History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

Internal Medicine 123collection of many quotations and abstracts from various sources here andabroad. Under the heading of "Loot," there was material presented onsyphilis, progressive paralysis of the insane, phosphorus and fat deposition,pathogenesis of tubercles, experimental physiology, and the specificity andvirulence of tuberculosis.The pocket clinical thermometer, which had been brought out by Dr.Clifford Allbutt, was gaining in popularity and general use.Routine meat inspection was first instituted during this year at theChicago Stock Yards.1869The annual report of the Committee on Drugs and Medicine of theIllinois State Medical Society was given by Dr. N. S. Davis, chairman, whosaid: "There is a rapidly increasing tendency on the part of pharmaceutiststo manufacture and urge upon the public and the profession, proprietarycompounds such as elixirs, concentrated powders, fluid extracts, etc. Andin the opinion of your committee the members of the profession have beentoo ready to adopt and use such preparations in practice. In the opinion ofthe committee this has been a prominent evil: (1) The use of such compounds,instead of the officialarticles of the pharmacopoeia, destroys alluniformity in the use of drugs by different practitioners and makes itextremelydifficult to compare the results of medication in the same forms ofdisease by different practitioners; (2) no security for the continued uniformityin the strength of such compounds; (3) the use of such compoundsby the practitioner gives the manufacturers and druggists greatly increasedinfluence in imposing them on the community as popular remedies, and(4) their use by the physicians tends strongly to beget carelessness in prescribing,that is, carelessness in adjusting the exact proportion of eachingredient in a compound prescription to the condition of individualpatients. The true duty of the pharmaceutist and druggist is to furnish theprofession with individual articles of the Materia Medica in their purest,most concentrated and most convenient forms, leaving the physician tocombine them to suit each of his patients."The committee reported also on purified opium (morphia narceia andcodeia of the opium with thebaine, papaverine narcotine and woody fiberexcluded); sweet quinine (mixed with licorice for children); carbolic acid,ozonic ether, hydrogen peroxide and infusion of chestnut leaves for whoopingcough.A supplementary report of the committee was presented by Dr. E. P.Cook in which he said: "An indication of progress is the increasing interestin comparative pathological investigations and their close relation to andas an aid in the study of the same process in Man."