John Ordronaux (doctor)
Encyclopedia
John Ordronaux was an American Civil War
army surgeon, a professor of medical jurisprudence
, a pioneering mental health
commissioner and a generous patron
of university endowments
. Between 1859 and 1901 Ordronaux published at least fifteen books and articles about subjects as diverse as heroes of the American Revolution
of 1776, military medicine
, medical jurisprudence, mental health, United States constitutional law and historical treatises. He left an estate worth $2,757,000 much of which he gave in endowments to several US universities and other institutions. He did not marry.
of the War of 1812
), and his wife Jean Marie Elizabeth Ordronaux (née Charretton). This is supported by the younger Ordronaux's will which mentions a bequest to his sister Florine, and to his nieces Clara and May Molan, matching genealogical information prepared by an Ordronaux family member.
He graduated from Dartmouth College
in 1850, from Harvard Law School
in 1852, and from the National Medical School in 1859. In 1859 he published his first book a "Eulogy on the life and character of Rev. Zachariah Greene", who, before taking Holy Orders
, had fought under Washington in the revolution of 1776 at the age of seventeen. In 1860 Ordronaux became a Professor of medical jurisprudence at Columbia Law School
, a post that he held until 1887. Since 1861 he had also been a lecturer at Dartmouth College
, The University of Vermont and Boston University
.
Ordronaux served as an army surgeon stationed in New York. He also acted as a military medical advisor and between 1861 and 1863 he published two textbooks on the health of armies, and an instruction manual of medical criteria for examining recruits. In the introduction to the latter, which was written for the United States Sanitary Commission
, he said, "The preservation of health in armies, is everywhere a subject of recognized importance. So much, in fact, depends upon it, that precautionary measures in this behalf can never be exaggerated. All that can be done, should be done to protect troops against preventable disease. It seems to have been formerly believed, that the presence of a surgeon in each regiment was all sufficient for this purpose ; and that officers and men could go their way free from any responsibility or apprehension on that score. But experience has proved that the preservation of health, in either one man, or many, is not purely objective with surgeons. Too much, in this particular, is expected from them, and too little is done by officers to cooperate with them. Armies, like patients, must act in concert with their medical advisers, and make the matter of health subjective as well as objective. Officers and men need an insight into the general principles of hygiene, in order to be able to assist, themselves, in furthering prophylactic measures. To supply them with the requisite amount of information, the accompanying popular manual has therefore been prepared."
In 1863 he wrote a historical treatise in French (with Reinaud) on the commercial and political relations between the Roman Empire
and the countries of Oriental Asia
. In 1864 he wrote a second report for the United States Sanitary Commission
. This concerned pensions for the war wounded and was subtitled, "On a system for the economical relief of disabled soldiers, and on certain proposed amendments to our present pension laws".
, the medical encyclopedia of the Scuola Medica Salernitana. This school in Salerno
, Italy
was the pre-eminent medical school in Europe in the 11th century. This was not the first English translation but an attempt to make a medically accurate one. He appears to have done this as a tribute to former members of his profession and in an introduction to his work he said, "Regimen Sanitatis Salerni was a work of transcendent merit. Though written in the early twilight of the Middle Ages and in inferior Latin, it at once took its place alongside of such classic productions as the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. No secular work, indeed, ever met with more popular favor, nor infused its canons so radically into the dogmas of any science. It was for ages the medical Bible of all Western Europe, and held undisputed sway over the teachings of its schools, next to the writings of Hippocrates
and Galen
".
and Common Law
to the legal relations of the insane......Insanity is a subject which touches our civil rights at so many different points, that it may be said to have a place in every problem involving human responsibility. It begins with man in the cradle, and follows him to the grave. It is often part of his physical heritage, and may become a qualifying element in all his civil acts. To collect and embody in one treatise the principles of law by which courts govern their adjudications in questions of mental incapacity, and to expound through commentaries both the philosophy of these decisions and the rules of procedure under which they are rendered, is the object aimed at in this manual of Lunacy practice".
