At all times the destroyers
of men, and not their preservers have borne off the higher honors and
the greater rewards. Those who hurt, and not those who heal have received the most
praise and pay. There were Machaon who, as Homer tells us, sucked the clotted blood
from the wound of Menelaus,
and aged lapis, who, as Virgil says, of all the proffered gifts of Apollo preferred to know the powers and uses of healing medicines, and who, by his unostentatious skill restored CEneas to the ranks of battle. What insignificant personages are these in song and story compared with those great leaders whom they cured? And yet the poets tell us they were brave as well as wise. It is in the power of all to call over a long cata- logue of the heroes of the battlefields of our Revolution; but how many of the names of those other heroes of the hospitals can be mentioned, who not less devoted, not less self-sacrificing, not less patriotic, without glory plied their silent art for the alleviation of suffering or the saving of life. Warren won his title to fame by dying at Bunker Hill a soldier, not a physician. Rush is remembered as the signer of the Declaration of Independence, not as the surgeon-general of the Army of Independence. Shippen is known, if known at all beyond his profession', as the founder of a great school, not as the Director General and organizer of the medical department of the incipient government; and if posterity shall hear of Craik, it will be of him as the attendant upon Washington upon his deathbed at Mount Vernon, and not as the surgeon-iii-chief to the same great man at the head of his army at Yorktown. Talbot has had her hero of this class, who served his country during her times of trial, in that line of honorable duty to which fie had been called, with the same smallmeedofpraise. Ofhimisitnowproposedtopreseutabriefmemoir, that, perchance, by it, the name of DR. FNNALLS MARTIN may be rescued from entire oblivion. The very respectable family to which this gentleman belonged, and which besides himself, has given several other distinguished men to the State, has been seated in Talbot county from the very earliest days of its settlement. Of three brothers who emigrated from Hertfordshire, England, about the middle of the seventeenth century, two settled in Maryland and one'in Virginia. The founder of the family in Talbot was Thomas Martin, who was the grandfather of Dr. Ennalls Martin. He came into possession of the land, by patent or purchase, now known as "Hampden," in Island Creek Neck, and this long remained the seat of the family. Upon this estate was born August 23rd, 1758, the subject of this memoir, his father being Thomas Martin, the second of the name and lineage, and his naother a Miss Ennalls, of Dorchester county. The very retired neighborhood, and indeed the county itself of his birth affording at that time few advantages for higher education, he was at a very early age sent to the Academy at Newark, a school then acquiring excellent reputation, and afterwards organized as a college. Here he is said to have shown those studious habits that continued with him through life, and to have distinguished himself by his facility in the acquisition of the Latin and Greek languages in which he became proficient. After completing the usual course of studies in this Academy, he was in 1777 removed to Philadelphia, to enter upon his professional studies, it having been resolved by his parents to train him up as a physician. The Revolutionary war was then in progress. Young Martin sharedin the patriotic order which inspired so many of the young men of the time. Dr. William Shippen, to whose instruction in the art and science of medicine, he had been consigned by his parents, was in this year, by appoint- ment of General Washington, made Director-General of the medical department of the army. There was pressing need in that department for assistant surgeons and medical cadets: Dr. Shippen was ready to perceive how he might turn to profitable account to the colonies the enthusiasm for liberty, and the eagerness for professional knowledge displayed by his pupil; so Martin was placed in that division of the military service which had charge of the preparation and dispensing of medicines. This was in accordance with the medical curriculum of the times, when a course of practical pharmacy was the necessary initiation into the higher departments of the profession. But a privilege was granted to Medical Cadet Martin, to attend lectures during the season of winter, when his services were not in such demand as during the active campaigns of the army. He proved himself to be a skillful apothecary, as well as an apt scholar. Upon the recommendation of his preceptor he was during the year duly commissioned, by Congress, Hospital Sur- geon's Mate, and his commission dated from June Ist, 1777. He was assigned to the Hospital at Bethlehem, Pa., then the principal