USA > Indiana > A Medical History of the State of Indiana > Part 4
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"About New Year I purchased of an old friend (Quaker) a hindquarter of beef, which cost, in the payment of a doctor bill, 21/2 cents per pound. Pork was worth from $1.25 to $1.50 per one hundred pounds; corn, 10 cents per bushel; potatoes, 121/2 cents; turnips, the same; sweet potatoes, 25 cents; wheat, 371/2 cents, and all other products of the soil in proportional prices.
"Our first canal packets were run in connec- tion with steamboat travel to Cincinnati, where most of our trading was done. This great change made the mode of traveling to points on . the Ohio river so different from our former manner of reaching the cities, through mud and rain, that we certainly had good grounds for ex- ultation. I will state for the information of the young men in the profession who have never traveled over bad roads that they can not realize the amount of labor and exposure to which we old doctors were subjected in the early practice in Indiana. We had no means of traveling, ex- cept on foot or on horseback. Buggies had not reached so far West, and if they had they would have been useless, on account of the condition of the roads. During twenty-five years or more I practiced on horseback, as also did my com- peers; to that exposure and horseback exercise I
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am disposed to attribute a large share of the good health I possess at my advanced age.
"When called during the fever and wild de- lirium, we seated the patient on the side of the bed and held him there, by the aid of assistants if necessary, opened a vein in his arm by mak- ing as large an orifice as practicable, and al- lowed the blood to flow until his pulse became soft and less resisting, or until syncope super- vened. We relied more on the effect produced than on the quantity of blood extracted, our object being to produce a decided impression upon the heart's action. Our patient being in a sitting posture and the blood escaping from a free opening, it did not require a great length of time to produce the desired effect. Often within ten to twenty minutes after faintness or sickness occurred the subject of this mode of treatment would become bathed in a copious perspiration, and the violent fever and delirium existing a short time before would have entirely passed away. Now, if the indications seemed to require it, we directed an emetic to be given, usually composed of tartarized antimony and ipecac combined, or wine of antimony. After free emesis and the sickness had subsided, if thought necessary, we gave a brisk cathartic, usually containing more or less calomel. After the primæ vice had been well cleared, it was our practice to give opium in such doses as the case required, in order to allay all irritability of the stomach and bowels. 'We directed the usual febrifuges to be given if the fever should return, and these were given in such doses as required
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to arrest or mitigate it. We used no manner of temporizing treatment, but aimed our agents directly at the extermination of diseases. Opium, ipecac, tartarized antimony, nitrate of potassa, spirits mindereri and spirits of niter, with other means too tedious to mention, were all fre- quently brought into requisition.
"Under the above manner of treating a case of remittent fever it was no uncommon thing on our second visit to find our patient sitting up feeling 'pretty well, except a little weak,' and within a few days able to return to his ordinary avocations. When we met with more protracted cases we had recourse to the Peruvian bark, gen- tian, columbo, and most of the ordinary tonics of the present time, excepting quinia, which was not in use. For some time after quinia was introduced the price was such that Hoosiers could not afford to use it. The first I used cost at the rate of $30.00 per ounce. I may state in this connection that tartar emetic was a favorite remedy in all the active or acute forms of dis- ease.
"We seldom lost patients from acute diseases. It would have detracted from the standing of a medical man should it have been known that he lost a patient from inflammation. He might lose a patient from sheer debility and be ex- cusable, but not from acute disease, provided he saw the case in an early stage of the attack.
"Among the oldest physicians of our county was Dr. Ithamar Warner, who first resided at Salsbury, our first county seat. After the busi- ness of the county was transferred to Centre-
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ville, the Doctor removed to Richmond, where he had a large and remunerative practice to the close of his life. He never married; was singu- lar in many respects, and very irritable, so much so that his patients were pretty certain to carry out his directions without equivocation.
"Dr. J. R. Mendenhall, also of Richmond, was the first graduate in medicine in the county of whom I have any knowledge. He received the degree at the Lexington school, Kentucky. He .was a well-qualified physician and an honorable gentleman. He had a good practice, but re- signed it in a few years and turned his attention to speculation in real estate, which proved to him a more lucrative business. He believed the responsibility attached to the practice largely overbalanced the remuneration it afforded.
