o^» {?4*~£i [ti.yf,)
MEMORIAL
TO
JOHN A. SWETT, M.D. 
 
MEMOIR
OF
JOHN  A.   SWETT,  M.D.,
PROFESSOR OF THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IN THE MEDICAL
  DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY, OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK;
       PHYSICIAN OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL, ETC.
B.  W. M'CREADY, M. D.
READ BEFORE THE N Y. MEDICAL AND SURGICAL
   SOCIETY, AND PUBLISHED BY ITS ORDER.
k£^[T#^
            NEW YORK:
D.  APPLE TON  AND COMPANY,
346 & 348 BROADWAY

      1855. 
 
MEMOIR  OF  DR.  SWETT.
   For the second  time  Gentlemen since, twenty-
two  years ago, our  Society was  first constituted,
Death has been among us.  He who fitly commem-
orated the virtues of MacDonald is himself a subject
for the biographer.  He has been  taken awray, not
when coming  age had dulled the current  of  his
blood and blunted the energy of  his mind,  but in
the prime of his manhood, in  the  full vigor of his
intellect, at a time when  the  stores of  knowledge
slowly heaped up  by study and labor were just  be-
come most available for the instruction and  benefit
of others.   Had life and health been longer  spared
him,  he would doubtless have attained a wider use-
fulness, a loftier reputation,—but he could not have
had a higher place in  our esteem, a stronger hold
upon our affections.  To  most of  us he had been
known since the  time, when, filled with high pur- 
4
 poses and youthful enthusiasm, he  first commenced
 the practice of his profession.  He was  one of the
 founders of our Society, one of the most constant in
 attendance, of its members.  Here  were  all his old
 friends.  He had  grown up  with  us, and we  with
 him.   He  was associated with our  early struggles
 and our  early triumphs.  We knew him, his  unde-
 viating truth, his strict integrity, his kindly heart,
 his clear understanding, his sound judgment.   His
 course, successful as it  had been, had provoked no
 envy, had given rise to no heart-burning.  In the
 world his place if not soon filled, will soon be  occu-
 pied :—not so here.  To many of us no new ties can
 weave themselves  so closely around  our hearts, as
 those formed in our youth ; no new friendship  have
 the firmness imparted by the  knowledge and  trials
 of a lifetime.  Here his memory will not soon fade.
 May it teach us to  emulate his example.
   John Appletox Swett was on both sides of un-
 mixed English descent.   His ancestors belonged to
 that remarkable body of men whose enduring cour-
 age, firm love of civil liberty, and  exalted and sin-
 cere, if somewhat narrow, spirit of piety,  laid broad
 and deep the foundations of order and prosperity in
New England.  On his father's side, two  brothers
named Swett, landed at Newburyport, Mass., about
the year 1653, and  settled  at that  place.  In the 
5
latter part of the seventeenth century a part of the
family emigrated to Exeter, New Hampshire, and
of this branch Dr. Swett was a  descendant.  His
grandfather again emigrated to what at that time
was the District of Maine, where  he finally settled
in Parsonsfield, situated in what is nowr called York
County.  The members of the family appear to have
been  mainly  plain  yeomen, living upon their own
land which their own hands cultivated.
   Dr. Swrett's mother was  an Appleton, and a de-
scendant in the direct line from Samuel Appleton,
who emigrated from England in the year 1650, and
settled at Ipswich, Mass., where he had a  grant  of
lands from the authorities  of the  province.  The
Appletons, as is set forth at  length in the Appleton
memorial, were probably of Norman  origin,  and
bore  in  their coat of arms " a fesse sable between
three apples  gules, stalked  and leaved vert," with
the punning  motto "Ex malo,  bonus."  The most
noticeable man among them in this country, appears
to have been Major Samuel Appleton, who came  to
New England a child, with his  father. He seems to
have been a strong-minded, stout-hearted, old puri-
tan,  and distinguished himself  equally in the war
against King  Philip and by his opposition to the
tyrannical government of Sir Edmund Andros.  The
family throughout was an eminently respectable one, 
6
rich in reputable  and well-to-do yeomen, orthodox
divines, and careful and substantial traders.
   While still a youth, Dr. Sweft's father met with
an accidental injury, the consequences of wdiich  un-
fitted him for the severe labors of the farm; this led
to his entering into trade,  first as a clerk in  a coun-
try store, and subsequently in Boston.  Here  we
at an early period find him in business  on his own
account as a merchant.  He was an active, energetic
man, who placed a high estimate upon  his calling,
and  had little sympathy with tastes or  pursuits  un-
connected with it.   He had much strong sense, wTith
a vein of  that dry humor common to New England
men.  Growing  wealth, and the natural  desire to
learn something of the history of their families, had
caused genealogical inquiries to become  common in
New England;  and  among others, some of  the
Swetts'  were desirous to trace  out  their genealogi-
cal  tree, and  to remove  the dust  which obscured
their ancestral coat of arms.   Mr. S. was applied to
for  concurrence  and assistance,  but  he refused to
have any  thing  to  do wdth the matter.  He had
traced back his  family to  a very respectable shoe-
maker, and he was  determined to stop  there.  He
stood upon the cobbler.
