USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume I > Part 51
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which minutes and records shall be open at all times 10 the inspection of each member of said board, and of any district attorney of any county within this Commonwealth.
Section II. All public officers, agents and servants, and all officers, agents and servants of any and every county, city, township, borough, district and other municipality, and of any and every almshouse, prison, morgue, hospital, or other public institution having charge or control over dead human bodies, required to be buried at the public expense, are hereby required to notify the said board of distribu- tion or such person or persons as may, from time to time, be designated by said board or its duly authorized officer or agent, whenever any such body or bodies come to his or their possession, charge or control, and shall, without fee or reward, deliver such body or bodies, and permit and suffer the said board and its agents, and the physicians and surgeons from time to time designated by them, who may comply with the provisions of this act, to take and remove all such bodies to be used within this State for the advancement of medical science, but no such notice need be given nor shall any such body be delivered if any person claiming to be and satisfying the authorities in charge of said body that he or she is of kindred or is related by marriage to the deceased, shall claim the said body for burial, but it shall be surrendered for interment, nor shall the notice be given or body delivered if such deceased person was a traveler who died suddenly, in which case the said body shall be buried.
Section III. The said board or their duly author- ized agent may take and receive such bodies so delivered as aforesaid, and shall, upon receiving them, distribute and deliver them to and among the schools, colleges, physicians and surgeons aforesaid, in manner following : Those bodies needed for lec- tures and demonstrations by the said schools and colleges incorporated and unincorporated shall first be supplied, the remaining bodies shall then be dis- tributed proportionately and equitably, preference being given to said schools and colleges, the number assigned to cach to be based upon the number of students in each dissecting or operative surgery class, which number shall be reported to the board at such times as it may direct. Instead of receiving and delivering said bodies themselves, or through their agents or servants, the board of distribution may, from time to time, either directly or by their author- ized officer or agent, designate physicians and sur- geons who shall receive them, and the number which each shall receive: Provided always, however, That schools and colleges incorporated and unincorpo- rated, and physicians or surgeons, of the county where the death of the person or such person de- scribed takes place, shall be preferred to all others : And provided also, That for this purpose such dead body shall be held subject to their order in the county where the death oceurs for a period not less than twenty-four hours.
Section 1V. The said board may employ a car- rier or carriers for the conveyance of said bodies, which shall be well enclosed within a suitable encase- ment, and carefully deposited free from public ob- servation. Said carrier shall obtain receipts by name, or if the person be unknown by a description of each body delivered by him, and shall deposit said receipt with the secretary of the said board.
Section V. No school, college, physician or sur- geon shall be allowed or permitted to receive any such body or bodies until a bond shall have been
given to the Commonwealth by such physician or surgeon, or by or in behalf of such school or college, to be approved by the prothonotary of the court of Common Pleas in and for the county in which such physician or surgeon shall reside, or in which such school or college may be situate, and to be filed in the office of said prothonotary, which bond shall be in the penal sum of one thousand dollars, conditioned that all such bodies which the said physician or sur- geon, or the said school or college, shall receive thereafter shall be used only for the promotion of medical science within this State, and whosoever shall sell or buy such body or bodies, or in any way traffic in the same, or shall transmit or convey or cause to procure to be transmitted or conveyed said body or bodies, to any place outside of this State, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars, or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year.
Section VI. Neither the Commonwealth nor any county or municipality, nor any officer, agent or serv- ant thereof, shall be at any expense by reason of the delivery or distribution of any such body, but all the expenses thereof and of said board of distribution shall be paid by those receiving the bodies, in such manner as may be specified by said board of distri- bution, or otherwise agreed upon.
Section VII. That any person having duties enjoined upon him by the provisions of this act who shall neglect, refuse or omit to perform the same as hereby required, shall on conviction thereof, be liable to a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars for each offense.
Section VIII. That all acts or parts of acts incon- sistent with this act be and the same are hereby repealed.
Approved-The 13th day of June, A. D. 1883. ROBT. E. PATTISON, Governor.
In debate in the Senate, the above law was ably opposed by Senators Laird, Lee and Stewart, and its passage was advocated by Senators Reyburn, Grady, Patton and Mc- Knight.
In closing this narrative I quote my extem- poraneous remarks in the Senate in support of the passage of the law and in reply to the set speeches of Senators Laird, Lee, Ross, Herr and Stewart.
