Bemiss, Dr. Samuel M.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Dr. Samuel Merrifield Bemiss (deceased). Few perhaps none, save those who have trod the arduous paths of the profession can picture to themselves the array of attributes, physical, mental and moral, the host of minor graces of manner and person essential to the making of a truly great physician. His constitution needs must be of the hardiest to withstand the constant shock of wind and weather, the wearing loss of sleep and rest, the ever gathering load of care, the insidious approach of every form of fell disease to which his daily round of duties momentarily expose him. Free and broad should be his mind to seek in all departments of human knowledge some truth to guide his hand; keen and delicate the well-trained sense to draw from nature her most treasured secrets, and unlock the gates where ignorance and doubt have stood sentinel for ages. How fine his fibre who hears the querulous murmur of the sick man only to soothe the fretful brain with loving kindness, to meet impatience with cheerful patience, and bring back the troubled heart to peace by tender sympathy. Far more than all, how greatly clothed with moral strength must be the man who would involve himself in all the woful [sic] secrets of humanity, and cross the paths of slander and reproach with soul unspotted. With what great purpose must he move, when in the hour that pestilence and death brood everywhere he leaves his vantage and goes down, not to the historic plan where watchful eyes and martial pomp and fame's loud trumpet make danger glorious, but to the hidden lair in which the unseen foe lies crouched for mortal strife.

The above paragraph is but an attempt to sketch one greatly respected and beloved in New Orleans and who in his own person so closely approached the ideal. Dr. Samuel Merrifield Bemiss came of a sturdy stock His Welsh forefathers settled at Worthington, Mass., during the eighteenth century, and his grandfather, James Bemiss, was one of the early volunteers of the Revolutionary war. Severely wounded at the battle of Bennington, James Bemiss returned home, broken in health and well nigh bankrupt in fortune. Owing to these circumstances we find John, the third son, and the father of the subject of the present sketch, early thrown upon his own resources, and gaining by manual labor the means of obtaining that knowledge of which even at an early age be was greatly enamored. Pursuing his end with never-relaxed effort, with undaunted determination; scorning all pastimes, and devoting every spare moment to his beloved books, so soon as he was able he embraced the study of medicine, and in 1801 entered upon the practice of his profession. A few months later he removed to Kentucky and settled at Bloom field, Nelson county, then called Middleburg. In 1796 he had married Miss Elizabeth Bloomer, of New York, and after this union Dr. Bemiss, at the age of forty-four, withdrew from the profession, and took up the study of theology. About 1830 he was ordained a minister of the Presbyterian church, a position which he continued to fill with marked distinction until his death, of apoplexy, in 1851. Glancing over this outline of the remarkable father we catch many features of the distinguished son. The great capacity for work rendered possible the accumulation of large stores of knowledge; the sturdy independence, the frank, genial disposition, acquired, doubtless, by inheritance, precept, and example, are all his. Born October 15, 1821, at Bloomfield, Ky., a thinly settled country of hill and plain, forest and stream, with a cool and bracing climate, young Bemiss' early life was spent in the open air, in every variety of manly sport, thus laying the foundation of his magnificent physique, for, to the very last, his commanding hight[sic], his ample shoulders, and deep chest gave evidence of unabated vigor, and made him a notable presence in any assembly. Dr. Bemiss' early education was carefully conducted by his father and private tutors until the age of eighteen, when he determined to study medicine, entering for that purpose the office of his brother-in-law Dr. Samuel Merrifield, of Bloomfield. Here he remained until 1841, when he went to New York and became the first matriculate of the University of New York. Having returned to Bloomfield in the following year to continue his studies under his father and brother-in-law, we find him at the bedside of his first case in August, 1842. Thus his remarkably active life as a practitioner of medicine extended over more than forty years. In the fall of 1844 he went back to New York, where in the following spring he received his diploma, and degree Doctor of Medicine from the university. To this careful and protracted course of study and his own remarkable memory was probably due that exact and minute knowledge of the details of many branches forgotten by most students in three years after they have risen from the benches. Returning to Bloom field, Dr. Bemiss became at once associated in an active practice with Dr. Merrifield, his former preceptor. This connection lasted until 1850, when another was formed with Dr. Joshua Gore. This was a period of his life of which Dr. Bemiss often spoke with great pleasure. He was full of anecdote illustrative of the old-time life in Kentucky, and as he spoke, enlivening the story with many touches of hearty humor, men and manners rose clearly before the listener. It was