hospital for the main army, having Dr. William Currie for an associated surgeon's mate, a gentleman who subsequently became well known to the profession for his contributions to medical literature. His duties did not call Martin into the field to follow the army, and his medical studies were not interrupted. Indeed, he could hardly have been placed in more favorable circumstances for prosecuting those studies, for he was permitted during the winter to attend lectures in the Medical School at Philadelphia, which had but recently (1765) been established, and to which Doctors Shippen and Rush were giving, as professors, its first distinction. At the same time the army hospital gave him opportunity for the observation of disease at the bedside, for witnessing the great surgical performances of the operating table, and for watching the results of medical treatment.' Assistant Surgeon Martin remained at Bethlehem during the greater part of the war, virtually indeed, until its close, not resigning until 1782, sometime after the surrender of Yorktown in 1781. His services there- fore extended over a period of about five years, and during that time it is said of him, that he was -never absent from his post, except when attending lectures, but twice, once to visit his parents in Maryland, and once to repair to Saratoga, in obedience to orders, for the purpose of superintending the removal to the hospital at Bethlehem, of the sick and wounded of the armies, after the defeat of Burgoyne, by General Gates, in October, 1777. For his faithful and persevering performance of duty at Bethlehem, like other of the officers of the Revolution, he was very inadequately paid by Congress. There was compensation however in the valuable instruction which he received, and many years later, his native state of Maryland, in recognition of his patriotic devotion and his useful services, and also in consideration of the depreciation of his pay from Congress, voted him the sum of 475£, 30s, 9d, 2 an act of liberality and justice which did not meet the entire approbation of that portion of his fellow citizens with whom he was not in political accord, and which subjected those gentlemen who sustained it in the General
Assembly to the censures of the economists of the day. Dr. Martin, throughout his life, was accustomed to speak of the time spent at Bethlehem as the most pleasant and profitable part of his career, having had ample opportunities for the study of his profession, agreeable work, pleasant society, and, what his brother officers in the field could not always obtain, excellent fare, derived from the wild game which abounded in the neighborhood.
While attending to his duties as hospital surgeon he had been able to attend two full courses of medical lectures at the Philadelphia School. The skill which he displayed as a dissector persuaded Dr. Shippen, the professor of anatomy, to appoint him demonstrator to the class; and he had applied himself with such zeal and ability that he was occasionally permitted, in the absence of the professor, to lecture in his stead. He was accustomed when speaking of this portion of his life, to refer to the difficulties of procuring subjects for anatomical dissection, as a great impediment to the pursuit of this department of medical science. The indignation of the people against the professors and students for their efforts to obtain the necessary material, was not founded wholly upon a regard for the dead, but upon superstitions, of which there are remains to this day. The degree of Bachelor of Medicine had been conferred upon him, and when about to leave the medical school to which he had rendered his services quite equivalent to the honors conferred, Dr. Shippen, his preceptor, offered him many inducements to remain in the city of Philadelphia and to continue his connection with the institution. It was proposed to him that he should accept the chair of adjunct professor of Anatomy; but this was declined, as he was persuaded that a general practice in his native county would prove more remunerative than the emoluments of such a position, even though coupled with such rewards as might be derived from the exercise of his profession in a large city. That he committed an error of judgment, he in after years was ready to confess, and this he attempted, ineffectually, as will be seen in the sequel, to remedy. It is venturing little to say that upon a wider field than that in which he exercised his undoubted abilities, he would not have remained the obscure country physician, but would have acquired eminence in his profession for both learning and skill. It was the intention of Dr. Martin, after receiving his first degree to apply the next year for the final degree of Doctor of Medicine. This purpose he never carried out, but many years later the University of Maryland, conferring this honor upon him, unsolicited, received honor in return, by this generous act.
