USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 47
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It has been stated elsewhere that in the year 1850 an effort was. made to organize a medical college under the charter of the State University, and that Dr. E. B. Wolcott was chosen president of the college and professor of surgery, and A. D. Smith, Esq., afterward chief justice of Wisconsin, was secretary and professor of medical jurispru- dence, but the organization was not then perfected. In 1868 the subject was again revived; a confer- ence was held with Hon. E. Salomon, at that time one of the regents of the State University, con- cerning the practicability of such a step, but, after considerable discussion, the subject was again
348
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
abandoned. In May, 1893, however, the Wiscon- sin College of Physicians and Surgeons was incor- porated, and a faculty selected. It is governed by a board of nine directors; the faculty consists of a corps of nineteen professors, eleven demon- strators, lecturers and instructors. The curriculum requires four years of study, and it is the aim of the institution to establish itself upon the basis of broad and thorough instruction. The college course is divided into semesters, and students can pass from one year to the next, only after regular examinations. Before admission to the college the applicant must present a diploma from some advanced educational institution, or pass an equiv- alent examination. Forty-two students matricu- lated at its first session. It is already a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
After the Wisconsin College of Physicians and Surgeons was established, a second medical insti- tution was incorporated, known as the "Milwau- kee Medical College." This school follows the old custom of giving three annual courses of lec- tures of four months each; making provision, how- ever; to graduate some students after attending two courses of lectures. It is also a college of dentistry.
The hospital accommodations of Milwaukee are abundant. The first step taken toward estab- lishing a permanent hospital was in 1848, when a small building was erected by Sisters of Charity to provide accommodation for cholera patients. It was located on the corner of Jackson and Oneida streets, and called St. John's Infirmary. Sister Felicita Dellone from St. Josephs, Emmitsburg, Maryland, commenced the good work, which was at first supported by charity. In January, 1857, the city donated three acres of land to the Sisters of Charity for the purpose of building and main- taining thereon a hospital, now known as St. Mary's. It is a well organized useful institution, largely supported by paying patients, but it has from time to time received appropriations from the state treasury.
In 1863 Dr. W. A. Passavant, a Lutheran cler- gyman then of this city, interested himself in or- ganizing a hospital. It was established in 1864 under the guardianship of the Institution of Pro- testant Deaconesses, and has had for its directors and patrons many of the best citizens of Milwau- kee. Any person may become a patron for life by donating one thousand dollars, or paying one
hundred dollars per annum for fifteen years. Churches may become patrons by paying seventy- five dollars per annum, and each patron is entitled to one free bed. The hospital is governed by a Board of Visitors, who are elected by the life patrons. It is a popular institution and its numer- ous beneficiaries attest its usefulness.
Under the administration of Health Commis- sioner Wight, and upon his recommendation, the city purchased eight acres of ground as a site for a city hospital, to be used exclusively for the care and treatment of cases of contagious diseases. It is located near the corner of Mitchell and Nine- teenth streets, and was ready for occupancy in 1878. It was repaired and improved during Dr. Wingate's administration, but neither the locality nor the building are satisfactory for the purposes of an isolation hospital for a city of this size.
St. Joseph's Hospital, under the care of the Sis- ters of St. Francis, was dedicated and opened for the reception of patients in 1883. For some time the building has been devoted to the care of per- sons suffering with diseases of the eye and ear, although any cases of sickness, non-contagious in character, are received. There are no " free beds," but many charity patients are cared for.
In 1888 the Elms Hospital was opened; it is de- voted exclusively to the treatment of surgical diseases of women. The same year the Emerg- ency Hospital was established. It was main- tained at first by voluntary contributions, but after a short time the city assumed its support, and in 1892 John Johnston, Esq., donated a piece of land on Sycamore street, for the use of an emergency hospital, providing the city erected a suitable building upon it within two years. This was done, and the institution is now known as the Johnston Emergency Hospital. It is governed by a Board of Trustees who are nominated by the mayor, the Commissioner of Health being ex- officio a member. It is a well-equipped hospital, provided with all necessary appliances; the staff is selected from among well-known physicians and surgeons, resident in the city, and as the name implies it is used only for cases of emergency.
