The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1875-11-12
EARLY HISTORY OF DETROIT
Something ABOUT the FIRST Doctors. /.

I 4. etEs#
r. Not more than five acres of Michiganh had
!. been chopped and logged off before doctor
arrived in the State, and they have eontin-
ued to arrive ever since that hour The
first hundred or SO didn't doctor after the
jsset rules of allopathy or homeopathy. The
grand object was to give sick man his
moneys. worth of medicine, and little
over. Drug stores were few and far be-
tween in those days, and every doctor car
ried his medicines with him. Indeed, the
rule was practiced up to fifteen or twenty
years ago, when physicians all at once got
the notion that it was more convenient and
Estylish for the patients friends to turn out
at midnight and walk from one 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
feyer'n ague and pushed powders, 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 piasters, gave the patient calo-
mel. kept his feet warm and doctored him
on that theory until he rallied or was still
further reduced. If he got well it was
big card for the do ,tor. If he died the
doctors for sixteen miles around would
swear that the person couldn't have been
cured nohow. sfs.
1t can't be ascertained that more than
one of those early practitioners ever gave
up patient i'll despair That one was a
resident of Wayne county, and was called
to see pioneer living seven OF eight miles
from Detroit. The man had some kind of
low fever, and the physician attended him
for month without noticing any improve
ment. On the contrary, the patient SEEM
ed to be sinking, and fearing to lose prac-
tice if the man died on his hands the
physician decided to abandon the case.
Calling the wife out doors he said:
II can't come any more; am going to
Cleveland to live"
When she asked about her husbands
prospects he replied:
"He is certain to die. never saw such
a case. / commenced with "A , in the al
phabet of medicines and have run him down
to and so FORTH and haven't moved him
a peg
The patient fell out of bed and broke his |
arm next day, and in three months was able |
to carry a bushel of wheat TO Detroit on his
The doctors were just as polite and gen
tie in those pioneer days as they are now,
and catching the spirit of the rapidly grow
ing country they felt that time was the
great desideratum. A doctor living in
Maeomb county, when called upon to
set broken leg for a laboring man, exam
med the limb and said;
" If set this limb it will be five or six
months before you can walk. If I saw it
DIT and make you wooden leg you'll be
,ut splitting rails in less than three
nonths.'
The man declined the generous offer and
he doctor sighed dlearily as he rolled
iOHu Ills SillI6 Selc6NeS. ss|s
Those doctors, too, had warm and SYM
pathetic healts. One of them killed a man
n Washtenaw county by giving him poison
II place of calomel. Upon discovering his
mistake he rode out to see the widow, and
fter few preliminary remarks said:
:" I'm very sorry, Ms. Cotter, but it can
lot be helped now. John was pretty good
nan, but there Others just as good. Tn
Wiling to do the fair thing by you, being
S it vas my mistake. A brother of mine
5 coming from York State next week, and
e shall marry youinside of three monthsr
And he did.
And it was just as hard for doctors to
oliect their bills then as it is now. A De-
loiter who had doctored i'll one family for
hree or four years without getting any +,
ay, started out one morning with the
vowed intention of collecting something
Il raising a tornado. He returned after
our or five hours, covered with mud, hat /
aved IN and blood on his coat collar.
''Get any money of Jones ?" asked a ,
riend
"No, but squared up with him and
1T him a receipt in full, = replied the doc
Or pointing to his ear.
Half it had been bitten off, +.
----------- e tSza>'A- --------------.' (,