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.
310
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 311
A close examination of the volumes
reveals guiding minds
and spirits quite unusual for the times.
Volume 1 covers the
Transactions of the Society for the years from 1847 to 1854-5
inclusive. It contains the Preamble,
Constitution and By-Laws of
the Belmont Medical Society Together
with a Code of Medical
Ethics and a Bill of Rates Adopted by
Said Society. These were
signed by Ephraim Gaston, M.D.,
President, and Henry West,
M. D., Secretary, and dated at St.
Clairsville, Ohio, April 7, 1847.
This pamphlet of sixteen pages was
printed at St. Clairsville, Ohio,
by Heaton and Gressinger in 1847.
There follows a pamphlet of twenty-two
pages entitled, Code
of Ethics of the American Medical
Association Adopted by the
Belmont Medical Society, and ordered
to be printed For the Use
of the Members and For Private
Distribution. This was printed
by Dunham and Gressinger at St.
Clairsville, Ohio, in 1849. Then
follow the Transactions for 1847
covering sixty-six pages; fifty-
nine pages for 1848, printed by Horton
J. Howard, St. Clairs-
ville, Ohio; seventy-six pages for 1849-1850, printed by J.
S.
Affleck, Brideport, Ohio, who continues
to be the printer there-
after; for 1850-1851, there are ninety
pages together with a gen-
eral index of the Transactions from
1847 through 1851; sixty-five
pages for 1851-1852; fifty-five pages
for 1853-1854, and one hun-
dred and seventy-two pages for
1854-1855. This makes a grand
total of six hundred and twenty-two
pages.4
Reception of the Transactions in
the medical world was
cordial. An example of the current
comment follows:
Dr. Smith, the Editor of the Boston
Medical and Surgical Journal,
who has just made a tour of Europe, Asia
and Africa and is withal one
of the most accomplished Physicians of
the Age, thus speaks of the Belmont
Medical Society:
"For a small unpretending
association, there is not one in the country
that accomplishes more for the
advancement and respectability of the pro-
fession than the Belmont Medical Society
of Ohio. From 1847 to 1851,
the transactions already published,
would do honor to a much older and
more prominent body."5
4 J. G. Affleck, ed, Transactions of the Belmont Medical Society from 1847-55:
with Which is Bound the
Constitution and By-Laws . . . Together with a Code of
Medical Ethics and a Bill of Rates
Adopted by Said Society. 2-vols.
(Bridgeport,
Ohio), cited in Index-Catalogue of
the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office,
United States Army (1st series). I, 863.
5 St. Clairsville Gazette and
Citizen, Sept. 19, 1851.
312 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY THE CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS OF THE BELMONT MEDICAL SOCIETY, TOGETHER WITH A CODE OF MEDICAL ETHICS, AND A BOLL OF RATES, ADOPTED BY SAID SOCIETY. ST. CLAIRSVILLE O. PRINTED BY HEATON AND GRESSINGER, 1847. |
|
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 313
Volume 2 embraces The Belmont
Medical Journal--A
Monthly Periodical Published under
the Patronage of the Belmont
Medical Society.6 Drs. James M. McConahey and John G. Af-
fleck were selected as editors for the
first year and Drs. William
Estep and Ephraim Gaston for the second year. The publisher
was J. G. Affleck at Bridgeport, Ohio.
The period covers June,
1858, to May, 1860. An
"Explanation" at the beginning of the
volume is as follows:
The Belmont Medical Journal was
commenced in June 1858, termining
in July 1860--being a substitute for the
"Belmont Medical Transactions,"
a yearly issue published also by the
Society, from 1847 to 1858.
