Haines, Job (1791–1860).
Job Haines was born in New Jersey, October 28, 1791, and had his degree of A. B. from Princeton College. He attended lectures at the University of Pennsylvania with the class of 1815, but left before graduation.
Seeking a career in the far West he finally made choice of Dayton, Ohio, for a permanent home (January, 1817), where his culture and strong personality gained him early recognition. He was deeply religious, and while he never offensively obtruded his belief, it was no unusual thing for him to close a professional visit with a Bible reading or short prayer. In a day when the sturdy pioneers considered whiskey one of the staples of life in this ague-stricken region, Dr. Haines was the head and front of all anti-liquor leagues, and never lost an opportunity to preach the gospel of temperance.
The Dayton Public Library contains his diary for the years 1816 to 1820. It is valuable as an index to the medical practice of his time, but the daily routine of bleeding, catharsis blistering and sweating therein recorded is appalling to a twentieth century practitioner. In a case of meningitis, 120 grains of calomel were given in the twenty-four hours.
On the twenty-fifth day of the same illness the entry reads: "She continues to take twenty to forty grains of calomel per day, which is neither sufficient to keep the bowels open or to produce ptyalism," and yet, in addition, "calomel was frequently rubbed on the gums and mercurial ointment on the skin." These clinical records show that in those days the lancet was seldom sheathed, and recall the trenchant sarcasm of Boileau, slightly paraphrased: "The one died empty of blood, the other full of calomel."
Dr. Haines held various municipal and county offices, and was mayor of the town in 1833, known as the cholera year, when his official acts did much to restore confidence to the panic-stricken people.
He died in July, 1860.