Ohio History Journal

THE OHIO STATE MEDICAL JOURNAL

by JONATHAN FORMAN, B.A., M.D., F.A.C.A.

Professor of Medical History, Ohio State University

Editor, OHIO STATE MEDICAL JOURNAL

The first medical journals in the Western Country published

by the faculties of the new medical colleges were used to promote

the interests of their schools. There was no better medium through

which the professors could keep in touch with their former stu-

dents; the journals served as a means of getting new students for

the colleges and of securing private consultations for the teachers.

After the Civil War many local medical journals sprang up under

the editorship of some outstanding physicians of each locality.

These crowded out the journals owned by the medical schools.

In the 1880's professional and trade groups began to be better

organized, and the State began again to regulate their activities,

first at their request and later without their leave. It inevitably

became desirable to publish some kind of periodical for interor-

ganizational communication. It was for this purpose that the

Ohio State Medical Journal came into being. Now, history is

repeating itself, and the Western Reserve University Medical

School publishes its Bulletin, following the practice of the Cleve-

land Clinic, and the faculty at the College of Medicine of the

Ohio State University are now ready to begin the publication of

their own medical journal for distribution to alumni and friends.

At the time the Ohio State Medical Journal was founded,

there were active private medical periodicals being published in

Toledo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus. These local med-

ical journals served a good purpose, but with the evolution of

state society journals there was less demand for those of private

ownership. There was another factor at work making private

ownership of a medical journal unprofitable--the patent medicine

industry. This industry had grown to an enormous size. It was

a threat to the family doctor, as were the medical cults, until the

1890's, when bacteriology gave the family physician more power-

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380 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

ful weapons. These developments in science also made the phy-

sician aware of the uselessness of those widely advertised con-

coctions for the cure of disease. So from 1890 up to 1905 there

was increasing interest on the part of organized medicine in the

problem of patent medicines.

New discoveries as well as the need for general reform made

it important that the Ohio State Medical Society have its own

official organ. One big obstacle was the oft-repeated statement

from the editors of the private medical journals that they could

not exist without the advertisements of proprietary remedies.

The Ohio State Medical Society upon its reorganization se-

riously considered all possible ways of meeting this need. The

society had been publishing its proceedings in a bound volume

each year at a total cost of about $1,000. The editors of the

various private medical journals in the State were called in by

the Publication Committee in an attempt to affiliate with some

one of them. By making one of them the official organ it would

have been possible to have a periodical of interorganizational

communication at little or no expense. No such program, how-

ever, could be worked out.

In his presidential address at Toledo on May 28, 1902, Doctor

E. C. Brush of Zanesville, Ohio, raised the question of the value

of the annual volume of the transactions:

It is safe to say that the publication of our transactions for the next ten

years will average $1,000.00 a year. In the early history of the Society,

these volumes carried to the absent members an account of the proceedings.

Today, those who do not attend the meetings get the papers read here in their

medical journals and in complimentary reprints before the volume of trans-

actions appears.

So the movement for the Ohio State Medical Society to have

its own journal grew rapidly. In 1903 Doctor W. C. Chapman

of Toledo, in his presidential address at Dayton, said in part:

Finally, gentlemen, I desire to present to you my conclusions that in

order to assist the members of our Association to gain the greatest good

from fellowship, there must be a medium of intercommunication whereby

the proceedings of county societies may be recorded and circulated, where

cases of interest may be published, and where questions can be answered. If

papers read at the meetings with the discussions therein could be given in

OHIO STATE MEDICAL JOURNAL 381

print in the near future, there will be some benefits derived; to wait a year

for our proceedings to appear renders them almost valueless. I believe

the time has come that we should change our present method. As the

American Medical Association and the associations of several other states

have found it profitable to support their journals, I recommend that we

do likewise.

In 1904 a joint committee of the Council and the Committee on

Publications of the Society recommended the establishment of a

journal.

This opened the way for a lengthy discussion, and many

complications arose. It was brought out that the cost of the

publication of the annual bound volume of the transactions for

the preceding year had been $1,150, or about $100 per month,

and that the estimated cost of publishing the transactions in an

official journal issued monthly would not exceed $100 a month.

