Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine - Synapsis Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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the P ,„delphi« College lliii Class

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PJ.O.M. LIBRARr widely and incorrectly that symptoms of mercurial poisoning were often confused with the fevers calo- mel was intended to cure. In 1810, Hahnemann published Organon of the Art of Healing, in which he protested against the medical practices of his day and advocated certain principles that became the basis of the homeopathic method of treatment. Among other suggestions, he called for a single remedy preparation and for the minimum dose that will cure. Polypharmacy continued. It involved the use of five to ten drugs in a single preparation. A striking example of this tendency can be illustrated by quoting from a paper published in 1934 on the treatment of pneumonia. 1. Quinine hydrobromide, 25 grains by mouth, repeat in three to six hours. 2. Surgical pituitrin 1.0 cc intramuscularly, every three hours as long as systolic pressure remains below pulse. 3. Tincture of digitalis, 15-30 drops, every three hours if diastolic pressure and respira- tory rate are are within 10 points of each other. This prescription was advocated by a prominent pro- lessor in one of the Philadelphia medical colleges. In 1844, Lea and Blanchard of Philadelphia published a series of lectures on the Practice of Medi- cine by Professor Thomas Watson, of St. John ' s Col- lege, Cambridge, England. He states, I cannot enter- tain a doubt that the withdrawal of a certain amount of blood is, in almost every case, essential to the per- manent control of common acute inflammation at- tended with fever. Dr. Watson says further, I once stood by and saw, not without trembling, a vein in the left arm kept open until four and a half pints of blood issued from it and not until then did the patient become faint. The event of the case justified the bleeding, for the man got perfectly well. This was the prevailing medical mentality which existed at the time that Still dissented from allopathic medicine. An additional complexity we faced as students is the charge that those who enter osteopathic medicine are less qualified and that the educational require- ments are shorter and less rigorous. About 3 years ago, we as a class were engaged in an Anatomy course of twenty weeks and were required to dissect limbs and viscera. Medical schools in Philadelphia had shortened Anatomy to eight weeks and employed pro- sections of limbs. Not many years ago, it is well known, didactic programs of lectures and laboratories entailed four years at PCOM. The public is poorly advised in these matters. Andrew T. Still was a licensed physician in Mis- souri. He served several years as an apprentice to his father who did doctoring, but whose main occupa- tion was minister. Later, he attended lectures at the Kansas City Medical School; it is unlikely that he graduated or obtained the degree M.D. His credentials were not unlike most licensed physicians in the Pio- neer West. In 1876, a medical practice act was approved by the Governor of California. One year earlier, a law was passed in Nevada making it necessary for a phy- sician to exhibit his diploma to the county recorder before he could practice. These three question comprised the examination for licensure for the Territory of North Dakota in 1885. 1. Given a case of diptheria, what precautions would you take to prevent its spread? 2. What is a case of puerperal septicemia? 3. What is a case of typhoid fever? For training, students in 1858 could go to San Francisco where two courses of 18 weeks each were required for graduation. The first medical school in the Pacific Northwest was established in Salem, Ore- gon, in March of 1857, and in July of the same year graduated the first class of three. In 1876 for the best one went to Pennsylvania Medical School. Lec- ture tickets (S20 each) were purchased for the seven courses required per year. A two year stay was re- quired for graduates, while a third year was added in the 1880 ' s. Upon graduation the young doctor pos- sessed a diploma in a tin case, a stethoscope and a 12-inch thermometer. Other schools were required two yearly courses of five months each, followed by two or three years of apprenticeship or preceptorial training with a practitioner (1885) . A diploma could be purchased from the Buchanan School in Philadel- phia. There were many such mail-order diploma agen- cies and medical schools granting diplomas were referred to as diploma mills. President Eliot of Harvard Medical School at- tempted to institute written examinations in 1871. The Head of Surgery, Henry Bigelow is quoted, 1 had to tell him [Eliot] that he knew nothing about the quality of Harvard Medical School students . . . more than half of them can barely write. Of course, they can ' t pass written examinations. (Churchill, E.D. to Work in the Vineyards of Surgery, Harvard University Press, 1958, P. 182). The separation of Medicine into two opposing fac- tions. Allopathic and Osteopathic, is based upon myth. The myth is no more substantiated than that which interposes itself between peoples of different racial origins. Naivete seizes the subtleties within groups and entertains itself with games of superiority, conquest and self-righteousness. Osteopathic medicine obsequiously wore a tatoo of illegitimacy, trying all too hard to outrun the fetid breath of the charlatan. We played the myth upon ourselves. That game is over. You are a physician. G.M.C.

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