Nineteenth century medicine

Mütter Medicine Mondays: When the Medical & The Narcotic Overlap

Staff #MütterMedicineMondays, Staff research April 19, 2021March 31, 2021Digital image library, Narcotics, Nineteenth century medicine, Opiates, Pamphlets

– by Patrick Magee, Visitor Services/Gallery Associate

Did you like Medieval Medicine Mondays? We at the Museum did too, and it helped us gain insight into a bunch of medical oddities and trends over time! In this week’s blog entry, I want to once again shift our focus to a more recent time in medical history, one defined by printed pamphlets and a myriad of experimental drug treatments. Advertisements and texts meant for everyday people are a wonderful way to glean information about medical standards of the time and putting them into context can reveal something of a record of societal climate.

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.

Antikamnia Calendars: 19th Century Medical Advertising

Staff Out of the stacks, Staff research January 20, 2021May 19, 2021Antikamnia Chemical Company, Digital image library, Medical trade ephemera, Nineteenth century medicine, Patent medicines, Pharmaceutical companies

– by Josh Bicker, Visitor Services Floor Supervisor

Among the College of Physicians Medical Library’s collection, we have a number of advertisements for the Antikamnia Chemical Company. Within these, a curious image can be found in an advertising pamphlet of the time, portraying a stout man, dressed in a suit, with an enormous skull atop his neck. With spectacles perched at the bridge of his nose, he closely inspects a round tablet with the letters “AK” monogrammed on it. Rays of light shower over him, and at the bottom of the page we see the phrase “Tis The Genuine”. It is as if he has received some divine inspiration.

Conceptualizing Malaria in Medical Terms, 1827-1838

Staff From our researchers, Out of the stacks February 5, 2020February 3, 2020Eighteenth century medicine, Fevers, Malaria, Miasma, Nineteenth century medicine

– by Wood Institute travel grantee Urmi Engineer Willoughby*

It is difficult to pinpoint the presence of the disease presently called “malaria” in early America because of the inconsistent terminology used by doctors in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

This is partially because the symptoms of malaria, which include fever, headache, chills, muscle aches, nausea, jaundice, vomiting, and general malaise, resembled other common diseases such as yellow fever, typhoid fever, and influenza. For much of the nineteenth century, doctors in Europe and North America referred to the disease using descriptive terms that indicated observed symptoms and environmental factors. The most distinctive features of malaria are its periodicity and alternating of chills and fever, evident in the medical term “intermittent fever,” the more common “fever and ague,” and more specific terms that identified the intervals between attacks of fever (quotidian, tertian, and quartan fever).

Pine Tree Inn

Staff #TravelTuesday December 3, 2019December 4, 2019Health resorts, New Jersey, Nineteenth century medicine

This month we are visiting the Pine Tree Inn in Lakehurst, New Jersey!

Lakehurst, New Jersey, was known early in American history for its industry. It was the official location for a railroad stop in the Pinelands in New Jersey, along with acting as the Federal Forge during the Revolutionary War, and exporting cannonballs during the American Civil War to the Continental Army.

Sterlingworth Inn and Sanitarium

Staff #TravelTuesday November 5, 2019May 13, 2019Drug rehabilitation, Health resorts, Nineteenth century medicine

Located along Chautauqua Lake, New York, the Cowing House opened in 1870 and was the first large resort on the lake. It was first marketed for the treatment of throat, lung, and nervous system diseases along with rehabilitation for narcotic abuse. It also was a large destination for fishing, hunting, and ice harvesting.

Dr. Brooks’ Sanatorium

Staff #TravelTuesday July 2, 2019May 13, 2019Nineteenth century medicine, Sanatorium, Tuberculosis

This month we are heading to New Canaan, Connecticut. The original building that later held Brooks’ Sanatorium was built in 1898 by a wealthy summer resident, Ellen Josephine Hall. Hall purchased the 11 acre property with the intention of opening a sanatorium for her nephew, Dr. Charles Osborne. They left town and the building was sold to Dr. Myron J. Brooks and his wife, Marion.

← Previous