Cass County, Indiana - Chapter 38: Medicine and Doctors, 1913

First Hospital - First College - First Doctors - ^First Ovariotomy - ^Medical Societies - Medical Trial - Medical Banquet - First Doctor in Logansport - Trials op Pioneer Doctors - Crude Drugs - Instruments - The Contrast - Domestic Remedies - Indian Practice - ^Black Powder - Specialties - Medical Education - Medical Laws - List of Deceased and Transient Doctors - List op Living Physicians op Logansport.

Prior to the time of Hypocrates, who is regarded as the father of medicine, the healing of the sick, or the art of medicine, was united in the priesthood, combining religion* and medicine with a large intermixture of superstition.

Hypocrates, who lived four hundred and sixty years B. C, placed medicine on a scientific basis, and his writings were standards to guide the profession for centuries. Galen in A. D. 130, Andrew Vesalius in 1514, William Harvey in 1628, each were epochal writers in medicine. Edward Jenner in 1690 discoverer of vaccination against smallpox, Dr. Morton of Boston, in 1846, discoverer of anaesthetic properties of sulphuric ether, all these and many others have made great discoveries and advanced medical and surgical science. The past third of a century, however, has witnessed still greater discoveries until the profession has traced the causes of the majority of diseases to definite germs or bacteria, with their method of growth and propagation, and how to check and prevent their entrance into the human system, until preventative medicine has become one of the chief functions of the physician so that many diseases in the past history of Cass county have been practically eradicated. Drying the swamps has eliminated the mosquito' and malaria, the bane of the pioneer has been practically eliminated. Pure food and sterilized drinks, kept so by screened doors and windows, to keep out flies, the great carrier and spreader of diseased germs, has reduced diarrheal and summer complaints to a minimum, so that today we seldom hear of the *' Wabash Shakes," ** cholera infantum" or "cholera morbus" so prevalent among the pioneers of Cass county threequarters of a century ago.

First hospital in Logansport, St. Joseph's Hospital was first opened in a frame building on the south side, October 4, 1893, which continued its acts of mercy until the present three-story brick building was erected on salubrious grounds, between 26th and 28th streets, south of High street. This is a magnificent, up-to-date hospital with sixty-five private rooms and a capacity of ninety beds. Approximate cost of buildings and grounds was $125,000. Mrs. Frank Brooks was the first patient admitted on opening the hospital, July 14, 1909. St. Joseph's hospital is owned and controlled by the Sisters of St. Francis. They are incorporated under the name of ** Perpetual Adoration'* in Europe and America and in all the states in which they operate.

First medical college in the United States was established by Drs. John Morgan and William Shippen, in Philadelphia, in 1766, and the first graduate was Dr. John Archer, June 21, 1768.

First medical college in Indiana was the Laporte Medical College, at Laporte, Indiana, established in 1842. Dr. Daniel Meeker was its chief promoter. In 1848, the name was changed to Indiana Medical College, and lectures held at Lafayette. In 1850, it was merged into the Central Medical College at Indianapolis.

The first doctors in the United States were Dr. Thomas Wootten, at Jamestown, Virginia, 1607 ; Dr. Walter Russell, the following year, and Dr. Lawrence Bohun, in 1610, the latter remaining permanently.

The first doctor in Indiana was Elijah Tisdale, who located at Vincennes, in 1792. He was a surgeoii in the United States army and held a commission signed by George Washington, dated March 4, 1791. He died at Vincennes.

The first ovariotomy, as is well known, was performed by Dr. Ephraim McDowell, at Danville, Kentucky, on the person of Jane Crawford, in 1809. We are informed that she has visited her son, Samuel Crawford, who lived in Harrison township, then on the north side, at the foot of Michigan avenue, north bank of Eel river, where he, the son, Samuel Crawford, died about 1841, leaving a widow, Mrs. Jane Crawford, and three children: Robert Crawford, Sarah and Minnie, the latter becoming the Mrq. Brown and Mrs. Griffitii, respectively, and all of whom resided in Logansport until their death several years ago, being grandchildren of the heroine, Jane Crawford, whose name has been known to the medical profession in every civilized country in the world. She died March 30, 1842, in Sullivan county, Indiana, and her remains rest in Johnson cemetery, that county, and a photograph of her grave as it appeared in 1912, is on file in the Cass County Historical Society.