"Dr. Wm. Pugh, at one time a partner in the practice with Dr. Mendenhall, resided in Rich- mond a few years and removed to Centreville, where he died in 1829. I think he also attended a course of lectures in the Lexington school.
"Following these were Drs. Griffith, Plummer, Vail, and Smith, with quite a number of others, who resided but a short time in the city of Richmond, whose names I never knew, or can not now recollect. Therefore, I must confine my notice to a few of the more prominent practi- tioners of an early day, previous to the year 1835; otherwise I should promote sleep among my hearers from the length of this paper.
"The first named, Dr. Griffith, came to Indi- ana from the city of Philadelphia; he was a member of the Society of Friends; soon ingra-
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tiated himself into the confidence of the people, and had a fair practice; was called in consulta- tion by the surrounding physicians and consid- ered an able and scientific physician.
"Dr. J. T. Plummer was a student of his and married his daughter. He was also a Friend; graduated, I think, at one of the Philadelphia schools; was prominent as a well-educated and scientific physician, and at one time was con- sidered the best practical chemist in the city, for in most cases of suspected poisoning he was called on to analyze the contents of the stomach and determine the result. He died a few years ago from that scourge of mankind, consumption.
"Dr. J. Vail years ago had an extensive prac- tice in and about Richmond; was highly es- teemed as a practitioner; was a member of this society ; contracted disease in the army (where he filled the position of regimental surgeon) from which he never fully recovered.
"Dr. Wm. B. Smith read medicine with Dr. Plummer, and had a reputable practice for a number of years. He was a genial, social com- panion, but in time became intemperate, so much so that it damaged his practice. Yet he had many warm friends to the time of his death.
"There are other medical gentlemen of Rich- mond yet living and whose names stand high, and whose biographies must be left for abler pens than mine. The early physicians of Cen- treville were Drs. Sackett, Finch, Pier, Crews, and Dorsey.
"Dr. Sackett was the oldest practitioner of Centreville. Soon after the county seat was es-
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tablished there, he was elected recorder of the county, which office he continued to hold for many years; indeed, until his death. He was another victim of intemperance.
"Dr. Finch was a reputable practitioner and a gentleman. He did not reside long in Centre- ville, and removed to Noblesville, where he died in a short time of phthisis.
"Drs. Pier and Crews did not remain long in the city. I had but little acquaintance with either of them, but believe that they stood fair as physicians.
"I must next speak of my friend, Dr. W. W. Bunnel, of Washington, who studied medicine with Dr. Lathrop, of Waynesville, Warren County, Ohio. Dr. Bunnel was my preceptor during the last six months of school that he ever taught. After qualifying himself for practice, he settled in 'Washington, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1852. He died of cholera, being sick but a few hours. He was a cautious, rather timid, and conscientious practi- tioner, a man well read, and one who thought carefully before he acted. In 1826-7-8 he had much to do with that old-fashioned disease known by the name of milk sickness. In order to become acquainted with its symptoms and treatment, I spent some time with the Doctor in visiting his cases, at which time he had as many as five or six in the different stages of the com- plaint, which gave me an opportunity to learn what I could of the disease as it presented itself at that early period. It was truly a formidable disease and attended with great fatality.
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"A Dr. Waldo,* of Jacksonburg, seven miles northeast of Milton, had a larger practice in milk sickness than any other physician in the county, and had greater notoriety for success in its treatment. He was one of the oldest practi- tioners, and was a noble specimen of a man physically, drank more intoxicating liquors than was profitable, but never to my knowledge got so drunk as to incapacitate him for business. He was immoral in many respects, very pro- fane, yet with all this dark catalogue he had many redeeming traits of character. In an early period of our history he represented Wayne County in the state legislature, when it met at Corydon. He was termed, in common parlance, a bold physician, used the lancet freely, gave from scruple to dram doses of calomel, etc. In fact, he might be called a northern Dr. Cart- wright, as regarded doses of medicine, without disparagement to that gentleman. More than twenty years ago he removed to a farm on White river, north of Muncie, where after a few years he died.
"Time will not allow me to dwell longer on the physicians of 'lang syne,' yet I can not omit speaking of my friend, Dr. John Pritchett, of Centreville. He and I (if I mistake not) are the oldest practitioners of medicine now living in the county. I have one and a half or two years the precedence in time. The Doctor is an urbane gentleman in every sense of the term; at present confines himself principally to town
* Dr. Loring A. Waldo. Died in the thirties, and is buried at Windsor, Randolph county .- G. W. H. K.