According to this statement Volume 1,
which ends in 1855
should have had three more transactions
in it; one for 1855-1856;
one for 1856-1857; and one for
1857-1858. Either these are miss-
ing or there was a break in the
continuous publication. Again
Volume 2, which contains the Journal,
begins with June, 1858,
and the last number is dated May, not
July, 1860. It must have
been the last number because it contains
the Valedictory. The
motto
placed at its mast-head was "Rerum Cognoscere Causas--
To Know the Causes of Things." The
editors stated that the
purpose in establishing a Journal
to replace the Transactions was
"to diffuse the experience of the
Society still more extensively--
to lay before the people the subject of
Health." Again the printer
was J. G. Affleck, Bridgeport, Ohio.
Current comment on the
"Journal" in the medical press
throughout the country was laudatory in
the extreme. Dr. J. W.
Hamilton, editor of the Ohio Medical
and Surgical Journal, had
this to say:
Belmont Medical Journal.--This is the
organ of the Belmont Medical
Society. Just think of it, Belmont
County not only sustains a Medical
Society, but a Medical Journal also.
This we consider decidedly plucky.
6 Belmont
Medical Journal: A Monthly Periodical Published under the Patron-
age of the Belmont Medical
Society. Edited by James M. McConahey, John G.
Affleck, W. M. Estep and Ephraim Gaston,
I-II (June 1858-May 1860), cited in
loc. cit.
The Ohio Committee on Medical History
and Archives also received from Dr.
Homer S. West the "Record Book of
the Belmont Medical Society" beginning
February 30, 1847, and continuing to
January 20, 1859, in the handwritings of the
various secretaries. As will be noted
the minutes record the first meeting as being
held on February 30, 1847, whereas the
public notice of the first meeting is for
January 30, 1847, and the report of the
meeting is found in the Belmont Chronicle for
February 12, 1847.
314 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY |
|
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 315
It is a monthly of 16 pages, the
fourteenth number of which is before us.
Nor is this all. Belmont County gives this
Journal a large subscription
list, almost all of which are promptly
paying subscribers. Belmont does
but little by way of contribution to the
wind work of the profession but
in a quiet way is doing a good work
worthy not only of commendation but
of imitation.7
A public call for a meeting of the
medical men in Belmont
County8 to be held in St.
Clairsville, Ohio, was published in the
public press9 on
January 29, 1847. The meeting was held on
January 30, 1847, at the National Hotel,
St. Clairsville, Ohio.10 Dr.
Clarkson Schooly, of Loydsville, was
selected as chairman and Dr.
Smith Holloway, St. Clairsville, as
secretary of the meeting. Sev-
eral committees were appointed. On
Constitution--Drs. Hewet-
son, Holloway and Walker. On a Code of
Ethics--Drs. West,
Alexander and McConahey. On a Fee
Bill--Drs. Estep, C.
Schooly and L. Schooly. A resolution was
adopted to publish
the proceedings of the Society in
"The Belmont Chronicle" and
the "St. Clairsville Gazette."
Those present at this meeting were:
Drs. Ephraim Gaston, Joseph Hewetson,
John Alexander, Jo-
sephus Walker, Smith Holloway, Henry
West, John Campbell,
Thomas Irwin, James D. Coleman, Harvey,
J. Bailey, P. R. Chap-
man, David Tidball, William Estep, C.
Schooly, L. J. Dallas and
R. M. Andrews. Thirteen additional
physicians signed the Con-
stitution on December 6, 1847, making in
all a total membership
of thirty-nine.
The origin of this county society was
bound up intimately
7 Ohio Medical and Surgical Journal (Columbus), XII (1859-60), 79.
8 Colonel C. L. Poorman says, About the
year 1835 the first attempt to organize a
county medical society was made. Dr.
Evans of Morristown was its secretary and its
meetings were held in St. Clairsville. A
second organization of the medical practi-
tioners of Belmont County, took place
February 30 (sic) 1847 at St. Clairsville. The
last election of officers occurred at
Belmont April 16, 1867 (sic). The last meeting was
held at Barnesville, January 20, 1859
(sic). C. L. Poorman, "History of Belmont
County," in Brant & Fuller,
pub., History of the Upper Ohio Valley . . . (Madison,
1890), II, 795-9.
