DENEWCAS-L Archives
Archiver > DENEWCAS > 2003-07 > 1057106611
From: Debbie <>
Subject: Re: [NewCastle] St.Mary's College, Wilmington, DE 1850's
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 20:44:07 -0400
In-Reply-To: <3F01C855.30450.119FFAA6@localhost>
http://www.famousamericans.net/williamhypolituskeating/
"William Valentine, physician, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 4
April, 1823, was graduated at St. Mary's college, Baltimore, in 1840,
and, after receiving his medical degree at the University of
Pennsylvania in 1844, began to practice in Philadelphia."
On Tuesday, July 1, 2003, at 06:43 PM, Ron Gaddis wrote:
> A bit of blarney.....
>
> Back in those days, I do not think that medical education involved
> going to college
> followed by several years at a medical school. That is a modern day
> requirement.
> Some of the "physicians" obtained a bit of practical experience
> somehow: ambulance
> waggoners in Civil War, understudied with a practicing doctor or
> veterinarian and, if
> possible, went to some accredited medical school for a couple of
> years...often one of
> homeopathic medicine. My great grandfather apparently went to a couple
> of medical
> institutions after the Civil War...one in Chicago or Cincinnati and
> another in St. Louis.
> Just before his death in 1895, he moved from central KS to NW AR and
> started his
> own cancer clinic. He wrote home to tell his wife to pack up his books
> and all his
> medicines as he needed them in AR, the point being that all types of
> medical
> treatment were much less sophisticated. No drug stores existed as we
> know them.
> The doctors bought few medicines. They made most of them and medical
> journals
> (such as they were) were full of recipes and discussions about
> strengths of doses
> and frequency of dosage, side effects, results of combination with
> other herbs and
> medicines. Leeches have not been out of vogue for that many years.
> Medicine is
> vastly different now than 150 years ago or even 100 years. Courage to
> act (guts)
> and common sense and exchanges with other doctors about their
> experiences..all
> had as much, or more, to do with treatment than years in college and
> med school.
>
> My Dad was born in 1900 and he noted that the fastest means of
> transportation was
> a quarter-horse at the time. And that horse could only maintain that
> speed for about
> a quarter of a mile. Before Dad died, he saw a man walk on the moon
> who had gone
> there at some awesome speed in terms of miles per hour, so fast that my
> Dad could
> not even comprehend. That also reflects the enormous changes that have
> taken
> place in medical education and practice in the last century. Now, if
> one wants to
> ponder what medicine was like in 1801 when Dad's gg grandfather landed
> at New
> Castle....
>
> Ron Gaddis, Lincoln, NE
>
> On 1 Jul 2003 at 15:20, Debbie wrote:
>
> Well, you didn't tell us when he was born. That would help put this
> into perspective. And he would have had to get his medical degree,
> after college, from a Medical School.
>
This thread: