Treatment of singultus by sexual stimulation: Who was George T Dexter,MD (c1812-?)?

Abstract

This short report attempts to shed light on the interesting but controversial personality of George T Dexter (ca1812 -?), the physician who first described manipulation of the female genitalia in a hysterical impressionable girl as being associated with the termination of singultus. Although his interaction with the young female patient would not meet today's ethical standards, his medical observation was valid and contributes to our understanding of the pathophysiology of singultus. He was well ahead of his colleagues who presented hiccup therapy case reports with similar or related pathophysiology mechanisms some 150 years later.

Keywords

Singultus hiccup genitalia orgasm Dexter George T

Introduction

About a decade ago, a case report was published in the Canadian Family Physician describing sexual intercourse and orgasm as a possible method for termination of obstinate hiccup (singultus); a male hiccup sufferer experienced complete and sudden cessation of hiccup at the moment of ejaculation.¹ The authors stated `No reports in the medical literature over the past 23 years show that sexual intercourse or ejaculation can terminate intractable hiccups' and ‘It is unclear whether orgasm in women leads to a similar resolution …’ Thanks to Google Books, we now know that one had to go much farther back in time (to 1845) to find the first (and only) previous report on the topic and also learn that the therapeutic approach works across the gender divide.² The method is (perhaps surprisingly) not French but American in origin. This short report attempts to shed light on the interesting but controversial personality of George T Dexter, the physician who first described manipulation of the female genitalia in a hysterical impressionable girl as being associated with the termination of singultus. The title of Dr Dexter's contribution (Singular cause of hiccough caused by masturbation) to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal allows the author to take the moral high ground implying that hiccup in the young girl was caused by masturbation (which she freely admitted to practise repeatedly on a daily basis). Reading the contribution reveals, however, that prolonged manual pressure (by the physician) on the clitoris relieved her hiccupping. The phenomenon was consistently reproducible over some months, as Dr Dexter demonstrated to his interested colleagues.

Parents and sibling

The Dexter families are numerous in New England and many of them represent branches that converge on Reverend Gregory Dexter from Olney, England, who settled in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1644. Our Dr Dexter is his direct descendent [Gregory → John → James → James → James → James → George]. The last James, George’s father, was born in Grafton, rural Massachusetts. While his parents and grandparents farmed the land, James was more interested in trade. Soon after marrying his first cousin Reconcile Thurston,³ James moved to Boston. His early business partner there was his brother-in-law, Benjamin Thurston (b. 8 May 1789), with whom he operated a retail variety store at 23 Union Street. The partnership dissolved in 1815 and James moved on from retail to wholesale. The 1823 Boston Directory lists him as a ‘provision dealer’ at 39 Prince Street. His subsequent association with Benjamin Smith⁴ was quite successful and the two ‘wharfinger’ traded wood and coal along the Maine coast. The degree of financial success can be estimated by the fact that Dexter lived in his own house in Lynn, Massachusetts, and even participated in some real estate and construction speculation (Garden Court Street).

James and Reconcile had three children: Bela (1805–1 October 1854), Susanna (1807–19 August 1826), and George (who used the middle initial T, from his mother’s maiden name, throughout his life).

George T was most likely born in either 1812 or December 1811 since the November 1850 US Census gives his age as 48.

Education

George entered the prestigious Boston Public Latin School⁵ in 1823. Pupils had to be at least nine years of age to be admitted but could be older. A better documented but unrelated Theodore George Dexter⁶ entered the same school at age 11.⁷ How long our Dexter attended the Latin School is unclear as the records indicate only the year when pupils were admitted without repeating the individual names during subsequent years. George T did not graduate from the Latin School, however, as a later catalogue containing only the names of graduates does not mention his name.⁸

Medical school

George T Dexter graduated in 1832 from the Berkshire Medical Institution, an allopathic college established in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1822 as a rural alternative to Harvard. The students were charged around $140, all inclusive for an entire school year. To be awarded the degree the students had to attend courses for two years, pass a comprehensive examination and write a dissertation. The College existed for 44 years during which it graduated 1138 medical doctors (Figure 1).^9,10

Figure 1.

