SHERMAN HARTWELL CHAPMAN, A.M., M.D.,

OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

BY GUSTAVUS ELIOT, A.M., M.D.,

NEW HAVEN,

Sherman Hartwell Chapman, the eldest of the three sons of Timothy Pitkin, and Rachel Thompson (Hartwell) Chapman, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, February twenty-second, 1846. His father, a man of great integrity and uprightness, early in life was a clerk for the late Hon. Simeon B. Chittenden, then a dry goods merchant in New Haven, and later became his partner in the firm of Chittenden & Chapman.

Subsequently

the business was removed to New York, and Mr. Chapman retired. These two gentlemen married sisters, the daughters of Sherman Hartwell, who established a trading post in Warren, and afterwards removed to Bridgeport where he accumulated a fortune. A third daughter was the wife of Dr. Robert Hubbard, of Bridgeport. The three sisters were descendants of Roger Sherman, and were women of unusual strength of character and marked intellectuality.

Mrs. Chapman died shortly after the birth of her third son, and the eldest son, Sherman, was, at the age of seven years, sent to boarding school. For several years he was a pupil of the Sedgwick Institute at Stratford, and entered Yale College in 1862. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1866, and three years later was given the degree of Master of Arts. He studied medicine in New York, and graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Medical department of Columbia College, in 1869. His thesis was awarded honorable mention, and he was appointed valedictorian of his class. Both during his undergraduate life at Yale

and during his professional studies in New York he was a classmate of Dr. L. Duncan Bulkley, of Norfolk (and New York), and of Dr. G. Pierrepont Davis of Hartford.

He began practice in Bridgeport, but in May, 1870, went to Germany where he studied in the University of Berlin and the University of Vienna. He devoted especial attention to Pathology and to diseases of the ear and throat, but also took courses in other departments of medicine.

In 1872 he settled in New Haven and opened an office in the Sheffield block on Elm Street, and shortly afterwards established a private laboratory over the store at the corner of Elm and Church Streets. A few years later he removed his office and residence to the St. John block at the corner of Church and Elm Streets. His success was pronounced from the first, and during the succeeding ten years he became one of the most active practitioners in the city. While engaged in general medical practice he showed especial enthusiasm in the treatment of diseases of the ear, throat and respiratory organs.

He was not satisfied to work with the sole object of making his practice profitable financially for himself, but showed also a desire to assist in the permanent advancement of scientific professional knowledge by contributions to medical literature. In the American Journal of the Medical Sciences for October, 1872, edited by Dr. Isaac Hays, assisted by Dr. I. Minis Hays, the leading article was by Dr. Chapman, who then claimed New York as his residence, and was entitled "Experimental Researches on Pericarditis." As he himself writes:" At the suggestion and with the careful criticism of Professor Stricker the studies described in the following pages were conducted in the Laboratory of Pathological Research." The article was illustrated with twelve wood-cuts, representing the microscopical

appearances observed in the specimens studied. At that time an active controversy was being carried on between Stricker and Cohnheim concerning the origin and nature of pus cells, and these experimental studies were carried on, under Stricker's direction, in order to add new knowledge concerning the subjects under discussion.

In the same journal, four years iater, in October, 1877, he published a case of "Sarcoma of the Inferior Constrictor of the Pharynx and Inlet of the Oesophagus." The following issue, January, 1878, of the same periodical, contained an article from his pen on "Epithelioma Laryngis. Final Removal by Laryngo-thyrotomy."

In 1873 he was elected to membership in the New Haven County Medical Association and the Connecticut Medical Society. To the proceedings of the latter organization he made several contributions. The volume for 1875 contains an article on "Chronic Laryngitis," and also a communication entitled "Observations on the Use of Chloral Hydrate." The succeeding volume, for 1876, contains "Notes of Some Cases of Ear Disease," and also "Case of Chronic Disease of the Larynx." The following year he received an appointment as "Essayist," and in fulfillment of the duty thus imposed, at the annual convention in 1878, he presented a paper on Therapeutics of Throat and Ear Diseases."

