MEDICAL JOURNALS OF PIONEER DAYS
By JONATHAN FORMAN, M.D.
We are going back today to a time
"when entrance into our
profession was largely through
apprenticeship, when operations
were done without anesthesia and without
antiseptics, when mis-
takes in diagnosis, errors in judgment
or lack of dexterity in
operating were published with every
accompaniment of insult
and derision which malice could suggest,
when nursing in hos-
pitals was done by women of the
charwomen class, when the
study of anatomy depended upon the
activities of the resurrec-
tionists, when cholera, typhus, and
hydrophobia were ever-present
realities, when phrenology was called a
science and there still
lingered a belief in the possibility
human beings undergoing spon-
taneous combustion."
At about the beginning of the epoch
under discussion here
today, there occurred a great impetus
within the profession to
spread its ideas by means of
periodicals. About 1790, the first
medical journal in the United States
appeared. It was called
A Journal of the Practice of Medicine
and Surgery and Pharmacy
in the Military Hospitals of France and contained merely transla-
tions from the French journals of
military medicine. The first
real American medical journal was The
Medical Repository (New
York), begun in 1797 and discontinued in
1824. Its pages were
filled with descriptions of the
prevalent diseases. Its twenty-first
volume presented a series of articles on
the "summer epidemic
of Yellow-fever" and its eighteenth
volume presented a systematic
study of the "Winter Epidemic"
of 1812-13-14 and -15.
In 1812, the New England Medical and
Surgical Journal
began its existence under the
sponsorship of John Collins War-
ren and James Jackson.
(219)
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
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Most of the new medical journals, as was
to be expected,
sprung up along the Atlantic seaboard in
the larger cities there.
New York produced more than a score,
then came Philadelphia
to be followed by Boston and Baltimore.
Later, as settlement took
place west of the Alleghenies, they
began to appear in the ex-
pected centers, Lexington first and then
Cincinnati. At first a
prominent physician and teacher would
enter into an agreement
with a publisher to prepare for him a
medical journal. In a few
instances, a group of physicians would
form an association and
the effort of editing and publishing a
medical journal would be
cooperative.
In 1820, The Philadelphia Journal of
Medical and Physical
Sciences was founded as a quarterly under the editorship of Dr.
Nathaniel Chapman, professor of
institutes and practice of physic
and of clinical medicine in the
University of Pennsylvania. In
1824, Dr. William P. Dewes and Dr. John
Goodman joined the
staff. In 1827, Dr. Isaac Hays also was
added to the staff and
the name was changed to The American
Journal of Medical
Science which name is still used today.
About 1819, the first secret Greek
letter medical society of
Lambda Kappa was formed by that visionary
professor of medi-
cine at Transylvania in Lexington,
Kentucky, Dr. Samuel Brown,
with the purpose of promptly raising the
professional standards
without consulting the doctors
themselves. In 1826 the society
secretly founded the North American
Medical and Surgical
Journal in Philadelphia. With its distinguished group of
editors,
it maintained comparatively high
standards of medical journalism
but went out of existence when its
sponsoring society fell into
disrepute.
Around 1820, Transylvania University put
literally hundreds
of its medical graduates into the
communities of the Middle West.
Many of these alumni, later no doubt,
subscribed to The Transyl-
vania Journal of Medicine and Surgery
(Lexington, Ky.) which
began in 1828, because when the cholera
threatened in 1832, we
find the newspapers of central and
southern Ohio filled with
what these alumni had learned by a visit
to Lexington and with
PIONEER PHYSICIANS OF OHIO 221
reprints from the Lexington Journal, about
the prevention and
treatment of cholera.
So, too, the physicians of the Western
Reserve had come from
the schools of New England and more
especially from the schools
of western New York and it was but
natural that they should
subscribe to the journals from Boston
and New York. Many of
the physicians in central Ohio came with
settlers from Pennsyl-
vania and if they had attended a medical
college, it was the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania and so they were
likely, if they subscribed
at all, to take a journal from
Philadelphia..
Ohio's first medical journal was The
Ohio Medical Reposi-
tory, a semi-monthly begun in 1826 by Dr. Guy W. Wright and
Dr. James M. Mason. Both being western
graduates and intensely
patriotic with everything pertaining to
the western country, their
ambition was to give the profession a
western medical journal
edited by and for western doctors. Mason
retired after one year.
Dr. Daniel Drake taking his place, the
magazine became a monthly
under the title The Western Medical
and Physical Journal, origi-
nal and eclectic. Drake soon became the
sole owner and editor and
issued it under the new name of The
Western Journal of the
Medical and Physical Sciences.
