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Early Indiana Phvsictans: When the pioneer came to our territory 

 he left his old diseases Ijehind, hut in the course of time they followed 

 him, and he had to make the hest of it. Until a country is sufficiently 

 settled to support an educated ])hysician, none comes in. Men were in- 

 fluenced then by the same motives that influence them today. No well 

 educated physician today thinks of settling in the backwoods ; but as soon 

 as a settlement is made and a village arises, some venturesome spirit is 

 apt to come in. As a matter of fact the first Indiana physicians were meii 

 connected with the TTnited States army posts along the Waljash river, little 

 over a century ago ; unfortunately they left no records of their observations. 



I'hysiciaus proper itegan to come in during the first decade of the past 

 century, but there are scarcely any medical records prior to the year 1820. 

 The early physicians led a strenuous life: there were no roads and the 

 sick were scattered over a large area : it was a horseback and saddlebag 

 life. Few had time or inclination to write — to the few who did write we 

 owe all our knowledge of those days. Medical books then were few and 

 costly ; a man with one book in each branch of medicine was indeed a 

 rarity. Medical journals were equally rare, and the fact that some of 

 the early Indiana physicians took the London Lancet speaks volumes for 

 their learning and ambition. 



The educated physician soon had apprentices ; that is, farmers' sons, 

 who learned the rudiments of the profession and then began their own 

 work ; few went to a medical school. For a long time there were only two 

 medical, schools this side of the Alleghanies — at Lexington, Ky., and at 

 Cincinnati — and to attend these meant a long trip over roads at times 

 almost impassable. At first there were simple medical laws, but these 

 were abolished, and after 1843 the field was open to all. Just as bad 

 money drives out the good, so bad i)hysicians dro^e out the good, or pre- 

 vented good ones from coming in, and for a long time medical affairs went 

 backward. But we must not forget that Indiana retrograded generally 

 during this time. In 18f>0 Indiana was the eighth State in point of number 

 of inhabitants, but ranked twenty-third in illiteracy — lower than all the 

 slave stjites but three. The term "Iloosier" was a term of reproach, from 

 which our physicians did not escape, and sliarp criticism was passed on 

 some of our civil war surgeons. 



The early Indiana physicians had few kinds of diseases to contend 

 with, V)ut these few made up in number of cases for the lack of kind. 

 Malaria ravaged frighlfully and dominated all diseases. The standard 