After much parliamentary maneuvering, "the matter of changing

the plan of publication of the transactions" was postponed until

the next annual meeting and referred back to the county societies

for consideration and the instructions of their delegates. During

these four years, 1901-4, the membership had grown from 1,000

to 2,500. (It is interesting to note that there were as many

physicians in Ohio then as now.)

At the annual meeting of the Ohio State Medical Association

in Columbus in 1905, the establishment of a journal to take the

place of the transactions was authorized. But this journal was

to be more than an installment of the proceedings of the annual

meeting. There is much evidence to bear out the thesis that the

desire of the Association was to effect a means of interorgan-

izational communication. Perhaps the 1905 report of the Council

expressed this best:

As has already been told you by our President in his address--as was

also advocated by ex-president Brush, Chapman and Hamilton--we are

greatly in need of a Journal of Organization. This is altogether a different

thing from a mere medical journal of the Association. While it would pub-

lish all transactions--papers and discussions too-- it would also contain news

from the county medical societies and their transactions. It is the unanimous

opinion of those who have investigated this matter that an Organizational

Journal is essential. It is the only way by which we can keep in touch

with each other and keep posted as to the needs and conditions of the pro-

382 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

fession throughout the state. Some twelve or fifteen other states are already

publishing journals and their testimony is that they are doing so success-

fully. Proprietary medical journals have neither the time nor the space

that can be diverted to our interests. It is hardly necessary to dwell upon

this fact.

This Associaticn has not the right to control the editorial and advertising

columns of a private journal. As one proprietor told the Council when we

were investigating this subject a year ago--"No proprietary can live that

does not advertise patent nostrums." What a farce for physicians to sub-

scribe to journals that are continually clubbing them to death.

The Ohio State Medical Journal was set up under the direct

and editorial supervision of the Publication Committee. All offi-

cers and committeemen, then as now, were volunteer workers.

From the beginning the Journal was a success, carrying as it did

some 30 pages of advertising.

The Ohio State Medical Journal was welcomed by the editor

of the Journal of the American Medical Association in its issue of

July 8, 1905, in the following words:

The initial issues in July, of two new state medical journals--The Ohio

State Medical Journal and The Texas State Journal of Medicine--are credit-

able to the medical profession in their respective states and a tribute to the

labors of the publication committees. . . In size, the Ohio journal is con-

venient and its make-up is quiet, though attractive. It is a welcomed and

dignified addition to the ranks of medical journalism. Announcement is made

that the Ohio State Association has 3,340 members [as compared with 883

four years before] and that only ethical advertisements will be received.

The Journal from the first adopted a strong editorial policy,

calling attention to many of the things which were wrong in the

profession's public relations, in the field of public health, and

in the various state welfare institutions. So in the first issue

we find a discussion of the trends in medical practice, comments

on instances of medical indiscretion, the battle with tuberculosis,

and army sanitation.

This was the summer when Samuel Hopkins Adams and

Norman Hapgood were exposing the patent medicine evil in the

pages of the Ladies' Home Journal and Collier's. The pages of

the new Ohio State Medical Journal were full of condemnation

of nostrums and reports of the newly established Council on

Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association.

OHIO STATE MEDICAL JOURNAL 383

Soon we find the Journal embarked on a campaign for a law

providing for adequate registration of births and deaths; for

improvement in the milk supply of Ohio towns and cities; for

the control of the sale of cocaine; for the improvement of the

organizational structure of county medical societies; and for the

exposure of quacks and patent medicine advertisements.

The establishment of the Ohio State Industrial Commission

with its workmen's compensation fund, the activity of the cults,

and the general trend to organize and centralize, moved the

Association to set up an office with full-time help. So in Decem-

ber 1913 the Association organized an office of its own in the

Ruggay Building in Columbus, with George V. Sheridan, an

experienced newspaper man, in charge. Among his many duties

were those of news editor and business manager of the Journal.

He brought news ideas to the Journal. Its appearance was im-

proved by new headings, better paper, and a new cover. Sheridan's

greatest contributions were his complete coverage of the activities

of our state departments and governmental agencies and his

judicious evaluation of events at the State Capitol.

