History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

266 History of Medical Practice in Illinois(1896) with Drs. Boerne Bettman, William L. Noble and G. F. Hawley.In 1897, the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital was incorporatedwith postgraduate outpatient teaching, but no hospital facilities wereacquired until1901. These institutions all specialized in turning out specialistsin record time—from three weeks on up. In its first twenty-five years,the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital turned out over 3000 such"short term" eye, ear, nose and throat specialists. This method of trainingwould scarcely be condoned by the American Board of Ophthalmologytoday but the inadequacy of training opportunities of the era must beborne in mind. Indeed, many specialists of the day were largely self-trainedor had obtained their experience as assistant to some established ophthalmologist.The Prevention of Blindness and Care of the BlindTrachoma came early to Illinois and became rampant in certain counties,especially in southern Illinois. It was a scourge not to be eradicated untillong after 1900 when, through the instigation of the Illinois Society forthe Prevention of Blindness, trachoma clinics were established under thedirection of the Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary. In 1900, a studyof the incidence of trachoma in various counties as determined by thecases seen at the Infirmary between 1880 and 1900, showed that the highestincidence of hospitalized cases had come from Jasper County which, witha population of 20,160, had sent 77 cases, an incidence of 0.382 per centas compared to 0.013 per cent for Cook County. Aside from WinnebagoCounty at the northern border of the state, which had an incidence of0.167 P er cent » the disease was most widespread in the southern half of thestate. 5 The story of the control of this affliction is fascinating and dramatic,but it belongs largely to the 1900-1950 period, as does the account of theprevention of ophthalmia neonatorum.The Illinois School for the Blind at Jacksonville was opened on June 5,1848, as the Illinois Institution for the Education of the Blind. Theeleventh such school in the United States, it was at first privately supportedby gifts from citizens of Jacksonville and Morgan County. The instigator,who served as the first Principal, was Samuel Bacon, then twenty-six yearsof age and blind since the age of twelve. On his way to visit relatives inGalena from his home in Cortland, Ohio, he stopped off to visit the newinstitution in Jacksonville (the State Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb)under the misapprehension that it was a school for the blind. Dauntlesslyhe remained there to organize such a school. In 1849, tne new school wastaken over by the State of Illinois and, in 1905, the name was changed to5For a different approach to the trachoma problem, the reader is referred to Chapter IIin this Volume.—Editor