Reprint from Transactions.] 
AN ADDRESS 
UPON THE 
LIFE AND CHARACTER 
OK 
Lunsford Pitts Yandell, m.d. 
Late President Elect of the Kentucky State Medical 
Society. 
Delivered before the Kentucky State Medical Society, at the Meeting 
held in Frankfort, April, i8^fe'" 
RICHARD O. COWLING, A. M., M. D. 
Professor of Surgical Pathology and Operative Surgery in the University of Louisville. 
Chairman of the Committee on Necrology, for 1878, in the Kentucky 
State Medical Society. 
John P. Morton and Company, Printers, 156 and 158 West Main Street, 
LOUISVILLE, KY. 
1879. LUNSFORD PITTS YANDELL, M. D 
AN ADDRESS UPON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE LATE 
PRESIDENT ELECT OF THE KENTUCKY STATE 
MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
BY RICHARD O. COWLING, A.M., M.D. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Kentucky State Medical Society: 
The circumstances of our meeting one year ago in Louisville must 
be fresh in the minds of many now present. The success which at- 
tended that session has ever since been a matter of congratulation to 
the friends of the organization. In fullness of numbers it had not 
been surpassed, nor ever before had there been more individual effort 
to render the work of the Society worthy of its station and its name. 
I am sure, too, that few could have gone to their homes without the 
most pleasant recollections of the kindly greetings which had been 
interchanged by representatives of our profession from nearly every 
portion of our state. You will remember, also, that nature herself lent 
assistance to the success of our meeting, and smiled upon us with the 
balmiest days of her earliest spring. 
Looking back to those pleasant hours to-night, I know that even if 
the commemorative occasion did not bring it up, prominently before 
our minds must rise the circumstances which attended the election of 
the President who, sadly, was never to take his seat. 
The applause which rang out from that full assemblage when his 
name was presented, told how universally and how heartily he had 
been chosen. Friends formed in a generation gone by, whose admi- 
ration and respect had grown deeper with frosting heads, joined in the 
stormy approval along with the youthful members who but yesterday 2 
AN ADDRESS UPON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OK 
were admitted to our ranks. And when the old warrior came forward 
and so gracefully acknowledged the compliment which had been paid 
him, I am quite certain that if there were those present who had 
wished for other things, “even the ranks of Tuscany did not forbear 
a cheer.” 
Alas, that our work had been so long deferred! Not that he needed 
it to fill up the measure of his fame, though I know he lovingly prized 
it, but that our association should have missed the honor of his pres- 
idency. Alas, that to-night, instead of his graceful words of cheer and 
his wise counsels for our welfare, we should meet to mourn his loss 
and to listen to this feeble record of his virtues and his worth. 
I shall not attempt any detailed account of the life of Lunsford 
Pitts Yandell. Several are already in print; one by the venerable 
Professor Theodore Bell, his friend and pupil, in a masterly eulogium, 
delivered at the late commencement of the University of Louisville; 
another singularly succinct and exact by Dr. Toner, in the Nashville 
Journal of Medicine, and sketches in various other medical journals 
of the country. Besides these, he had, with his own modest and grace- 
ful pen, furnished for Dr. Lindsey the data for his biography, which 
will appear in the Medical Annals of Tennessee. 
He was the son of Wilson Yandell, a doctor of high repute, and of 
Elizabeth Pitts, whose virtues he ever bore in most affectionate remem- 
brance. He was born near Hartsville, Tenn., July 4, 1805. He was 
taught at first by his mother, then at a neighboring school, and later at 
an academy in Murfreesboro. 
He commenced the study of medicine with his father when he was 
seventeen years old. At eighteen he wrent to Lexington, Ky., to attend 
his first course of lectures in the Transylvania University. His second 
course was taken in Baltimore, in the University of Maryland, where 
he graduated in 1825. He practiced for awhile in his native state, 
and in 1831 he was elected professor of chemistry in the Transylvania 
University, at Lexington, Ky., succeeding Dr. Blythe. He removed 
to Louisville in 1837, and assisted in the foundation of the University 
of Louisville. He remained in that institution for twenty years, filling, 
at various times, the chairs of chemistry, pathology, and physiology. 
