|w pUmoriam. 
Eli G EDDINGS. WALKER, EVANS & COGSWELL, 
PRINTERS, 
3 Broa.t and 109 East Bay Streets, 
CHARLESTON, S C. DEPARTED THIS LIFE 
On the 9TH Day of October, 1878, 
IN THE EIGHTIETH YEAR OF HIS AGE, 
F. LI GEL) DINGS, M. [)., 
LATE PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF 
MARYLAND; 
LATE PROFESSOR OF PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY AND 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE J 
OF SURGERY; OF THE INSTITUTES AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE; 
OF CLINICAL MEDICINE; AND 
EMERITUS PROFESSOR uF THE INSTITUTES AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IN 
THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA; 
ALSO, 
COkRI SPONDING MEMBFR OF VARIOUS SCIENTIFIC AND LEARNED SOCIETIES 
OF THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE. A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
OF THE 
PROFESSIONAL CAREER 
OF THE LATE 
o f c s s o v 3£ l i (G c cl di n g s. 3 U. £1. 
PRESENTED TO THE 
Medical Society of South Carolina, 
BY 
DOCTORS F. M. ROBERTSON, T. L. OGIER and J. P. CHAZAL, 
A COMMITTEE APPOINTED FOR THAT PURPOSE. 
In the discharge of the duties assigned them, the 
members of the Committee feel fully impressed with 
the importance of the subject, and the difficulties 
which, in the nature of the case, surround it. To 
sketch the professional career of one whose life has 
been prolonged to fourscore years, and who occupied 
the varied positions in our profession, which fell to 
the lot of our distinguished and accomplished 
brother, is no common work. 
Notwithstanding the trite and oft-repeated remark, 
that trivial incidents during boyhood point to the 
future man, yet few, at the age of fifteen years, can 
have the slightest conception of the course in life 
which, in the Providence of God, has been marked 
out for them; and the events connected with that 
early period are often forgotten, become mere myths, 6 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
or pass into oblivion. In the present case, at least, 
vve find no authentic incidents recorded, indicating, at 
so early an age, the distinguished future he was des- 
tined to fulfil. 
Professor Eli Geddings, M. D., the subject of this 
biographical sketch, was born in what was then 
termed the “ District” of Newberry, South Carolina, 
since the war between the States, Newberry “ County,” 
in the year 1799, where he passed the first fourteen 
or fifteen years of his life. Within this period of his 
boyhood are comprised the events of the war of 1812 
with Great Britain, and the consequent depressed 
condition of the agricultural and commercial re- 
sources of the entire population. He received his 
primary education, in which was included the Latin 
and Greek languages, in the Abbeville Academy, his 
family having removed to that County), under the 
superintendence of Alpheus Baker, a classical teacher 
of wide-spread and undisputed reputation. To the 
thorough system of teaching under Mr. Baker, he 
was indebted, in some measure, for his proficiency in 
the Greek and Latin languages. In this Academy 
the late Governor F. W. Pickens, who ran such a 
brilliant and distinguished career, as a statesman, 
orator and politician, and Professor Geddings were 
school-fellows. They left the institution to pursue 
courses in life that widely diverged from each other. 
Young Pickens, in consequence of the wealth of his 
parents, received the most thorough and complete 
education that could be furnished by the institutions 
of learning in our country. His associate in the MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
7 
Abbeville Academy, young Geddings, from pecuniary 
inability, was thrown upon his own resources, and, as 
we shall see, at once commenced the study of medi- 
cine. They were, however, ultimately brought to- 
gether as physician and patient, at a time when each, 
in his own particular sphere, stood conspicuously be- 
fore the public gaze. 
We are indebted to a short biographical sketch of 
Professor Geddings, in the Charleston Medical Jour- 
nal and Review, for May, 1857, and to repeated con- 
versations with himself, for the facts connected with 
his struggles in the prosecution of his early medical 
education. The statements contained in the sketch 
alluded to, were, on more than one occasion, verified 
by Professor Geddings, who consented that a likeness 
of himself should accompany its publication in the 
Journal. 
“In January, 1818, he commenced the study of 
Medicine at Abbeville, under Doctors Miller and 
Arnold, both eminent practitioners of their day. He 
remained under their tuition until July, 1820, when 
he was licensed to practice by the examining board 
in Charleston, composed of a committee from the 
Medical Society of South Carolina. At the succeed- 
ing anniversary of the Society, in accordance with 
the existing regulations, he was re-examined before 
that body, and, at the close of the examination, a 
resolution highly complimentary to him was offered 
by one of his present colleagues, Professor Dickson, 
and unanimously adopted by the Society.” 
At the time Professor Geddings commenced the 8 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
practice of Medicine, there were but few medical 
schools in the United States. Philadelphia was con- 
sidered the focus, from which medical education was 
diffused to the far distant portions of our growing 
country; and the time honoured University of Penn- 
sylvania was, emphatically, the brilliant head-light that 
threw its rays to the remotest distance. We rejoice 
that she has had the boldness to be one of the first 
to carry the standard of medical education still further 
in advance. May her noble example be soon followed 
by other institutions ! 
It was customary, at the period of which we speak, 
for students to read Medicine for two or three years 
under some reputable practitioner, and, then, if their 
circumstances would admit of it, to resort to Phila- 
delphia, attend one course of lectures in the Medical 
department of the University, return home, and com- 
mence practice with a license, but without a diploma. 
It will be perceived, that the subject of our notice did 
not enjoy the advantage of even one course of lectures, 
before he was compelled to apply for an examination 
for a license under the State law, and at once com- 
mence practice. This was not from choice, but ex 
necessitate; for the sum required to make a journey 
to Philadelphia and return, at that time, was so large, 
that few who were without means, were willing to 
run the risk of borrowing the necessary amount. 
What a contrast with the present facilities for obtain- 
ing the degree of M. D. For a mere trifle, yea, for 
almost nothing, two full courses of lectures are offered 
to the student, and in some instances, graduation can 
be effected in an incredibly short time. MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
9 
“ Upon receiving his license, Dr. Geddings com- 
menced the practice of his profession in St. George’s 
Parish, in the County of Colleton, but his health 
having become impaired, he promptly returned to 
Abbeville, where he again entered upon the duties of 
his calling, and in January, 1821, he formed a profes- 
sional connection with Dr. E. S. Davis. Here he 
continued in active employment until November, 
when he went to Philadelphia, and attended the 
course of lectures during the winter of 1821-22, at 
the University of Pennsylvania. In the spring of 
1822 he returned to his labours as a practitioner of 
medicine, in that part of Abbeville County known as 
the ‘ Calhoun Settlement.’ He there continued his 
arduous duties until August, 1824, when, having 
determined to remove to Charleston, he left Abbe- 
ville, and arrived in Charleston in September, 1824, 
during the prevalence of yellow fever, from which he, 
in common with other strangers, suffered. We refer 
to this circumstance, in order to record his oft re- 
peated expression of grateful friendship towards Pro- 
fessor J. E. Holbrook, who was his medical attendant 
on this occasion, and of whom he always speaks 
as one among the few men who fostered his early 
career.” 
During his residence in Abbevrlle, Professor Ged- 
dings was a most earnest and untiring practitioner, 
and it was, doubtless, amid the severe and, in many 
instances, fatal epidemics, of the worst forms of mala- 
rial fevers, which frequently visited this rich cotton 
region, that his mind was impressed with the import- 10 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
ance of a thorough foundation for ultimate success in 
his profession. He continued his studies, notwith- 
standing the immense amount of time and labour 
necessarily expended by a country practitioner, to 
accomplish comparatively small results. He evi- 
dently worked with an eye to a future and more 
widely extended field ; and it is here we trace the 
dawnings of that ambition, which, in after life, urged 
him on to the accomplishment of greater things. He 
had already commenced the study of the French lan- 
guage, no doubt in contemplation of a visit to Eu- 
rope at no distant day. 
“ A very strong motive among those which in- 
duced Professor Geddings to remove to Charleston, 
was the knowledge that a Medical College had just 
been organized in his native State, and his earnest 
desire to obtain his diploma at home. He conse- 
quently attended the inauguration of the Medical 
College of South Carolina, and had the proud satis- 
faction of receiving, with three others, his degree, at 
its first commencement in the spring of 1825. Dur- 
ing the session he voluntarily discharged the duties 
of Demonstrator of Anatomy, to which office he was 
regularly appointed at the termination of the course. 
In the spring of 1826, Professor Geddings went to 
Europe for the purpose of attending the hospitals of 
Paris and London, especially the former. He re- 
turned to Charleston in May, 1827, engaged in the 
practice of medicine, and for one year discharged the 
duties of Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical 
College. At the end of this period he resigned the MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
11 
appointment, and opened a private school of prac- 
tical Anatomy and Surgery, which was eminently 
successful.” 
During the period which intervened between the 
commencement of his private lectures and instruction 
in Practical Anatomy and Surgery, and his removal 
to Baltimore, the amount of labour performed by Pro- 
fessor Geddings was absolutely incredible. While 
discharging faithfully and thoroughly his obligations 
as a lecturer, his private hours were devoted to the 
most rigorous and unremitting study. He had 
already mastered the French language, and had so 
far progressed in German as to be able to write elab- 
orate critical reviews of works in that language from 
eminent German authors, which, together with numer- 
ous bibliographical notices from his pen, can be found 
scattered through the medical periodicals of that day, 
especially in The American Journal of Medical 
Sciences. We shall allude to this subject again, in 
connection with the productions of his pen, and 
merely mention it now to show the magnitude of the 
self-imposed task, which his love for his profession 
had thus induced him voluntarily to assume. 
Let us look for a moment at the course adopted 
and carried out in his private school : 
P'irst—He acted as Demonstrator of Anatomy to 
his class and directed in person the different divisions 
in their dissections, for he had no assistant. 
Second—He delivered a full course of lectures on 
the Institutes and Practice of Medicine. These lec- 
tures were carefully prepared, written out in full, and 12 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
delivered from the manuscript, emphatically, “ ex 
cathedra,” seated in a chair, with reading desk in 
front. In fact, at that period, this was the usual cus- 
tom in the College. In this course was included 
Pathology, which was then comparatively a new 
subject. 
Third—He delivered a full and thorough course of 
Regional, or Surgical Anatomy. This was one of 
the most valuable courses that he delivered, if com- 
parison is admissible. The dissections were first 
made in a private room, and the different structures 
of the region to be considered were carefully dissected 
out, after which the parts were replaced in their nor- 
mal positions, and in this condition the subject was 
introduced into the lecture-room before the class. 
