Dr. Thomas Storey Kirkbride

Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride1 was born on 31 Jul 1809 in Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania and died on 10 Dec 1883 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA aged 74.

Basic notes: He was a Physician. Thomas Story Kirkbride, M.D., Ll.D., eldest son of John and Elizabeth (Story) Kirkbride, was born near Morrisville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, at the paternal home on the banks of the Delaware, July 31, 1809. After attending schools in the neighborhood of his home, he spent four years at a noted classical school in Trenton, New Jersey, and afterwards devoted one year to the special study of higher mathematics at Burlington, New Jersey. The following year he spent on his father's farm in practical pursuits, which in later years he felt to have been of permanent advantage to his health. At the close of the year he read medicine with Dr. Nicholas Belleville, a distinguished physician and surgeon at Trenton, New Jersey, who had come from France with the forces under Marquis de Lafayette, during the American Revolution. Dr. Kirkbride graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1832, and was immediately appointed Resident Physician at the Friends Asylum for the Insane, at Frankford, Philadelphia, remaining there one year. Dr. Kirkbride was noted from the first for his active interest in everything relating to the care of the patients and the management of the institution. On leaving the Friends' Asylum he received a flattering testimonial from the Board of Managers, and also from individual members of the Board a confidential request to return and take charge of the Asylum. In 1833 he was elected Resident Physician at the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he remained two years. During his second year, his colleague was Dr. William W. Gerhard, and both were diligent in the careful examination and noting of all cases under treatment; their observations, published separately, were among the early Hospital clinical reports issued in this country.In 1835 Dr. Kirkbride began general practice in Philadelphia and looked forward to devoting himself to surgery. He was a constant visitor at the Pennsylvania Hospital, keeping up his intimacy with the Medical Staff there engaged. The resignation of his friend. Dr. John Rhea Barton, led him to anticipate an appointment as his successor as Surgeon to the Hospital in the autumn of 1840. One summer morning, when walking in Race street, he met his friend, John Paul, an active member of the Board of Managers, who, to his entire surprise, asked him what would induce him to relinquish his long cherished plans and accept instead the office of Physician-in-Chief and Superintendent of the new Department for the Insane. It was a matter for serious consideration ; his professional friends regarded the change as ill-advised, indeed as almost without justification. On the other hand, in the opportunity of starting a new institution, of developing new forms of management, and, in fact, of giving a new character to the care for the insane. Dr. Kirkbride finally saw inducements to forego his prospects of distinction as a surgeon. Without any solicitation, or even application, on his part, he was elected on October 12, 1840, to the post which he occupied until his death. After visiting institutions for the insane to the north and east of Philadelphia, he moved the following December, with his family, to the old mansion house within the Hospital grounds. From this time Dr. Kirkbride's ability and varied gifts were consecrated to the insane. His energy and enthusiasm never flagged and his duties kept him always at his post. His forty-two Annual Reports give the record of his life. They are at once the history of the institution over which he presided and the story of his untiring service. So completely indeed is his career identified with the medical care and cure of the insane in hospital, that some knowledge of this subject is necessary for any true conception of his character and work. He represented a great idea which he found worthy of life-long devotion. Eyes trained by knowledge to see his own ideal and to descry the hospital of the future as it stood before his vision, can alone perceive the value or the meaning of his labors. His earliest reports are peculiarly interesting as character studies. Written shortly after he entered the specialty, they reveal marvellous maturity of thought and firm grasp of the latest principals in the care of the insane, while the entire series of Reports form a valuable treatise on insanity and the relations of the com- munity to the insane. Dr. Kirkbride was a pioneer in the movement for new and humane methods of treating the insane. In his early reports he insists that insanity should be con- sidered a disease like other serious diseases, with equal hope of recovery. To emphasize this idea he urged the use of the name Hospital instead of Asylum. Bleeding and other debilitating treatment was given up entirely, restraint was seldom resorted to, comfortable and attractive rooms and wards took the place of the cells of an earlier day ; the care-takers of the insane, instead of being "keep- ers" were attendants and nurses, and unvarying kindness and sympathy were made the rule of the Hospital. The beautiful grounds of the Hospital, in whose improvement Dr. Kirkbride took so keen an interest, were also felt to have their place in the moral treatment of the insane, together with the occupations and amusements which were provided for all those