George T Dexter graduated in 1832 from the Berkshire Medical Institution, an allopathic college established in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1822 as a rural alternative to Harvard. Illustration: Catalogue of the Trustees, Overseers, Faculty, and Students, of the Berkshire Medical Institution, for the Year 1859, and of the Alumni and Honorary Graduates since Its Incorporation in 1823. Pittsfield, Massachusetts, October, 1859. Pittsfield, Massachusetts: Henry Chickering, Printer, 1859 [Courtesy of the Librarian, American Antiquarian Society].

After graduating from Berkshire, George Thurston Dexter gained further clinical experience as a medical student under the supervision of Dr Randall.¹¹ He is listed in the ‘Catalog of the officers and students of the Harvard University for the Academical Year 1832–3’. However he is not listed in the ‘Harvard University Quinquennial Catalogue of the officers and graduates 1636–1930.’^12,13

Spouse and children

On 3 May 1834 Dexter and Margaretta R Moores, born March 1813, in Maine were married in Boston. She died on 24 September 1856 in Newburgh, New York, some 60 miles from New York City. Possibly she was separated from her husband. As stated in the New York Herald Tribune next day, she died of consumption at age 43 years and six months and her remains were to be taken to Lancaster, New Hampshire, for interment. One can only speculate about the choice of Lancaster: one possibility is that Sarah Ann Moore, the third wife of Dr Stickney of Lancaster, with whom George T worked for some years, may have been a relative.

Of four children born to the couple, the first three reached adulthood.

George T Jr (1835–28 February 1862)was involved in the spiritualist and business activities of the family. He moved to California, probably in the mid-1850s, possibly to join his uncle Bela. He is buried in San Francisco at the Lone Mountain Cemetery on the lot of HKW Clarke.¹⁴

Very little is known about the two Dexter girls, Sarah E (born in 1837 or 1838 in Massachusetts) and Frances (born in 1842 or 1843 in New Hampshire), except that they acted as spiritualist media on behalf of their father.

General practice

In 1838 George joined the practice of Dr Stickney¹⁵ in Lancaster, New Hampshire, working initially as a dentist (Figure 2). In those days there were no dedicated Dental Medical Schools so the designation General Practitioner was to be taken literally. He is also listed as a Surgeon Mate with the 24th Field Regiment and then as a Surgeon with the 42nd Regiment (the 24th Field Regiment was renamed the 42nd Regiment in 1840). He stayed with Dr Stickney until 1843. It was during this time that he treated the hiccupping young lady described in the case report mentioned above and he also contributed to two other publications.^16,17

Figure 2.

Ad from the White Mountain Aegis of 23 October 1838.

Water-cure doctor

After his period with Dr Stickney, George T travelled to Europe and was exposed to the ideas of Vincent Priessnitz (4 October 1799–28 November 1851), the ‘Father of Hydropathy’ whose ideas strongly influenced his professional and business activities during the next decade. How long he stayed in Europe and whether he actually made the pilgrimage to the ‘Water University’ at Graefenburg to study the Priessnitz cure at its source, as he later implied (Figure 3), or relied on the numerous English speaking adepts for his information, we do not know. Certainly there was no scarcity of information on the topic as hundreds of doctors went to Graefenburg in the early 1840s, some of them for a day or two as Dr Joseph Weiss¹⁸ sarcastically observes.^19,20

Figure 3.

Notice from the Southern Patriot (7 March 1846) praising the Hydropathic Institution at Morristown under the supervision of Geo T Dexter, MD. ‘This gentleman has lately returned from Europe, bringing with him, the plans and improvements of PRIESSNITZ himself … .’

