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PROCEEDINGS
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SPECIAL MEETING.
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OF THE
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OF MARYLAND
IN RELATION TO THE DEATH
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DR. RIGGIN BUCKLER,
HELD SEPTEMBER 5th, 1884.
     BALTIMORE:
JOURNAL PU 1LISHINO COMPANY PRINT,
    No.J^P&rk^Aveniie,___
       1884.
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JUL 12 899  ^ 
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PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
SPECIAL MEETING
OF THE
      OF MARYLAND

IN RELATION TO THE  DEATH

            -OF-


 DR. RIGGIN  BUCKLER,


   HELD SEPTEMBER 5th, 1SS1.
             !    Li 1

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JUL 12 1899,
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      BALTIMORE:
JOURNAL PUBLISH IN<l" COMPAXY PRINT,
    No. 35 Park Avenue,
        1884.
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:BS©I*UTI©H8 JOTO mBDRESSE'
   At a special meeting of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty
 of Maryland, held September 2nd, to take action on the death
 of Dr. Riggin Buckler, of Baltimore, the following resolu-
 tions and addresses delivered.
   The meeting was called to order by the Vice-President, Dr.
 I. E. Atkinson.   On motion,  a Committee of five was ap-
 pointed to draft resolutions.
   In submitting the resolutions, Dr. Murdoch said : I am sure
 Mr.  President that every member of this Faculty has heard
 with  deep regret  of the death of our confrere,  Dr:  Riggin
 Buckler.  Though not as much known outside of this City, as
 his talents deserved, his loss will  be very widely  and deeply
 felt in this community.
   He was a man, Mr. President, who was liked and trusted by
 his numerous patients, both  in his  private and professional
 capacity. Always genuine and thoroughly, detesting shams and
 pretenses of every kind, he never  condescended to use them ;
 even when it might have seemed much to  his advantage to do
 so.  Having a strong,  natural taste for his profession, he was
 by nature thoroughly fitted for its practice.  No one was more
 fertile in  resources in difficult  cases, and gifted with a strong
 memory, he never forgot a hint gathered from reading or expe-
 rience.  Under a  manner sometimes almost brusque, though
 never, I think, harsh, he had great kindness  of heart, and his
 manner was never other than gentle and tender, where he saw
 real  suffering.  I, myself,  Mr. President, have known  Dr.
 Buckler for many years, and shall  deeply miss him, both as a
friend, whose friendship was dear  to me,  and as a colleague 
4            DEATH OF DR. RIGGIN  BUCK r.HR.
with whom I could always consult with profit.  I am requested
by your Commit.ee to present the following Resolutions :

  Whereas, the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of
Maryland, has heard with profound regret  of the death of
their late Colleague, Dr. Riggin Buckler, therefore,
  Resolved, That in Dr. Buckler,  the  medical profession  has
lost an upright gentleman, and a learned  practitioner.—his
many lriends and patients, a man well  worthy of the love and
trust so universally given to him by them.
  Resolved^ That we  desire to have placed upon record  the
high appreciation, in which  Dr. Buckler's qualities both in his
professional and private capacity, are held by this faculty.
  Resolved, That the Secretary be instructed  to enter these
resolutions among the transactions  of this Society and to send
a copy to our late Colleague's family.

        [Signed]  T. F. Murdoch, M. D.      ^|
           "      F. Donaldson, M. D.
                  J.  H. Patterson,  M. D.     \ Committee:
           "      John F. Moxmonier, M. D. |
                  Wm. Lee, M.  D.            J

