Early twentieth century medicine

Patients’ Experiences of Tertiary Syphilis Treatment at the Philadelphia Orthopaedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases

Staff From our researchers, Out of the stacks, Voices from our collection March 24, 2021March 18, 2021Early twentieth century medicine, Nineteenth century medicine, Patient experiences, Philadelphia Orthopaedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases, Tertiary syphilis treatments

– by Janet Lynne Golden, Professor Emerita at Rutgers University

I have always wanted to write about patients’ experiences of illness and ask how new diagnostic tools, treatments, and knowledge changed their daily lives. And I have always wanted to dig into the vast collection of patient records from the Philadelphia Orthopaedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases (hereafter POH). My interest in the records began thanks to the late Larry McHenry, Jr., M.D. who had hoped to write a history of the POH, the nation’s first neurological hospital. The materials from the POH are a goldmine, and include administrative records and, more importantly, casebooks that document the experiences of patients being treated for a variety of ailments.