Iowa Homeopathic Medical Association

A number of practitioners of the Homeopathic school, from different parts of the State, assembled in Convention in this city yesterday, for the purpose of organizing a State Medical Society, to aid in disseminating the peculiar theories of the followers of Hahnemann.

The Convention met at 10 o’clock A. M.

On motion of Dr. Guilbert, of Dubuque, Dr. C. Pearson of Mt. Pleasant was appointed Chairman pro tem.

On motion of Dr. Paine, of Burlington, Dr. Austin, of Muscatine, was elected Secretary of the Association.

The chairman named the following committee on constitution and by-laws: Drs. Guilbert, of Dubuque, Paine, of Burlington, Worley, of Davenport, Waggoner, of Wyoming.

Drs. Worley and Paine were appointed a committee on organization.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

The constitution and by-laws, as reported by the committee on the subject, were accepted and adopted.

The committee on permanent organization made the following report:

Dr. Prince, of Davenport, President; Dr. Jackson, First Vice President; Dr. Austin, Second Vice President; Dr. Guilbert, Secretary and Treasurer.

CENSORS. – Drs. Worley, Pearson, Waggoner, Williams and Payne [sic].

Drs. Paine, Austin, and Pearson were appointed a committee on scientific subjects.

The committee reported the names of the following gentlemen, and the subject on which the report at the next annual meeting, as follows:

Dr. Paine, Physical Education; Dr. Guilbert, Diptheria; Dr. Worley, Stimulants; Dr. Austen, Surgical Diseases; Dr. Pearson, Hereditary Transmission of Disease; Dr. Waggoner, Epilepsy; Dr. Jackson, Pneumonia.

On motion of Dr. Guilbert, the place of holding the next annual meeting was fixed at Dubuque.

On motion of Dr. Austin, Dr. Pearson was appointed to deliver the next annual address.

An informal debate here took place on various medical subjects.

The Convention then adjourned.

The Society numbers about twenty-one members.  There are about thirty practitioners of the school in the State.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 22, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, February 22, 1863

Dress parade was dispensed with today on account of the smallpox scare. One case of smallpox was discovered in Company K. Instead of the regular inspection, the doctor vaccinated all who could not show a scar less than a year old.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 101

One of the humanitarian movements . . .

. . . of our times although little known as such can hardly be over-estimated in its importance upon the well-being of our widely scattered communities.  The population in the American States is in many sections so sparse that skillful Physicians are hardly available to them.  Vast numbers of our people, are obliged to employ in sickness such medical relief as they can hear from each other, or indeed any they can get from any quarter.  Hence arises the great consumption of Patent Medicines among us, greater by far than in any of the old countries, where skillful physicians are accessible to all classes.  Unprincipled men have long availed themselves of this necessity, to palm off their worthless nostrums, until the word has become synonymous with imposition and cheat.  One of our leading Chemists in the East, DR. AYERS, is pursuing a course which defeats this iniquity.  He brings not only his own, but the best skill of our times to bear, for the production of the best remedies which can be made.  These are supplied to the world, in a convenient form, at low prices, and the people will no more buy poor medicines instead of good, at the same cost, than they will bran instead of flour.  The inevitable consequence of this, is that the vile compounds that flood our country are discarded for those which honestly accomplish the ends in view, – which cure.  Do we over-estimate its importance, in believing that this prospect of supplanting the by-word medicines, with those of actual worth and virtue, is fraught with immense consequence for good, to the mass of our people. – Gazette and Chronicle, Peru, Ia.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 1, 1862, p. 2

Review: The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine

The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine

By Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein

It is doubtful that my great-great-grandfather, Alonzo Luce, a member of the 19th Illinois Infantry, ever participated in a battle.  He spent nearly the entirety of his three year enlistment rotating into and out of regimental and general hospitals.  Among his numerous medical complaints were catarrh, intermittent and remittent fever, acute bronchitis, and finally acute and chronic diarrhea.  Reading through his medical records, I can’t help to wonder what Alonzo Luce’s Civil War experience must have been like.

To have an understanding of the daily life of a soldier, be he either Confederate or Federal, during the American Civil War, one must have a basic knowledge of the medical terms and practices of the time.  That is where Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein’s “The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine” comes in very handy.

Entries in Ms. Schroeder-Lein’s encyclopedia cover many the diseases to which Civil War soldiers commonly fell victim.  There are many other entries covering Civil War battles, notable people, medicines, medical practices, hospitals and accoutrements.  Pretty much any question regarding the who, what, where and how of Civil War medicine can be found between the covers of her book.