Those who have had the privilege of following him 
in these lectures on Surgical Anatomy, will doubt- 
less remember the intense interest with which he 
invested the subject. The learned Professor, at that 
time young and bouyant, appeared before his pupils 
without notes or manuscript, scalpel and forceps in 
hand; commenced by describing and marking out 
the particular region under consideration; step by 
step unfolded the mysteries that lay concealed be- 
neath ; described each tissue, layer, and the various 
structures as he passed from without inward, then 
traced their relations to each other, finally concluding 
by a minute description of the nature, symptoms, 
diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of the different 
diseases and accidents to which the particular region 
was liable. In the course of these extemporaneous MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
13 
demonstrations, he was never at a loss for a word, 
and authorities rolled from his lips in smooth and 
unbroken accents. To listen to such a teacher was 
truly a pleasure and not a task. It was very justly 
remarked by one of the speakers at the memorial 
meeting of the Medical Society of South Carolina, 
“To read, was, with Professor Geddings, to mem- 
orize, and to memorize was to engrave upon the 
brain marks which were never to be obliterated— 
* cere perennius ’ ” 
Fourth—He delivered a full and complete course 
on Surgery, comprehending every practical point in 
this important branch, including bandaging, the dress- 
ing of wounds, adjusting of fractures and dislocations, 
and all the operations capital and minor, each of 
which was illustrated and demonstrated on the sub- 
ject. 
Fifth—He delivered a course of Clinical lectures 
at the Alms House Hospital, in which the then new 
subject of physical diagnosis by auscultation, per- 
cussion, &c., was for the first time introduced in our 
city. 
Sixth—Three times a week, after the exhausting 
labours of the day were over, he met a private class in 
his library, and examined them on the different lec- 
tures that had been delivered in the College by the 
regular professors. These examinations were thor- 
ough and complete. Before commencing, he would 
request to be informed of the particular subject on 
which each professor had been lecturing, and his 
examinations were so accurate, that it was difficult to 14 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
believe that he had not listened to the lectures himself. 
He appeared to be fully conversant with the particular 
views of each professor in relation to his branch. 
The different courses of lectures alluded to, were 
not all delivered on one day, but particular days were 
allotted to certain portions of the course. On some 
he lectured three times a week, and on others twice a 
week. The lectures were delivered in the afternoon 
and at night, so as not to clash with the regular 
course in the College. 
Professor Geddings was identified with the Medi- 
cal College of South Carolina from its origin, and 
with the Medical College of the State of South Caro- 
lina, to the day of his death, as he was Emeritus 
Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Medicine 
in the latter institution. And as his professional 
career was so intimately connected, indeed so blended 
with the history of both these institutions, we offer 
no apology for introducing a brief sketch of each of 
them. 
The records, together with verbal information, seem 
to point to the late Professors T. G. Prioleau, and 
James Ramsay, as having first suggested the organi- 
zation of a Medical College in the City of Charleston. 
The late Dr. Cooper, the President of South Caro- 
lina College, a State institution, located in Columbia, 
had previously made an effort to have the power of 
conferring the degree of M. D., incorporated in the 
Act creating the College. Associated with Professors 
Prioleau and Ramsay, in this effort, were Doctors 
Samuel Henry Dickson, Henry R. P'rost, James MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
15 
Moultrie, Edmund Ravenel, Stephen Elliot,and others. 
Some of these gentlemen had previously delivered 
private lectures to classes of students gathered in 
their offices. After a fruitless effort to effect an 
arrangement with the Charleston College, a literary 
institution still in successful operation, under the care 
of an able President and learned Professors, by which 
a Medical School could be engrafted on that institution, 
these gentlemen made application to the Medical 
Society of South Carolina. At their earnest solici- 
tation, the Society was finally induced to apply to the 
Legislature for an amendment to its charter, which 
would enable them to carry out their cherished object 
under the auspices of the Society. In the winter of 
1822, the amendment to the charter was granted, and 
immediate steps were taken to organize and commence 
operations. 
A large majority of the Society, whose member- 
ship was not confined to the city, were incredulous 
as to its success, and determined not to bear any 
portion of the pecuniary responsibility of the en- 
terprise, or to share any of the odium attending a 
failure. One of the express stipulations, though not 
in writing, was that the Medical Society would, un- 
der no circumstances, incur any pecuniary respon- 
sibility whatever, in connection with the undertaking. 
This was to be borne, alone, by the members of the 
Faculty individually; the Society, in accordance with 
the provisions of the amended charter, merely con- 
ferring the degree of M. D. upon the candidates 
recommended by the Faculty. The following Pro- 16 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
fessors were elected, and arrangements made to 
commence operations at once, viz : Samuel Henry 
Dickson, M. D., Institutes and Practice of Medicine; 
Thomas G. Prioleau, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases 
of Women and Children; James Ramsay, M. D., 
Surgery; Henry R. Frost, M. D., Therapeutics and 
Materia Medica; Edmund Ravenel, M. D., Chemis- 
try ; and John E. Holbrook, M. D., Anratomy. The 
late Dr. J. Mott Campbell was selected as the party 
to fill the chair of Anatomy, but he declined to accept 
the position, and Dr. Holbrook was duly elected in 
his place, and may justly be considered the first 
Professor of Anatomy. The first regular course 
of lectures was delivered in the winter of 1824-25, in 
a small wooden one story building, which occupied 
nearly the present position of the extreme west end 
of the Roper Hospital. At the termination of the 
course, in the spring of 1825, there were five can- 
didates for graduation, four were successful and one 
was rejected. Professor Geddings, as we have stated, 
was one of the graduates, and had acted as De- 
monstrator of Anatomy during the term. One of 
these graduates is still living, Dr. J. P. Garvin, of 
Augusta, Georgia, who, for many years filled the 
chair of Therapeutics and Materia Medica in the 
Medical College of Georgia. By diligence and the 
most untiring zeal, there was a steady increase in 
the numbers of the classes, and the College soon 
became popular throughout the South and South- 
west, and was acknowledged to rank with the Medi- 
cal Schools of Philadelphia and New York. MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
17 
An appropriation of money was made by the 
Legislature of South Carolina, which, together with 
an appropriation from the City Council of Charles- 
ton, and a donation of land, upon which the College 
now stands, enabled the Faculty to erect a com- 
modious and handsome edifice. The extensive Mu- 
seum of the Philosophical Society, at the head of 
which was the late distinguished Stephen Elliott, 
L. L. D., one of South Carolina’s most gifted sons, was 
transferred to the Medical College. Other liberal 
appropriations were made from time to time by 
the Legislature, which enabled the Faculty to im- 
prove the building, increase the Museum, and place 
the entire establishment in the condition in which 
the outbreak of the war found it. In all these im- 
provements Professor Geddings took a deep interest. 
Up to the period of 1830, the Medical Society, as 
the nominal trustees of the College, had not inter- 
fered with, or attempted to control any of the acts of 
the Faculty. Constituted, however, as the Medical 
Society was, and considering the rising popularity of 
the Professors of the College, and the elevated stand- 
ing to which the institution had attained, it was not 
strange, that personal preferences, as well as pro- 
fessional ambition, aspirations and rivalries should 
have sprung up. Not long after the termination of 
the course of lectures, in the Spring of 1830, an event 
occurred which caused an outcrop of the substratum 
of feeling, to which we have alluded. Professor 
Ramsey, from ill health, was compelled to resign his 
position in the Faculty, and thus left the vacant 18 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
chair of Surgery a tempting prize to be contended 
for. Legally, the election was by the Society. It 
was at this critical juncture that a majority of the 
Society desired to control. The Faculty felt, and it 
was so understood, that their connection with the 
Society, though technically legal, was nominal, and 
never supposed that an effort would be made to 
thwart them in their choice to fill a vacancy in their 
own body. The Faculty unanimously desired the 
election of Professor Geddings, who, as we have 
seen, was then lecturing, with great eclat, to large 
classes in his private school. The result of the elec- 
tion was adverse to Professor Geddings. A warm, 
and, we regret to say, in some respects, a bitter con- 
troversy ensued, which finally resulted in the with- 
drawal of the entire Faculty, including Dr. John 
Wagner, who had been elected by the Medical 
Society in opposition to Professor Geddings. The 
question of the right of property was thrown into the 
courts, which decided that, legally, under the 
amended charter, the College building, erected by 
the personal exertions and influence of the Faculty, 
including the Museum, &c., was invested in the Med- 
ical Society of South Carolina. The Medical Society 
proceeded, at once, to fill the chairs thus vacated. 
Three of the Professors were elected from the Medi- 
cal Society, and three were professional gentlemen of 
high standing from the North. 
The old Faculty at once applied to the Legislature 
for a new charter, which was granted, under the 
name of the “ Medical College of the State of South MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
19 
Carolina.” The trustees of the new College consisted 
of eleven non-medical gentlemen, together with the 
Faculty. The former were, Nathaniel Heyward, C. 
J. Colcock, Henry L. Pinckney, Robert J. Turnbull, 
Samuel Prioleau, Elias Horry, William Drayton, 
Jacob Ford, Henry A. DeSaussure, Jasper Adams, 
and Mitchell King. The following medical gentle- 
men composed the Faculty: Samuel Henry Dickson, 
M. D., Institutes and Practice of Medicine ; Thomas 
G. Prioleau, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women 
and Children ; John Wagner, M. D., Surgery; Henry 
R. P'rost, M. D., Therapeutics and Materia Medica; 
Edmund Ravenel, M. D., Chemistry, and John E. 
Holbrook, M. D., Anatomy. We will now leave the 
College for a moment and return to the subject of 
our biography. 
In 1831 Professor Geddings discontinued his pri- 
vate school, for the purpose of accepting the Chair of 
Anatomy and Physiology in the University of Mary- 
land, to which he had been unanimously elected. 
This was an unlooked-for compliment, and must have 
been highly appreciated by this learned Professor, 
especially at this time. That we may know the high 
estimation in which Professor Geddings was held at 
this early period of his professional career, we quote 
the following remarks from an introductory address 
by Professor G. S. Bedford of New York, the new 
Professor of Obstetrics in the Queen Street College 
in Charleston : “In a neighbouring State, famed for 
the generous and magnanimous character of its citi- 
zens, it was deemed expedient to look beyond its 20 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
own immediate precincts for a Professor to fill an im- 
portant chair in the Medical University. After a 
diligent search for talent and acquirement, the atten- 
tion of the Board was directed to the City of Charles- 
ton ! Yes, gentlemen, to an individual, who was 
born, reared and educated in the State of South Car- 
olina, whose professional studies were prosecuted 
among you, and whose efforts were first displayed in 
his own native State, was assigned the honourable ap- 
pointment of Professor of Anatomy in the Univer- 
sity of Maryland. The name of Geddings is familiar 
to you all. Many of you no doubt have listened 
with rapture to him, when delineating the human 
structure, and you can all bear witness to his industry 
and zeal in behalf of medical science. He was one of 
your own citizens, taken from among you to fill a 
chair in an institution, to which he is now adding lus- 
tre by his indefatigable exertions.” Other offers of a 
no less flattering character were tendered Professor 
Geddings, and he was repeatedly urged to accept 
positions of high distinction and honour, but his affec- 
tions seemed to cling to his native State. We will 
briefly mention some of these offers. In 1830 or ’31, 
when Professor Eberle removed to Cincinnati, Pro- 
fessor Geddings, without any previous knowledge of 
such an intention on the part of the electors, was 
chosen to the vacant chair of Practice of Medicine in 
Jefferson Medical College. He was solicited, upon 
the organization of the New York University under 
Chancellor Matthews, to take the Professorship of 
Anatomy. When Professor Drake seceded from the MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
21 
Medical College of Ohio, and formed a new school, 
Professor Geddings was offered the chair of Anatomy 
with a guarantee. Also, in the organization of the 
University of Louisville, Professor Geddings was 
solicted by the venerable Caldwell to take a place in 
the institution, even “ with the choice of whatever 
chair he should desire.” These are testimonials that 
speak in no ordinary terms of commendation, and of 
which the recipient might well be proud. While 
they reflect honour upon his native State, they will 
ever remain as testimonials to his well-earned repu- 
tation, as a learned professor and a skilful practitioner 
of our divine art. 