during this time, probably, that he acquired his strong love of nature. The long, solitary rides over plain and mountain, by day and night, imbued the young man with a deep sense of the beautiful which lasted a lifetime. When we know him, in his latter years, he would, although a man of active habits, sit long watching the changing colors of the sunset, or the great, rolling, white clouds, which, as they drifted across the Italian blue of the summer sky, would take a thousand fantastic forms. How gladly, when a holiday broke in on his useful, busy life, would he leave behind the hot, dusty, ugly town, and with a few members of his family, taking boat, sail the bright waters of Lake Pontchartrain, or tread the broad, untraveled mazes of her tributary bayous. In 1853 the Doctor moved to Louisville, and joined practice with Dr. Benjamin Wible, a companionship only broken by the departure of the other for the confederate army in 1862. Meanwhile Dr. Bemiss had been appointed by the state registrar of Kentucky, in 1849; in 1858, professor of clinical medicine; then, in 1859, professor of hygiene and medical jurisprudence, and finally, in 1861, professor of therapeutics and materia medica in the University of Louisiana. In the latter year Kentucky had declared an armed neutrality, and many of her citizens were joining the ranks of either army. After some months of mature deliberation, Dr. Bemiss became convinced that his opinions and sympathies were with the southern cause, and at once offered his services to the confederacy. He became acting surgeon of the provisional army, at Tunnel Hill, Ga., where he saw his first hospital work. His value was soon recognized by the authorities, and in 1862 he received his commission as full surgeon, and was assigned to duty of the Medical Examining board, in session at Hamilton's Crossing, Va. It was during this period that Dr. Bemiss met and rendered some medical service to Gen. R. E. Lee, a circumstance which he was wont to allude to with pleasure. There is now in the possession of the family a letter in which that great general thanks the Doctor in warm terms for his attention and kindness. In April, 1863, he was ordered to take charge of the ,hospital at Cherokee Springs, Ga., where he remained until after the battle of Chickamauga, when he was transferred to Newman. December 1, 1863, he was appointed assistant medical director of the Army of Tennessee, and in 1864 medical director of hospitals in the rear of the Army of Tennessee. At the latter post he remained until Gen. Lee surrendered at Appomattox courthouse, April, 1865. Dr. Bemiss now returned to Louisville; was at once elected professor of physiology and pathology in the university, and entered upon a large and remunerative practice. In the spring of 1866, however, he accepted a call to the chair of theory and practice of medicine, and clinical medicine in the university of Louisiana. His departure from Louisville was made the occasion of a complimentary banquet, whereat the regrets with which the profession of Louisville resigned him to his new field was expressed in the warmest and most emphatic manner. Dr. Bemiss now sailed for Europe; where he spent the summer in traveling and in visiting the hospitals of Great Britain and France. In the fall he returned to New Orleans and entered upon his new position, the duties of which he continued to discharge without interruption, and with great satisfaction to his colleagues and students up to the day of his death. His style in lecturing was marked in simplicity and force; his delivery, slow and emphatic. He was careful in directing attention to the relations between symptoms and pathology, and he loved to point out the value of simple remedies, things within the reach of all, even in great emergencies. Having long been a contributor to various medical periodicals, and having been interested in medical journalism, Dr. Bemiss, in 1868, became senior editor of the "New Medical and Surgical Journal," a position which he held until 1883. He became the Nestor of medical journalism in the far south, and for many years the pen scarce quitted his fingers. He wrote fluently, his tenacious memory supplying him with citations from numberless authorities; for he never forgot the volume, and rarely the page that held the subject to which he wished to refer. Besides his many valuable contributions to the pages of this journal, and his writings embodied in the "Reports of the National Board of Health," the best known of his papers are: Essay of Croup, "Louisville Review," 1856, and "Report on the Influence of Marriage of Consanguinity upon Offspring," "Transactions of American Medical association," in 1858, a paper which won for its author great praise. Dr. Bemiss was a member of the American Medical association, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Louisville; of the Kentucky State Medical society; of the Boston Gynaecological society; of the State Medical Association of Louisiana. Dr. Bemiss died suddenly of apoplexy, on the 17th of November, 1884. Sound of brain and body; large of heart and free of hand; comforting the afflicted; laying not up treasures for himself, but giving freely, secretly, to all those he knew in sickness and in want, and he knew many, he thus went down to the grave, loved and lamented, leaving to his children the peerless legacy of an unspotted name.

From Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, volume 2, pp. 281-282.