Brainard, Daniel (1812–1866)
Daniel Brainard, Chicago surgeon, was born in the town of Western, Oneida Co., N. Y., May 15, 1812. He was the fifth child in a family of nine born to Jepthai Brainard, Jr., and Catharine Comstock Brainard. The ancestor of the Brainards in this country was also named Daniel Brainard, and was brought from England when eight years old to Hartford, Connecticut. About 1662 he became a proprietor and settled at Haddam. The name Daniel appears often among the descendants of the original bearer of the name. Several of the Brainards served in the Revolutionary war, and many of the line entered the professions of medicine, law and the ministry. The father of the subject of our sketch was a farmer in comfortable circumstances and of excellent character while his mother was a most exemplary refined woman.
Daniel Brainard was given a good common school and academic education, the latter probably in the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, N. Y. In 1829 he began his professional studies in Whitesboro under Dr. R. S. Sykes, but soon went to Rome, N. Y., where he entered the office of Dr. Harold H. Pope. He then attended a course of lectures at Fairfield Medical College and two courses at Jefferson Medical College, where he received his medical degree in 1834. After graduation he returned to Whitesboro where he remained nearly two years with his former preceptor, nominally in practice but mostly engaged in the study of the Latin and French languages and in professional teaching. He gave a course of lectures on anatomy and physiology in the Oneida Institute in the spring of 1835.
In the autumn of 1835 he came to Chicago. He at once took up the practice of his profession and in 1837 secured a charter for Rush Medical College, expecting to organize the faculty as soon as the opportune moment arrived. In 1839 he went to Paris, France, at that time the Mecca of American medical students, and remained until 1841. The profound influence of the time thus spent is shown in all his subsequent writings and activities.
In May, 1842, Dr. Brainard was appointed to the chair of anatomy in St. Louis University, where he delivered two courses of lectures.
In 1843 he organized Rush Medical College, Chicago, assuming the duties of professor of anatomy and surgery, and remained professor of surgery up to his death, being always the leading person in the faculty. In association with various of his colleagues he aided in editing the Northwestern Medical and Surgical Journal which later became the Chicago Medical Journal. He contributed a large number of surgical articles, mostly clinical, and also many editorials. In 1853 he again visited France, and while there read before the Academy of Science a paper upon experiments on the venom of rattlesnakes, and the means of neutralizing its absorption. Later he presented before the same society a paper upon iodin as an antidote for curare. Before returning home he read a paper before the Society of Surgery of Paris entitled "On the injection of iodin into tissues and cavities of the body for the cure of spina bifida, chronic hydrocephalus, oedema, fibrinous effusions, edematous erysipelas, etc." At this time he was made a corresponding member of the Société de Chirurgie of Paris. In 1854 he was president of the Illinois State Medical Society and this same year he was awarded a premium by the committee on prize essays of the American Medical Association. The essay was entitled "An Essay on a New Method of Treating Ununited Fractures and Certain Deformities of the Osseous System." The motto of the essay was in French of the Sixteenth Century from Ambrose Pare, which liberally rendered into modern English reads: "And notwithstanding all the pains I have heretofore taken, I have reason to praise God, in that it hath pleased Him to call me to that branch of medical practice, commonly called surgery, which can neither be bought by gold nor by silver, but by industry alone and long experience." The essay occupies forty-four pages of the Transactions, and is one of the classical medical articles of America. Dr. Brainard was a man of strong personality, a skilful surgeon, a splendid teacher and an able original investigator. His scientific work attracted world-wide attention, his influence has probably reached farther and been of more fundamental value than that of any other medical man of the West." His interests were very wide and reached all subjects of general and medical moment, taking a prominent part as he did in matters relating to the city and state and being active in medical society work.
A few hours after lecturing to the students in Rush Medical College upon cholera, he was smitten by the disease which was quickly fatal, October 9, 1866.
Four children were born to the Brainards, two of whom grew to maturity, Julia and Edwin.