History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

Editor's Forewordxvand 650 he commented on the "Fallacious Beliefs of Early Practitioners" asfollows: "The practitioners previous to 1850 had not as yet begun to graspthe revolutionary idea of micro-organisms as offending factors in the productionof disease. . . . Many of them still believed in the unity of disease.. . . They thought fever to be a salutary effort of Nature to throw off fromthe system some noxious matter. . . . Coming out of this general idea,bloodletting became a popular procedure to drain the body of these badhumors." Again he says that only in the last year of his period (1849),"Pollender discovered the key to modern medicine—small rod shapedbodies in the blood of animals suffering from anthrax." The later work ofPasteur, Koch, Klebs, Ehrlich and others, especially by animal inoculations,clarified much and served as a "magic key to secrets long locked up,and opened up a great auto-chamber with many compartments." In VolumeII it will be noted that time and again the records are largelydominated by this "magic key" of research to open up these many compartments.This is the primary reason, beginning just at the middle of the1800's and reaching a climax toward the end of the century, for the developmentof these "compartments" that we now call the "specialties."In a volume contributed by a number of authors, the problem of homogeneityof composition and style naturally arises. There can be no doubtabout this variety from chapter to chapter. It is there and is inevitable insuch a composite volume. We may plead however that, desirable as a certaindegree of uniformity may be, Volume II possesses this uniformity to aboutthe same degree as do the various issues of our weekly and monthly medicaljournals with which we are all familiar in our daily readings. Then, too,doctors are individualists both in their work and in their writings and expressions(who would say Dr. Fenger was like any other person?), and wecomment on and value their differences and eccentricities. It is one of themain elements that contributes to an interesting medical history.From the above statements it is evident that this volume is writtenprimarily for the medical profession. It will find its greatest usefulness asa reference work, though much information is contained therein whichshould and will be of value, especially to the reading and writing publicwho may be interested in obtaining a wider appreciation of what the doctorsof Illinois have done in the past in caring for the sick.David J.Davis, M.D.