Vanderburgh County, Indiana - Chapter 16: Allopathy, 1897

Chapter 16: Allopathy

It is scarcely needful to say that allopathy in Evansville has kejjt abreast with all the great remedial discoveries of medical science and surgery of the day, and has, of its own motion, made original investigations and studies in germinology and bacteriology. Ample modern arrangements have been made for the sick and afflicted, for the wounded and the halt. More and more every day is medical skill leaning upon the wisdom of proficient nursing and proper regimen.

St. Mary's Hospital on Columbia street and First avenue, is a fine, commodious, modern institution, sufflcient in all its departments, with a noble corps of efficient nurses and board of medical advisers. The sanitarium on Fourth and Oak streets is one of the best of its character in the whole country. The physicians who control it, have studied in the best medical institutions, both in Europe and America, and the nurses are all kind-hearted and well trained. In brief, allo2)athy has in all things - in knowledge, instruments and appliances, methods, nursing, dosing, therapeutical skill, and so forth - taken a place in the van in the healing art. The physicians of the city are bright, active investigating, thorough, modern, skilled men. As a rule they come to the bedside of the sick with a sympathetic tone and a tender hand.

Back in the early days of the town there were what was called the old school men, who believed in blisters and bleeding, calomel and jallop, quinine and tight rooms, pills and potions. Happily these methods are out of date, and have been superseded by an entirely different order of things, new and more humane. The "heroic treatment," the "kill or cure remedy," has given way to newer discoveries and better things. The old epitaph is no longer applicable - "was well, wished to be better, took physic and died."

Homeopathy

The "Pathfinder" is sometimes a benefactor to his race. It was thus with Samuel Hahnemann, when he opened up new lines of thought in the field of medical science, and formulated new methods of cure on the broad basis of homeopathy or "similia siniilibus curantur". Hahnemann was born in one of the most beautiful spots in Germany, April 10, 1755, where his early training was conducted by his father, who builded better than he knew, when at the age of five the Ijoy was given daily lessons in "thinking."

This early training led to an unusual desire for books, and the best opportunities that the father and the schools of Germany could afford were utilized to educate the boy, and keep that thinker thinking. Hahnemann chose medicine as a profession, and received the honorable degree of doctor of medicine in 1779. This was accomplished mainly by his own exertions, and it prepared him for the great work of his long and useful life. Hahnemann was graduated as an allopathic doctor and practiced accordingly for eleven years, or till 1 790.

Hahnemann was poor, though an eminent scholar, and already a voluminous writer, an expert chemist, an independent thinker, and a renowned pathfinder. He began to prove the effects of medicine on his own person in health, and by the assistance of others in like manner, he developed and formulated the great law of cure, "similia similibus euranfur," or "like cures like."

Homeopathy was introduced in the United States, about 1830, by Dr. Gram, who located in New York City. Dr. Gram was an American, whose name and memory next to that of Hahnemann, should be cherished and held sacred. He was an orphan boy, and was carefully educated by his uncle, who was physician to the Danish king. He chose medicine as his profession and ^^as graduated with distinguLsbed honors, at the most celebrated school in Copenhagen, where he afterwards practiced, accjuiring an enviable reputation and also a fortune. His first convert was John F. Gray, M. D., aiul by IX.3'2 Drs. Wilson, Hull, Channing and Curtis, luid adu|)tud the new law of cure. In l.S.:58, Dr. Havner, one of

