Ohio History Journal

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THE BELMONT MEDICAL SOCIETY, 1847-1860

THE BELMONT MEDICAL SOCIETY, 1847-1860

AN EARLY COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY IN OHIO

 

By ROBERT G. PATERSON, PH. D.

 

At the Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876,

Dr. John S. Billings presented a review of Medical Literature and

Institutions1 for the hundred years, 1776 to 1876. In the course

of his review he took occasion to refer to the publications of the

Belmont County Medical Society in the following language:

A rare medical periodical and curiosity in its way is "The Belmont

Medical Journal," published at Bridgeport, Ohio, under the auspices of

the Belmont County Medical Society, 1858-60. With this belongs the

transactions of the same Society from 1847 to 1857, forming in all, three

small volumes in 12 mo. These publications are unique in their way, and

illustrate what can be done by a county medical society, composed entirely

of county practitioners.  They contain some amusing flights of rhetoric,

and some well-recorded cases, and many papers are interesting because it

is evident that they were written precisely as the authors talked.2

Such a statement coming from Dr. Billings upon such an

auspicious occasion raised these volumes from a local to a na-

tional plane and so this contribution to medical history in Ohio

by a county medical society becomes important and needs to be

recorded as fully as it is possible to do so.

The Ohio Committee on Medical History and Archives is

deeply indebted to Homer S. West, M. D.,3 St. Clairsville, Ohio,

for the gift of several volumes relating to this particular episode.

His donations were made in memory of his father, Henry West,

M. D., St. Clairsville, a charter member of the Belmont Medical

Society.

 

1 John S. Billings, A Century of American Medicine 1776-1876 (Philadelphia, 1876),

chapter on "Literature and Institutions."

2 Ibid., 335.

3 Homer S. West, M.D., was born February 18, 1874, at St. Clairsville, Ohio.

He graduated from Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, in 1894 and received his

M.D. degree from New York City University Medical College in 1897. He is the

son of Dr. Henry West who had nine sons; five of whom were pharmacists and four

of whom were physicians. At the present writing, Homer S. West, M.D., is the

Health Commissioner of Belmont County.

 

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