As the professional career of Professor Geddings is 
also interwoven with the history of the new institu- 
tion, “ the Medical College of the State of South 
Carolina,” in which he was Emeritus Professor of the 
Institutes and Practice of Medicine, and Professor of 
Clinical Medicine, the duties of which he frequently 
discharged up to a late period, we will continue our 
sketch of the history of the College, in points bearing 
upon the professional biography of our lamented 
friend. 
When we last spoke of the new College, the Pro- 
fessors were without a roof to shelter themselves, or 
a class. The question had to be met at once prompt- 
ly and energetically. They purchased, on their own 
individual responsibility, the “ Charleston Theatre,” 
situated at the junction of Broad and New Street. 
With slight alterations and modifications, it was soon 
placed in a condition for the reception and accommo- 22 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
dation of a class, and operations were commenced in 
the fall of 1833. this time a separate Chair of 
Physiology was created, the subject having been 
hitherto assigned to the Professor of the Institutes of 
Medicine, and Dr. James Moultrie was elected to the 
chair, which up to the date of his resignation, a short 
time after the termination of the war, he had filled 
with marked ability for thirty-four years. The open- 
ing session found them with a class of one hundred 
and five students, and thirty-five graduates at the first 
commencement. The proportionately large number of 
graduates was owing to the number of second course 
students, whose first course had been attended under 
the old regime. The second year they had a class of 
one hundred and twenty-seven students with thirty- 
seven graduates. It was but natural, that the old Fac- 
ulty, under all the circumstances, should have awak- 
ened the sympathies of their friends in the city, and a 
deep interest among the numerous alumni of the old 
institution throughout the South and Southwest, who 
nobly sustained the original founders of their “Alma 
Mater.” 
While success, complete and triumphant, crowned 
their efforts, repeated changes in the Faculty, disap- 
pointment and final failure was the result of the effort 
of the new Professors in the old College. It was 
finally abandoned. 
As we have already mentioned, Professor Geddings 
accepted the Chair of Anatomy and Physiology in the 
University of Maryland, and removed to Baltimore in 
1834, when he commenced the duties of his impor MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
23 
tant chair, and soon ranked with the leading practi- 
tioners of that city. We shall allude under another 
head of our subject, to his labours in the journalistic 
and literary department of our profession, during his 
residence in Baltimore. At present we continue our 
notice of his connection with the Medical College of 
the State of South Carolina. As an evidence of the 
estimation in which our deceased friend was held by 
the Faculty and Trustees of this institution, in 1837, 
we find them creating a new Chair “of Pathological 
Anatomy and Medical Jurisprudence,” to which Pro- 
fessor Geddings was unanimously invited. Strongly 
attached to his native State, and especially to Charles- 
ton, he at once decided to accept the invitation, and, 
resigning his position in the University of Maryland, 
returned to the scenes of his early professional strug- 
gles. He met with a warm welcome, and soon achieved 
a success, that placed him in the front rank as a teacher 
and successful practitioner of our art in all its 
branches, the practice of Medicine, Surgery, and 
Obstetrics alike. 
We may here state, that in all the heat of the con- 
troversy that arose between the Medical Society and 
the Faculty, Professor Geddings never exhibited the 
spirit of resentment in the slightest degree. In more 
than one instance, he has magnanimously returned 
good for evil, and held out a helping hand to those 
who had no reason to expect it. However deeply he 
might feel an injury, at the moment, his heart was 
incapable of inflicting a deliberate act of retaliation 
upon the most humble of his fellow men; we may 
truly say, he 24 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
“Carried anger as the flint bears fire. 
Who much enforced, shows a hasty spark, 
And straight is cold again.” 
Through the kind offices of mutual friends, an ar- 
rangement was finally made, by which the Trustees 
and Faculty of the Medical College of the State of 
South Carolina, became possessed of the old edifice 
in Queen Street, and were at last installed in their 
ancient rights under a new and independent charter. 
The charter of the Medical College of South Caro- 
lina expired by its own limitation, and has never been 
revived. All differences were reconciled, personal 
good feeling restored, and peace and harmony pre- 
vailed. At this happy termination of the contro- 
versy, no one rejoiced more sincerely than the subject 
of this sketch. 
In 1841, the College sustained a great loss in the 
death of Professor Wagner. A favourite pupil of 
the renowned Sir Astley Cooper, he had sustained 
the reputation of his great master, and reflected 
honour upon the institution that had honoured him. 
To the chair, thus made vacant, Professor Geddings 
was at once transferred, and the subjects hitherto 
taught by him were distributed among the other 
chairs. 
In 1849, Professor Dickson accepted an invitation 
to remove to New York, for the purpose of filling a 
chair in one of the Medical Colleges of that city. 
Professor Geddings was immediately transferred to 
the vacant chair of the Institutes and Practice of 
Medicine, and Dr. John Bellinger was unanimously MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
25 
elected Professor of Surgery, to fill the post vacated 
by the transfer of Professor Geddings. Professor 
Dickson remained only three years in New York, and 
having expressed a desire to return to Charleston, 
Professor Bellinger, his former associate in practice, 
and bosom friend, resigned from the Faculty, in order 
that arrangements might be made to restore Professor 
Dickson to his former position. To consummate this 
arrangement, Professor Geddings cheerfully consented 
to resume the chair of Surgery, leaving that of the 
Institutes and Practice of Medicine vacant, that Pro- 
fessor Dickson might be re-instated. The harmony 
and good feeling which brought about this result, was 
alike honourable to all the parties concerned. In 
speaking of the act of Professor Geddings on this 
occasion, Professor Dickson remarked, in his intro- 
ductory lecture, alluding to his eminent abilities, that 
“it was difficult to say what chair he was the best 
qualified for.” 
In 1858 Professor Geddings, desiring to curtail 
his immense labours, for his practice was widely ex- 
tended in our community, resigned the chair of 
Surgery, and retired from public teaching. Dr. J. J. 
Chisolm was elected to fill the vacancy thus occa- 
sioned. Not long after this Professor Dickson was 
a second time invited to the North, and accepted the 
chair of practice in Jefferson Medical College, Phila- 
delphia. The late Dr. P. C. Gaillard was elected to 
fill the chair made vacant by the second resignation 
of Professor Dickson. Soon after the opening of the 
lectures in the fall, Professor Gaillard’s health gave 26 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
way, and he was hurried to a premature grave, in the 
midst of his labours and usefulness, before he had 
completed one half of his first course of lectures. 
This melancholy event placed the College in a seri- 
ous dilemma, and at the earnest solicitation of the 
friends of Professor Gaillard, and the unanimous 
request of the Trustees and Faculty, Professor Ged- 
dings magnanimously consented to complete Profes- 
sor Gaillard’s course, to relieve the Faculty from its 
embarrassment, and more especially for the benefit of 
the family of the late Professor. Comment upon 
such an act would only dim its lustre. It speaks 
with a silent eloquence, which language cannot ex- 
press ! 
At the termination of this course of lectures, the 
Trustees and Faculty unanimously requested Pro- 
fessor Geddings to return to the chair of the Insti- 
tutes and Practice of Medicine, which he finally 
consented to do, to the great joy and satisfaction 
of troops of friends and admirers. It is unnecessary 
for us to say with what distinguished ability he 
continued his labours up to the time of his retirement 
as a public lecturer and teacher. 
The late war put a summary end to the operations 
of the College. We will now follow the professional 
career of our deceased friend through this trying 
ordeal. No one had more at stake than Professor 
Geddings, and no one felt a deeper interest in the 
struggle, or looked forward with more anxiety to the 
result of the contest. His all was on the hazard, and 
his all was swept away, and, at a time when he MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
27 
should have retired in affluence and comfort, he was 
reduced at an advanced age to the necessity of earn- 
ing a support by his daily practice among patients, 
who, in most cases, like himself, had been reduced to 
daily personal struggles for a meagre subsistence. 
How often have we heard him say, in speaking of the 
changed circumstances of many of his old patients: 
“ They paid me liberally when in prosperity, and 
I cannot forsake them in the hour of their adversity.” 
Although advanced in life at the commencement 
of hostilities, Professor Geddings did not shrink from 
the performance of those duties, due from every 
patriotic citizen to his country. When it became 
evident that the struggle would demand the entire 
resources of the South, both in money and men, the 
organization of our army was commenced on a scale 
commensurate with the magnitude of the struggle 
and the issues at stake. At this juncture he was 
tendered and accepted the appointment of Surgeon 
in the Confederate army, was at once placed on a 
board for the examination of the Medical officers 
of the army, and served until the surrender of 
Charleston. 
There is one sad occurrence connected with the 
events of the struggle around Charleston, which we 
must mention. It is one which the entire profession, 
in common with the numerous personal friends of 
Professor Geddings, cannot cease to lament. It is 
the utter destruction of his entire library. By the 
unremitting labours of his pen, from an early period in 
his professional career, and the most liberal appropri- 28 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
ation of money, Professor Geddings had accumulated 
one of the most valuable private medical libraries in 
this country. It was composed of the most choice, 
rare and valuable publications of ancient and modern 
times. In fact, on its richly laden shelves could be 
found representatives of every subject connected 
with medical literature in all branches, as well as the 
collateral sciences, in the languages of almost every 
nation, ancient and modern. Its collection was che 
result of careful selection under his own eye, during 
repeated visits to Europe, and, at the breaking out of 
the war, it was acknowledged to be, as a private 
medical library, without a rival. It was always open 
to his less favoured professional friends, and it consti- 
tuted a rich mine to which we could all freely resort 
and draw supplies when our own stock failed. But 
alas ! this rich collection, the result of years of toil 
and care, was destined to share the fate that had 
ruthlessly swept similar treasures from the face of 
the earth. As the fall of Charleston became immi- 
nent, Professor Geddings had his entire library 
boxed up and sent to Columbia. It was deposited 
in the government stores in that city. These were 
among the first buildings fired by Sherman’s army, 
and Professor Geddings’ magnificent library perished 
in the flames. We are free to acknowledge that we 
do not attribute the destruction of this valuable col- 
lection to design ; but it evidently resulted from the 
fact that it had been stored here in boxes, without 
any specific information as to the character or value 
of their contents, and it fell a sacrifice to the ruthless MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
29 
and unmitigated chances of war. This, however, did 
not end the misfortunes of our friend. His collection 
of surgical instruments and apparatus must have 
amounted, in money value, to a considerable sum. In 
the progress of the bombardment of our city, the 
inhabitants were compelled to remove to those sec- 
tions, the most remote from the range of the enemy’s 
missiles, and Professor Geddings, in common with 
others, temporarily left his residence in George 
street, and the first night that he was absent from 
his premises, some one broke into the room, in 
which these instruments were kept under lock and 
key, and stole every article of any value. On his 
return the next morning, there was not left him 
even a complete pocket case, so thoroughly had the 
burglar accomplished his work. Strange to say, no 
clue to the theft was ever discovered, nor was a 
single instrument recovered. 
