Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/731

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did find out that the g-overnment had made a first-class real estate deal in pur- chasing Alaska for seven million dollars.

DR. WOODS HUTCHINSON.

Another name familiar to the profession in Portland, and now attracting the attention of thousands of readers in all parts of the United States, got his first boost in this city. Dr. Woods Hutchinson started on his upward career to na- tional fame in Portland, Oregon. He had received all the advantages of home and foreign education in the greatest hospitals, and schools of England, and America, and came here to practice the art or science of healing the sick. Hutch- inson's brain and disposition was not cast in the ordinary mould. It may not be superior to other brains, but it is a whole lot different. Hutchinson said that all diseases were set going by infinitesimal bugs or germs. And all the other doctors assented to the proposition and suggested that his ideas were not strictly original. "Well but," quoth the said Hutchinson, "no matter if they are not new, let's get after them and kill them. Do you see that fly on the wall. He is worse than any fly in the ointment. He is a peddler of diphtheria, scarletina, typhoid, tuberculo- sis — everything bad. He lights down on a sick man, picks up on his toes the dis- ease germs and trails around upon the cooking utensils, food, supplies and food stuffs until he infects the whole house with disease. And I can prove that one fly will start one million, more or less, points of disease in twenty-four hours. We must get after him and utterly destroy him, and all his chances for doing business."

All the doctors, theoretically knew all about disease germs as much as Dr. Hutchinson, but the theoretical facts did not strike them the same way, or with such practical force. Hutchinson took up the idea and wrote it up in the papers and journals. He agitated for a state board of health in Oregon and Portland, and for an appointed physician that should have for the city authority to inves- tigate foods, diseases, and persons, to ascertain the location of and the means of destroying the sources of disease at the fountain head, and before they had in- fected innocent persons and healthy surroundings. His articles written in his old office in the Marquam building attracted the attention of the colleges and health officers of New York city, and he was offered a large salary to go there and teach. He went; and has prospered in the great city, of the continent; and his articles on public health questions command enormous prices from the great magazine publishing houses. This paragraph is not written to exploit Dr. Hutch- inson. He will probably never see it, or hear of it. But it is to the credit of the city, that it has sent out reformers, and men who can and do mould the public sentiment of a great nation.

DENTISTS AND THEIR SCHOOLS AND ETHICS.

The first dentist to settle in Portland was Dr. E. H. Griffin ; he practiced his profession here for many years and then removed to Albany in Linn County, where he died a few years ago.

The next member of the dental profession to locate in Portland was Dr. J. R. Cardwell, who is still here in good health and with his office still open for busi- ness. Dr. Cardwell was born in the state of Illinois in 1830 and emigrated to Portland in 1852, and engaged in the practice of his profession, taking high rank as a careful and successful operator. First and last he made a large fortune in the practice of his profession, and spent the most of it in promoting the cultivation of rare and valuable fruits, importing many different varieties from foreign countries. He was chairman of the state board of dental examiners for many years, and aided largely in raising the standard of excellence in the profession, and of professional honor among its members. He expended a large sum of money in the importation of the woods, bark and blooms of the p