History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

Internal Medicine 131In 1880, Laveran of France discovered the parasites of malarial fever andEberth of Germany discovered the typhoid bacillus.Chicago, in this year, reported a diphtheria death rate of 290.7 per100,000 population.1881At the meeting of the State Society there was a general discussion of theMedical Practice Act, legal medicine, and further society organization,particularly in the southern half of the state. A pica was made for bettercommunication with several counties and for better reporting of epidemics.The Committee on Medical Practice reported an epidemic of rubeola inevery district. Some physicians objected to the division of measles into twotypes; they "just considered German or bastard measles as a hybrid formof morbilli." There were two reports on measles: one by Dr. Charles WarringtonEarle of Chicago, and the other by Dr. Roswell Park, also ofChicago, who reported 100 cases of measles in an orphan asylum.The Committee also reported that variola occurred in Chicago and inthe central part of the state(Warren, Pike, Fulton, McLean and SchuylerCounties) to a greater extent than in any previous year; this conditionshowed a marked tendency to spread and high mortality rate. The Committeestated: "The general susceptibility to revaccination has been unusual.The demonstrated protective power of recent vaccination is renewedevidence, if it were at all questionable, of the worth of this great boon tohumanity."Dr. Washington West of Belleville made a special plea for retention ofthe name "typhomalaria" and for the recognition of the existence of thedisease, regardless of the demand by many physicians that the two diseasesbe separated.Dr. J.H. Hollister of Chicago presented "Abnormal Thermal Conditionsin Diseases and the Means of Controlling Them." He considered thephysiology of heat production, dissipation, conservation and effect of excessiveheat upon animal economy, with a final discussion as to means ofcontrolling or preventing excessive temperatures. This address was scholarlyand orderly; it included references to metabolism, oxidative processes(including cell activity), vasomotor actions, the effect of sympathetic nerveaction, and environmental factors.Dr. Hollister explained that excessivetemperature was prevented by (1) lessening generation of heat, rest, withdrawalof food stimulants as far as possible, cardiac sedatives for the controlof nervous excitement to the end that molecular actions may be reducedto their minimum; and (2) facilitating its dissipation by a rapid loweringof temperature of the body surface, use of remedies to promote surfacecirculation, promotion of perspiration by stimulation of sweat glands,and bloodletting in emergency. He suggested various agents for the control