Physicians and the Practice of Medicine This information appears in Chapter LXXXI of "History of South Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904), pages 477-480 and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Joy Fisher, sdgenweb@yahoo.com This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm CHAPTER LXXXI PHYSICIANS AND THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. REVISED BY DR. DE LORME W. ROBINSON. Some one mae make a valuable contribution to scientific knowledge by collecting and classifying the plants, roots, herbs, blossoms and berries which the Dakota Indians, in the primitive days, used for the cure and alleviation of human ills. An old French history of Louisiana, printed in Paris in 1750, attempted to do this, but its information was so meager and its descriptions so obscure that at this distance it is difficult to identify many of those enumerated. It is certain, however, that they used quite an extended range of plants for medicine, a few of them with an intelligent understanding of their medical properties, others with only a hint of their value, while in the main, it may be assumed, with no more reason than they applied to the mummery of the medicine men. The observations of many trustworthy witnesses prove, however, that they used emetics and physics and also poultices for inflammations, and to counteract the poisons from wounds and snakebites, with commendable judgment. Sweating was a favorite treatment among all of the Indians, and, though carried to excess In many instances, was probably their most convenient and efficient method of treating disease. Many writers tell of instances where patients have been so weakened by the Indian sweats that swooning was common. They, too, practiced a rough, almost brutal kind of surgery, but with little success, as the large number of cripples among them testify. Superstition generally dominated and if the medicine man was present the case was turned over to him, and his brand of Christian science, faith cure or what you will, was not very effective in setting a broken limb or healing a lesion. Like all sorts of suggestion, by whatever name called, he could rouse the patient to a belief in the possibility of cure, and of course that control of the mind is in most cases helpful. It should be noted too that the Dakotas used massage intelligently and effectively. No regular physician accompanied Lewis and Clarke, but Captain Clarke possessed a fair knowledge of "simples," as it was said in his day, and he carried a well-stocked medicine chest, from which he ministered to the ills of the company, which, however, were few. In the case of Sergeant Floyd, who died in sight of Dakotaland, even as Moses gave up the ghost when in sight of the land of Canaan, Dr. Clarke's simples were not effective. He diagnosed the case as inflammation of the bowels," a disease unknown to the modern practitioner. Captain Clarke was more proficient in surgery and the treatment of wounds, as evidenced by the happy event of his treatment of the serious wound received by Captain Lewis upon the return trip, from which he made a splendid recovery. The Leavenworth expedition against the Rees, in 1823, brought the first lawyer into South Dakota as we have seen in another chapter, and the first doctor of medicine also. Major John Gale, surgeon on the staff of General Atkinson, accompanied the expedition and covered himself with glory, not in the practice of his profession, for it does not appear that he had any calls upon his medicine case, but for prompt and efficient action in each of the shipwrecks which befell the enterprise, in that way saving both lives and property. Dr. Gale was back again with the Atkinson-O'Fallon expedition of 1825, but there is no record that his professional services were called into requisition upon either trip. Dr. Gale, however, had a fine record as a physician and surgeon. He was a native of New Hampshire, from which state he entered the army as a volunteer in 1812 and continued in the service until his death, on July 27, 1830. The fur companies never employed any regular resident physicians at the posts, but after the awful smallpox scourge of 1837 they regularly sent up from St. Louis each year doctors to vaccinate as many Indians as could be prevailed upon to submit to the operation. The coming of these doctors was an event eagerly looked forward to by the tribes who early came to have faith in the efficiency of vaccination. As early as 1832 the Fort Pierre Journal notes that "Dr. Martin arrived to vaccinate the men." Dr. Joseph N. Nicollet, who visited South Dakota in 1838 and 1839, was, among his many accomplishments, a doctor of medicine, but his visits here had nothing to do with medicine. It is probable that Dr. Williamson, the missionary, was frequently in South Dakota, among the Sissetons, at Big Stone and Chanopa at ahout this time, but I am not able to verify the fact. When General Harney wintered at Fort Pierre in 1855-6 he was accompanied by his brother, Major Benj. F. Harney, who was his staff surgeon, assisted by Dr. David L. Magruder, the latter having the rank of captain. Dr. Harney spent the winter at Pierre, but Dr. Magruder went down to the camps along the river and put in the most of the winter at Handy's Point. Among the little hand of sixteen hopeful pioneers who spent the winter of 1857-8 at Sioux Falls was Dr. J. L. Phillips, then but recently graduated in medicine. He came from Dubuque the previous August. When Wilmot W. Brookings returned from his unfortunate expedition to secure the Yankton townsite in February, 1858, with his feet so badly frozen that decay set in, Dr. Phillips, with no other instrument than a butcher knife and a tenon saw, amputated both his feet, and though the operation was performed in a bachelor's shanty without any of the aseptic appliances, or even cleanliness now considered so essential in surgery, his patient, bunked on a bed of buffalo robes, came out all right, and is still living, a most valuable citizen. Dr. Phillips remained in Sioux Falls until the place was abandoned, but returned again after the Indian troubles and lived and died, a most respected citizen of that community. He was the first regular physician to establish himself as a practitioner in Dakota. With the first settlers who located at Yankton was Dr. Justus Townsend, a physician, who found the community so horribly healthy that he was scarcely able to subsist himself, the seeing