Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-05-03
MEDICINE IN NEW YORK IN 1900
DIR. Carney Describes Quaint Remedies
and sdess II Century Ago.

DIR. Carney Describes Quaint Remedies
and sdeas IA Century Ago.
At the last meeting of the New York
Historical Society DR.. Sydney H. Car
ney, Jr., lead paper on "The New
York Medical Profession in 1800."
There were ninety-four physicians
in New York in 1900. "They all used"
DR.. Carney said, 'that staff of medi.
cal propriety, a 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 Licking.
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 1913 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 o
day. The hospital was three miles
out of town.
The propagation Of disease by spec.-
fic germs was not then a 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 New York broth
ers said: "Yellow fever, so long as
the laws of nature endure, cannot be
impoi Ted, but is the outgrowth of ex.
isting conditions"
There has been some speculation
among the curious as to the prevalence
of gripes at bedtime among New
Workers of hundred years ago. The
remedy for this complaint prescribed
by the physicians was nutmeg aud
brandy and the yolk OF an egg to be
taken before going to bed. For
apoplexy, salt and cold water were to
be used, whereupon the patient was
Immediately to come to himself" A
toothache remedy eiiicacious always
with one exception in the practice of
one physician was to crush lady bug
between the thumb and forefnger and
then to rub the finger on the gum and
tooth. Freshly crushed bugs were rec
ommended. For the bite of mad dog
the prescription was an ounce of the
iawboue of the dog, some colts tongue
and scruple of verdigris, that taken
from the coppers of George |. and
George III. being preferred. of which
compound teaspoonful day was 70
be taken. If that failed to cure $50
grains of verdigris and half an ounce
of calomel were to be given in ore
dose by physician i'll person. Ii
this still failed four grains of pure
opium were given to the patient. This
last was a 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,
Tor visit and q dose $1.25. Pills
were twelve ceuts. Doctors got ST
mile for going out of town. 1t cost
So to get one to Brooklyn and $40 to
nave one visit Staten Island. For
bleeeing charge of from 81 to So 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
)f these tidbits. New York Sun.