The Wisconsin General Hospital was organized in 1891 through the instrumentality of Drs. F. E. Walbridge and Ralph Chandler. One feature of the hospital is that only trained nurses can be employed to care for the patients. The success of the institution has already demonstrated that
249
MEDICAL SOCIETIES AND MEDICAL EDUCATION.
it was needed. At present three beds are en- dowed. It is managed by a Board of Directors, who are elected by the stockholders, and it ranks among the very best hospitals in the city.
In 1893 the Presbyterian Hospital was estab- lished in the northwestern part of the city; it is owned by the Wisconsin College of Physicians and Surgeons, and is governed by the Board of Directors of the College.
In 1894 some ladies of Milwaukee, realizing the necessity for a children's hospital, founded an insti- tution for their care and treatment. At present it is supported by voluntary subscriptions, but the good work it has accomplished shows that it has its place and is needed. Quite recently arrangements have been made for opening the Keene Memorial Hospital, which has been incorporated under the auspices of the Episcopalian Church, and was pro- vided for by the bequest of the late Rev. David Keene.
The people of Milwaukee have by charity or otherwise made ample provision for the sick and suffering among them, and the hospitals, with one exception, are well supplied with the requisites demanded by modern sanitary science, being in these respects fully abreast of the time. It is unfortunate and somewhat discreditable that the most pitiable and in many cases, the most innocent sufferers are the least satisfactorily cared for. The victims of contagious diseases are rigidly excluded
from all general hospitals, and because of the uni- versal fear concerning them often lack proper care and treatment at home; and yet they are the only sick who have not been suitably provided for. There is neither space enough for the number of persons likely to require attention during an epidemic, nor are there separate buildings for the reception of those suffering from such diseases as small-pox, diphtheria, cholera, scarlet-fever, etc., and these diseases especially, demand treatment which can rarely be given except in a properly equipped hospital. The necessity for such build- ings has been repeatedly made known, but the people of Milwaukee have not yet realized the importance of this serious deficiency.
Besides the regularly established hospitals there are a number of asylums, houses of refuge, indus- trial schools for boys and girls, homes for the aged and the friendless ; for the wayward, for infants, for foundlings and for orphans; there are also several benevolent aid societies and associations largely maintained by the charity of citizens, and designed to care for the infirm, the destitute, the struggling, the fallen ; to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and bind up the wounds of the afflicted.
In establishing these, the physicians of the city have aided in many ways, and they have devoted much time and attention to their maintenance without fee or reward, except that reward to be found in the consciousness of well doing.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
GENERAL SANITATION AND THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT.
BY WALTER KEMPSTER, M. D., AND SOLON MARKS, M. D.
A T an early day the people of the territory made ample provision for the proper management of contagious diseases, for the inspection of food and other sanitary matters.
In the statutes of the territory of Wisconsin, which were enacted by the legislature at a session commencing in November, 1838, there may be found an "Act to provide for the preservation of the public health."" Among other things, pro- vision is made for the appointment of boards of health, who are authorized and directed to take such measures as they think effectual for the preservation of the public health. It authorized boards of health to stop and examine any persons believed or suspected of being carriers of con- tagion or infection ; and to detain any one, resi- dent or non-resident of the territory, until all danger is passed ; it also authorized them to detain boats, and required boats to anchor at such dis- tance from the shore as the Board of Health . might determine, if they were believed to be in- fected or carriers of contagion, and prevented the landing of passengers until they were free from infection. Boards of health were authorized to stop communication between infected towns, and for violation of any order made, the guilty person should be fined one hundred dollars or be im- prisoned for three months. The statute further provided that persons infected should be removed to places of safety ; and for the removal and de- struction of unsound or putrid articles found in any village. To accomplish this, boards of health were empowered to canse houses to be entered and examined, and to direct the owners and occupants to remove the offensive material ; to cleanse ont- houses, yards, etc., and for refusal or neglect to do so it provided for fines to be recovered in the name of the United States. It further provided for the appointment of inspectors whose duty it should be to examine flour of all kinds, meal, pork, beef, fish,
lard, domestic spirits, pot and pearl ashes. It di- rected how flour and meal should be packed, and if any articles named were found to be sour or un- wholesome, or not properly put up in casks or other containers, then the defaulting parties were to be subjected to penalties for any disregard of the law.
