In an article forthcoming in Sandlapper Magazine, Allan details this story. After studying in Charleston and Paris, Porcher (1824-1895) had the very best medical credentials. In the years 1856 to 1859 he was one of the few medical researchers using innovative microscopic techniques to study cellular pathology. Pasteur discovered microorganisms only in 1857, Virchow was studying cellular pathology but was not entertaining the germ theory of disease, and Robert Koch (who was to establish that theory) got his first microscope only in the 1870s. Until he was interrupted by the Civil War, Porcher was working on a monumental work: Illustration of Disease with the Microscope. Convinced that each disease has a specific cause and a specific cure, he studied diseases as varied as yellow fever, hysteria, rheumatism, syphilis, and stomach cancer. It is easy to imagine, indeed, that such a work might have contributed to advances in the theory of disease.
With the beginning of the Civil War, the scientist Porcher turned to his civic duties by drawing on his extensive background in medical botany. As the South was cut off from imports of quinine and other medicinal products, it had to develop remedies from indigenous plants and draw on the traditional remedies of indigenous people. Porcher collated those in his magnum opus (which was reprinted only a few years ago) Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural, being also a Medical Botany of the Confederate States(Charleston, 1863).
After the war, it became apparent once again that Porcher was not content to be a local country doctor and naturalist, but that he sought to promote cutting-edge international research. His publication (in 1880) of an Explanation of a Simple Method for the Diagnosis of Organic Valvular Disease of the Heart is testimony to his cardiologic al researches which got him invited (in 1890) to attend as one of ten Americans the International Congress of Physicians in Berlin.
Porcher's was an interrupted life, but even the interruptions (or so it seems) were inspired by
high scientific ideals. I went to the library, found a copy of the Resources and in its preface that
Porcher was following this call to arms by W. Gilmore Simms:
Now [1861] is the time when all the art and science that we possess, and all the suggestions
that we can make, should be put in requisition, to the great end of our sectional independence.
Every citizen who thinks himself in possession of a truth or a fact which he deems to be not
generally recognized, should make it public - put it to challenge - that it may be subjected to
investigation.
Even in times like these, science is called upon for its powers of criticism and not simply for its technical applications or its power to legitimate the Confederacy! In the context of the high-minded and at the same time practical orientation of Porcher's science, I was quite touched by the title of a pamphlet from 1878 with the Suggestion of a Plan of Treatment for Yellow Fever to be used by those who are unable to procure medical aid, without delay.
You will find Porcher's works in the South Caroliniana and Thomas Cooper libraries. You may also want to check out some of Allan Charles's other works: his 1981 History of Dentistry in South Carolina, his August 1977 article in the Journal of the South Carolina Medical Association on "The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19: Columbia and South Carolina's Response," his June 1979 article in the same journal on "Tuberculosis in South Carolina," a forthcoming article in the Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association on the "Silk Bust" (reflecting his interest in Georgia and South Carolina silk culture), and finally The Narrative History of Union County, second edition, 1990.
Alfred Nordmann
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