On 30 August 1845, as announced in the New York Herald, George returned from Liverpool on the packet ship Oxford (Black Ball Line; trans-Atlantic packet shipping company). Back in the United States, Dexter became involved in business ventures related to water therapy.

New York, New York

In the 26 March 1845 issue of The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal a note headed ‘Medical intelligence’ announced the operation of an Orthopedic Institution in New York by Drs. Dexter and Brewster.²¹ The location was at the corner of Broadway and Fourteenth Street: ‘An airy, spacious edifice is now exclusively under their control, in which from 60 to 90 patients are conveniently accommodated’. The extent of Dexter’s true involvement is unclear, considering he returned from Europe only at the end of August in that year.

Morristown, New Jersey (November 1845 to November 1847)

Dexter establishes the Morristown Hydropathic Institution. During this period he starts The Fountain or Hydropathic Journal, a journal dedicated to the promotion of water therapy; only two issues (January and February 1846) are published however (Figure 4). In the first issue, his Institution is presented. Dexter writes

Our terms are twelve dollars per week, including everything except washing. Patients are required to bring with them one large coarse woolen blanket, one linen sheet, and half dozen towels. Letters directed to us, will receive immediate notice, and inquiries can also be made at 121 Water-street, New York, and at No 4, Court-street, Boston.

Figure 4.

During his Morristown period, Dexter published two issues of a journal titled The Fountain or Hydropathic Journal. The subscription was one dollar, paid annually in advance.

No. 4 Court Street in Boston was a three-story building near the County Courthouse; the vast majority of its tenants were lawyers. The exact type of presence Dr Dexter was maintaining at the location is unclear and the same applies to his Water Street address in New York.

In 1847 his New York presence became more tangible: a joint operation with Dr Russell Thatcher Trall²² was run at 18 Fourteenth Street where ‘80 to 100 patients could be cared for in 60 rooms’. This is probably the same location where the Orthopedic Institution with Dr Brewster had been located.

Parkville, New Jersey (May 1849 to May 1850)

The next station in Dexter’s water-cure related career was Parkville, New Jersey, where he oversaw the short-lived Parkville Hydropathic Institute. The name Parkville (Parkeville) was derived from James P Parke,²³ an investor in the Institute. Among the investors (mostly from Philadelphia) David Paul Brown²⁴ is the most renowned. The investment was lost.

Northampton, Massachusetts

The final water-cure stage took place in Northampton, Massachusetts, where George was involved briefly with the Round Hill Water Cure & Hydropathic Institute. One of his predecessors there was CA Hall, possibly one of the sons of Dr Charles Hall²⁵ from Burlington, Vermont, with whom Dexter had previously published the paper on Erysipelatous Fever.¹⁶ The 1850–1851 Massachusetts State Directory lists George T Dexter as a physician in Northampton.

The exact sequence of events is difficult to reconstruct since the activities often overlapped and the existence of many of the water cures was only fleeting. The best available description of the ‘Great American Water Cure Craze’ and a profile of the leading personalities involved (including Trall²² and Shew²⁶) are provided by Weiss and Kemble²⁷ in their 1967 book and by Susan E Cayleff²⁸ in her 1987 book Wash and Be Healed: The Water-Cure Movement and Women’s Health.

As a successful ‘water doctor’ Dexter had access to upper-class antebellum America: among his most prominent and best documented patients was Sarah Bella Ludlow (1816–13 January 1852), the third wife of Chief Justice Salmon Portland Chase (13 January 1808–7 May 1873). Bella suffered from tuberculosis and sought treatment at Parkville and Northampton.