Hahnemann's pupils, introduced Homeopathy in Baltimore. Up to this time there were no books in the English language on Homeopathy, but about 1840 some works were translated in the English, French, Italian, and Spanish languages. Then it received an impetus which the combined and malignant opposition of the old school were unable to check. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1848, and Cleveland, Ohio, in 1849, established chartered Homeopathic medical colleges. These colleges have continued their work, have prospered and are flourishing at this time. Other Homeopathic medical colleges have been established from Boston to California, until now more than twenty can be named, and, be it said to the credit of these colleges, that, keeping step with the progress of the age, and appreciating the advance of medical science and the value of a higher education, and ever striving for the highest attainments, they have, by an intercollegiate agreement, adopted the four years course, which is being rigidly adhered to. It is safe to presume that before the close of this century, a five years course will be universally adopted by these colleges, as requisite to jjrepare the student and qualify him to receive the honorable degree of Doctor of Medicine. At present there are about twenty thousand Homeopathic M. D's. This school of medicine numbers, among its patrons, thousands of the best thinkers of the age, some of the most prominent of whom are judges of our highest courts, lawyers, doctors, educators, merchants, and scientists ; also all grades, classes and conditions of society. The very general success of the practitioners, coupled with correct understanding and liberal diffusion of the law of Homeopathy, have been the potent forces which have placed it prominently and favorably before the public. Since the advent of Homeopathy many of the crude methods, formerly used by the old school have been abandoned, and the new methods of the little pill are being adopted, and accepted as the better way. This is creditable, and certainly very flattering, to the busy workers in this acknowledged advanced method of healing the sick.

Homeopathy was first introduced in Evansville by Dr. E. J. Ehrman, in 1852. He had attended a course of lectures in Philadelphia in 1851. Be it known that it was no easy task, self-imposed, to come into a community which was entirely ignorant of Homeopathy, with the prejudices of the allopathic profession arrayed against the new theory, and finally work out a grand success in the profession ; but Dr. Ehrman did this and also accumulated a goodly fortune, which he left to his family. Then came Dr. Curtis, who remained for a brief time. Then came L. S. Herr, M. D., who changed from the eclectic school to Homeopathy in 1865. F. L. Davis, M. D., came in 1866. Later came and went Drs. McPharlan, Glass, Irwin, L. G. Johnson, Klein, and others not now remembered. After the advent of Drs. Herr and Davisj Homeopathy rapidly grew in favor with the best families, and it was not long before these physicians were possessed of a lucrative practice. Both Drs. Herr and Davis were able exponents of the Hahnemann system of medicine, and their success obliterated, in a very large degree, the prejudice against what some were pleased to term the "small pill practice." Dr. Ehrman diedin 1879. Dr. Herr died in 1893. Dr. Davis still lives, is hale, hearty, active, and busily engaged in a lucrative and successful practice, with the promise of many years of active life before him. Dr. Davis has seen Homeopathy continue to spread and grow in favor, and he has always extended a welcome hand to others of the profe.ssioa who came this way. T. H. Taylor, M. D., located here in 1882. He was Dr. Davis' partner for eight years, and is now possessed of an extensive, successful and lucrative practice. The following jjhysicians are now located in Evansville, and are all doing well and are favorably regarded : Dr. C. B. Harpole, a graduate of both the Allopathic and Homeopathic schools ; he is making a specialty of surgery, with good success. Dr. C. G. Dunlevy, a relative of the late Dr. Ehrman ; and Dr. S. D. Musgrave, also a graduate of the Hahnemann Homeopathic Medical College, of Chicago. The doctor is now holding a position on the pension board ; he is said to be a very busy man. Also the Drs. Viehe, father and son, and some others.

The Pioneer'.S Enemy

Amidst perils and privations, with blazed roads leading to log cabins, the early settlers laid the permanent foundation for the grandeur and glory of our present civilization - a civilization with its magnificent churches, its splendid school buildings, its palatial gas-lighted dwellings, its elegant easy coaches on our railroads, and peerless float- ing palaces on our waters, its macadamized drives, its paved cities, its telegraph and telephone, its music of machinery, and its electric light to flash out a blaze of glory over science, art and literature, and all the monuments of human grandeur of which we are so often wont to boast.