In 1857 he went to Memphis, and for a short period was professor of 
practice in a school then in existence there, but which closed at the LUNSFORD PITTS YANDELL, M. D. 
3 
breaking out of the war. He was admitted to the Presbyterian min- 
istry in 1862, and was for awhile pastor of a congregation at Dancey- 
ville, Tenn. He returned to Louisville at the close of the war, when 
he resumed the practice of his profession. He died of pneumonia, at 
the house of his son, Dr. L. P. Yandell, jr., February 4, 1878. 
Such is the brief outline of his career. To fill the scanty frame 
with the likeness it contained—to portray the lineaments of the char- 
acter and delineate the features of the mind and will which made up 
one of the most extraordinary men which our profession in this state 
has produced—is my present task. Nor is it a simple task. There 
are many before me who can judge how nearly the representation 
agrees with the original. To those, perhaps, what I might say of 
our lost leader signifies but little, so deeply has he stamped his own 
image upon their minds. A wrong color might offend but can not 
deceive; yet, haply, because the record I bear is an official record, 
directed by this, the highest body of the profession in the state, 
in it may some time be sought an estimate of Dr. Yandell when 
other actors occupy the scene. This would demand that care be 
taken that no improper estimate was left by one who professed to 
know him. But it is of even greater importance that what I know 
would have been his wishes, upon such an occasion as this, should 
be respected. More than all, men would be offended if the truth and 
the whole truth were not told to the best of my ability. 
I can not recall the time when I did not know Dr. Yandell; but 
it was only upon my entrance into the profession that I had opportunity 
of judging his character. When I was a boy, he impressed me as 
being a severe man, and I think that this was generally the first 
impression he made upon those who met him or those who saw him 
but little. His habits of work and study, the gravity of his appear- 
ance, nay, even the exactness of his politeness, concealed from the 
stranger his exceedingly social nature. He formed few special inti- 
macies with the members of his profession, but he bore most friendly 
feelings toward them, and no man prized more highly its return. His 
features would always light up at the recountal of a kindly speech 
that had been made of him, and a hearty acknowledgment would 
always follows. He mixed a gi’eat deal with the doctors of Louisville, 
but chiefly in the several societies. His manner there to old and young 4 
AN ADDRESS UPON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
was exceedingly kind. At the meeting of the College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, called to take action upon his death, Dr. Turner 
Anderson, in his remarks, dwelt forcibly upon the courtesy and fair- 
ness which had always characterized Dr. Yandell in his debates before 
that body. He was, in fact, not a demonstrative man to the world in 
general. Great dignity was the chief characteristic of his manner, 
but upon occasions he showed the deepest feeling. In his devotion 
to his family he took not a single thought of himself. Seldom was 
there such a father, and in the society of the little ones of his chil- 
dren’s households the pleasure of his existence seemed to culminate. 
I refer to this trait which is common with many men, for it was more 
than naturally prominent in Dr. Yandell. It is difficult to recall him 
in his later years separated from his grandchildren. He scarcely 
ever appeared in public without them. They, with their little friends, 
filled his carriage to the brim when he rode; they flocked around him 
as he walked; they chattered about him as he sat at his work. The 
last three years of his life were almost incessantly occupied by him in 
writing the Medical Annals of Kentucky, and these little people accom- 
panied him from the beginning to the end of his work. 
There were others, too, to whom he showed feeling. He warmed 
toward men in books. He spoke enthusiastically of his favorite 
authors in general literature, as in his profession, and of many of 
the men whom he had met in controversy, he bore the frankest 
testimony of their worth. He had a chivalrous devotion to woman- 
hood. I doubt if ever in his long life he dropped a disrespectful word 
toward one of the gentler sex. He was twice married to women of 
singular goodness, and of the love he bore his companions, and the 
influence they had upon his life, he records the most grateful testi- 
mony. He delighted in female society, and women were instinctively 
drawn toward their knightly devotee. The kindness of his heart 
showed itself in many ways. His services and his purse were freely 
drawn upon by the poor. He was markedly polite to his inferiors. 
