Medicine and Doctors
The History of Medicine in Grant County has been a study in evolution. Way back in the days of malaria, when the custodian of the court house rang the fire bell at regular intervals that the inhabitants might know when to take quinine for their chills and fever, up to the present time, the advance in medicine has been truly an evolution - as much so as has been the evolution of methods of locomotion between then and now.
During that early period, which but few of the doctors now living remember, the days when "yallar janders" was so prevalent, the good old doctor would throw his saddle-bags across his faithful horse and start out on his rounds which, would often take all day and night, and if the roads were bad maybe all the next day, and when the roads and cow paths were too bad for the horse, which they often were, the physician would proceed upon foot.
Then came better drainage and with better drainage and with less stagnant water there were fewer mosquitoes and consequently less malaria and fevers. Also, when the water was drained from the surface to such an extend that land could be seen in Grant County, there was aroused a desire for better roads and you find the doctor riding around in better vehicles. And so as time passed and the county was so well drained that eventually it went "dry," so some of the old time diseases have almost become extinct, and as the highways have now become tarvia the doctors of today ride about in high powered machines and call upon their patients with high sounding diseases. Instead of giving the good old fashioned quinine and blue mass, they now inject a few million slaughtered bacteria into their system or hurry them to the hospital and relieve them of their appendix, if they are so unfortunate as to have retained it that long. It is a long jump from the time when the good old doctor set by the bed side, felt your pulse, looked at your tongue, put his ear over your chest and listened to your lungs and heart, and then wrapped up some of those mysterious looking powders in some squares of newspaper, and while doing so admonished those in charge to not allow any drafts in the room, up to the present time, when the doctor pricks the lobe of your eye and gets a drop of blood, uses a phonendoscope over your lungs, a sphygmomanometer on your arm, then obtains a sample of your sputum and does a great many other things of diagnostic value or otherwise, then, after carefully weighing all the evidence, determines just what strain, culture or family of dead bugs shall be injected into the patient, and this bacterin and serum therapy of today is the "last word" at the present time of medicine. It appears to have opened up a field of which now we are only in the beginning, and the benefits so far are very evident to the profession and the laity as well.
But getting away from all the apparent levity, Grant county owes much to the advance guard of the profession that has paved the way for better sanitary and hygienic conditions in our community. Probably few men of the profession today would care to meet the hardships of those that have gone before, and the profession as a whole can look back with a large measure of pride upon those that have labored in our field of endeavor for the good of their fellow-man. Perhaps no community ever had a better array of medical talent than was represented in Grant County in the early days by such men as the two Lomaxs, Constantine and William, Dr. James Shively, Dr. Lewis Williams, Dr. S.D. Ayres, Dr. E.P. Jones the Drs. Abner and T.C. Kimball, Dr. William Flynn, the elder Dr. S.S. Horne and many others. Thee were men that dedicated their lives to their science and to each one individually and to all collectively Grant County owes a debt of gratitude that can never be paid except in loving memory. They were men that with but few of the modern conveniences of the profession met conditions and came out victorious. They were indeed great men - men that were an honored part of the people of the county. Few of these older men are now living - in fact in all of Grant County probably Dr. Daniels, of Sweetser, and Dr. Snodgrass, of Marion, are the only two that ever swung a pair of saddle-bags across a horse.
The profession in Grant County of today is in most part made up of younger men who are in the most active period of their life, and nowhere in our great state will there be found a cleaner, more energetic, or better qualified class of physicians than are to be found within the confines of old Grant County - each city and town is well represented by medical men that are an honor to their community. Individually, these men will need no introduction to you, for almost without exception they are the most affable bunch of "good-fellows" )women physicians included) you have ever met and you have met them often. To meet them in times of sickness and sorrow is a great consolation, and at other times it is a delightful pleasure. The sunshine they radiated is within itself a tonic that brightens the hours of the afflicted and drives away the shadows that hang like a pall over the sick room. They are here of all schools, isms, pathies and fanciful theories, and even the most fastidious layman will be able to find someone that will administer to him according to his way of believing even though the belief is only temporary and oft changing. But be he of what school he may or the follower of what theory, either real or imaginary, if he is a true physician he is using his best endeavor in bringing about better sanitary and hygienic conditions that disease may be prevented and thereby decrease the greatest and most vital waste in the world - namely, the waste of human vitality and life when it might have been prevented. The profession is working to obliterate the preventable diseases, such as typhoid fever, malarial fever, tuberculosis, small pos, etc., and the time is not far distant when to have any of the above diseases in Grant County will be looked upon as a disgrace and classed along with some other unmentionable diseases that are not considered good form in our best society.
The history of medicine in Grant County would not be complete without some mention of The Grant County Medical Society, one of the oldest medical societies in the state. It is a power for good, promoting a higher standing in the profession and a closer bond of fellowship among the members and neither would this be complete without including the Grant County Hospital Association and the Grant County Hospital. The association was organized early in 1911, with Mr. A.P. Butterworth as president, and they conducted the affairs of the old hospital in such a manner that it outgrew its quarter and in October, 1913, a campaign was put on and $50,000 was raised for a new hospital building and Normal Institute improvements, which will be on their way to completion when this publication is out. The hospital will be modern in every respect and every citizen of Grant County will be proud to have such an institution within the borders of the county, and equally proud to know that he contributed to its erection and equipment.
Such has been the advance of medicine in Grant County that from saddle-bags to hospitals has marked the progress of the last half century.