Country Doctors Research Articles

The Lord Is Kind to Country Doctors

When I was a general practitioner in a small town in the South, one of my friends told me the mark of a country doctor is that he has fertilizer on his shoes and a story to tell. I have more stories from my three years as a general practitioner than I do from over 30 years as an ophthalmologist. Around 50 years ago when I started practice, a call came in for me to see a new patient who was in labor. It turned out to be a breech delivery. No hospital was available. I coached Grandma on what she should do. In the mean-time, I had my instruments boiling on the stove. Mother-to-be had a glass with cotton and chloroform, much the same as I've been told Simpson gave Queen Victoria. When the crucial moment arrived, Grandma did fine holding the infant's feet up. I was on my

Aid, politics and hospitals in Western Samoa

Modern central hospitals are a form of aid conveniently given, gratefully recieved and easily justified by manifest medical need. Less obvious are long-term costs, subtle distortions of health resource allocations and burdens of cost or deferred treatment borne predominantly by low-income rural dwellers. This review of Western Samoa and its relationship with New Zealand shows that even when an enlightened donor makes clear these dangers and attempts to alleviate them, they persist because of centripetal biases shared by recipient country planners, parliamentarians, doctors and health consumers.

The early history of anaesthesia in Canada: The introduction of ether to upper Canada, 1847

It is apparent that, despite the earlier use of ether by a country practitioner (Crawford Long) and dentists (William Clark and Horace Wells), the influence of a pair of distinguished surgeons (John C. Warren and Henry Bigelow) was required to promote the widespread use of ether following William Morton’s demonstration of its efficacy at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The accounts that Drs. Warren and Bigelow wrote for theBoston Medical and Surgical Journal were widely reported in many countries. Dr. Bigelow’s father, Professor Jacob Bigelow, wrote a personal letter to a friend in England, Dr. Francis Boott, telling him of the discovery. Two days after receiving this letter, Dr. Boott was present when ether was first administered in England (on December 19, 1846), and two days after this Robert Liston used ether for a leg amputation at University College Hospital in London. Thus the future of surgical anaesthesia in England was assured. The abortive attempts by Morton to conceal the nature of the anaesthetic agent and to patent the process of its application little delayed the spread of the use of ether. The news of ether anaesthesia was received in Upper Canada during December 1846. In fact, the country practitioners of Brockville or Chatham heard of this discovery before Francis Boott or Robert Liston in England. Upper Canada in the 1840s was a country of pioneers: country doctors were accustomed to managing all aspects of medical care, so it is not surprising that it was these practitioners who read of ether anaesthesia and were among the first to apply it.* The use of ether for tooth extraction and surgical operations was probably widespread throughout rural Upper Canada within six months of Morton’s original demonstration — as illustrated in Fig. 3, an excerpt from theChatham Gleaner of Tuesday, May 25, 1847.

Overseas-born doctor migration 1962-66.

Overseas-born doctor migration 1962-66.

The New South Wales Air Ambulance

The Air Ambulance of New South Wales came into operation on Good Friday 1967. Less than sixteen months later as I write it has carried 2348 patients in 807 flights. Four hundred and eleven of these patients have been emergencies and it is highly probable that most of them would not have survived a long distance road journey. With few exceptions all patients have been sent in by country doctors for specialist treatment in the metropolitan area.Introduced as an Air Arm to the excellent road ambulance service it was intended to avoid the road journeys for distances of more than 175 miles. In the first year it saved that service 932 760 road miles. The time that patients would have spent on the road was 16 201 hours, this was reduced by air to 3 094 hours.It is hardly necessary to add what this means to a sick or injured person. Although deeply unconscious and in a state of shock patients have been transported without their condition deteriorating.

A functional analysis of southern folk beliefs concerning birth

Childbirth is universally recognized as one crisis period in the life cycle and receives varying degrees of interest and emphasis in folk belief; thus in the rural South, while not as widely acknowledged, perhaps, as elsewhere, such beliefs are still much in the folk tradition. Although many of the practices are said to have been fostered by country doctors of the past, apart from the debatable psychological benefits, few, if any, modern physicians would give them clinical credence. However, folk beliefs often function symbolically and thus express many basic values germane to a given culture. The birth beliefs presented here are analyzed in such a context and there emerge several health attitudes plus expressions of such social phenomena as male-female sex roles and the overlap between folk and orthodox medicine.

A Directory of English Country Doctors—1603-1643

Social history is the most recent daughter of Historia. It is only within the past few decades that she has been received with approbation in historical circles. The reticence to cultivate this most recent daughter was due to the fact that most historians felt she smacked too much of antiquarianism and was without design, purpose, or techniques. The book, prepared by Dr. Raach and published by Dawsons of London who are particularly interested in publishing books on medical history, helps establish these 3 features for a segment of English life—the medical profession. It presents as complete a list of country physicians in early Stuart England as can be obtained 3 centuries later. The names of the physicians, their educational qualifications, the towns or villages where they practiced, and bibliographical notes are given in each instance. To assist those interested in early 17th century medicine, there is an excellent but short

The Country Doctors of Kafka and Turgenev

The Country Doctors of Kafka and Turgenev

Medical history, humanism, and the student of medicine.

