Page 13
THE WAYNESYILLE MOUNTAINEER
.AM " .
lV OCTOBER 24, 1940
k FANNING ABEL
School, A
d the New.
f wr (by request of the
(f2t Masuu"- '
of this sketch was
gjin the upper Pig
, jUywood County, N.
J tike U of us of his
especiaUy those
country, his educa
ities were touted.
4 full sdvantage of the
1 county schools could
Zndj be attended
TAcsdemy for. two
he gave promseof
, to do and be in the
, k, took several prizes
n in his
tfter teaching in county
,nr.;.N. Mease at Ford
(HOW wuriuii; yir-.-
,;ai to medical school in
tietl training was naa
l. University Medical
L when he was gradu-
i, 1892, In the spring
tt year, he servea ir
ha as senior student
,s the professor oi sur-
ytimore University nos-
this final year, he ana
hit Wlow-students of
(,r, were nermitted to
fl work in surgery in the
u Johns Hopkins Med-
k Here his work so
1 him to Dr. Wm. H.
sii it that time was the
A of the hospital
L offered Dr. Abel an In-
h lurgery in the Johns
Hospital. ; Thus we see
e very beginning of his
iter his bent for sur-
ironounced.
for financial reasons,
decline this much prized
he came home to take
work of carying f ro the
Caative county oi nay
wttled at Canton and,
i on May 13, 1893 licens
ee medicine and sur-
soon built up a large
Id 1900, he moved to
fie, where he was to spend
Ma of his life. Here, In
hwnd-buggy days, he
practiced medicine and surgery
over almost all of Haywood Countv.
Herein he followed Dr. G. D. S.
Allen of blessed memory, whosj
horse-back parish of an earlier day
had been the whole county.
Dr. Abel was forever seeking to
learn unat ne might do more for
his patients. In 1909 he went back
to Baltimore to the Johns Hopkins
Hospital tor clinical work in Gyne
iology under Dr. Howard A. Ke:l
and rediatrics under Dr. Von
Pirquet. Later back in Baltimore
again he had Microscopy under Dr
Charles Simon, Pedriatrics under
Dr, Mason Knox, and attended sur
gical clinics at the Hopkins Hos
pital. Next came the World War
and he volunteered for service in
the medical corps. He was not
sent over seas, but for 16 months
he served in the training camp at
Ft. Orglethorpe, Ga. After the
Armisuse, he was retired in De
cember, 1918 as Major in the Med
ical Reserve Corps, U. S. Army,
until he reached of age 65 when
he automatically went into the Re
serve Auxiliary.
" When retired from the army in
1918, Dr. Abel came home to be
gin again his life work among his
own people. But he came with his
bent for eurgery stronger than ever,
and, interestingly enoughs his op
portunity in that line was waiting
for him.
In 1917, Bonniecastle, a wooden
structure on Pigeon street, jn Way
ville, was converted into our first
hospital. The building was ill
adopted to its new purpose, its
equipment was scanty to the point
of poverty and only by courtesy
could it be called a hospital. In
January, 1919, Dr. Abel was put in
charge of this hospital. He bought
supplies, chose the staff, and prac
ticed general surgery and gave such
service as Haywood County had
never had before. To those of us
who know the condition of the ma
jority of the patients who came to
him, it seemed as if the absolutely
impossible was demanded of him.
But since he did not know that such
things could not be done, he did
them.
The Haywood County Hospital
was organized in 1925 in the Bon
ndecastle building. About this
time there was launched a cam
paign to build a larger modern
I .,. . ' ....
ulfilling A Pledge
if-,., 1ft IQ4Q iutm tk Rrewera and North
olina Beer Distributors Committee was formed,
sfinite and sincere promise waa made to the
Ik . . .
pledged the beer industry'a aid to law-enforce-
kt agencies to the end that retail beer dealers
Itrate lawfully and in the public interest.
rrrr,m '.Hmx l!ir l-m rr 4 liA Vkftn fill''
VJ. Hnrlnr fk 1 7 mrtntk it Kllft Aided
wits noi m
authorities in ridding the state of 131 unde
rlie beer outlets 107 by revocation, one by
"render and 2 3 by refusal to renew licenses.
can help by rsitr'.c'.ing your patronage to
places which -hi-y the law.
y . y
V
V
i (.
-
n
i:
ii
il
In pioneer cms huge herds of
BUff AlOES FREdUENTtY DELAYED
TRAINS C?vOSSIN& THE WESTERN
PLAINS. OBSTINATE 5TKA6&IEKS
WERE SOMETIMES CHASED FROM
THS TRACK WITH HOT WATER,
FROM THE LOCOMOTIVE
'O'he avera&e freight car
TODAY HAS TO PERCENT
MORE CAPACITY THAN THE
AVERA&E FREI&HT CAR.
