History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

1 16 History of Medical Practice in Illinoisment, etc. It was emphasized that since 1850 many valuable prescriptionshad been offered to physicians. It was further recorded that the committeefavored the use of indigenous rather than imported drugs.There were two inaugural addresses or theses on milk sickness or the"sloes."Dr. N. S. Davis, as head of a committee, reported on "Means of PreservingMilk and the Influence of Pregnancy and Menstruation on the Compositionand Nutritive Qualities of the Fluid."Because of the absence of epidemics in Chicago during this year, theBoard of Health was discontinued in that city. However, there was a malariamortality of 53.6 per 100,000 population.1858Dr. C. Goodbrake of DeWitt County presided at the annual meetingof the State Society this year. The Committee on Medical Practice reportedthat the cause of milk sickness was still unknown; that search for the causewas continuing, as well as for an answer to the question of whether it wasa mineral poison.Dr. W. B. Herrick delivered an address on "Great Advances in MedicalScience."Dr. W. H. Byford of Chicago spoke on "The Physiology, Pathology andTherapeutics of Muscular Exercise" in which he emphasized the necessityof getting away from reports of common diseases to more basic medicalknowledge.There was a case report by Dr. W. Matthews of Nicholsonville, PutnamCounty, Indiana, of the first case of diabetes in sixteen years. The conclusionwas that "cause of the disease must be looked for in the brain."onA special report was given by Dr. E. W. Philips of Dixon, Illinois,a case of purpura hemorrhagica.At this time the death rate from tuberculosis in Chicago was reportedas 392.2 in a population oftuberculosis,100,000. There were 334deaths from188 from croup, 224 from dysentery, 233 from scarlet fever,77 from pneumonia, and 49 from typhoid fever.1859As Chairman at the annual meeting of the State Society, Dr. Hosmer A.Johnson made a plea for human dissection, both for the benefit of thepublic and the physician. 2 He also requested legislative action to enforceregistration of births, marriages and deaths.There was considerable discussion of various measures to foster public2For further details on "Anatomy Laws," the reader is referred to Chapter XIXin this Volume, an impressive contribution.—Editor