Deep in the shaded recesses of the almost unlimited forests and along the timber-lined streams that meander through the vast prairies of the west, there lurked an undiscovered poison, alike fatal to man and beast. An interesting and most significant fact in relation to the locality and habitation of this deadly poison is, that it occurred only in places where the soil was still in its virgin state and that it disappeared immediately after the cultivation of the soil. It appeared unable to perpetuate its aggressive and dangerous life where the sunlight of heaven was permitted to shine. Therefore, through the stalwart energy of the woodman and his axe, the dark, gloomy and infected forests, which it claimed as its home, have been transformed into waving fields and cheerful pastures, and this pestilential poison, whatever it may have been, has forever taken its flight and its dangers are no longer felt or feared. The extensive wide range in the new country was exceedingly rich in canebrakes in winter and wild pea-vine in summer, and pioneer farmers' cattle grew fine and fat and made excellent beef without other food.

The early settlers, not having ample pasturage for their stock, were compelled to drive them to the abundant wild range, from which in many instances no part of the animal except the hide ever found its way back to the settlement of the owner. Many of the animals fell victims to the lurking poison and died of the disease it produced, which disease in animals was called "trembles," the name being derived from the peculiar symptoms produced in the animal after the poison had found its way into the system. The disease produced by this poison occurred originally in the Herbivora - as the ox, horse, sheep, etc., but was transmitted to the carnivorous animals and birds which had fed upon the flesh of other animals-dead from the disease, as the dog and the vulture. The flesh and milk of diseased animals were capable, when eaten, of imparting the disease; the cow through her milk poisoned her calf or poisoned the people who drank of the milk or ate of the butter made from the milk.

When the poison had once been introduced into the system it had the power of self propagation and of imparting the same intensely poisonous properties from one animal to another, and was capable of perpetuating the disease in a continuous chain of animals as one should eat the flesh of another. Thus each jwund of flesh of a dog which had been poisoned by a pound of flesh of the cow, would poison the vulture and so on through a long chain of animals, the last pound of flesh partaken of being as poisonous as that taken from the animal first affected. There is no known mineral or vegetable principle which, when taken into the system, can thus multiply itself and perpetuate its poisonous principle. The disease in man derived its name from the well established fact that it M'as produced by drinking the milk, or eating the flesh or the butter or cheese made from the milk, of cows or other animals, which had become poisoned in consequence of frequenting certain limited ranges or uncultivated pastures.

It was called "milk sickness." Through its annual destruction of large numbers of domestic animals and its fatality among early settlers, it was one of the most prominent enemies to the prosperity of the pioneers. In the beginning the symptoms were not well marked, so that the milk and flesh of really diseased animals might be inadvertently eatea under the supposition that the animal was in good health. Their most attractive and healthy looking condition, even their extreme fatness, did not not give the complete assurance of their exemption from the disease. In this state they were often found to be sick, sufiering from loss of appetite and energy, with their eyes red and watery they would stagger, tremble, fall down in convulsions and die. Sheep, when seized with a paroxysm of the "trembles" would stagger as if trying to free themselves from the grasp of some terrible enemy, and would soon surrender and fall down, uttering the most plaintive bleating as if suffering intensely painful distress.

The farmer had a test for the healthfulness of the beef cattle, just off the wild range, that may have been designated the "fatigue" test. I have often seen the test applied. It consisted of placing the animals in a field or lot, and boys, with coats and hats off, were directed to chase them around and urge them to their greatest speed. If, af^er a long chase the cattle did not evince signs of muscular weakness, stagger, tremble, or fall down, they were pronounced healthy, and were at once slaughtered and their flesh was eaten with the utmost feeling of security against the disease.

In the primitive days, when it was claimed that men were more honest than they are now, it was not always an easy matter to determine just in what particular neighborhood the poisonous principle was located. The story has been current for fifty years that travelers, or land-buyers seeking homes in the west, found it very difficult to catch up with the place where it had its habitation ; that in answer to the question whether the neighborhood was troubled with it, they invariably received the assurance that the disease did not exist there, but "over at Jones five miles ahead it was bad." Farmers then appeared to be as ready to suppress the existence of the disease near them as commercialmen and newspapers are nowadays to suppress epidemic or contagious diseases in the great marts of business.