Entries range from a paragraph to several pages, and each article is followed by a bibliography, usually citing at least three sources, and a “See Also” section, pointing the reader to at least five other entries in the encyclopedia.  At 421 pages, it is not an in-depth reference on the topic of Civil War medicine, nor was it meant to be.  But Ms. Schroeder-Lein does give her reader a broader understanding of Civil War era medicine by which one gains a broader understanding of the war itself and the experience of its participants.

ISBN 978-0765621306, M E Sharpe Inc., © 2008, 1st Paperback Edition, 2012, 421 pages, Photographs & Illustrations, Chronology, Bibliography & Index. $34.95.  To purchase a copy of this book please click HERE.

Special to New York Papers

(Special to Post.)

WASHINGTON, May 29 – The Intelligencer of this city states that Gen. McDowell is now at Manassas Junction with a sufficient force to aid in the capture of Gen. Jackson’s rebel army now in the Shenandoah Valley.

A gentleman just from Leesburgh reports that the rebels in that place had a grand jubilee on Sunday and Monday over the retreat of General Banks.

It is stated that medicines purchased in Baltimore for the rebels by their agents were got down to Jackson without capture.

The Military Committee of the House will report in favor of enlarging the locks of the Erie and Oswego Canal for military purposes.  The estimate cost of the enlargement is about 35,000,000

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 3

Patent Medicines

We have received a circular from a committee of patent medicine manufacturers, asking our influence with the members of Congress from this State to induce them to vote against a tax on patent medicines.  They urge that if the tax contemplated be levied on such medicines, it will drive them out of existence.  After an experience of ten years’ dealing in patent medicines, we are convinced that if they were driven out of existence, mankind would be the gainer by the operation.  And after twenty years’ experience in advertising them, whe have not found their manufacturers to be not only the most meager, but the most uncertain pay of any class of advertisers.  With our “experience,” then, instead of urging our members to abate the tax levied on patent medicines, we say to them, in the language of Shakespeare,

“Lay on, Macduff,”

Leaving our profane readers to supply the ellipsis.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, April 4, 1862, p. 2

Review: Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography By R. B. Bontecou

Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography By R. B. Bontecou

By Stanley B. Burns, M.D.

Of all the photographs taken during the Civil War, none are more compelling than the clinical photographs taken of the wounded soldiers.  A large number of these photographs were taken by Dr. Reed Bontecou, and of these, most were at one time in the collections of the Army Medical Museum.  Over the years, the museum dispersed many of these photographs out of their collection.

Dr. Stanley Burns, an ophthalmologist by trade, has spent a large portion of the last 35 years tracking down these photographs, collecting and preserving them.  A few of the photographs in his collection, known as the Burns Archive, have been published in various publications over the years, but most have not, that is until now.  With the publication of “Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography By R. B. Bontecou,” Dr. Burns has begun a to publish his collection.  This volume, the first of several projected, depicts portraits of soldiers, photographed vertically, partially clothed, often in their uniforms with their wounds exposed.  The soldiers represent 101 regiments, most were wounded in the final battles of the war, and each holds a chalkboard identifying them.

The first 53 pages of the book, cover the history of the photographs, how and why they were taken, a biography of Dr. Reed B. Bontecou, new weaponry vs. old tactics, views of death and sacrifice in Civil War America, the final battles of the war (from which Dr. Bontecou would acquire a large number of his subjects), and Harewood Hospital where Dr. Bontecou did most of his work.  The rest of the book is dedicated to the photographs of the wounded soldiers.

The photographs were originally carte de visites and Dr. Burns presents them a little less than double their original size of 2⅛ × 3½ inches.  There is one photograph per page, and each is accompanied by text (sometimes only the identification written on the chalkboards and other times notes that were either written on the photographs or in the albums containing them).

There are indices of the represented regiments (page 57) and the battles at which his subjects received their wounds (pages 103 & 104), and a short bibliography of primary sources.

It is safe to say that due in part to Dr. Bontecou’s work medical practices and procedures were greatly improved during the latter decades of the nineteenth century, and through Dr. Burns, the medical history of the Civil War will be preserved for future generations.  This book is not only a must have for students of the American Civil War, but also those interested in photographic and  medical history.

ISBN 978-1-936002-05-4, Burns Archive Press, © 2011, Hardcover, 6.75 x 6 inches, 168 pages, Photographs, Bibliography & Indices. $50.00

Washington, March 5 [1862]

A board of medical officers will convene at the naval asylum at Philadelphia on the 17^th inst., for the examination of candidates for admission to the medical corps of the navy.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, March 6, 1862, p. 1