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TRICENTENNIAL

continued from page 15
After the Mexi- of Health
can-American War, (which later
the population of on evolved
Bexar County in- into the
creased consider- Health De-
ably, reaching p a r t m e n t )
10,000 inhabitants. was charged
Of these, accord- with the task
ing to those of improving
records, there were the hygienic
1,120 African- conditions in
American slaves the streets
valued at $676,060 and eating places, water purification, and most important at that
(shame!). Many time, vaccination against smallpox in schoolchildren. Dr. Cupples
troops were still practiced in San Antonio for many years, spanning the better part
Dr. Ferdinand Herff attended Medical school in stationed in the of the 19th Century. There is a street in the west part of San Anto-
Germany before coming to San Antonio.
area and physicians nio that is named after him.
were still a rare species. After the Civil War, there was another increase in the population
Following the abortive revolution of 1848 in Central Europe, a of the city, exceeding 30,000 to 40,000 people. All over the world,
large number of Germans migrated to the United States. Some of medical science was making remarkable progress and they came to
them chose Texas as their final destination and established new San Antonio as well as the rest of the Western world: the discoveries
communities in what are now New Braunfels, Federicksburg and of Louis Pasteur on the cause of infectious disease; Robert Koch
others. Among them there were several physicians who left their and other investigators identifying causative agents of infections
mark in Bexar County. Dr. John Gaenslen had the distinction of and the introduction of antisepsis by Lord Liston. This new knowl-
serving in both armies, Union and Confederate, during the Civil edge required re-evaluation of health care and San Antonio pro-
War. The best known in San Antonio was Dr. Ferdinand Herff who ceeded apace.
practiced for many decades in San Antonio and founded a dynasty In 1869, the first Santa Rosa hospital, built and managed by the
of physicians also practicing in this city: Dr. Ferdinand Herff, his Sisters of Charity, opened its doors on Military Plaza. Later on it
son; Dr. John Herff and Dr. August (Auggie) Herff who was an ac- was rebuilt and expanded in its present location at the corner of
tive and practicing surgeon well into the second half of the 20th Houston street and Santa Rosa.
Century. Dr. Herff senior was born in Darmstaadt city in the old The first City Hospital was built in 1886, to be replaced and ex-
independent German state of Hesse and graduated in Germany be- panded under the name of the Robert B. Green Hospital. In the
fore coming to Texas. years to come, it would become affiliated to the University of Texas
In 1853, a group of Austin physicians took the initiative for or- for the education and training of medical residents. Today it is one
ganizing the first Texas Medical Association. San Antonio doctors facility of the large city complex of medical facilities that are part
joined eagerly and one of them, Dr. George Cupples, was elected of the University of Texas Medical School in San Antonio.
as one of the officers. The purpose was to unify their voices and This article is but a very brief and compacted history of the
actions to promote better care and health for the people of Texas. evolving history of medicine and healthcare in Bexar County. Much
Dr. Cupples, along with other Bexar physicians, organized the Bexar remains to be said and to be written. The facts and data presented
County Medical Society that same year, the first of its kind in Texas. here were provided by the well written book by Dr. Pat Nixon “A
Dr. Cupples was to enjoy a long and beneficial professional career Century of Medicine in San Antonio.” Unfortunately, it was pub-
in San Antonio. Besides being one of the founders and early presi- lished in 1936 and much remains to be told since that year that is
dents of the Bexar County Medical Society, Dr. Cupples was instru- important in the great advances in medicine and healthcare that have
mental and very active in convincing the city fathers to create a been created and developed in the city since that time.
Committee of Health for the city. At that time, San Antonio suf-
fered a number of severe epidemics which caused hundreds of fa- Dr. Jaime Pankowsky is a retired physician and a member of the Commu-
talities: smallpox, measles, cholera and dysentery. The Committee nications/Publications Committee of the Bexar County Medical Society.

16 San Antonio Medicine • April 2018