In "the memorable year of 1783," as he calls the year of the acknowl- edgment by Great Britain of the independence of the United States, Dr. Martin took up his residence in Easton, Talbot county, Mary- land, and entered actively upon the practice of his profession in all its branches. He had brought with him a reputation for learning acquired in the best school and under the best instructors of the country; and for skill in the observation and treatment of disease and injury obtained by long attendance in the army hospital. To these advantages he added the influence of a large family connection of the first respectability. His success was assured from the beginning, and this success but increased his diligence, attention and devotion to both the science and the art of medicine. While he continued to be a student of the best literature of his profession, he was a yet more diligent student of nature in her abnormal operations. The young physician must almost necessarily rely for guidance upon the teaching of others, but as the materials for independent opinion and conduct accumulate, the ability to free himself from the shackles of mere authority, and routine, and to adopt a course of thought or action that is marked out by his own reason or the indications of his own observation, belongs only to those of superior order of mind. When that course has been proven by the tests of time, such independence and perspicacity are the marks of the highest order of professional intelligence. These marks were exhibited by Dr. Martin. At a time when the dicta of Dr. Rush were almost as supreme in this country, as were the aphorisms of Hippocrates, of old, he presumed to call them in question. In particular he dared to doubt the propriety of applying the precepts of the sanguinary code of this great teacher to the treatment of certain inflammatory affections and forms of fever. Although he was of the independent character of mind, he was not one who found justification for his disregard of authority in his own impulses. It was not from a mere spirit of differing that he differed. Few men showed greater willingness to learn from others; but again few men showed a greater reluctance to obey directions, that were not accompanied by reasons for obedience. He was self-reliant, but did not disdain assistance.
His methods of treatment were, in general of the heroic character. They were decisive, not expectant. His remedies were drastic, his doses were formidable, and their results were unequivocal and palpable. Even his manner towards his patients was rough-almost brutal. He had a thorough conviction of the efficacy of medicine in the cure of disease when properly administered. He prescribed with that decision which was bom of this conviction, and of his own competency. None of those doubts that harass the sceptical, or that paralyze the tiinid practitioner affected him in his therapeutics. He fully believed in his art and in himself; and he would permit no one who employed him to express or show any doubt of the value of either. His strong will and self-assertion impressed almost everyone with a conviction of his ability: and if there was any reluctance upon the part of the sick to use the remedies he prescribed, he overcame that reluctance by a resort to physical compulsion. He has been known to seize a hesitating or unwilling patient around the neck, and while holding his nose with one hand pour his hideous draughts down his throat, when he opened his mouth to gasp for breath. Such conduct as this, and the like, instead of injuriously affecting his practice, was taken to be only, an eccentricity if not really an evidence, of superior genius. No physician but one who thought he had reason to think his services indispensable could have dared to do much that tradition relates of Dr. Martin, whose rough manners and fearful dosing are yet remembered almost with trembling by the older members of this community.3
The practice of Dr. Martin, when at its height extended over the wholeofthiscounty,andintothoseadjoining. His services inconsultation were thought to be of especial value. He may have owed a part of his reputation among the people as a consulting physician to the fact that he was as little regardful of professional as of social etiquette, and without much regard to the feelings, or the interest of his brethren.
He did not hesitate to expreis his disapprobation of any course of treatment that an attending physician had been pursuing, if it did not meet his approval. Indeed a case is mentioned, where he openly rebuked a practitioner, who had been attempting to follow with servility Dr. Martin's own advice, as laid down in his published essay, giving the astonished doctor to understand that the best of written rules were a bad substitute for even a poor judgment-a declaration, which of course, was unanswerable, and made with a coarseness that was unpardonable. In his practice he always expressed a preference for surgery, his services in the military hospital and in the dissecting room having given him man- ual dexterity with the knife and other instruments. But situated as he was in the country, there were few opportunities afforded him for the employment of his skill, or an indulgence in his surgical penchant.
The reputation he had acquired in Talbot, and which really bad extended into distant portions of the state, persuaded him, in the year 1818, to surrender his practice to his son-in-law, Dr. Edward Spedden, and to remove from Easton to Baltimore, believing that he would there be able at once to acquire a remunerative and less laborious practice; and besides would attain that distinction among his professional brethren which was his ambition, and which he felt to be his due, but from which he was debarred by reason of the secluded section in which he lived But, like most physicians who have attempted similar adventures, he was disappointed in his expectations, and after a short residence in Baltimore he returned to Easton, resumed his former practice, in the laborious prosecution of which he spent the remainder of his life.