  Dr. Frank  Donaldson, in  seconding  the  resolutions
presented by the Committee, said :  I am glad, Mr. Chairman,
to avail myself of this opportunity of paying my tribute of re-
spect  to the memory of Dr. Riggin Buckler.  This, sir, is no
ordinary  occasion, for Dr. Buckler was no ordinary man.  He
was an eminent practitioner.  He was endowed by Nature with
a high order of intellect.   By study and culture he became a
man of scientific attainments in and  outside of his profession.
By  close and accurate observation, he had become familiar with
disease in all its intricacies.  He grappled with  it as a master
who understood how to use his implements with effect.
  These  resolutions,  laudatory as these are, only do justice to
his  reputation and to his manly virtues.
  I had  known Dr. Buckler intimately since he was a young
student of medicine,  and had had  ample opportunity of form- 
DEATH OF  DR.  RIGGIN BUCKLER.             5
ing a correct estimate of his abilities, and of duly appreciating
his strong points of character.
   Dr. Buckler was  a resident  graduate at the Aims-House
Hospital when I was one of the attending physicians. While there
his devotion to his duties and his intelligent observation of diseas-
es, gave promise of his future success as a practitioner of medicine.
   Dr. Buckler  belonged  to a  family well-known  as  one
possessing  great  talents.    His  father  was  eminent  as  a
man  of science and as a physician.  From him  Dr. Riggin
Buckler inherited some of his most  remarkable traits of char-
acter and a mind always active in search  of truth. Like his
father, he was quick in arriving at a  diagnosis and  his  conclu-
sions were generally accurate and logical, because he gave each
and every  symptom, objective and subjective, its co-relative
value.
   Early in his professional career, Dr.  Riggin Buckler  showed
that he possessed the manly qualities which, in after life endenred
him to his patients.  Among these there was great gentleness of
manner with kindness in treating the sick, especially among the
poor.   During an epidemic of Cholera at the Aims-House he
was untiring in his efforts to save life, and to alleviate the  suf-
ferings of the paupers.  He never thought of himself or c f any
danger he incurred in exposure  to  infection, no  matter how
violent the organic  poison.
   In consultation, with Dr. Buckler, I always found him to be a
straight-forward, frank practitioner.  His successful treatment
of his cases necessarily drew to him many parents. His con-
fidence in his own  skill  inspired the same  feeling among his
patients.   His opinions  carried weight with them  that  they
felt assured his diagnose were correct.   His prescriptions were
esteemed by them as a guarantee that  a cure would be effected
if a cure was possible.  They had the most unbounded  confi-
dence in his medical acumen.   The  whole community  indeed,
looked up  to him  as an  eminent,  clear-headed  practitioner.
This reputation he acquired by the force of his  character  and
his great skill.   He  was incapable of resorting to any ques-
tionable means of promoting his popularity.  His professional 
DEATH OF DR. RIGGIN BUCKLER.
conduct was worthy of his noble, high-toned nature.  To his
patients his death is  an irreparable loss, for he was not only
their medical adviser, but he was their kind and sympathising
friend.  We in the profession cherish kindly remembrances of
his scientific attainments and his courtly intercourse.
   I have no disposition. Mr.  President, to  venture  within the
sacred precincts of his domestic life, but such a man could not
have been other than  a  devoted husband  and a fond  father.
Who can estimate the loss his family have sustained ?   They
are entitled to our earnest, cordial sympathy  in  their great
sorrow.
   In conclusion, let us trust that the community and the pro-
fession, may in the future have more of such  men as  practi-
tioners—if not, as we hope, by ihe name of Buckler, yet men
with the characteristics, which have heretofore distinguished
those who have borne that honored  name.
   Dr. Patterson said :  Mr. President,  I desire to second the
resolutions which have been submitted, and to add a  few words
in tribute to the memory of my deceased friend.  I was a stu-
dent in his father's  office 47  years ago, when he was a mere
lad, and from that time I  have watched his career.   He was an
honorable, high-minded man,  bold  and  outspoken on  every
occasion.  I always entertained a sincere affection  for him,  for
I always found him worthy of my esteem.  As a physician he
was prompt, decisive and reliable.   His natural abilities  were
good and his reading very extensive.   I have ever found ben-
efit from his counsels and pleasure from his friendship.   As a
man he was frank and independent and highly honorable.  He
never sought to ingratiate himself into the good graces of fam-
ilies nor to take advantage of consultations.to advance person-
al interest.   He  was a man  who will be much missed in the
profession, because he represented  the principles of the old
school of medical men—a school in which  I myself was brought
up.  The  modes and methods of medical  men have greatly
changed since that day.  Civility and  courtesy and reciprocity
of kindnesses were a fixed rule of action.  Young  men  were
modest and  retiring and evinced towards their  seniors the  ut-
 