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practice. When the gold fever was at its height in California, Dr. Pritchett left home and busi- ness in search of 'filthy lucre,' and in a few years returned, worsted pecuniarily. Early in the late war he was commissioned as regimental surgeon of the Fifty-seventh Regiment of Indi- ana Volunteers, which position he filled with honor and credit to the close of the war.
"The early physicians of Connersville, Fay- ette County, to the best of my recollection, were Drs. Moffet, Gale, and Miller; a little later we had Drs. Brown and Mason, who were partners in the practice of medicine for some years."
Dr. Joel Pennington (1799-1887) was born in Hunting- ton county, Pennsylvania, and, after a medical preparation, located in Milton in 1825. I introduce him as deserving a place in Indiana medical history, if for no other reason than that he was a pioneer physician and contributed the above article. He has told his own story in simple lan- guage. He was president of the State Medical Society In 1873. He practiced medicine at Milton for more than half a century, and finally, when accident reduced him to penury. and paralysis rendered him helpless, charitable friends sup- plied his needs and made him comfortable .- G. W. H. K.
CHAPTER VI.
MEDICAL REMINISCENCES OF MADISON.
The late Dr. W. T. S. Cornett, of Madison, narrates some interesting reminiscences in the Transactions of the Indiana State Medical So- ciety, 1874, p. 30, from which the following ex- tracts are copied :
"I came to the State of Indiana in the spring of 1824 for the purpose of practicing medicine and located temporarily in the County of Dear- born. In the spring of 1825 I moved to Ver- sailles, Ripley County, where most of my pro- fessional life has been spent. On coming into the state I was informed that the law required me to be licensed to practice by the society of the district in which I lived; otherwise I would be indicted and fined.
EARLY STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY.
"Each judicial constituted a medical district, and there was a state medical society made up of delegates elected annually by the district so- cieties. I called on the censors of the society, satisfied them in regard to my qualifications, and received from them a permit to practice till the next meeting of the society, which was held at Lawrenceburg. At the meeting of the society I was admitted to membership and received a diploma according to law. At that meeting, or
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the next, I have forgotten which, I was elected a delegate to represent the society at the next meeting of the state society to be held at In- dianapolis. I prepared a professional essay and started for Indianapolis on horseback, and ac- complished the journey (65 miles) in three days of hard travel through deep mud and over bro- ken causeways. The president of the state so- ciety was Dr. Samuel Grant Mitchell, of In- dianapolis, an elderly gentleman, somewhat cor- pulent and short of breath from asthma, per- haps. The society met at Dr. Mitchell's office. There were but few in attendance. Their names were as follows: Drs. Mitchell, Dunlap, Coe and Mothershead, of Indianapolis; Dr. Sexton, of Rushville; Dr. Bell, of Shelbyville, and my- self, from Versailles. Dr. Mothershead was then a very young man and a partner to Dr. Mitchell. "The president read an address on the occa- sion, and, on getting about half way through it, found that he had lost a sheet and became much embarrassed. I finally moved that the lost sheet be stricken out, which was carried unanimously, and he proceeded with the remainder of the ad- dress. Finding that no one but myself had pre- pared an essay for the occasion, I proved too diffident to produce it and took it home without reading. Afterward I prepared an abridgement of it, which was published in Dr. Drake's jour- nal at Cincinnati. In the print I found numer- ous typographical errors, which annoyed me not a little. The meeting to which I have referred was the last of the state medical society, as pro-
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vided for by law, the politicians and people hav- ing adopted the idea of free trade in medical matters, which seems likely to continue for all time to come. So be it. If rational medicine can not take care of itself let it perish. I am now, so far as I know, the only surviving mem- ber of the original state medical society.