   Dr. Swett's mother is described as an admirable
woman, of clear, bright mind, with  a loving  heart, 
7
open to  all kindly and generous sympathies.   She
wTas  deeply imbued with religious feeling, and in
this as well as in other things, her views exercised a
strong influence  upon her son.
   John A. Swett was born in Boston in Dec. 1808.
His  early  education  was received at the Boston
grammar school, of which  Mr. Benjamin A. Gould,
known as the editor of an edition of Virgil, and  sub-
sequently a merchant of Boston, was at that time
principal.  In the earlier part of his school career,
young Swett was  by no means  remarkable for his
attention to his studies.  He was fond of reading,
but found Fielding and Smollett more to his  taste
than the Commentaries of Caesar or the Georgics of
Virgil, and had  frequently  to be reproved for his
negligence.  At length, interested in his novel, he
took it with him, and keeping it  partially covered
by his Latin  book, read it surreptitiously during
school hours.   His unwonted application  soon at-
tracted the attention of his teacher, and he publicly
complimented him upon the change in his  conduct,
and promised a speedy promotion in his class as its
reward.   Ashamed of the unmerited  praise,  and
still  more ashamed of  the  deception by which it
was  gained, the boy  as soon as  possible threw the
book into his desk and never again opened it. From
that time he was  assiduous at his studies, and when 
8
 a year or two afterwTard  he left school, he had at-
 tained a high rank in his class.   Thus early did he
 show that hatred  and contempt of all falsehood,
 wrhich formed so marked a feature of his character.
    After leaving school young Swett entered Har-
 vard University, where he made the usual  terms,
 graduating in  1828.   He  held  a fair  rank in his
 class, and would have obtained a higher one, had it
 not been for his neglect of his mathematical studies.
 He had no taste for algebra or  geometry,  and res-
 olutely  ignored them  while at  college, refusing to
 bend his mind to a pursuit for which he had an in-
 vincible dislike. On graduating, he commenced the
 study of medicine in the office of Dr. Jacob Bigelow,
 of Boston, at that time as now, professor of Materia
 Medica in the Harvard Medical School, and in  1831
 obtained his diploma.   Shortly afterward, while still
 undecided  as  to the  place  he should fix  upon, in
 which to await the slow and uncertain  advent of
 practice, he  paid a  visit to New York.  He  soon
 made up his mind that this was the proper field for
 him, and against the wishes of his father, who natu-
 rally desired  to have his  son near him, he took a
 small office at the corner of Broadway and Duane
 street, and commenced the career of a physician in a
great city, with but small means  and  a slender con-
nection.  He early became connected with the City 
9
Dispensary, at that time the only institution of the
kind  in  New York.  Drs. John Watson, Adams,
Buck and Bulkley, were then attached to  the same
institution, all young, and ardent in the pursuit of
professional knowledge.  Frequently  seeing  each
other, and mutually communicating the results of
their observations, they, in  the winter of '33-34,
formed themselves into a society which held regular
meetings at the Dispensary.   An essay was read by
one of the members, and the remainder of the even-
ing was  occupied by the detail and discussion of
such  cases of interest as had  been met with since
the preceding meeting.
   Dr. Swett's father, who had subsequently removed
to New York, died on the 14th of November, 1834.
By this  means the  Doctor came into the possession
of a small property.  Longing for  professional im-
provement, and for an  instruction larger and more
exact than could be obtained here, he determined to
visit Europe; and the  following May, having ob-
tained the reluctant consent of his mother, he sailed
for Liverpool.  He landed in England on the 12th
of June,  1835, and after a hasty run through a part
of that country, reached Paris on the 13th of July.
Here  he  remained  until the 5th of November of
the following  year, with  the  exception of  six  or
eight  weeks, occupied by a pedestrian excursion in 
10
Switzerland.  Dr. Swett's residence in  Paris formed
an era in his life, and he always looked back to it
with pleasure, as the period in which  he had made
the greatest and most rapid  advances in professional
knowledge.  He did  not deny himself any  of the
ordinary pleasures of that great capital, but wher-
ever the evening might  be  sj)ent,  whether  at the
theatre, the opera, in the  society of his  friends, or in
his study, six o'clock of the next morning, the hour
during the winter of the  visit, always found him at
the hospital.  Among the hospital physicians, Louis
was his favorite, not alone from the subjects to which
he more especially  devoted himself, but  from the
simplicity of character,  the  strong reliance  upon
facts, and the scrupulous regard for truth, of that
great  physician.  Not only  was Swett himself at-
tentive  to his  studies, but,  both by example, and
where  intimacy gave him the right, by advice and
remonstrance, he kept others in the path of duty,
and saved them from being utterly carried away by
the seductions by which they were surrounded.  " I
early became acquainted with Swett," says one after-
ward among the most intimate of his friends, " and
he soon acquired an influence over me.   Like other
young men in a strange place, and living with  youno-
men  alone, I was in danger  of losing,  in pursuit of
pleasure, the time  which should   have been de- 
11
voted to study; but Swett  saved me.  He carried
me off to the hospital, and he saw that I attended
punctually.   No  excuse  but  sickness  would  an-
swer.  Whatever were the amusements of the even-
ing, the morning must find  us  at La Pitie with
Louis.
