USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume I > Part 34
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
Another idea, held by the pioneer physicians of Boone county in com- mon with all physicians of the time, was that a patient "sick of fever" must also be bled freely before an internal remedy was administered. The lancet held sway alongside of calomel. If, in raising a log cabin, a man was thrown from his "corner" and badly bruised, the practice was to bleed him copiously on the spot as the first step toward his recovery. In conversation with some of our old physicians who practiced in the "fifties," they, without exception, still claim that phlebotomy was the correct procedure, and that our present-day doctors would not lose so many cases of pneumonia if it was practiced.
There were, no doubt, many things to criticise in the methods of the pioneer physicians, yet we must all acknowledge that they stood out as shining lights in their day and generation, the equals, if not the superiors, of their contemporaries in all the other walks of life. They did their duty as citizens, and as physicians they were always found doing their best "according to their lights." The physicians of Boone county have succeeded to a noble heritage ; may they prove worthy of their great responsibility. Will Carleton has paid the old-time doctor a beautiful as well as a deserved tribute, when he says :
"This undecorated soldier, of a hard, unequal strife,
Fought in many stubborn battles with the foes that sought his life.
367
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
In the night-time, or in the day-time, he would rally brave and well, Though the summer lark were fifing, or the frozen lances fell; Knowing if he won the battles they would praise their Maker's name, Knowing if he lost the battles then the doctor was to blame.
'Twas the brave old virtuous doctor,
'Twas the good old faulty doctor,
'Twas the faithful country doctor-fighting stoutly all the same."
Our old-time doctor, even at a time when most men drank alcoholic liquors and really thought they were benefited thereby, knew the harm of it all. In a paper before a convention of physicians, one of them was discussing tincture of arnica as an applicant in contusions. He was of the opinion that it was the whiskey and not the arnica which was entitled to whatever credit which was due in these cases. This led him to make the following observa- tion: "Whiskey 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."
About 1824 medical books were very scarce in Indiana. The first work on materia medica was brought into this county we do not know when. The physician who could afford one work on each branch of the profession was considered well off. The book stores in Cincinnati, at this time, could not furnish a work of each branch.
In 1843 Dr. Charles Parry, of Indianapolis, read a paper on the treat- ment of congestive fever with quinine, before the Academy of Medicine at Philadelphia. After this, quinine seems to have grown in favor with physi- cians. It is said that this drug was given until, in many cases, a quinine habit was formed, and children sometimes cried for it.
Dr. Cornett, in some of his writings, narrates some very interesting reminiscences, among which is the following: "In surgery as well as medi- cine, 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." This same doctor tells us further : "For a number of years I was the only physician in the county in which I was then practicing; I had to travel all over it on horseback by day and by night, without regard to weather or remuneration for services. Occasionally
368
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
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." This unselfish spirit and devotion to duty was typical of the early doctors everywhere.
The following is a copy verbatim of an old physician's account of fever treatment : "When called during the fever and wild delirium, 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 making as large an orifice as practicable, and allowed the blood to flow until his pulse became soft and less resisting, or until syncope supervened. We relied more on the effect produced than the amount of blood extracted, our first 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 neces- sary, we gave a brisk cathartic, usually containing more or less calomel. After the primac viac 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 to arrest or mitigate it. We used no manner of temporizing treatment, but aimed our agents directly at the exterminating of diseases. Opium, ipecac, tartar- ized antimony, nitrate of potassa, spirits mindereri, and spirits of niter, with other means too numerous to mention, were all frequently brought into requi- sition.
"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, gentian, columbo, and most of the ordinary tonics of the present time, excepting quinia, which was not then in use. For some time after quinia was introduced the price was such that Hoosiers could
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA. 369
not afford to use it. The first I used cost at the rate of thirty dollars per ounce. I may state that tartar emetic was a favorite remedy in all the active or acute forms of disease.
"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 excusable, but not from acute disease, provided he saw the case in an early stage of the attack."
FEES.
Many of the physicians of Boone county who have labored so long and so faithful may have gained honors, and grateful remembrance, but very few of them have accumulated wealth; none have made more than a living, with but few exceptions, and their fortunes amounting to but a few thousand dollars, were the results of careful economizing, fortunate investments, and small families. It seems that the healing art, though an honorable profession, is not a lucrative one, especially in small towns or the country.
