. MEMORIAL OF 
Qr. Ficitbcm gatfietd, 
— by — 
is 
ROBERT J. HESS, M. D. 
PREPARED BY RESOLUTION OF 
The northern 2W®diocd Association 
of Philadelphia. 
Read at a Meeting held February 24, 1888, 
and ordered to be printed. MEMORIAL OF 
Qr. fjatban 
— BY — 
ROBERT J. HESS, M. D. 
PREPARED BY RESOLUTION OF 
The northern TWedical Association 
of Philadelphia. 
Read at a Meeting held February 24, 1888, 
and ordered to be printed. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
BURK & McFETRIDGE, PRINTERS, 
Nos. 306 and 308 Chestnut St. 
1888. 0bituari/\ 
Nathan Lewis Hatfield was born on the second day of 
August, 1804, in Montgomery county, of this State. His 
ancestors were patriots, taking a prominent part in the 
early history of our country. His grandfather partici- 
pated in the Revolutionary struggle, and his father com- 
manded a company in the war of 1812. 
More than ordinary care was devoted to his early edu- 
cation. He attended the village school at Trappe, in 
Montgomery county, where the first rudiments were 
received. This school was taught by an able man, F. R. 
Shunk, who afterwards became Governor of Pennsylvania. 
He subsequently attended an academy quite celebrated 
in its day, presided over by Drs. Wylie and Engle, and 
afterwards entered the classical department of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, from which he received the 
degree of A. B. 
His medical studies were commenced with Dr. Elijah 
Griffitts, a man quite prominent in his day as a practi- 
tioner. After attending two courses of lectures in the 
University of Pennsylvania, through the influence of 
friends who were active in the movement to establish a 
new medical school, he entered the Jefferson Medical 
College, just then inaugurated, and after attending one 4 
full course, graduated as M. D., in 1826, in the first class 
that left that institution. During his entire professional 
life he maintained a warm interest in all that concerned 
his Alma Mater, and was identified with its growth and 
prosperity. For some time before his death he was the 
oldest graduate of the school. 
He began the practice of medicine in Philadelphia, in 
the district of the Northern Liberties, immediately after his 
graduation, and soon gained a large and lucrative prac- 
tice. Some of the physicians in his neighborhood, during 
the time of his active professional life, were among the 
most successful practitioners of Philadelphia: Drs. Gilbert, 
Janney, Warrington, Levis, Ritter, and others whose 
names reflect credit upon the profession, and some of 
whom were honored members of the Northern Medical 
Association. 
During the active period of his life he contributed 
many articles to the medical journals and to the trans- 
actions of the State Medical Society. He held many 
important positions of honor in medical organizations. 
He was a member of the City Board of Health, and 
served as president from 1846 to 1848. He was elected 
a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 
January, 1855. He was for many years a member of 
the Philadelphia County Medical Society, and frequently 
represented that Society in the meetings of the State 
Association. He served as vice-president of the Penn- 
sylvania State Medical Society in 1866, and was a mem- 
ber of the American Medical Association since 1848. He 
also was a member of the Alumni Association of Jefferson 
Medical College, of which he was president in 1874; 5 
of the Rocky Mountain Medical Association, and of the 
California State Medical Association. He was consult- 
ing physician to the Northern Dispensary of Philadel- 
phia, and a member of the Northern Medical Association 
from its earliest history, serving as president several 
times, and for many years upon the Board of Censors. 
Elected a manager of the Northern Dispensary of Phila- 
delphia, June 20, 1856, he served as chairman of the 
Committee on Physicians. During the entire period of 
half a century of practice he was “a constant supporter 
of medical organization and professional ethics.” 
I have briefly sketched a few of the tangible incidents 
in the life of one who was identified with our Association 
from its very beginning. During a long period of his 
life he took a prominent part in the discussion of medi- 
cal subjects brought before the meetings. As the years 
passed, although prevented from regular attendance, his 
interest did not diminish. His heart was kept warm 
by the memories of the past; and, while he loved to 
speak of his medical friends and associates of former 
days, for whom he cherished a fraternal affection, he 
was none the less interested in the young and progres- 
sive members of a later day. Serving upon the Board 
of Censors for many years, he was solicitous that the 
good name and character of the Northern Medical Asso- 
ciation should be maintained, and applications for mem- 
bership were carefully considered. The same interest 
was taken in the medical standing of the staff of phy- 
sicians of the Northern Dispensary during the time that 
he was a manager; and many of our present members 
will recall his official visits and professional inquiries when 
they were candidates for positions in that institution. 6 
In contemplating the life and character of our late 
member, I may be pardoned if I speak with more than 
ordinary feeling. For the last ten years my position 
brought us together in very intimate companionship. 