All the Professors of the College had survived the 
war, and soon after the return of those who had been 
forced, from various causes, to leave their homes in 
the city, the question of the revival of the lectures 
came before the Trustees and Faculty. The College 
building and museum had been very much damaged, 
not from shell, but from irresponsible and lawless 
parties, who had drifted into the city with the regular 
army, and Freedman’s Bureau. Suffice it to say on 
this point, for we do not wish to dwell upon the un- 
pleasant topics associated with this unfortunate pe- 
riod, that with great difficulty arrangements were 
made by which the institution was placed in a condi- 30 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
tion to accommodate a class in time for the lectures 
in the fall. It is due to our lamented friend to state 
here that as he could not leave with our army, when 
the city was evacuated, he tendered his resignation 
to the War Department, and remained; and it was 
through his strenuous exertions that further depreda- 
tions on the College and Museum were prevented. 
The commander of the Federal troops occupying the 
City of Charleston, by a special order, placed the 
building and its contents in his charge, to be ulti- 
mately turned over to its rightful owners. 
The prospects for the College were at first bright. 
Numerous letters were received from students ma- 
king inquiries in relation to the resumption of the 
lectures, particularly from those who had attended 
their first course anterior to the breaking out of the 
war, hoping to be able to attend a second course, and 
apply for graduation in the ensuing spring. At this 
time Professor Geddings seemed to be inspired with 
fresh energy. It was through his influence, some 
years before, that a “Medical and Surgical Poly- 
clinic” had been organized in connection with the 
College, and we now have before us a manuscript 
draft in his own handwriting, of the plan under 
which it was organized. He recommended, now, a 
revival of this “ Polyclinic,” and it was continued 
until the Roper and City Hospitals were again 
placed at the disposal of the Faculty of the College. 
It was mainly through his influence that, what was 
termed, an “ extraordinary Professor” was appointed 
to each of the regular chairs, who, under proper ar- MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
31 
rangements, supplemented twice or three times a 
week, a portion of the regular course. This arrange- 
ment enabled the Faculty and Trustees, as chairs 
became vacant by death or resignation, to fill the 
vacancy by those who had been tried on each special 
branch. 
Although there was, for two or three years, an en- 
couraging hope that the institution would regain its 
former standing, yet this hope, from various adverse 
circumstances, was not realized. But we yet trust 
that our time-honoured and distinguished “ Alma 
Mater,” that has so long stood as “a bright and shin- 
ing light” in the medical firmament, will revive and 
again shine forth with the brilliancy of her former 
glory. 
Advancing age, in spite of an iron constitution and 
indomitable will, commenced to tell upon Professor 
Geddings, and in 1871 he tendered his resignation of 
the chair he had so long, so ably, and so acceptably 
filled. The regret, both in and out of the profession, 
was wide-spread. After strenuous efforts, arrange- 
ments were made by which, on accepting his resig- 
nation, he was elected “ Emeritus Professor of the 
Institutes and Practice of Medicine,” and a new chair 
of “ Clinical Medicine” was created, to which he was 
unanimously elected. Under this arrangement he 
continued to give clinical lectures at the hospitals for 
two years, at the end of which time he finally retired. 
As Emeritus Professor, however, at the request of 
his former colleagues, he gave an occasional clinical 
lecture at the hospital on some obscure or unusually 32 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
interesting case, until within a year of his death. 
Whenever it was known that he was to give a clinic, 
the entire class flocked around him, as well as many 
practitioners, who always delighted to hear him and 
dwell upon the words of wisdom which fell from his 
lips at the bedside of the patient. We are reminded, 
in this connection, of his unusually retentive memory 
and power of storing away facts and authorities, 
which has been casually alluded to. This doubtless 
was the foundation of his great success as a fluent 
and cogent lecturer. He was never at a loss for 
either a word or an authority, however deep and in- 
tricate the subject might be ; language and facts were 
always at his command. This constituted his power 
as a clinical lecturer, and led to his remarkable accu- 
racy in the diagnosis of rare and obscure diseases. 
Was the case new and of unusual occurrence, some 
facts and observations were at once revived in his 
mind, which gave a clue by which he was guided, step 
by step, to a final judgment, in which it was rare for 
him to make a mistake. He had cultivated to a high 
degree the faculty, which has been termed, “diagno- 
sis by exclusion,” one of the most valuable gifts that 
can fall to the lot of a practitioner of medicine. It is 
not strange, then, that Professor Geddings occupied 
so commanding a position as a skilful practitioner, 
and enjoyed almost a monopoly of consultation 
practice. In times of difficulty and in cases of grave 
responsibility, all sought his counsel, for all, old 
and young, had unbounded confidence in his abil- 
ities, and the most implicit reliance upon his high- MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
33 
toned honour, and rigid conformity to the code 
of medical ethics; not only the written code, but that 
unwritten code which is indelibly engraved upon the 
soul of every high-toned gentleman. He could not 
stoop to a mean action. This was conspicuous in his 
intercourse with his professional brethren of every 
grade and age, so remarkably brought out in the re- 
marks of every speaker who addressed the memorial 
meeting, called by the Medical Society of South 
Carolina, to pay a deserved tribute to his memory. 
The younger members of the profession could look 
to him with the confidence which a child places in a 
father, and feel sure that it gave him infinitely more 
pleasure to instruct and lead the inexperienced in the 
way of truth, than to indulge in the ignoble gratifi- 
cation of seeing him humiliated by having his errors 
blazoned abroad, or stealthily wounded through mis- 
placed confidence. This trait always drew the young 
around him, and caused the older members of the 
profession to seek his advice, amid difficulties of the 
most grave and trying character. He had an un- 
quenchable love for the dignity and honour of his 
profession, and grieved to witness any act that was 
calculated to lower the standard of its ethics, or tar- 
nish with one blot the brightness of its splendor. 
We will now bring our sketch of the professional 
career of our distinguished confrere and friend to a 
close, by a few words in relation to the productions 
of his pen. Brief references have been made to his 
contributions to the medical periodicals of his day. 
Soon after he commenced his labours as a reviewer, 34 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
it was evident that his name added greatly to the rep- 
utation of the periodical that could secure him as a 
colaborator, hence all were anxious to place him upon 
their lists. His early papers were published in the 
“American Journal of Medical Sciences,” edited by the 
learned Isaac Hays, M. D., and published by the 
house of the Leas of Philadelphia. Through the 
kindness of Dr. John Forrest, Jr., we are enabled to 
give a list of nine elaborate reviews contributed to 
that journal from 1830 to 1838. The works reviewed 
were of the first order of merit, and in the Latin, 
German, French and English languages. He gives 
also a list of thirty-six bibliographical notices in the 
same journal, from 1830 to 1837. Many of these are 
by no means short, but generally covering more than 
a page, and sometimes three or four pages. These 
works are in the Latin, German, French, Spanish and 
English languages. Besides these, we have a list 
furnished of miscellaneous contributions to the same 
journal, eight articles, from 1830 to 1847. The care- 
fully collected list, by Dr. Forrest, accompanies this 
report, for which we tender him our sincere thanks. 
Professor Geddings has contributed to other jour- 
nals, including the different periodicals that have 
been published in Charleston, but we have not been 
able to procure a list of articles or subjects. After 
his removal to Baltimore, he became the editor of a 
journal himself, some account of which we have been 
able to give. 
The “Baltimore Medical Journal,” with him as the 
sole editor , but assisted by an able list of co-labourers, MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
35 
was commenced in 1833. Besides his productions as 
editor, every number contained elaborate and well 
prepared articles on some of the most important sub- 
jects pertaining to the science of medicine. Yielding 
to a call for a monthly, instead of a quarterly journal, 
its form was changed, and it was issued in 1835 as a 
“monthly,” under the title of the “ North American 
Archives of Medical and Surgical Science.” To this 
he contributed more editorials and other important 
essays than he had done to the former. What with 
the duties of his chair in the University, the respon- 
sibility of the journal, clinical instruction in the Alms- 
house and Infirmary, and private practice, he must 
have performed an incredible amount of mental and 
physical labour during his residence in that city, and 
we have been informed that his health had become 
seriously impaired before his return to Charleston. 
Professor Geddings was a liberal contributor to a 
work under the editorial supervision of Isaac Hays, 
M. D., published by the house of Carey, Lea and 
Blanchard, entitled the “American Encyclopaedia of 
Practical Medicine and Surgery; a digest of Medical 
Literature.” The first volume was issued in 1834, 
and the second, and, unfortunately the last, in 1836, 
when, from various causes, it was suspended. Pro- 
fessor Geddings contributed largely to its pages. One 
article alone, on the subject of arteries, covered one 
hundred and forty-six closely written pages in double 
columns. 
At the twenty-first annual meeting of the American 
Medical Association, held in the city of Washington, 36 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
May 3d to 6th, 1870, the Committee on Medical 
Education appointed for the ensuing year, was com- 
posed of the following members: 
E. Geddings, M. D., South Carolina, Chairman. 
J. M. Forrest, M. D., Missouri. 
Egbert B. Johnson, M. D., Alabama. 
