Doctors.Breckinridge.HISTORY-OtherFrom: KyArchives [Archives@genrecords.org]
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 1:52 PM
To: Ky-Footsteps
Subject: Doctors.Breckinridge.HISTORY-Other


Doctors  
Breckinridge County KyArchives History Other 
Book Title: A Glimpse Of The Past 
The doctor has been indispensable since the beginning of our nation and has 
become more so as his wisdom and technique have made many killer diseases and 
physical defects obsolete.  The country doctor was the most respected person in 
all pioneer communities.  He not only administered to their health needs, but 
was also counselor and adviser on most personal and civic matters arising in 
the community.  His education and profession made him better prepared to 
undertand individual and local problems than the average citizen.  Requirements 
for being a doctor, at the time Kentucky became a state, were negligible when 
compared with educational requirements today.  Doctors then studied diseases, 
their symptoms, medicines recommended for treatment, and how to deliver a 
newborn baby.  When their knowledge of these requisites were proven by 
examinations before a local board of officials, they were given a diploma to 
practice medicine and other duties necessary in their profession. 
Until the late 1800s, some were permitted to practice medicine without a 
diploma.  By reading medical books and working as apprentices with other 
doctors, they were allowed to practive simply be receiving a recommendation 
from a qualified physician.This practice was nullified many years ago.  Unlike 
today, every town and community had its country or family doctor, which knew 
all, saw all, heard all and administered to all.  Whether as doctor, counselor, 
peacemaker or diplomat, he played the part well. 
Medicene was limited to a few staple drugs in the days of our ancestors and 
they were mostly in powdered or liquid form to be dosed out by the attending 
physician in quantities conforming to the patient's requirements.  Quinine, 
calomel, caster oil, Epsom salt, morphine, digitalis, pain or easing powders 
and liniments made up the drug supply, and were carried in the little black bag 
of the country doctor.  As dentistry was confined to metropolitan areas, the 
local doctor filled this vacancy, lacking in rural communities, though only to 
the extent of toothache drops and pulling a few teeth.  This extraction usually 
accomplished a definite decision by the patient "never again". 
Many home remedies were used and recommended by rural doctors.  Politices and 
brews made from mustard seeds, onions, grains and other substances were used 
for colds, chest ailments, boils, cuts and bruises, which had psychological 
effect if nothing else. 
Many useless medical traditions and preventions handed down from the days of 
witchcraft and medicene men are still practiced in remote sections of the 
country. 
Vitamins and calories were unknown to rural areas prior to 1920.  How we ever 
lived without them remains a mystery.  However, everyone ate heartily of 
whatever foods he could get and this could have supplied him with all the ABC's 
and plusses needed without knowing it. 
Coming into the world or leaving it was inexpensive.  It cost one to three 
dollars for bringing a child into it, and from five to eight dollars to put one 
out of it, when his tenure of life ended. 
When a doctor received his diploma he was on call 24 hours each day.  When 
called at any time day or night, he went, regardless of weather, personal 
feelings or the patient's ability to pay.  The fee was from fifty cents to 
three dollars, depending on the nature of the call or the distance traveled.  
Most doctors got two dollars for a house call if they were lucky.  Money was 
very scarce in those days. 
A lot of people, who could not pay cash, bartered.  In a doctors ledger you 
would see where someone split a hundred rails for credit of seven dollars and a 
half.  They would also give him anything available such as: dried apples, 
bushel of peaches, syrup, a quarter of beef, a pig, shock of fodder, patching 
roof, beef skin, two days planting, eggs, coffee, spinning, etc. 
The country doctors have literally given their lives to the communities in 
which they lived and the only memorial is six feet of Mother Earth with a 
granite slab revealing the name and sometimes a sentimental phrase. 
Eye doctors confined their practice to metropolitan areas, leaving rural areas 
to squint, peep and feel their way around, as their eyes began to fail.  This 
has been changed.  Good eyesight has become the concern of all parents and 
children, and an eye specialist is near to all communities. 






Submitted by: Dana Brown 
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 



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