Ohio History Journal

394 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

practice. While in the early 1890's they subscribed to the theory of

"laudable pus," this readily gave way by 1895 to aseptic surgery

and its practices. As reports from laboratories became available,

and through succeeding years, our medical schools steadily followed

the trend outlined by the Council on Medical Education and Hos-

pitals of the American Medical Association and readily accepted

discoveries in the field of therapeutics and in the field of surgery.

As an aid to this trend I might call attention to the creation

of the state medical board in 1896. This department assisted

organized medicine in establishing standards of medical education

through the recognition of medical schools and the enforcement of

the law governing medical licensure. I served as assistant secretary

of the state medical board at the time of its organization in 1896

and compiled the first annual report, which was submitted by Dr.

Frank Winders, its first secretary. After a period of eighteen

months I returned to private practice and fortunately, or unfor-

tunately, became involved in many of the epidemics which pre-

vailed from 1898.

The first one which engaged my attention was an epidemic

of smallpox, mild in character and widely prevalent in Ohio.

There was practically no mortality from this outbreak, and for

that reason considerable difficulty was experienced by the local

health department in the enforcement of a general vaccination

decree. The state board of health had like difficulty in gaining

support from the physicians generally, many of them believing that

the mild type of the epidemic would serve the same purpose of

immunization that could be obtained from vaccination.

In 1899 Dr. W. D. Deuschle, health officer in Columbus, pre-

vailed upon me to accept a position with the Columbus health

department. After my service of almost two years, the mild out-

break was controlled, and I again returned to private practice.

Some two years later I was recalled, and while a mild type was

prevalent, there was introduced into the picture a severe type of

the disease which was imported from Pittsburgh by a hobo who

stopped at Haig's Mission, a rooming place for floaters. He became

ill within a week after his arrival and died within two days, before

eruption, and his death certificate stated that he died from menin-

PREVENTION OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES 395

gitis. Within two weeks a series of severe cases developed, and it

then became apparent that two strains of the same disease were

prevalent at the same time. Four hundred and twenty-eight cases

were reported and fifty-nine victims died. In this epidemic we

encountered all of the various types of smallpox described by

Sydenham-purpura variolosa, hemorrhagic smallpox, confluent

smallpox, and a type I have found described only in Sydenham,

wherein the disease, instead of progressing normally, changed dur-

ing the progress of the vesicular stage by the contents of the

vesicle becoming absorbed. All of this type, as well as all vic-

tims of the purpura variolosa, succumbed. Needless to remark, with

the appearance of the severe type, vaccination was no longer re-

sisted, and the epidemic was brought to an end. This was in 1903.

Shortly thereafter Columbus was visited by a severe type of

scarlet fever which cost the lives of a number of prominent adults.

The epidemic was of short duration.

In February 1904, an explosive outbreak of typhoid fever oc-

curred. Columbus at that time had two water supplies: one from

the raw Scioto River and the other obtained from wells along

Alum Creek. Without warning approximately 100 cases were re-

ported to the health department within a single day, and in a short

period of time 1,500 cases developed and 166 deaths resulted. A

considerable time was spent in making investigation as to its source.

It was finally attributed to a broken bulkhead on the grounds of

the Columbus State Hospital which deflected the sewage into the

Scioto River immediately opposite the intake of the Columbus water

supply. Several cases of typhoid were found among the inmates

of the institution. I might comment that while 1,500 actual cases

were reported, there were fully as many more of a mild walking

type which were, I believe, erroneously diagnosed as influenza.

Prior to the outbreak of this epidemic, the state board of

health at the insistence of Dr. Probst had obtained additional legis-

lation giving it supervision of sewage and water supplies, and a

campaign was undertaken to provide Columbus with a filtration

plant. I am sorry to admit that our medical leaders were in

opposition, and many of them alleged that the use of chemicals

employed in the filtration was injurious to the health of the people.

396 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

However, after a campaign of education the matter came to a

vote and was carried. The filtration plant was completed in 1908,

and since that time Columbus has been practically free from

typhoid fever.

