MySource:Samples 59/The North American Journal of Homeopathy, Volume 16 – Boston Medical Library

Matthew Semple, M.D.

• The North American Journal of Homeopathy, Volume 16 – Boston Medical Library (1868).

Articles XLII. - A Brief Sketch of the Life and Character of the late Matthew Semple, M. D., Prof., &c., &c. By Samuel B. Barlow, M.D. Prof. of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, in the Homoeopathic Medical College of New-York. Delivered before the Faculty and Students, October 18, 1867. Pages 434 to 443

The family of Semple is an ancient and well-allied Scotch family, not unknown to martial and literary fame. They were with Wallace, and with Bruce also, in the early border wars, not as laggards, or idle hangers-on to the army, but active, and ably fulfilling their mission there, as well as in all places where their vocation led them. Sir Walter Scott has not aomitted an honorable mention of the Semples in his historic novels, which are really much more reliable than some sober and pnderous histories of which I ken. Several of the name have won distinction in literary walks, in the fields of history, poetry, voyages, travels, statistics, mathematics and romance.

Robert Semple, an uncle of the man to whose life I am about to direct your attention, wrote and published, between 1803 and 1814, various works, to wit: Voyages and Travels in and about the Cape of Good Hope, from Cape Town to Bletterberg's Bay; a novel, entitled Charles Ellis, in which are incidents of a voyage to the Brazils and West Indies; Travels through Spain and Italy, to Naples, thence to Smyrna and Constantinople; The Spanish Post Guide, a book for travellers; A Journey to Spain, the Sierra Morena, to Seveille, Cordova, Grenada, Malaga, Gilbraltar, Tetuan, Tangier; Observations on the Present State of Caraccas, and visit to La Victoria, Valencia and Puerto Cabello. Travels from Hamburg to Berlin, Gorlitz, Breslau, Silberberg and Gottenburg.

All the above-names works were written and published between 1803 and 1814. He was appointed to the honorable and responsible post of Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, whither he repaired, and was massacred by the savages in a rebellious uprising of the northern tribes in 1815 or 1816. (?)

The father of Robert, the traveller, had a trading-house or factory, at the Cape of Good Hope, which reasonably enough accounts for his son's being in that part of the world. It may be said, without any leaning to vanity or arrogance, that the family have been for four or five generations at least, noted for good sound sense, mental activity, and general intelligence and enteprise. A most lovely maiden sister of the subject of this memoir, still resides at Wilmington, Delaware. She is a lady of great intelligence, in good pecuniary circumstances, iminently devoted to deeds of charity and mercy. Durig the slaveholders' rebellion, she obtained, not without great propriety, the soubriquet of the "Florence Nightingale of the South." She was the first lady of Loyal and patriotic prelivities who entered Richmond after its capture. She spent much time and large sums of money in relieving the sick and wounded soldiers, and others whom the fortunes of war had rendered objects of charity. She spent much time nursing in the hospitals at Fredericksburg and elsewhere, "laying up treasure where moth and rust corrupt not."

Matthew Semple, Doctor of Medicine and Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology, at first in the Homoeopathic Medical College of New-York, for four sessions and a half, and up to the time of his death, was the son of Matthew Semple, of London, England, and his wife, Hannah Jackson, a lady of high cultivation and intelligence.

The Semple family, of which our subject was a descendant, were of the family of Lord Semple and the Earl of Selkirk. Matthew, the father of the Professor, was one of five brothers, most of whom died in the service of the British Navy, none of whom married except Matthew, who, having come to America, in July, 1798, became a shipping merchant in Philadelphia, in which business he continued until the embargo was enforced, pending the war of 1812,'15, between Great Britain and the United States of America, which effectually closed the avenues of that business, he retired to Washington, Pennsylvania, where he was in the superintendence of a Branch Bank of the United States, the parent bank, (of Jackson and Biddle notoriety), being located in Philadelphia. In Washington he lost his talented wife, the mother of Matthew, when he was but about two years old, which, of course, must have been about 1815 or '16.

