The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-09
COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.
DR.. Kitchens "reminiscences of Forty Years
AgO-Election of Officers.

The Marion County Medical Society met last
night in the Council Chamber. DR.. John M.
Kitchen address the society on the history of
medicine within his experience. He went to Phil
adelphia in 1913 a student of medicine-went
on horseback He had just returned from that
city on the limited express in few hours.
DR.. Kitchen reviewed the past forty years of his
medical life. Not physician of that day is
now practicing in Indianapolis.
There was then no telephone, no telegraph, no
railway, no chloroform, no streetcars. Physi-
clans were not called to Lafayette by telephone
to amputate limb under the influence of chic
reform.
DIR. Kitchen drew lively picture of the doctor
of forty years ago, resurrected from his grave,
and introduced to the strange ways and methods
of present American life. He gave brief sketch
Of the members of the faculty of jefferson Med
zeal college during his student life. OF
the students of that time, only DIR.
Funkhouser, the Oldest practitioner
in Indianapolis, DR.. P. H. Jameson,
and w. c. Thompson are now praetieng medi-
cine in Indianapolis. DIR. Kitchen reviewed
briefly the various medical works written by the
learned faculty of jefferson Medical College.
New York was then but fraction of what it is
now; had the Doctor spent the money his medical
education cost him in New York swamps he
would now be millionaire; but he could honest
ly say that he did not regret the forty years
spent in alleviating the sufferings of humanity.
DR.. Kitchen attended his second course of lee
lures in the University of New York and
gave an equally brilliant and interesting ac-
count of the professors and medical authors be-
longing to that institution, especially dwelling
upon the life and works Of the eminent DR.. Ora
per. Dr. Kitchen met a thousand students
af lalla Of
medical schools. What becomes Of them2 The
profession is overcrowded Our own city has
surplus of good physicians, but still the medical
colleges turn out their annual grist
DIR. Kitchen visited the New York hospit-
ais. The great improvement has
been the introduction Of trained women
as nurses. They have introduced law and order
where before there was lack of sympathy and
discord. The best physicians of New York en-
ploy Them and are enthusiastic in their commen-
dations of female nurses. DR.. Kitchen paid a
glowing tribute to women as both nurses and
physicians. In New York no woman is more
honored than DR.. Mary Putnam Jacob. She is
the peer in her sphere of any physician of New
York. DIR. Kitchen closed with an elegant pero-
ration, calling attention to the shortness Of
life, the illusions of fame and the serious bust
ness of the physicians life.
DIR. r. s. Newcomer reviewed some incidents
of student life in jefferson Medical College. He
had seen the eminent DR.. Charles D. Meigs, in
1881, Kill two sheep in the college amphitheater
-one with ether and the other with chloroform
AS an ultimate answer to Sir James Simpsons
argument for the use of anasthetics. But in
less than two years anesthetics were in general
use in the United States. DR. Newcomer used
ehloroform in 1852 in this city. He deprecated
the enormous medication that was the fashion of
the present times.
Dr.. John Chambers, the president elect, re-
sponded to numerous calls and made brief
salutatory, thanking the society for the honor
conferred in his selection president for the
suing year.
The election of officers for the coming year re-
suited as follows; President Dr. John Cham
bers; vice president DR.. r. N. Bryan; secretary,
DR.. Fl. l. Raymond; assistant secretary DR.. E.
D. Porter; treasurer DIR. j. A. Haugh members
of the judicial council, DR.. S. V. Wooden and
DIR. Luther Todd