Background

Hugh was born on April 16, 1806 on a plantation at Guilder's Creek, S. C. He was the fourth child in a family of ten. His father, John Toland, who had emigrated from Ireland, became a wealthy planter and banker, and held a high place in his community; his mother, Mary (Boyd) Toland, of Scotch descent, was a remarkable woman of considerable executive ability.

Education

A precocious child, sent to school at four years of age, he soon distinguished himself in studies and athletics. After acquiring a good English education he began to study medicine under the tutelage of a distinguished physician, Dr. George Ross. In 1828 he was graduated in medicine at the head of a class of one hundred and sixty from Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky.

After two years of practice in Pageville, S. C. , and a winter in Lexington, where he studied French and worked in the dissecting room, he spent two and a half years in Paris under Guillaume Dupuytren, Jacques Lisfranc, and Philibert Joseph Roux. There he met a notable group of American students -- George Washington Bethune, Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Oliver Wendell Holmes of Boston, and William Wood Gerhard, William Pepper, and Joseph Peace of Philadelphia.

Career

Although in 1833 he returned to Pageville to resume practice, he soon moved to Columbia.

Soon he became a dominant surgical leader in his community. His success in operating for the relief of clubfoot and strabismus, and in the use of the lithotomy forceps spread beyond his state, and in 1841 arrested the attention of James Marion Sims of Montgomery, Ala.

In 1852, after the discovery of gold in California, he set out for the West. Bringing one of the first quartz mills into the state, Toland bought the Gwin mine in Calaveras County, and tried his luck at mining, but after three months he realized that mining was neither to his taste nor to his profit, and sold out.

Discouraged by the loss of part of his fortune, in 1853 he moved to San Francisco and gave himself over wholeheartedly to his profession.

He was soon appointed chief surgeon to the Marine Hospital and later a member of the staff of the county hospital. Four years later he founded at his own expense the Toland Medical College in San Francisco, becoming its president and professor of surgery. The latter position he held until his death.

In 1873 he placed the buildings, equipment, and land unconditionally in charge of the regents of the University of California, and they became an integral part of the institution.

Although his teaching and his enormous practice occupied most of his time, he wrote seventy-one articles (mostly discussions of case reports), a large number of which were published in the Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal, and a textbook on surgery. His contributions were criticized by some of his contemporaries, but they reveal good judgment, versatility, and sincerity. His lack in style was compensated for by a straightforward description of surgical procedures. Of his surgical ability there can be no doubt.

He was a good diagnostician, and for his day a capable and rapid operator. His operations ran the gamut of general surgery. Best known for his lithotomies, he operated for stone in the bladder sixty-four times with a mortality of only two. He popularized the method of Antyllus of the double ligature for the prevention of secondary hemorrhage, and ligated the subclavian artery three times, the brachial six times, the femoral eight times, and the external iliac ten times.

Having a thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles of plastic surgery, he performed many operations of this character. His knowledge of bone regeneration was unusual for that period, and his comprehensive article on this subject, "On the Reproduction of Bones" is illuminating today. Among his other important papers were "Movable Cartilages in the Knee Joint--Operation--Cure", "Two Successful Cases of Ligation of the Femoral Artery for Secondary Hemorrhage" and "Case of Penetrating Gunshot Wound of Abdomen".

He died suddenly in 1880.

Achievements

• Hugh Huger Toland was a South Carolina surgeon who founded the Toland Medical College, which later became the University of California, San Francisco. For twenty-seven years, even to the day of his death, he played a leading role in the practice of surgery, being widely known as the "great surgeon of the Pacific Coast. " The main lecture hall at UCSF bears his name. The same lecture hall features many murals, some depicting Hugh Toland himself. Brown and Toland Physicians, a Bay Area medical group, is named after Toland and Charlotte Blake Brown.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Lectures on practical surgery microform

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

Personality

He was a commanding figure, tall, erect, dignified, and deliberate, with an industry, perseverance, and determination that remind one of the indomitable John Hunter.

Connections

In Columbia he married Mary Goodwin, who lived only a few years.

In 1844 he married Mary Avery, who bore him two daughters. Three days after the arrival of his party his wife died at Stockton. He was saddened by the death of his wife.

In 1860 he married Mrs. Mary B. (Morrison) Gridley of San Francisco, by whom he had one son. He was survived by his widow, a stepson, and a son.

Father:

John Toland

(1776–1849)

Mother:

Mary Toland

(1778–1858)

Brother:

Joseph E Toland

(1804–1863)

Spouse (3):

Mrs. Mary B. (Morrison) Gridley

Sister:

Sarah Toland Belton

(1802–1864)

Sister:

Elizabeth Ann Toland Boyd

(1798–1823)

Sister:

Mary Elizabeth Toland Renwick

(1817–1909)

Daughter:

Lucy M Toland Glassell

(1838–1879)

Spouse (2):

Mary America Avery Toland

(1832–1852 (m. 1847))

Spouse (1):

Mary Goodwin

References

• Gold-mining surgeon: Hugh Huger Toland, M.D., founder of the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
• California's Medical Story