History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

i io History of Medical Practice in Illinoiswells or from the lake shore. Dr. Davis outlined a plan which not onlywould take care of the conditions then present, but would be capable ofexpansion to care for a growing city and would prevent Chicago from beingsoon overwhelmed with filth and disease. He gave many public lectureson this subject in which he stressed these facts as well as the need for adequateventilation, adequate infant care, temperate eating, and temperateor no use of alcoholic drinks. In one such lecture, Dr. Davis condemnedChicago dwelling as being too crowded and lacking in ventilation. Hepointed out that five women and children were sick for every adult malestricken in the city, his explanation being the freedom of the male citizento leave his stuffy, often windowless habitation.The following resolution adopted by the Illinois State Medical Societyat its first session illustrates the practical quality of mind of the physicians:"In consultations, theoretical discussions should be avoided, as occasioningperplexity and loss of time. For there may be much diversity of opinionconcerning speculative points, with perfect agreement in those modes ofpractice which are founded not on hypothesis, but on experience andobservation."Chicago, in1850, reported 420 cholera deaths, and smallpox accountedfor 46.6 deaths per 1,000 cases in a population of 28,269 in this city.John Evans, against much resistance, led a strong fight to establish quarantineagainst cholera, claiming that the disease spread along lines of intercommunicationand was subject to no boundaries except those that preventhuman intercourse. Cleanliness, quarantine and a pure water supply hadlong been advocated by some medical men as prophylactic safeguardsagainst the common communicable diseases.Dr.Dr. Samuel Thompson of Albion, Chairman of the Committee on Medical1851Practice of the Illinois State Medical Society, reported on the prevalenceof typhoid, malaria and the exanthemas. He called particularattention to "milk sickness" or "trembles" and the possibility of its malarialorigin. He urged the use of purging with calomel, salt and soda to removethe poison, and suggested whiskey or brandy as a stimulant.There was much interest in the description by Dr. John H. Evans of thefirst case of cholera, April 28,days after the opening of the Illinois1851, in the Captain of a canal boat elevenRiver. Dr. Evans made a plea forreports by physicians of all epidemics encountered from January 1, 1845to the close of 1851.The Northwestern Medical and Surgical Journal, May 1851to March1852, published a series of articles by Dr. N. S. Davis on the "History ofMedical Education," a subject in which he was keenly and progressively in-