Medical America in the Nineteenth Century: Readings from the Literature

by Brieger, Gert H.

• ISBN13: 9780801892684
• ISBN10: 0801892686
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-01
• Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS

Summary

Students of the history of medicine and of American history in general will welcome this collection of thirty papers originally published in nineteenth-century medical journals and lay publications. Each highlights a specific problem or medical attitude of the period, and together they present an illuminating panorama of the medical profession and of public health in nineteenth-century America. Many of the problems faced by students, practitioners, and patients of the last century are surprisingly similar to those still being encountered today.Dr. Brieger has selected papers that illustrate the issues and developments in medical education, medical practice, surgery, hospitals, hygiene, and psychiatry. They range from Benjamin Rush's "On the Cause of Death in Diseases That Are Not Incurable," to a paper by Robert F. Weir "On the Antiseptic Treatment of Wounds, and Its Results" and an article by Stephen Smith, "New York the Unclean." The final selection, the Announcement of The Johns Hopkins Medical School, stands as a landmark that foretells the beginning of a new era.

Author Biography

Gert H. Brieger is the Johns Hopkins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Emeritus Editor of the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Medical Education
Introduction	p. 3
Practical Essays on Medical Education and the Medical Profession in the United States	p. 8
An Essay on the Means of Improving Medical Education and Elevating Medical Character	p. 24
Annual Catalogue of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in the City of New York, 1849-50	p. 37
Medical Literature
Report of the Committee on Medical Literature	p. 45
The Medical Profession
Introduction	p. 57
The Actual Condition of the Medical Profession in This Country; with a Brief Account of Some of the Causes Which Tend to Impede Its
Progress, and Interfere with Its Honors and Interests	p. 62
Orthopathy and Heteropathy	p. 75
Medical Practice
Introduction	p. 87
On the Causes of Death in Diseases That Are Not Incurable	p. 90
On Self-limited Diseases	p. 98
Remarks on the Chronic Fluxes of the Bowels	p. 107
An Inquiry into the Degree of Certainty in Medicine; and into the Nature and Extent of Its Power over Disease	p. 115
Nature and Art. Their Relative Influence in the Management of Diseases. Are They Antagonistic or Co-operative?	p. 127
Conservative Medicine	p. 134
Clinical Thermometry	p. 143
Some Forms of Dyspepsia	p. 152
Surgery
Introduction	p. 163
Three Cases of Extirpation of Diseased Ovaria	p. 166
Insensibility during Surgical Operations Produced by Inhalation	p. 169
The Surgeon	p. 176
Impressions of American Surgery	p. 182
The Factors of Disease and Death after Injuries, Parturition, and Surgical Operations	p. 190
On the Antiseptic Treatment of Wounds, and Its Results	p. 198
The Comparative Results of Operations in Bellevue Hospital	p. 201
Psychiatry
Introduction	p. 213
A Glance at Insanity, and the Management of the Insane in the American States	p. 215
Address before the Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the American Medico-Psychological Association	p. 222
Hospitals
Introduction	p. 233
Appendix to Plain Concise Practical Remarks on the Treatment of Wounds and Fractures, "Camp and Military Hospitals"	p. 237
Hospital Life in New York	p. 242
Hygiene
Introduction	p. 253
Why We Get Sick	p. 256
New York the Unclean	p. 263
The Germ Theory of Disease and Its Relations to Hygiene	p. 278
The Essential Conditions of Good Sanitary Administration	p. 293
The Registration of Vital Statistics	p. 301
Announcement of The Johns Hopkins Medical School	p. 313
Index	p. 331
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