The first doctor in Indianapolis to engage in practice was Dr. Samuel G. Mitchell, in April, 1821. At that time Indianapolis was composed of only a few log cabins, the capitol site having first been located here the year previous.

Probably the first medical society in Indiana was organized at Vincennes, in 1817, and reorganized under a charter from the state in 1835. Dr. W. H. Kemper, in his History of Medicine, states that there was a state medical society organized at Corydon, Indiana, April 10, 1820, and after 1826, met at Indianapolis, but if so this society did not keep up a continuous organization. The Indiana State Medical Society as now constituted was organized June 6, 1849, in Wesley Hall,' Indianapolis, with the following officers: President, Dr. W. T. S. Comett, of Madison; secretary, Dr. John S. Bobbs, Indianapolis; treasurer, Dr. John Tj. Mothershead.

The society adopted a constitution and soon after was incorporated under the laws of the state and is of record in the clerk's office. The objects of the society are set forth in Article 2, of the Constitution, which reads as follows:

Article 2. The objects of this society shall be, the advancement of medical science, the diffusion of medical knowledge, the promotion of ' the interests of its members, the promulgation of measures adapted to the relief of suffering; to improve the health and protect the lives of the people.

The society is affiliated with, and auxilliary to the State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and adopted the code of ethics of the latter body and only Regular physicians were formerly eligible to membership. The by-laws have, more recently, been changed so that all legally qualified physicians not practicing an exclusive dogma, are now eligible to membership.

The society at first held quarterly meetings but soon changed to monthly meetings, which were held in the courthouse, council chamber; or physicians' offices. Within the past four or five years, the society holds weekly meetings in their own rooms which they have fitted up, at 4071^ Broadway. In 1909, the society contracted with the commissioners to attend the poor of the county at the jail and county infirmary for the sum of $300 per year. The members divide up the time, each attending two weeks without chaise and the money received is turned into the society's treasury. This arrangement has been entered into each succeeding year to the present time. All the charter members of the society are now dead - ^Dr. Bell, being th% last to pass to his reward, May 4, 1911. The present officers are : President, J. A. Reed ; secretary- treasurer, George D. Miller. The present membership is fortyfour. There are seventy-six physicians practicing in the county, fiftytwo of whom live in Logansport, and twenty-four in the townships.

Physicians are only human and occasionally cross swords. The Cass County Medical Society has run along successfully and peaceably ever since its organization, forty years ago, with one exception.

January 22, 1880, Dr. W. H. Bell preferred charges against Dr. Q. N. Fitch, one of the ablest and most distinguished members of the society, accusing him of unprofessional conduct in consultation, and violating Section 2, 7 and 10 of Article 4, of the Code of Ethics, then in vogue. A committee was appointed to hear the case, but Dr. Pitch refused to appear before the committee, went to the president, Dr. Paber, who was a personal friend, and secured his signature to a card withdrawing from the society.

After all efforts of the committee and the society to effect a compromise or get a hearing from Dr. Pitch had failed, the Cass County Medical Society, at its meeting, held April 29, 1880, expelled Dr. G. N. Pitch from the society for violation of above sections of the ethical code, and for contempt.

The matter was taken to the State Society in June, 1880, where Dr. Pitch's long experience in parliamentary tactics made such a strong case, that he had withdrawn, and that the Cass County Society had no jurisdiction over him, that the matter was whitewashed by the State Society and referred back to the Cass County Society; but the local society never took up the case or rescinded its action. No blood flowed

As a result of the action taken by the Cass County Medical Society against Dr. Fitch, the latter with a few of his friends who withdrew from the old society, organized a rival society with the above name, in the summer of 1880. Dr. Q, N. Pitch was elected president, and Dr. J. H. Talbott, secretary. The society held a number of meetings and some able papers were read, but it only held together for a short time and quietly discontinued its meetings for lack of interest.

