THE LATE DR. THOMAS HUNT.

[The high professional and literary character and Letters of Dr. Hunt, and especially his relations to the Educational and Philanthropic movements of the day, especially at the South, for a quarter of a century, induces us

abroad, and accordingly went to Paris, the most renowned seat then, as now, of medical science.

the following truthful and eloquent sketch of his life and character, prepared by one who knew him intimately, and who is qualified to form a just estimate of him.-Ed Eclectic.]

DR. THOMAS HUNT, President of the University of Louisiana, died in the City of New Orleans on the 20th of March last. In announcing this event at the time, the whole press and the various associations with which he was connected, vied with each other in expressing regrets for his death, and passing high encomiums upon his character. But these notices are usually brief. It is due to the memory of a man so distinguished and so useful to the profession of which he was so conspicuous an ornament, and to the community in which he was held in such universal esteem, that a more enduring record of his life should be preserved.

The family of Dr. Hunt came into the United States from the British West Indies. His immediate ancestor, also named Thomas Hunt, who settled carly in life in Charleston, S. C., was a son of Robert Hunt, who had been twice Gover nor of the Bahama Islands, and President of the King's Council at Nassau, in the island of New Providence, when these were important possessions of the British Crown. The first Thomas Hunt became a lawyer of distinction, a planter, and a member of the Legislature of South Carolina.

He was father of five sons, of whom Dr. Thomas Hunt was the third. Four of the brothers emigrated to New Orleans, and for more than a third of a century have been among the leading citizens here; the subject of this memoir as a physician, and Theodore, Randell, and William as eminent members of the bar.

Dr. Thomas Hunt was born in the city of Charleston, on the 13th of May, 1808. His mother was Louise Gaillard, of a distinguished family in that State. Her brother, John Gaillard, was for a long period Senator in Congress from the State of South Carolina, and for six successive Congresses, from the 13th to the 18th, inclusive, was chosen President, pro. tem. of that body.

It was a great advantage to the boy that his early education was under the care of so distinguished a scholar as Bishop England. His studies were early directed to the law, and he acquired a thorough knowledge of the principles and history of the American Constitution, but his readings embraced all branches of literature and science. Among his tastes first developed was a love for the classics, which adhered to him through life. He was particularly noted as a Greek scholar, an accomplishment rarely possessed by any whose lives are not exclusively devoted to classical pursuits. Having selected medicine as his profession, he prepared himself by a course of study in the University of Pennsylvania, from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1829. Returning to Charleston, at first with a view to practice, he decided on completing his education

one of those opportunities occurred which are seized upon by men of high order of minds, fix public attention upon them, and raise them at once to distinction. That opportunity was the wreck of the brig Amelia on Folly Ísland, off Charleston harbor, in November, 1832, after the breaking out on board of the Asiatic cholera, which was then, for the first time spreading itself along the western shores of the Atlantic. The Amelia was bound from New York. to New Orleans, with a large lot of passengers. Among these, by a noteworthy coincidence, was Dr. Warren Stone, since so distinguished in the medical profession of New Orleans. The first acquaintance of Dr. Hunt with Dr. Stone grew out of their meeting among the sick on Folly Island, to be continued by an unbroken friendship through nearly thirty-five years, after they had come together again in the distant Crescent City.