    There is another and more touching evidence in
existence, of the influence which Swett exerted upon
those around him while in Paris.   Among those he
there became  acquainted  with,  was the late Dr.
Power, of Baltimore.   Attending the same hospital,
studying the same class  of diseases, an intimacy
sprang  up, which  became strengthened into friend-
ship, and terminated  only  with life.   While lying
on  his death-bed, availing himself of a transient in-
terval of ease, Power wrote to his  old friend a letter,
which  even now, and  by a stranger to the parties,
can scarce be read without tears.  After giving a
graphic, but terrible account of the symptoms of the
disease  from which he was suffering, consumption,
with harassing  cough, constant dyspnoea, and great
pleuritic pain,  Dr. Power  adverts  to  the  hopes
that consoled,  and the belief  that supported him
under his suffering, and then goes on thus to  allude
to their early intimacy: " Among the many blessings
of my  past  life, I have not only lately, but  at  all
times for the last fifteen years, esteemed my  lucky 
12
meeting with you, the first morning I went to Louis's
wards.  Without any settled plan of study myself,
without any acquaintances among  the students  of
paris — young, impulsive, self-confident — I might
have fallen in with different companions, and my
whole life have been different.  Had it been B----,
I might have taken to cards and brandy and water.
Had  it been  N----, I might have taken to gri-
settes; had it been M----, I  might have taken  to
dressing, idling, or fifty other  suppositions,  equally
likely; but, in the good providence of God, it was
you, and I took to study—how faithfully you know.
I conceived an intense respect for you, and the fear of
your  disapprobation often made  me  work  when
tempted to do otherwise.   We were, Heaven knows,
very different  men, and yet  a friendship sprang up
between us, never shaded by a moment's cloud; it
has been my pride and pleasure thenceforth to claim
you as a friend, and a true friend you have proved
to me.  If, in  my  brief career, I have  been of any
use to others—have been, in any way, an ornament
to my profession, I feel, old fellow, how great a share
of it is owing to  you; and, though neither of  us
were saints, yet, considering our temptations, we have
reason to thank  God we were no worse.  Nor can I
blame you ever  for leading me into temptation, but,
on the  contrary, you  often restrained me, and your 
13
whole  moral influence  over me was  for  good.   I
wanted to thank you for this; it was on my con-
science, and, therefore, I have  often felt so anxious
to write you once more."
    During his residence  abroad, Dr.  Swett  kept a
journal evidently intended only for his own inspec-
tion, and of the existence of which his  most intimate
friends, until after his  death, were unaware.  It is
occupied chiefly with the places he  visited, the dis-
tinguished persons he  met with, the  works  of  art
that  he saw;  his studies and labors  are  only inci-
dentally mentioned.   Here and there it gives  us
glimpses of his inner life, of his manner of thought,
 and habit of self-examination.  At Geneva he writes,
 "A year  ago  to-day, a poor solitary  devil  entered
 Paris, destined to  be exposed to its thousand temp-
 tations, its pleasures, and its vices, with nothing to
 save him, but his skepticism on the one hand and his
 strong love of his profession  on the  other; a year,
 with  its full experience, has gone by, and  he finds
 himself in the romantic city of Geneva, in Switzer-
 land, the land of beauty  and of grandeur, meditating
 on the past with feelings in which pleasure and pain
 occupy an equal share.   Ah!  my dear mother!  you
 felt indeed in  the silent parting moment, that sepa-
 rated us for so long an interval, that your  son was to
 be thrown alone into the great world, with  nothing 
14
to guide him  but the fear  of God and your love.
May I, during my present excursion amid the proud
monuments of nature, find  myself elevated into  a
purer atmosphere of feeling, and return home to my
quiet pursuits with the reflection of a month well
spent—rare reflection  to  those who study and esti-
mate their own hearts."
   Dr. Swett  left Paris with regret.  The progress
he had made in his profession, the friendships he had
formed, the pleasures which youth and health enabled
him  to enjoy, and which  derived an increased zest
from  the  hard study  from which they had been
stolen, rendered his residence there a happy period
of his life.   During his tour in Switzerlar d, he writes,
" I often wonder at the strong attachment I feel for
Paris; I never leave it for a day wdthout experien-
cing that sensation of inward pleasure which one feels
when returning to his home.   Wherever I go I cling
to the French society.   I love their manners, the tone
of their feelings, their liberality of spirit.   Above
all, I  have spent one of the happiest, and, certainly,
one of the most useful years of  my  life in  it."  It
was then with mingled feelings, that after an absence
of seventeen months, he again turned his face towards
the land of his birth, and  prepared, with added ad-
vantages, to resume the practice  of his profession.
   Soon after his return, Dr. Swett became again 
15
connected with the New York Dispensary.   In the
autumn of the next year, wThile  busily engaged  in
consequence of the epidemic prevalence of typhoid
fever in the district  which he attended, he was at-
tacked with fever, and suffered a long and dangerous
illness.   In the spring of '38,  Dr. Swett  made his
first appearance as a lecturer.  An association, con-
sisting of Drs. Watson, Bulkley, Swett, Post, Adams,
Buck, Macdonald, and Beales, had been formed for
the purpose of giving an extra academical course of
lectures  upon  special  subjects.  From the situation
of the building in  which they were given (a Dispen-
sary for  the treatment of diseases of the skin origi-
nated by Drs. Bulkley and Watson), the association
took the name of the  Broome street School of Medi-
cine.  Dr.  Swett  lectured  on diseases of the chest.