The disease was known in North Carolina more than one hundred years ago, and as emigration flowed westward it was found to exist in Tennessee, Kentucky, and has prevailed in these states, as well as in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Virginia and perhaps several western states, other than those mentioned. There are no statistics accessible from which we may learn the fatality of this subtle poison in man or beast.

Dr. M. J. Bray, one of the oldest inhabitants, as truthful and honorable as he is aged, states that at an early day in the history of the city of Evansville, when much of the present site was occupied by mature forests, he could walk from the present center of business, to the present suburbs, a distance of two miles, on the bones of animals which had died from "trembles." Another states that an entire family, a wife, seven children and two grandparents, were swept away in a single season by this scourge. The history of a single case will be sufficient to illustrate the fact that the greatest physical strength, when brought into the unequal combat, was powerless to resist the" fatal effects of this terrible and deadly malady. I witnessed when a boy the sufferings and death of a neighbor from this poison. His muscular strength was greater than that of ordinary men. Though not apparently a large man his frame was compact, his form symmetrical, his muscles were firm and unusually developed, and his power seemed phenomenal. His strength was particularly manifested in athletic contests, and at log-rollings where a hand spike, sufficient to resist the strength of an ordinary man, was like a brittle broom stick when tested by his power. In his struggles with the disease he was extremely restless, so that no ordinary effort could restrain him in bed. He would roll off" onto the floor and roll back and forth from one side of the room to the other. The struggle was terrible to behold but the physical giant. Jack Bowman, was forced to yield to the overpowering enemy. Any attempt, on the part of a man not fiilly recovered from an attack, to walk or run fast would induce a jiaroxysm of trembling attended by great muscular prostration and debility. He would be compelled to sit down and rest or fall down. Active physical exertion stimulated by excitement would immediately endanger life. Judge Asa Igleheart said that his father, who lived on a public road, had a dog that was sick with trembles. A neighbor passed along the road, with a dog following him. The sick dog did not see the other until it had passed some distance beyond the house. The old habit of chasing every dog that came in sight of the farm had become second nature, and so he started off at his greatest speed, but, before catching up with the strange dog, he was seen to fall down, tremble as with a convulsion, and, before the owner could walk to where he fell, he was dead.

Esquire Ben Stinson says that when a lad he was walking on the Henderson road, some five miles from this city, and met a neighbor on horseback. After passing him he looked down the road and saw the neighbor's dog following him. He hid himself behind a tree for the purpose of jumping out and frightening the dog in order to see him i"un. When the dog was opposite he sprang out and said "boo". Instead of running the dog fell in his tracks, gave a few kicks, and was dead. Mingled guilt and fear prevented him, until he was a man grown, from mentioning the injury he believed he had done his neighbor. Dogs which had eaten of poisoned flesh became, in a few days, so stiff and helpless that they could not get over a three-rail fence and were utterly unfit to chase game, or to drive stock from the fields. Oxen could endure but little travel or work. Horses once affected, though looking well, were worthless for work or travel, and traders coald not speed them back and forth to exhibit their superior gaits, but were forced to trade them standing.

If a man started to ride to a neighbors a few miles away, his horse was liable to give out on the road and leave him to walk home. Such is briefly the history of the "pioneers enemy," "Milk Sickness."

Dentistry

The science of dentistry is not a recent origin. This statement may surprise many even in the profession. History tell us that even at the present day we are in many respects far behind the ancients, and what astonishes us beyond our understanding is that a nation or nations, after having arrived at the pinnacle of fame and notoriety in the arts and sciences, could possibly retrograde so much as to pa.ss into oblivion and become almost heathenish. Yet we know this to be a truth beyond contradiction.

required such perfections in the practice of the medical, surgical and dental professions, that no doctor was permitted to practice any but his own pai'ticular branch. Some were occulists, who onlystudied diseases of the eye, others attended solely to the complaints of the head, "and others to those of the teeth." Some again confined themselves to complaints of the intestines and others to secret and internal maladies - accoucheurs being generally, if not always, women. The physicians (various kinds of practitioners named above) received salaries from the public treasury. After they had studied those precepts which were laid down by the experiences of their predecessors, they were permitted to practice. In order to insure their attention to the prescribed rules, and to ])revent experiments from being made upon patients, they were punished, if their treatment was contrary to the established system, and the death of a person under such circumstances was deemed a capital offense. We learn from Herodotus that King Cyrus and Darius both sent to Egypt for medical men. All this proves the great skill of the Egyptians.

