Dr. James Fairchild Baldwin, M.D.

Dr. James Fairchild Baldwin

• Find A Grave Memorial ID # 46371139
• James Fairchild Baldwin's Home
• Baldwin Family Papers at Oberlin College
• Grant Medical Center Columbus, Ohio
• Baldwin's Operation

In his day, James Fairchild Baldwin was the equal of any surgeon in America. A graduate of Oberlin College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a graduate of Jefferson Medical College, where he was first in his class, Baldwin arrived in Columbus, Ohio in 1874. This was before absolute cleanliness in surgery was accepted, before anesthesia was safe, before sterile gloves or cauteries were in widespread use, and well before electrolyte and fluid control was routine.

He had an exceptionally busy surgical and obstetrical practice with over 17,000 abdominal operations and achieved administrative success as the founder of Grant Hospital, the last hospital still active in America that was founded by a single surgeon. Baldwin published extensively, founded several medical journals, and taught at (and was dismissed from) several medical schools. A colorful character, he was both innovative and controversial.

Baldwin was fascinated by medical advances of all types and made many innovative contributions to the medical field. He developed a new operating table, techniques of plastic surgery for the nose, lips and vagina, and original approaches for abdominal, renal, and gynecological surgery. He was the first physician in Columbus to intubate the trachea, diagnose a case of Klebsiella, advise routine removal of the appendix during abdominal surgery, use cocaine for pain control and plaster casts as a routine procedure.

In addition to the groundbreaking publication of operative and mortality results, Baldwin actively published and promoted publication for others in his field. Interested in unique cases, he wrote up many unusual (even bizarre) ones: a gall bladder with 25,000 stones, a 25-pound fibroma of the mesentery, and even a pregnancy after the ovaries had been removed. Baldwin published articles in prestigious surgical, medical, and association journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). He published over 200 articles, a textbook of over 250 pages, and he founded several medical journals.

Although Baldwin’s work clearly led to advancements and innovations in the field of surgery, he raised many issues that were uncomfortable for other doctors. One of these was fee splitting—a practice that was once almost universal. “Fee splitting” occurs when a surgeon hands over a monetary payment to the referring physician. Baldwin published, in both the lay and medical press, articles critical of fee splitting, including one entitled “Fee Splitting by Physicians: a Disgrace to the Profession and a Menace to the Public.” Fee splitting is now uncommon in Columbus thanks largely to the Columbus Surgical Society, which acted several decades after Baldwin’s death.

Baldwin also criticized unnecessary and bungled operations, large fees, and a frightful death rate. One article he wrote included statements such as, “Four out of every five deaths at operations in the ordinary run of hospitals can be attributed only to incompetence on the part of the surgeon.” Baldwin’s direct verbal assault against anesthesiologists for failure to reveal accidents, use of dangerous anesthetic agents, and inadequate training alienated even more doctors, particularly since many surgeons also administered anesthesia.

The enthusiasm of his colleagues was also limited when Baldwin recommended, in his characteristically forceful style, a move toward state medicine: “with state medicine, however, there would be no temptation to make or advise unnecessary operations because there would be no fees attached, and no incompetent operators or specialists would exist as all would be under direct supervision and inspection of their work, as we now have in the surgical services of our United States Army and Navy.”

Baldwin alleged that physicians who have total medical control became arrogant autocrats and he argued that the fee system separated physicians from patients, and reduced candor. Baldwin also suggested that salaried doctors were more likely to complete medical research. In another move toward government regulation of medicine, Baldwin insisted that the government should study all medications or any surgical procedures to confirm their efficacy before putting them into practice. These opinions were enough to cause dismay, even among some of his friends.

Still, of all the controversies, the ones about education are the most striking. In 1875, Baldwin’s nomination to the faculty of Starling Medical College was rejected, so he and a renegade group of six led by John Hamilton, MD, opened a competing medical college. The Columbus Medical College, founded in 1876, soon became more prominent and popular than Starling. In 1882, Baldwin, then Professor of Anatomy and Secretary of the College, was dismissed from the staff because he complained about the awarding of the MD degree to an undeserving student. Baldwin next led the development of the Ohio Medical University (OMU). It was soon the busiest of the three competing schools. In 1899, Baldwin was professor and chancellor at OMU, but when he encouraged a merger with The Ohio State University, the board of OMU dismissed him. Baldwin accused them of blocking the merger “in order to keep the monies, graduate any who would pay, and make a profit.”

By 1920, Baldwin, then president of the Ohio State Medical Association, made an address so controversial that the group would not publish it. He complained about cults, dependence on medicines that are “trash,” and reliance on detail men for “scientific facts.” However, the real issue was his comparison of the strength of the medical schools in Cleveland and Cincinnati with the one in Columbus: “at Columbus is the Medical Department of the State University, which has no endowed chairs, and has very limited clinical facilities, while its college buildings are in comparison decidedly deficient. Compared with the other two schools in the state, and with other state medical schools, what it has to offer to medical students is certainly beneath the dignity of a state institution of the standing of Ohio.”

Baldwin wasn’t finished with OSU with just this statement. In 1927, the Board of Trustees of OSU asked Baldwin’s opinion about the administration of the medical school. He responded that the dean McCampbell, never had a third year of medical training and “the college under its present management is absolutely a matter of private graft.” McCampbell was fired, and he sued Baldwin.