I find I have gone too fast in this reminiscence and overlooked

some statements which should have been included. The first labora-

tory installed by the state board of health was in 1898. Prior to

that the laboratory work was undertaken by Dr. A. M. Bleile, who

was connected with Starling Medical College; Dr. J. H. J. Upham,

who was a teacher at Starling and made bacteriological examina-

tions; and Professor Curtis C. Howard, who had the laboratory

work in chemistry. The laboratory connected with the Columbus

board of health was established in the same year, and the first man

to serve there was Dr. Harvey C. Fraher. At his death he was

succeeded by Dr. Ernest Scott, who later became the head of the

department of pathology in the College of Medicine of Ohio State

University.

Very little abdominal surgery was done before 1890, but by

1895 our surgeons kept step with surgery, under aseptic precau-

tions, as it was practiced in the larger medical centers. At all

times, I believe, surgery here kept in step with that practiced else-

where.

In the field of therapeutics, or medical practice, the same trans-

formation occurred--empiric medicine gradually gave way to a

more scientific approach to the treatment of diseases as their causes

became known. The employment of vaccines and serums and the

use of instruments of precision not available at an earlier period

were accepted when their value was established. This, of course,

has raised the general average of medical service and made avail-

able to the whole profession a better quality of service than was

formerly given by the medical wizards who had to rely in great

extent on their six senses.

From the preceding statements you will conclude that I am

an optimist so far as progress in the field of medicine and surgery

is concerned. In a broad sense we are still pioneers attacking the

frontier of disease and death in the operating rooms and at the

PREVENTION OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES 397

bedside. Our research workers are making many contributions

capable of being used by the profession generally. Our sur-

geons advance continuously to perform miraculous operations which

would never have been contemplated at an earlier period. Our

medical schools are giving a constantly improved course of instruc-

tion for the medical men of tomorrow. When one scans the record

of improvement and achievement, he becomes enthusiastic in his

belief that an untrammeled profession is achieving far more to

relieve disease and suffering than a regimented one could pos-

sibly do.

Laws governing medical licensure in America have served to

assist the medical educator in his efforts to improve medical service.

In 1896 the original law recognized over 150 medical schools.

Many of them were found, on surveys, to be unworthy of recog-

nition, and in 1908, after the report of the Flexner Committee, the

standards in medical education, both preliminary and professional,

were raised. Many schools went out of existence or were consoli-

dated. In the following years, after other technical surveys, the

schools which were recognized were forced, because of the cost of

maintaining higher standards, to become associated with the uni-

versities. This is the history of our own medical school, which

was organized in 1913 by merger to become the College of Medicine

of the Ohio State University and is at present undergoing a build-

ing program which promises to make it one of the leading medical

and health centers of the country.

While medical education today offers every opportunity to

develop the natural ability of the student, I hope it will not enter-

tain the delusion that it can make a genius of him. The modern

university medical school is recognized as a center of medical learn-

ing and the source of the highest standards of medical practice.

Its influence should be extended in advancing community inter-

ests and health administration, the latter through a program of

health education for the profession and the public as well.

NOTES ON THE PREVENTION OF COMMUNICABLE

DISEASES IN COLUMBUS, 1890-1945

by HERBERT M. PLATTER, M.D.

In the fall of 1893 I opened an office for the general practice

of medicine in Columbus and was elected secretary of the Colum-

bus Academy of Medicine, which position I held for more than

six years.

Columbus Medical College had just merged with Starling

Medical College, but Ohio Medical University opened its doors, and

thus there were at that time two medical colleges in a city of

120,000. Most of the members of the Academy of Medicine were

on the faculties of the two medical schools, and it is to be pre-

sumed were kept informed of new discoveries in the field of

medicine.

The Ohio State Medical Association and the Academy of

Medicine had been active in the enactment of a law creating the

state board of health, which became effective in 1886. So, too, were

the faculties of the two medical schools interested in the enactment

of a law for the control of communicable diseases and the abate-

ment of nuisances. This original conception has, of course, been

greatly extended in succeeding years.

One of the active members of the academy was Dr. C. O.

Probst, secretary of the state board of health and the man to whom

major credit must be given for the development of the present

health code and the extension of its activities. To the credit of the

local medical profession it must be stated that Dr. Probst obtained

great assistance in obtaining amendments to the original law.

Only in one instance were the leaders of the Academy of Medicine

out of line with Dr. Probst's recommendations, and on this I shall

make later comment.

Columbus has always been regarded as a medical college town,

and therefore its practitioners usually were found to be in step

with the newer developments of medical education and medical

393