Sacramento
County
Biographies
GEORGE GERRARD TYRRELL,
M.D.
(1831-1895)
George Gerrard Tyrrell, M. D., was the third Permanent Secretary of California's State Board of Health. He succeeded his friend Frederick Winslow Hatch, M.D., after the latter's decease, October 16, 1884.
Dr. Tyrrell's Biennial Reports continued the high standards set by predecessors. In 1886 he appealed to the Legislature for a constructive sanitary program: Acts compelling a permit for burial of a deceased person, to encourage and provide for General Vaccination (against smallpox) and seeking appointment of a State Analyst and Chemist. The bills on first and second requests did not get beyond first reading. Appointment of a State Analyst and Chemist did become a law, but not supported by sufficient appropriation the Bill was impotent.
The Doctor's criticism of the Legislature for 'its disgraceful parsimony in sanitary matters,' and censure of the several Boards of Health throughout the State for being 'practically dead so far as usefulness was concerned' was questionable judgment, nonetheless it revealed courage which compels admiration. The criticism brought repercussions and temporarily retarded the Board's usefulness. Soon, however, the publicity given and resulting improved public understanding revealed a need of sanitary legislation. In consequence the Legislature in 1889 enacted several important sanitary measures into law. To Dr. Tyrrell must be credited this constructive public health service. His progressive activities were probably reasons he was not reappointed to the State Board of Health beginning April 20, 1891. Dr. Tyrrell with consistency refused to eat politicians' bread and not his own. He was content to row against political currents and be sacrificed if accomplishment might thereby be gained.
Dr. G. G. Tyrrell, the only son of Gerrard Tyrrell and Elizabeth (Haslett) Tyrrell, was born in Dublin, Ireland, September 16, 1831. 'He received his preliminary professional education at the Carmichael School of Medicine where he obtained a prize medal in surgery, medical jurisprudence, botany, chemistry, and the institute of medicine. He attended the Richmond Surgical, Whitworth Medical, and the Rotunda Lying-in Hospital, Dublin, where he was made a licentiate of midwifery in the year 1854. He received the diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, in 1856, and that of King and Queens College of Physicians, Dublin, in 1859. From the latter college he also received a special diploma in Midwifery in the same year. In January, 1880, he was made a member of the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland. The Doctor entered into practice by taking medical charge of ships carrying emigrants to America, and after a few voyages decided to remain in the United States.'¹
Dr. Tyrrell first settled at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1856, 'where he soon established a large practice. In 1857 he was elected county physician (again in January, 1858 and January, 1861) and subsequently surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital and physician to the orphan asylum, which positions he held until he removed to California in 1861. Soon after his arrival in California he began practice in Grass Valley, Nevada County, where he was actively engaged in surgical practice until he removed to Sacramento in 1868. The Doctor was one of the most active and eminent of Sacramento's busy practitioners for the past quarter of a century, remaining in active practice to within a few weeks before his death. His professional reputation extended to the whole State and many of his clients came from distant parts of the State to secure his advice and treatment.'²
An able diagnostician and a thorough student, he thus kept 'well informed in the latest and most advanced methods of treatment.'³ After serving in Sacramento and 'always active in the organization and maintenance of medical societies'4 he became a charter member of the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement. Among his most important contributions to the medical literature were:
“Naevi Materni, and its Treatment,”
“Disease of the Mucous Outlets,”
“Therapeutical Value of the Sulphites in Phlegmonous Angina,”
“Nature in Disease,”
“The Influenza of 1872-3,”
“Myalgia, with cases,”
“The Reaction of the Medical Profession to the Public,”
“Ovariotomy, with successful cases,”
“The Continued Fevers of Childhood,”
“Neurotic Purpura,”
“A Contribution to Pediatric Science,”
“The Family History and Hereditary Transmission of Consumption,”
“Indigestion and some of its Results,”
“Diagnosis of Insanity,”
“Sanitary Science, the Index of Civilization,”
“Zymotic Disease in its Sanitary Relation,”
“Intestinal Obstruction in children, with cases,”
“A Case of Incarcerated Hernia, followed by Gangrene---Recovery,” and
“The Prophylactic Treatment of Scarlet Fever and its Complications.”
The last article, on scarlet fever, was given a few weeks prior to death.