OF WORLD WAR DAYS(l?l8)
BOUT THIRTY CENTS OF
EVERY RAILROAD TAX DOLLAR
GOES TO SUPPORT PUBLIC
SCHOOLS, THUS PROVIDING
SUFFICIENT FUNDS TO
EDUCATE APPROXIMATELY
1300,000 BOYS AND GIRLS
EACH EAR..
HI ASSOCIATION Of AMHICAN IAAIOAM
EDGAR H. BAIN, State Director
COMMERCIAL BUILDING : RALEIGH, K. C
hospital. In this campaign, Dr.
Abel, by exhortation and much
more by his unusually successful
medical and surgical practice in.
the old hospital and in the homes
and lives of his patients, played no
small part in converting the first
negative vote on issuing bonds into
an affirmative one on the second
trial. The new hospital was opened
January 1, 1928 and Dr. Abel wag
made chief of staff. But he re
signed shortly to give his whole
time and strength to his work with
his patients out of the hospital as
well as in it.
Dr, Abel was always a student,
since ever within him was the de
sire to learn more that he might
do more for his sick. With this
new work before him, he saw that
he had to have more special train
ing for it, and in characteristic
fashion he went about getting his
training.
This discipline was mainly had
in Chicago. In 1919, Dr, Abel
spent eight weeks there working in
the Augustana Hospital and in the
Clinical Laboratory of Surgical
Technique. Jn 1920, he spent eignt
weeks as a surgical interne in Cook
County Hospital. In 1921, he at
tended for 12 weeks clinics at the
American Hospital.
In addition there were almost
annual attendances (12 week in
all) at summer clinics at the Johns
Hopkins Hospital. And in 1929
he spent 6 weeks in Dr. George
Cuile's Thyroid Clinic at the Lake
side Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Abel was a member of the
following medical organizations:
Haywood County, 10th N. C. Dis
trict, and N. C. State Medical So
cieties; American Medical Asso
ciation; Southeastern Surgical Con
gress (chater member); Associa
tion of Railway Surgeons (vice
president in 1937) and Association
of Military Surgeons. In 1925, he
was made a fellow of the American
College of Surgeons the highest
membership distinction that can
come to a surgeon in America, it
corresponds to membership in the
Royal College of Surgeons of Great
Britain.
In the title it was said that he
was "a doctor of the old school,"
but this must not be interpreted
too literally. He was ready to use
all the modern technical aids to
OF HAYWOO & CO U NT Y
All who did not register in the new regis
tration will have to register this Satur
day, October 26th, if you wish to vote in
the November Election.
lywood County Republican Executive
Committee
Paid Advertisement. .
medical practice, but back of these
there were, (as put by Dr. David
Riesman of the University of
Pennsylvania Medical School) the
sensitive fingers, the keen eye, the
trained ear, to check up on and
vitalize the technical aids of steth'
oscope, microscope, test tube, etc
To quote Dr. Alexis Carrell: "The
physician must clearly distinguish
the sick human bcir.g described in
his books from the concrete patient
whom he has to treat, who must
not be studied, but above all reliev
ed, encouraged and cured. Ilia role
is to discover the characteristics of
the sick man's individuality, his
resistance to pathogenic factorn,
his sensibility to pain, the value
of his organic activities, his past
and future." Dr. Abel like Dr.
Carrell believed "that a knowl
edge of his patient is us important
as that of the disease.'
To phrase it differently like Dr.
G. D. S. Allen and after him his son,
Dr. R. L. Allen (to mention but two
who are gone on), Dr. Abel knew
the "cons, jtution" of his patient as
it is phraned in the records of the
Presbyterian Hospital in New Xork
City. He never studied Psychiatry,
the modern science or study of Ihe
mind of the man sick bodily, but,
like the old family doctors, he
practiced it daily. He knew his
pa tier ts and they believed in and
trusted him and in large numbers
they got well.
Hut there was a further factor
in Dr. Abel's very successful prac
tice of medicine his deep under
standing of the hearts of people in
great trouble. Here is a case in
point. A family was in great dis
tress and a call went to him the
telephone "Dr. Abel, please come
at once. We do not need the phy
sician, but we sorely need the
man." His answer"! had heard
the news and was on my way to my
car when called to the 'phone by
your message. I'll be right over."
He came and brought comfort and
help.