Some one laughingly told me his consideration for servants was tire- 
some. Rather than rouse his hostler and his horse, he made his night 
visits on foot on one occasion when his patient lived three miles 
away, and he then a man nearly seventy. 
I have dwelt upon the social nature of Dr. Yandell’s disposition, LUNSFORD FITTS YANDELL, M. D. 
5 
for I know that to many it was not fully known. There were other 
traits in his character, and events in his history that stood out so prom- 
inently as to obscure somewhat his kindly side to the knowledge of the 
world at large. He was a thoroughly determined man, and his energy 
was equal to his will. Moreover, he was absolutely brave. He never 
shirked a duty for the fear of unpleasant consequences, and the result 
was that from first to last he had many controversies. He was a pro- 
fessor in the Transylvania School of Medicine when it was in the 
heyday of its fortune. In spite of this, he believed that its empire 
must fail, and a school in Louisville supersede it. When he had 
made up his mind to this he speedily acted upon his belief, gave up 
his chair at Lexington, and went to Louisville to assist in the foun- 
dation of the University there. The severance of the old ties and the 
birth of the rival institution of course provoked an angry discussion, 
and in it he took his part. The growth of the University of Louis- 
ville to its unexpected proportions and the changes necessary, or 
thought to be necessary, to its welfare, brought on many others, in 
which he was champion of a side. Nay, more, when he had appar- 
ently long retired from the arena, and was wholly disconnected with 
the schools and their animosities, when other men took it upon them- 
selves to open the record and wage the old war, again he was there as 
of old to do battle. And I am obliged to record, too, that I believe 
he was glad to be there. He was never a quarreler; but I think when 
the glove was thrown to him, he picked it up with feelings akin to 
enthusiasm. I witnessed one of his encounters, and I do not think I 
ever saw so skillful and so severe a debater as he then showed him- 
self to be. 
But he never harped on these things; never disputed for the sake 
of dispute. Satire he laughed at sometimes, but never attempted in 
the slightest. When he wrote or spoke against any one he shot right 
at the mark. When unprovoked, sentiment was his natural vein. 
Some one was laughing to him about the gushing speeches which had 
been made in one of the meetings of the American Association, but 
he said he delighted to see it; that good feeling was to be valued far 
above words. And this meant a great deal from him, for he was the 
most scholarly man the profession in Kentucky has produced. 
Dr. Yandell was in his seventy-third year when he died. Few 6 
AN ADDRESS UPON THE LIFE AN1) CHARACTER OF 
would have detected from his appearance and his habits that his age 
was so great. His carriage was erect, save the inclination of his head, 
which was bowed in thought; his step was firm and elastic, and he 
walked with a swinging stride. I have already related his powers 
as a pedestrian upon one occasion. He showed even others more 
remarkable. A few years ago only, while on a botanizing tour, he 
was attracted by a piece of mistletoe, which his young companion 
declining to get, he climbed a considerable distance to secure. Only 
last fall he spent a day in the fields shooting, enduring the fatigue 
without difficulty, and securing his share of the game. His physical 
endurance was rather strange, too, as his health—while rarely seriously 
interfered with until his fatal illness—was never robust. But it was 
rather the youthfulness of his disposition in many things, and not of 
his physique, that I wished to record. He did not expect the ordinary 
aids which the young naturally render to the old. In fact, they rather 
annoyed him. Not that he ever gave the painful exhibition of the 
would-be young man, but that he expressed his natural feelings. He 
liked young men, and invited their society, and entered into their 
feelings. He had great faith, too, in youth. At one time it was 
sneeringly said that the University was in the hands of boys. He 
publicly declared that the boys were in many respects better than the 
men of his day. When Prof. Holland was elected to the chair of 
chemistry in the University, the one which Dr. Yandell had in former 
times occupied, he was a graduate of but one year’s standing. It was 
human nature to think that his old work could not be successfully 
carried on by one so deficient in years, but it was Dr. Yandell himself 
who urged upon him to accept the chair, and for a whole month he 
faithfully attended his lectures, sitting with the students upon the 
benches, giving him what criticism he thought necessary, encouraging 
him by his praise both to himself and others. Dr. Holland spoke of 
this incident in his remarks before the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons of Louisville. 