By 1872 both Dr. J. H. Wythe and Dr. Tyrrell had successfully performed ovariotomies, at that time triumphs in chirurgical science. Dr. Tyrrell was appointed Permanent Secretary of the California State Medical Society in 1874 and served until 1880, when he resigned. Because of his excellent secretarial efforts the State Medical Society voted 'sincere thanks for the faithful and efficient performance of his duties as Secretary of the Society from the date of its reorganization to the present time.'5 At this meeting, too, he was elected First Vice-President of the Society. He proposed an amendment to the Constitution adding to Standing Committees: one on Gynecology, one on Diseases of Women and Children, one on Opthalmology (sic), and one on Necrology.6
The Doctor was president of the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement from March, 1880 to March, 1881. His performance of personal and Society obligations was ever commendatory. As might have been anticipated his Annual Address was lengthy, profound and erudite. Though a serious individual he had relieving charm and humor.
“When Tyrrell's lively humor lightened
Each passing cloud of seeming dullness,”
Wrote Dr. Edward R. Taylor.
Tyrrell was elected President of the California State Medical Society in 1881. His Annual Address, April, 1882, dwelt mostly on homeopathy, and care and treatment of the insane. Too, he made a divagation into the realm of prognosis by stating 'when we reflect upon the researches of Pasteur, Drysdale, Klebs, Koch, Klein, Sanderson, Druvelli, and a host of others in the field of experimental physiology, pregnant as they are with the grandest results, we seem to be approaching the very verge of a discovery which will so vastly increase our sway over those diseases in whose presence we now stand almost powerless, that in time we may practically arrest and exterminate them,' How prophetic has that statement become!
The Address closed mentioning those whom the dread destroyer death had accepted, and proffering advice to the membership: 'Let us cherish their memory, and while we throw the mantle of charity over their faults, if any they had, let us try and emulate the many good, noble, and manly qualities which were common to both;' and 'let us not be weary in well-doing . . .continue the good work . . .reason is our guide; truth, honesty, observation and experience, combined with knowledge, are the powers by which alone we combat disease, disarm the pallid hand of death, give victory to science, and health to our fellow-men.' Noble expressions from a merciful heart: “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Additional honors bestowed on Dr. Tyrrell were: a membership in the American Medical Association; corresponding member of the Gynecological Society of Boston; Surgeon and Major of the First Artillery Regiment N.G.C.; and in 1883 was appointed, by Governor Stoneman, to be Surgeon General of the State of California, with rank of colonel. By his own request he later retired, retaining full honors.
He was 'married December 7, 1859, to Miss Louisa Flood, daughter of Henry Flood, M.D., F.R.C.S., of Petersborough, Canada West. She died December 19, 1889, leaving five children—-three daughters and two sons, Gerrard George and Frederick Densmore Tyrrell, both members of the medical profession. One daughter is Mrs. J. J. January of Concord, Contra Costa county, and another, Miss Lulu Tyrrell, has resided with her father, while the third is Mrs. Henry L. Harrison of New York.'7
George Gerrard Tyrrell, Jr., graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Vermont, July 11, 1892, and was licensed in California August 2, 1892. Frederick D. Tyrrell took his medical degree at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, receiving his M.D. March 5, 1895 and was licensed to practice in California May 7, 1895. Immediately Dr. Fred became associated with his father in the latter's office at the corner of Fifth and J streets.
On June 1, 1895 George Gerrard Tyrrell, M.D. took refuge in coma---a respite from worldly cares; and on June 8th deliverance from life's trials was granted.
“Strange, is it not? That the myriads who
Before us passed the door of Darkness through
Not one returned to tell us of the Road
Which to discover we must travel, too.”
1 Memorial, Drs. W. E. Briggs, Cluness, Simmons, Sr. and H. L. Nichols, Minutes of the Society, v.3, p.554-5.
2 Memorial, Drs. W. E. Briggs, Cluness, Simmons, Sr. and H. L. Nichols, Minutes of the Society, v.3, p.554-5
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal, v. XXII, May, 1880, p.576.
6 Ibid. p. 580
7 Sacramento Daily Record-Union, June 10, 1895, p. 3, col. 2.
Transcribed 3-4-17 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: “Memories,
Men and Medicine A History of Medicine In Sacramento, California by J. Roy
Jones, M.D., Pages 323-333. Publ. Sacramento Society for
Medical Improvement, 1950.
Golden Nugget Library's
Sacramento County