W. O. Ayers, M. D., California. 
The report was presented to the annual meeting of 
the Association, held in the city of San Francisco, 
May, 1871. We do not hesitate to say, that it is a 
model document, in which the wide and extended 
subject of medical education is treated of in an ex- 
haustive and masterly style. From circumstances 
explained by Professor Geddings in a note to the 
President of the Association, it was impossible to 
obtain the co-operation of the other members of the 
committee, and the report appears as the work of the 
chairman alone. It was his last written deliverance, 
and though the recommendations proposed were 
at first coldly received, yet he lived to see two of our 
leading Colleges adopt a three years course, with 
most of the improvements suggested. To show how 
earnestly he was interested in the great subject of 
medical education, and how unselfish he was in 
the motives which urged him in putting forth the 
report, we make a short quotation from his conclu- 
ding remarks. “The committee must now bring 
their labours to a close, not however without a feel- 
ing of regret at the imperfect manner in which they 
have performed the duty assigned them. The sub- MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
37 
ject is one of great difficulty, and the best they 
could do in discussing it, was to offer the result of 
their honest convictions. In what they have pro- 
posed, they have not permitted themselves to cherish 
any sanguine expectations of success. The evils 
complained of are too deep-rooted, and have too long 
existed, to be readily given up or abandoned. Noth- 
ing short of the combined action of the whole pro- 
fession, brought to bear upon the defects and abuses 
complained of, can eradicate them. They are aware 
that the suggestions made, will, by a certain class, be 
denounced as the ‘effete offcasts of European sys- 
tems,’ not at all adapted to the new-fangled ideas of 
American progress. This subterfuge, your reporter 
(who is alone responsible for the substance and senti- 
ments of this report), would reply, that he has been 
a medical teacher in medical colleges for nearly half 
a century, and is, therefore, prepared to express a 
conscientious opinion of their delinquencies and of 
their source. In addition to this, he has had every 
opportunity, more than once, of visiting the leading 
universities of Europe, and participating in the valua- 
ble instructions of some of them ; so that he may be 
considered in some degree competent to express an 
opinion in regard to the European and the so-called 
American system. In conclusion, he would say, 
that what he has said, he has said honestly and con- 
scientiously, that he has reached a period of life 
when he is admonished to retire from the responsible 
duty of medical teaching; that the preceding remarks, 
although having the semblance of harshness, are the 38 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
conscientious dictates of one who has laboured long 
and faithfully for medical science, who, now in the 
evening of his days, has nothing to ask, but who 
would esteem above all other rewards for the honest 
labour of life, the silent approbation of his professional 
brethren in the United States.” 
We sincerely regret that our information in relation 
to the productions of his pen, is so unsatisfactory and 
incomplete. This, however, is owing to'the fact that 
they are so widely scattered over years of contribu- 
tions to various journals. All his written lectures, 
as well as any other manuscripts that he may have 
had on hand previous to the war, must have been de- 
stroyed by himself, or burnt with his library, as no 
trace of them can be found. 
We, in common with the entire profession, have 
often lamented that Professor Geddings had not em- 
bodied his rich experience in the Practice of Medi- 
cine and Surgery (in both of which he stood pre- 
eminent), in systematic works, which would have 
been enduring monuments to his reputation. That 
he was in all respects fully qualified for the execution 
of two such works, no one can doubt, when made 
aware of the numerous well written, and carefully 
elaborated papers from his pen, to be found scattered 
through the medical periodicals of our country, com- 
mencing with his pupilage and extending to a short 
period before his death. The embodiment of his ex- 
tensive learning and experience in these two branches 
alone, in a permanent form, would have been a price- 
less legacy to our profession, and a rich boon to the MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
39 
cause of suffering humanity. We consider the loss 
of his experience in those diseases peculiar to the 
South and Southwest, a great misfortune. No man 
in the wide domain of the medical profession, had 
more thoroughly studied the class of diseases arising 
from the influence of malaria, than Professor Ged- 
dings. Assailed in his own person, on the very 
threshold of his professional career, with the much 
dreaded disease, yellow fever; and subject through 
life to the baleful influences of malaria in his own sys- 
tem ; with an uninterrupted practice for over half 
a century in those peculiar forms of diseases, who 
was so well fitted to leave a record worthy of this im- 
portant subject, as Professor Geddings ? 
We are informed that previous to the late war, he 
had so far completed a work on the Practice of Med- 
icine, as to have had the title page set up in the re- 
nowned publishing house of H. C. Lea, of Philadel- 
phia, contemplating no doubt its speedy publication. 
The further prosecution of the work was interrupted 
by the stirring events of i860 to 1865, but, after the 
termination of hostilities, he received a letter from 
Mr. Lea, telling him that the form of the title page, 
etc., had never been taken down, and still remained 
awaiting the continuance of the work, and urged him 
to send on the manuscript at once. The manuscript 
of this work was preserved when he destroyed his 
lectures as stated, and was carefully boxed up, and 
sent to Columbia with his library, where it shared 
the fate of this valuable collection. 
Professor Geddings had an intense aversion to be- 40 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
ing thrust obtrusively before the public, and what- 
ever has been left on record from his pen is emi- 
nently practical and useful, and not intended to elicit 
popular applause. It was a sad thought, as we stood 
beside the casket that enclosed his manly form, and 
gazed upon his finely proportioned and noble head, 
now cold in death’s embrace, that the toil and wide 
experience of that once active brain, had passed 
away leaving scarcely a trace behind, save in the 
memories of those who had enjoyed the benefit of his 
instruction as a lecturer, or in consultation with him 
at the bedside of the suffering patient. We shall 
ever lament that our libraries have no works from 
his pen, to be placed alongside of the productions of 
the great masters of his day and generation. PROFESSOR ELI GEDDINGS. 
The Tribute of the Medical Society to His 
Memory. 
Addresses of Messrs Parker, Robertson, Ogier, Michel, Carrere, 
Kinloch, Brodie, Porcher, Buist and Wragg. 
A special meeting of the Medical Society of South’ 
Carolina was held in the lecture-room of the Medical 
College, in Charleston, S. C., at noon, on Tuesday, 
October 22, 1878, for the purpose of paying a suita- 
ble tribute of respect to the memory of their late 
fellow member, Professor Eli Geddings. The meeting 
was largely'attended by the members of the Society, 
the members of the medical profession generally, and 
by the students of the College. 
Dr. F. L. Parker, the President of the Society, pre- 
sided over the meeting, and, after stating briefly its 
object, delivered a glowing eulogy upon the deceased, 
as follows: 
REMARKS OF PROF. F. L. PARKER, M. D. 
Gentlemen of the Medical Society of South Carolina: 
It is my sad duty to communicate to the Society that 
death has again invaded our ranks, and has deprived 42 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
us of one of our oldest, and our “ most distinguished 
member.” 
One, whom we all loved and delighted to honour; 
one, whose profound interest in all that related to this 
Society, whether of a scientific or a social character, 
we have so often realized; and one, whose manly 
form, intellectual face and cultivated tastes have been 
so long familiar to us as a landmark in the medical 
profession—never to be forgotten—is no more. 
I have convened the Society in order to announce 
officially, to the members, the death of Professor Eli 
Geddings, M. D. He died at his residence in George 
street, in this city, on the evening of October 9th, at 
the advanced age of nearly eighty years, full of hon- 
ours and ripe for the sickle. 
It is a melancholy satisfaction for us to know and 
to record the fact, that his illness was a short one, 
that his death was comparatively painless; and that 
God, in His mercy, shielded and protected him in his 
last moments, who had so often soothed with tender- 
ness and alleviated with skill the pangs and sufferings 
of so many of his fellow mortals on their death-beds. 
As the strong and massive oak, peculiar to our own 
forests, resisting for years the rude blasts of winter 
and many storms, sometimes finally yields and falls 
before the gentle winds of autumn, so he, in the pride 
and strength of a powerful constitution, after resisting 
“ all the ills that flesh is heir to,” for eighty years, 
finally yielded up his useful and distinguished life in 
the evening of a mild October’s day, almost without 
pain, and without a murmur. MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
43 
We have borne his remains to their last resting- 
place in Magnolia, as became pupils who honour their 
“ great master.” 
“ After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well.” 
We are now assembled, gentlemen, to institute the 
proceedings usual on such occasions, which I feel 
will be entered into, in this instance, with emotions 
of peculiar interest, solemnity and respect. 
We are here to express our appreciation of the 
character and attainments of him who for over sixty 
years has advanced and elevated our calling, to record 
our obligations to him as our preceptor and teacher, 
and our love for him as a friend. 
For all of us acknowledge his pre-eminent talents 
and cheerfully accord to him the just and enviable 
title of having been for years “ the recognized head 
of the profession ; nearly all of us are proud of being 
his pupils, and are grateful for his wise instructions ; 
and there is scarcely one of us who has not, at one 
time or another, sought his counsels in professional 
emergencies, or who has not received at his hands 
some manifestation of his friendship and regard. 
As a further evidence of our respect for his mem- 
ory, I have called this meeting in the halls of the 
Medical College, the scene of his early labours and 
subsequent triumphs in the arena of the lecture-room 
and on the operating table. I have also invited the 
profession generally, and the medical students of the 
class of 1878, to unite with us on this occasion— 44 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
for he belonged to the whole profession—and I feel 
that in so doing I have your hearty concurrence. 
Here I may be permitted to remark that this class 
is the only one which has assembled at this institu- 
tion to which he has not lectured either officially or 
by special invitation, from 1824 to 1878, a period of 
fifty-four years, except a short period when absent at 
the medical school in Baltimore. 
Others will refer to his large acquirements in every 
branch of medicine, to his attainments in the modern 
languages and in general literature, outside the ordi- 
nary fields of professional studies, and to his noble, 
generous impulses. Of his charities and gratuitous 
services in every class of society during a long life in 
which he pursued his arduous professional duties, in 
storm, in sunshine and in rain, ’tis not for us to speak. 
These are the works of the good physician, these are 
recorded in the hearts of his patients and in Heaven. 
“ Far may we search before we find 
A heart so manly and so kind ; 
But not around his honoured urn 
Shall friends alone and kindred mourn ; 
The thousand eyes his care had dried, 
Pour at his name a bitter tide, 
And frequent falls the grateful dew 
For benefits the world ne’er knew.’’ 
The meeting is now ready for the object which 
has brought us together. MEMOIR OF ELI* GEDDINGS, M. D. 
45 
PROF. F. M. ROBERTSON, M. D., 
Then delivered the following address, and concluded 
by offering the resolutions which are appended. Dr. 
Robertson spoke as follows : 
Mr. President and Members of the Medical Society of 
South Carolina: The sad occurrence which has 
brought us together to-day is one that swells the 
bosoms of us all with the most solemn and tender 
emotions. One has been removed from our midst 
who, for many years, has occupied the foremost 
place in the front rank of our profession—one whose 
talents, learning and skill in every branch of the 
healing art, have elicited the homage, admiration and 
respect of us all. 
Professor Eli Geddings, M. D., the Gamaliel of our 
profession, in the eightieth year of his age, has been 
removed, by the hand of death, from the cares, toils 
and anxieties of a long, distinguished and eventful 
professional career. It was my good fortune to have 
enjoyed an intimate professional intercourse with him 
for half a century, and I can testify to the herculean 
labours of that career. 
With the exception of a few of the earliest years of 
his professional life, and a short period spent in the 
City of Baltimore, Charleston has been the field of his 
labours. From him we have all, with scarcely an 
exception, been ever eager to draw wise counsels in 
difficult and obscure cases, as a consulting physician ; 46 
MEMOIR OF ELI 'GEDDINGS, M. D. 
and at his feet, in the lecture-room, we have listened 
with profound attention to his teachings from the 
Professorial Chair. It becomes us, then, as we cast a 
memorial chaplet upon his grave, to speak of him in 
terms, free from fulsome flattery, but full of admira- 
tion for his transcendent abilities, commendation for 
the zeal and energy manifested in the prosecution of 
the science of medicine in all its branches, and our 
unbounded applause for him as an able, accomplished, 
and, I had almost said, peerless teacher in the lecture- 
room and at the bedside of the patient. To have 
attained to this eminence, in spite of the early trials 
and difficulties with which he was environed, shows 
a mental power and genius of no ordinary stamp. 