In the July issue of 1919 it was announced that George

Sheridan had resigned to become the publisher and general man-

ager of the Springfield Sun. During the last year of his service

with the Association, Mr. Sheridan expanded the staff of the

Journal to increase its efficiency. He secured the services of

F. H. McMechan, M. D, as medical editor, developed Myrtle B.

Gardner into an excellent news editor, and designated Alice B.

Haney as advertising manager. Miss Haney came in at the time

Dr. Upham assumed the secretaryship and the position of man-

aging editor for the Publication Committee. She had grown

up with the Society and was familiar with the name and face of

each and every member. She served the organization for many

years.

Dr. McMechan inaugurated the plan of introducing each

clinical paper with editorial introductory remarks which gave the

reader a good idea of what the paper was all about.

In the meantime when Mr. Sheridan decided to leave, he

looked about for his successor. He found Don K. Martin at

384 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and brought him in to be

trained as his successor. This was a happy selection, for Martin

had graduated in law and, in addition, had had both newspaper

and organizational experience.

In the first issue of the Journal under Martin's direction,

there came an innovation, a department in which the medical

editor recorded his impressions and comments on the various

developments in clinical medicine. Soon, likewise, Martin began

to expand the editorial comments on social, cure, legislative, and

organizational matters.

Where Sheridan had averaged about three pages of editorial

comment, Martin in his second issue had more. In the November

issue another department "The Cancer Campaign," made its

appearance. Here the Committee on Cancer Control, under the

chairmanship of Dr. Andre Crotti, continued to advise the pro-

fession of the current status of the efforts of the medical pro-

fession to control cancer.

With the postwar expansion of governmental activities touch-

ing the field of medical practice at more and more points, an

increasing amount of space had to be given over to the reporting

of these activities. At the 1920 Toledo convention, the Publica-

tion Committee reported:

No other medical journal in the country contained so much valuable in-

formation of a practical nature, especially on legislative developments,

state and federal regulations, court decisions affecting medical practice, and

other matters of economic importance and social value to the profession

at large.

With the June issue Dr. McMechan left his post and was not

replaced. Mr. W. M. Thomas, however, became assistant execu-

tive secretary. At the end of 1924 Mr. Thomas also took over the

work of Myrtle Gardner as news editor. In 1925 C. B. Shelby of

Toledo, the new president, began to write a president's page which

continued to appear until after the author became editor.

In April 1934 Mr. Martin resigned to become the executive

officer of the Ohio Manufacturers' Association. His assistant,

Charles Nelson, took his place, and George Saville became assist-

ant executive secretary and news editor. In the November issue

the names of the Publication Committee came off the masthead.

OHIO STATE MEDICAL JOURNAL 385

In December 1935 there began a series of historical sketches

edited by the author in a new department, "The Historian's Note-

book." All the other departments had disappeared, by the way,

except comments on organizational matters by the executive sec-

retary, but these were now modestly uttered in "In My Opinion"

and placed in the rear of the magazine.

"The Historian's Notebook," contributed by a small group of

physicians, has appeared regularly. Through the years there

have accumulated more than 130 articles on local medical history.

These have received national recognition and, together with the

fall issue of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quar-

terly, have been of great help to the students of Ohio medical

history.

On February 2, 1936, the Council of the Ohio State Medical

Association appointed the author to be the editor of the Ohio State

Medical Journal. The Journal from that day on we shall leave for

some future historian to describe.

So, throughout its existence, the Ohio State Medical Journal

has attempted to contribute to medical progress in Ohio by making

itself the medium for disseminating a wide variety of information

for the benefit of the members of the Ohio State Medical Asso-

ciation. It has attempted throughout the years (successfully, I

believe) to help the Ohio physician keep himself well informed

on all phases of clinical medicine. It should never be forgotten

that a committee of leaders in the profession have always arranged

the programs of the annual meetings of the Ohio State Medical

Association and have in this way assured that the bulk of the

clinical papers published in the Journal would be more timely

and varied than any editor by himself could possibly have selected.

The Journal has likewise been faithful to its big assignment

when it began back in 1905, which was to serve as a journal of

organization. Its work in this direction has been apparent at

each annual meeting and has always met with approval. It has

served as a pathway for interorganizational communication. It

has kept the physician informed of the changing social order.

As we as a people have demanded more and more service of our

government, especially of the federal government, since its services