Ordronaux's activity as a Commissioner was frequently mentioned in the press. In 1875 he was called in to adjudicate whether a man, who was under sentence of death for murder, was insane. The same newspaper reported again on 7 January 1876 how Ordronaux had found that Kings County Lunatic Asylum was being mismanaged by the charity commissioners (17). He also investigated complaints from two inmates in Buffalo asylum of abusive behaviour by their carers. In his report Ordronaux upheld the complaints and recommended the discharge of the two staff involved. By 1882 his forward thinking and outspokenness had made him some enemies and in 1882 his salary of $4000 as Commissioner in Lunacy was temporarily opposed in debate in the finance committee of the New York State Senate
.
and State legislatures. About this book of more than 600 pages, Ordonaux said in the preface, "The accompanying work is an attempt to present in a concrete form the entire system of Federal and State legislation, as practised under a written Constitution in the United States. Its object is to expound those administrative powers which, in our dual form of representative government, are sovereign within their several spheres of action.....A written Constitution is a political grammar to whose rules administrative laws must conform, in order to give them judicial validity.....The government of forty four independent States, dwelling in harmonious relations under a supervisory Federal sovereignty, would seem, therefore, to justify the treatment of Legislation as a
department of jurisprudence meriting more textual consideration than it has yet received.....the present treatise has been prepared to meet the wants of those who, desiring to practise or interpret the canons of representative government in the United States, may seek to master the secrets of its architecture through a study of the labors of its founders, and to trace its genesis and development to a providential origin in the Spartan Commonwealths of our colonial period."
settlers to America. As Miss Sampson, she was sent on a secret mission to the US embassy in Buenos Aires
to enquire into the sovereignty dispute between Great Britain
and Argentina
over the Falkland Islands
. She is interesting according to Ordronaux for, among other things, keeping a very detailed diary which was far more comprehensive than the logs of the ships upon which she travelled.
On 27 June 1901 Ordronaux addressed the graduate students of The University of Vermont
. Reading like a tribute to his own life's work he says, "A strange feeling possesses me as I rise to address you......I am here to perform, with much surprise to myself, the same duty which devolved upon me, on a similar occasion, thirty six years ago.......I stand in the presence of two distinct periods with all their differing and startling results. In this long interval, too long to be measured by the standard of months, and falling more properly in the category of cycles, the drama of human society has moved with accelerated pace. A generation has acted its part of good and evil, then passed to its final account. Science, the industrial art, Education, Commerce, Navigation, have all spread their wings as never before. Our country has added nine states to the framework of our Federal Union, and buttressed its Constitution
with armor plated Amendments whose necessity had never been contemplated. Our very name, the United States, has changed its former significance and been adjudicated by our highest Appellate Tribunal to be no longer a plural substantive, but a noun in the singular number describing a nation of political equals, and not a league or partnership of States."
Ordronaux died of "apoplexy
" at his home, Glen Head, in Roslyn, New York
on 20 January 1908. His estate was initially valued at nearly $1,000,000. A large part of his bequests were to hospitals, universities, churches and other public institutions. These included $30,000 to Dartmouth College and $10,000 each to Trinity College
, Hartford, Connecticut
, The University of Vermont
and the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island
. However, the New York Times reported on 8 August 1908 that Ordronaux's total estate amounted to $2,757,000, the bulk of which was left to his three surviving sisters.
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
army surgeon, a professor of medical jurisprudence
Medical jurisprudence
Medical jurisprudence, or forensic medicine in the broad sense , now embraces all matters which may bring the physician into contact with the law...
, a pioneering mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
commissioner and a generous patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
of university endowments
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
. Between 1859 and 1901 Ordronaux published at least fifteen books and articles about subjects as diverse as heroes of the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
of 1776, military medicine
Military medicine
The term military medicine has a number of potential connotations. It may mean:*A medical specialty, specifically a branch of occupational medicine attending to the medical risks and needs of soldiers, sailors and other service members...
, medical jurisprudence, mental health, United States constitutional law and historical treatises. He left an estate worth $2,757,000 much of which he gave in endowments to several US universities and other institutions. He did not marry.
Early life
Ordronaux was the only son of Captain John Ordronaux (a notable privateerPrivateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
of the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
), and his wife Jean Marie Elizabeth Ordronaux (née Charretton). This is supported by the younger Ordronaux's will which mentions a bequest to his sister Florine, and to his nieces Clara and May Molan, matching genealogical information prepared by an Ordronaux family member.
He graduated from Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
in 1850, from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
in 1852, and from the National Medical School in 1859. In 1859 he published his first book a "Eulogy on the life and character of Rev. Zachariah Greene", who, before taking Holy Orders
Holy Orders
The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....
, had fought under Washington in the revolution of 1776 at the age of seventeen. In 1860 Ordronaux became a Professor of medical jurisprudence at Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
, a post that he held until 1887. Since 1861 he had also been a lecturer at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, The University of Vermont and Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
.
