History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

Medical Bacteriology 349"Indeed, with all due honor to Koch, and admiration for the most brilliantof experimental researches, we must admit that the discovery of thebacillus has chiefly an anatomical value: it localized in this organism theinfectious principle which had long been known to exist; it enables us todistinguish— ante- and post-mortem— infectioustuberculosis from inflammation,tubercular or other, due to other causes; but it does not as yet explainthe hereditary predisposition, nor why this infection occurs in oneman and not in another exposed to the same influences."Lantern slides of the photomicrographs used to illustrate the CartwrightLectures were shown to the Chicago Medical Society by Belfield onApril 16, 1883. Among them were illustrations of Actinomyces, and soonafterward he reported the finding of actinomycosis in cattle at the Chicagostockyards. Some years before he had demonstrated trichinae in hogs anddescribed migration of leukocytes in passive hyperemia. In the fall of 1883Belfield was appointed attending surgeon in the department of genitourinarydiseases in the Central Free Dispensary (Rush Medical College),and thenceforth he devoted himself mainly to work in this specialty, inwhich he rose to distinction. In 1891, however, he accepted appointment asprofessor of bacteriology in Rush Medical College, and during the nextten years he gave an annual course of lectures on bacteriology in its relationsto practical medicine and surgery. As a textbook he recommendedAbbott's Bacteriology. He did not introduce any practical work in connectionwith his lectures, and in1894 a separate laboratory course was establishedin the college under the direction of George H. Weaver.In 1883 another young Chicago physician, Henry Gradle (1855-1911),on his return after a period of study abroad, where he worked with Koch,also published a book on bacteria in relation to disease. This book wasbased on eight lectures by the author at the Chicago Medical College (nowNorthwestern University School of Medicine), where he had received hismedical education, graduating in 1874, and was professor of physiologyand hygiene from 1881 to 1895. From 1895 to 1906 he was professor ofophthalmology in the same school. The two books by Belfield and Gradleas well as the one by Black, which will be discussed later,are among theearliest books on bacteria and "the germ theory of disease" in English.Gradle's book gives an excellent summary of the knowledge of bacteria indisease at that time. As stated in the review of the book "the subject is systematicallyand thoroughly dealt with from beginning to end, but, whilecriticism is freely employed, it is, nevertheless, so fairly done and is so freefrom all personality, that the writer can not be accused of undue prejudice,although it is clearly evident that he is inclined to adopt the most advancedviews with regard to the etiology of the diseases which are discussed." Itnoteworthy that Gradle's book was translated into Japanese in 1887 by T.is