From the fact that the surgical association was composed of older physicians like Dr. Fitch, Justice and Faber, they were called *' Swallowtails," whilst the Cass County Society was made up largely of younger men and not possessed of so much of this world's goods as their rivals, were dubbed ''Ragged Reubens.''

On June 23, 1881, the Cass County Medical Society gave a banquet on the eighth anniversary of its organization at the Barnett Hotel, at which sixty doctors from Cass and surrounding counties, were present. An elaborate program was carried out including an original song called ** Ragged Reubens," composed by Dr. B. C. Stevens. Other songs composed by Drs. John Herman, N. W. Cady, and J. Z. Powell, were sung with a vim-; a complete account of which was published in the local press of June 24, 1881, and is on file in the archives of the Historical Society.

John T. Liston was the first physician to swing his shingle to the gentle breezes in Logansport. He was bom in the state of Delaware, September 16, 1804, came to Logansport in 1827, practiced here until 1832, when he moved to Peru, and built the first house in that place. He died at Bunker Hill, Indiana, Mai-ch 12, 1894.

Dr. Hiram Todd was the second doctor to arrive in Logansport, in June, 1828. He occupied a log cabin then in the woods, at what is now known as 215 Market street. January 30, 1830, he was allowed the first fee for attending the poor of Cass county. Dr. Todd was elected associate judge in 1829, and performed thfe second marriage ceremony ever solemnized in the county, the happy couple being Alexander Wilson and Matilda Thorpe. Dr. Todd moved to Illinois about 1839 and died there in 1849.

Dr. G. N. Fitch came to Logansport in 1834; Dr. Uriah Farquhar, in 1835; and soon after John Lytic, A. B. Buchanan, J. M. Jeroleman, Ruel Faber, Drs. Merrill, Howes, Culbertson and Miller located in Logansport. These were the first and most prominent of the early physicians of Cass county.

dense forest roamed over by Indians and infested with wild beasts, insects and rattle snakes galore. There were no roads or bridges, and physicians had to wend their way through the wilderness on horseback and ford or swim the rivers. Doctors could not find their way after night to many parts of Cass county and many instances of fatalities are related in the early settlement, because the surgeon could not find his way to the lonely cabin after nightfall. One case was that of William Dale near Galveston, who cut his foot while clearing in the woods, and had to send to Logansport, eighteen miles distant, for a surgeon; night overtook the messenger and neither doctor nor messenger could follow the trail in the dark and had to wait till morning, and next day when the surgeon arrived at the cabin he found Mr. Dale had bled to death during the night. In those days physicians went on horseback with saddle bags filled with crude drugs, and often it was impossible to purchase the medicines desired because everything had to be brought to Logansport on horseback or cart from Toledo or Cincinnati.

The form in which medicines are now prescribed has radically changed in the past forty years. Then crude drugs in the form of powders, infusions or decoctions were employed, but now we use alkaloids and extracts in the form of tablets, or capsules, or concentrated tinctures, so that the doctor of today can carry in his pocketcase a greater variety of drugs than he could in his large saddle bags of pioneer days and certiunly in a more palatable form. What would a patient today say if the physician would give him a teaspoonful of powdered aloes, rheubarb or bark, instead of a small coated tablet, pill or capsule of the extracts or alkaloids of those drugs, as equally effective?

Many surgical instruments and appliances, also instruments of precision were not known or could not be procured by the early doctors of Cass county. The fever thermometer, hypodermic syringe, and stethescope were not used by the older physicians when the writer began practice in Logansport in 1874, Dr. Cady, and the writer were the first physicians in Cass county to possess and use a compound microscope. The X-ray and various electrical appliances were wholly unknown. Aseptic surgery was not even dreamed of and the pioneer surgeon would groom his horse, and without changing his clothing, or washing his hands, would start off on horseback, over mud roads, to amputate a leg or attend an obstetric case; the log cabin for an operating room, an old kitchen table for an operating table, his only light a tallow dip in the hands of a nervous inexperienced woman ; instead of chloroform he utilized the strong pioneer hands to keep his patient from struggling; an old wooden keeler his only wash basin into which the hard unsterilized water was poured with an old gourd which Jonah had sent over from Palestine; an old sheet from the bed furnished gauze, lint and bandages; with the crudest of instruments, the pioneer doctor acting as operator, assistant, interne and nurse, thus performed his surgical operations - and always considered himself fortunate if he had only healthy laudable pus in his surgical wounds instea!d of saneous and unhealthy.