The association lasted through two  years,  a  spring
and fall course of lectures being delivered.  Though
then given up as  a separate organization, it  led to
the establishment  of  a spring course  of lectures in
the College of Physicians and  Surgeons in Crosby
street, several of the members of the Broome street
School taking  part in  the  course there delivered.
Among  these  was Dr. Swett.  The  lectures  which
he delivered there were stenographed  by the late
Dr. J. A. Houston,  and published by him in the New
York Lancet,  of which he was the  editor.   Being 
16
extensively circulated, these lectures  did  much to
enhance  the growing reputation of Dr. Swett, and
bring him into repute as an authority on the subject
of wdiich they treat.
   The society which we have seen originated at the
Dispensary had been broken up by the lukewarm-
ness of some of its members, and by the absence of
others in Europe.  In the fall of  1836, the  New-
York Medical and Surgical Society  was organized
on the basis of the old  Dispensary Society, and for
a long time held its meetings at the New York  Hos-
pital.   A number of valuable and interesting papers
having been accumulated  by its labors, and there
being no  proper  organ  of the profession  at  that
time in the city, it was resolved to commence a jour-
nal under its auspices. Drs. Swett and Watson were
unanimously selected as editors to conduct the new
enterprise.  The journal appeared quarterly for two
years, under the name of the New York Medical and
Surgical  Journal,  when, owing mainly to the  pub-
lisher having fallen into pecuniary difficulties, it was
abandoned.
   In  1842, one great  object of Dr. Swett's ambi-
tion was attained; he was elected one of the  phy-
sicians of the New York Hospital, in the place of
Dr. Macdonald.   Seldom has an appointment  been
made with greater unanimity on the part of the gov- 
17
 ernors, and never has one been  received with more
 satisfaction by the profession.  The Hospital was
 thenceforth the chief theatre of Dr. Swett's  labors,
 and he devoted himself to his new duties with a zeal
 and enthusiasm, which did  not  flag even under the
 pressure of increased occupation and decaying  health.
 He delivered repeated courses of lectures there upon
 diseases of the chest and of the kidneys ; and his in-
 structions at  the  bedside attracted a crowd  of stu-
 dents  wTho had hitherto been strangers to the medi-
 cal wards of the institution.   Above all, it was his
 field  of study; the literature of the profession he
 may have underrated, but upon  clinical observation
 he set the highest  value,  and to  this he assiduously
 devoted himself.  His enlarged opportunities led him
 to a minuter investigation of the diseases of the kid-
 neys, and the  manner  he set about this w^as  highly
 characteristic of his  conscientious thoroughness.   He
 first went through a private course of instruction with
 Mr. Reed at the hospital, upon the chemistry  of the
 urine, and for a long time his friends on visiting him
 would find him busy in a room, which he had fitted
 up with  the necessary apparatus, working out  for
 himself the more  important points in the chemical
 history of that complex fluid.  But his means of in-
 vestigation  were not complete without the  micro-
scope, and to the microscope he next applied himself.
        9 
18
A new and laborious course of observations was en-
tered on, and earnestly and steadily he devoted him-
self to it.  Compelled, as wrill be seen hereafter, to
make a short visit to Paris in  1850, in order to re-
cruit his impaired health, he found time to go through
a private course of microscopy with  Robin; and a
medical friend who accompanied him, states that he
worked with all the zeal of a young student; and
when, at  length, worn down by  long illness, and
ready to  die, perhaps the  last professional object
which attracted his attention, was a magnificent new
microscope which he had just received from England.
   On the 1st of August, 1849, Dr. Swett was  mar-
ried  to Martha, the daughter of the late Dr. Dale,
of Gloucester, Massachusetts.
   In 1852, he  published  his  treatise on diseases of
the chest, the work on which his reputation with the
public must mainly rest.  The clearness of its method,
the  accuracy of its descriptions of disease, and the
soundness of its pathological and therapeutical doc-
trines, must long render  it a favorite with  students
and with the profession.
    In the spring of the following year, he was ap-
pointed professor of the theory and practice of phy-
sic in the medical department of the University of
the city of New York.   So far as professional honors
 were concerned, he had now attained the summit of 
19
his wishes.   Early in life he had proposed two ends
in his professional career; to become one of the phy-
sicians of the New York Hospital, and to become an
authorized teacher of medicine.  Both his aims at
length were accomplished.  His careful preparation
was  now to bear  its  fruit.  A  new and honorable
career of usefulness lay open before him,—but clouds
and  darkness were gathering upon his path, and the
shadow of death was slowly creeping over him.
