Lynah family history

APPENDIX II

"Societies"

The Fellowship Society: The Fellowship Society organized in 1762 with the purpose among other charities of founding a hospital for the needy, had accumulated funds and was incorporated in 1769. Ransey, whose memory should be reliable here, says they planned for the insane, but his words incline us to believe that they confined their charities to education. If they did indeed care for the insane, only the establishment of an insane ward in the Pennsylvania Hospital antedates this.

from D. D. Wallace Short History of S. C.

The Mount Zion Society: The Mount Zion Society supported the Mount Zion College at Winnsboro until it was ruined by the Revolution. Reorganized in 1784, it chartered 3 institutions (colleges), one at Winnsboro, Cambridge, and Charleston. That in Charleston began in 1790 although it did not acquire college rank until 1825.

Jas. Lynah, President 1777-1804.

(Vol. 32, pg. 75, S. C. Magazine)

The South Carolina Medical, Society: The Medical Society of S. C. organized by Charleston physicians in 1789, incorporated in 1794, promoted the scientific tendencies prominent almost throughout the city's history. From it sprang the Humane Society, the Medical Dispensary and in 1805 the Botanic Society with a scientifically kept garden. It was said that in 1808 every operation that could be performed in Paris or London could be equally well performed in Charleston. The Society originated with 14 members, one of which was Dr. Jas. Lynah. Monthly meetings were held to discuss prevailing diseases, examine and record their meteorological readings and discuss some medical question or subject. The members were by their rules required to furnish in rotation some original medical paper. Some have been published. The Society procured an apparatus for the recovery of persons suffering under suspended animation (passed-out) and kept it near the most frequented wharves. They applied to City Council requesting that any retailer of spirituous liquor who refused the use of his house for trying the process off resuscitation should receive no new license for carrying on his business.

Around 1800 the practice of physic was regulated in Carolina by the Boerhaavian system and the surgery by the writings of Heister and Sharp. Diseases were ascribed to be a morbific matter in the blood. Medicines were prescribed to alter its qualities and to expel from it the cause of the disease. To insure its discharge, patients were confined to bed; fresh air excluded by closed doors and curtains. Neutral mixtures, sweet spirits of niter, saffron, Virginia snake root and camphor were used. Purges and vomits, sweating machines, opium and bark were prescribed also. Bleeding and blistering were practiced. Diseases of the eye were not understood and few operations performed on them. Fractures were repaired, luxation reduced and amputations performed with considerable pain and discomfort.

Licensing of physicians was not required until 1817 and it was not until 1828 that a medical diploma was required.

from D. D. Wallace and other references