Knowing if he won the battle, they would praise their Maker's name, Knowing if he lost the battle, then the doctor was to blame. Twas the brave, old virtuous doctor, 'Twas the good old family doctor, 'Twas the faithful country doctor, Fighting stoutly all the same." - Carleton,

What a contrast between pioneer days and the present. Now the surgeon is summoned from any part of Cass county by telephone. He grabs his aseptic surgical case, which is always kept in readiness, telephones a skilled assistant, and in a few minute is oflf on interurban, steam car or automobile, and if in the latter, travels over smooth graveled roads and soon reaches the bedside of his patient, or the latter is rushed, in an ambulance, to the hospital, fitted up with all modem sterilized apparatus, where night is converted into day by electric lights, and with trained nurses he performs painless and aseptic surgery, and the surgeon is censured should purulent infection follow which is now the exception and not the rule as formerly.

Drs. Fitch, Farquhar, Faber and Buchanan, a quartet of pioneer physicians who spent their lives in Cass county, have told the writer that they have been called twenty, thirty or forty miles from Logansport and would have to travel that distance on horseback, over mud roads, when the horse could not be urged out of a walk, owing to the bottomless conditions of the road.

Because of these conditions nearly every family in the county was provided with*a number of family remedies, usually consisting of domestic herbs, roots and barks, and you would always find in the loft of the pioneer cabin a collection of dried boneset, elecampane, peppermint, sage, Jimson weed, smart weed, tansy, hops, red pepper, also burdock and pleurisy root, with wild cherry, elm and other barks.

The pioneer women who presided over those cabins in the clearings, had a remedy for every disease and they were not slow to use them, but when the herbs failed the country doctor was called, who would supplement the family remedies by calomel and jalap, aloes and rheubarb, ipecac and tartar-emetic with cinchona bark always given in powder. If plethoric, bleeding, if depressed, sinapisms or fly blisters were employed. But the good old pioneer doctor with his few crude remedies, brought relief to about as many of his patients as the modem automobile doctor, and certainly exhibited as much energy, tact and practical commonsense, and was more resourceful as necessity compelled him to be.

It may be a question whether or not our modem pharmacists have not gone too far in their endeavor to manufacture pleasant tasting medicines and have sacrificed efficiency for palatability, and yet we would hardly return to former methods.

If the pioneer doctor of seventy years ago could rise from his grave he would certainly be surprised at our speeding automobiles and trolley cars. He would imagine he was in fairy land, to take down a telephone and talk with a patient fifteen miles in the country, prescribe the necessary changes in the treatment, all done in a moment while sitting in his office chair; instead of riding a whole day through mud and rain to accomplish the same results, as was formerly done. If the early physicians were to attend a meeting of the Cass County Medical Society today, they would think its members were using a strange language and certainly a large number of the medical words now in use would not be understood. Such terms as toxins, anti-toxin, opsonins, antiseptic, Listerism, serums, bacterial germs, etc., could not be comprehended.

The Indians had their medicine men, but little is known of the methods and nature of the practice of those occupying this part of Indiana but it is authoritatively stated that it was largely incantation and similar to tribes in other localities.

John Lawson, in a book published in 1709, relates his observations among the Tuscaroras Indians as follows: **When the Indian doctor comes into a cabin, the patient is placed upon a mat or skin, stark naked. The chief of the nation comes with a rattle made of a gourd with peas in it, which he hands to the doctor. The doctor begins by uttering some words and shaking the gourd, then he smells the patients belly and scarifies the patient in different parts of the body with a comb-like instrument made of rattle snake teeth, and sucks the scarification and draws out blood and spits it into a bowl of water until he has drawn quite a quantity, then he dances around the patient, shaking the gourd rattle, and slapping his own body, making all manner of sounds and grimaces and assuming antic postures which are not matched this side of Bedlam. All this time the patient lies motionless although the lancing with the rattle snake teeth draws blood and is a great punishment. At last when the doctor is all in a sweat and nearly exhausted, he makes an end and tells whether the patient will live or die, and the blood sucked out of the patient and spit in the bowl is buried in a place unknow/U to any one except the party making the interment."

