The Frontier Doctor by Paty Jager

These days it is unheard of to have a house call by a doctor, but back in the 19^th and early 20^th century it was the norm.

Most families tried to take care of medical needs themselves because the services were expensive. Mothers or older relatives usually knew a cure for most common injuries or diseases. But when no one knew the remedy or could help the patient a doctor was called.

A house call could last hours or days. The best doctors spent a good deal of time at the patient’s bedside. A wise doctor always sat beside the bed never looming over the patient making them more agitated. He kept a conversation going with family members hovering in the room. The age old practice of checking the pulse has been around since the Romans and so the doctor would pull out his watch and hold the patient’s wrist counting the pulse. He also consulted with the elders in the family to learn particulars about the patient and the symptoms. A doctor tested the patient’s forehead, neck and cheeks to decide if they were running a fever. Thermometers didn’t travel well in the rugged conditions.

The “laying on of hands” was recommended. After feeling to fever a doctor then felt the patient’s abdomen for masses, tender areas, and enlargements of organs. When through with that phase of the examination the doctor then listened to the heart and lungs with a stethoscope, asking the patient to breathe deeply. A doctor taped on a patient’s chest with his fingers and listened for abnormal resonance if the patient had a respiratory problem.

Using a tongue depressor, the doctor would check the tongue and lips for dehydration and anemia. Then it was, “Open wide and say ahh.”  This allowed the doctor to look at the patient’s throat.

If the patient was extremely ill the doctor stayed in the room with the patient, tending to their needs and dosing them with the prescribed cure.  In some cases the only thing a doctor could do was be a comforting presence for the patient. If the doctor had to have a prolonged stay the conditions were not always congenial. Bed bugs, lice, and an uncomfortable bed could be what he or she found when given a place to rest during their vigilance.

Medical equipment from the former Ashland State General Hospital

The doctor’s leather handbag or saddlebags held everything he needed to cure and heal. The saddlebags were often fitted with compartments to hold bottles and instruments. Some of the items in a doctor’s bag were: vials of powdered and liquid drugs, antiseptics, syringes and needles, sutures, tourniquets, plasters, stomach pump, and other instruments for diagnosing and treating injuries and illnesses.

Some of the rural doctors also carried a small leather case for scalpels, artery forceps, needles, scissors, and suture.

When the doctor found himself out in the wilds without proper equipment he would have to improvise.

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Source: Bleed, Blister, and Purge: A History of Medicine on the American Frontier by Volney Steele, M.D.