The career of the practitioner of medicine, especially of the country practitioner, is but little diversified. His life is spent in one round of duty, full of petty crises involving life and death it may be to a few, but marked by no great events that can interest the world at large, or that can distinguish his own career. But there are a few circumstances in the life of Dr. Martin which should -not go unrecorded, as they will serve to characterize him, and also to illustrate the annals of this county.
In the year 1793 there was much alarm in the town of Easton because of the presence in Philadelphia of the yellow fever. A public meeting of the citizens was- held to devise measures for the prevention of its introduction into the town, and its propagation, if it should appear. Among others adopted was the appointment of a Board of Health to inspect all persons coming from the infested city. This Board was constituted of physicians exclusively, of whom Dr. Martin was one.
It may be well enough to say, no cases of the disease were known in Easton or the county, during the epidemic.
In the year 1798 a number of the leading physicians of the State united in a petition to the General Assembly for an act of incorporation, and in January of the following year their petition was granted by the passage of a bill constituting certain persons therein mentioned a body corporate, under the title of "The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland." Among the provisions of this bill was the granting to this society the power to issue licenses to practice medicine within the State, to those persons who should prove their competency before a "Board of Examiners" to be selected, seven from the Western and five from the Eastern Shore. Of the original petitioners and corporators Dr. Ennalls Martin was one; and at the first meeting of the Faculty, June Ilth, 1799, at Annapolis, he was elected one of the Board of Examiners for this Shore, the other members of that section of the board being Doctors James Anderson, Jr., of Kent, James Davidson of Queen Anne's, Perry E. Noel and Stephen Theodore Johnson, of Talbot.4 At a general meeting of this Faculty at Baltimore in July, 1802, committees for each city and county in the State, entitled Medical Censors, were appointed, the principal duty of which was to see that "the Medical and Chirurgical law be not infringed by unlicensed practitioners, and that the penalties thereof be inflicted upon trespassers." Dr. Ennalls Martin and Dr. Stephen Theodore Johnson were selected as the Censors for Talbot. At this same meeting Dr. Martin was made one of an Executive Committee of fifteen, selected from the two sections of the State, and the members of this committee were also Examiners. These honorable positions in this society he held for many years. In 1818 he was elected president of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty, which is indicative of the estimation in which he was held by his professional brethren. How long he held this place is not known. In the year 1830 he received a similar testimonial from this body by being chosen one of its delegates to the General Medical Convention, which assembled at New York, in the spring of that year, for the purpose of revising the American Pharmacopaeia.
To Doctor Martin this county is largely indebted for the introduction of one of the greatest benefactions that medical science has conferred upon the human race, namely vaccination. The discovery of the prophylactic modifying influence of the cowpox upon the terrible disease of variola, dates as it is well known from 1796. Its introduction, however, into common use met with many prejudices and other impediments, so that it was -not until 1803 that it was resorted to in Talbot county. In 1802, an article appeared in the Maryland Herald, published at Easton, recommending its virtues; but in 1803 a still more extended one was printed over the signatures of Dr. Martin, and other prominent physicians of the county. This was doubtless from his pen. It asserted with great positiveness the efficacy and safety of vaccination, and the opinions of the signers were corroborated by certificates from leading physicians of Philadelphia, then regarded as the very fountain head of medical knowledge in Araerica. The vaccination of the poor gratuitously was offered by the gentlemen issuing this paper. Somewhat later Dr. Martin was compelled to defend his position as to vaccination being a preventive of smallpox, because of the occurrence of a case of varioloid in a person who had been subjected to the vaccine impression. The arguments he used are now but the common places of medical science, but then they were its novelties. It would seem that considerable time was necessary to dispel doubts of the value of this agent, to allay fears of its dangerousness, and to eradicate prejudices that were almost of the nature of superstitions, as to the propriety of its employment; but unquestionably to this sensible physician much credit is due for its introduction, and for its being brought into general use in this county within a reasonably brief period after its virtues had been made known.
