THE ECLECTIC

MEDICAL GLEANER.

New Series. Vol. VIII.

SEPTEMBER, 1912.

No. 5.

Edited by HARVEY WICKES FELTER, M. D., Chase and Pitts Streets, Cincinnati, Ohio, to whom all communications in reference to articles and matters for publication should be addressed.

Published at THE LLOYD LIBRARY, 224 West Court Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, to which all subscriptions, advertisements, and matters of business should be addressed. Subscription price, 81.25 per year.

EDITORIAL.

FRANK LINCOLN WILMETH, M. D.—In the Central West, Eclecticism has grown to considerable proportions during the past twenty years. For some time a college has been maintained, and now under a new arrangement is given a new impetus as a part of Cotner University. A movement is on foot to erect a new and adequate building to meet the growth of the school, and altogether the outlook for the future of the school is good and encouraging. Among the men who have been most active in advancing the interests of Eclecticism and of Lincoln Medical College in particular, is Dr. Frank Lincoln Wilmeth, who at the last meeting of the National Eclectic Medical Association, in session at Washington, D. C., was honored with the presidency.

The following sketch from the pen of Dr. William Charlton, so completely answers our purpose, that we have included it entire, with a few additions, in this biography of Dr. Wilmeth.

"Frank Lincoln Wilmeth, Surgeon, Lincoln, Nebraska, was born in Salem, Henry County, Iowa, August 19, 1862. He is a son of William H. and Esther Conner Wilmeth. His father was of German English descent and a soldier in the Civil War, under Grant and Sherman, serving in Company F, 25th Iowa Infantry. His mother was of Scotch descent, the daughter of a prominent Quaker family of Eastern Iowa. F. L. Wilmeth acquired his earlier education in the public schools and at Whittier College, a Quaker school of Salem, Iowa, and taught school two years in

Henry County, removed to Nebraska in 1887, and engaged in teaching in Furnace County, Nebraska. He graduated from the Lincoln Medical College, Medical Department of Cotner University in 1894, and took postgraduate work at the Bennett Medical College in 1900, and the following year at the Chicago Clinical School, having special instructions under Professor Eckley, author of Eckley's Surgical Anatomy. He annually renews his acquaintance with his work by association with the leaders of his profession in the Middle West. Dr. Wilmeth practiced medicine at Eagle, in Cass County, Nebraska, from 1894 until 1898, when he removed to Lincoln to take charge of the College Hospital as superintendent. He lectured in the Medical College, Medical Department of Cotner University on anatomy, in 1894 and 1895, and during the following six years taught materia medica and therapeutics; he was then elected to the chair of surgery, which position he still holds. All the authorities of all the schools of medicine, of the time, may be found on the shelves of his library. The most reliable and those which are most relied upon and practiced, are those which conform to Specific Medication.

"In 1896 he was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Medical College Corporation, and continued as such until 1910, during which time he served as treasurer in 1898, and as president from 1901 to 1904, as dean of the College from 1906 to 1908, and from 1909 to 1911, when he requested the appointment of a committee by the State Society to take the active management of the Eclectic Medical School of Nebraska, this resulting in creating the present Medical Department of Cotner University. Dr. Wilmeth was surgeon for the Nebraska State Penitentiary from the year 1901 to 1903. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Cotner University since 1901, in which year he served as vice-president of the National Eclectic Medical Association. He belongs to the Nebraska State Medical Society and the City Specific Medication Society, and was secretary of the State Society from 1898 until 1905, the attendance increasing during this time from eight to ninety, when he was chosen president. Dr. Wilmeth also holds honorary membership in the State Eclectic Medical Societies of South Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Illinois. He conducts a sanitarium, called Esther's Hospital, named for his daughter,

located at the corner of 17th and J Streets. Dr. Wilmeth is one of those who throw their lives into their chosen calling, and conscientiously labor for the upbuilding of the profession. He has been the influence that has not only assisted the School and Society to maintain their integrity, but has also been that with which it was necessary for those to deal who were not particular as to the character of the school, or desired its annihilation. He accumulated a large share of the stock of the old corporation to protect the institution from improper influences. He has a host of friends in this and adjoining States, where he is known as a warm advocate of Eclectics and Eclectic institutions, not simply because they are Eclectic, but because he believes that to be the best system of practice for the people, and as such is best for the profession. He is known as a good fighter and a good friend, and controversies either within or without the ranks are not taken as a personal matter, the best interests of the School and Society being at all times paramount to personal consideration for any one, and himself included. He is a Scottish Rite and a York Rite Mason, a Shriner, and belongs to other fraternal organizations. He is a member of the Lincoln Commercial Club, and has been a member of the Christian Church since young manhood. Dr. Wilmeth married Jessie Drummond in 1889, at Arapahoe, Nebraska, a niece of Captain Drummond. They are the parents of four children: Ossie, a student in Cotner University; Hal, Elmer and Esther, who are attending the public schools of Lincoln, Nebraska. He has been active in the affairs of the city and State, and we know that a good selection has been made and that all that he can do will be accomplished for the success of the meeting at Dallas."

Dr. Wilmeth is small of stature, of light complexion and blue-gray eyes. He is of the active and nervously energetic type and enters into work with all seriousness. His activity in the National has been productive of results, and he is always to be found upon some important committee. Though possessed of a certain amount of reserve, and never obtrusive, he takes an active part in debate and his opinions are valued by his fellow members. We predict that he will make a faithful and helpful president of the National body, and his work in the Central West should attract many Eclectics to the meeting to be held in Dallas, Texas, the coming year.

DEATH OF DR. E. R. FREEMAN.—On Friday, July 26, 1912, Dr. Edwin Ricker Freeman died at Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, of sarcoma.

Dr. Freeman was the only son of the late Prof. Edwin Freeman, M. D., whose long service as Professor of Anatomy in the Eclectic Medical Institute is a conspicuous part of Eclectic history. His mother was Rosella (Ricker) Freeman. He was born in Cincinnati, May 8, 1865. In 1866 his parents removed to New York City, where his father was engaged as Professor of Anatomy in the Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York. In 1871 the family returned to Cincinnati, where Edwin R. Freeman passed the most of his life. His first three years' schooling was acquired in the country schools of Clermont County, Ohio; from 1876 to 1879 he attended the public schools of Cincinnati; and from 1879 to 1883 was spent in the Woodward High School, where he pursued a special classical course, and was one of the editors of the Woodward Bulletin. He then entered the University of Cincinnati, taking the bachelor of science course in chemistry and natural history, with special studies in ichthyology. While in the University he was active in athletics, being a member of the football and baseball teams. Besides he edited a college paper, and was president of the College Literary Society. Since 1884 he has held a membership in the Sigma Chi Fraternity. Leaving the University before graduating, he entered the Eclectic Medical Institute in 1887, graduating in medicine in 1889. This course was then supplemented with special studies in microscopy, histology, pathology and bacteriology, in the Ohio Medical College during 1888 and 1889. In addition he availed himself of special instruction in the Cincinnati Hospital in diseases of women and obstetrics, physical diagnosis and pathology. His father's health now being greatly impaired he removed with him to Fresno, California, in 1889, where he practiced medicine until the spring of 1892, when he returned to Cincinnati, where he lived until his death. From 1892 to 1894, Dr. Freeman filled the chair of minor surgery in the Eclectic Medical Institute, and during the last few years, since 1901, was demonstrator of anatomy, and later professor of dermatology and venereal diseases in the same. Dr. Freeman was a member of the National, Ohio, Cincinnati, and Southwestern Eclectic Medical Societies; the Alumnal Association of the Eclectic Medical Institute; the Knights of Pythias;