It is misleading to emphasize the controversies and not also note that Baldwin established a major program in nursing education, established Grant Hospital, and did much to elevate the overall standard of medical care in central Ohio.

Baldwin was indeed a controversial and energetic leader in his day and judged by any time, Baldwin is a man to be remembered. Grant Hospital and better medical education in Ohio are among the tributes to him that remain.

By: George Paulson, MD (see sources)

The Oberlin Alumni Magazine, Volume XVI, No. 6 March, 1920

"Dr. James Fairchild Baldwin is this year president of the Ohio State Medical Association. He has been for many years in active surgical practice, and is professor of clinical surgery at Ohio State University. He has built up Grant Hospital, of which he is the head, until it is now the largest Hospital in Columbus, and is said to he the largest private hospital in the world. Plans are now being made for an addition which will increase the capacity by about 60 beds. He and his classmates are planning tor a reunion in Oberlin at the next commencement, fiftieth anniversary, and it is likely that the classes of ’69 and ’71 will meet with them."
--------------------------------------------------------

James Fairchild Baldwin was born in Orangeville, New York, on February 12, 1850, the second son of Cyrus Harcourt and Mary Fairchild Baldwin. When he was four years old, his mother died, and he went to live with family friends, Mr. and Mrs. C.B. Allen, of Otto, New York. In 1864, he entered the Preparatory Department at Oberlin College and joined the College’s freshman class in 1866. He graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1870, having devoted a year to outside employment in order to meet college expenses. In 1873, Oberlin College granted him an A.M. degree, and in 1874 he earned his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia where he won first prize for his thesis. When the Oberlin Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was established, he was elected to membership for his scholarly attainments as an undergraduate. After completing his medical studies, Dr. Baldwin settled in Columbus, Ohio, and remained in the city throughout his life-long career as a physician, during which he gained international acclaim as a surgeon, author, inventor, and innovator.

Dr. Baldwin served the Columbus community for sixty years. He was the first physician in Columbus to treat diphtheria by inserting a tube in the larynx; the first to use plaster casts; to urge the use of chloroform in childbirth; to perform a successful Caesarian section; to recommend removing the appendix in all abdominal operations; to operate under local anesthesia; to remove a foreign body from the lungs by surgery; to hire an anesthetist; and to employ a surgical assistant. In 1904, he devised a new procedure that became known throughout the surgical world as the “Baldwin Method" for performing a major operation. He invented surgical instruments and perfected an operating table that was soon adopted worldwide. He was especially gifted in the field of plastic surgery and devised a technique for reconstructing the lower lip. He is credited with removing a gall bladder containing 25,412 stones.

In 1900, he founded Grant Hospital (now Grant Medical Center) to serve lower-middle class citizens who needed, but could barely afford, good medical treatment. It had become one of the largest private hospitals in the world when he gave it to the city of Columbus as a Christmas gift in 1922. The grateful city erected a monument in his honor.

Dr. Baldwin served as chief of surgery at Grant while maintaining a large private practice. He also consulted at Children’s and White Cross Hospitals and for many years held faculty positions at Columbus Medical College, Ohio Medical College, and The Ohio State University. Together with Dr. Andre Crotti, he established a free cancer clinic, among the earliest in the nation. He was an active member of both the American Medical Association and the Ohio State Medical Association of which he was president in 1919. He also served as president of the American Association of Obstetricians, Gynecologists, and Abdominal Surgeons. In addition, he was a prolific author, contributing numerous articles to medical journals. In 1876, he founded the Columbus Medical Journal and served as editor for eighteen years. In 1898 he published a textbook, Operative Gynecology.

Throughout his career, Dr. Baldwin fought vigorously against the practice of “fee splitting” and for the cause of state medicine. He was capable of ignoring the stiff opposition and acrimonious criticism to his stands on both issues. He was dismissed from the faculty of the Ohio Medical College following his protesting the graduation of incompetent medical students. He also advocated combining the Columbus medical colleges with The Ohio State University. His advice was ignored for many years but was later recognized as correct.

Dr. Baldwin’s steady self-discipline, constant focus on his professional work, and openness to new ideas and techniques made him a gifted physician. He once commented: “I have never heard of it before. It is not in the books. It has always been done this way. I have just heard of a new way of doing this thing. It is worth trying. It may save a life.” He never saw a movie or a golf or tennis match, and he attended the theater only for Shakespeare productions. He traveled only to attend medical conventions and to visit doctors and clinics in Europe. His two non-professional activities were his church and occasional meetings at Oberlin College; his only social life was the Six-handed Euchre Club.

Dr. Baldwin married twice. His first marriage on November 24, 1874, was to F. Delia Finch (d.1888; Lit. 1870). They had four children: Austin C. Baldwin, Dr. Hugh A Baldwin, Frederika Hull Baldwin Hoover (enr. 1893-94 acad., 1895-97 coll.), and Helen Baldwin Pease. On May 9, 1889, he married his second wife, Ida Strickler. They had two children: Alice Baldwin Hall, and Josephine Baldwin Yoxall. Two granddaughters attended Oberlin College: Alice E. Hoover (A.B. 1925) and Ruth W. Hall (Mrs. J.A.) McCuaig (enr. 1932-33 coll.).