Rhode Island Medical Journal, The

Medicine and Health Rhode Island, May 2003

The Official Organ of the Rhode Island Medical Society Issued Monthly under the direction of the Publications Committee

NINETY YEARS AGO

[MAY, 1913]

An editorial explained the Medical Society's reluctant decision to expel two members. The first, Dr. J.B. Archambault, of Woonsocket, "although a graduate of Laval [and] a licensed practitioner of this state," had "publicly lent his name and the profession to a . . .quack medicine." Dr. Archambault had placed an advertisement in a local newspaper for his elixir, a "Long Life Tonic for Dyspepsia and all Female Disturbances, also a Wonderful Cough Syrup for Tuberculosis, Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Whooping Cough." The Society also expelled Dr. George M. Bailey, MD, LLB, President of the Rhode Island College of Nursing. Dr. Bailey had advertised the school m JAMA. This correspondence course (the time could range from a few months to a year) was replacing the Rhode Island Training School for Nursing and Allied Sciences. Dr. Bailey proposed to give physicians stock in the school, in exchange for sending "fully paid students." The advertisement promised physician-investors that they might also gain some free labor from the students.

Governor Pothier had invited Dr. Friedrich F. Friedmann of German to demonstrate at public clinics (Woonsocket Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital, City Hospital, and an improvised laboratory at the Narragansett Hotel) his treatment for tuberculosis. Dr. Friedmann refused to publish details of his cure. The Journal decried the visit: "That he has infected others with his sensationalism is evidenced by the hectic and perfervid comparison of his coming to America by a local minister to that of the coming of Jesus Christ."

Henry C. Hall, MD, President, Providence Medical Association, gave the Annual Address, "Practical Aspects of Psychotherapy." He wrote: "In the present era of medical science . . . may it not be well to pause and seriously question whether some of the old-time methods of cure are not neglected?" Specifically, he cited "suggestion" (as in faith healing, mesmerism, animal magnetism), but conceded that modern medicine was "antagonistic" to these treatments.

Henry W. Kimball, MD, in "Carbon Dioxide and its Uses in Dermatology," noted that in 1905 Julius Berg of Breslow sprayed carbon dioxide on body parts; later Pusey of Chicago used the solid form. He described the technique of collecting and molding the snow, using a chamois sheet and a test tube. He recommended carbon dioxide for congenital deformities of the skin, abnormal overgrowth, small epithelomata, hypertropic scars, lupus vulgaris, even tattoo marks.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

[MAY, 1953]

Arthur E. O'Dea, MD, Research Fellow in Pathology and Legal Medicine, Harvard Medical School, presented "Medicolegal and Pathological Aspects of Suicide," at the Providence Medical Association annual meeting. He cited the duties of a forensic pathologist: "He not only documents homicide but also guards the public interest by removing unwarranted suspicion arising over a given death and assists law enforcement officers acting as an impartial arbiter in investigating sudden and apparently unexplainable deaths." Identifying suicide was a challenge because the pathologist rarely had a correct family history. Instead, the family would try to make the cause of death seem natural or accidental.

Norman L. Loux, MD, Clinical Director, Butler Hospital, in "Some Clinical Aspects of Suicide," said that men were more likely to use firearms and hanging; women, poison and gas.

Anthony Caputi, MD, and Louis E. Burns, MD, in "Coronary Occlusion and Myocardial Infarction," reviewed 188 cases of coronary occlusion seen at Newport Hospital from January 1, 1946, to December 31, 1950. Only 12 patients received anticoagulant therapy. The mortality rate was 40.5 %; 76.3% of them died within two weeks after onset of the occlusion.

Barry B. Mangillo, MD, contributed "Videotherapy as an Office Procedure." For example, the cartoon film, "Johnny Learns His Manners," was "of great value in treating children with behavior problems." The film featured "Badself," "nasty imp whose mission is to get Johnny into trouble", versus "Goodself." One scene, promoting neatness, showed Johnny in the room of a West Point cadet.

An editorial praised the Providence Tuberculosis League, which provided chest x-rays and advice to 6,341 individuals at facilities and took 22,214 small films at the trailer.

An editorial on Foreign Medical Graduates noted, on the one hand, that state licensing boards had found the foreign training deficient, on the other hand, that hospitals needed these staff. The editorial saw "no easy solution."

TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO

[MAY, 1978]

In "Message from the Dean," Stanley M. Aronson, MD, MPH, described the 63 students from the Class of 1978, Brown Medical School's fourth group. The journal featured photographs of graduates, with their residency destinations.

In "Medicine in the Year 2000 : A Symposium," Stanley M. Aronson, MD, Paul Calabresi, MD, Pierre M. Galletti, MD, PhD, Henry T. Randall, MD, Leo Stern, MD, Albert F. Wessen, PhD, and Robert J. Westlake, MD, peered into the crystal ball two years hence. [They did not foresee managed care.]