The subsequent history of the medical
organization in Belmont reveals that
in 1870, Belmont County joined in the
"Medical and Chirurgical Society of Eastern
Ohio," and finally on December 5,
1885, the organization of the Belmont County
Medical Society was initiated and
continues to date.
9 Belmont Chronicle, Friday, January 29, 1847, p. 3.
"Medical Notice
"The physicians of Belmont County
are respectfully requested to meet in St.
Clairsville on Saturday, January 30,
1817, at the House of Thomas Johnson, for
the purpose of organizing themselves into a Society for
their mutual benefit, and
for the advancement of the Medical
Science. It is hoped that every physician in
the County will be in attendance.
January 18, 1847."
10 Belmont Chronicle, February
12, 1847. p. 3, reports the results of this meeting.
316
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
with two factors--the medical
developments in the State of Ohio
as a whole and the sources of influence
connected with the medical
centers at Cincinnati, Lexington,
Kentucky and Columbus, where
medical faculties exerted a wide
influence. A few of the physicians
in Belmont County were connected with
the development of the
Medical Convention of Ohio which
flourished from 1835 to 1851.
Here they came in contact with such
notable leaders of medical
thought in Ohio as Daniel Drake, Samuel
P. Hildreth, Peter Al-
len, William Awl and Robert Thompson.
Also a number of the
Belmont physicians received their
medical degrees from the Medi-
cal College of Ohio at Cincinnati; the
Transylvania Medical Col-
lege at Lexington, Kentucky; and the
Starling Medical College,
at Columbus.
Convening on March 1, 1847, the Belmont
Medical Society
was formed by the adoption of the
Constitution. A corrected
roll of members was drawn up containing
a total of fifty-three
physicians in the county. Examination of
the "Preamble, Con-
stitution and By-Laws," reveals
that the Preamble stated:
We, the undersigned, Practitioners of
Physic and Surgery in the
County of Belmont, and its vicinity, as
well as for the purpose of promot-
ing harmony and good fellowship, as of
elevating the cause of Medical
Science, and its collateral branches,
associate ourselves under the following
Constitution.
The Constitution provided: "That,
the Association shall be
denominated the Belmont Medical Society";
for the usual officers;
that for membership, "any regular
Practitioner of Medicine, in
good standing, may become a member of
this Society by signing
this Constitution, paying into the
Treasury Fifty-cents, and com-
plying with such other regulations as
may be hereafter provided
by the By-Laws of this Society";
that, the Society should "have
the power to form a Library and a
Cabinet of Specimens in the
varying departments of natural science,
both from the donations
of individuals and other Associations
and by levying of fines and
taxes, agreeable to the regulations
which may be provided by
the By-Laws of this Society"; that,
"the Society shall hold at least
four meetings a year"; that,
"the annual meeting shall be holden
on the 1st Monday in March, and the
others on the 1st Mondays
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 317
of June, September and December";
that, "there shall be two
standing committees--1st on Quackery;
2nd on Improvements in
the Science of Medicine and such other
committees as the interests
of the Society may require."11
The original Constitution was adopted
March 1, 1847, and
was signed by twenty-six physicians.12 It was amended
December
6, 1847, to change the meetings from the
first Monday to the first
Thursday in the months of March, June,
September and Decem-
ber. It was amended again on March 7,
1850, to provide for
meetings on the first Thursday in April,
July, October and January.
The first "Code of Ethics"
adopted by the Society on April
7, 1847, came beyond doubt from the
Medical Convention of
Ohio which was organized in 1835. The
two codes are exact
duplicates of each other. Furthermore,
there were three Belmont
County physicians in attendance at the
second meeting of the
Medical Convention of Ohio held in
Columbus, Ohio, January
1-3, 1838. They were Thomas Carroll,
Ephraim Gaston and Isaac
Hoover. Of these, Ephraim Gaston was the
only charter member
of the Belmont Medical Society. Dr.
