14 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



he became interested in a supposititious dog-fight which he 

 seemed to see from the window, hurried away to observe it, and 

 shortly returned to find her in a fair way to recovery because of 

 her indignation. In surgery he was dexterous. I have seen him 

 when about sixty years of age remove an iron filing from a 

 workman's eye with the point of a common needle, and this 

 without glasses. His hand was as steady as it was nimble. 



During a large part of my father's life he was employed by the 

 government as surgeon at Newport Barracks. This was a con- 

 venient place whereto were forwarded the sick soldiers from a 

 wide area. Especially during the Civil War it was a kind of 

 dumping ground for the obstinate cases sent in from the field 

 hospitals ; yet, as I have been credibly informed, the proportion 

 of recoveries was larger than in any other hospital of that time. 

 His success was in great measure due to his distrust of remedies 

 and his confidence in the use of tents, nutrition, and cheerful- 

 ness. He was among the first to put aside the singular custom 

 of blood-letting, not having used the lancet after 1832. When 

 Surgeon-General Hammond issued his order concerning the use 

 of calomel in the army hospitals, he offered to return all the 

 supplies of that drug which he had received, unopened. 



My father had capacities for the making of a great physician 

 and surgeon, yet for thirty years he remained content with a 

 common village and country practice and that which the bar- 

 racks afforded ; with a capacity as great as I have ever seen for 

 breaking new ground he left it untilled. The reason for this was 

 an ineradicable indolence of spirit, a sense that nothing in this 

 world was really worth striving for; there might be things worth 

 doing because there was immediate duty in them, but it was not 

 worth while seeking for duties not thrust upon him. There was 

 money enough, which came through my mother, for comfort- 

 able living, so why should he strive? The Civil War roused him 

 strongly. He went security for the first thousand muskets 

 which came into the hands of the Kentucky Unionists, and 

 sacrificed much for the cause in many ways, in friendships as 