In the last days of the year 1812 a disease of a peculiar type made its appearance in Talbot. It became epidemic during the winters of 1813 1814, in this and the adjoining county of Queen Anne's. A few cases appeared in Caroline and Dorchester. Such was its severity, or such were the results of its improper treatment, that in five months no fewer then five hundred persons, at a very moderate computation, perished in Talbot alone, out of a population of about fifteen thousand. The disease presented symptoms of pneumonia, masked however by such severe cephalic pain, that it acquired the popular name of the " head complaint." It was treated by the means ordinarily employed for pleurisy or pneumonia, which were repeated venesection and other depleting remedies. Dr. Martin was not slow to discover that this method was attended by most unsatisfactory, indeed disastrous results; and he had the good sense, and resolution to abandon 'system,' and adopt the suggestions of experience. An employment of mild, soothing, and as it were negative treatment was attended by most gratifying success; or if active remedies were used at all they were just the opposite of those prescribed by 'system,' namely, stimulants and corroberants.5 This success brought him great reputation among the people and with the profession: and very deservedly for he had shown great perspicacity and great independence. What better evidence can there be of professional ability than to be able to step out of the beaten track, and to anticipate, as it were, that which the science and the observation of the future prove to be the correct line of procedure. Medical men will notice that Dr. Martin's treatment of this disease, which would now be called a typhoid pneumonia, was precisely that which is employed by the most enlightened physicians of this day, though it was directly contrary to the received practice of his time.
As might be expected of one so devoted to his profession as Dr. Martin was; of one possessed of his knowledge of medical science and of his experience in medical art; of one of his independence of opinion and originality of methods, he was a contributor to medical literature. He is said to have been a frequent contributor to the Medical Repository, a journal published in the city of Philadelphia, but there are -no means of identifying his papers. Besides these casual Essays, he published in the year 1815 a tract on the epidemic diseases, noticed above.6 In this tract he attempts to account for the appearance of this epidemic (in Dec. 1812) after a season of unusual healthfulness, and he assigns as the remote cause, the vitiation of the atmosphere by tuleric and meteoric phenomena, mentioning the occurrence of an earthquake shock in 1812 and the appearance of a comet-to so late a date have such professional superstitions survived. In his attempts to assign the predisposing, exciting and proximate causes of the disease, for he had the pedantry of systematists, if he contemned their methods, his etiology is hardly less curious. But when he comes to treat of the cure of the disease he is thoroughly rational, and, as has been before stated, he has actually anticipated the best treatment of modern therapeutics. The style of this essay is lucid except where the mind of the writer has been confused by the jargon of the schools, and he attempts to explain the inexplicable.
Besides this tract an essay upon fever was published. This is characterized in a brief biography by his son, Dr. George T. Martin, as an "Oration upon Fever." In all probability it was a paper read before some Medical Society, and printed by request of that body. As no copy of it has been discovered no account can be given of its contents. It is said to contain "with a few objectionable paragraphs much worthy to be remembered."
At the time of Dr. Martin's death he was engaged in the preparation of an extended work upon "The Epidemic Diseases of the Eastern Shore;" but this was left in such an unfinished state as to prevent its publication.
Before closing this review of the professional career of Doctor Martin, and this appreciation of his abilities, it may be well to quote the opinion of a contenaporary, and also that of a number of the faculty, who living nearer than the present to his time, had every opportunity to learn from those who knew and were capable of judging him what estimate was placed upon him during his life. In an obituary notice of his death published in one of the county papers it was said:
Although it is not pretended that Doctor Martin was endowed by nature with an intellect around which genius cast its lustre; yet it cannot be denied that he possessed a mind of the most searching and laborious study. * * * Zealous in the cause of science, generally, and in that of his profession particularly, he was rarely idle in the pursuit of knowledge. It could not therefore be otherwise than that one so laborious should readily obtain and easily hold, a preeminent rank in his profession.