American Civil War
During the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
Ordronaux served as an army surgeon stationed in New York. He also acted as a military medical advisor and between 1861 and 1863 he published two textbooks on the health of armies, and an instruction manual of medical criteria for examining recruits. In the introduction to the latter, which was written for the United States Sanitary Commission
United States Sanitary Commission
The United States Sanitary Commission was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. It operated across the North, raised its own funds, and enlisted thousands of volunteers...
, he said, "The preservation of health in armies, is everywhere a subject of recognized importance. So much, in fact, depends upon it, that precautionary measures in this behalf can never be exaggerated. All that can be done, should be done to protect troops against preventable disease. It seems to have been formerly believed, that the presence of a surgeon in each regiment was all sufficient for this purpose ; and that officers and men could go their way free from any responsibility or apprehension on that score. But experience has proved that the preservation of health, in either one man, or many, is not purely objective with surgeons. Too much, in this particular, is expected from them, and too little is done by officers to cooperate with them. Armies, like patients, must act in concert with their medical advisers, and make the matter of health subjective as well as objective. Officers and men need an insight into the general principles of hygiene, in order to be able to assist, themselves, in furthering prophylactic measures. To supply them with the requisite amount of information, the accompanying popular manual has therefore been prepared."
In 1863 he wrote a historical treatise in French (with Reinaud) on the commercial and political relations between the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and the countries of Oriental Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. In 1864 he wrote a second report for the United States Sanitary Commission
United States Sanitary Commission
The United States Sanitary Commission was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. It operated across the North, raised its own funds, and enlisted thousands of volunteers...
. This concerned pensions for the war wounded and was subtitled, "On a system for the economical relief of disabled soldiers, and on certain proposed amendments to our present pension laws".
After the war
After the war he returned to Columbia Law School and began writing again. Between 1867 and 1871 he produced a book on preventative medicine and two textbooks on medical jurisprudence. He also translated into English verse the medieval Latin text of Regimen sanitatis SalernitanumRegimen sanitatis Salernitanum
Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum, Latin: The Salernitan Rule of Health is a medieval didactic poem in hexameter verse...
, the medical encyclopedia of the Scuola Medica Salernitana. This school in Salerno
Salerno
Salerno is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
was the pre-eminent medical school in Europe in the 11th century. This was not the first English translation but an attempt to make a medically accurate one. He appears to have done this as a tribute to former members of his profession and in an introduction to his work he said, "Regimen Sanitatis Salerni was a work of transcendent merit. Though written in the early twilight of the Middle Ages and in inferior Latin, it at once took its place alongside of such classic productions as the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. No secular work, indeed, ever met with more popular favor, nor infused its canons so radically into the dogmas of any science. It was for ages the medical Bible of all Western Europe, and held undisputed sway over the teachings of its schools, next to the writings of Hippocrates
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles , and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine...
and Galen
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...
".
Work on mental health
Ordronaux developed an interest in mental health and between 1872 and 1882 he was a member of the New York State Commission in Lunacy writing two books on the subject. The second of these books mentions the opening of a ground breaking mental hospital and in his preface to the book he says, "The recent establishment of a department of Lunacy supervision by the State of New York, has turned public attention to it as a source for consultation, in the application of our StatuteStatutory law
Statutory law or statute law is written law set down by a legislature or by a legislator .Statutes may originate with national, state legislatures or local municipalities...
and Common Law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
to the legal relations of the insane......Insanity is a subject which touches our civil rights at so many different points, that it may be said to have a place in every problem involving human responsibility. It begins with man in the cradle, and follows him to the grave. It is often part of his physical heritage, and may become a qualifying element in all his civil acts. To collect and embody in one treatise the principles of law by which courts govern their adjudications in questions of mental incapacity, and to expound through commentaries both the philosophy of these decisions and the rules of procedure under which they are rendered, is the object aimed at in this manual of Lunacy practice".
Ordronaux's activity as a Commissioner was frequently mentioned in the press. In 1875 he was called in to adjudicate whether a man, who was under sentence of death for murder, was insane. The same newspaper reported again on 7 January 1876 how Ordronaux had found that Kings County Lunatic Asylum was being mismanaged by the charity commissioners (17). He also investigated complaints from two inmates in Buffalo asylum of abusive behaviour by their carers. In his report Ordronaux upheld the complaints and recommended the discharge of the two staff involved. By 1882 his forward thinking and outspokenness had made him some enemies and in 1882 his salary of $4000 as Commissioner in Lunacy was temporarily opposed in debate in the finance committee of the New York State Senate
New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...
