History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

CHAPTER XVIIIMEDICAL BACTERIOLOGYNOTES ON THE HISTORY OF BACTERIOLOGYIN CHICAGOPRIOR TO THE ORGANIZATION OFBACTERIOLOGIC TEACHING(ABOUT 1890)*THEBy LUDVIG HEKTOEN, M.D.fearliest signs of any interest in bacteriology in Chicago appearto be occasional articles and notes on disease germs, septicemia, antisepticsurgery and related topics which were published in the local medicalpress, beginning about 1869. There are no indications, however, that anyone in Chicago was following closely and at first hand the early developmentsand applications of bacteriology in France, Germany and England.The names of Pasteur, Lister and Koch are barely mentioned in theChicago medical journals of the decade from 1869 to 1879. Bacteria andbacteriology were then unfamiliar words. It was at best a period of ignoranceand doubt concerning the germ theory of disease and infection. In1869 Edmund Andrews, a leading surgeon, writing about antiseptic surgery,concluded as follows:"On the whole, it must be acknowledged that the use of carbolic acidhas revolutionized certain branches of surgery, and enables us to save manylimbs and lives which would formerly have been lost. I would advise noone to make a hobby of it, but that it is a remarkable addition to theresources of our art is a fixed and undeniable fact."I. N. Danforth, in his articles on disease germs, referred especially toTyndall's work on dust and to Lister's address in 1867. In the choleraepidemic in Chicago in 1873 Danforth examined the lesions microscopically.N. S.Davis, a leading physician, made this statement about erysipelas:• Reprinted from Bull. Soc. Med. Hist. Chicago y. 3-21, 1937.fDr. Hektoen was one of the first to teach and to conduct research in the field ofbacteriology in Illinois. No one, therefore, was better fitted to write the early history ofthis subject. His paper is herewith reprinted—Editor343