The religious phases of Dr. Yandell’s character have been described 
so elaborately and so well by Prof. Bell that I need not dwell upon 
them here. His first public utterance as a teacher in Lexington was 
in defense of Christianity. His life thenceforward was consistently 
in that path, and in 1862 he entered the ministry of the Presbyterian LUNSFOltD PITTS YANDELL, M. D. 
7 
Church. Long before that he had delivered many public lectures in 
Louisville upon the supports which science gave to religion, and the 
analysis of the latter-day philosophy failed to shake him in his ancient 
belief. He conversed much upon the subject in late years, and in the 
form of reviews wrote one or more papers upon it. 
To Prof. Bell I must also leave the estimate of Dr. Yandell as a 
naturalist. ' 
And I reach at last his direct relations with the profession of 
medicine. In these we view him as a practitioner, a teacher, and a 
writer, and in an ascending scale. Least of all was he a practitioner 
of medicine; circumstances early led to this. He records himself his 
boyish taste for natural science. A copy of Goldsmith’s Animated 
Nature opened to him, he says, a world of delight. Chemistry was 
his first love, dampened somewhat by imperfect presentation in Tran- 
sylvania, but rekindled under the fiery words of De Butts at Baltimore, 
upon whose powers he dwelt with delight in his autobiographical 
sketches. 
He practiced awhile upon his return from college in Tennessee, but 
the position in Transylvania was early offered him. Chemistry he 
taught for six years in Lexington, and chemistry was the chair he 
accepted in Louisville. He added to it later, in the exigency of the 
school, that of pathology, teaching both branches, and still later was 
transferred to physiology. The chair of materia medica was offered 
him long before this, but he declined it, that Mitchell might come into 
the school. He afterward regretted that he had been obliged to do 
this. He believed that it would have been better for him to have 
been weaned from his predilections toward a less practical branch, and 
forced to give himself up to one which bore directly upon the every- 
day duties of his profession. Perhaps other causes combined to draw 
him away from clinical study and cultivation of practice at a time 
when it was most important for him to do so. He was devoted to 
natural science, and he did not see, or at any rate did not care if he 
did see, that it was drawing him away from the path of a doctor. The 
income from the school in those days was very large, and there was no 
necessity for his making exertion outside to increase his means. Be 
all this as it may, I think I am right in saying that, comparatively 
speaking, the relations he bore the profession as a practitioner were 8 
AN ADDRESS ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
vastly inferior to those he bore as a writer or teacher. He had a fair 
practice. He was no mean surgeon, too; had cut for stone, and per- 
formed capital operations several times when he had been forced to do 
so; but practice was not nearest to his heart. He was much like 
John Hunter in this respect—a call interrupted him in his work. It 
was the science of medicine that he loved, rather than the art. His 
predilections were toward obstetrics. He was an early and persistent 
advocate of chloroform in labor. He was about the earliest practitioner 
in the state to recognize the value of potassic bromide. Sydenham 
was his ideal among medical philosophers, and his visiting list was 
adorned with quotations from him. “ Natura sanat, an curat," and 
“ Primurn est turn noceri,” were transcribed in his later books. Never- 
theless he sometimes seemed to lend powerful aid to nature, and 
apparently ran some risks. He ordinarily gave drachm doses of 
muriate tincture of iron, and half-ounce doses of ergot. 