Hoover joined the Society
at a later date and Dr. Carroll never
joined since he had moved to
Cincinnati in 1841. Following the
organization of the American
Medical Association13 on May
5, 1847, at Philadelphia, the Belmont
Medical Society adopted the "Code
of Ethics" of the national body.
By inference, therefore, it must have
been Dr. Gaston who
had the copy of the "Code of
Ethics" of the Medical Convention
of Ohio. He was an active member of the
Medical Convention
of Ohio from 1838 to 1851. He was
elected president of the
Convention at its meeting in Columbus
May 20-22, 1845, which
11 The Constitution and By-Laws of
the Belmont Medical Society Together
With a Code of Medical Ethics and a
Bill of Rates Adopted by Said Society (St.
Clairs-
ville, 1847), 3, 4, 5.
12 The signers of the Constitution who
became charter members were in the order
of signature: Ephraim Gaston,
Morristown; Lindley Schooly, Belmont; Josephus
Walker, St. Clairsville; P. R. Chapman, Hendrysburg;
Wm. Estep, Loydsville; Clark-
son Schooly, Loydsville; Henry West, St.
Clairsville; David Tidball, Hendrysburg;
E. P. Birdsong, Bellaire; George W. Lyle,------------
Smith Holloway,
St. Clairsville; Jesse Bailey, Flushing;
R. M. Andrews, Bellaire; Benajah P. Steele.
St. Clairsville; John Campbell,
Uniontown; Wm. Schooly, Somerton; John A.
Weyer,----------; Thomas Irwin,
Uniontown; William Milligan, ------------; James
D. Coleman, Centerville; Simon B. West,
Martinsville; Harrison Wilson, Center-
ville; James M. McConahey, Bridgeport;
Joseph Hewetson, St. Clairsville; L. J.
Dallas, Sewellsville; and John
Alexander, Flushing.
13 N. S. Davis, History of the American Medical
Association, from Its Organ-
ization up to January, 1855. Edited by S. W. Butler, M. D. (Philadelphia, 1855).
318 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
was two years before the organization of the Belmont Medical
Society.
The Bill of Rates adopted by the Society14 covers
almost
every conceivable contingency arising from general
practice. The
main headings are: Practice of Physic, Obstetrics; Shop
Fee Bill;
and Surgical Operations.
Under the heading of Practice of Physic are found the
fol-
lowing:
For each visit
in town
........................... .50
For visit in the country for the first mile..........
1.00
Venesection and extracting teeth .................. .25
Vaccination ..................................... .50
Gonorrhoea, fee in advance ........................
5.00 to 20.00
Syphilis,
fee in advance ........................... 20.00 to 50.00
Under Obstetrics are found the following items:
Natural case of delivery.......................... 4.00 to
5.00
Preternatural cases............................... 8.00
Forceps used..................................... 10.00
The Shop Fee Bill provides for the prices of dispensing
medicines as the following items will illustrate:
Emetics and cathartics, each .......................
.25
Tinctures, per oz.................................. .25
Anti-spasmodics, per oz ......................... .25 to
.50
Febrifuge
powders,per oz......................... .50
Tonic compound, sufficient for pint of liquor ........ .50
Vessicating & strengthening plasters, each
.......... .25
to .50
Under Surgical Operations, an extended list of
operations are
provided, among which are to be found:
For capital operations: Amputations, Lythotomy, Hernia,
Tre-
phinning,
etc., from
.................................
50.00 to 100.00
For adjusting fractures (each detailed) ...........
5.00 to 20.00
Operations Important on the Eye................. 25.00
to 50.00
For Dressing Recent Wounds .................... 1.00 to 5.00
Tying large arteries in cases of recent wounds......
15.00 to 25.00
Operations
on Hair Lips......................... 10.00
to 20.00
There follows a series of general statements touching
upon
14 The Constitution and
By-Laws of the Belmont Medical Society, . . . 1847,
pp. 12-15.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 319
payments in cash, discounts, collections
and the general business
conduct of the physician.