The Amelia stranded on the 30th October. The cholera had appeared on board after she left New York. She encountered tempestuous weather, and, on attempting to make the harbor of Charleston, was run on shore to prevent her sinking. The number of her crew and passengers was 108, and their condition was deplorable. They were in want of almost everything, and attacked by a disease quite new, and the subject of great popular alarm. The crew and passengers were landed, and immediate communication made with the city. The first steps were to direct absolute non-intercourse, except for physicians and supplies. Some of the wreckers who had boarded the vessel had gone up to the city, but were ordered back, and great numbers of this class are among the subsequent victims. The island was the private property of a planter, Mr. Alexander Milne, who opened his house and all his buildings to the sick, and furnished supplies most generously. He also suffered largely by the loss of his hands by the disease. The city authorities sent successively three physicians, Drs. Elfe, Pritchard and Jervey, who in a few days returned exhausted by fatigue and labor, when Dr. Hunt was despatched to take the entire charge. It was a highly responsible work conferred on so young a man, for Dr. Hunt was not then twenty-four years of age. It is a proof how highly he had already come to be esteemed in his profession; the result showed how well he deserved the trust and how fortunate was the selection. A specific reason for his selection for this duty, is perhaps to be looked for in the special attention he was known to have given to the subject of cholera. In the preceding July, to the approach of the dreaded disease, Dr. Hunt, when public apprehension was first awakened, had prepared a memoir on the subject, giving its history and all the facts known about it, and suggesting the expedient measures of precaution, to be laid before the South Carolina Medical Association. A number of gentlemen,

He entered on the task with great energy, and went through it with unflinching constancy. It demanded incessant and painful attention, almost sleepless til, and entailed a strain on mind and body that after the task was over, and the responsibility ceased, affected his health materially, and was one of the inducements to a relief, by the change of residence, which next year took him to New Orleans. The scenes on the island during the pestilence were harrowing. The destitute emigrants of the brig and the outlying negroes of the place demanded hourly cares night and day. The watchfulness of Dr. Hunt was never remitted, and with his success in the treatment of the disease effected results which gained for him the most grateful acknowledgments from the sut ferers and his fellow-citizens, and established him an extraord nary reputation for courage, humanity and skill. He counselled and superintended sanitory regulations, visited and prescribed for every person having any symptoms of the disease, and his methods were so successful that immediately after he took charge, the mortality among the sick fell off largely. He did this not by the effects of medicine alone, but by winning confidence, and by making patients more hopeful, encouraging them to take better care of themselves.

The infected brig and cargo, and all articles that were supposed capable of propagating disease, were burned by authority of the City Council, on the advice and under the superintendence of Dr. Hunt. On the 21st, most of the steerage passengers who had recovered were under the same counsel and care sent forward by the liberalty of the city of Charleston, in a vessel chartered for the purpose, to Mobile. The captain and cabin passengers were sent afterwards to New Orleans. The cholera was then considered to have disappeared, and Dr. Hunt returned to the city, much enfeebled by fatigue and exposure, which terminated in an attack of the disease on his own person. He was warmly welcomed by his townsmen, and received a public expression of the gratitude of the crew and passengers of the brig, "for his kind and judicious arrangements," his strict attention to prescriptions for such a multitude of patients, and the great success of his treatment, in decreasing the disease. They also presented him with a massive silver goblet, with suitable inscriptions, as a testimonial of their gratitude. It is preserved in his family as a cherished memorial of honor to their ancestor for a generous and heroic action in the cause of humanity, and a patient self-sacrifice in the cause of science.

He removed in 1833 to New Orleans. On his arrival, he found the cholera prevailing in parts of Louisiana. With unabated zeal, he went almost immediately to the Proctor Settlement, on Lake Borgne, below the city, to study and combat with the disease.

His reputation came with him to his new home, and he was soon after elected Surgeon of the Charity Hospital. This position he held only for a brief period, having resigned it on the 1st of September on account of the inadequate compensation allowed, and the obstruction which the holding of it placed in the way of extended plans which filled his mind for the advance of medical science in Louisiana,

With this favorite purpose of his life, he entered actively into that enterprise with which his name has been inseparably connected in the history of medical science, of establishing a Medical Institute in Louisiana.