As a teacher he was in his element. On the rostrum his enthu- 
siasm came out. I never heard him lecture at the school, but I judge 
of the enthusiasm with which he entered upon his work by his conduct 
at the societies. He was the life of these; the best of speakers and 
the best of listeners. It pleased him to see the work go on. If other 
men were disposed to take the floor, he waited; but did they flag, he 
was always ready and always interesting. I have seen him, too, called 
up at unexpected times to address people on subjects other than 
medical, and never saw him make a failure. His career as a teacher 
of medicine extended over a period of nearly thirty years, and during 
this time he was connected in the Transylvania School and University 
of Louisville with many of the most distinguished men the country 
has produced, and the testimony of those who heard him was that he was 
among the best. Still, high as was his rank as a lecturer, he had even 
greater powers as a schoolman. He was a wonderful organizer. I do 
not wish to claim for him the credit of the foundation of the University 
of Louisville over his colleagues, but certain it is that but for his 
enthusiasm, his faith, his industry, his influence over the men who 
were to join the classes, the enterprise would not have had its speedy 
success, and if it grew to such proportions as it did by the wisdom of 
its managers, he was notoriously among the most influential of them. 
He built for himself a great monument in these schools. Its broad LUNSFORD PITTS YANDELL, M. D. 
9 
foundation is laid in the hearts of thousands of practitioners in the 
West and South, and I am constantly reminded, by expressions of 
esteem I hear from many a one of them whose head is now grown gray, 
how lasting was the material with which he built. 
But high as was Prof. Yandell’s as a schoolman, I think that his 
chief fame will rest upon his character as a writer. No one in the 
southern ranks of medicine has surpassed him in his industry as an 
author or in the quality of his work. At his death he was the oldest 
medical journalist in America save Hays. He commenced in 1832 
with the Transylvania Journal, upon which he continued until he 
removed to Louisville. He founded the Western Journal of Medicine, 
which lived till 1857. He was actively employed upon the American 
Practitioner, and wrote a number of articles for the Louisville Medical 
News. I saw in a list prepared by himself in 1874 the titles of one 
hundred and seventy articles, which he had written to that date, but 
I imagine the untitled work he had accomplished was ten times that, 
and at no period of his life was his pen so busy as in the last three 
years. He was a writer of classical purity. Indeed, Professor Yandell 
was early grounded in classical learning, and never gave up his study 
in this direction, nor his admiration therefor. He was thoroughly 
cultured, too, in belles lettres, delighted in poetry (I think he knew 
every line of Tennyson’s Idyls by heart), and the models of his taste 
were of the best. He was singularly clear in his expressions. No one 
could find him tripping in his grammar or involved in his sentences. 
He wrote on almost every subject in medicine. His forte, however, 
was in medical biography. The Medical Annals of Kentucky, still in 
manuscript, is a marvel of excellence and industry, containing not 
only sketches of the lives of Kentucky doctors, but critical notices of 
their works from the days of Boone to the present. He was, too, the 
readiest of writers. He worked along, wholly undisturbed, sitting in 
the front office of his son’s house, where people were constantly coming 
and going, and as I have before said, with the grandchildren literally 
hanging on to him. I have had many occasions personally to note 
this facility. He was one of the very few men I ever saw who could 
be depended on at any moment to furnish copy for a journal. The 
last paper he ever wrote was upon the “Diseases and Hygiene of Old 
Age,” the proofs of which he attempted to correct upon his death-bed. 10 
LUNSFORD PITTS YANDELL, M. D. 
Tho3e of you who read it in the Practitioner for_February will agree 
with me, I am sure, in pronouncing it one of the most interesting of 
the many papers he had written. Alas! that he should have neglected 
one of the precautions upon which he had laid so much stress, and 
become a victim of the disease which he had recorded as so fatal to 
the old. He met his fate manfully, of course. There was just one 
regret, that he could not live to finish the work in which he had been 
so wrapped up—the Medical Annals of Kentucky; a heart-pang for 
the loved ones he left;_and I believe a passing thought that we should 
meet here to-night and he not be present; and then he gave up concern 
for this world and waited without fear for the dawn of the next. 
God grant that from that last sleep into which he fell he wakes to 
the glorious resurrection in which he so firmly believed.