Prior to 1820 charges were as follows over the state generally: A visit in town, $1.50, medicines additional; extracting teeth, 25 cents; cathartic pills, 20 cents per dozen ; one dose calomel, I ounce paregoric and vial, 621/2 cents; one dose of calomel and one dose tartar emetic, 50 cents; mercurial pills, 71/2 cents; accouchement cases, natural, $5.00; bleeding, 50 cents; one dose of jalap, 25 cents; pectoral powders, 25 cents each. In 1820 there seems to have been a decrease in the prices of drugs, and the doctor very considerably reduced his charges in proportion. Also I note that a visit in town fell to $1.00.
In 1848 I find the following fees customary: Visit in town, $1.00; with unusual detention, $2.00; prescriptions, with letters of advice, $5.00 to $10.00; consultations, $3.00 to $5.00; night visits, double; vaccination, 50 cents to $1.00; venesection, 50 cents; simple medicines, per dose, 25 cents ; mixtures, 25 cents per fluid ounce ; blisters, from 25 to 50 cents; accouch- ments, $5.00 to $10.00. The following charges, dated 1857, are taken from bills of a Boone county physician : Accouchment, $3.00 to $10.00; frac- ture of an arm, $10.00; setting broken leg, $15.00; bleeding, 25 cents ; letter of advice, with prescription, $6.50; vaccination, 25 cents; two dozen powders, (24)
.
370
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
kind not stated, 30 cents; one dose of calomel, one ounce paregoric, with bot- tle, 50 cents ; six mercurial pills, 30 cents; one blister, 25 cents.
Before the days of Boone began, many of the ideas that came from the Carolinas and had filtered through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the dark and bloody ground of Kentucky, had been materially modified. No pioneer of Boone was anxious to plant his potatoes in the moon but was only too glad to stick them down into the loose primitive soil without date or sign. He never waited for the dark of the moon to put on the clapboards or lay a fence worm. If the old black cat wanted to move into the new cabin with the family and take his place to snooze by the jamb of the great fireplace, no one objected. As a rule the early settler of Boone county had no time to wait on the moon or for signs. By the time he had felled the trees, dug the stumps, grubbed the underbrush, ditched the bogs, pulled through the mud to church and mill and fought the mosquitoes and malaria, he had no time for side shows. If you have the blood of a Pennsylvania Dutchman running in your veins, you have a pretty clear conception what the above ineant to the settler of Ohio and southeastern Indiana. Old Dearborn county could fill volumes ; you could not pull through the western part of Franklin county without rubbing up against all the superstition of the Teutons put into practice.
When the men of Wayne, Fayette and Union and all the counties in the southeast part of the state ventured out into the wilderness of Boone county, they carried not a little of the ideas of their parents and the old countries with them. We have heard our grandmother tell many a time about the hobgoblins and mermaids so common to the Scotch and Irish. These ideas followed the children's children to the third and fourth gener- ation. These ideas crept into the woods of Boone with the early settlers and the pioneer doctor, minister and teacher had to meet and overcome them. As a man thinketh, so is he, is a gospel truth. The trouble is not only to get minds to think but to get them to think along right lines. It took as much grubbing to get these old superstitions out of the minds of the old pioneers as it did to remove the stumps and underbrush from the land. The teacher had to overcome the hindrance of too much "larnin", the minister had to pull in the "ends of the earth" and round down its four corners and the farmers find other light than that reflected from the moon in her rounds and changes for his potatoes, fencemaking and roofing. All men concede
371
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
that the mind can affect the body and the food that is used for its sustenance. No one knows this truth better than the "medicine man." The pioneer doctor in Boone county came in contact with all these influences. They affected him and his work in various ways, often causing him amusement, but more often vexation and disgust. These ideas dealt with almost every phase of life, from the most trivial to the most serious. If one left the house and forgot some- thing for which he must return, he must set down before leaving again, or when leaving, pass out through a different door; rocking an empty chair was a serious offense, and was likely to cause death in the family; putting one corner of an ax bit down upon something and spinning it presaged bad luck; if in sweeping, two straws were dropped from the broom and by some means became crossed, a serious calamity was due to arrive in a year or less; in fact, one could scarcely do anything without its being an omen of some significance or other. Since these things entered so largely into the lives of our forefathers, and since, as far as I am aware, these things have not received treatment at the hands of the historian, I propose to discuss su- perstitions in general, and then give some attention to those having to do with our physician-friends in particular.