The predecessor of the present Medical department of the University, and the germ of the University, so large in its organization and in its endowments now, was the Medical College of Louisiana organized in September, 1834. The earliest and most active of its founders was Dr, Hunt. He was the author of the prospectus for organization, and when the Faculty was formed he was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, and elected Dean. The associate founders were Dr. Charles A. Luzenberg, Dr. J. M. Mackie, Dr. T. R. Ingalls, Dr. A H. Cenas, Dr. E. B. Smith. Dr. Harrison, appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy, was prevented from serving by ill health, and Dr. Warren Stone, whose association with Dr. Hunt had been renewed during the first priod of the previous connection of Dr. Hunt with the Charity Hospital, undertook the anatomical demonstrations as adjunct to Dr. Hunt. The introductory lecture was delivered by Dr. Hunt. It is in that clear, forcible style for which all his public efforts were remarkable. being lucid expressions of well condensed thoughts, which the author, understanding distinctly himself, was seeking to make equally clear to others. The college, during its first session, matriculatel only eleven students; but through the perseverence of its learned and able Faculty, it grew by private enterprise without a State endowment; until in 1843 it received from the State some di ect assistance, but coupled with onorous conditions. this period, Dr. Hunt gave up a great part of his time from a private practice that was growing large, to the duties of his various professorships, and to active efforts to have the college placed on a solid foundation as a permanent State institution.

During

In 1845, when the new constitution for the State was adopted, a clause was put into it establishing a Sate University, and constituting the Medical College then estab ished as a Medical Department of the University. This was followed by various endowments and grants which, besides the use of the lot and buildings, had amounted, in 1861, i money, to about $53,00). These were subject to conditions, from which the State has received in return grand advantages, but it is not to be disputed that it is from these impulses that the institution took the rapid rise which made it prosperous, until the war suspended its operations and laid waste to much of its property. It had then, in 1862, matriculated 4024 students, and had at the closing session upwards of four hundred students in attendance.

The war broke up this prosperity, and suspended altogether the operations of the University. In the interim Dr. Hunt had left the State and the United States; on his return the University

was revived and he was elected its President. To the last he preserved his interest in its affairs, and it was from the bed, which proved his dying bed, that he wrote his last report-full of courage -recommending the same strenuous efforts to revive and extend its influences; and true to the scholarly instincts which he carried with him through life, urging the immediate organization of a Department of Letters. His was a mind adversis reum immersabilis undis.

The existence and growth of the University are, in a large degree, due to the zeal and unwearied labors of Dr. Hunt, to his business, energy and tact, in addition to his professional labors in the various chairships he has held. Previous to the suspension of 1862, he had held the following professorships: 1. Anatomy and Physiology. 2. Pathological Anatomy and Clinical practice. 3. Physiology and Pathology and Special Pathological Anatomy. He had been Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and after 1849, up to the suspension of the University, Professor of Phy-iology and Pathology.

While executing the duties of these professorships, Dr. Hunt took interest in the proceedings of the Physico-Medical Society, of which he was President for many years, and mixed largely in the discussion of scientific subjects. At one of the early meetings he delivered an address on his favorite theme of pathological anatomy, for which it voted him thanks.

In 1857 he was selected by the Mayor of the city of New Orleans as delegate to Philadelphia, as a member of the Convention on Quarant ne, but was prevented by private reasons from accepting.

The medical profession have for more than a quarter of a century recognized an obligation to Dr. Hunt for the success with which he first introduced into the practice of this country the use of large doses of quinine as a remedial agent in yellow fever cases; and the discrimination with which he pointed out the condition and limitations for exhibiting it. He was led to these investigations by the results of the use of quinine by French Physicians in epidemies in the east, in which he discovered analogies to the yellow fever in our Southern climate. After having, in association with Dr. Mackie, carefully tested its physiological action, he made a direct change in the application from that previously used, with such success as to establish it as one of the most useful agencies known for arresting the progress of yellow fever. The medical journals of the day conceded great credit to Dr. Hunt for the originating of this practice which has had such satisfactory results.