The honor of giving the Mayo Memorial Lecture at Dartmouth College is not one that can be taken lightly, for we must think in terms of two of the greatest physicians in American medicine. From a small clinic developed by their father shortly before 1900, Doctor Will and Doctor Charles, as they were always known to their contemporaries, established the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and later the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education. Expert craftsmen in surgery, Doctor Will, the elder, cultivated the field of abdominal surgery; his younger brother, Doctor Charles, paid particular attention to the treatment of goiter, a disease prevalent in the Midwest. These country doctors established a clinical and educational center, soon to become known throughout the United States and ultimately around the world. The brothers, however, were not satisfied with just serving their community as competent surgeons; they also thought in terms of raising the

Briefing the JOURNALS

Eli E. Cohen and Lila Rosenblum, “Are Jobs the Answer to Delinquency?” School and SocietyDaniel M. Goodacre III, “Pitfalls in the Use of Psychological Tests,” PersonnelAnn Reid, “Are Special Classes for Slow Learners Worth While?” The Clearing HouseFrank E. Wellman, “Guidance and the Curriculum,” School LifeGarnet Owen, “Does Counseling Mean Coddling?,” The Educational ForumGuy Wagner and Marshall Sanborn, “What Schools Are Doing in Developing Guidance Programs,” EducationArthur S. Adams, “How Shall One Find His Way?” The Educational RecordDelbert C. Miller, “Industry and Community Power, Structure,” American Sociological ReviewWalter Nardelli, “Guidance in the Two‐Year College: A Neglected Area,” Junior College JournalWilbert E. Scheer, “Are We Helping Our Students Face Reality?”, Business Education WorldViona E. Long, “Guidance and the Classroom Teacher,” The Clearing HouseJoe Przychodzin, “Discipline,” The Clearing HouseMarion K. Saunders, “Country Doctors Catch Up,” Harpers MagazineBarron B. Scarborough and John C. Wright, “The Assessment of an Educational Guidance Clinic,” Journal of Counseling PsychologyArthur C. Clarke, “Standing Room Only,” Harpers Magazine

Epidemics in English Villages

IN his Milroy Lectures for 1942 before the Royal College of Physicians (Univ. Leeds Med. Magazine, 64, 12 ; 1942) Dr. W. N. Pickles, the energetic medical officer of health for Aysgarth in Yorkshire, chose for his subject “Epidemic Disease in English Village Life in Peace and War”. He makes a strong appeal to country doctors to follow his example in keeping diligent records, preferably in chart form, of various epidemics in their districts such as influenza, scarlet fever, measles, German measles,mumps, acute rheumatism and cholera, summer diarrhoea, epidemic jaundiceand epidemic myalgia, the last being a disease which Dr. Pickles was oneof the first in Great Britain to describe. Contrary to what he had expected, Dr. Pickles has so far not found that war conditions have caused anincrease of epidemic disease, although village life has changed to some extent owing to the immigration of town children. Since the outbreak of the War there has been no scarlet fever or infantile paralysis in the Aysgarth district and only a few cases of measles and cerebrospinal fever, while the only epidemic due to an evacuee was one of jaundice, of which there were fourteen cases. The chief sources of annoyance were impetigo,vermin and scabies, but these were soon brought under control.

Doctors and Doctors, Wise and Otherwise: On the Firing Line Fifty Years

Those who know Dr. Charles M. Rosser will be glad to have in book form a reflection of his forceful character, his eloquence and his humor. His contribution to the development of medicine in the Southwest is widely recognized. He gives us pictures of the country doctors of the old school and takes us then to the University of Louisville Medical Department, where he acquired his own education. He tells of his career, which included almost every phase of medical practice, as well as the life of the physician as a teacher and a citizen. What his account may lack in literary skill, it gains in forthrightness. In his career he met most of the great and near great in medical practice. He served his time in the courts and in political relationships; he aided in the extension of medical education to the public and he advanced scientific medical legislation.

Country Doctors for First-aid Posts

Country Doctors for First-aid Posts

Unique (?) Case.

Burlington, Iowa, Aug. 5, 1899. <h3>To the Editor.</h3> —Country doctors sometimes see unique cases, and I should like to report the following as having been interesting, at least to me: Early in May, of this year, I was consulted by Miss W. J., from a neighboring town, for a pathologic condition variously estimated as calculi of the liver, kidneys or bladder. I discovered cystic ovaries, and pyosalpinx of the right Fallopian tube, and advised removal. On account of severe pain, she readily consented, and the following day, after curettage, I removed degenerated tubes, broad ligaments, cystic ovaries, subserous myoma with appendix vermifomis attached thereto, by adhesive inflammation; rapid and uneventful recovery, Yours,

EULOGY ON JENNER.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: We have gathered to-night to commemorate the life, worth and work of a really good man—a great country doctor. It is meet that the doctors of a community, and especially the members of a medical society of country doctors, pause a brief while and assemble with the people whom they serve in a public gathering like this, to pay their tribute to him who laid the foundation of preventive medicine. By invitation of your committee, Mr. President, on the celebration of the centennial memorial of the Jennerian discovery of the protective value of vaccination, I appear before you. Your learned and greatly beloved secretary, Dr. LaFevre, has most ably and interestingly made known to you much of The Life and Works of Jenner. In my paper I am limited to an Eulogy on Jenner. Standing as I do on this occasion to speak for the

The Country Doctor.

Eaton, Ill., July 18, 1895. To the Editor: —In view of the restlessness that sometimes exists among country doctors, and their desire to remove to the cities; and in view of what has been said recently in theJournalin regard to the city doctor, post-graduate schools and teachers, I desire to say a few words about the country doctor and his environments. In the first place, his field of operation is small and the possibility of his becoming famous is almost nil ; but his usefulness in his locality is incalculable, and his living sure. He may not become rich in the common acceptation of the term, but he is generally —almost invariably in fact—in comparatively good circumstances. He is also an important member of society and his advice is sought for and generally appreciated, on all questions of general importance, or of public interest. He is the protector of

London and Country Doctors

London and Country Doctors