There are no known records, giving dates of initial efforts made to improve the sanitary con- dition of Milwaukee, but shortly after the arrival of Dr. William P. Proudfit, who came in 1836, he discovered that some children who were the wards of the town did not receive proper care and at- tention at the hands of their guardians, and promptly made complaint to Daniel Wells, Jr., then acting as superintendent of the poor, and the matters complained of were at once remedied .*
In the year 1843 small-pox invaded Milwaukee; there were a number of cases during the spring and summer, the disease spreading more rapidly with the approach of autumn. The village author- ities finally became alarmed, and appointed a Board of Health, consisting of three members, with Dr. Thomas J. Noyes as chairman. Dr. Noyes was not then in practice, having dropped his profession to engage in politics, and was at that time a justice of the peace, and also kept a small hotel. A "pest house" was rented, which then stood upon Oakland avenue, about midway be- tween Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay. It was not much of a hospital, being in fact a rough log house, but it was directed that all cases of small- pox should be removed there, and any physician failing to report cases to the Board of Health was subject to a fine. The institution was placed under the medical care of Drs. J. K. Bart- lett and Walker Bean, and Dr. J. B. Selby, Jr .- then a medical student-took up his residence there in the early autumn of 1843, having immediate oversight of the patients. The epidemic was very severe, there being at one time forty cases in the
* Statutes of the Territory of Wisconsin, printed in Albany, New York, 1839.
* Personal recollections of Daniel Wells, Jr.
250
1. 4. R. HaluA
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GENERAL SANITATION AND THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT.
small log " pest house." There were other cases in the city but the hospital could not accommo- date them; all persons afflicted were taken to the hospital without regard to residence so long as there was room for them." The disease reap- peared in worse form in 1846, and on June 29th an ordinance was passed by the Common Council providing for the appointment of five physicians, one for each ward, to look after and report upon all cases of small-pox ; they were instructed to recommend vaccination and kine-pock inoculation, and they were to report immediately to the coun- cil the appearance of any case of small-pox or malignant fever. Severe penalties were inflicted upon any one who caused the introduction of small-pox, cholera or other infectious diseases, and every effort was made by the Common Council to get rid of the pestilence. In August of the same year the council provided for the appointment of a Board of Health of five aldermen, the mayor to be a member ex-officio, and it was made their duty to inquire into the causes of the disease and pro- vide means for suppressing it. The council directed the establishment of strict rules and reg- ulations, and any transgressor of sanitary laws was fined five dollars and costs. In November the council appropriated the sum of one hundred dollars to commence the erection of a suitable hospital, and purchased forty acres of ground to be used for such purposes. The building was af- terward erected on the ground now occupied by the Industrial School. In March, 1847, the disease still existing, the Common Council passed another resolution making vaccination imperative ; appro- priated the sum of two hundred dollars for vac- cination and re-vaccination, and thirteen physicians were employed to make house to house visitations and vaccinate everybody, the council making provision for all those who were too poor to pay the charge of twenty-five cents for vaccination. The school commissioners passed resolutions to the effect that no child should be admitted to the public schools unless it had been previously vac- cinated, and these preventive measures were rig- idly enforced. This brought the epidemic speedily to an end.
Thus did the fathers build.