Having early in his professional career established a well earned reputation for unusual knowledge and skill in his chosen specialty, he was in 1879 appointed Lecturer on Diseases of the Throat and Ear in the Medical Department of Yale University. This position he continued to fill until 1885. Among his pupils, during these years, who have since become distinguished in the specialty which he taught, may be mentioned Dr. H. Holbrook Curtis and Dr. Edward B. Dench of New York, and Dr. Henry L. Swain. The latter gentleman succeeded Dr. Chapman in 1886 as lecturer in the Medical College.

He served for many years as attending physician to the New Haven Dispensary, in the Department of Diseases of the Throat and Ear, and also for nearly twenty years as attending physician to the New Haven Hospital. His wide clinical experience, his wonderful skill in the use of the most delicate instruments, his admirable tact in the management of patients, and his sound judgment in the selection of appropriate methods of treatment made his clinics deservedly popular and exceptionally useful.

In 1874 he was elected a member of the New Haven Medical Association. For many years he took an active part in the meetings, joining in the discussions, reading papers, and relating cases of interest. In those days a considerable proportion of the meetings were held at the houses of the members, and those, who twenty years ago were young practitioners, cherish most delightful recollections of his cordial hospitality and his charming entertainment. In 1890 he gave a reception to the members of the Connecticut Medical Society, in honor of the President and Fellows of that organization, on the occasion of the annual convention in New Haven.

He was elected to membership in the American Laryngological Association at the fourth annual meeting, held in New York, in 1882, being the first physician residing in Connecticut to receive this honor. His name was proposed by Dr. J. Solis Cohen, of Philadelphia, and Dr. Francke H. Bosworth, of New York City, and the subject of the thesis, which he presented as a candidate was: "The Use of Cold in Diseases of the Upper Air Passages." He attended many of the meetings, and in June, 1894, was elected Second Vice President. Several papers read by him at the annual meetings were pub lished in the volumes of his transactions. One on "Herpes Laryngis" was read at the sixth meeting, held in New York, in 1884; on "Myalgia of the Pharynx and Larynx," at the ninth meeting, also in New York, in

1887; on "Some Pathological Conditions of the Upper Air Passage Coincident with Attacks of La Grippe,' at the fourteenth meeting, in Boston, in 1892; and "Notes on the Treatment of Diphtheria," at the eighteenth meeting, at Pittsburg, Penn., in 1896.

He was elected a member of the American Climatological Association, in 1887, and two years later presented before it two papers, one on "Diphtheria in High Altitudes," and a second on "Sugar in the Urine of Asthmatics."

He was, for a time, a member of the American Medical Association, and was also an honorary member of the Laryngological Societies of Paris and Berlin.

On June seventeenth, 1869, at Springfield, Mass., he was married to Miss M. Louise Eustis, daughter of the Rev. William T. Eustis, D. D., formerly pastor of the Chapel Street Church (later called the Church of the Redeemer), of New Haven. One child, a daughter, Rachel Hartwell Chapman, was born in Vienna, Austria, on May twenty-second, 1871. She died of diphtheria in Brooklyn, where she had been attending school, in March, 1888. Her death threw a cloud over the lives of both Dr. and Mrs. Chapman, from which neither ever entirely emerged. Mrs. Chapman died in April, 1901, and on June thirtieth, 1902, Dr. Chapman married Miss Helen Baldwin, of Danbury.

Early in the spring of 1903, signs of deterioration of his customary vigor began to be observed by his friends, and when finally he was persuaded to seek the assistance of one of his professional neighbors, he was found to be suffering from organic disease of the heart. Shortly afterwards cerebral thrombosis developed, and although he was attended most assiduously by Dr. Charles J. Foote, and his skill was supplemented by the counsel of Dr. Charles L. Dana, of New York, it was impossible to prevent dissolution, and he died on April sixteenth, 1903. He was buried, in the family lot, in Stockbridge, Mass.