.
U.S. Constitution
Ordronaux's work on State law in New York led him to consider its relationship with Federal law, and in 1891 he published what may be his most important book, on the relationship between the powers of CongressUnited States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
and State legislatures. About this book of more than 600 pages, Ordonaux said in the preface, "The accompanying work is an attempt to present in a concrete form the entire system of Federal and State legislation, as practised under a written Constitution in the United States. Its object is to expound those administrative powers which, in our dual form of representative government, are sovereign within their several spheres of action.....A written Constitution is a political grammar to whose rules administrative laws must conform, in order to give them judicial validity.....The government of forty four independent States, dwelling in harmonious relations under a supervisory Federal sovereignty, would seem, therefore, to justify the treatment of Legislation as a
department of jurisprudence meriting more textual consideration than it has yet received.....the present treatise has been prepared to meet the wants of those who, desiring to practise or interpret the canons of representative government in the United States, may seek to master the secrets of its architecture through a study of the labors of its founders, and to trace its genesis and development to a providential origin in the Spartan Commonwealths of our colonial period."
Later life
In 1898 Ordronaux wrote a biography of a Leonice Sampson Moulton, a presumed relative of his foster father, possibly his foster mother. She was born in 1811 and descended from the original MayflowerMayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
settlers to America. As Miss Sampson, she was sent on a secret mission to the US embassy in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
to enquire into the sovereignty dispute between Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
over the Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
. She is interesting according to Ordronaux for, among other things, keeping a very detailed diary which was far more comprehensive than the logs of the ships upon which she travelled.
On 27 June 1901 Ordronaux addressed the graduate students of The University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
. Reading like a tribute to his own life's work he says, "A strange feeling possesses me as I rise to address you......I am here to perform, with much surprise to myself, the same duty which devolved upon me, on a similar occasion, thirty six years ago.......I stand in the presence of two distinct periods with all their differing and startling results. In this long interval, too long to be measured by the standard of months, and falling more properly in the category of cycles, the drama of human society has moved with accelerated pace. A generation has acted its part of good and evil, then passed to its final account. Science, the industrial art, Education, Commerce, Navigation, have all spread their wings as never before. Our country has added nine states to the framework of our Federal Union, and buttressed its Constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
with armor plated Amendments whose necessity had never been contemplated. Our very name, the United States, has changed its former significance and been adjudicated by our highest Appellate Tribunal to be no longer a plural substantive, but a noun in the singular number describing a nation of political equals, and not a league or partnership of States."
Ordronaux died of "apoplexy
Apoplexy
Apoplexy is a medical term, which can be used to describe 'bleeding' in a stroke . Without further specification, it is rather outdated in use. Today it is used only for specific conditions, such as pituitary apoplexy and ovarian apoplexy. In common speech, it is used non-medically to mean a state...
" at his home, Glen Head, in Roslyn, New York
Roslyn, New York
Roslyn is a village in Nassau County, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the village population was 2,770...
on 20 January 1908. His estate was initially valued at nearly $1,000,000. A large part of his bequests were to hospitals, universities, churches and other public institutions. These included $30,000 to Dartmouth College and $10,000 each to Trinity College
Trinity College (Connecticut)
Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
, Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, The University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
and the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island
Episcopal Diocese of Long Island
The Episcopal Diocese of Long Island is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America with jurisdiction over the counties of Kings, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk, which comprise Long Island, New York...
. However, the New York Times reported on 8 August 1908 that Ordronaux's total estate amounted to $2,757,000, the bulk of which was left to his three surviving sisters.
His books online
- Eulogy on the life and character of Rev. Zachariah Greene. Open Library online document
- Hints on health in armies. Open Library online document
- Manual of instructions for military surgeons on the examination of recruits. Internet Archive online document
- Relations politiques et commerciales de l'Empire romain avec l'Asie. Internet Archive online document
- Report to the U.S. Sanitary Commission - On a system for the economical relief of disabled soldiers. Open Library online document
- Prophylaxis, an anniversary oration. Open Library online document
- The Jurisprudence of Medicine in Its Relation to the Law of Contracts, Torts. Internet Archive online document
- Code of Health of the School of Salernum: Translated Into English Verse. Internet Archive online document
- Constitutional legislation in the United States. Open Library online document
- Memoir of Leonice Marston Sampson Moulton. Open Library online document
- Address delivered to the medical graduates of the University of Vermont at their commencement. Internet Archive online document