The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-03-15
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK IN 1900.
DIR. Carney Describes Quaint RomedIos
and Ideas Century Ago.

ana Ideas Century Ago.
At the last meeting of the New York
Historical Society DIR. Sydney II. Car
ney, Jr., read paper on 1.-The New
York Medical Profession in 1S00."
There were ninety-four physicians
in New York in 1900. They all used, :"
DIR. Carney said, "that staff of medi-
cal propriety, gold-headed cane" ="
These canes formerly had within the
heads aromatic vinegar, which had its
uses. "Small Clothes" said DIR. Car
ney, "were rapidly disappearing, aud
pantaloons were covering a multitude
of shins." There were five medical
schools in the United States in 1900,
at Columbia College, at Philadelphia,
Cambridge, Dartmouth and Lexing.
ton, Ky. The chair of chemistry in
cluded study of the natural bodies,
scientific medicine, rational and ex-
perimental agriculture and other
things. ''No doubt the rational and
experimental agriculture instruction
was duly appreciated by young medi-
cal men going to practice in the coun-
try" said the doctor. In 1898 sixteen
doctors here had lost their lives try
ing to mitigate the sufferings caused
by the plague. The pay of doctors at
Bellevue was then twenty shillings a
day. The hospital was three miles
out of town.
Tho propagation Of disease by speci-
fic germs was not then fact accepted
by all. The yellow fever was brought
here from the West Indies then as
now, and conditions here favored it's
spread. Yet Philadelphia doctor
writing to one of his Now York broth
ers said: "Yellow fever, so long as
the laws of nature endure, cannot be
imported, but is the outgrowth of ex-
listing conditions"
There has been some speculation
among the curious as to the prevalence
of gripes Mt bedtime among New
Workers OF hundred years ago. The
remedy for this complaint prescribed
by the physicians was nutmeg and
brandy and the yolk of an egg to be
taken before going to bed. For
apoplexy, salt and cold water wero to
be used, whereupon the patient was
Immediately to come to himself" A
toothache remedy elllcacious always
with one exception in the practice of
one physician was to crush lady bug
between the thumb and forefinger and
then to rub the finger on the gum and
tooth. Freshly crushed bugs were rec
ommended. For the bite of a mad dog
the prescription was an ounce of the
jawbone Of the dog, some colts tongue
and q scruple of verdigris, that taken
from the coppers of George l. and
George II. being preferred, of which
compound teaspoonful day was to
be taken. If that failed to cure 1S0
grains of verdigris and half an ounce
of calomel were to be given in ore
dose by physician in person. If
this still failed four grains of pure
opium were given to thopatient. This
last was secret remedy so successful
that early in the century the State
Legislature bought the secret for
$1,000.
For visit the fee charged was 81,
for a visit and a dose $1.25. Pills
were twelve cents. Doctors got 81 a
mile for going out of town. 1t cost
$3 to get one to Brooklyn and $40 to
have one visit Staten Island. For
bleeeing charge of from 81 to IS was
made.
Tadpoles figured in the regimen of
that day to such an extent that it is
said the people of Vermont in sea-
son of scarcity almost fattened on
them. And one of New York's famous
physicians spent part of his time in
the study of the alimentary qualities
of these tid-bits. New York Sun.