In 1862 the health of Dr. Hunt became feeble. His occupation was gone in the destruction of the University-his fortunes were shattered, and the condition of his country weighed heavily on his spirits. He carried the burden of his sorrows into a foreign land, to await there the restoration of the prosperity of the land of his love, in which he never ceased to have a confident faith, although the time near or remote was shut out from his vision. He left in November of that year, and went first to Havana. His departure was at a period of deep distress in the history of Louisiana, when men's thoughts did not dwell long on the fortunes of mere citizens, or take heed of doing

honor for men's civic virtues and personal wo thin private stations. But after Dr. Hunt had left, the Board of Administrators of the Charity Hospital placed on their records, without ostentation, an expression of their regret at his departure, deploring that thereby the Hospital had lost his "eminent medical and surgical services, rendered through a long series of years so assiduously and with such consummate skill." That connection with the Charity Hospital had been almost continuous during his professional life. His resig nation as House Surgeon, already mentioned, was but a brief separation. In the organization of the Medical College, and of the University, the care of the Charity Hospital devolved on the faculty of those institutions. Dr. Hunt's connection was thus officially renewed; and whenever, in the various changes and interchanges, his official connection ceased, he continued a volunteer and welcome attendance for the sake of humanity and in the interests of science. He may be said to have had a connection with the hospital during the whole of his professional life; and his name is identified with the incalculable amount of good which it dispensed through a third of a century,

His reputation had preceded him to Havana and a large connection there were anxious for him to take up the practice of his profession. It was a bold step for one not acquainted with the language, but his energy was equal to the undertaking-studying a new language in aid of his practice in a foreign country- and at the age of fifty four he concluded to undertake it. The rigidity of Spanish forms required an examination, and something of national feeling made the examination of Dr. Hunt, which was allowed to be carried on through an interpreter, uncommonly rigid, not to say, as some have said, inquisitorial in its temper. But science is cosmopolitan. The result was a great triumph to the friends of Dr. Hunt, and was, in the display of the exactness and universality of his knowledge, a suprise to the examiners, who granted him a degree in the name of the royal University of Havana, and invested him there with uncommon marks of distinction, in August. 1883.

But the climate and his breaking health, combined with domestic considerations, prevented his carrying out that plan. In 1864, he was found, still attended by his devoted wife, but separated from his children, in the Island of Nassau, the home of his grandfather, doing something in the practice of bis profession, and successfully introducing the quinine practice into that island during an epidemic.

In the spring of 1865 the war was practically over. Dr. Hunt seized the first prospect of peace and made haste homeward by the way of New York, tarrying a short time to recruit his health at St. Catherine's Spring in Canada. In November he landed again in New Orleans, and the family circle was again reunited at home.

He immediately renewed his interests in the University.

Its operations had been discontinued during the war; but in November, 1865, after the return of peace, it was resuscitated, but under very depressing circumstances. The buildings had been occupied by the United States military-one wing for a colored school, under charge of the Freedmen's Bureau--and all were very much dilapidated.

The library, apparatus, etc., were greatly damaged, and the treasury of course empty. Dr. Hunt was chosen President, and occupied himself successfully in obtaining from the Legislature of 1866 a new appropriation of $25,000 for the most necessary wants; and gave his attention, with his accustomed zeal, to the repairing of the fortunes of the institution. In April he delivered before the students and the faculty an address on the "Utility of Science," one of the very few of the productions of his pen which have been published. In August, 1866, Dr. Hunt received an appointment from the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States to be Surgeon of the Marine Hospital in New Orleans. It was an employment suited to his tastes, and he had hopes that he might be able to accept it. But his disease increased upon him, and he never was able to take any steps in the matter.

But his career was now drawing to a close. His constitution, originally robust, had been long undermined by frequent attacks of the gout; other diseases intervened, under which it finally gave way. His health had been so feeble, at times, during his residence abroad, as to give uneasiness to his family, and in the summer and fall of 1866 he became a confirmed invalid. For six months before his death he was incapacitated from attending to business, and after a long and wasting sickness, died at the St. Charles Hotel, in the city of New Orleans, on the 20th of March, 1867, lacking about two months of being 59 years of age. The immediate cause of his death was an incurable dysentery.