To present a proper and faithful biographical 
sketch of out deceased brother, would require a more 
extended notice than the present occasion will admit 
of; and we trust that a committee will be appointed 
by the Society to prepare a biographical sketch of 
the professional life of the deceased. This is not only 
due to his world-wide reputation, but it will be ex- 
pected and looked for by the hundreds, yea thousands 
of pupils that have enjoyed his faithful and able in- 
struction, as well as the entire profession. Professor 
Geddings truly died in harness, for he attended a 
meeting of this Society, at the regular monthly meet- 
ing previous to the last, and on that occasion, entered 
with manifest earnestness into the discussion of yellow 
fever, which was then before the Society ; and, even, 
within a few days before his death, he attended to 
professional consultations with patients in his library. MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
47 
The sad reverses which overtook us all, at the ter- 
mination of the late war between the States, fell upon 
our friend and brother with a crushing force which 
could be illy borne at his advanced age. The fruits 
of years of toilsome practice, were swept away in a 
moment before his eyes, and he felt that the buoyancy 
of youth and the vigor of manhood, with which a few 
years would have enabled him to regain all that had 
been lost, were gone forever. He keenly realized the 
declaration of the sacred writer, that “ the days of 
our years are threescore years and ten, and if by 
reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is 
their strength labour and sorrow, for it is soon cut off 
and we fly awayand he often with deep emotion 
expressed a desire to depart and be at rest. 
With these brief remarks, Mr. President, I beg 
leave to offer the following resolutions for the con- 
sideration of the Society : 
1. Resolved, That we feel deeply the void which 
has been left in the ranks of our Society by the death 
of Professor Eli Geddings, M. D. 
2. Resolved, That in the death of Professor Ged- 
dings the medical profession has lost one of its 
brightest ornaments and most learned and distin- 
guished members, and the citizens of Charleston an 
accomplished, skilful, kind and sympathizing physi- 
cian, whose time and talents were ever ready at the 
call of the suffering and afflicted. 
j. Resolved, That to the members of his family we 
tender our most heartfelt sympathy and sincere con- 
dolence, in this sad hour of their affliction. 48 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
Resolved, That a committee be appointed to 
prepare a biographical sketch of the professional 
career of Professor Geddings, to be submitted to the 
Society at a future meeting. 
5. Resolved, That a copy of the above minute and 
resolutions be signed by the President and Secretary 
and sent to the family of the deceased. 
6. Resolved, That a blank page be set apart in the 
records of the Society, on which the name and date 
of the death of Professor Geddings shall be inscribed. 
These resolutions were seconded by Dr. T. L. 
Ogier in the following remarks : 
ADDRESS OF DR. T. L. OGIER. 
Gentlemen of the Medical Society : It is no ordinary 
occasion which calls us together to-day. The oldest 
member of the Society, one who has been engaged in 
the arduous and laborious duties of our profession 
for more than half a century, has passed away. A 
few of us have had the privilege of listening to his 
instructive lectures in the early part of his career. 
Many of us were not then born, but the few of us 
who were his pupils before his connection with the 
Medical College, when he lectured and dissected in 
the old building in Queen street, will always remem- 
ber his beautiful illustrations of the then new discov- 
eries and doctrines of the great Bichat and Brousais, 
and also his dissections and demonstrations of surgical 
anatomy. He had the most devoted love for his proT MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
49 
fession and the faculty of imparting his enthusiasm to 
his students, and some of us can date their first love 
for their profession to these forcible and scientific ex- 
positions of its doctrines. From this early date to 
the time of his death (a period of about fifty-five 
years) he was engaged in the active duties of his 
profession, and until the last few years lecturing on 
medicine and surgery. 
But it is impossible to do justice to his various 
scientific attainments in these remarks. I only name 
them to show that a truly great man in the profession 
has rested from his labours and gone to meet his 
God. May he receive that reward, more than all 
earthly honours to be desired, of “ Well done, good 
and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few 
things, I will make thee ruler over many things,” 
In the commencement of his public career I had the 
honour of being his pupil, and in his long professional 
life his companion and friend. In losing him, the 
brightest light of our profession is extinguished. I 
have lost the honoured preceptor of my youth, and 
the dear friend and companion of maturer years. I 
leave the details of his great character to be made 
by others more competent. 
The following remarks were then made by 
PROF. MIDDLETON MICHEL, M. D. 
Mr. President: The mournful occurrence which 
convenes us together admonishes us that death has 
come again into our midst to claim his due, though 50 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
he deprives us on this occasion of all that was strong 
and useful and worthy of professional emulation. 
Our distinguished Geddings has passed away ; he has 
gone from us “ into the far eternal silence of unreturn- 
ing time.” With his professional brethren, to all of 
whom so well known, he will yet live long in their 
memories, since his name must ever be found inde- 
fectibly inscribed upon the rolls of honourable re- 
nown. With a frame as tenacious and vigorous as 
the intellect was strong and brilliant which animated 
it, he was permitted to extend his remarkable career 
of usefulness to nearly fourscore years. 
A classical education, an enthusiastic and undivided 
devotion to the science of his adoption, the self- 
acquisition of several of the modern languages, con- 
sorted with that colossal memory, always the con- 
spicuous allotment of superior intellects, must have 
early predicted the eminent rank he was destined to 
attain; while a sagacious appreciation even in those 
early days of the only true and philosophical basis 
upon which scientific medicine and surgery rest— 
anatomy, physiology and pathology—to which he 
was entirely devoted for years, gave to his opinions 
that sway of almost oracular authority, and made 
them as precise and incisive in their characters as 
they were imposing in the point or condensation of 
their delivery. 
Added to genius in his calling, the deceased ex- 
hibited those physical and mental characteristics 
which mark surety of success—self-reliance, indomit- 
able perseverance, obstinate resistance of discourage- MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D 
51 
ment, which were all expressed in the intellectual 
eye, the compressed lips, the prominent chin and 
aquiline nose, 
*‘ The eagle’s beak between the eyes, 
That never knew a conqueror.” 
It is the “will to do” and determination to succeed 
that has wrought everything really useful and con- 
ducive to solid fame. 
The early history of Professor Geddings, to which 
we have heard himself allude with a feeling akin to 
pride, is but another instance of pre-eminence sinking 
its roots in deep obscurity. Born in Newberry, his 
youth was spent in farming, and he has been heard to 
say that he once drove a wagon to Charleston laden 
with cotton, and negotiated its sale in this city. 
Those who contemplate with interest the sublime 
possibilities of genius, and love the memory of our 
friend as I do, may still see near Chappel’s Depot, in 
the mound, and hearthstone, and walls that remain, 
the vestiges of that little monument of humble life 
where our colleague first drew breath ; and they may 
pause at the lesson inculcated, and meditate upon the 
full fruition of success that waits upon honesty of 
puroose and inflexible resolve. 
This remarkable place will ever be the boast of 
Newberry as the point of historic record and pride to 
our profession. Nature seems to have commemorated 
the event, and to have perpetuated the remembrance 
of all the solid worth and life-long usefulness which 
was to emanate from this unpretending spot, in eight 52 
MEMOIR OF ELI GELDINGS, M. D. 
white oaks standing near by, which, a friend tells me, 
are the largest he has ever seen, interlocking their 
immense limbs, sections through whose trunks would 
reveal concentric records of more than a hundred 
years. 
Removing to Abbeville, he here received his class- 
ical education at Baker’s school, and numbered among 
his early associates and intimate friends engaged in 
these initiatory studies the late Governor Pickens. 
He subsequently read medicine in the office of Drs. 
Miller and Arnold, of Abbeville, about the years 1819 
-1820, attending lectures in the Medical College of 
this City, where he soon was recognized as foremost 
among his classmates, and was the first, I believe, 
who presented for graduation, his medical thesis 
being upon the circulation of the blood, which was 
ordered to be published, and is in print in the Caro- 
lina Journal of Medicine and Science, then published 
in our city. 
But we cannot pursue our inquiry now, in accom- 
panying him through his professional advancement, 
since the simple enumeration of his surgical per- 
formances, the recital of his literary works as founder 
and editor of the “North American Archives,” a 
commentary upon his academic prelections in the 
various professional chairs he has filled, and an at- 
tempt to portray that elocutionary readiness which 
was ever at command, would trespass far beyond the 
time I have allotted to these remarks. 
The independent self-reliance which marked his 
course through life seems to have accompanied him MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
53 
to its close; reluctant to call for aid but upon himself, 
he was not willing to encroach upon his colleagues, 
even so far as to apprise them of his illness, for he 
knew how ready they would have been to flock 
around him in their ministrations of help and com- 
fort; but retiring to suffer incognito, like a monarch 
from our midst, he lays his sceptre down and wraps 
his mantle about him to be at rest, reminding us of 
the beautiful lines of the poetess : 
“Life we have been long together, 
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather ; 
’Tis hard to part where friends are dear, 
Perhaps t’will cost a sigh, a tear ; 
Then steal away, give little warning, 
Choice thine own time, say not good night, 
But in some bright clime bid me good morning.” 
Professor Michel, M. D., was followed, in the fol- 
lowing remarks, by 
DR. M. E. CARRERE. 
Mr. President and Members of the Medical Profession : 
This meeting has been convened for no common or 
ordinary purpose, but pregnant with solemnity and 
deep solicitude. We have assembled here as a band 
of brothers in social conclave, in behalf of the de- 
parted worth, to give impulse and expression to our 
feelings. A light has gone out in our midst. A 
brilliant star has been extinguished. The harbinger 
of death came, and, with his sickle, reaped from the 
midst of us, talent, virtue and benevolence. Dr. Ged- 54 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
dings was a man of no ordinary stamp, possessing a 
mind of high culture and refinement, and when in the 
meridian of his professional career he ran parallel 
and vied with the great lights of Europe and 
America. Few were his equal, none his superior. 
In his practice he scrupulously observed all the car- 
dinal points of etiquette, and was a strong adherent 
to the Code of Ethics, and, when engaged profession- 
ally with his brother practitioner, always exhibited 
fraternal liberality towards him. Dr. Geddings was a 
man highly endowed with clinical knowledge, and 
therefore generally formed a correct diagnosis of such 
cases brought under his supervision and treatment. 
This made him very successful in practice. 