The Jackson²⁹–Morton³⁰ Ether Controversy

Jackson was engaged in the early 1840s in a geological survey of New Hampshire. During that time he met Dr Dexter who was practising in Lancaster. Jackson³¹ mentioned the encounter in his geological report. According to Dexter, the two discussed the analgesic properties of ether; Jackson also apparently advised Dexter on using ether in the treatment of General Ira Young,³² a prominent local patient suffering from a diseased spine. When the Jackson–Morton Ether Controversy erupted, Dr Dexter testified in favour of Jackson in an 1851 letter.³³

Dexter and American spiritualism

The 1850 US Census lists George T Dexter and his family in Bushwick (Brooklyn), Kings County, New York, with the occupation of physician. Around that time Dr Dexter developed an interest in spirituality which began to absorb much of his time and energy. He became friends with Judge John W Edmonds³⁴ (Figure 5), another leading figure of the American spiritualist movement. Dexter and his daughters Sarah and Frances functioned mainly as mediums at séances in Edmonds’ house. Dexter’s wife Margaretta apparently was opposed to these activities and often ‘begged off from séances on the plea of ill health and sought to restrain rather than develop the incipient medium-powers of her nine-year-old daughter’.³⁵

Figure 5.

From Edmonds J Wand and Dexter GT (1855), spiritualism. Vol. II, 542 pp., Partridge and Brittan.

Dr Dexter and the Judge^36,37 jointly authored a two-volume opus titled Spiritualism in which they described and interpreted their ‘communications’ with various spirits from the past. Nathaniel Tallmadge,³⁸ ex-Governor of Wisconsin, wrote an Appendix to the work which was published by Partridge³⁹ and Brittan⁴⁰ in New York. The work was not universally well received and one critic even described it as ‘several hundred pages of such solemn non-sense and pretentious trash’.⁴¹

In 1854 Dexter became one of the 13 Vice Presidents of the Society for the Diffusion of Spiritual Knowledge (SDSK) whose President was Governor Tallmadge. In addition Dexter co-edited, with Judge Edmonds and the architect Warren⁴² The Sacred Circle, a spiritualist paper the first issue of which appeared in 1855.

The group around Judge Edmonds and Dr Dexter did not make only friends. Dr Hatch^43,44 in 1859 published a vitriolic attack on the group which he blamed for the estrangement of his wife Cora, a beautiful women 30 years his junior and the most renowned medium of the time. The main thrust of the accusations Hatch levied against the group was that they practised not only spiritual intercourse with the ghosts but also the more carnal variety with credulous women attending séances. Under the title The Social and Moral Bearing of Mediumship Hatch wrote

Dr Geo T Dexter, the well-known associate of Edmonds, in the publishing of his works on Spiritualism, and through whom much of the matter was given, and whom I once well knew as a highly respectable physician, in Lancaster, NH; separated from his wife and family; suddenly left the city for parts unknown, in consequence of having been accused of a crime which I forebear to mention. (p.14)

Later in the same text (p.19) he wrote ‘The members of this society [Society for the Diffusion of Spiritual Knowledge] have nearly all gone the road of destruction. One fled the country to escape imprisonment’. He was probably alluding to Dexter. After the late 1850s there is no mention of Dr Geo(rge) T Dexter in the media for quite some time; while this might be coincidental, it also could be indirect confirmation of Hatch’s allegation that Dexter ‘left the city for parts unknown’ or ‘fled the country’. Public domain material about Dr Dexter mentions 1863 as his date of death; however, this is due to confusion with a George Thomas Dexter (1819–1863),⁴⁵ also a descendent from Reverend Gregory Dexter [Gregory → John → James → John → Nathaniel Balch → Waterman Thomas → George Thomas].