If Dr. Abel waf a physician of
the old school, he was certainly a
surgeon of the new. It has been
seen that his predilection for sur
gery came out in the second of his
two short years in medical school.
In the late 1890s and in the first two
decades of the present century, Dr.
Abel had to do surgery without
hospital appliances and techs-ique.
The opening of Bonniecastle as a
hospitnl gnve him his first real op
portunity in surgery. But con
stantly he felt the seed to learn
more, not only by books and journ
els, but by attending the clinics of
such master operators as Kelly and
Halstead at the Hopkins, and Cuile
at Cleveland.
Dr. Abel made use of all modern
techniques, especially of the X-ray
fluoroscope and photograph, and
of bloodcounts as aids to p re-surgical
diagnosis. But these things,
together with all that he learned
in long months spent in surgical
clinics as noted above, do not ac
count for the extraordinary and at
times almost uncanny success of
his operations. That this state
ment may be justified, I quote from
his records that during the calendar
years 1936 and 1937 he performed
163 major operations (besides a
multitude of minor one) in the Hay
wood County Hospital with but two
deaths. To those of us who know
that many of these patients came
to him almost with one foot in the
grave, this is but little short of
marvelous.
In explanation of this extraordi
nary record,. I must again quote Dr.
Alexis Carrell. "The success of
omirent surgeons comes from the
clear understanding of certain
adaptive phenomena. It is indis
pensable ir.ot only fro preserve
wounds from infection, but to res
pect, in the--course of operation-
handling, their structural a-. d func
tional condition," In the. words
of another great suigeun, "One I
must respect tissues not abuse
them." And Dr. Carrell again says
"The good surgeon possesses the
power to open the body, explore the
organs, and repair lesions almost
without risk to his patient. To
many people, he restores health and
strength. To those with incurable
diseases, he is capable of bring
ing some relief" and some com
fort and courage to stand.
' But there is another factor in
the life and practice and service
of this very successful doctor and
surgeon the implicit faith of his
patients in him, In his almost in-
falibility. This is the other side
of the picture. And without this
faith of the patient, in many more
cases than, the two noted, all the
knowledge and skill of the surgeon
would have ofttlmes availed not.
I have recently reread that most
moving story of the Scotch doctor,
William MacLure, "A Doctor of
the Old School," by Ian Maclaren.
Dr. MacLure in his parish of Durm
tochty was the veritable prototype
of Dr. G. D. S. Allen, who on horse
back ministered to almost the
whole of Haywood County in the
'70s and '80s of the last century.
Dr. Abel came afterward in the
horse-and-buggy days and then in
the good roads and automobile pe
riod. Of his work, as of both
U. S. Air Hero
Shown making out his report after
testing an army plane at Wright
l'...m rhin Cant. Samuel H. Har
ris, of Pittsburgh, is the peacetime
ace oi the U. &. Army Air v,uif
He ha? been decorated with the Dis
tin u i shed Flying Cross for facing
dinners approximating those oj
buiUe in his career as test pilot
Mapel Grove Club
Has Program On
Seasonal Clothing
The Maple Grove home demoa
stration club met at the home of
Mrs. C. R. Palmer on October th
eighth.
During the . business meeting
plans for the fall achievement day
were discussed. .
Reports from the poultry and
garden leaden were heard and a
paper on Sweden was read.
The demonstration, by Miss
Smith, was "Seasonal Clothing."
Many new style hints were riven,
also helpful ideas as to the re
modeling of old clothing and how
to make inexpensive accessories,
were gained.
A social hour featuring a game
and delicious refreshments was en
joyed by the members.
The club planned an all day
meeting to be held on the second
Tuesday in November, at the home
of Mrs. Homer Justice.
It's free speech so long aa it is
not used to criticize our own candidate.
these other doctors of the Old
School, I can quote MacLaren's
words "He did his best for every
man and woman and child in his
circuit, in heat and cold, in sun and
snow, in darkness and light, year
in and year out." It was good to
see him come Into the yard for the
very sight of him was victory."
And finally I may quote the
narting words of the great Edin
burgh surgeon to William MacLure,
after th stnrmv ride, and the ford
ing of the flooded stream, and the
operation that saved the life of An
nie. Tammas Mitchell's wife
"Give'e another shake of your hand,
MacLure; I'm proud to have met
you; you are an honor to our pro
fession." And so it may be said of
our beloved physician whot rests
from his labors.
JOSHUA FANNING ABEL
LICENSE REVOKED
The drivers license of Robert
Leroy Mull was revoked by the
highway safety division after Mull
had been convicted of driving
drunk. He was tried in the May
or's court in Haielwood. "
ii
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i'
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