History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

34oHistory of Medical Practice in Illinoisceiving his appointment as pathologist at Cook County Hospital onMarch 28, 1877, Danforth had been pathologist at St. Luke's Hospital inChicago for some time. In that institution, however, the autopsies werevery few, were generally made hastily and surreptitiously, and never in thepresence of students. This was a general practice in all hospitals during thattime. Also at this period there were no laws or regulations for obtaining adivision of anatomic material between the medical schools. Every Professorof Anatomy and every Pathology Demonstrator became a sort of pirate whoprowled about in the dead houses of hospitals in search of teaching material.An "upheaval" in the staff of the Cook County Hospital during thespring or summer of 1878 terminated the Medical Board and forced the dismissalof the pathologist. The work of Dr. Danforth, however, prepared thebackground for Dr. Christian Fenger who, in the years 1877 to 1902, reallycreated pathology in Chicago and thereby advanced the entire practice ofmedicine in the State of Illinois. His first appointment at Cook CountyHospital began in the spring of 1878, first as pathologist and later as surgeon.Then followed the splendid growth of pathology in Chicago underDrs. Ludvig Hektoen, E. R. LeCount, H. Gideon Wells, Robert Zeit, R. H.Jaffe and others, which has carried into the generation of pathologists nowactive in Chicago.Chicago Pathological SocietyFollowing the great Chicago fire in October 1871, the Chicago MedicalSociety, owing to the devastation downtown, met for several years on thewest side of the City. In this Society was a small group of clinicians whobecame interested in pathology and fostered the study of diseased tissues,then usually obtained by necropsy examinations. About April 10, 1878,another society—the West Chicago Medical Society—was organized, theimmediate occasion for this being the migration of the original ChicagoMedical Society from the west to the south side of the city. Many membersin this new Society were interested in the study of pathology. Therefore, in1881, at the suggestion of Dr. H. M. Lyman, then President of the Society,its name was changed from the West Chicago Medical Society to theChicago Pathological Society. The progress of this new Society through theyears and even up to the present time reflects a growth of interest in pathologythat penetrated the practice of medicine throughout the entire state.In the early stage, this interest was revealed in the Chicago medical schools,first on the west side and then to the others. From these foci the interestspread into the hospitals and clinical fields of Chicago and thence graduallyinto the larger communities of the state.During the years 1878 to 1883, the meetings of the group on the west side