"For a number of years I was the only physi- cian in Ripley County ; had to travel all over it on horseback by day and by night, without re- gard to weather or remuneration for services. Occasionally I found myself lost in the woods at night, and would have to tie up my horse and make my bed on the ground until morning. The nearest physicians with whom I was acquainted were Drs. Perceval and Ferris, of Lawrence- burg; Dr. Torbet, of Wilmington; Drs. Haynes and James, of Rising Sun; Drs. Watts, Howes. and Canby, of Madison; Dr. Peabody, of Ver- non; Dr. Hartclay, of Greensburg; Dr. Oliver, of Brookville, and Dr. Gillespie, on his farm twenty miles south of me, all of whom are in their graves save Drs. Watts and James, who have long since retired from business. I can only make honorable mention of these physi- cians, having no data upon which to found bio- graphical sketches of them which would be re- liable. At the period of my advent into pro- fessional life (50 years since) medical books were very scarce, particularly so in the West. The physician who could afford one work on each branch of the profession was considered well off. The book stores in Cincinnati, in 1824,
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could not furnish a work of each branch of the profession. On going there to purchase my library, I could not find a work on materia medica for sale in the place, and had to appeal to a young physician who had lately arrived from Philadelphia, who was so obliging as to sell me the work of Murray with notes by Chap- man.
"In the year 1843 my friend, Dr. Charles Parry, late of Indianapolis, read a paper'on the treatment of congestive fever with quinin, be- fore the Academy of Medicine at Philadelphia, which attracted much attention, and he was invited to repeat it to a fuller house, which he did. - After this, numerous essays soon made their appearance in favor of the treatment of remittent fever - with quinin, and the former practice was soon superseded.
THE EARLY SURGERY OF INDIANA.
"In surgery, as well as in medicine, there has been an advance within my remembrance. I knew a surgeon half a century ago who made it a rule to trephine in every case of fracture of the skull, whether there was depression of the bone or not. He boasted that he had bone buttons ' enough, bored from the skulls of his patients, to furnish . a full set for a double-breasted coat. Fractured skulls were more common then than now, the temperance reformation not having commenced, or even been seriously thought of, save by one man, and that man was Dr. Benja-
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min Rush (see his great address on the abuse of ardent spirits, Volume I of his work, A. D. 1818). In 1829 Dr. Daniel Drake made a most powerful and eloquent appeal to the public on this subject in an address delivered before the Hamilton County Agricultural Society, which did much good in the West in stirring up or- ganized action against this most monstrous of all evils on earth.
"Half a century ago, surgeons, and the people generally, practiced blood-letting for almost every injury. Sir Charles Bell was among the first to denounce this practice in concussion of the brain. He said, in such a case, the surgeon would say bleed, and the landlady would say give him a glass of brandy, and that he (Sir Charles) would in this case take sides with the landlady. Half a century ago I have seen lint dipped in whisky used with good results as an application to wounds. The lint should never be allowed to get dry. I have used this dressing more or less throughout the whole of my profes- sional life, and have never seen erysipelas occur in a wound where it was used. Its action is threefold, as it stimulates the injured vessels, tends to ease pain, and, lastly, prevents the de- composition of purulent matter, which is poison- ous.
"The greatest advantage of the metallic su- ture over thread is that thread absorbs pus, which decomposes in it and becomes poisonous, while metal absorbs nothing. The tincture of arnica has acquired a great reputation as an
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applicant in contusions. It is the whisky, and not the arnica, which is entitled to whatever credit is due in this case. Whisky is sometimes good as a medicine if properly used. I have never, and never will, so use it as to turn a sick man into a drunkard."
CHAPTER VII.
EARLY STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY .- HISTORICAL NOTES OF INDIANAPOLIS .- THE MEDICAL COLLEGE AT LAPORTE.
In the Transactions of the Indiana State Medical Society for 1874, p. 26, the late Dr. W. B. Fletcher, of Indianapolis, records some interesting history of the "Early State Medical Society," from which the following extracts are taken :
"A judicial was considered a medical district. A district medical society was formed in June, 1817, in Vincennes, and at a meeting of the same in May, 1818, delegates were appointed to meet with similar delegations of other district societies and form a state medical society. F. S. Shald and Phillip Bates were such delegates. The state society was not formed, however, until 1820, when it met in Corydon, then the capital of the state. Afterward, in 1826, it held its meeting in Indianapolis, the seat of government having been removed thither. These facts are obtained from the Western Censor and other pa- pers of the period, extracts from which we give:
"The Medical Society of the State of Indiana met at Corydon on the 10th. The following gen- tlemen were elected officers for the ensuing year, viz .:
"President-Asahel Clapp, New Albany. Vice- President-S. Everts Union County. Secretary
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-L. Dunlap, Indianapolis. Treasurer-D. B. Mitchell, Corydon. Censors-David Oliver, Brookville; G. L. Murdoch, Brookville; C. Ful- lerton, Princeton.