In 1848, cholera appeared in the United States. The physicians of the city discussed the subject in the medical association and made recommenda-
tions to the people urging cleanliness, the opening of drains and gutters to provide escape for stag. nant water, etc., but not much was done in this direction. In 1849, the dreaded pestilence marched toward the city and then extraordinary efforts were made to carry out previous recommendations. The City Council ordered a general "clean up;" pools were drained, gutters opened, accumulated filth of all kinds removed in an attempt to avert the dreaded invasion, but in vain. The first vic- tim of cholera was stricken early in July and the pestilence spread rapidly. Within a few days there were six deaths from cholera and then came a panic. The Common Council passed an ordinance requiring every physician to report immediately every case of cholera, and failing to comply he was fined fifty dollars, or sent to jail for thirty days. All persons were prevented from landing in the city from the passenger boats until after they had been submitted to a rigid examination. By the middle of August the disease was at its height; there were six or seven deaths a day from cholera in a population of less than nine thousand, and on the 31st of August the Board of Health reported that of two hundred and nine known cases, one hundred and four proved fatal. Some of the sick were taken to an infirmary which had been established by the "Sisters of Charity," which was located on the southeast corner of Jackson and Oneida streets. During the continu- ance of the epidemic the city schools were closed by order of the mayor, and remained closed until the end of August, at which time the disease dis- appeared.
This was the year which brought the first great influx of foreign immigration to Milwaukee ; and hundreds of Germans made their way here, fleeing from the punishment which was meted out to German subjects who had rebelled against their government. In 1850 the Common Council appointed another Board of Health and conferred upon it power to employ physicians, abate nuisances, and take all necessary measures to pre- vent a recurrence of the cholera epidemic ; these precautions were unsuccessful, however, the pesti- lence being more widespread and disastrous than before. The first case occurred on Broadway, July 4th, and the disease spread with terrible ra- pidity and was especially malignant. People left their homes in the morning feeling well, and four or five hours later were dead of the disease. Some
* Personal recollections of Dr. J. B. Selby, Jr.
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
were stricken on the streets, laid or fell down, and in several instances died before they could be removed. The disease assumed its most terrible aspect during August and September, when it was difficult to provide for the living or properly bury the dead. At one time there were eighteen bodies awaiting burial at the Catholic cemetery ; and in one house seven dead bodies were found. The whole epidemic formed a chapter of horrors."
At this time there was no organized health de- partment, therefore no accurate statistics were kept; but it was known that three hundred people died of cholera, and there is no pretense that this number was accurate, the belief among those who are now living and who were here at the time, being that the number of deaths was much larger. During the epidemic Drs. Louis Mc- Knight, C. C. Robinson and J. B. Selby, Jr., all now living, took an active part, and it is their testimony that the physicians then here remained continuously at their posts of duty, bravely fight- ing the scourge until it ceased. It was most severe and fatal upon the South side. To add to the horrors of the situation, "ship fever" was brought here by immigrants the same season, seven persons having died of the disease on board the
boat between Buffalo and this port, and within two days of their arrival thirty others died; but energetic measures were used, and the disease did not spread seriously, although other cases were reported. In 1852 and 1853 there were a few cases of cholera, but in 1854 it was again very severe. During all this time the aldermen acted as a Board of Health, and a physician was ap- pointed as sanitary officer for each ward ; but there was no special legislation of any kind until April, 1867, when an act was passed by the state legis- lature providing for the creation of a Board of Health. In accordance with its provisions the mayor appointed Dr. C. H. Orton, Dr. James Johnson, D. A. Olin, August Greulich and Her- man Haertel as such board, and at their first meeting they elected Dr. James Johnson presi- dent. From that time dates the systematic work in the formation of a department of health.
In 1868 the city was visited by another epi- demic of small-pox. Since 1848 large numbers of immigrants had taken up their abode here,
and there had been some laxity in the enforce-
ment of vaccination. £ November the 20th of this year the public schools were closed in the Second, Sixth and Ninth wards, and remained closed during the active period of the epidemic. In the report of the Health Commissioner dated April 7, 1869, Dr. Johnson says that the number of cases of small-pox reported to the department for the preceding year was five hundred and one, but that in his opinion not more than two-thirds of the whole number occurring were made public, and he requested the Common Council to pass an ordinance making the report of cases compulsory, with penalties for non-compliance with its pro- visions. He further states, in the same report, that of the five hundred and one cases, four hun- dred and nineteen occurred among the German population.
