History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

Introduction 5Smillie 3 wrote on epidemics in this country from 1800 to 1875, andIllinois is included in this study. Malaria rose to its greatest height at approximately1850 and subsequently at intervals became violent, especiallyduring the Civil War. On page 39,rate chart for Chicago for the period 1845 toexactly with our half-century period 1850 toSmillie presents an instructive deathl 9°°> corresponding almost1900. The chart shows thatChicago's period of epidemics lasted from 1848 to 1890. Cholera, smallpoxand typhoid fever were the periodic destroyers of life, but from 1868 to1873 the important and persistent causes of death were tuberculosis, infantdiarrhea and pneumonia.Hamilton* 4 also stressed the prevalence of several epidemic diseaseswhich Rawlings and others later analyzed at greater length. In particular,his contribution to Asiatic cholera and smallpox is especially noteworthy.The period 1850 to 1900 well exemplifies a principle often overlookedbut yet so evident in the study of medicine, namely, that the mass action ofpractically all diseases over the years is an important and a very realisticproblem. Diseases, like all other biologic processes, which are ever-changingand dynamic mass phenomena, at times rising, again falling, or perhapscontinuing on an irregular base,always reveal reactions en masse or individuallyto a complex environment. These phenomena are revealed inevery chapter of this Volume.The above statements concerning the data of the period under considerationare setforth in this Introduction in order both to indicate and toemphasize the prevalent serious diseases that confronted the physicians ofthe state at that time in their practice from day to day.This Introduction also would not be adequate did it not refer to the contributionsmade to the history of the practice of medicine in Illinois by nonmedicalwriters from the popular point of view. So important is thisconsidered that a condensed chapter of excerpts has been devoted to thisphase of the history written by an authority in general history of Illinois,Dr. Paul Angle, Director of the Chicago Historical Society (see ChapterIII). Among other general historical writings is a volume by Pickard andBuley 5 which is a "by product of more extensive work in the field of midwesternhistory." The data are presented objectively by these lay personsand is written in popular style for the people of the Midwest region. It isa resume of the "reactions of the early settlers to his diseases—fevers, con-3 Smillie, W. G.: The History of American Epidemiology, 1952. C. V. Mosby Co., St.Louis, Mo.* Hamilton was for a short time Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service.He died in 1898.* Hamilton, John B.: The Epidemics of Chicago. Bull. Soc. Med. History, 1: 73, 191 1.6 Pickard, M. E., and Buley, R. C: The Midwest Pioneer: His Ills, Cures and Doctors.1945. Banta, Crawfordsville, Ind.