   In the spring of '53, he delivered at the Univer-
sity  a course of lectures and demonstrations on the
diseases of  the kidney.   The termination of these
lectures and of his term of hospital duty, found him
broken down and exhausted.   Yet notwithstanding
his feeble health, he set  himself resolutely to prepare
for his course of the ensuing winter.   And this pre-
paration demanded no trifling amount of labor. Part
of the  ground to be sure  he was already familiar
with, but much  remained to be thought over, stud-
ied  out, and rearranged.   His mode  of proceeding
was  not to have  recourse to text-books and  author-
ities, but to collect from every source, whether jour-
nals  or special treatises, all the cases  he  could find
of the disease under consideration;  and then  by
analyzing, comparing, and studying these, to enlarge
and  correct the knowledge he  had acquired  by his
own experience.   He did  not write out a course  of 
20
lectures, but  the  results of his labors  were noted
down, and he  trusted  in the  lecture-room, to his
power of extemporaneous expression.  The opening
of the college found him with a measure of health
and vigor which enabled him to perform his  new
duties, and to this, mental excitement and the plea-
sure he took  in lecturing, greatly contributed.   He
lectured to the satisfaction of a large class, as well
as to that of a more  difficult  and discriminating
judge, himself.  The approach of spring found him
feeble and ailing, yet  he still struggled  on, getting
through his visit at the  Hospital, and remaining ex-
hausted for the rest of the day.   Toward the latter
part of May he was compelled to yield, to forego the
exercise of his profession, never again to resume it.
   The illness wdiich terminated  Dr.  Swett's  life,
dates  as far back as the spring of  1848.  He had
previously suffered  occasionally  from   dyspeptic
symptoms.  Any particular imprudence in diet was
apt to be followed by the appearance of one or two
pustules of  acne  rosacea,  which, going throuo-h a
tedious course, would leave  an indelible scar.   As
their  seat was  commonly upon the nose, this was
very  annoying;  they finally  disappeared after  the
use of Fowler's  arsenical  solution.   Early in  May,
1848,  while  attending the meeting of the medical
association, held  in Baltimore, symptoms were pres- 
21
ent which directed  attention to the kidneys, and
the urine  being examined  under  the  microscope,
blood  gobules were  detected in it.  He  returned
home feeble and dispirited.   A slight febrile move-
ment existed  in his  system, the skin  was sallow>
easily  perspiring,  the digestive  organs much  de-
ranged, the bowrels being constipated and the evacu-
ations  both scanty  and unnatural in  appearance.
Occasionally slight puffiness would be noticed about
the eyes, the urine however repeatedly and carefully
examined, exhibited no traces of albumen. Under
the judicious care  of his  physician,  Dr. J. M. Smith,
he  gradually recovered.   The  recovery  was  not,
however, perfect, his  complexion remained sallow,
and he was easily fatigued ; yet his appetite was
good, and  he  indulged it to an  imprudent extent,
eating largely and rapidly, and frequently too  of
indigestible food.
    In the spring of '50, toward  the termination  of
his  period  of  hospital duty, his health  again failed
him, and he sought its renewal by  a temporary ab-
sence in Europe.   He  returned, invigorated, to the
performance  of his  duties; still it was  becoming
more and  more evident to his  friends, that  some
serious  and deep-seated disease wras  sapping the
foundations of his constitution.    He  was always
somewhat  emaciated, and at times his  appearance 
22
would be exceedingly bad.   His complexion, usually
pale, would assume a deep dingy yellow tinge; his
gait would be unsteady, and  his usual animation
would desert  him.  Again, he would  rally and re-
gain his customary appearance and cheerfulness.
    In the spring of '53, immediately subsequent  to
his  appointment to the chair of practice of physic in
the University Medical School, wre have seen that he
delivered an extra academical course of lectures on
the diseases of the urinary organs ; at the same time
he wras performing duty at the New  York  Hospital
and giving clinical lectures there.  Again at the old
period in May, his strength failed him, and the 1st
of June found him exhausted.   His disease assumed
the form of intermittent  fever; the paroxysms re-
curring daily.   He would have a chill, followed by
smart fever and terminating in  profuse perspiration.
As he had previous to the  attack, several  times, in
visiting a  patient in  New Jersey, passed through
a  district  infested with  malaria, he attributed his
disease to that cause.  It  however resisted all the
usual anti-periodics—the paroxysms still continuing
to  recur despite  the  free use of quinine, arsenic
opium, &c.  In the interval of the paroxysms he was
enabled to ride or even walk  out, but his strength
was greatly impaired.  A singular phenomenon gra-
dually  manifested itself.   Glandular  swellings  in 
23
both axillae made their appearance, and slowly in-
creased.   These  swellings  wrere  evidently  larger
during the paroxysms, and as they passed off, the
swrellings  evidently  somewhat   subsided.    Still
through all, the preparation for his winter course of
lectures went on.   About the 1st of July he went
to Newburg, on the Hudson River, to see if he might
not be  benefited by change of air.  He still, how-
ever, twice a week, would come to  town, to see his
patients or deliver a clinical  lecture at  the  college.
Finally—giving up altogether the attempt to work,
he went  to  Sharon Springs.   Here  his fever left
him, and  gaining strength he was enabled  to make
an extended tour, visiting the  White Mountains,
and the residence of his wife's family at Gloucester.
He returned to the city on the first of September
apparently quite recovered.  As  the paroxysms of
ague had  become less frequent, the swellings in the
axillae  diminished,  and  finally  altogether disap-
peared.