I was a frequent associate with him in his visits to 
patients who, even in his declining years, were glad to 
trust their all to his care. I spent many hours with him 
in pleasant converse, which was both entertaining and 
instructive. His memory for events, political, profes- 
sional and social, was remarkable. He had been active 
in many of the important events that marked new eras 
in city and State. He took an active part in the dis- 
cussions held at the time of the separation of the Old 
and New School Presbyterians in 1834-37, and was 
present at their reunion in Philadelphia a few years ago. 
Of the interesting incidents and events of those historical 
occasions he would frequently speak. 
In the epidemics that visited Philadelphia, his active 
and earnest zeal was manifested in personal exertions 
and in self-denying labors. 
In his early professional life he served as a surgeon 
to one of the Philadelphia regiments of militia, and his 
fine appearance and soldierly bearing is remembered by 
some of his contemporaries. While president of the 
Board of Health of Philadelphia, he advocated those 
measures which were beneficial to the best interests of 
the people, and was in advance of the time in regard to 
the hygienic requirements of a growing city. 
He saw the rise of the two great medical schools of 
this city from their small beginnings. Many of the men 
whose fame is the heritage of the present generation of 7 
physicians were his contemporaries and friends. In 
delightful retrospect he would tell of the special attain- 
ments and peculiarities of practice or manner of the noted 
worthies of his time. He saw the growth of the numer- 
ous hospitals and asylums and charitable institutions with 
which we are so well supplied. He watched the develop- 
ment of our noble art, which has kept pace with every 
invention, and with every new discovery has been modi- 
fied and improved. Even the type and character of many 
diseases had changed during the long period since he 
began the practice of medicine. 
He advocated the establishment of a hospital in con- 
nection with the Jefferson Medical College; and in an 
address delivered before the Alumni Association, on the 
close of his official term as president, he urged its im- 
portance and necessity, saying that the establishment of 
such a hospital was “ now the great desideratum” of that 
school. 
In manner the doctor was courtly; in disposition, mild 
and benignant. The weight of years sat gracefully upon 
his brow, and the strength and beauty of manhood 
remained until the last. As a physician he was emi- 
nently successful, maintaining the confidence and love 
of his patients and the respect of the community in 
which he labored. In a pre-eminent degree he possessed 
the qualifications which distinguish the good physician. 
He was “ skilful in the arts and resources of the profes- 
sion ;” he was “ kind in word and manner;” he was 
“sympathetic and cheerful;” and of him it was frequently 
said that his presence was balm and encouragement to 
the sick. 8 
He was “ truthful, honorable and conscientiousand 
could look back upon a long and laborious life with the 
calm and serene assurance that, with singleness of pur- 
pose, he had attained the full measure of success in “the 
most excellent of all arts,” “ the most dignified, exalted 
and honorable calling.” 
During the long time that I knew the doctor inti- 
mately, I never heard him speak an unkind or unchari- 
table word; and those who knew him more intimately 
for a much longer period have borne like testimony to 
that wonderful dignity of mind, which, while none the 
less sensitive to the slights and injuries of life, was yet 
too benevolent to resent, too gentle to harm. In Chris- 
tian resignation he bore the sorrows and bereavements 
of life, and his declining days were spent in kind and 
gentle ministrations to his friends. An attack of bron- 
chitis, which, apparently slight, his enfeebled body was 
unable to resist, was the immediate cause of his death; 
and early in the morning of August 29th, 1887, in his 
eighty-fourth year, he sank quietly to sleep, surrounded 
by his family, his last moments calm and serene, like 
the closing hours of a long summer day which gives 
promise of a brighter dawn before the shades of night 
have fallen.