Dr. C. C. Cox, in his eloquent eulogium of Dr. Tristram Thomas, pronounced in August 1847, thus refers to Doctor Martin, the cotemporary of Dr. Thomas: Dr. Martin indeed held a high rank, not only in Talbot, but throughout the State as a successful practitioner of medicine and surgery, and a sound and forcible writer. His name is a household word in many a family circle and will long be cherished among the proudest rnenaorials of his native county. * * * His excellent character, remarkable men- tal endownaents and distinguished public services have justly endeared him to the people of Easton.
This same gentleman in a private communication in referring to the brusqueness of his manners has very aptly characterized him as "the Abernethy of Talbot."
But Dr. Martin did not confine his attention exclusively to medicine and surgery. Every man, however independent he may be, is more or less affected by his surroundings, or catches the spirit of the locality in which he may be placed. Living as he did in the midst of an agricultural people, it was natural he should share with them an interest in this one pursuit. It is proper to say also, that in the early part of this century, in this county, a great deal of intelligence was brought into exercise upon the subject of farming, both in its theory and practice. The remark is ventured, and it is believed it may be substantiated by proof, that fifty years ago there was a better judgment and a more accurate observation applied to our agriculture than at present: and this too, notwithstanding the progress of agronomy and the subsidiary sciences, the inultiplica- tion of farm journals and agricultural schools, and the fostering care of this fundamental industry by the government. A large number of well educated gentlemen were then engaged in a pursuit that is now too commonly abandoned to those of the least mental culture. The leisure afforded by the possession of slaves who performed the drudgery of labor under the supervision of overseers gave the masters the opportu- nity for the study of farm methods, and for coordinating the results of his own and his neighbors' observation and experience. The result was a vast amount of correct agricultural knowledge, which came near to science, if it were not science, and a system bf farming which has not been excelled by those who are most accustomed to undervalue it, and which has been the admiration of those capable of estimating it without prejudice. Dr. Martin as a close student of the laws of nature, found agricultureacongenialsubject. Likemedicine,itisa-nempiricalseience, and an experimental art. The theories and the practice are tentative. Nothing is settled. There is an unlimited field for the expatiation of the imagination, and an inexhaustible supply of materials for observation. A study of the laws of life are at the bottom of both. The same facul- ties of the mind are exercised in the practice of farming as in the practice of medicine. The liabilities to error are the same, and the criteria of truth are the same. It is not to be wondered at that Dr. Martin who was so much of a medical philosopher, and so earnest a practitioner of his art, should have been, with his environments, an enthusiastic agri- culturist. His farming operations, however, were carried on upon a small scale, and were rather a diversion than work. He was fond of speculat- ing and experimenting and as a matter of course fond of airing his theories and displaying the results of his experience and observation in the public prints. But Ceres no more than any other of her sex,--deity or dame, admits of a divided worship. It must be confessed that Dr. Martin's success as a farmer was not commensurate with his success as a physician.