   [ Somewhat to the surprise of his friends, he  bore
the fatigue of the winter session  of the college ex-
ceedingly well, making himself clearly and distinctly
heard by a  large  class; lecturing was a  labor of
love,  and he seemed  the better  for  it.   As  the
spring came  round, however, he again began to lose
ground.   As early  as the latter part of  February he 
24
had  a single paroxysm of his  ague.  In March it
recurred several  times.  Yet he still persisted  in
performing his duties at the Hospital.  To rouse his
enfeebled energies, he would, just previous to making
his visit, eat a few oysters and take a cup of strong
coffee, which, by the  way,  had never  previously
agreed with him,  and thus stimulated, he would get
through his duties.   As the spring advanced he be-
came worse, his strength and flesh fell off, the chills
with  fever and  perspiration  recurred  more fre-
quently, until finally in the  latter part  of May,
forced to yield, he  called  on  Dr. J. M. Smith  to
complete for him the last few days of his service at
the Hospital.  Hoping  to find in change of air the
benefit he  had previously experienced, he went on
the first of June to Massachusetts, visiting  Springfield
and   Northampton.   Disappointed in  the  hoped-
for benefit, he went on  the  20th of the month  to
Albany, and  two days afterward left  for Sharon
Springs.   Here  he  passed  five weeks, gradually
growing wrorse.  The chills, at first regular  in  their
daily recurrence, came on now at irregular intervals.
Two  often occurred on the same day.  The swell-
ings  in the axillae had become large, and evidently
contained matter.  The emaciation  was extreme, his
appetite, heretofore remarkably good, had failed; a
new symptoin,the occasional rejection of his food, made 
25
its appearance, and for the last eight or ten days of
his stay he was  confined to his room.  In this con-
dition  he  was found  by a medical  friend, who was
visiting the springs, and who advised an  immediate
return to  his home in  the city.  Attended then  by
his wife, the constant  companion of his  illness, and
accompanied by the medical friend whom he had  ac-
cidentally met, Dr. S. again returned to New York.
He was now seen by his former physician, Dr. J. M.
Smith, together with  Drs. Bliss and Ludlow.  Be-
sides the symptoms mentioned above, his complexion
had assumed a greenish yellow hue, his skin was cool,
dry and harsh,  and  his feet were slightly cedem-
atous; his appetite was feeble, capricious and irre-
gular,  and on examination,  his urine exhibited a
marked quantity of albumen.  The abscesses  in the
axillse  were opened by Dr. Buck, and exit given to
a small quantity of unhealthy pus.
    The efforts of his medical attendants for his relief
were unsuccessful.  His stomach became less irrita-
ble, but he gained no strength.  After remaining in
town a fortnight, urged by the restlessness  of  dis-
ease and  against the  advice of his medical attend-
ants, he went  again  to Gloucester.  He  bore  his
journey well, and, for a few days,  flattered himself
he was better;  but his increasing weakness soon un-
deceived him, and he felt that his doom was sealed. 
26
Writing on the 3d of September to Dr. Smith, in a
hand  that gives evidence of his failing powers, he
says:  " A few days since I took ether, and had the ab-
scesses laid open freely; ever since that time the pus
has a urinous odor.  It no doubt is throwing off urea.
Bowels regular, urine as usual.   I am able to take a
champagne glassful of London  porter during the
morning.  I  am very careful in my diet.  I begin
to relish animal food better  than I did.   I shall re-
main  here quietly for the present, remembering the
devoted kindness of my New York friends, especially
my kind physicians, and endeavoring to resign my-
self to the will of that Great Being who  holds my
destiny in his hands."  A day or two afterwards,
yielding to the wishes of his friends, he returned to
New  York to die.
    Heretofore nothing has  been said regarding Dr.
Swett's religious belief;  but  we  have   reached a
period of his history in wrhich that belief was his
chief consolation and support.  His parents were
Unitarians, and had educated him in their own faith.
He was wTell versed in Scripture, and was skilful in the
arguments by which  his sect supported their tenets.
As he grew older, it  is probable that his  Unitarian-
ism was gradually merged into a philosophical theism,
yet to this remnant of faith he clung with tenacity.
" Have I done any thing," he writes in his journal, 
27
 to advance  my  moral character since I have been
in Paris ?   Nothing.  Have I retrograded ?  I fear
I have; but with  all my professional advantages,
and who can boast of more, shall  I  neglect what I
ought  to value more  than all—myself?   O God!
may I, by  a frequent contemplation of thy perfec-
tions and of my own duty learn to improve my heart
in piety and virtue! "  Dr. Swett's mother died in
June, '42.   In the last few years of her life, she had
found reason to change her religious  views, and be-
came  a sincere and devoted member of the Presby-
terian  Church.  Naturally anxious on account of the
religious welfare  of her son, and  concerned  at the
effect of her former teachings, she repeatedly wrote
to him upon the  subject.  Dr. Swett was tenderly
attached to his mother.  After her death, her testa-
ment lay for  years upon his table; it occupied a par-
ticular spot, and he was uneasy and disturbed if  by
any accident it wras displaced.  He had placed great
reliance upon her judgment, and  the letters which
she had written him, as well as her last wishes, made
a deep impression upon him.   After  his first  serious
attack in  1848, his  own health had never been ro-
bust ; he looked upon himself, if not already suffer-
in^ under  Bright's disease, as having a strong ten-
dency  to  it.  He  observed to  one  of his friends,
during his illness,  that he had never examined  a 
28
patient at the Hospital, suffering under albuminaria,
without the thought recurring, that he himself was to
be carried off by that disease.  Under such influences
the grounds of his religious opinions became the sub-
ject  of serious and earnest thought; and the result
of his inquiry w^as, for the last year of his life, a full
belief in the  doctrine of  the atonement and in  the
divinity of the Saviour.  The time was now come
which tested the sincerity of his belief, and showed
the reliance which he placed upon it.