which Dr. William Jayne, the governor, took pity upon him and added to his cares by making him territorial auditor. The salary was fifty dollars a year, but there was no money to pay even that, so it is yet an open question whether or not he was assisted or burdened by the governor's kindness. The same time, that is in the fall of 1859. Dr. James Caulkins came down the river-which predicates the fact that he at some time must have gone up-river - to Vermillion, where he opened an office, but, like his brother professioner at Yankton, was sorely afflicted by the good health of the people. An opportunity was opened to him, however, to patch out a living by teaching a school in the village, which was probably the first school in the civil settlements ever taught in Dakota, antedating by a few months the school taught in the first school house, by Miss Bradford at Bon Homme. Dr. Caulkins' school was conducted in an upper room in James McHenry's house. Dr. Caulkins, like the other Dakota physicians mentioned, Drs. Phillips and Townsend, was public spirited and was active in every movement looking to the upbuilding of the community. He was secretary of the mass meeting in November, 1859, which memorialized congress to create Dakota territory. As above mentioned, Governor Jayne was a physician, and a very successful one too at home in Springfield, Illinois, where he was President Lincoln's family physician and it was largely due to this relation that he received the appointment. In Dakota, however, he was "working at something else," and therefore was not a medical practitioner here. After his Dakota experience he returned to Springfield and resumed his practice and accumulated a fine competence. In the early years the doctors found even harder picking than the lawyers. For months at a time there was literally nothing for them to do in a professional way, but as that was likewise true of most other lines of business, their bad plight was not the subject of especial notice. It seems almost miraculous that many of the pioneers were able to sustain themselves at all. Living, however, such as it was, was very cheap. Social requirements made few demands, and openhanded hospitality on the part of those who had the means made life very endurable. Dr. Burleigh had been a physician but had taken up law, and in fact devoted no time to medicine and very little to law after he came to Dakota. Among the earliest physicians were Dr. Frank Wixson, who settled in Yankton and eked out his practice by serving at least one term as chief clerk of the legislature. Dr. Henry F. Livingstone arrived in the autumn of 1865, and almost at once went into the Indian service. Up to this time not a single Dakota doctor had been able to sustain himself solely by his profession, notwithstanding which fact a bill regulating the practice of medicine was introduced in the legislature of 1866, by William Gray, of Lincoln county. The committee upon public health reported that it was a very worthy bill, but under existing circumstances it was against public policy to pass it. The first law of Dakota affecting the physicians was passed by the first session and exempted him from jury duty, but it the same time made him guilty of a misdemeanor if he poisoned a patient while intoxicated, if the life of the patient was endangered thereby, but if the poison killed the patient then the physician was to be deemed guilty of manslaughter in the second degree. The first legislative enactment of the territory to regulate the practice of medicine, further than as above stated, was passed by the session of 1868-9 and was entitled, 'An act to protect the citizens of Dakota territory,' and elevate the standing of the medical profession," and was introduced by A. N. Hampton, of Clay county. It contained two sections, the first of which provided that it should be unlawful for anyone to practice medicine or surgery, for pay, without first having taken at least two full courses of lectures and instruction and have graduated from a medical college, and the second section provided that anyone violating the provisions of section one should be subject to a fine of one hundred dollars for the first offense and to fine and imprisonment for the second offense. Persons who had practiced for ten years and dentists were exempted from the operation of this law. The legislature of 1885 passed the first elaborate law for the safeguarding of the public health and the licensing of physicians. This act was drafted by DeLorme W. Robinson, M. D., of Pierre, and was introduced into the legislature by J. H. Westover, representative in the house from the Pierre district. This act created a territorial board of health. It consisted of the attorney general, who was ex-officio president of the board, and a vice- president and superintendent to be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the council. It gave to this board large powers in the administration of the health laws and provided that every physician must he a graduate of a medical college, or in lieu thereof pass an examination before the superintendent of the board of health and two other selected physicians. After this enactment there was very little legislation affecting physicians, except some change in the exemption laws in favor of doctors' bills, until the legislative session of 1891, when a state board of health was created, providing for three members who should be resident physicians in good standing. This act provided for the licensing of physicians by the hoard, but it vested the board with no discretionary power. If the applicant could produce the diploma of a reputable medical school and a certificate of good moral character, the board was bound to license him regardless of his ability to cure. Notwithstanding thc weakness of this law, which at the time of its enactment was the strongest measure it was possible to secure, no change of material import was made in it until the session of 1903, when the present efficient board of medical examiners' law was enacted through the persistent efforts of Doctors McNutt, Hawkins, Robinson and Stewart, supported by all of the reputable members of the profession in the state. There are state medical societies of both the regulars and the homeopaths, as well as several district societies. In recent years a better understanding has grown up between these two major branches of the medical profession and there is now a likelihood of a merger into one society.