In surgery he wielded the scapel with yEsculapian 
skill, his motto on the face of which was, "I wound 
to heal.” This point he generally carried out to the 
letter with triumphant success. Dr. Geddings was a 
friend to the widow and orphan, and when fortune 
smiled on him rendered pecuniary aid to the poor, 
coupled with his professional services,and when suffer- 
ing humanity was presented to his view he made nulla 
distinctione between the rich and the poor, but gave 
his professional services alike to both. My friends, 
Dr. Eli Geddings is not dead but still liveth; he will 
never die, but live embalmed in memory, in the hearts of 
his medical brethren, and in the hearts of scientific 
practitioners and surgeons. He, like Enoch, is trans- 
lated from earth to the realms of eternal bliss, a 
shining diadem in the coronet of just men made 
perfect. These very few remarks, my friends, are but MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
55 
a faint outline of the great surgeon. They are the 
expression of every heart on this occasion. 
The following remarks were then made by 
PROF. R. A. KINLOCH, M. D. 
Mr. President: I have listened with infinite satis- 
faction to the worthy tributes of respect and admira- 
tion which have been so happily presented by my 
seniors in the profession. I, sir, must ever feel grati- 
fied when I listen to a tribute to true worth. And if 
ever there was an occasion when a subject was'worthy 
of the remarks made, that occasion I now recognize. 
It may be considered superfluous for me to add any- 
thing to what has been said, but I would be doing 
violence to my nature, and to the feelings of my 
heart, were I not to offer my mite in testimony of 
the high appreciation in which our deceased brother 
was held. 
It has been deemed, by so called “practical men,” 
a useless task to eulogise the dead. I confess to that 
kind of sentiment, however, which clings to the 
privilege of perpetuating the memory of departed 
friends, of recounting and holding up of their virtues, 
of trying so to associate myself with the memory of 
their good deeds as to profit by their example. It 
would be farthest from my intent to overdraw a 
picture of their greatness, or to hold up for admira- 
tion virtues which had no existence. In all that I 
would say of the dead, as of the living, my disposition 56 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
and my effort would be to speak clearly and truth- 
fully. 
In referring to the character of our departed friend, 
there is to me a sweet pleasure in its just and truth- 
ful estimate. Dr. Eli Geddings is no more! He is 
removed from the petty jealousies, the unworthy 
suspicions and the unjust criminations that come to 
most of us during our period of attrition with the 
world. His worst enemy will find it difficult to detract 
from his sterling qualities, to disparage his good 
deeds, or to obscure the effulgence of his varied 
talents. A great man, a true man, a useful citizen, 
a skilled and good physician is no more ! Ours the 
loss; his, I trust, the gain! His life was in many 
respects a struggle; it was checkered with good and 
evil fortune, and it can scarcely be said to have 
reached, in all respects, its merited reward. Its most 
characteristic feature, perhaps, was the triumph of 
professional effort, unless we except its wide useful- 
ness. Upon this latter feature I ought scarcely to 
comment. Its proper recognition is with the people, 
among whom he lived out his more than “threescore 
years and ten.” And yet, my friends, our streets and 
public places are not clad in mourning; we hear no 
booming of cannon, no tolling of bells, no gathering 
of the masses, no pulpit orations, no fulminations of 
eloquence from the halls of legislation or the cham- 
bers of justice, no provision for his loved ones. With 
the death of a successful warrior, a second-rate states- 
man, or a conspicuous politician, arrangements for 
these things would be ample. MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
57 
And yet who amongst us would desire to have 
upon this occasion a different exhibition of feeling? 
I answer for our departed brother, that he would 
rather have it as it is. He lived, in spite of misfor- 
tunes, and independent of public applause, cheered 
and elevated by his zeal in a noble work ; he died 
with the full consciousness of a duty performed to 
his fellow men, and to his loved profession. To-day, 
in the mansions of the rich and the humble dwellings 
of the poor, his memory is warmly cherished, and his 
name thrice blessed. For time to come the mention 
of his good deeds, and the recollection of his kindly 
sympathy, will be a potent influence with the family 
circle. In many a nursery there is yet to drop a 
mother’s silent tear at the reality of his absence ; as 
in many a chamber, during the profundity of night, 
there has, heretofore, gone forth a wife’s most grateful 
prayer for his eternal welfare. Better this than the 
pageant train, the shouts of the multitude, the tri- 
umphal arch, or the regal tomb. 
But it would seem more pertinent to the occasion 
of our assembling here to-day to speak of our de- 
parted brother as he lived in his relation with the 
profession. He has been the physician of note in this 
section for nearly half a century, and, during most of 
this time, the recognized head of the profession. In 
the earlier and middle portions of his career he had 
to cope with more than one colleague of great pro- 
fessional ability, and possessing a wider influence for 
promotion. With these he early held his own, and 
when he had reached the fullness of his development 58 
MEMOIR OP ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
he stood avowedly “the noblest Roman of them all.” 
The impress of his talent and his professional devo- 
tion has been fixed upon Southern medicine. Earn- 
ing a reputation first as a lecturer upon anatomy and 
several of the cognate branches of medicine, he added 
to this by his ability as a writer, and in due time he 
achieved success as a practitioner of medicine and 
surgery. His strength consisted in the excellency of 
his attainments in the several departments of medi- 
cine, surgery, and obstetrics. He eschewed special- 
ism, for with us it was then almost synonymous with 
charlatanry. In his efforts as a lecturer and teacher 
it was a matter simply of opinion whether he suc- 
ceeded best with medicine or surgery. His erudition 
in medical literature was unsurpassed in this country, 
and his practical acumen was such as to cause him 
to be constantly selected for consultation. 
This wide success was not owing altogether to the 
force of intellect or natural genius. Most of it came 
of arduous toil and indomitable will. In some respects 
his mind and temperament were not well adapted to 
his calling. While the memory was remarkable, the 
logical element was not of the first order, and the 
temperament was too actively nervous. The more 
surprising then, and the more creditable his success. 
He certainly was not born a surgeon. Years ago he 
remarked to me that he was never constituted for the 
practice of surgery, but that he had followed it as a 
necessity. And yet during the earlier part of his 
career how wonderful were his achievements as a 
surgical teacher and operator. He did, however, pos- MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
59 
sess certain great elements for success in surgery, 
though he lacked others. He had the quick discern- 
ing eye, the courage and the will that bore him tri- 
umphantly on in many a desperate struggle. While 
the hand trembled, the eye flashed ; and whether the 
scalpel or the amputating knife, it was urged home 
and did successful work. 
In his intercourse with his professional brethren 
of all ages and standing, Dr. Geddings was ever cour- 
teous, and kind, and fair. To the youngest of them 
he was unassuming, social, and friendly, never obtru- 
sive with his superior knowledge, but always willing 
to afford the benefit of his wise counsel. In all 
ethical relations he was consistent and true. Pos- 
sessing more of the fortiter in re than the suaviter in 
modo,\\Q was not constituted for securing friendships, 
yet he made but few enemies in the profession, while 
he commanded the respect and esteem of all who 
learned to know him. 
It is not the least pleasing portion of my duty here, 
to confess my individual obligations to him in his 
capacity as teacher, counsellor and friend. It is easy 
to call to mind important facts and principles I first 
obtained at his lips. The influence of the professional 
enthusiasm which he so constantly exhibited, has 
often worked for my good. The recollection of his 
struggles and his triumphs over serious difficulties 
has, in time of need, been a most effective stimulus. 
He is gone ! I can yield to none of you, my friends, 
in the sad regret felt at his loss. I trust that God 
will raise up some one of you to fill his place. While 60 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
but few of us can ever hope to reach the excellence 
of his greatness, I may indulge the fervent hope that, 
when our work is done, we will pass away with the 
consciousness of having tried, in our time, as he did, 
to elevate our noble calling, and to leave behind the 
record of a useful life. 
Dr. R. L. Brodiethen made the following address : 
REMARKS OF DR. BRODIE. 
Mr. President: Seven years ago just such a gath- 
ering of the medical profession of Charleston assem- 
bled to do homage to deceased greatness and good- 
ness, when Dr. John Edwards Holbrook died. The 
grand old teacher and author had laid down his 
scalpel and pen, and we realized that a great scientific 
light had gone out. To-day we meet around the new- 
made grave of his friend and compeer to give expres- 
sion to our grief that we shall see his face no more. 
Dr. Eli Geddings rests from his labours. 
This was a stalwart traveller on life’s highway, who 
had succored many on the journey ; but as the shad- 
ow's of evening lengthened on his pathway, he 
was so weary with the toil of the road, that he lay 
down to an everlasting repose. This was a busy 
searcher after truth, who, for more than half a cen- 
tury, had sought to evolve, by the light of a great 
science, the mysteries of “ Life and the Resurrection 
of Life; ” but at last he paused for a moment on the 
threshold of the unknown, and then passed within MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
61 
the portal into the full blaze of the Beautiful and the 
True. Ours be the loss, his the gain ; ours the un- 
rest, his the rest. To many of us Dr. Geddings was 
known for years as the able, but stern, unapproachable 
teacher. He was the Gamaliel at whose feet we sat 
and learned. Between the professor’s chair and the 
student’s bench there was, in that day, a distance well 
defined and well observed. We listened and won- 
dered at the versatility and genius which would one 
day demonstrate the minute anatomy of the eye, on 
another would extemporize on meningitis, and on a 
third would extirpate the upper maxillary bone. More 
than mortal he seemed to our gaze. But time and 
distance had left their traces upon both of us, and we 
were again brought into new relations with each 
other. During a professional attendance on a beau- 
tiful boy, in whom I was much interested, I felt the 
need of counsel, and sought it of our deceased friend. 
It was evident that the patient was fast passing be- 
yond the reach of human aid. When we had retired 
for consultation he laid his hand upon my shoulder, 
and with a voice choked with emotion, he said : “ I 
wish I could help you ; I know just how you feel 
over this case.” It was a new revelation of the man, 
unexpected and startling. ’Twas “ the touch of nature 
that makes the world akin.” The sympathy of a mo- 
ment dispelled the illusion of years, and a great heart 
glorified a great intellect. 
Years later Dr. Geddings was my confrere as a 
member of the Board of Health. An earnest desire 
for the public weal, and a devotion to the interests of 62 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
those, to so many of whom, he stood in the relation 
of medical attendant, always characterized him. But 
the impossibility of accomplishing any good while 
occupying a mere advisory position, and the utter 
loathing which possessed his honest soul at the spec- 
tacle of abuse of trust and power in others, led to his 
retirement to private life. 
I have dwelt thus, Mr. President, upon the moral 
qualities of the deceased rather than upon his intel- 
lectual traits.. We know that popular applause is 
seldom the lot of the physician. The voice of the 
multitude is never heard in the sick chamber, or it 
becomes a whisper in the presence of suffering and 
death. But it is in the sacred confines of home that 
the conscientious physician finds his greatness and 
reward. If “ to live in hearts we leave behind is not 
to die,” surely our deceased friend erected for himself 
many a temple in which “ his memory now lies 
entombed, and many a warm tear will refresh and 
embalm it ” forever. 
“ Rest thee then softly in thy narrow dwelling 
Thou noble heart. 
And tho’ our bosoms may with grief be swelling, 
Let no tear start, 
It were in vain, for Time had long been knelling 
Great one, depart.” 