"Mr. President, this is a very important measure and one in which every person in the State is interested. It has been said here by able senators that humanity would object to the passage of this bill. I take the opposite view : 1 believe it is in the interest of humanity that this bill should pass. Who will be ben- efited by the enactment of this law? The laboring man, the merchant, and the farmer, and other men of that class who are not able to travel to the great cities and receive med- ical attendance. Who are the men that get injured in the mines? Who are the men that break their legs in the pineries and lumber camps? The poor laborers. Who are the men
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whose urgent necessities require anatomical knowledge and surgical skill? As a rule, the laboring men of the Commonwealth of Penn- sylvania. I have practiced medicine for twenty-five years, and I have never yet been fortunate enough to set a rich man's frac- tured leg. It has always been some man that has been unable to pay a high price for the services that were rendered to him. Now, Mr. President, I do not want to see this measure killed, for it is in the interest of poor men, and although it may appear inhuman to give the bodies of dead people to the doctors for dissection, yet I make the claim here that it is in the interest of humanity for the doctors to dissect these dead bodies.
"The senators from Westmoreland (Mr. Laird) and from York (Mr. Ross) have poetically, sympathetically and oratorically suggested that it is very disgusting to the dead to be dissected. Mr. President, I want to say to you it is very disgusting for the living to dissect the dead, and the living are only prompted to make these dissections of the dead by the humane desire to benefit, not the dead, but the living. That is the practical idea. It is not only disgusting to the living to make these dissections, but it is dangerous. It is both revolting and dangerous in the ex- treme. The dead are not injured, but the . Allegheny or Jefferson counties, locate at the lives of those who do the dissecting are put crossroads or in the village, and perform the operations that are so much needed there for the relief of suffering humanity and the suf- fering poor. in jeopardy thereby. Why do doctors dissect these dead bodies? Only that they may be humane, not to the dead, but humane to the living.
"If a young or an old man in Westmore- land county should have an ax or a chisel in his hand and accidentally sever an artery in his body, I would like to know, who in West- moreland county could take up that artery and save that life, unless he had been in Phil- adelphia or New York and had gone through an anatomical training ?
"Where would the humanity exist then, especially that kind of which so much is said in regard to the dead. Humanity, I think, should first be shown to the living, and the Great Physician whom Senators quote on this floor as having had a regard for humanity, said : 'Let the dead bury their dead.' He took the same practical view that humanity should be practiced for the living. We take a harsh view as medical men in regard to the dissec- tion of dead bodies. We consider subjects just as clay. I know this is repugnant to the common idea of mankind, but it is the true idea. It is the idea that will enable a medical man to be of sound, practical good profes-
sionally in the world. For the crushed, relief in life is the great object, not relief after death. We have nothing to do with that. Beautiful poetry and nice homilies can be de- livered here by senators about death, but it is the living that we want to be humane to and not the dead, and if it requires the dissec- tion of ninety-nine dead persons to relieve one living sufferer I would dissect the ninety-nine dead persons and relieve the one living per- son. Other senators here would have us do just the reverse of that. I repeat, Mr. Pres- ident, this measure is in the interest of the laboring man; it is in the interest of the mechanic; it is in the interest of science; it is in the interest of the poor the world over; it is in the interest of the man who gets torn and lacerated in our mines and workshops and who is too poor to travel to Philadelphia for surgical aid. Enact this law and the young man can go from Allegheny, from Jefferson and from Armstrong counties to Philadelphia and he can legally take the human body, which is the A B C of all medical knowledge, and he can dissect it there, and learn by that means just where each artery is, and where each vein is, and where the different muscles lie and the different relations they sustain to one an- other, and then he is qualified to return to
"You all know that the surgeons of Phil- adelphia are famous not only in Philadelphia, but throughout the world. And why? It is because they have studied the anatomy of the human body so thoroughly and so perfectly. We must have anatomical dissections. No inan learns anatomy in any other way in the world than through anatomical dissections -- pictures, models and manikins won't do. Man- ikins were first made and sold in Paris, A. D. 1830. A five-foot, six-inch one cost six hun- dred dollars. He must not only dissect one body, but he must dissect a large number of bodies. He cannot dissect too many, neither can he dissect too often, therefore humanity requires that this dissection be legalized and go 011.