Throughout the life of the Society the
reports of the two
standing committees--on Quackery and on
Improvements in the
Science of Medicine--were made each
year. All of these reports
afford an excellent measure of the
alertness of the members as
to what was transpiring in the medical
world. One cannot read
these reports without a full
consciousness of how much in earnest
these country practitioners were in the
pursuit of their profession.
Both the Transactions and the Journal
contain numerous
case reports prepared and presented by
the members. These re-
ports reflect the problems confronting
the profession in its at-
tempts to solve the various afflictions
which they were called upon
to treat. They also reflect the bias of the members in their
therapeutic measures.
At a meeting held at St. Clairsville on
March 2, 1848, the
Belmont Medical Society resolved to have
itself incorporated ac-
cording to law. The entry of
incorporation on the county records
is as follows:
State of Ohio, Belmont Co. S. S.
Recorder's office at St. Clairsville
Entered for Recording March 15, 1848 and
recorded 16th do.
H. M. Ward, Recorder Bel. Co. O.
It will be recalled that the Medical
Convention of Ohio was
organized in 1835 and that in 1846 the
Ohio State Medical Society
was organized. Between 1846 and 1851
these two bodies held
their respective meetings concurrently.
In 1851 the Convention
merged with the State Society.15 At the annual meeting of the
Ohio State Medical Society held in
Columbus on June 3-5, 1851,
the Belmont Medical Society was admitted
as the fourteenth
auxiliary of the state body through the
presentations made by
Dr. Robert Thompson of Columbus.16 The Belmont Medical
Society continued in this relation until
its demise on April 19,
1860.
15 Robert G. Paterson, "The First
Medical Convention in Ohio," Ohio State
Medical Journal, XXXIV (May, 1938), 560-1.
16 Minutes of the Ohio
State Medical Society
held in Columbus, June, 1851
(Columbus, Ohio, 1851).
320
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The final number of the Belmont
Medical Journal, May, 1860,
says:
Valedictory
With this number closes not only our
editorial charge of the Journal,
but the existence of the Journal also;
the latter we regret. Believing that
soon after the Journal ceases to be, the
Society will also cease to exist.
The cause of this failure may properly
be attributed to bad Financiering,
a part of the members being permitted to
have the privileges and benefits
of the Society for years without paying
a farthing, while the working few
who labored for the good of the Society
have had to bear a pretty heavy
tax. . . . There seems to have been a
general lethargy without a remedy
to meet it, and we suppose will continue
till the Society ceases to exist, then
a reaction will take place, and the
members wake up.17
The Belmont Medical Society did cease to
exist in 1860.
It is generally supposed the approach of
the Civil War and con-
ditions of unrest connected with it were
responsible for the
suspension, but another opinion
attributed the suspension to an
attack made upon Dr. Henry West for his
recognition of a young
practitioner by a consultation with him
and the excitement in-
cident to the controversy.
An examination of the phrase, "the
working few who
labored for the good of the
Society," reveals the following indi-
viduals:
Ephraim Gaston (1799-1868),
Morristown, was the first
president of the Society in 1847 and the
last in 1860. He began
the practice of medicine at Morristown
in 1825. He attended the
second meeting of the Medical Convention
in 1838. He was ad-
mitted to membership in the Ohio State
Medical Society June 6,
1849. That same year he was elected second vice-president of
the
State Society and in 1851 to the third
vice-presidency. In 1858
he was appointed one of the editors of
the Belmont Medical Jour-
nal. The evidence seems to indicate that he was the moving
spirit
in the Society. Throughout the Transactions
and the Journal he
made contributions in the way of case
reports, committee reports
on Quackery and the Improvement of
Medical Science.