Matthew was born in Philadelphia, May 21st, 1813. The old adage was never more true than in his case, which says: “The boy was father of the man.” In early youth he evinced an unconquerable love for philosophy and chemistry. Making a laboratory of the attic of his father’s house, where he could without disturbance make his boyish experiments, with his crucibles and apparatus, most of which were of his own manufacture, his love of experimenting and play (and he considered his experiments as his play) were so great, that he made little progress in his more legitimate education until he was thirteen or fourteen years of age, at which period of his life his father placed him in the celebrated school of Mr. McAdam, a teacher of much celebrity. He now, for the first time, seemed to feel necessity of securing an education, and applied himself earnestly, as was his wont in whatever he undertook, to accomplish the now understood and appreciated task of its acquisition. He seemed to lose no moments of time; usually finishing his tasks before his class mates had fairly commenced theirs. His receptive and retentive faculties and capabilities were really excessive, exhibiting a cerebral activity which characterized the whole career of his life. His teacher, soon doubting whether knowledge, acquired with such an astonishing rapidity could be thorough, questioned him with critical closeness; he foud his answers not only correct, but that he had made himself master of his subjects in all their more immediate and necessary connections. It was not an unusaual occurrence for him to study all night, himself only cognizant of the fact, when he found the morning sun-light streaming into his room through the window. He was enthusiastically devoted to chemical experiments and inventions, and improved some of the methods of chemical manipulation and processes for chemical illustration. During the latter years of his life, learning by the public prints the regrets expressed by the Emperor of the French, at the fact that the iron-clads of the French navy were faster going to destruction than those of the British and American navies, by rapid and unchecked oxidation; and seeing, as he believed clearly, how the destructive process could be hindered and repaired, he wrote to the Emperor, detailing a plan for the purpose. His letter was well received and replied to by the Emperor in person, and the letter is still in the family. The views of the Professor were adopted and put in practice, with what success I know not. At eight years of age he was in Latin, which he then wrote with a correctness and judgment not often seen in studens far advance toward a college course. Latin letters of his, written at eight years of age, are yet with his family, and preserved with a truly religious veneration. Professor Semple, when a young man, studies for the ‘Episcopal Ministry, with Rev. Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, who was then in orders in Philadelphia; and after his theological course was finished he was several years engaged in preaching and ministering in Episcopal orders in the City of Harrisburg, Pa., where his labors were highly appreciated; and he then had before him the cheering and comfortable prospect of a life of great usefulness and acceptableness as a pastor. Many of his written sermons still remain, monuments of his untiring industry, and evincing a lucidness, an eloquence and power rarely found in similar performances. He was an orator by nature and much more by cultivation and experience.

He commenced the stud of medicine as early as 1830, as appears by his Lecture Tickets still in the hands of his family and graduated M.D., from the University of Pennsylvania in April, 1838.

He however did not enter diligently into practice of his Profession for some years, being deterred partly by poor health, partly by directing his more diligent attention to his religious ministrations; but more from pure devotion to chemical and philosophical pursuits, they being at all times the specially cherished employment of his mature, as they had been of his juvenile years. At the very opening of the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania he entered the Faculty of that Institution as Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology and continued in the institution in that capacity for eight years, a faithful worker and diligent promoter of the interests of the College, contemporaneously with the present Dean of this Faculty. He held the same position in the Faculty of this the Homoeopathic College of New-York for four and a half of the seven sessions of its existence, in which station he still remained at the time of his untimely and lamented decease. As a teacher his Praelections were direct, lucid, pointed, apprehended with ease by the student: communicated in a maner calculated to please, encourage, cheer and fortify the ambition of his pupils; while his manner on all occasions was calculated to secure the friendship and cordial esteem of all who knew him.

A perfect glow of earnest, sincere and honest enthusiasm was infused into all his teaching and pervaded all his intercourse with his fellow-beings, whether his superiors, inferiors or equals. While the Faculty of this Institution mourns with most sincere and unfeigned regret the great loss which the death of Professor Semple has inflicted upon it yet it sees in the future the bright prospect of his place, so mournfully vacated, filled to the satisfaction of all concerned in the interests and welfare of the School by the genius and industry of the present incumbent of the chemical chair.