In the earlier years of his life he was a warm politician, but there is no evidence that he ever sought any political position. Like his farming his partisanship was an amusement, not a pursuit. He early adopted the opinions of the Federalists, and with them, or those that succeeded them in their opposition to the Democrats, he continued to act through life. He was fond of political controversy, probably more for the mental exercise or stimulus it afforded, and for the oppor- tunity it gave him of measuring himself with others in an unaccustomed field of discussion, than for the purpose of attaining any end, even the success of his party. As upon medicine and upon agriculture, he was fond of exercising his pen upon political subjects. He wrote frequently for the Maryland Herald , the only paper published upon the Eastern Shore up to the year 1800, and did not spare his opponents. He did not confine himself to argumentation. He was fond of personal attack. Private character was too often assailed, and that in a manner so gross as to admit no justification. One of his most noted contributions was that entitled "The Grand Caucus," published in the year 1798. In this dramatic satire the most respectable characters, and some not so respectable, belonging to the Republican or Democratic party, in this county, were most mercilessly ridiculed. Its wit is of the broadest kind, and had its point in the fact that it displays to the pub- lic the private conduct of some gentlemen, in some affairs, which they were most desirous, and indeed which propriety demanded, should be concealed and forgotten. This satire was thoroughly characteristic of the writer. It involved him in a personal collision, with one of the persons satirized-a man much like him in character, and fully his equal in mental and physical ability. This affair had this most curious and ridiculous denouement that the gentleman who had been worsted in the fight, and had received a grievous wound, called in as his attending surgeon the one who had inflicted the hurt. But a more serious injury was inflicted by Dr. Martin upon himself, by this injudicious publica- tion, and others of a political nature. These, with his fondness for politi- cal disputation, prevented his acquiring much practice which otherwise would have come to him; for all were not as well disposed, to disregard his violence of opinion, when about to employ a physician, as was the gentleman mentioned above. Later in life, however, when his own feelings had become somewhat tempered, and party rancor in a measure subsided, Dr. Martin without changing his political associations or transferring his allegiance, abandoned active participation in party contest.
A too persistent study of the physical, to the disregard of the spiritual; a too intense regard for welibeing of men's bodies, to the neglect of the interests of their souls, which the profession of medicine promotes, is apt to lead the physician into indifference to religion, or even into absolute skepticism. Where there are three physicians, then there are two atheists, has long been made the reproach of the faculty. Of the atheists or skeptics Dr. Martin was not one. Notwithstanding his calling, and again notwithstanding the very constitution of his mind, as being essentially masculine in its character, the very opposite to that belonging to most devout persons, he was really a pious man; more particularly after his earlier years. Of course there could be in such a man as be, no sanctimoniousness, but there was an abiding conviction of his dependence upon and responsibility to a higher power. He conformed to the usages of the Protestant Episcopal Church and accepted its confession of faith. His life was thoroughly exemplary, for though his manners were rough, and his conduct was not of that gentle kind which is thought to characterize the religious; yet no one could lay to his charge any act that was inconsistent with a sincere profession of piety. In the year 1827 he was so unfortunate as to lose a son, Bartholomew Ennalls Martin, who was thought to be promising. That the grave of this young man might be saved from the desecration which so often comes to those that are made in private burial-grounds, the afflicted father gave to the vestry of Christ church, at Easton, the lot of ground in which he interred the body of his son (the first to be there deposited), and this became the graveyard for the burial of the dead of that congregation.7 Beside the remains of this son repose those of the father.
In his immediate family he was kind and indulgent. Though by no means genial, for he always was busy and preoccupied, yet he was honestly cordial with his friends, and to them he dispensed such a lavish hospitality as prevented the accumulation of a fortune, which but for this liberality his great practice must have achieved.
Dr. Martin possessed a vigorous physical constitution. In personal appearance he was a man of large frame, above the medium height and well developed. He was capable of great endurance. His complexion was dark and sallow, and his temperament what would be called san- guineo-bilious.
Dr. Martin was married to Miss Sarah Hayward, the daughter of Benjamin Hayward, Esq., an estimable citizen of Dorchester county. By this lady was born to him a family of five sons and two daughters, only one of whom survives to the present." All of these children held most respectable positions in society, and some of them rose to distinction in civil life. The family is represented in this state by Mr. Robert Martin, the son of Dr. George T. Martin, late of Baltimore, and now the engineer of the new water works in progress of building, for the use of that city. But other decendants of Dr. Ennalls Martin are found in distant parts of the Union, and all of these are proud to claim as an ancestor one so gifted by nature, and so honored by men.
After a long life full of the labors of usefulness, this worthy died Dec. 16th, 1834. Neither filial piety nor public gratitude has as yet marked his grave with even a modest stone, but tradition preserves his good name and the memory of his sterling qualities. If this inadequate sketch of his life shall perpetuate these traditions it will not have failed of its purpose.