"Of course we must have some regard for the sentiment of the living, and to respect that we, in this bill, only ask that the unclaimed bodies of paupers be given to the medical col- leges-not the bodies of those having friends. No body can be taken if anyone objects. Even so far as regards the bodies of those having
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friends it is a mere matter of sentiment. What difference does it make, Mr. President, after you are dead, whether you are dissected or whether you evaporate into water and clay under the ground. It matters not. It is only a matter of sentiment at best. But in order not to wound that sentiment, as far as the living are concerned in this bill, we only ask the 1In- claimed bodies. If your body can serve any humane purpose after it is dead. wisdom would say to you that it should serve that purpose. If you serve the world when you are living in it in the interest of humanity, you do a good work: if you serve it after you are dead in bequeathing your body to the inter- est of humanity you also do a good work.
"Now, Mr. President. I hope for the pride and for the interest of the Commonwealth, and for each individual interest, that this measure will be passed. As the senator from York ( Mr. Ross) said, how do you know, Mr. Pres- ident, but what some accident will befall you on your road home, and if you do not have surgeons at home who understand their bus- iness, how are you to get relief while you are living? How. I ask you?
"Take away these privileges here asked for. take away these anatomical books by which men can learn surgery, and how will young men qualify themselves to relieve you while you are living? It is the living we must leg- islate for, it is not the dead ; we have nothing to do with those, they are beyond our palc. and, Mr. President, I do hope that we will not kill this bill, but that we will enact such a law as will enable Pennsylvania to hold her position in the future as she has in the past as being the great medical center of this coun- try. Duty to ourselves, duty to the future requires that we do this. Every duty, every high incentive that should prompt men in the right, prompts us in this direction."
Hon. John J. Pearson, the Dauphin county judge who for twenty years had obligated the senators, was sitting by the open wood fire in the Senate all through the debate on this anatomical law, and although he had never spoken to me before, after my remarks on the anatomy act he came over to my seat. took me by the hand and exclaimed: "Dr. McKnight, 1 was violently and bitterly opposed to this law. but since I have heard your re- marks I am just as violently in favor of it."
On the roll being called for the law the vote was, in the Senate :
Yeas-Adams. Arnholt, Biddis. Cooper. Coxe. Davies. Grady. Hall. Iless, Ilumes. Keefer, Lantz, Longenecker, MeCracken, Mac-
Farlane, McKnight, Patton, Reyburn, Shearer, Sill, Smith. Sutton, Vandegrift, Upperman. Wagner, Wallace, Watres and Wolverton-28.
Nays-Agnew, Herr, Laird, Lee, Ross, Stehman and Stewart-7. Stewart is Supreme judge now.
The vote in the House, June 2. 1883, was as follows :
Yeas-Messrs. A. B. Abbett, Adams, Ayers, Barnes, Bierer. Bigler. Boyer, Boyle, Bream, Brennan, Brooks, W. C. Brown, J. L. Brown, Brosius, Bryson, Burnit, Bullitt, Burt. Butter- more. Clark. Colburn, Colborn, Connell. Cool- baugh, Crawford, E. L. Davis, Dearden, Deck. Deegan, Deveney. Dietrick, Donahue, Donly. Eberly. Ellsworth, Emery, Emsley, Engleman, Erdman, Euston, Evans, Fortner, Fulmer, Furth, Gahan, Gardiner, Gates. Glenn, Gra- ham, J. L .. Grier, Green, George W. Hall, Franklin, Harris, Harrar, Hasson, A. W. Hayes, M. N. Hothersall, Himes, Higgins, Himmelreich, Horne. Hulings, Hughes, Hum- mell, Hunter, Kavanagh, Lafferty, Lantz, Lin- derman, Meyer, Merrey. Mitchell, G. B. Mor- gan. George Morrison, John W. Morrison, Ellis Morrison, Levi Myton, McClaran, Mc- Crum. McDonald, Henry McNamara, Mac- Reynolds, Mc Williams, Neely. Nelson, Nes- bit. Nicholson, Niles, Ormsby. Parcels, Park- hill, Parkenson, Robertson, Riland, Saybolt. Schlicher, Schwartz, Seidel, Shafer, Sharpe. Siegar, Smith, Joseph Snodgrass, Snyder, J. M. Sponagle. Stees, Stewart, Sweeney, Tay- lor. Tubbs, Vanderslice, Vankirk, Vaughan. Voegtly. Vodges. Walker. Wayne, Upton. H. White, A. H. Weihe, Ziegler and Faunce. Speaker-123.