"JANUARY 4th, 1823 .- At the fourth annual meeting of the Medical Society, which took place at Corydon on the 11th ult., the following gen- tlemen were elected officers for the ensuing year :
"President-Dr. D. G. Mitchell. Vice-Presi- dent-Dr. S. Everts. Secretary-Dr. J. Fowler. Treasurer-Dr. Snyder. Censors-Drs. J. E. Bush, Snyder, and A. Clapp.
FIFTH DISTRICT MEDICAL SOCIETY.
"First Meeting at Indianapolis .- Pursuant to a resolution of the State Medical Society a num- ber of the practicing physicians of the Fifth Judicial District met at Indianapolis on Mon- day, the 1st day of May, 1826, and proceeded to business. Dr. Isaac Coe was chosen chairman, and K. A. Scudder, secretary. The following officers were chosen for the ensuing year:
"President-Dr. Isaac Coe. Secretary-Dr. Livingston Dunlap. Treasurer-Dr. K. A. Scudder. Censors-Drs. Laughlin, Sexton, and Morris. Delegates-Drs. S. G. Mitchell, Isaac Coe, and Sexton.
"Resolved, That each annual meeting of this society be on the first Monday in May, and the semiannual meeting on the day preceding the meeting of the State Medical Society.
"The society then adjourned.
"ISAAC COE, President.
"K. A. SCUDDER, Secretary."
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FROM HISTORICAL NOTES ON INDIANA, PUBLISHED AND COMMUNICATED TO THE GAZETTE, INDIANAPOLIS, MARCH 6, 1822, BY DR. S. G. MITCHELL.
"MARCH 6, 1822 .- The predisposing influ- ences that caused the citizens of Indianapolis to become a prey to intermittent and remittent fevers were numerous: the thickness of the for- est, with an unusual wet or damp season; a numerous concourse of strangers crowded to- gether; great fatigue of moving and anxiety of mind; uncomfortable accommodations; liberal use of fresh meat, more especially fish, which was used in great abundance. The disease may have existed in a certain constitution of the atmos- phere, which caused the marsh miasma or dele- terious effluvia to be worse on the margin of the water-course, which was a fact, and in the east it prevailed more generally than in the west. 'Those who escaped lived off from the river. Out of 1,000 souls in town on the donation, and the farms surrounding the town, at least 900 sick- ened during the prevailing epidemic. Twenty- five deaths occurred before the last of October. About that period the place was restored to health. Its fatality was principally amongst children, but the town will long lament over the loss of some of its most favorite citizens. The symptoms that marked our epidemic were such as medical writers recognize in the introduction of common violent intermittent and remittent fevers; debility, languor, yawning and stretch- ing, with a listlessness and inaction to motion; coldness then commences in the extremities and
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soon covers the body with sensations, to the pa- tient, of cold water being poured over them. In some cases the coldness only produced chills; in other cases it produced universal convulsive shaking. It has, then, improperly been called ague. Very few cases occurred that we might call a well-defined case of ague and fever. The symptoms that succeeded the cold stage were a dry, burning, hot skin, with a red, tense and swollen appearance; pains violent and shifting to different parts of the system; the pulse quick, but not universally strong; the bowels consti- pated, and great thirst. After some hours of pain and suffering, a perspiration became uni- versal, the pulse diminished in frequency and became full and free, and all the functions of the system were restored to their natural order. The species of fever differed in different pa- tients, and in the same patient, in different at- tacks, sometimes a quotidian, sometimes a ter- tian, and at other times assumed a quartan type. It was a disease that readily yielded to appro- priate remedies, and as readily again recurred. During the hot stage, the physician's object was to promote perspiration, and to accomplish that object he selected such internal and external remedies as he thought advisable. Afterward the stomach and bowels were well prepared for the reception of Peruvian bark-it was genuine, and given in spirits, in large quantities-a valu- able medicine, and rarely disappointed the phy- sician's expectation. The disposition the fever had to recur again and again, and the universal
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