We lay this simple tribute on his tomb. Those 
who knew him better may do more; none who hon- 
oured him as much can do less. MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
63 
PROF. F. PEYRE PORCHER, M. D., 
Followed Dr. Brodie with the following remarks: 
Dr. Porcher said: 
We would esteem it a privilege, Mr. President, if 
permitted before this Society to pay a tribute, how- 
ever feeble and inadequate it may be, to the member 
who has recently passed from our midst, laden with 
years, crowned with honours, and mourned by an 
entire city. We doubt much if before, in the history 
of Charleston, a man has left our ranks with regard 
to whom there was more unanimity in the opinion of 
his worth, talents, industry, accomplishments, and 
capacity. Endowed with a very high order of mind, 
ambitious from his youth of acquiring knowledge, 
bold, enterprising, and self-reliant by disposition, and 
desirous of fitting himself for the attainment of the 
highest honours of his profession, he has perfectly 
succeeded. His record has indeed been a brilliant 
one, for he has identified his name with the principal 
achievements of the profession of his native State in 
every department of its practice for the past fifty 
years. There was nothing in surgery, in medicine, 
in obstetrics that the best of his compeers here and 
elsewhere could do that he did not perform equally 
well ; and it is not saying too much to affirm that in 
every gathering of our profession in this State he was 
the recognized leader, and every one willingly invited 
his counsel and listened with deference to his opin- 64 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
ions. Latterly, and for many years past, he has been 
literally, both in years and fame, the Nestor of the 
profession. 
Dr. Geddings never ceased from study to the latest 
days of his life. Even after the war he supplied himself 
with most of the new publications, and his collection 
of books, ancient and modern, was always by far the 
rarest and the richest in this city. He was a strict 
constructionist with regard to the necessity of main- 
taining a high standard of medical education. His 
elaborate paper presented to the American Medical 
Association is a proof of this. 
It is needless to refer to the moral and ethical traits 
of his character; for in his professional bearing and 
conduct, and in all the relations of life, he kept his 
honour stainless. He was justly proud of this, and 
we all remember how he was accustomed in our 
social gatherings (of which he was a leading spirit) 
to tell us that no one could point to a delinquency of 
his. Ever gentle and tender to a brother in trouble, 
with his strong arms and broad shoulders he was 
always ready to lift others out of the difficulties into 
which they had fallen, and to shield and protect them 
by the weight of his name and character. During so 
long a career of daily intercourse with families afflict- 
ed whether by sickness or domestic trouble, there is 
no possibility of estimating the good that such a man 
has done in his day and generation—the timely aid 
he has given to his brother practitioners, the cares 
he has removed, the sufferings he has assuaged, the 
hopes he has imparted; substituting relief, comfort, 
health and happiness. MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
65 
We must be pardoned on this occasion only for 
one word personal to ourselves. We cannot refrain 
from stating that it was our good fortune to succeed 
him in the Chair of Clinical Medicine in the Medical 
College of the State of South Carolina. We could 
scarcely hope even to imitate so great a teacher, yet 
the honour of occupying the same position—in which 
he lead longo intervallo—was an exceeding high one. 
But we must not occupy too much of the attention of 
this Society, where others may desire to offer their 
meed of praise to our deceased brother. 
The following remarks were then made by 
dr. j. s. BUIST. 
Mr. President: I hope I may be allowed the privi- 
lege of trespassing upon your time to pay my brief 
and humble tribute to the memory of one who, from 
my childhood and upwards, I have always been 
taught to revere and respect as a father in the pro- 
fession, and a Nestor among his peers. Situated as 
I am so far in years from the active period in the 
brilliant career of the late Dr. Geddings, it would ill 
become me to enter into any eulogy as to his distin- 
guished life and character. This has already been 
done by those far more able and familiar with his life 
and times; but intimately associated as I have been 
with him in the last decade, the strong and ster- 
ling traits of character, combined with great genius 
and attainment, as exhibited then, only convinced me 66 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
that he was ever worthy of the distinguished reputation 
he enjoyed, and that made him not only an ornament 
in his profession, but the pride of the community in 
which he lived. Combined with great learning, as we 
are all well aware, there was eminently that practical 
turn of mind which made him grasp the situation as 
it was, and improve every opportunity that presented 
itself without selfish motive, and to the general good 
of his fellow citizens. 
When from the chaos and wreck of the late war we 
all returned to our homes anxious to lay the founda- 
tions of our new medical careers, none felt more deeply 
than he the altered and changed relations existing in 
the charitable distributions of our calling; none lent 
more cheerfully and cordially his best energies and 
matured wisdom and judgment to the remedying of 
the existing evils, and as soon as time and opportu- 
nity presented, he laid the foundations through his 
influence of the development of our public charities, 
which will always stand as a monument to his interest 
in the cause of medical education and the relief of 
suffering humanity. We may safely say that it was 
to his great efforts and controlling influence that our 
community is indebted for the large and commodious 
institutions which daily contribute to the relief of 
hundreds of the poor and destitute. 
With no selfish aims or purposes to serve, with 
malice toward none and charity to all, his highest 
ambition seemed to advance the standard of his pro- 
fession, and benefit mankind in his day and genera- 
tion. Always willing and ready to respond to the MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
67 
calls of charity, he took particular delight in the 
exercise of those high gifts with which nature had 
endowed him, and none shone more brightly when in 
contact with such distress and suffering. 
It has been said that— 
“ The evils that men do lives after them ; 
The good is oft interred with their bones.’’ 
But this was Pagan philosophy, unenlightened by the 
benignant reign of Christian charity and civilization. 
If from any act of Dr. Geddings evil may have re- 
sulted, that evil will soon be forgotten, merged as it 
has been in the noble life of usefulness he spent, and 
the brilliant example he has left us. 
The speaking was then closed by the following 
remarks from 
DR. W. T. WRAGG. 
Mr. President: I desire to say a few words on this 
occasion, so full of interest to all of us who,are mem- 
bers of this Society, but most especially to those who, 
like myself, are fast passing to the “bourne from 
which no traveller returns.” 
My recollections of Prof. Geddings go back to the 
time when, as a youth, I first became acquainted with 
the movement set on foot for establishing the Medi- 
cal College of South Carolina. In 1824 the efforts, 
sustained under the greatest difficulties, for founding 
a Medical College were brought to a successful ter- 68 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
ruination. Moultrie, Holbrook, Dickson, Ramsay, 
Prioleau, Frost, and Ravenel, all young in years, and 
all unknown to fame, having raised money for the 
erection of a fine building, by pledging all that they 
had, and, I may well add, all they hoped to acquire, 
stood up, in their new and untried places, and by the 
force of self-reliance, launched into mature existence 
an institution destined to make their names known 
through all this wide land. 
Then and there, as the first fruits of their labours, 
appeared for the first time, in our view, young Ged- 
dings emerging from the teachings of these youthful 
masters, with a promise of eminence and usefulness, 
which, though at first only recognized by his teachers, 
was soon discovered by others, and in rapid progress 
to greater maturity, he attained a place which fixed 
him in the admiration of all—a place which he con- 
tinued to occupy and adorn for more than fifty years. 
These men are now all gone, and all that remains 
of them is the memorial they have left of themselves 
in the institution which they founded and sustained 
so well. Geddings in time had become one of them, 
and, like them, he has left his name engraven on that 
monument. The history of the Medical College of 
South Carolina cannot be written without the name 
of Geddings. 
This is not the time, nor is this the place, to enter 
on a biography of Dr. Geddings. What has been so 
well said already will doubtless be supplemented by 
fuller details of a life so fruitful in lessons for the 
aspirants to professional usefulness. But I may, in MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
69 
a few words, touch upon one or two of the traits of 
character which distinguished our deceased colleague 
and marked him as one of rare mental and social 
endowments. 
The first of his excellencies to which I will refer 
was his wonderful memory. To read, with Geddings, 
was to memorize, and to memorize was to engrave 
upon the brain marks which were never to be oblite- 
rated—“ cereperennius.” With such an endowment 
reading was not only a pleasure, (as it is to most cul- 
tivated minds,) but a profit. It was garnering up, by 
the easiest and pleasantest of all processes, stores 
which ordinary minds acquire only by long, patient, 
and irksome toil. What Geddings learned he never 
forgot. And, best of all, these abundant stores were 
so admirably arranged that all and every article was 
as readily at his command as if they had been re- 
corded only the day before. But these admirable 
and enticing qualities of mind, while supplying him 
with an endless source of personal gratification, 
tended, perhaps, to detract from his social excel- 
lencies. Accordingly we find that he rather shunned 
than courted society. Thus it was that he was not 
often seen at the meetings of the “ Club,” which, in 
its day, gathered the elite of the community at its 
stated evening meetings. I well remember at one of 
these meetings, where Geddings’s absence was com- 
mented on, hearing Dickson say that it was a source 
of great regret that one so admirably calculated to 
bring instruction as well as pleasure with him should 
so shade his radiant light from the eyes of admiring 
and appreciating friends. 70 
MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
But if Geddings was backward in contributing from 
his fund of information on formal occasions like those 
to which I have alluded, such was not the case in his 
personal intercourse. I knew no man in all my life- 
long intercourse whose conversation and information 
was more at the command of his friends. A casual 
meeting at a book store or at a street corner would 
furnish an occasion for drawing him into conversa- 
tions overflowing with information and amusement. 
There was an arch smile around the mouth and a gay 
twinkle in his eye that showed how much his heart 
and soul were in the words that fell from his lips. 
It was my good fortune to coincide with Professor 
Geddings on many points closely connected with the 
hygienic requirements of our city, and with the 
equally important but still more abstruse questions 
of epidemic and endemic influence, and our conversa- 
tions on these matters invariably left upon my mem- 
ory impressions of real practical value. 
There is but one other characteristic to which I 
will allude before closing these hurried remarks. It 
is this: In no place or time could the young men of 
our profession find a kinder or more sympathizing 
friend, one more ready to extend the helping hand or 
say the encouraging word. Geddings was the friend 
of the young; and, while he sat upon the topmost 
round of professional fame, his arm could reach and 
help the humblest beginner. Honour to his name. 
May the peace of God rest upon him. MEMOIR OF ELI GEDDINGS, M. D. 
71 
At the conclusion of Dr. Wragg’s remarks the re- 
solutions were voted upon and were adopted unani- 
mously, and Dr. Parker appointed Drs. Robertson, 
T. L. Ogier and J. P. Chazal on the committee, in 
accordance with the provisions of the fourth resolu- 
tion. 
Dr. Carrere then offered the following resolution, 
which was unanimously adopted: 
Resolved, That, with the consent of the President 
and Members of the Medical Society, a portrait of 
the late Professor Eli Geddings, M. D., be painted, 
and that the same be placed in the hall of the Society, 
and that the members of the said Society be allowed 
the privilege of contributing towards defraying the 
expenses incidental to the carrying out this resolu- 
tion. 
There being no further business, the meeting ad- 
journed.