Nays-Messrs. Beer. Blackford. Collins, Davis, I. H. Fry. Gallagher, Gentner, Geyer. Jamison, Landis, Lowry. Martin, McDonald. Joseph Pomeroy, Romig. Shortt, Slocum. Smith, Joseph Snyder. E. G. Sponsler, Ster- rett and Wonsidler-22. (Legislative Record. page 336Q. )
We have. now, in 1915, legalized dissection of the human body in nearly every State of' the Union, and. as a result, every crossroads doctor can perform any operation in surgery. The skill of the physician in the future shall lift up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall stand in admiration.
OTHER MEDICAL LEGISLATION
No laws were enacted by the Legislature of Pennsylvania relating to and controlling the practice of medicine in the State prior to the
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act of March 24, 1877, which was supple- mented by that of June 8, 1881, which re- quired registration of all practitioners. The failure to register was a misdemeanor, and on conviction punishable for each and every of- fense by a fine of one hundred dollars, one- half to be paid to the prosecutor and the other half to be paid to the county, or imprisonment in the county jail of the proper county for a term not exceeding one year, or both or either, at the discretion of the court.
The enforcement of the law of 1881 in Jef- ferson county, with one or two exceptions, has never been attempted. Physicians legally entitled to practice medicine have, it is believed, all registered. so, also, have many who are clearly attempting to practice in violation of the provisions of the acts of March 24, 1877, and June 8. 1881.
There are too many doctors now. there being one to every six hundred inhabitants in the United States. Buit progress has over- come ignorance, prejudice, superstition and authority. Now the doctors give castor oil is sweet as honey; extracts, alkaloids and resinoids mixed with syrup or triturated with sugar; nourish the sick with air, milk and water ; open the doors and windows wide, and let the blessed sunshine in; ride in automo- biles and have electric flashlights.
Truthfully, since 1883. I can say medicine has been enfranchised from superstition, char- latanism, empiricism and speculation.
Just think ! One hundred years ago cliloro- form and ether were unknown, no tablets or antitoxin given, human dissection a crime ; and there was no antiseptic surgery, no phys- ical diagnosis, no stethoscope, laryngoscope or chemical thermometer. no hypodermic syringe, no distinction between the typhus and typhoid fever, between the scarlet fever and diphtheria. no diagnosis of ordinary kidney trouble; co- caine and digitalis were unknown : physiology was not understood; 10 corpuscles were in- speeted; no microscopic examinations were made : there was no radium; ovariotomy was not practiced save as a crime ; abdominal sur- gery was not permitted ; the nature of bacteria and germs was unknown, and there was no substitution of animal organs or blood vessels. or grafting of nerves or limbs, and no trained ntirses. There was no specific for diphtheria as now.
It would take pages and pages to recapitu- late the discoveries in the last one hundred years in the science, or even to mention the brilliant progress in remedial, preventive and operative art in medicine.
Ether as an anesthetic was first made use of in Boston in October, 1846, by Dr. Morton, a dentist, and the first use of it in Jefferson county was made in Brookville in 1855, for an amputation, by Dr. Heichhold. The use of ether, in my opinion, was the greatest contribu- tion to practical medicine the world has ever received. Ere Morton's discovery of anes- thesia, pain was inevitable and inexorable. If a bone was broken, pain made the muscles rebellious and confused the surgeon's diag- nosis. If a rupture was strangulated, pain made the structure unyielding. Pain resisted taxis, opium, the hot bath and tobacco. In short, pain shocked the patient and frequently caused his death. Relief was given to the world by an American. Pain was a matter of hours. Now, with heat, ice, American anes- thesia and American hypodermics and sanita- tion, the doctor but speaks and there is instant relief.
Just think, the first subcutaneous injection of morphia for pain was in Massachusetts in 1860, and Dr. McKnight was the first to use the hypodermic syringe in Jefferson county, in Brookville, in 1866.
Thanks to Morton of Boston, Koch of Ger- many, Lister of England, Pasteur of France, and our own State anatomical law, the ordi- nary sturgeon can now perform any operation tipon patients with success and freedom from pain.
In 1850 doctors purged, sweated, vomited, bled, blistered, starved the sick, refused them water, shut the doors and windows tight, darkened the room and gave "sheep saffron" tea.
THE MODERN DOCTOR'S STORY
Mrs. Rogers lay in her bed, Bandaged and blistered from foot to head, Bandaged and blistered from head to toe,
Mrs. Rogers was very low.