17 Belmont Medical Journal, May, 1860, p.
177.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 321 Henry West (1810-1887), St. Clairsville, was the first sec- retary of the Society in 1847 and served in this capacity from 1853 to 1858. He was elected president in 1848 and again in 1858-1859. In 1827 he studied medicine with Dr. Job. Wilson |
|
at Short Creek, Virginia, and with Dr. Will Hamilton at Mt. Pleasant where he began the practice of medicine. In 1830-1831 he attended his first course of lectures at the Medical College of Ohio and located at Bridgeport. Again in 1834-1835 he attended his second course of lectures at the Medical College of Ohio and received his M. D. degree. In 1845 he removed to St. Clairsville where he practiced the remainder of his life. He served two terms in the House of Representatives as a Democrat from 1838- 1841. He enlisted as Surgeon of the 98th Regiment, O. V. I., in 1862. In 1865-1866 he was elected State Senator on the Repub- |
322
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
lican ticket. He was elected Mayor of
St. Clairsville seven times.
Dr. West had nine sons, five of whom
were druggists and four
physicians. His steadfast support of the Society is attested
through the Transactions and the Journal.18
John Gladstone Affleck (1799-1877),
Bridgeport, served as
vice-president of the Society in 1849;
secretary in 1851-1852;
treasurer from 1855-1860. He acted as
publisher of the Transac-
tions from 1854 to 1858 and publisher as well as one of the
editors
of the Journal from 1858 to 1860.
He was born in Drummelzier,
Scotland, and emigrated to America in
1819. About 1825 he
settled at Barnesville, then moved to
Somerton and finally about
1840 to Bridgeport where he died. He is
described as "by far the
most learned physician that ever resided
in Barnesville, but having
a large fortune and being a perfect
cormorant after knowledge,
the dry, monotonous drudgery of the
profession could not be en-
dured by him and he soon abandoned
it."19 So he entered the
printing and publishing business. He
edited The National His-
torian in St. Clairsville from July 16, 1831, to June, 1833;
then
True Blue at Bridgeport from
1840-1846; then The Belmont
Farmer; The Dog and The Cocoanut; all containing a series of
reflections on the follies of mankind,
taking his characters from
well-known Bridgeporters His mother was first cousin to
Premier Gladstone. In all his
contributions to the work of the
Society, Dr. Affleck was ever courageous
and pungent in his
opinions.
William Estep (1815-1880), Loydsville,
was elected secretary
of the Society in 1850-1851;
vice-president in 1856-1858; and was
one of the editors of the Journal. He
settled at Loydsville in 1840
and received his M. D. degree from
Starling Medical College in
1850. He was admitted to membership in
the Ohio State Medical
Society in 1852. His contributions to
the Transactions and the
Journal were constant and in many cases pointed.
James M. McConahey (1809-1870),
Bridgeport, was elected
vice-president of the Society in
1850-1851; president in 1855-
18 Committee of the
Belmont County Medical Society, Memoir
of Dr. Henry West
(St. Clairsville, O., 1891), 19.
19 J. A. Caldwell, History of Belmont
and Jefferson Counties, Ohio (Wheeling,
W.
Va., 1880), 317.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 323
1856 and was one of the editors of the Journal.
He studied medi-
cine with Dr. William Hamilton of Mt.
Pleasant and graduated
M. D. from the Medical College of Ohio.
He was appointed one
of the editors of the Journal and
his contributions of case reports
were always interesting.
These men then appear to be the
stalwarts in the organization
and maintenance of the Belmont Medical
Society. Their zeal for
the work never flagged. When it is
recalled that the population
of the county in 1850 was only 35,378,
the achievement of these
physicians becomes remarkable. One thing
in their favor was
the strategic location of the county. It
bordered on the Ohio
River which provided the first means of
transportation from the
East to the "Ohio Country";
then on Zane's Trace, the first road
through Ohio from the East; and finally,
on the National Road.
This meant that it became one of the
natural areas for the rise
of settlements and that it received the
stimulus of ideas from
the outside world.
That the organized activity of the
Belmont Medical Society
was unique in the United States at the
time is attested by the
attention paid to it by Dr. Billings
before the International Medical
Congress at Philadelphia in 1876 as well
as the printed record of
its proceedings in the Transactions and
the Journal.
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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