The only late reference to Dr George T Dexter is a firework of advertisements for ‘Tarrant’s Effervescent Seltzer Aperient’ appearing throughout 1864 in the Lowell Daily Citizen and News, the Saturday Evening Gazette, the Vermont Phoenix, the Daily National Intelligencer and the Springfield Republican. In those ads the doctor stated ‘In Flatulency, Heartburn, Costiveness, Sick Headache etc., the Seltzer Aperient in my hands has proved indeed a valuable remedy’ (Figure 6). Can this be construed as proof of Dexter being alive? Clearly no. The relationship between Dexter and James Tarrant,⁴⁶ a successful New York druggist, was a long one; already in 1848 Dexter was praising Tarrant’s Seltzer in the ‘Medical Intelligence’ section of The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. Two other ‘famous people’ who praised the effervescent aperient in those 1864 ads were already deceased when their views on Tarrant’s medicine were published: Dr James R Chilton (9 November 1808–25 July 1863) ‘graduated from medical college in the thirties and practised medicine in New York for several years, notably during the first cholera epidemic of 1833, but he soon abandoned the profession of physician, devoting himself exclusively to industrial chemistry and toxicological tests in poisoning cases’ (note written by his son accompanying a portrait of the physician-chemist), Dr Thomas Boyd (19 April 1772–18 March 1856) was at the time of his death the oldest practitioner in New York City. The only one who was certainly alive at the time the ad was published was Dr Edward G Ludlow (1793–1877), a successful New York physician.

Figure 6.

Some 40 advertisements for ‘Tarrant’s Effervescent Seltzer Aperient’ appear in the Lowell Daily Citizen and News, the Saturday Evening Gazette, the Vermont Phoenix and the Springfield Republican throughout 1864. In those ads Dr Dexter states ‘In Flatulency, Heartburn, Costiveness, Sick Headache etc., the Seltzer Aperient in my hands has proved indeed a valuable remedy.’

Conclusion

Dexter was an ambitious and intelligent man of modest origins. Practising medicine in a rural setting initially provided him the social status he desired; however, the material rewards were too slow in arriving. Bradley and Dupree⁴⁷ state

hydropathy and hydropathic establishments, like specialists hospitals, asylums, and spa practice, provided an alternative niche to general practice in the crowded British medical market and a way to “fame and fortune” for medical men outside the metropolitan élite.

This was certainly also true for the American market and the desire for fame and fortune was likely the driving force for Dexter embracing the water cure. Although he was an early convert to hydropathy, his contribution was largely limited to expanding the business rather than enriching the scientific foundation of this therapeutic approach.

His association with Judge Edmonds was also profitable for Dexter, probably much more so than the practice of medicine: he gained access to the political elite of New York City and beyond. Judge Edmonds was probably – for what that is worth – more genuine in his spiritualist beliefs than the doctor.

Despite our best efforts, the end of Dexter’s life remains shrouded in mystery: for a public figure of such prominence to disappear without a trace would have required some degree of active obfuscation, which lends some credibility to Hatch’s innuendo.

George T Dexter’s life and career were a typical example of an ambition-driven search for shortcuts on the way to power, affluence and social standing. In medicine he was the first to serendipitously establish a connection between sexual stimulation and cessation of hiccups.

Footnotes

Author biography

Georg Petroianu grew up Romania. After the Baccalaureate (Sf. Sava National College) he moved to Germany where he studied Medicine at the University of Heidelberg at Mannheim [MD and PhD (1985)]. He has worked in Anesthesiology and Emergency Medicine and has board certifications in Pharmacology and Toxicology (Facharzt, Germany) and Clinical Pharmacology (US). He remained on the Faculty at University of Heidelberg at Mannheim and rose through the ranks (Habillitation, 1996; apl. Professor) until 2002, when he became Chair of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain, UAE. In 2009 he was recruited as Founding Chair of the Cellular Biology & Pharmacology Department at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (Florida International University) in Miami, Florida. Dr Petroianu has written more than 150 peer-reviewed research papers and several books. For his contribution to Pharmacology, Dr Petroianu was awarded the Issekutz Medal of the Hungarian Society of Pharmacology and Toxicology (2005) and received an Honorary Doctoral Degree from the Semmelweis University in Budapest (2009).

References

Peleg

. Sexual intercourse as potential treatment for intractable hiccup. Canadian Family Physician 2000; 46: 1631–1632.