Bottle and saucer, spoon and cup,
On the table stood bravely up ;
Physic of high and low degree ; Calomel, catnip, boneset tea ; Everything a body could bear; Excepting light and water and air.
I opened the blinds : the day was bright, And God gave Mrs. Rogers some light. I opened the window; the day was fair. And God gave Mrs. Rogers some air. Bottles and blisters, powders and pills, Catnip, boneset, syrup and squills ; Drugs and medicines, high and low. I threw them as far as I could throw. "What are you doing?" my patient eried. "Frightening Death," I coolly replied. "You are crazy," a visitor said. I flung a bottle at her head.
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Deacon Rogers he came to me ;
"Wife is a comin' round," said he, "I re'lly think she will worry through ;
She scolds me just as she used to do.
All the people have poohed and slurred- All the neighbors have had their word ; "Iwas better to perish, some of 'm say,
Than be cured in such an irregular way."
"Your wife," said I, "had God's good care. And His remedies-light and water and air. All the doctors, beyond a doubt,
Couldn't have cured Mrs. Rogers without."
The deacon smiled and bowed his head ; "Then your bill is nothing," he said, "God's be the glory, as you say ; God bless you, doctor, good day, good day !"
If ever I doctor Mrs. Rogers again, I'll give her medicines made by men.
Vaccination against smallpox was first intro- duced into the American army at Morristown, N. J., in the spring of 1777, by order of Washington.
The pioneer major surgical operation in Jefferson county was that of Moses Knapp, who moved to what is now called Baxter in the spring of 1821, and while cutting timber got a foot and leg crushed so that his limb had to be amputated above the knee. Dr. Newton and Dr. John M. Rankin, the latter of Licking, or what is now Sligo, performed the operation in the summer of 1821, using buckskin ligatures, a hunting knife and a com- mon handsaw.
The pioneer major surgical operation in Brookville was performed by Dr. G. C. M. Prime in the spring of 1832. Dr. Prime was a man of skill. Hle amputated the arm of Henry ( Hance) Vasbinder. Inflammation and gangrene in the arm, caused by a bite on his thumb while fighting, made this amputation necessary. Dr. Prime left Brookville in 1835.
About 1850 the first paracentesis thoracis was performed, and the operation was success- fully performed in these woods in 1858 by Dr. McKnight. The same year he also made use of the first rubber rectal syringe to be used in the county; the price of that syringe was six dollars and fifty cents.
1806 was the date of the first hip joint oper- ation in the United States. The first in Jef- ferson county was performed at Brookville in 1866 by Drs. Sweeney, MeKnight and Hunt. The patient died from secondary causes, hours after the operation.
The pioneer hypodermic injection of mor- phine in the county was given in Brookville by Dr. McKnight in 1866.
The pioneer use of ether in the county in
an amputation was made in Brookville in 1855 by Dr. . \. P. Heichhold.
On Friday, February 3, 1873, Dr. McKnight delivered a Siamese monstrosity in Warsaw township. This had to be done quickly, as the mother had apoplectic convulsions which killed the children. They weighed fourteen pounds. The mother made a complete re- covery.
Dr. McKnight performed the pioneer major surgical operation in Reynoldsville in Novem- ber, 1873. The pioneer major surgical opera- tion in Punxsutawney was done in 18 -. The pioneer surgical operation in Winslow town- ship was performed by Dr. R. S. Hunt. The pioneer major surgical operation in Snyder township was that of John McMinn, by Drs. Heichhold and MeKnight. Dr. McKnight per- formed the pioneer operation in the county for cataract in Brookville in 1870. The oper- ation was a complete success.
The pioneer operation of herniotomy, with a resection (six inches) of the bowel, was done in Washington township in February, 1890, by Dr. S. M. Free.
The first hysterotomy or Caesarian section in the county was performed in a suburb of Brookville. July 25, 1908, by Drs. Lawson, Brown and others, and was a complete suc- cess.
In conclusion, legalized human dissection and the discovery of anesthesia and of anti- septies have led the way for and made this marvelous, this wonderful progress possible.
It is a surprising fact that in Louisiana there are at present (1915) over three hundred lepers, and in Minnesota, Wisconsin. Iowa and Texas there are almost as many. Louisiana has established a leprosarium on the banks of the Mississippi river not far from Baton Rouge. Besides this institution there is one in Massachusetts supported by the State, and one in San Francisco county, Cal., provided by the county.
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