The derivation of the word superstition is somewhat enlightening as to its meaning. It comes from superstitio, which is itself a compound, being composed of super, above, or over, and stare, to stand; the word thus literally means to stand over, when we have excessive religious belief, possibly a stand- ing over a thing in amazement or awe. The word is loosely used to include all false faith or belief, its distinguishing characteristics being its irrational estimate of something imperfectly understood. We might also further say that the answer to the question of truth or falsity varies with time and place, hence it follows that the accepted belief of one time or people may be super- stition to another. Most of the popular superstitions of the present are sur- vivals of earlier science or religion. At a time when there existed no system of recorded observations of natural phenomena conclusions were of necessity drawn from external characteristics, and objects and events were supposed to exercise influences corresponding to the impression produced upon the sense or imagination. This manner of interpretation is responsible for a great mass of superstitions, especially those having to do with the treatment of disease. It is a characteristic of popular credulity that such notions, once prevalent, do not yield to contrary experience. If observation shows the
372
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
principle to be inaccurate, reasons are always at hand to explain the error ; hence the power of the ancestral habit, which we find arbitrary and which we call superstitious. With all pioneer peoples, such beliefs have an immense effect on action : the daily method of nutrition, attire, the hunt, agriculture, are determined by an infinity of regulations which are religiously handed down from generation to generation. In some cases it is possible to dis- cover the principle of expediency which gave birth to the requirement ; thus, the discovery of the ill effect marriages between near relatives and in breed- ing of stock, causes to be established a religious necessity, limiting the rela- tions of the sexes according to certain rules, sometimes very complicated and ingenious, of which our present customs and laws are but the survival. But in multitudes of other cases no good reason can be offered for demands and abstentions which originally depend on inferences which it is impossible to reconstruct.
A considerable number of superstitions are connected with the heavenly bodies. From very remote times the observation of the stars and their move- ments has been considered important, but it has been with the night especially, that ancient religious ceremonies are associated. The most distinctive differ- ence between the nights were found by alterations in the growth of the moon crescent ; according to universal processes of thought, it was supposed that the time when the moon increases and becomes dominant, the principle of growth must prevail, and on the other hand, that her wane must be a season of general decay. Hence, it has been everywhere inferred that all operations designed to promote increase ought to be performed at the time of the new moon. That then potatoes should be planted, hair cut, etc. But if it is de- sired to cause shrinking, the work must be done when the moon is at the full so say the maxims of traditional agriculture, and at this time should be cut, alders, spruce, and other undergrowth, because the roots will in this case wither without sprouting. Away back in Shakespearean time men were taught "The fault is in ourselves and not our stars that we are underlings."
Not less important in popular usage is the part played by the course of the sun. As he moves in a particular direction, so it has been thought that in order to produce beneficial results, mankind should proceed in a correspond- ing manner; in worship it was thought necessary to adopt a processional movement in the sunwise direction. Even in the ordinary movements of daily life this order was followed and traces of it survive to the present day.
373
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Thus, in order to make good bread or butter, it is essential that the motion should be in the same uniform direction, for reversal of the direction in which the kneading, stirring or churning is performed will undo the work accomplished, and make failure sure. From household maxims still pre- served, it appears that the hand must be moved in a sunwise circuit. As the route taken by the sun is holy, so the opposite path will be evil, and has been adopted in practices of witchcraft and magic, and in the old Roman worship, the gods below were adored with this reverse circuit. It was long ago dis- covered by Boone county housewives that it was not necessary to stir the cake the direction the vine twines around the pole to make it good. Some good cake makers keep the old rule to this day.
Among periods of human life, the terror which attaches to death has made it the center of a vast body of superstitious habits. A great number of actions and experiences are still popularly regarded as signs of approaching departure. The principle on which the phenomena are interpreted is that of association of ideas. Thus, ringing in the ears is a sure sign of death, be- cause the church has usually rung a "death-bell" over the departed; carrying a spade through the house has like significance, because a spade is used to dig graves; a blue flame in the candle is ominous, for the lowering of the light forecasts the decline of life; a flower blooming out of season fore- shadows a decease ; the unusually precocious child will never attain adulthood; and so on indefinitely. In like manner, the unusual also is a fruitful source of superstition; if every child was born with a caul (that is, a membrane encompassing the head) it is doubtful if this would have been taken as an especial sign of good luck.
A considerable number of superstitions relate to the times of the year, and revert to the practices of old religion. Thus, Hallowe'en is attended with observances which seem to have been dependent on its original character as a feast of the dead, when departed spirits were invited to partake in the fruits of the harvest; and were conceived as present at the sacrifice and merrymak- ing. On this night it is usual to perform divinations, now reduced to mere jests, in which an unmarried person is expected to discover his or her com- panion for life. These practices must be regarded as the remainder of serious necromancy, in which the returning spirits were asked to reveal the future.
