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BEXAR
HISTORY
Continued from page 15
bolic acid, or other antiseptics. Turpentine or lime were also added
to the inhalation formula at times. Secretions were regulated by the
use of the occasional dose of calomel.
Surgical treatment for internal conditions were almost unheard of
in the first half of the century. Surgery was used mainly for the treat-
ment of fractures, dislocations or external conditions. It was not until
the latter 19th century that physicians attempted to utilize surgery
for the problems within the body cavities. The latter half of the 19th
century saw the introduction of numerous medical advances. Anes-
thesia in the form of ether and then chloroform was made available.
Also, the use of Lister’s principle of antiseptic surgery was more
widely accepted.
Before the Civil War, the practitioner was frequently required
to travel great distances to treat his patients, and as a result most
of his time was required in house calls, either on foot, by horse-
back, or buggy. With the increase of population, more roads and
railroads, and the establishment of community in small towns, the
physician’s ability was increased to see more patients in his office
for longer periods each day. These offices were generally located
in his home, in his barn, in a local store, upstairs of a pharmacy,
or outside in the open.
Practicing in the frontier was frequently a dangerous activity. In-
dian attacks continued up until the 1880s. There was also the threat
of desperados waylaying the local physician out on a house call far
from town. A doctor was trained to wield a six-shooter and fre-
quently was forced to utilize it. A certain Dr. Webb was making a
trip from San Antonio to El Paso. His carriage or wagon was a “New
York rockaway” which was fit for sleeping. It was so armed that it
could be called an armory. It was a large vehicle with closed sides
and windows, and it contained the following armament: suspended
from the top was a double-barreled gun, to one of the uprights on
each side was attached a sharp repeating rifle (6 shot), and a heavy
revolver Colt six-shooter was strapped to each door. Dr. Webb and
the driver carried a pair of Colt five-shooters and a pair of Derringers. sideration by the group. In spite of such efforts, restrictions on
This enabled them to fire a round of 37 shots without having to re-
load in case of an attack. On the frontier, circumstances were such
that whenever a doctor came into a community he had to become
physician, surgeon, apothecary, nurse, sanitarian, friend, veterinarian,
counselor, civic leader, educator, and even a statesman.
16 San Antonio Medicine • January 2016
Diagnoses and treatment were enhanced by the introduction of
the stethoscope (from England) in 1853, and the hypodermic syringe
was in general use by 1875. The latter part of the century saw the
introduction of the germ theory of disease, broadly increasing a
physician’s understanding of many infectious diseases.
Payment of the physician in the early days was primarily in goods
or services, rather than in hard cash. Money was in very short supply
and his payment frequently was in the form of agricultural products,
horses, cows, donkeys, etc. Frequently, there was barely enough to
cover the office expense and supplies.
If we look at a page of a doctor’s journal dated
1853, we find the following:
January 2 – Note to W. G. Gray, MD, for account (past)
by W. R. Lacey in amount of $9.28.
Interest 10% per year, $0.92.
Prescription and treatment that day and eye water-$1.30
January 29 – Prescription treatment and medicine, $2.50.
March 3 – One cake of shaving soap, $0.20.
April 4 – Treatment and prescription, $1.00.
Total on the books: $15.40.
In 1860, the annual income of physicians ranged from $300 to
$600. By the 1890s, the average income was $1,000 to $2,000 per
year with the latter considered a rather large income.
During these years, there were many places without regular
physicians, but there were many ‘quacks.’ These individuals easily
duped the public by advertising locally and promoting their tonics
and patented medicine. There were advertisements in local news-
papers about various treatments also. Quacks and quackery pro-
ceeded uncontrolled, but in 1853 at a meeting of the newly
organized State Medical Association of Texas the problem of quack-
ery was presented by Dr. George Cupples of San Antonio for con-
irregular medicine did not occur until the latter part of the 19th
century and actually was not solved until the passing of the Pure
Food and Drug Act in 1906.