As a man Professor Semple was nobility itself. Honest, simple, truthful, unassuming, devoid of pride or hauteur, beloved of all who knew him.

As a Christian, sincere, humble, well versed in the great doctries of his Great master. As a scientific teacher he had few equals; scarcely a superior. As a friend; steady, reliable, trustworthy to the last degree. As a father and husband, kind, indulgent, yet firm, replete with every grace which adorns the home-circle. He brought up his family in the fear of God; teaching the to do the good and eschew the evil. As a Citizen, patriotic, loyal. As a member of a learned Profession he was esteemed in an eminent degree by the whole brotherhood of the Faculty in the great community of which he was a member.

As a practitioner of the Healing Art he was eminently successful; a careful follower of the great therapeutic Law and in all his intercourse with the sick, the suffering and the feeble, he was actuated by a truly benevolent thoughtfulness; of kindness most eminent toward the needy, the distressed and bereaved; imitating the example of his Master in endeavoring to soothe and assuage the inevitable painful attendants and concomitants of the sick-bed and cheering the departing by the benignity of his counsel.

Matthew Semple died as he had lived, at peace with his God and with his fellow-men. The last few months of his life were spent, as if he believed his end was approaching, in setting his house in order, and he had succeeded in placing his pecuniary concerns in such condition that he could well say: I am ready to depart, my work is done, and my trunk is packed and ready for my journey.

His pupilage in homoeopathy was under the guidance and direction of Dr. Jacob Jeanes, an early and well-tried friend, who remained such to the last hours of his life; and the Doctor's attentions were kindly and tenderly bestowed during the last hours of the life of his dear, long cherished and beloved friend.

He had labored under some derangement of cardiac action for many years, and at last he succumbed to a sudden accession of valvular disturbance, with some paralytic manifestations, and finally yielded up his spirit, after a few hours of illness, on the "17th day of May, 1867. He was buried on the 21st, in Mount Moriah Cemetery, in "West Philadelphia, on the very day on which, had he lived, he would have completed his fifty-fourth year.

Professor Semple was but once married, which was on May 28, 1842, to Miss Caroline E. Wills, of Harrisburg, Pa. His widow still lives, with an exceedingly agreeable and well-regulated family of five children, three daughters and two sons, all of whom remain at home, unmarried. The eldest son is in a shipping-house, in Philadelphia, with good prospects for a brilliant future; the younger son, a young man of seventeen or eighteen years, through with his preliminary studies, may probably turn his attention to medicine or to the trade in drugs. Professor Semple died of congestion of the brain, with effusion and paralytic manifestations. His illness was short, and after he went into the profound condition lie was unable to speak; a deep lethargy or coma supervened, lasting until life was extinguished. Temperate was he, eminently, perhaps, even to a fault; for, if he had allowed himself a glass of generous wine, when exhaustion of the vital powers was, as it often was, quite manifest in him, doubtless it might have helped to maintain the normal standard of innervation and circulation, and thus have aided and warded off congestion and any paralytic tendencies. Excessive heat and active exertion in walking may have been the immediate exciting causes of the attack which brought about the end of his life, by overexciting the circulation and action of the heart; but of this it is useless to speculate. He may have had some hereditary or constitutional proclivity toward congestion and paralytic manifestations, and a brain habitually active may have had much to do in bringing about the final and fatal cataclysm.

How ought all who knew him to be ever thankful to that Great Beneficent Power who guides the destinies of all, for the bright and ennobling example so brilliantly let out before us, and how ought we all to exert our utmost capacities in endeavoring to imitate the blessed example thus afforded us in cleaving to the good and avoiding the evil with which our life-path is so thickly strewn! May the God of all grace and power and glory enable us all to follow in the footsteps of our illustrious brother who has gone before us, pointing the way and calling us to come upward to share his reward.

