Cleave’s
Biographical Cyclopædia of
Homœopathic Physicians and Surgeons
By Egbert Cleave
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
ASTINE,
THOMAS JEFFERSON, M. D., late of St. Louis, Mo., was born of Quaker
parentage, in Northumberland county, Pa., October 6th, 1808. His parents
being in comfortable circumstances, he received a good education, mostly
obtained at the Danville Academy, Danville, Pa. On leaving that
institution, where he bore himself with much distinction, he entered the
office of Dr. Petriken, of Danville, the most eminent physician in that
section of the country, for the purpose of reading medicine. Having in
that manner duly prepared himself for a collegiate course, he proceeded
to Philadelphia, where he attended lectures at the Jefferson Medical
College as a private student of Dr. McClellan, Professor of Surgery in
that institution, and father of General George B. McClellan. He
graduated with honor, in 1829, and shortly thereafter commenced practice
at Cattawissa and Bloomsburg, Columbia county, Pa., and continued the
same until 1835, when he removed to Williamsport, Lycoming county, Pa.
There he soon achieved considerable popularity as a physician. About the
year 1847, he was led first to inquire into, and eventually to embrace
homœopathy, through the influence of the late John Redman Coxe, Jr., of
Philadelphia. In the following year, he removed to Missouri, and settled
in St. Louis, where in the succeeding spring, he associated himself in
practice with Dr. J. T. Temple ; but this association continued
only until the end of August in the same year. At that time, the cholera
was raging in St. Louis, and during its prevalence, Dr. Vastine was
engaged without any intermission in a very extensive practice in the
disease, and with very remarkable success, only losing three patients in
a hundred, while over fifteen hundred cases were treated by himself and
his partner. Indeed, so constant was his attention to the suffering,
that for ninety days, he did not obtain three consecutive hours of
sleep. His arduous labors and exposure resulted in his taking the
disease himself in an aggravated form, and, though he recovered from the
attack, and apparently regained his usual health, the severe tax imposed
on his energies during that cholera season doubtless affected the whole
of his after life. Feeling a desire to study the theory of homœopathy
rather more closely than he had been able to do while attending to his
professional duties, and to acquire a further insight into the
application of its principles, he proceeded to Philadelphia, where he
attended lectures at the Homœopathic College, and graduated therefrom
in 1851. Returning afterwards to St. Louis, he devoted himself anew to
his profession, and continued in active practice, zealously supporting
by every means in his power the tenets of Hahnemann, until his death in
March, 1872. This resulted from hemorrhage of the lungs, brought on
without doubt by injuries received a few months previously through being
thrown from his carriage in a collision with a dray, the accident being
the result of the drayman’s carelessness.Dr. Vastine was
married, in 1833, to the eldest daughter of the late Colonel Joseph
Paxton, of Cattawissa, Pa., by whom he had six children, five of whom
survive. His mantle has fallen on his eldest son, Dr. Charles Vastine,
who until recently held the chair of Physiology in the Homœopathic
Medical College of Missouri, when the additional professional work,
thrown on him by the death of his father, caused him to resign. Dr.
Vastine was a very affectionate and domestic man, seldom attending
theatres or other places of amusement, preferring to spend his evenings
with his family unless called abroad by professional duty. His many
agreeable qualities caused his society to be much courted.He was for several
years President of the St. Louis Homœopathic Medical Society. He held
the chair of Clinical Medicine in the Homœopathic Medical College of
Missouri, and as such was highly esteemed by his colleagues and
students. He was a member of the American Institute of Homœopathy.He contributed to some
extent to homœopathic literature, and it is to be regretted that his
extensive professional calls so exhausted his time and his energies as
to prevent him giving permanent form to his abundant practical and
scientific knowledge. He was a hard student, a vigorous thinker, a more
than ordinarily esteemed physician, an industrious and successful
practitioner. Although overworked by an extended practice, he never
turned away from the poor, and a large proportion of his most faithful
and conscientious professional work was done among those from whom he
knew he could expect no remuneration. This made his death, which was a
great loss to the community and the profession, peculiarly deplored by
the poor.During an active
practice covering nearly half a century, he won the respect and esteem
of all with whom he came in contact, and he left behind him hosts of
friends to bear testimony to his kindly and unaffected, but effective
beneficence.Source
: Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homœopathic Physicians and
Surgeons By Egbert Cleave