By Kristy McCaffrey
In 1890, Dallas, Texas, was a growing center of commerce for North Texas. The population was nearly 38,000, but the medical care offered was primitive. Science-based medicine was in its infancy and Dallas doctors had not yet accepted the germ theory of disease. Surgical hygiene and the sterilization of medical instruments were virtually nonexistent.
At a meeting of the Texas Medical Association (TMA) in 1890, it was stated that “the profession of medicine in the United States is sick.” It was suggested this was due to homeopathy, eclecticism, so-called acupuncture, and “Wilford Hall's method of rectal irrigation.”
Some topics addressed at TMA meetings held between 1886 and 1902 were:
Opposition to a bill proposing “regulation of the practice of medicine”
Expulsion of Dr. M. Salm of Austin for gross plagiarism and seduction of a young lady under grave circumstances
Defense of animal experimentation
Dismissal of the teachings of Darwin and Huxley
Papers, including Texas quackery, early blistering in pneumonia, prophylaxis in smallpox, malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis, insanity, enlarged prostate, glaucoma, and menstrual disorders in schoolgirls
Antiseptics
Diphtheria antitoxin, which had only recently been proposed in 1895
In Dallas in the 1890s, surgery and deliveries were done in the home. It was common practice to radically instrument pregnant women about to undergo delivery to promote cervical dilatation. There was no washing of hands or cleaning of dirty fingernails prior to delivery or surgery, and no rubber gloves were used.
Although the value of antiseptic techniques in surgery had
been described in the 1870s in an article published in the Lancet, Dallas
doctors hadn’t adopted this stance. One even used the example of a person who
survived a surgical procedure under contaminated conditions as evidence that
the germ theory was just a fad. Quinine, the cupping glass, and strong emetics
were instead the universal cures.
* * * * *
In my newest release, the heroine is a doctor unable to find work in Dallas so is headed to Oklahoma Territory where she is sidetracked to a small town in the Chickasaw Nation.
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Dr. Anna Ryan has been spurned by the Dallas medical community for the simple reason of being a woman. Wanting more than a rural practice alongside her mother, also a doctor, Anna accepts an invitation from a mentor to join a private hospital for disabled children in Oklahoma City. But when she falls in with a band of women attempting to protect the rights of Chickasaw orphans, she’ll need more than her medical training to survive.
Malcolm Hardy has skirted the line between lawlessness and justice since escaping the mean streak of his father and his no-good half-siblings a decade ago. In Oklahoma Territory he created enough distance from his family name to find a quiet purpose to his days. But then Anna Ryan walks back into his life, and his hard-won peace is in jeopardy.
The last time Malcolm saw Anna, she had been a determined
girl he couldn’t help but admire. Now she was a compelling woman searching for
answers that could lead straight to him. But one thing was clear—Anna’s life
path was on a trajectory for the remarkable while Malcolm’s was not.
Surrendering to temptation would only end in heartbreak.
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