   After  the Doctor's return from  Gloucester, he
was  decidedly weaker, and it was evident that the
fatal event could not  long be postponed.   He was
fully aware of his  situation.  In  spite of the ulti-
mately fatal  nature of his  complaint, his  recovery
on previous occasions had heretofore buoyed him up
with the hope that he might once more  meet his
class in the lecture-room;  but  he wras now conscious,
both from his own sensations and from the candid
admission of  his physicians, that he could not many
days survive.   The conviction brought with it no
fears—perhaps, no  regret.  He  was  prepared alike
to live or  die.  He emphatically declared that he
had no fear of death; that he  had an entire reliance
upon the atonement of the  Saviour.  He regretted
that " he had not previously united himself to some
evangelical church.  A dislike of attracting  notice 
29
to himself, and a  wish  to  wait  until more robust
health would leave no possible imputation upon his
motives, had alone prevented him.   On the whole,
he preferred the Episcopal  Church, but he  was not
convinced of the truth of all her dogmas.  The  apos-
tolical succession could not  be proved.  He was not
sectarian in his views; his charity was large enough
to embrace  all true believers in Christ."   On Tues-
day, the 12th of September, he received the  com-
munion from the hands of the Rev. Dr. J. A. Spencer.
The night but one preceding his death, when imme-
diate dissolution  seemed impending, he desired his
wife to read to him the  15th chapter of the 1st
Epistle of Paul  to the Corinthians.  At  its  con-
clusion, he  remarked, " What  a glorious chapter!
The sting  of death  is sin.   To  one who has a full
faith in the atonement, death has no sting.  None,"
he emphatically repeated.   On Sunday noon, he took
a final leave of  his family.   Beckoning one, who
shared with his wife the task of watching beside his
dving bed, to take his hand, he said, " My  old and
tried friend, we must soon part, but I hope  for  a
short time.  I  hope we shall meet in Heaven.   I
could  have wished," and  he gently  pressed the
hand which he held, "  to have lived to  see you  a
member of some Christian church."  He made  some
remarks to his  family,  and  shortly afterward re- 
30
quested some morphine should be given him.  His
friend objected, " Was not his  mind clear, and was
he not free from pain ?"  He assented.   " He had no
pain;  but there was a sensation  of sinking and op-
pression which he supposed was  the immediate pre-
cursor  of death, and from which he  sought relief.
He had said all he wished to say;  he had taken
leave of his family; he had no further commissions
to have executed."   It  was agreed to give him such
a dose  as might afford him some  relief,  and yet not
be sufficient to cloud his intellect.  He  took accord-
ingly  five drops of Majendie's solution of the sul-
phate  of morphine.  It had  a good effect, and he
thenceforth expressed himself as perfectly easy.  Dur-
ing the afternoon and evening, he slumbered for the
greater part of the  time.  During the night, he ex-
claimed, " Yea, though  I walk  through  the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear  no evil, for thou art
with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." *
He remained for a time quiet, and without speaking,
suddenly, there  was a  slight  twitching about the
muscles of  the mouth, and  all was over.
    A  careful post-mortem examination made by Dr.
Isaacs, revealed changes which from the symptoms
during life had been anticipated. The  kidneys were
* 23d Psalm, v. 4. 
31
smaller and harder than natural, and  the  secretins
tubes of their cortical portion diminished in number
and denuded of their  epithelial lining.  The liver,
too, was somewhat fatty, and in the second stage of
cirrhosis; some small purulent deposits on the upper
surface of the organ, as well as  some which existed
beneath the costal pleura, seemed to indicate that he
had been the subject of phlebitis.
    Dr. Swett's  understanding  was clear  and com-
prehensive, his judgment sound; he  was a careful
and patient  observer, and a devoted and conscien-
tious lover of truth.  He was energetic and perse-
vering in what he undertook, his passions were mo-
derate and under the control of his reason, and he
possessed in  a high  degree  that almost instinctive
recognition of truth  and propriety quite independent
of the mere power  of reasoning, to which we give
the name of common sense. The soundness of his
judgment  and the  moderation of his views were
shown in the conduct of his ordinary affairs as well
as in his professional career.  With the greater part
of the time a very moderate income, his expenditure
was  always  sufficiently liberal,  and  yet  within his
means;  he  never  involved  himself in  debt,  and
after  giving in his  last will a handsome legacy to
 the Society  for the benefit of the wddows and or-
phans of medical men, he still left his family a mod-
 erate competence. 