Dexter

. Singular cause of hiccough caused by masturbation. The Boston Medical & Surgical Journal 1845; 32: 195–197.

Reconcile Thurston (3 April 1779–1 August 1837), George's mother, was the daughter of Levi Thurston and Priscilla Wheeler. James Dexter (15 January 1775–13 January 1842), George's father, was the son of James Dexter and Rebeckah Wheeler. Priscilla and Rebeckah were sisters (daughters of Ebenezer Wheeler and Priscilla Hayward of Grafton).

Benjamin Smith (1793–31 October 1874) was at one time Tax Collector for the Port of Boston. He is the father of Benjamin Greene Smith (1 October 1816–1899) and of Franklin Webster Smith (9 October1826–1911). Benjamin Greene was an enthusiastic horticulturist. The more flamboyant Franklin, co-founder of the American YMCA, is probably best remembered for the extravagant Villa Zorayda he built in St Augustine, Florida, a miniature version of the 12th-century Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.

Boston Public Latin School, established 1635 in Boston, Massachusetts, is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States. The school's motto is sumus primi (we are first).

Theodore Dexter, MD (1791–7 September 1849) was a prominent (unrelated) Boston physician (Yale graduate, general practitioner). Theodore had a son Theodore George (born in 1818) and three daughters. Theodore George was disinherited by his father in 1841; he had married Susan A Clapp earlier that year. The couple had two daughters, Sarah M (1842) and Helen (1844).

Jenks

. Catalogue of the Boston Public Latin School, Boston: Public Latin School Association, 1886.

Catalogue of graduates of the Public Latin School in Boston, 1816–1917. Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Latin School Association, 1918.

Berkshire Medical Institution Catalogue of the Trustees, Overseers, Faculty and Students, of the Berkshire Medical Institution, for the Year 1959, and of the Alumni and Honorary Graduates since Its Incorporation in 1823. Pittsfield, Mass., October, 1859. Pittsfield, Mass.: Henry Chickering, Printer. 1859.

10.

Smith

JEA

. The History of Pittsfield, Springfield: CW Bryan & Co, 1876, pp. 352–376.

11.

John Randall, MD (1774–1843) was an 1811 Harvard Medical School graduate and distinguished Boston dentist.

12.

Harvard University. Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates 1636–1930, Cambridge: The University, 1930.

13.

Harvard University. Catalog of the officers and students of the Harvard University for the academical year 1832–3, Cambridge: Brown, Shattuck & Co, 1932.

14.

Henry Kirk. White Clarke was a prominent California lawyer. His wife, Sarah A Moore Clarke (1820/1–1880), was one of the first women in the western United States to be editor of a journal. She was also interested in spiritualism.

15.

Dr Jacob Evans Stickney (5 April 1797–1869) was the son of Major John Stickney and Mary Evans. One of 12 children (three boys), he studied medicine and graduated from Bowdoin College. He came to Lancaster in 1823, married his first wife, Martha B Goss (1804–1840), in 1827, and continued to practise medicine until nearly the time of his death. At one time he was President of the White Mountain Medical Association which was chartered in 1820.

16.

Hall

Dexter

. Account of the erysipelatous fever as it appeared in northern section of Vermont and New Hampshire, in the years 1842–1843. American Journal of the Medical Sciences 1844; XIII: 13–27.

17.

Anonymous Brass Pin in a Tumor. The Boston Medical & Surgical Journal 1844; 31–32: 223–224.

18.

Dr Joseph Weiss (5 July 1795–30 March 1847) studied veterinary medicine in Vienna, Austria, and practised medicine in Freiwaldau, close to Graefenburg. Later (1836) he founded a water-establishment [Kaltwasserheilanstalt] in the same city, competing with Priessnitz. In 1842 he was invited to Britain where he operated hydropathic institutions, first at Standsteadbury (Herfordshire) and then at Sudbrook Park in Surrey. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Glasgow and was a member of the London Hydropathic Society, founded 17 March 1842. His book titled The Hand Book of Hydropathy; for professional and private use contains an Appendix on ‘the Best Mode of Forming Hydropathic Establishments.’ ^19,20.

