Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-11-26
The Primitive Doctors OF Detroit.
Detroit Free Press.

The Primitive Doctors OF Detroit.
Detroit Free Press.l
Not more than five acres of Michigan
had been chopped and logged off before
doctor arrived in the State, and they
have continued to arrive ever since that
hour. The first hundred or so. didn't
doctor after the set rules Of allepathy or
homeopathy. The grand object was to
give sick man his money worth Of
medicine and little over. Drug stores
were few and far between in those days,
and every doctor carried his medicines
with him. Indeed this rule was practiced
up to fifteen or twenty years ago, when
physicians all at once got. the notion
that it was more convenient and stylish
for the patients friends TO turn cut at
midnight and walk from one to five miles
to get prescription filled than it was
for the doctor to sit by the bed and deal
out the drugs.
The first doctors were very energetic
and ambitious. If a man fell sick they
called it fever'n ague, and pushed pow.
ders, liquids and other things down his
throat until a change occurred. If for
the worse, they gave the disease some
other name and put on mustard plasters,
gave the patient calomel, kept his feet
warm, and. doctored him on that theory
until he rallied or was still further re-
duced. If he got well it was big card
for the doctors. If he died, the doctors
for sixteen miles around would swear
that the person couldn't have been cured
no how.
1t can't be ascertained that more than
one of those early practitioners ever gave
up patient in despair. That one was a
resident of Wayne county, and was
called to see a pioneer living seven or
eight miles from Detroit. The man had
some sort of low fever, and the physician
attended him a month without noticing
any improvement. On the contrary, the
patient seemed to be sinking, and fear
ing to lose practice if the man died on
his hands, the physician decided to.
abandon the case. Calling the wife out
doors, he said:
u can't come any more; I'm going to
Cleveland to live"
When she asked about her husbands s
prospects he replied:
HE is certain. to die | never saw
such case before. l commenced with
"A in the alphabet OF medicine, and
have run him down to and so forth,
and haven't moved him peg"
The patient fell out OF bed and broke
his arm next day, and in three months
was able to carry bushel of wheat to
Detroit on his shoulder.
The doctors were just as polite and
gentle in those pioneer days as they are
now, and catching the spirit of the rap.
idly-growing country, they felt that time
was the great desideratum. A doctor
living in Macomb county, when called
upon to set broken leg for laboring
man, examined the limb AID said:
=" II set this limb it will be five or six
months before you can walk. If / saw
it off and make you wooden leg you'll
be out splitting rails in less than three
months"
The man declined the generous offer,
and the doctor sighed drearily as he
rolled down his shirt sleeves.
Those doctors, too, had warm and
sympathetic hearts. One of them killed
man in Washtenaw county by giving
him poison in place of calomel. Upon
discovering his mistake lie rode out to
see the widow, and after few preIimi-
nary remarks, said:
II am very sorry, Mrs. Cotter, but it
cant be helped now; john was a pretty
good man, but there s others just as good.
I'm willing to do the fair thing by you,
being as it was my mistake. A brother
of mine is coming from York State next
week, and he shall marry you inside of
three months" |"
And he did.
And it was just as hard for doctors to
collect their bills then as it is now. A
Detroiter who had doctored in one fam
lily three or four years without getting
any pay started out one morning with
the avowed intention of collecting some
thing or raising tornado. He returned
after four or FIVE hours, covered with
mud, hat caved in and bloOd on his coat
collar.
Get any money of Johes2" asked a
frieRd.
mo, but l squared up with him and
left him receipt in full" replied the
doctor, pointing to his left ear.
half of it had been bitten off,