To show the unscientific and crude methods of ancient medicine even among the civilized nations, the following quotations are made from Dr. Edward Stafford, of London, who on May 6, 1643, wrote to Gov. W. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, giving him a number of standard remedies that could be used in various maladies, one of which was his /'Black Powder,'' ** against ye plague, smallpox, purple and all sorts of fevers, etc.:''

**Take toads, in the month of March, as many as you will alive, putt them in an earthen pott, so it will be half full; cover it with a tile or iron plate ; then overwhelme the pott soyt ye bottom may be uppermost, put charcoal around about it, in the open ayre, and not in ye house; sett it on fire and let it bum and extinguish itself ; when it is cold, take out the toads, and in an iron mortar pound them very well and scarce them, then in a crucible, calcine them again; pound and scarce them again; the first time they will be brown powder, the next time black.

Of this you may give a dragme in a vehiculum (or drink) internally in any infection taken, and let them sweet upon it in their beddes. For prevention half a dragme will sufiBce - moderate the dose according to the strength of *ye partie' for I have set down ye greatest that is needful. There is no danger in it. The same powder is used plasterwise with vinegar for gangrene or bites of venomous beasts, taking it likewise internally. It is likewise used in cankers, fistules, old ulcers. King's evil, strewing it upon the sore."

Among the pioneer physicians of Cass county there were no specialists, they were simply doctors. Each covered the whole field of medicine, but in that day, the field of medicine was only a ** truck patch" as compared to the vast field of medical science of the present age. Now-a-days we go to a certain doctor if something affects our ears, nose or throat; to another if our eyes trouble us, and so on through the whole list of anatomical organs. Each organ or part of the human body having 'a specialist who devotes his time and talents to the diseases of that particular organ. But in pioneer times, they "called the doctor" and that was all there was to it; and to his 6redit be it said that he was ready for anything. He may not have been shaved that day, or changed his collar or cuffs, but the chances are that it was because he had ridden all night through the mud and rain. There was no luster on the stout boots he wore, but there was luster in his eye, and his fingers were none the less steady when he came to perform some delicate operation to save a precious life. But since those good old pioneer days the field of medicine has become so broad and extensive that it is impossible for one man, in this short life, to completely master all the details in all branches, hence it is necessary to specialize to some extent, and by so doing the profession can give better service to their patients, and specialization is a distinctive feature of modem medicine, especially in our larger cities where there is sufficient patronage to justify physicians in giving their entire time to a particular class of diseases.

When we come to study the educational facilities of the early days we find the same primitive situation that obtained in other conditions of that period.

A medical student of the pioneer days was not expected to go to college, for there were no colleges *'west of the AUeghenies" and it would require a month's time to reach the seaboard, from the wilds of Indiana. When the young man of that day felt the bud of medical genius sprouting in his brain, he entered some old doctor's office as an apprentice. His first duties were to act as office boy, wash bottles, keep the office clean, groom the doctor's horse, and his spare time was spent in reading the few text books that composed the doctor's library. As time went on he would make pills, spread plasters, and ride out with his preceptor when making calls and assist him in surgical operations, and thus imbibe, so to speak, a knowledge of disease and its treatment. After a two years' apprenticeship the youthful doctor was supposed to be capable of starting out in his own behalf. There was but little theoretical knowledge acquired, everything was pre-eminently practical, gained from observation by practical bedside experience. There was no hospital where difficult cases could be taken, and eminent specialists consulted, but every doctor, be he old or young, had to rely upon his own resources which necessarily made them self-reliant and resourceful. In the evolution of medical science all this has changed. The causes of diseases and a world of bacteria, cell action, minute anatomy, various tissues, physiological and pathological, with the glandular secretions, all have to be studied in the laboratory with microscope and other instruments of precision, requiring months and years of study that was unknown in the olden times, but necessary for the up-to-date physician.