1. At this date (1777) Dr. Walter Jones was Physician General of the hospitals, and Dr. Benjamin Rush was Surgeon General of the Hospitals of the Middle Department, while Dr. John Cochran was Physician and Surgeon General of the army of the same department Lossing's Field Book, Vol. 11, p. 33.
2. In the act, this amount was given for services from June 1, 1777, to February 16, 1780. Why no compensation was given for the remainder of his term, which did not end until 1782, is not clear.
3. The following anecdote will illustrate his bluntness of manner. It is believed to be thoroughly authentic: Mr. Tilghman, of "Hope," a wealthy and prominent citizen of the county, was thought to be extremely ill. Doctors Tristram Thomas and Dr. Ennalls Martin were attending in consultation upon his case. On a certain day, Dr. Thomas was the first to arrive at the house of Mr. T., and was met at the door by Mrs. T., who stating that her husband was easily disturbed by the slightest noise, requested that he would draw off his heavy riding boots and put on slippers, which were provided for him. Dr. Thomas, who was one of politest men of his day, and the gentlest of physicians, assented with the utmost complaisance, and having substituted the slippers for his boots glided noiselessly into the sick chamber. Soon after Dr. Martin arrived, of whom a similar request was made by Mrs. T. He looked at her intently, as though he did not understand her meaning, saying, "What did you say, Madam?" She repeated the request. Then with the utmost abruptuess he said,"Poo,Poo! Madam, you must be a fool! " and without taking further notice of her, he went stamping up stairs into the sick man's presence, apparently making more noise than usual with his heaviest of heavy boots. It does not appear that this conduct received any severe reprobation.
4 .The first meeting of the Board of Examiners for the E. Shore, for granting licenses to practitioners, was held on the 2nd Monday of April, 1800.
5 .This and other statements respecting this epidemic are taken from Dr. Martin's Essay upon the epidemics of 1813 and 1814, hereafter to be noticed.
6. An Essay on the Epidemics of the winters of 1813 and 1814, in Talbot and Queen Anne's counties of the State of Maryland. By Ennalls Martin, M.B., Practitioner of Medicine, in Easton, Maryland. 'I do not contend for my own opinion, but for reason, or what carries the appearance of reason.'--Sealiger, Baltimore: Printed by Joseph Robinson, 96 Market Street, 1815, pp. vii. 71.
7. Although it is generally said this young man was the firt to be buried in the Protestant Epiiscopal grave yard at Easton, another person may have preceded him; and as the circumstances of this burial are highly creditable to the sensibilities of Dr. Martin, it may be related. He was in attendance upon a poor woman, of respectable character, who being about to die, manifested a solicitude about something, which she long hesitated to communicate. Knowing her perfect resignation to death, and her lively hope of a happy resurrection; Dr. Martin was at a loss to understand her anxiety. She finally confessed that this sprang from a knowledge that she would have to be buried as a pauper in the potters-field, at which her self-respect or pride revolted. Dr. Martin's sympathies were aroused in her behalf, and to quiet her mind, he promised that she should be decently buried in a secluded part of one of his lots. This promise he faithfully performed; and those who relate this incident say it was the request of this poor woman and his own compliance with it, that first suggested the presentation of the lot of ground where she was buried to the Episcopal Church as a permanent grave yard. It is proper to add the lot was deeded to the Vestry without any reservation, and that body subsequently authorized a plot to be laid off for the interment of the family of Dr. Martin. This grave yard now makes a part of Spring Hill Cemetery, near Easton.
8. The children of Dr. Ennalls Martin were these - William Hayward Martin, who was at one time upon the bench, in the state of Mississippi; Dr. Geo. T. Martin, who was a reputable practitioner of medicine, first in Caroline county and then in Baltimore city; James Goldsborough Martin, a merchant of New Orleans; Charles Martin, a merchant of Savannah, Georgia; Bartholomew Ennalle Martin, who died early in Easton; Mary Martin, wife of Dr. Ed. Spedden, of Missouri, and still living, and Elizabeth Martin, who died unmarried.