While the majority of superstitions are remains of antiquity, their in- ventions have not altogether ceased in historical times. Of this we have ex-
374
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
amples in the prejudice against the number thirteen, and in objection to Fri- day as unlucky, since in Christian thought the day of the Crucifixion and the number involving the addition of Judas were of necessity regarded as ill- omened. The superstition of the evil eye, that is, the belief that certain per- sons have the power to injure by a look, is still widespread in Eastern coun- tries, where the belief yet lingers that the demoniac is divinely inspired. Na- ture worship lingers in such superstitions as those connected with the moon, the belief in its mysterious power to work good or ill, as seeing the new moon over the right shoulder being an omen of good luck, its influence on the weather, etc. The belief in ghosts reflects ancestor worship. The common notion about good luck brought by a horseshoe has been traced back to phalli- cism. Some of the most common of those things forming a basis for super- stitious divination are as follows: Appearances in the air; fowls picking up grains of wheat ; anagrams of person's names ; man's features; use of num- bers ; by dice ; by the heavenly bodies ; by winds ; the Bible ; by herbs ; by play- ing cards; by mirrors; by dropping melted wax into water; by writings of paper; by the hand; by certain lucky or unlucky words; by the entrails of animals ; by the navel of an infant ; by the finger nails ; and so on ad infinitum.
It should be said, before taking up the discussion of those having to do with healing, that there were a number of "schools" or methods of bringing about the same results, e. g., there were a number of methods of removing warts. One was by taking a part of the leaf fat surrounding, what might be called the eye of the left kidney of a hog, melting or rendering it by heating it just as hot as possible without scorching. This was to be applied to the base of the wart just where it came into contact with the healthy skin. Two applications were sufficient to remove any wart, but I am informed that you must, if treating one, go as if you intended to make the third application, when you will find the wart gone. Another method is to pick the wart until it bleeds a little, then take a grain of corn and rub it until some of the blood adheres to it, then throw it into the well. The wart will disappear as soon as the grain decays. Still another method is by making use of the three great- est names, viz. : God, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. To treat a wart by this method you should take your patient to the top of a hill at sunrise, and just as the edge of the sun appears above the horizon you must moisten the little finger of your left hand and rub around the wart three times and repeat :
375
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
"In the name of the three highest names, That of the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost, Just so sure as the blessed Mary Will ne'er again bring forth a child, Just that sure thou shalt disappear Never again to bother this soul."
The reader will probably notice that this is "blank verse" and a little irregular, but I am assured that it never fails to bring results, if nothing more than to see a sunrise. This latter method might be called the "Eclectic" method of conjuration, for it doesn't hesitate to borrow from the others as well as furnish some original methods of its own. The three greatest names, sunrise, sunset, the north, south Zenith, nadir, magic squares, anagrams, the livers of bats, teeth of bats, the abdominal segments of the wasp are some of the agents used to bring about charms.
Measuring is another very common treatment for disease, especially "flesh decay" or "undergrowth." The patient is usually laid down upon a board and the length of the body is accurately marked. The length is then "measured" by the thumbs of the "operator" in the same way that a distance might be "stepped off," except that the unit is the width of the thumbs. During the process certain formulae are repeated, which I will not give for fear of securing the enmity of the undertakers. It might be further said that it is astonishing how many people patronize this sort of thing.
Controlling bleeding of the nose or bleeding from cuts is another class of treatments receiving special attention at the hands of the conjurer. One way of stopping the flow is by placing the right hand on the back of the head in the occipital region, the left over the lambdoidal suture so that it extends from the base to the points of the fingers, then calling upon the three greatest names and declaring that the blood shall cease just so sure as that the blessed Mary shall never again become a mother. Another method is by reading or repeating Ezekiel 16:6. I have heard some wonderful stories of the stop- ping of blood by this method, the conjurer being in some cases some distance away. It reminds one of Christ's miracle of healing the nobleman's son.
It is possible by conjuration to control the sex, either in children or the lower animals. Also in case of litters, as of kittens, pups or pigs to control the number as well as the sex. These results are brought about through the
376
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
three greatest names, together with certain rigmaroles. All this must be per- formed at sunset, facing the west, and before the mid-period of gestation. To insure the baby's never having colic, give it a meat-rind as soon as possible after birth. In most cases this had better not be done in the presence of the attending physician. It is also recommended by most conjurers to take the newly-born babe up by the heels, as this will probably free it from many ills to which flesh is heir.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.