He was entirely conscious of his condition, and met death with serenity, surrounded by his wife and children, to whom he gave, one by one, his parting counsel and blessings, strengthening them for their loss with words of loving advice, and consoling them with the hopes which Christian faith inspires. Then committing himself to the Divine mercy, he passed away.

The esteem in which he was held was exhibited in the unanimous expressions of the press, describing his death, as a great loss to society and to science, and by the warm tributes paid to him in the unanimous resolutions passed by the University, of which he was President, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Medicine.

Those of the Law Faculty will most fitly describe the general es imate throughout the community of the virtues and talents of Dr. Hunt. They describe him as "one who was among the brightest ornaments of science and of letters in this country-a mån of varied and extraordinary abilities, and of extensive, profound, and accurate learning, an elegant and accomplished scholar, a zealous, persistent and efficient advocate, a promoter of public education, the founder of the Medical College of Louisiana, an influential adviser and aider in the establishment of the University of this State, a lecturer unsurpassed for eloquence and didactic talent, a citizen of high spirit and exemplary worth, and a gentleman universally esteemed for his private virtues."

This is lofty eulogium, but in the consenting judgment of all who knew Dr. Hunt it was well deserved.

The professional life of Dr. Hunt extended over about thirty eight years, of which thirty-four were spent in the city of New Orleans. During

that period he was indentified with the public institutions of the State and city, and devoted himself to them with an ardor and zeal which had no taint of selfishness. It was the great purpose of his life to promote public e lucation, and traces of his energy are to be found in every movement to enlarge the opportunities and elevate the standards for instruction. Especially in the cause of medicine his zeal was unflagging, and his personal exertions, outside of the line of his official connection, were unremitting and of valuable service. Enjoying much social influence, and esteemed by political men of all parties, he was very effective in securing the various appropriations by the Legislature which placed the University on its present basis. His influence on these matters was more effectual, because, though wellknown to entertain the strong conservative cast of political opinions of his family, and prompt and able in supporting them when brought into discussion in private circles, he never mingled in the strifes of party.

As a lecturer, his reputation is very great, but it is traditional. He prepared nothing for publication, although frequently called upon to furnish copies to be printed of his lectures, essays, and other professional topics, he uniformly declined. This was partly from the practical character of his mind, which kept him constantly engaged in labors of action, and partly because he preferred and cultivated to a great degree of perfection the faculty of oral instruction. He was a lucid speaker, completely master of his topics, which he explained in a d dactic manner, which made them seize at once on the understanding of the hearer. Sometimes warming with his own conviction of the innate grea'ness of the themes on which he was discour sing, he grew into eloquence. On these occasions he has been described by listeners as a fascinating lecturer. Certainly he was immensely popular.

The same qualities of earnestness of convictions and thoroughness of knowledge made him a most agreeable associate in society. He was thoroughly imbued with classic lore, and happy in his recollections of the best passages in ancient literature; and he kept up with the latest steps of modern science and belles lettres. His conversation, which was touched with a little of that mannerism which is insensibly acquired by a public lecturer accustomed to assert and analyze his own thoughts as he goes along, was copious and full of interest, and therefore prized most highly by men of the best intellects. He had a taste for intellectual gladiatorship and delighted to measure himself and his acquirements by the standard of o'hers, and rarely came out of such tournaments discomfitted.

His private practice grew up soon to be as wide as he could find time to attend to, and but for his devotion to the institution, would have been still larger. He stood in the very first rank of his profession-it would be unfair to others to say without rivals-it would be unjust to him not to say that he was without superiors.

In his personal qualities and personal deportmen', Dr. Hunt was irreproachable. His disinterestedness was proverbial. In his long attendance on the sick poor at the Charity Hospital, his demeanor-which to the general public had an air of reserve bordering on austeriy