19.

Weiss

. The Hand Book of Hydropathy; for professional and private use, Philadelphia: JW Moore, 1849.

20.

Rohde

. Dr Joseph Weiss (1795–1847): Ein in Vergessenheit geratener Begruender der wissenschaftlichen Hydrotherapie. Erfahrungsheilkunde 2011; 60: 146–151.

21.

Dr Brewster was initially a partner of Dr Alanson Abbe (17 June 1795–April 1864), a much more renowned physician and Yale graduate specialized in the treatment of skeletal deformities. Abbe practised first in Litchfield, Connecticut, and later founded the American Orthopedic Institute in Boston, as reported 1848 in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. An orthopaedic corset devised by Brewster is very similar to the Abbe corset. Otherwise little information seems to be available on Dr Brewster.

22.

Dr Russell Thatcher Trall (5 August 1812–23 September 1877) was a pioneer of hydrotherapy in the United States. He founded the New York Hygieo-Therapeutic College and published several books on the subject. Best known is his ‘Hydropathic Encyclopedia’.

23.

James P Parke (1783–?) was the son of Rachel Pemberton and Dr Thomas Parke (1749–1835), a prominent physician and President of the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. James was a successful publisher.

24.

David Paul Brown (1795–1872) was a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, orator, poet and abolitionist.

25.

Dr Charles Hall (? 1776–1847) was a Dartmouth graduate who practised medicine for some 30 years at various locations in Vermont. Two of his sons also became doctors: Charles Henry (1820–) and George M (1825–1874).

26.

Joel Shew (13 November 1816–6 October 1855) was a pioneer of hydrotherapy in the United States. He published books on the subject. Best known is his ‘Hydropathy or The Water-Cure’ (1844).

27.

Weiss

Kemble

. The great American water cure craze, Trenton, New Jersey: The Past Times Press, 1967.

28.

Cayleff

. Wash and be healed: the water-cure movement and women's health, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987.

29.

Dr Charles T Jackson (21 June 1805–28 August 1880), one of Morton's teachers, was apparently aware of the anaesthetic properties of ether; however, he made little effort to establish ether as an anaesthetic.

30.

William Thomas Green Morton (9 August 1819–15 July 1868) is the most widely known among the ‘discoverers’ of anaesthesia. A controversial personality, he failed to graduate from medical school but contributed to the popularisation of painless surgery.

31.

Jackson

. Final report on the geology and mineralogy of the state of New Hampshire, Concord, New Hampshire: Carroll & Baker, State Printer, 1844.

32.

Major General Ira Young (1794–1845) was a lawyer and military man; he commanded New Hampshire (US) troops in the (bloodless) ‘Indian Stream War’. Subsequently, Indian Stream (1836) united with New Hampshire. About 1838 he retired to Lancaster, New Hampshire. His health began to fail and in 1845 he moved to the Island of Cuba in the hope that the warm weather would provide some relief. He died in Havana a few months later.

33.

Stanly

Evans

. Report to the House of Representatives of the United States of America vindicating the rights of Charles T Jackson to the discovery of the anesthetic effects of ether vapor and disproving the claims of WG Morton to that discovery, Boston; Printed by Rand, Avery, & Frye: Printed by Authority of the Minority of the Committee, 1852.

34.

Judge John W Edmonds (13 March 13–5 April 1874) served in the New York legislature. He was appointed to the New York State Supreme Court and became its Chief Justice. He resigned the position because of his involvement in the spiritualism movement.

35.

Hopkins

. The Spirits and the honourable John Worth Edmonds. Bulletin of the New York Public Library 1958; 68: 479–506.

36.

Edmonds

Dexter

. Spiritualism 1853; Vol I, New York: Partridge & Brittan, pp. 505–505.

