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
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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
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
always appear to be free, the number of
laws, directives, and
regulations that have come to bother the
physician in his busy
moments have been gathered together and
interpreted for him.
The social and economic legislation,
judicial decisions, and indus-
trial factors that affect the life of
every physician have been
recorded as fully as is humanly
possible. To report all of these
things promptly to the physicians of
Ohio has been, and in my
opinion always will be, the first job of
the Ohio State Medical
Journal.