In 1871 small-pox reappeared, and the annual report of the Board of Health (page 7 et seq.) shows the thoroughness of the methods of investigation, and the following comments possess historic inter- est: "A very noticeable feature of the epidemic is its prevalence among our fellow-citizens of German descent. Of the seven hundred and seventy-four cases reported, five hundred and sixty-eight were Germans. This is two hundred and six more than occurred among all other nationalities, American, Irish, Norwegians, etc., put together. But the German people constitute less than one-third of the whole population. Therefore, if the people of other nationalities were equally exposed to attack, the Germans should have had only two hun- dred and fifty-eight cases instead of five hundred and sixty-eight. A comparison between the Ger- mans and Americans gives the most striking re- sults. The cases among the latter number only sixty-three, while the German cases were nine times as numerous. In population the Americans exceed the Germans by about fifteen thousand. The Americans ought, therefore, to have had more than six hundred cases instead of sixty-three, unless for some reason the Germans were more in danger than the Americans. But suppose the Germans and their children constitute two-thirds of the whole population of the city, say forty- eight thousand, while the Americans and their children form only one-half of the other third, viz., twelve thousand; then the German cases should be only one hundred and twenty-six, or twice as many as the Americans, while in fact
* Personal recollections related by Dr. J. B. Selby, Jr., Dr. C. C. Robinson, Dr. L. McKnight and Peter Van Vechten, Esq.
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GENERAL SANITATION AND THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT.
they are five hundred and sixty-eight, nearly five times as many.
" What then is the reason why this death angel carried desolation into so many homes among the Germans, while he passed over the homes of the Americans, Irish and others, leaving them un- touched by the sword ? We answer, because the former almost invariably refused vaccination, while the latter almost universally practiced it. This fact demonstrates the protecting power of vaccination and proves the blindness and fatuity of those who neglected it." Further on the report says: "It is an obvious reflection that those physicians and the conductors of newspapers who have de- nounced vaccination as useless if not dangerous, and have exerted their influence to dissuade the people from using it, have taken on themselves a fearful responsibility. The grave has closed over many of the dupes of their insane counsels ; but they cannot escape the reproaches of surviving victims who will carry for life, marks branded on them by these pretended friends and trusted ad- visors."
In 1872 the disease continued and there were six hundred and sixteen cases of small-pox re- ported, and of this number, four hundred and sixty-nine were Germans. The sixth annual re- port of the Commissioner of Health for the year ending April 1, 1873, shows an interesting table. On page thirty-eight, et seq., it is stated that there were six hundred and sixteen cases of small-pox during the year, and the different nationalities attacked with the disease is found to be as follows: Germans (cases occuring among Germans and
their children during the year),
469
Americans and their children during the year, 41
Irish
38
Poles
6.
..
66 66 21
Bohemians
.6
66
15
Norwegians "
66
66
6
Scotch
66
6.
66
66 12
English
¥
66
66
.. 3
Swiss
46
2
Welsh
66
66
66
6.
1
Canadians 66
1
Hollanders 66
60
66
66
3
Total, 616
The next year the report mentions one hundred and fourteen deaths from small-pox, but fails to
state the total number of cases; and there were a few more in 1874. During this epidemic many patients were cared for in the Passavant Hospital, but there was not room enough for all. Dr. Johnson, with a clear insight as to the needs of the city, made repeated requests for an appropri- ation to build a city hospital for contagious dis- eases. During the whole time there was deter- mined opposition to vaccination among the German settlers, and their careless indifference to the disease spread the epidemic and increased the death rate. The doctor's persistent efforts to compel the vaccination of all persons finally pre- vailed, and the disease was checked for the time.
In this and other reports, he refers to the dangers to the health of the city from the condition of the Milwaukee river, which he speaks of as "a huge cesspool " and recommends measures to abate the nuisance.
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