37.

Edmonds

Dexter

. Spiritualism 1855; Vol II, New York: Partridge & Brittan, pp. 542–542.

38.

Governor Nathaniel Tallmadge (8 February 1795–2 November 1864) studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1818. He was a member of the New York State Senate and the United States Senate and later became Governor of the Wisconsin Territory.

39.

Charles Partridge (6 May 1812–24 June 1885) made a fortune as a match manufacturer. While originally a Universalist, he turned spiritualist. He launched the Spiritual Telegraph with Brittan and later became its sole editor.

40.

Dr Samuel Byron Brittan (1815–1883) was a Universalist minister who left the denomination because of his conversion to spiritualism. He was editor of the Spiritual Telegraph (with Partridge). In his later years he became a physician.

41.

Jackson

. An account of ‘Spiritualism’. The Zoist: A Journal of Cerebral Physiology & Mesmerism 1854; XII: 199–205.

42.

Owen Grenliffe Warren (1807–20 November 1877) was an architect, poet and inventor. He is best remembered for submitting a plan for the building of the Smithsonian Museum, established in Washington in 1846 (a different plan was chosen). In 1840, he published a book of poems entitled ‘Dream of the Highlands’. As a spiritualist, he was very close to Dr Dexter and Judge Edmonds, participating in the séances held in Edmonds' house. In 1852 he published a book entitled ‘Supernal theology and life in the Scriptures’.

43.

Dr Benjamin Franklin Hatch (c1805–1878) was (most likely) the grandson of Jeremiah Hatch (1722–1808) and the son of Noah Hatch (1775–1826) and Anne Brown (1776–1850). He stated he was a graduate of the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio; however, his name is not included in the list of graduates. Hatch practised initially in Boston; two sons of his sister Roxanne, Jared Waldo Daniels (1827–1904) and Asa Wilder Daniels (1829–1922) shadowed him in his practice. He published the Boston Domestic Journal of Medicine (1852–1853) and founded the Free Medical College in Boston where he was ‘Professor of Obstetrics, Diseases of Women and Children and Medical Jurisprudence’. In about 1854 he moved his practice to New York (712 Broadway) where he became an associate of Dr Harrington, a ‘most accurate clairvoyant’. His greatest claim to fame is his 1856 marriage to Cora LV Scott (May 1840–1923) who under his ‘management’ became one of the best-known mediums of American spiritualism. Their brief marriage was followed by a most messy divorce. He published a philosophical work entitled The Constitution of Man, Physically, Morally, and spiritually (1866). BF Hatch was remarried in 1867 to Estell(e) F Carr and the couple lived in New York.

44.

Hatch

. Spiritualists iniquities unmasked and the Hatch divorce case, New York: Published by the author, 1859, pp. 52–52.

45.

George Thomas Dexter (1819–1863) was born in Pawtucket, Massachusetts, or Providence, Rhode Island, and married Martha Salisbury (1820–1905) in 1844. This Dexter, a jeweller by trade, was the son of Waterman Thomas Dexter (1790–1870).

46.

James Tarrant (died 1852) was a successful New York druggist. He was succeeded by John A Tarrant.

47.

Bradley

Dupree

. Opportunity on the edge of orthodoxy: medically qualified hydropathists in the era of reform, 1840–60. Social History of Medicine 2001; 14: 417–437.

Treatment of singultus by sexual stimulation: Who was George T Dexter,MD (c1812-?)?

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Parents and sibling

Education

Medical school

Spouse and children

General practice

Water-cure doctor

New York, New York

Morristown, New Jersey (November 1845 to November 1847)

Parkville, New Jersey (May 1849 to May 1850)

Northampton, Massachusetts

The Jackson 29 –Morton 30 Ether Controversy

Dexter and American spiritualism

Conclusion

Footnotes

Author biography

References

The Jackson²⁹–Morton³⁰ Ether Controversy