32
    His love of  truth, the  care with  which  he
 guarded  himself against all undue leaning or bias,
 was a marked feature in his character.   It wTas  not
 merely with him the instinct of the  gentleman, the
 avoidance of the acted or spoken lie, but a  princi-
 ple which pervaded his whole  life  and influenced
 his conduct.   In relating  a case or giving an opin-
 ion he would not only state what was true, or what he
 believed to be true, but he  would disdain to round off
 with a phrase those points on which he was ignorant or
 on which  his observation had been imperfect. " Guard
 yourself against envy," he  said to a friend, (,it will
 not only  impair your happiness, but it will distort
 your views, you will be unable to see things as they
 are, and it will  spoil your whole moral character."
 He was fond of  music, but  had no skill in it.  He
 had, too,  a love of painting and sculpture, and  his
 criticisms  on  the works of art he saw abroad, as con-
 tained in his journal, seem just and appreciative.
 With all this he had little  imagination, and no love
 of poetry.  Byron was the only poet  whom he read
 with pleasure.
    Dr. Swett's business was principally that of a con-
sulting physician.  He never obtained much general
practice, perhaps he did not seek it.   His manner
was not such as to win him  general  popularity.
With strangers or indifferent persons, he was com- 
33
monly cold and reserved, sometimes even abrupt;
but when in the society of those with wdiom he was
intimate, and when in a genial humor, there could be
few companions more  amusing; full  of anecdote,
ready  at  retort—sparkling with puns, his coldness
and reserve vanished completely.
    Another of his  traits that  must not be passed
over in  silence, was his  kindness  of heart.   His
was not  alone the  ready charity, which seeks the
easiest  mode  to relieve itself from an  unpleasant
emotion, but a thoughtful and considerate kindness
which carried out deliberately, plans deliberately
formed.   Were not the circumstances  too recent,
and the names too readily traced, anecdotes  could
easily be given which showed a delicacy of feeling
of which few are capable.  Perhaps of all his  quali-
ties this the most endeared  him to his friends, and
made him loved best by those who best  knew him.
3 
APPENDIX.
    POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION, BY DR. ISAACS.

   The body  was extremely emaciated, and exhibited a
tendency to run into rapid decomposition.   Sinuses existed
in each axillae, resulting  from suppuration in lymphatic
glands.   The discharge from them was thin, serous, and
of a highly urinous odor.
   The abdomen on being opened contained about  half a
pint of serum.  The kidneys were smaller than  usual;
the capsule, somewhat  congested, adhered with consider-
able firmness to the body  of the organ, so that its substance
was  necessarily torn, in  a careful attempt to separate it.
The surface of the kidney  was  pale, slightly irregular,
rough, and non-vascular.   On cutting open the kidneys
they were found to be much harder and firmer than natu-
ral ; the cortical  substance  was   of  a slightly  yellowish
color, the pyramids seemed for the most part to have been
obliterated, or at least were distinctly visible in very few
places.   The mucous membrane of the pelvis of the kid-
neys was slightly thickened.
    On microscopic examination, the secreting tubes in the
cortical  portion of  the kidney, were found to have been
extensively destroyed or  to have disappeared; those which
were left had lost their epithelial lining, and of course with 
35
it their secreting power.  The capillaries of the malpighian
bodies were thickened, and the fibrous matrix  of the kid-
ney  much increased.  The malpighian bodies were gen-
erally in  close apposition  with  each other, which  might
probably be explained by the increased growth and pres-
sure of the fibrous tissue upon the tubes, &c, causing their
obstruction, and thus allowing of the approximation of the
malpighian  bodies.  The vascular plexus of veins on the
surface of the kidney was  almost  entirely destroyed, and
from the compression necessarily made upon those in the
substance of the organ, many of them must have been de-
prived of their functions or even removed by absorption,
thus explaining the presence of albumen in the urine.  On
the surface of the kidneys were several round white masses,
which, on minute examination, were found to consist of oil
globules with disintegrated and imperfect epithelium.
   The urine taken from the bladder was alkaline, and de-
posited a copious white sediment, which consisted of renal
and vesical epithelium and  of oil globules.  The mucous
membrane of the bladder was slightly thickened.
   The  liver was larger than usual, of reddish  brown
color, contracted  and irregular on the surface in two or
three places, where it also exhibited a somewhat granular
appearance, which was more marked in the interior  of the
organ.  It might be said to have been in the second stage
of cirrhosis.
   Under the microscope the hepatic cells contained more
oil globules than  usual, and the  cellular tissue was much
more abundant than in the  healthy condition.   Some small
round white spots, under  the peritonaeum, of the  upper
surface  of the liver, as also some which were observed
underneath the pleura costalis, of the left side,  were  found
to consist of small deposits of pus;  this was proved by the 
36
appearance under the microscope of pus globules floating
in a transparent fluid, exhibiting nuclei when acted on by
acetic acid, and by the fluid gelatinizing when  mixed and
stirred with caustic ammonia.
   There was about a pint of serum in the left  pleural
cavity, and somewhat less in the right.  The  lungs were
perfectly healthy, with the exception of a very small spot
at the apex  of  each, which  seemed to  contain obsolete
tubercle.
   The heart seemed rather more flabby than usual, but
was otherwise healthy.