The colonies of North America very early took measures to protect the health and life of the people, and probably the first laws relating to the practice of medicine were passed by the colonial legislature of Virginia in 1636 to regulate the fees and protect the people from excessive charges.

Nearly all the colonies enacted various medical laws and many of them required an examination of all physicians to test, their qualifications, before they were permitted to practice, but after the Revolutionary war and new states were formed, the laws pertaining to the practice of medicine were sadly neglected until within the past few years.

Prior to 1881, Indiana had no laws regulating the practice of medicine, and any one, however ignorant, could engage in medical practice. In 1881 the legislature enacted a registration law, requiring all physicians to register their names in the county clerk's office, but permitting every doctor who had been in practice for ten years, to register, but thereafter, all applicants for registration must be graduates of a medical college. In 1897 a more stringent law was passed, and a board of medical registration and examination, established, whose duty it was, not only to require a diploma from a recognized medical school, but all applicants must, in addition to the diploma, pass an examination before the board and certificates issued to only those passing a successful examination. The leading schools or systems of medicine, regular, eclectic and homeopathic schools are represented on this board. According to a more recent law, the so-called osteopathic doctors may be licensed to practice their peculiar methods of massage and hygiene but they cannot prescribe drugs. The nondescript school of chiropractic, would-be doctors, have recently knocked at the door for admission but for the honor of the state and the health of its citizens it is to be hoped all such unscientific and impractical isms will be relegated to the rear in the great onward progress of regular scientific medicine. The standard of medical education in our colleges has steadily advanced during the past third of a century, from a two-year's course of four months each, to a four-year's course of nine months each, with increased requirements for admission to the medical colleges, and people are just beginning to realize that medical legislation is for the protection of the health and lives of the public, and to prevent ignorant, incompetent and unscrupulous men, calling themselves doctors, from imposing up6n a long suffering and credulous people; that medical and pure food laws are not enacted in the interests of the njedical profession, but for the benefit of the masses. The high standards of medical education set by legal requirements for admission to practice has driven out many small, irregular, and low grade medical colleges and diploma mills all over the country and Indiana now has only one regular medical college in connection with its state university, but it stands along side the best medical schools of our country and is a credit to the state.

The first homeopathic practitioner or the follower of Hahnemann's peculiar dogma of **Similia Similibus Curanter," was J. F. Gruber, in 1857, and since that date representatives of both these schools of medicine have been practicing in Logansport. In recent years with the development of science and the positive demonstration of the germ origin of disease, all these specialisms and dogmas of eclecticisms, homeopathy, Thompsonianism, etc., are gradually fading away, and all schools of medicine are approaching a unity of therapeutics on the broad principles of regular, scientific medicine.

After exhausing every known source of information, about four hundred and fifty-three different physicians have been found, to have resided and practiced for a time, at least, in Cass county, two hundred and eighty-six of whom were located in Logansport, and one hundred and sixty-seven in the townships. It will be impossible to give a biographical sketch of each, in this work, but a short biography of each physician, so far as could be procured, has been written and preserved in manuscript book. The physicians in the country will be named under their respective townships. The following list includes all physicians who have lived and practiced in Logansport from 1827 to 1913, with about the date of their residence in the city, and where known will give date of birth and death, designating the birth with **b" and death with **d."

The following list contains the names of the doctors now living in Logansport and the time they have resided in the city with date of birth, etc.:

When in 4he cottage, blessed with love's sweet store, A babe is born, and o'er the rustic door, Is hung, the crown of motherhood, and fair. Is all within, the Doctor's there -

When 'neath the pall of mystic Death's weird spell, A mother's heart is broken by the knell, Of all that's dear, and on the stair. No baby feet - the Doctor's there -

When virtue flees, and breath of ruthless lust, Eats into souls, as does the gnawing rust, When no one else, with her, the shame can share. With father's touch - the Doctor's there -

Where blossoms, life's sweet bud, at blush of day, Where withered rose, at eve-tide steals away, On the south wind - in joy and care An uncrowned king - the Doctor's there.