DEATH OF DR.  RIGGIN BUCKLER.            7
most respect, but it is not necessary at present to dwell on this.
In Doctor Buckler's death, I feel the loss of a personal friend,
and it is a sad pleasure for me to-day to add this feeble tribute
of respect to his memory.
  Dr. Waters said :  Mr.  President, probably 1 am the only
member of the profession present here to-day, who was a fel-
low-student and I believe a fellow-graduate with Dr. Buckler.
There seems to be, therefore, a peculiar fitness that I should
add a word to what has already been so justly and appropri-
ately said in regard to our  deceased friend.  Surely no living
person has more reason to be grateful to the name of Buckler
than myself, for to the distinguished father of the deceased I owe,
under Providence, all that life represents, whether of  enjoy-
ment, of capacity, or  performance.  An attack of pleurisy was
followed  by empyema for which  he tapped me three several
times, it being either the first or second time the operation had
been done by him in this City.  Whether it had been perform-
ed by other hands I am not aware.   Among the students,  two
were  easily pre-eminent—Riggin Buckler and Montgomery
Johns.  Dr. Buckler enjoyed advantages for acquiring the ele-
ments of a liberal education that are far from  being the com-
mon lot of medical men in this country.  A graduate of Har-
vard University, his fine  natural endowments  had been  stimu-
lated,  his emulation  excited,  his taste refined  and cultivated,
so that he entered upon  the study  of a  learned profession al-
ready prepared by  superior mental training to pursue  it with
success.   And  while he speedily showed  proficiency in its sev-
eral subjects, as exhibited by  the promptitude  and correctness
of his answers  during the oral examinations  held at various
times by the several professors, in chemistry particularly, that
branch of science ordinarily so lightly esteemed and so con-
spicuously neglected  by the  average medical  student, he ex-
hibited a familiarity and thoroughness that were equally admir-
able and exceptionable.  Whether the questions were directed
to the organic or inorganic divisions of the subject,  however
intricate  the analysis, however complicated the formula, in
decompositions, recompositions or combining  equivalents, he 
8             DEATH  OF DR. RIGGIN  BUCKLER.
always appeared entirely at home, and seemed to be unfailingly
accurate.  Having a taste for  the  subject myself, I could not
but feel the greatest interest in his answers, and  admiration for
that diligence and conscientiousness in study, as  well as for
those well-balanced and vigorous mental powers which  kept
him always self-poised, and always prepared against  surprise.
In microscopy also he had made no inconsiderable attainments
and this at a  time  when there were not the incentives  from
competition that exist now.  In the rear of his father's dwelling
he had fitted  up a suitable room where he could  pursue  with
convenience his investigations in these two branches of science,
and where he doubtless laid the foundation of that exact knowl-
edge of them which was no less the ornament of his subsequent
professional life, than  it contributed to its usefulness and suc-
cess.  Thus early, with the example  of his eminent father be-
fore him, and with the aid  derived from his vast experience
and almost infallible  judgment, did he give evidence of the
sagacity and  industry which in the future were  to secure him
the confidence of his patients, the esteem of his brethren in the
profession, and an eminent rank among its distinguished  prac-
titioners.  Our spheres of duty have been widely separated, and
thus no opportunity has presented  itself to me  to renew the
pleasurable acquaintance of the friendship of our earlier years.
It is gratifying to know, however, from the testimony of those
who knew him well who have  spoken  here  to-day, as well as
from the reputation he so easily won that was not limited  with-
in the confines of his native State, that no promise of his beau-
tiful youth was blighted, that no hope had  beamed along the
future pathway of his life perished unfulfilled,  that  the  most
sanguine expectations of his professional  success and useful-
ness were more  than realized  prior  to his  premature death.
Years ago I was present at a meeting of the medical profession
of this City, convened to take action appropriate to the decease
of Dr. John Buckler, presided over by the illustrious man whose
lineaments this day look down upon us so expressively  from
these walls [ Prof. N. R. Smith, ]  It was also my melancholy
privilege to be present at his funeral. 
DEATH OF  DR. RIGGIN  BUCKLER.
9
               "The lives of great men all remind us
               We can make our lives sublime."
  And their deaths equally admonish us so to live that—
             ----"When our summons comes to join
             The innumerable caravan, that moves
             To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
             His chamber in the silent halls of death
             We go not like the quarry-slave at night
             Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed
             By an unfaltering trust, approach our grave
             Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
             About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