The dissection of the dead was extensively practiced, to gain knowledge as to the treatment ot the living. In the century approaching the Christian era, the professions seem to have become more generalized, and we learn through Celsus, who was a professional celebrity and contemporary with Jesus Christ, that the genius of the early Egypttians had to a certain extent been lost; yet, even at the present time, Celsus is recognized as a man of great learning. Liberal extracts could be taken from his works, relative to the teeth, their filling and extraction, etc., but it is needless. He recommends that badly decayed teeth be filled, previous to extraction, to keep them from breaking to pieces, when the effort is being made to extract them. This is often done now. He also says: " When a tooth occasions pain and it seems proper to extract, because medicines give no relief, it ought to be scraped all around that the gum may be loosened from it; then it is to be shook, which must be continued until it moves easily, for the extraction of a fast tooth is attended with the greatest danger, and sometimes the jaw is dislocated. It is attended with more danger in the upper teeth, because it may give a shock to the temples or eyes. After these precautions the tooth is to be taken out with the hand if possible, if not by forceps."

There seems to have been a downward movement from this date for hundreds of years, and for a thousand years darkness reigned supreme, until, between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a ray of light began to dawn upon the human family in regard to dental service. Teeth were carved out of the ivory of the hippopotamus and elephant. In 1784, Dr. John Greenwood, of Boston, carved a set of teeth for George Washington from an elephant tusk. Subsequently several more sets were carved for Washington.

Porcelain teeth were introduced into the United States in 1817, and the science advanced slowly until 1844, since which time the profession has made such enormous strides that it is difficult to keep up with the advancement.

Evansville, when a very small " ville," was often visited by dentists from other places. Dr. Nagle, of New Albany, Indiana, a very respectable j^ractitioner, made regular visits to this city. Also others of a more transient character, visited us. But in 1844, Dr. Burtch located here, near the alley on First street between Main and Locust, on the west side of the street and adjoining the postoffice. He was said to have been a very fair dentist. Unfortunately he was addicted to the use of intoxicanls, and recommended to his patients strong drink as an anesthetic to relieve pain during dental operations: and as a suicide he ended his earthly career.

He was followed by Dr. Eben Bray, a most worthy man, and a fine dentist, who, after a practice of some years here, left for the great "Northwest," and lived honored and respected until a few years ago, when death took him from us. He was followed l)y Dr. John Kivitt, who was a good dentist.

Our city having all these years steadily advanced in growth, and containing some 6,000 inhabitants, attracted other dentists to this locality. Dr. F. Hutchinson and Dr. J. Fleager were contemporaries with Dr. Kivitt, and were quite successful in their practice. Dr. Hurd came to locate about this time and remained here until his death, as did Dr. Fleager.

In 1859, Dr. I. Haas came to tliis city, and has resided here up to this date, and is the dental father of twenty dentists. Some reside here at the present time, and are practitioners, while others are scattered over the United States, from New York to California, Oregon, Wisconsin, Louisiana and intermediate points, and are doing well. Dr. Haas is one of the most skilled and successful dentists that has ever located here His high moral worth has raised him up a host of friends and patrons. He has been eminently successful.

Our city is now well supplied with dentists, having in all about twenty practitioners of all grades, from first-class to Cheap Johns - just like all other cities that have a population of from 75,000 up to 1,000,000 inhabitants.

The dentists of this city, in past years, have at different times formed themselves into local societies but none of them permanent. The Evansville Dental Society was formed in 1896 with a splendid prospect of long life and great usefulness. We desire to acknowledge here our indebtedness to Dr. I. Haas for facts presented herein.