To Your Health: Examining the History of Modern Medicine

Throughout history, our bodies have experienced disease, medicine, and healthcare in different ways. The diseases that were once fearfully rampant no longer take our lives; but others have sprung up in their place, often with more complicated cures.

Diseases

Throughout Maine and New England, it was not very long ago when many of these diseases were a common threat to our survival. Today, many of these life-threatening illnesses that shortened our lifespans have vaccines to prevent the disease altogether, while others still exist and solutions are still sought.

Click on the multi-colored tabs above to learn more about some of the diseases and their status today.

A common childhood disease. Highly contagious, in which a thick gray membrane forms in the child’s throat making it difficult for the child to breath. This symptom is accompanied by fever and severe weakness, finally affecting the child’s heart. The disease is caused by bacteria that cause toxins (poisons) to circulate through the blood stream and damage heart cells. An epidemic occurred in 1740s New England.

Vaccine: YES.

References to measles occur as early as the 7^th Century. By the 10^th Century, the disease is recorded as “more dreaded than smallpox,” which says a lot! Measles is an infection of the respiratory system, and is highly contagious. Most often, it is spread through direct contact with an infected person, and less frequently by airborne transmission. Symptoms come in two stages: First, the victim experiences a runny nose, cough, and fever. A week later, the victim’s fever will spike and a red blotchy rash will appear on the face and spread to the entire body. Small white spots appear on gums and inner cheeks. Complications from the disease include pneumonia, encephalitis, ear infections, and seizures. The 18^th Century saw several outbreaks in New England.

Vaccine: YES.

Also called Pertussis, this bacterial disease is spread by coughing, sneezing and spitting. The disease was first described in the 16^th Century and isolated in 1906. The symptoms are no different from the common cold, including tiredness and a sore throat. Soon after, a choking cough appears, which then causes vomiting and the feeling of suffocation. Between these attacks, however, the victim feels perfectly well. The “whooping” sound is heard as the victim intakes air during coughing; sometimes resulting in the victim’s stopping breathing altogether, resulting in faint. The disease lasts three weeks to three months. Deaths from the disease are primarily limited to babies due to respiratory failure. Complications include blood spots on the skin and in the eye, and tearing of the ligament at the base of the tongue caused by severe coughing.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, whooping cough was one of the most common childhood diseases in the 20^th Century and a major cause of childhood mortality in the United States. Before the vaccine was introduced in the 1940s, more than 200,000 cases were reported annually; today, this number has decreased by 80%.

Vaccine: YES.

19^TH CENTURY MEDICINE

THE DOCTORS

As Kennebunkers experienced outbreaks, infection, and probably death – like the rest of the country – families spearheaded the care of their own children, siblings, parents, and neighbors with the help of local doctors. As the diseases and treatments of the 19^th Century advanced, doctors came to Kennebunk to begin a lifetime of healing patients at home. By 1809, there existed twenty towns in York County, with the population of the town of Wells (of which Kennebunk was a district before 1820) including 2,181 males, 2,301 females, and 7 African Americans, noted separately.

In the early 1800s, most doctors traveled by foot or on horseback to their patients’ homes. Dr. Jacob Fisher of Summer Street and Dr. Samuel Emerson of Pleasant Street were no different. In addition to visiting patients, Dr. Fisher also sold medicines from his home. Every doctor was limited to whatever tools and drugs he could carry in a hand-held case or saddlebag.

Kennebunk Doctors

Dr. Jacob Fisher (1751 – 1840) (click to learn more)

Born in Renforth, Massachusetts, on September 10, 1751, Dr. Fisher was one of the first settlers on Summer Street. After fighting as a soldier in the Revolutionary War, he came to Kennebunk in 1784 and purchased a lot on Summer Street in 1785. His house, completed in 1790, stood near the site of the current Nathaniel Lord Thompson home (#23 Summer Street). When it was built, trees were sparse in the neighborhood, so Dr. Fisher had an unbroken view to the door of the village’s meeting house, now the First Parish Unitarian Church. In the first floor of his home, Fisher opened a store advertising everything from medicine to paint, for which payment could be made in “anything eatable, drinkable, wearable or burnable.”

Dr. Fisher was elected First Associate of the York County Medical Association at the turn of the 19^th Century. Around 1812, Dr. Fisher involved himself in caring for patients with spotted fever, giving directions to persons exposed to the disease to try to reduce its spread. Fisher, ever the comedian, once wrote, “Direct the messenger who goes for the doctor to get some wine and rum, gin or brandy so that they may arrive about the time the doctor does.”