In 1839, Drake took the journal with him
to Louisville where
it was subsequently combined with the Louisville
Journal of Medi-
cine and Surgery. Drake's contributions included case reports,
papers on pathology, and the treatment
of special diseases as well
as essays and comments on medical
education.
It was not long until medical journalism
in this country was
in its development closely related to
the growth of medical
schools. As the various medical colleges
sprang up, it became a
necessary part of the equipment to have
a medical journal asso-
ciated directly or indirectly with the
faculty. In almost every
instance, the outstanding figure on each
faculty started a medical
journal to serve himself, his school,
his faculty, and their alumni.
The medical faculty of the University of
Pennsylvania had been
organized in 1765 and the college which
is now the Medical
School of Columbia University in 1767.
In 1785, Harvard opened
its medical college. These three
institutions were all the medical
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schools that there were when the
Northwest Territory was estab-
lished. From that time on until the end
of the period under dis-
cussion--1835--there were established
some twenty-six more col-
leges and with them came many new
medical journals.
As historical documents, these journals
are of great impor-
tance because they depict the interests
of the profession. The
usual make-up was first "Original
Communications." Here were
set forth case reports or case studies,
descriptions of prevalent
diseases, and local botanical surveys.
Next came reprints from
other medical journals here and abroad.
Very often this grew to
be the largest department of each issue.
Of it, a critical commit-
tee of the American Medical Association,
as late as 1849, said,
"The committee has been struck with
the fact, that the same
articles have been presented over and
over again to the notice, in
many different periodicals, each
borrowing from its neighbors
the best papers of the last preceding
number, so that the perusal
of many is not so much laborious than
that of a single one, as
would be expected. The ring of editors
sit in each other's laps,
with perfect propriety and great
convenience." One must not take
this criticism too much to heart.
Discoveries were rare. The read-
ers had few books and no other journals.
They were interested in
practical things and wanted help in
their daily tasks. The postal
rates and regulations of the day pretty
much confined the circula-
tion to a very limited distance. As the
third department in the
make-up of one of these journals, came
book reviews. These, too,
often were not reviews but lengthy
exhibitions of the opinions
of the reviewer. Finally, the last
section dealt with news, items
from medical colleges, and societies, an
occasional editorial and in
some instances literary excursions and
comments on current
reforms.
When one considers that twenty-five
cents was about the
professional fee for a journey from
downtown Columbus through
almost impassable roads to Alum Creek
for a house call, it will be
seen that a subscription rate of from
$1.50 to $5.00 made these
journals rather expensive to the
physician of that day. Conse-
quently many doctors did not take even
one but relied upon a few
texts for their information. That such
was the case, is borne out
PIONEER PHYSICIANS OF OHIO 223
by an editorial statement in the Boston
Medical and Surgical
Journal, "There is not a profitable medical journal in this
country
and what is more surprising there never
was one." Dean John
Butterfield of the Starling Medical
College writing editorially
of these times in his journal in 1848
described the preceptor-
trained physician of these days:
A very
considerable proportion of the practitioners of medicine in our
state never received a regular medical
education ... Some of them entered
a physician's office and after studying,
from a few months to two or three
years, perhaps Bell's Anatomy and
Thomas' or Eberle's Practice more or
less, started out with a certificate
from their preceptor, hoisted their
"shingle" in some backward
settlement and was, thenceforth, past all
redemption or recall dubbed
"DOCTORS".
As American medical journalism grew
older, it fell more and
more into the hands of medical educators
who gave increasing
space to the trends in medical
education. To these, they added
attacks upon quackery and advocacy of
adequate organization
and legal protection. They conducted
frequent surveys to show
the comparative state of the profession
as to numbers in relation
to the total population, fees, and
education. "It is," as Henry B.
Shafer says, "noteworthy that the
magazines, even more than the
colleges, were instrumental in fostering
the medical convention
which led to the formation of the
American Medical Association."
Of all of the medical journals brought
out in this period,
two were alive by 1850 and they have
continued to the present
day. They were The American Journal
of Medical Science and
The Boston Medical and Surgical
Journal.
Thus as Ohio and the western country
were settled, there
arose medical publications of a varying
degree of worth but with
each decade they were more scientific
than in the preceding one.
Beginning with the next epoch in Ohio's
medical history, Ohio
medical journalism became something more
extensive, more inter-
esting and more worth while.