculty
of Rush Medical College, as successor to Dr. Brainard, whose death
left vacant the Professorship of Surgery, from which time he became
identified with the elite of the profession. In appearance Dr. Gunn
was distinguished and military; his speech was quick, decisive and
always germane to the subject,- and herein lay his secret as a
successful professor of Surgery. His lectures were invariably lucid
expositions of the subject, while with the scalpel he illustrated
his disquisitions. His touch was velvet, his nerves steel ; and,
being gifted with a profound memory, exquisite perception and
attention to minutia, it is no marvel that he was a skillful and
successful surgeon, and a teacher of high reputation. After a
protracted illness, he died at his home, surrounded by his family,
on the 4th day of November, 1887.
Dr. N. S. Davis, Sr., pays him the following tribute: "Dr. Gunn
gained a deservedly high reputation, both as a teacher and
practitioner of surgery. Ho was an active supporter of medical
society organizations and a moderate contributor to medical
literature. Personally he presented an admirable physical
development, was affable and kind, dignified and honorable, and
enjoyed a just popularity until his death, in 1887."
The Faculty of the Department of
Medicine and Surgery, of the University of Michigan, have heard with
profound sorrow and regret of the death, on the 4th instant, of
Professor Moses Gunn, M. D., LL. D.,
of the Rush Medical College, of Chicago. And they cannot neglect the
regretful duty which this sad event imposes upon them of paying a
tribute of respect and honor to his memory, and placing on record a
recognition of his former services in connection with this college.
To Dr. Gunn is due in a large
degree the credit of the original organization and conduct of this
school. From his studeut observations he realized fully the superior
advantages that accrue to a medical college of high grade; these
advantages, in a measure, consisting of libraries, museums, and
collections of apparatus and materials to aid in the study and
teaching of physics and other subjects auxiliary to medicine. And
when he learned that Michigan, which had just thrown off her
territorial organization and had been admitted into the union
Hs a State, had
provided, in the constitution submitted to the popular vote for
ratification, for the establishment of a State University which
should contain, among others, a college of medicine and surgery, he
recognized, on the instant, that here was an opportunity for the
organization of a medical college on broad and firm foundations.
He felt also, in view of the
rapidly increasing population of the Northwest and its boundless
possibilities for development in everything which contributes to or
constitutes an educated and civilized State, that if such a school
were properly organized and discreetly managed it was certain to
become an assured success. Under this conviction, which was not a
sudden impulse of the moment or the dreamy speculation of a
visionary enthusiast, but was the logical outcome of previous and
well- matured thought, he acted immediately, aud, although he had
graduated an M. D. only six months previously and was without
acquaintance or influence in the new State, he determined, with a
courage almost audacious, to go to Ann Arbor where the young
university had been located, and if by any possibility he could
accomplish it, to take a part in the founding of the required
college.
Like a prudent general in
entering on a siege, he began his approaches from a respectful
distance, and his first move was to announce a public course of
lectures on anatomy, especially in its applications to surgery. The
lectures were to be illustrated by dissections and demonstrations
upon the human body, for he had very wisely brought with him from
the east material for this very purpose. To these lectures he
invited physicians in the near vicinity, officers of the already
established Literary Department of the University, advanced
students, and any others who might be interested in the subject.
While engaged in this work, which proved very successful, he busied
himself also in the matter of the required medical school of the
University, and on appropriate occasions urged its establishment and
made suggestions as to its organization and control. It soon became
evident that he understood the whole question and was himself ably
qualified to take part in it. His name was frequently suggested in
connection with it, and although it met with a formidable opposition
on the ground that he was a
stranger and unknown in the State, his fitness for the place had
been so abundantly shown that he was appointed by the Regents as a
member of the first faculty. This was the realization of his
cherished desire and purpose and the great opportunity of his life,
and now, with an energy and determination akin to the courage he had
previously manifested, he devoted his entire time and attention to
the task before him, and soon he became a power among his associates
and was influential in shaping the policy and management of the
school. As it steadily grew in size and importance additional
teachers were required, and with keen discrimination he called to
the aid of himself and his original colleagues lieutenants who were
thoroughly qualified for the special work assigned them. Under these
associated leaders and their successors, the college maintained a
steady growth, and Dr. Gun had the happy satisfaction and the rare
good fortune of seeing the little institution which he had so
largely guided and sustained in its infancy develop into one of the
largest, most influential and successful medical colleges of the
country.
From the
Med. and Surg. History database:
______________________
Moses Gunn was elected dean
for the 1858-1859 academic year. Gunn was born in New York in 1822,
and in 1844 he attended the Geneva Medical College in New York.
