The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-05-29
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Old Iowa Medical Records.

/ Old Iowa Medical Records.
To the Editor of The Gate City:
/ ] received a few days ago a letter
from DR.. D. S. F'airchild, of Clinton,
Iowa, editor of The Journal of the
Iowa State Medical society, in which
he stated that he was endeavoring to
find some copies of the. pioneer med
ical' journals published in Iowa. 1T
appears" he wrote, that in about
1850 the Medico-Chirurgical Journal
was published in Keokuk. and after
wards was changed to the Iowa Med
ical Journal. will be greatly
obliged to you if you can do me the
favor of Investigating some of the
fold medical libraries there. the IL
| brary of DR.. Hughes, DR.. Cleaver or
DR.. Jenkins. l am trying to gather as
Imany things as l can that relate to
Iowa."
/ Investigation revealed the fact that
the libraries of Drs. Cleaver and
jenkins had been disposed of and
were not available, but that the
Hughes library, one of the oldest as
well as one Of the largest in the
state, Is still intact in the Hughes
homestead in this city. At my re
quest Mr.. D. L. Hughes kindly went
through it carefully and succeeded in
unearthing four copies of the Iowa
Medical Journal published here in
as many different years early in the
latter half of the last century. He
found no trace of any earlier medical
copy bears date of July, 1854, and was
No. IL Of volume l.. The publication
was conducted by the faculty of the
medical department of the State
University and was printed at the
Wing book and job offices. The mod
ical school here at that time was
branch of the State University and
the only one of its kind in the west
outside Of st. Louis end possibly
Chicago. The faculty of the school
| in 1854 consisted of D. l.. McGugin,
M. D., professor of physiology. path
ology and microscopy; Freeman
and practice of medicine; j. G.
Hughes, NJ. D., professor of surgery
and dean Of faculty; j. F. Sanborn,
NJ. D., professor of chemistry and
materia medica; e. r. Ford, M. D.,
professor Of obstetrics and, diseases
of women and children; Edward A.
Arnold, NJ. D., professor of anatomy,
and P. Van Patten, M. D., demon
strator of anatomy. DR.. ]. c. Hughes
was editor Of the Journal The con-
| tents of the publication were prac-
| tica. throughout and highly credit
able to the contributors, among whom
were Dr.. McGugin, Dr. A. Hard OF
Aurora, H., Dr. Sanborn and Others
Keokuk institutions and firms rep
resented in the advertising columns
were the Keokuk Dispatch, publish
ed by T. B. Cunning, the Valley
| Wing at $500 per year with larger
circulation than any paper published
in Iowa." H. H. Ayres, druggist; r.
B. Ogden, city bookstore; DR.. j. K.
Hickey, dentist; Gilmore & McKen-
ny, drugs; w. H. Farmer & Co.,
drugs; Thos. Davis, drugs; and NJ.
| W. Hicks, dentist.
The next number of the Journal
available for examination was dated
November and December, 1857, and
and job rooms. An article on the in
side of the cover explains that
owing to the financial embarrass-
ment of 1857 and 50 the Iowa Med
ical Journal, which had completed It's
| fourth volume, was suspended for
want Of material aid" This was fol-
lowed by the civil war and later by
| the absence Of the editor in Europe,
which, it was explained, interfered
! with resumption OF publication at an
earlier date At this date the faculty
consisted Of J. c. Hughes, professor
of surgery; George w. Hall, profess
sor of physiology, pathology and
general therapeutics; II. T. Cleayer,
professor of obstetrics and diseases
of women; A. NJ Carpenter, profess
sor of practice Of medicine; z. j.
| Gillett, professor of chemistry; Ed
ward Chaplain, professor Of micros-
copy and demonstration; D. Mocar,
lecturer on medical Jurisprudence,
and L. c. Ingersoll, lecturer on the
principles of dental science. Per
haps the most interesting feature OF
! this number was a report made to
the state medical society by Dr.. ]. G.
Hughes Of a case which occurred in
his practice in this city in 1856. The
case was that of Mr.. James H.
Dimond, who, in October in that year,
| at the age of 13, was thrown from a
horse cart and sustained the fracture
| of a thigh. The case was treated
scientifically and with good results,
| but after two months, following in
| diligence in winter sports, the leg
was found to be shortened and crock
/ ed In the summer of 1857 DR..
Hughes broke the leg and reset it
The report says: so determined
| was the patient to nave the opera
ton performed that when upon the
operating table, just before COM
mencing the administration of chlor-
oform, he used the following signif-
icant languageS Here goes for a
straight leg or dead boy!'" The
| report continues: His health i'm
proved, the leg became strong; and
| in a few months l found him acting
as bell boy in one of our hotels, i
making good time either up or down !
| a staircase. At the outbreak of the !,
war he applied for admission to the !
ranks, but his age prevented De- |
| termined to serve his country in
some capacity, he became mess boy /
| to the officers, and discharged his |
duties faithfully until the. latter part !
he in Of hi