The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-27
HER DIAGNOSIS STANDS
DIR. FLORA MACIvOR TAKES ISSUE
WITH HER BRETHREN.
Hospital Doctors Pronounced a Dis
pensary Case She Sent Them as
q s'Plain Drunk"

What seems another incident of the
triumph of woman over man and the in
genuity of woman in achieving the triumph
has arisen out of the case of Robert Over
ton, who was found in an alley near Elev-
enth street, Saturday night, unconscious.
Overton is a colored man employed as a
driver. Passers-by were attracted to team
and wagon standing in the alley about 8
o'clock Saturday night. They Investigated
and found Overton lying on the ground. He
was taken to his home, $50 West Four
tenth street. Overton had not revived at
the end of two hours and not until then
was a physician called.
DR.. Flora MacIvor, of the City Dispen-
sary, answered the call. The doctors of the
Dispensary staff have worked earnestly over
the unconscious forms of men and women
whom it was feared were suffering from
brain conclusion or poisoning to find at the
last they had spent their energies on plain
DRINKS" DR.. MacIvor is a young woman
not a year out of the Medical College of
Indiana, but she has shown the shrewdness
of an old practitioner. She administered to
Overton a dose of apo-morphine, a swift
working emetic The result showed not a
trace Of alcoholism. She then decided the
man had a conclusion, called an ambulance
and had him taken to the City Hospital.
She felt comfortable in the knowledge that
she had fortified herself from the gbes of
the hospital physicians If they should be
unable to discover the conclusion and de-
eide the case to be one of the oft-occuring
drunk. She did not inform the hospital
physicians what she had done, but went
back to the Dispensary perfectly content to
await developments.
When Overton arrived at the hospital he
was promptly examined by the physicians.
They informed the police the case was a
plain drunk This decision was communi-
Gated to Dr. MacIvor. Here is where she
rose to show the supremacy of woman She
went to the telephone and called up the
hospital She is a very determined Young
woman and this time she was douby so.
because she was sure of her ground She
told the hospital doctors that she had prov
en- there was not a trace of alcoholism in
the stomach of Overton. The smell of
spirits which drew from the City Hospital
physicians the idea he was unconscious
from the effects OF too much alcohol was,
DIR. MacIvor said, the odor of aromatic
spirits of ammonia, with which she revived
him after the emetic had done it's work
The hospital men said there was a bruise
on OVertons shoulder blade The Dispensary
young woman said it was caused by the
needle of the hypodermic syringe which she
used to administer morphine. Thus thrusts
from the hospital were Skillfully parried by
the cool young woman at the Dispensary
telephone. She stated she had the strongest
evidence the man was assaulted and robbed
in the fact that his pockets were cut and
$l1 which he had was missing when he was
found.
The hospital staff has not given in by any
means; The record stands at the hospital
that Robert Overton, who has been dis
charged, was suffering from alcoholism At
the City DiSpensary the staff supports DR.
Maclvor, young woman just out of school
who dares to refute the opinions of the
hospital physicians and back up her stand
with the strongest kind of evidence.