In addition to his medical practice, Fisher was a jack-of-all-trades. He sold potatoes, joined the Volunteer Artillery Company in 1814 to aid in the defense of the town and harbor, and in 1820 was one of four delegates chosen to go to Brunswick to vote on the separation of Maine. He was known for his comic additions to town happenings, including making fun of traveling preacher Joseph Smith, who claimed he could lift the town meetinghouse with his followers and flip it over. His jokes broke up the crowd that had gathered.

Dr. Fisher practiced as a physician during his entire life in Kennebunk, and died in 1840 at age 81. His estate was purchased by Nathaniel Lord Thompson, a local shipowner. In Daniel Remich’s History of Kennebunk, he describes Dr. Fisher as “a good physician, an excellent citizen and a public-spirited man. He was a great reader, especially of historical and philosophical works, an impartial and judicious magistrate. He was noted for sarcastic writings, both in prose and poetry, descriptions of ludicrous incidents ‘about town’ and lampooning shams in whatsoever walk of life they may be found.”
Dr. Samuel Emerson (1765 – 1851) (click to learn more)

Samuel Emerson was born in Hollis, New Hampshire, on September 6, 1765. At age 11, he became a fifer in the Revolutionary War. Graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1785, Dr. Emerson settled in Kennebunk in 1790 in a house on Pleasant Street. In 1791 he married Miss Olive Barrell of York; they had nine children.

By 1827 Emerson was noted as a physician and surgeon who had taken over for a Dr. Markoe in the bank building in Kennebunkport. Dr. Emerson was Kennebunk’s physician for over sixty years, earning the distinction of being present at the birth of over four thousand children. He died August 7, 1851 at the age of 86.
Dr. Orrin Ross (1812 - 1881) (click to learn more)

Born in 1812 Orrin Ross attended Kennebunk schools and North Bridgton Academy, after which he became apprenticed to a grocer. He engaged in the mercantile trade until 1832, when at age 20, he decided to begin teaching at the local school in Sweden, Maine. In 1836, he began to study medicine, taking a three-year course at Bowdoin College. After graduation, Dr. Ross worked as a doctor first in Kennebunkport, then Lyman, and later in Kennebunk in 1846. It was noted by his contemporaries that he was “an earnest advocate of temperance principles.” Dr. Orrin Ross died in1881 after practicing in Kennebunk for more than 40 years.

DOMESTIC MEDICINE IN THE EARLY 19^th CENTURY

The 19^th Century was a time when two-thirds of Americans lived on farms or in rural landscapes. Indoor plumbing was rare, and homes were heated solely by wood burning stoves and fireplaces. Men’s and women’s work was physically challenging – often leading to accidents. Unlike today, serious diseases like cholera, yellow fever, typhoid fever, diphtheria, malaria and tuberculosis were common. Up until the late 19^th Century, the majority of healthcare in the United States took place at home. Family members – primarily women – performed routine care of the sick. Doctors, when available, did not usually attend except in very serious cases; and then they would visit the patient’s home.

“Country doctors” had almost no vaccines, no laboratory tests, and not many effective medicines. Responsible for treating a wide variety of medical problems, from broken bones to wounds to chronic and acute illnesses, doctors were generalists that had to build a great depth of knowledge on healthcare. 19^th Century doctors charged their patients per procedure, like today – more for emergency evening visits, less for children’s treatments. Payment would come in many forms: money, produce, goods, or services in-kind.

FROM THE GARDEN: 19^TH CENTURY REMEDIES

Old remedies, passed down through families and across the yard by neighbors, played a big part in medicine and healing prior to the 20^th Century. Whether family or physician, everyone used the same herbs to reduce a patient’s symptoms. Families would grow these plants and herbs in their gardens, and dry them to keep over the winter. Most families depended on these herbs from their garden or from a neighbor or pharmacist; because in the 19^th Century, if you thought you could fix an ailment on your own, you usually did not call the doctor.

This exhibit was displayed at the Museum April – October 2016. This online exhibit features the original exhibition script (text panels) and images and media from the physical exhibition.

Curators: Leanne Hayden & Cynthia Walker

This exhibition was presented by York Hospital, with support from Southern Maine Health Care.

CALENDAR

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Throughout history, our bodies have experienced disease, medicine, and healthcare in different ways. The diseases that were once fearfully rampant no longer take our lives; but others have sprung up in their place, often with more complicated cures.

Kennebunk Doctors