• ADDENDA.

I will add a few words from two letters, one from the venerable Jacob Jeanes, M.D., of Philadelphia, who is too well-known to the profession to need any word of commendation here or elsewhere; the other from Mr. H. Morrow, Principal of a High School or Classical Institution, at Hatboro', near Philadelphia, a gentleman of the purest and most exalted integrity, and for a very long time an ardent friend of Professor Semple, and who affirms only what he well knew to be true.

Dr. Jeanes says: "Enjoying such friendly relations with Dr. Semple, your request has given me much pleasure. My first acquaintance with him was formed whilst he was a youth, in the shop of an apothecary, who was an old friend of mine. He was a youth of good morals and was well informed in matters relating to his business. In time, after surmounting many difficulties, through enterprise and energy, he became himself the possessor of an apothecary shop. Whilst he was engaged in this occupation he delivered one and perhaps several courses of lectures on his favorite science, chemistry. Knowing him to have color-blindness, so that he could not distinguish naturally red from green, I put him through an examination in regard to the colored things in his shop, and he answered to every thing correctly, making a retentive and cultivated memory compensate for his deficient power of distinguishing the red from the green, &c.

"Our friendly relations, which commenced so early in life, continued to its end. Even in his last illness I attended him as one of his physicians. He was my pupil whilst studying medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, of which he was a graduate. Our conversations then and afterward often turned upon the subject of homoeopathy, and may have been influential in turning his attention to it. After his acceptance of the Chair of Chemistry, he commenced the study of medicine, and in practice adopted the homoeopathic system. I may be allowed to say I assisted him in this as well as I could."

Dr. Jeanes adds much more of an extremely interesting nature, but brevity compels me to leave out much that I would gladly insert.

Mr. Morrow says: "His genius was entirely his own; he scorned to imitate any human being, for his lofty intellect and grasping faculties soared far above any contemptible imitation of his fellow-men. In his religious views as well as practices be was a true Christian. His philanthropy was universal; his large heart went out in sympathy to the oppressed, not only in words but in actions, administering consolation to the afflicted, feeding the hungry and pointing the sinner to the Lamb of God. He was always engaged in some good word or work. It always afforded him greater pleasure to give than to receive; I have known him to give his last dollar to a friend, let that friend be bond or free; all were brothers in the common bond of humanity, and all shared his kind sympathies.

"His early professional career was attended with difficulties • which few men could surmount, but he grappled with them, and with a firm and steady purpose conquered them all and arose to an eminence in his profession which few attain. His tastes were strongly literary and scientific. I have known him, after laboring in his business in Philadelphia arduously through the week, and for years too, to walk to Germantown, with his rude apparatus on his shoulder, and lecture, (always to a full house); and at its close, which never was earlier than ten o'clock at night, he would walk to Hatboro', lecture the next evening, (which was Saturday,) to my students, and on Sunday morning walk to Pennipack, nine miles, preach there, and find his way as best he could to the city, to resume his duties and repeat the same thing again, which he did without murmuring, but always cheerful and happy. His apparatus was mostly made by himself, from whatever materials he could lay his hands upon; old glass-ware, carpet-rods, necks of porter-bottles; in short, he would make anything he wanted from the rude materials at hand. I never saw him at fault in the lecture-room or anywhere else for want of apparatus to illustrate his subject. As a lecturer he was highly appreciated, possessing always that "maviter in modo" peculiar to himself; whilst, at the same time, his earnest truthfulness manifesting itself, and showing that he possessed in an eminent degree that other faculty of a public speaker, the "fortiter in re." As a chemist, I think I am not saying too much when I say he had no superior. As a physician, few equals. As a Christian, unostentatious and doing the will of his Master. As a man, honest. Pope's couplet may well apply to our friend who has gone before us: "An honest man's the noblest work of God."

His place will be hard to fill both in the social, scientific and religious circle, for the world did not appreciate him and God called him home:

"Whom God best loves he soonest calls away

To realms of bliss, where reigns eternal day."