able to take part in them. The regular evening amusements, such as gymnastic drills, lectures, readings, magic-lantern exhibitions, (introduced as early as 1844) Dr. Kirkbride himself never failed to attend. Within the wards of the Hospital he found delight in the exercise of that benign power over the insane in which he was unrivalled. To know him thor- oughly one needed to see him surrounded by those to whom his life was devoted. Dignity, tempered by gentleness, invariable courtesy, tenderest sympathy and tact, marked all his intercourse with his patients. His "tranquil grace of tone and look" and manner, his wonderful patience and his genial disposition brought heal- ing influences, which were strengthened by the resolute firmness, the unyielding perseverance and the fortitude of his character. The sane and the insane recog- nized within him a rare spiritual force. In 1854 the wards were so overcrowded that further admissions were necessarily refused. He then suggested the erection of a separate building for men only, and published an "Appeal for the Insane," besides writing many articles for newspapers on the subject. He imparted his own enthusiasm to others, and many citizens, including the whole Board of Managers, threw themselves most heartily into the work. For thirty years, although not always prominently before the public, his counsel was constantly sought by the medical societies and successive Legislatures of Pennsylvania, in every movement relating to the care of the insane. His yearly Reports and his work on the Construction of Hospitals for the Insane, are his principal writings, but he contributed essays, reviews and notices to the medical journals and wrote frequently for newspapers, especially the old United States Gaaette, and North American. Memoirs of his valued friends. Dr. William Pepper Sr., Professor of Theory and Practice in the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Isaac Ray, the author of the "Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity" were written by request of the College of Physicians. Dr. Kirkbride was one of the "original thirteen" physicians who, in 1844, founded the Association of Medical Superintendents, now the American Medico- Psychological Association. He was its first secretary, serving seven years ; its vice- president for seven years, and its president from 1862 to 1870; he took the greatest interest in its proceedings, and was rarely absent from its meetings. He was a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; a member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society; Franklin Institute; Historical Society of Pennsylvania; American Philosophical Society ; and an honorary member of the British Medico- Psychological Association, etc. He was for ten years a trustee of the State Lunatic Asylum at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and for more than forty years a manager of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind. In 1880 Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. In 1880, after recovering from a severe illness of several months, he returned, with renewed ardor, to his accustomed work. In March, 1883, he was prostrated by typhoid-pneumonia ; his illness lasted nine months, and he died peacefully, December 16, 1883, in the seventy-fifth war of his age. The late Professor S. D. Gross, in his Autobiography, thus described Dr. Kirkbride's appearance; "In personal appearance Dr. Kirkbride was eminently attractive. He was of medium height, with a fine physique, a well-shaped head, and a countenance highly expres- sive of benevolence and warmth of heart. His voice was sweet and gentle, and his presence and demeanor were such as to win at once the affection and confi- dence of his most wayward patients." One of his oldest assistants. Dr. John Curwen, wrote of him as follows: "Laboring with a single aim for the relief and welfare of those to whose care he had devoted more than forty years of his Hfe, he has left behind him in what he has written and in what he has done, a monu- ment which will stand so long as the care of the insane will require the aid of those institutions with which his name and his fame have been so closely connected." By resolution of the Board of Managers, an extended Memorial of Dr. Kirk- bride's life was published with the annual report of the Hospital, to the contribu- tors for the year 1883. At a special meeting of the board of managers of the Hospital, held December 17. 1883, a minute was adopted and resolutions expressive of their sense of the great loss they had sustained and of their estimation of the value of his services ; they also directed that a tablet be placed in the Centre Hall of the Department for Women, bearing the following inscription : THIS TABLET Records the affection cherished for the Memory of THOMAS S. KIRKBRIDE, M. D. For more than forty-two years Physician in Chief and Superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane in charge of The Contributors to the Pennsylvania Hospital. In his official duties, faithful and efficient, In his profession, skillful and untiring. In his benevolence, wide and far-seeing. In his Christian faith sincere and steadfast, In every relation of life, tender and unselfish, He was In his Practical Work in this Institution the firm yet most Gentle and Sympathetic Friend and Healer, and by his life-long and successful labors on behalf of the Insane a benefactor of mankind. He died at his home, in the grounds of this Hospital on the 16th day of 12th month, 1883 in the Seventy-fifth year of his age.

Source: Charles E. G. Pease