There he was mentored by Professor of Anatomy Corydon L. Ford, who
eventually succeeded him as dean at Michigan. Ford remained at
Geneva to teach, but the ambitious young Gunn left for Ann Arbor
after graduating in 1846. Just prior to his departure, Geneva
College received a cadaver, an unclaimed body from the Auburn State
Prison. Since it arrived too late to be used in class, the body was
given to Gunn for teaching purposes. He brought the cadaver with him
to Ann Arbor and performed a dissection in front of guests. This was
the first such demonstration in Ann Arbor, and possibly all of
Michigan. His series of lectures were so well attended and
successful that in the fall of 1846 Gunn taught anatomy at a private
medical school in Ann Arbor. Gunn and Silas Douglas started the
school while waiting for a Medical Department to be created at the
University of Michigan.
After the regents made their decision to
found the Medical Department, Gunn was appointed as the third
faculty member at the University of Michigan. At Pitcher’s
recommendation, he was made professor of anatomy and surgery in 1849
at age 27. Gunn’s research at Michigan included an investigation of
which particular tissues cause hip and shoulder joint dislocations.
He worked on a method of guiding these dislocated parts back into
position by gently directing the bone back through its course of
escape from the socket. Gunn’s results were published in the
Peninsular Medical Journal.
Though Gunn initiated a tradition of
excellent anatomy instruction at Michigan, he was also interested in
surgery. A capable, determined man, Gunn became professor of surgery
in 1854, holding the title until 1867, when it was taken over by his
long time friend and colleague Corydon Ford. Gunn served as a
surgeon for 11 months in the Civil War, seeing active duty during
General McClellan’s peninsular campaign. Gunn resigned from the
University in 1867 after the sudden death of his son by drowning,
and moved to Chicago with his family. There he became chair of
surgery at Rush Medical College until he died in 1887. C.B.G. de
Nancrede wrote of Dr. Gunn that:
Altogether he presented an
impressive figure of a man of physical and mental power, of one
who must investigate everything presented to his senses, who
quickly observed, classified his impressions, deciding upon the
respective merits and proper relation even of passing events, a
man of an alert and enthusiastic temperament, ready and eager to
digest new ideas, yet one whose judgment restrained his zeal
within due bounds… A man thus opulently endowed by nature and
trained by a life of continuous effort to excel, could not fail
to command at the very outset the attention and confidence of
any audience, and to exert an actively compelling influence over
them. [Nancrede, C.B.G. de. “Moses Gunn, A.M., M.D., LL.D.”
Michigan Alumnus 12 (1905-06): 364-374].
Gunn’s friendship with
Corydon L. Ford proved to be an
asset for the University. Like Gunn, Ford earned such respect and
distinction in the Department that he was elected dean in 1861, and
returned to the post from 1879-1880 and 1887-1891. Ford earned his
M.D. from the Geneva Medical College in 1842, where he then taught
anatomy from 1842-1848. He came from a family of farmers, but
paralysis of one leg as a child made it impossible for him to pursue
this vocation. He used a cane the rest of his life, and had he not
been dealt this setback, he most likely would have followed his
family’s line of work in farming. This would have, as Alonzo Palmer
wrote in 1886, deprived “the profession of medicine and the science
of anatomy in this country of what many have reason to believe its
most successful teacher.” Ford began teaching at the age of 17, and
in 1834 he started studying medicine in the office of Dr. A.B. Brown
of Niagara County, New York. It has been said that Ford’s disability
and illness caused him to view the darker side of life, but he was
nonetheless compassionate, approachable, and kind.
Ford was greatly respected and admired by
his students and colleagues. By the time he was appointed to the
chair of anatomy at the University of Michigan in 1854, he was known
as an excellent teacher at several institutions. He was described as
“an eloquent teacher, able to infuse life within dry bones.”
Considered a great lecturer and demonstrator, he was one of the
students’ favorite teachers. He had a high skill in dissecting, an
ability to make a clear and concise presentation of the material,
and an enthusiastic demeanor. Dr. William Mayo, a Michigan alumnus
and student of Dr. Ford, said
By his forceful personality and his intense
love of his subject he made the too often dull study of general
anatomy as interesting as a novel. Contrary to custom, Ford
preferred to make his own dissections while he talked, and he did
them beautifully and rapidly. When he had finished one he would
swivel the table around toward the class with a flourish, pointing
upward with his cane to emphasize his words, “Now gentlemen, forget
that—if you can.” (Clapsattle, Helen: “The Doctors Mayo,”
Atlantic Monthly 68:645-47, 1941)
Aside from teaching, Ford wrote several
significant works including “Questions on Anatomy, Histology, and
Physiology, for the Use of Students” (last ed. Ann Arbor, 1878),
“Syllabus of Lectures on Odontology, Human and Comparative (1884),
and “Questions on the Structure and Development of the Human Teeth”
(1885). Dr. Ford was given a LL.D. from Michigan in 1881. After
giving his last lecture in 1894, he turned wearily to an assistant
and said, “My work is done.” He collapsed on his way home, and died
the next morning.