                DOCTOR MORRIS'S REMARKS.
  Mr. President: In common with the other members of the
Faculty, I deeply deplore the death of  our late colleague, Dr.
Riggin Buckler, and desire to second the resolutions submitted
by  the Committee.
  In the death of Dr. Buckler the profession loses a represent-
ative man.  He was a type of the gentlemen  of  the old school
of me Heine with whom "noblesse oblige" was  a ruling senti-
ment.   I  allude to the men of the past; such  men as Donald-
son, Baker, the Mackenzies,  Pierre Chatard, Richard  Sprigg
Steuart,  George  S. Gibson,  and  his  own  father, Dr. John
Buckler.
  Dr. Buckler was an able, honorable and conscientious physi-
cian.   He was essentially a medical man."1  All his  tastes, his
reading, the very nature  of his mind, tended to the formation
of the medical character.  In  his mental constitution to great
positiveness and  directness of judgment were added quickness
of perception  and rapidity  of thought, and, as a consequent
outcome,  earnestness of opinion.  His  natural abilities were
good  and his  reading both extensive and comprehensive.  It
embraced  both medicine and the collateral sciences.  He was
eminently practical in the investigation  and  treatment  of dis-
ease, whilst at all times cherishing the true scientific spirit.  In
every relation he upheld in  the highest degree the honor and
dignity  of the profession. 
10            DEATH OF DR.  RIGGIN BUCKLER.
   As a man he was bold, frank  and independent.  Absolutely
 free from  cant  he despised all ostentation and self-adulation.
 He  possessed a remarkable personal  magnetism, which not
 only attracted but held  fast the many friends who appreciated
 the sincerity, manliness and originality of his character.  As a
 physician,  citizen, friend, his memory will be held  in lasting
 remembrance.
   His premature death in the  midst of a career of usefulness
 has  produced a feeling of profound sadness in the community ;
 but  long  life is not always a  full life.  Dr. Buckler, from his
 earliest youth, was a hard, earnest worker in the line of his pro-
 fession, and crowded into his brief career useful activities which
 would have sufficed  for  the life of a  much  older man.  The
 German poet says:—

                 Lang leben ist nicht viel leben.
                 Viel Wirken ist viel leben.

 and if this sentiment be accepted, his life was surely long.  The
 calmness, patience and resignation wnich characterized his ill-
 ness and death gave evidence of his strong character and un-
 conquerable will;  for  no Christian martyr, Jewish patriarch or
 Pagan philosopher could have borne with greater fortitude the
 agonies of the last month of his stay on the earth.  His life and
 death  exemplified the sentiment  of Saint Augustine: "Sunt
 qui  cum patientia moriuntur, sunt autem quidam perfecti, qui
 cum patientia vivunt."
   Let us,  then,  not unavailingly mourn for our friend, but
 cherish his many virtures, emulate what was noble in his charac-
 ter, and by our devotion  to our great calling endeavor to leave,
 as he has left, a good name, a memory to be  respected, and a
 loving place in the hearts of surviving friends.

           REMARKS MADE BY  DR. WILLIAM LEE.

   It sterns most appropriate that I should speak of Dr. Buck-
ler, not as of a colleague only, but as a patient would of a dearly
 beloved physician, for  during  many years he was my family 
DEATH OF  DR.  RIGGIN BUCKLER.           11
physician, and endeared himself to us all.  To bis skill  I not
only owe my life, but on several occasions that  of one of my
children.
  My acquaintance with  Dr. B. dates  from the early part  of
cur late war, when he was on a visit in the vicinity of Burketts-
ville, Md.   Shortly after his arrival were fought the  battles  of
South Mountain, Antietam and Crampton's Gap, and many of
the wounded were taken to the homes of residents.   There he,
with myself and others, nursed and  attended with untiring en-
ergy a  number of the wounded of both sides, and although
solicited by telegrams to return to  the city, he wouM  not give
up this noble work of charity until all were cared for.
  Among  his  many  other gifts,  that of  endearing himself
to his patients, stands out  most forcibly, for not only was he
ready to attend the wealthy but the needy poor found him ever
willing to benefit them  by his skill.
  Being nature's nobleman—a gentleman—he never violated
the Code of Ethics by  forgetting the obligations  due a fellow-
practitioner, and to the younger members of the profession was
he  especially courteous and ever  ready to  benefit them  with
experience and  unerring  judgment.  Indeed, his loss will be
universally felt and his place hard to fill.
MJLIMJ 
 
 
 
 
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