Page 5 - Demo

Vintage Postcards of Indiana Health FacilitiesHealthcare in Indiana, continuedspecific specialties were brought up for approval. Obstetrics and Gynecology gained recognition in 1947%u2014but Industrial Medicine did not. In 1903, in an attempt to standardize the widely varying bylaws of state medical societies, the American Medical Association worked with doctors in Indiana to rewrite the state organization%u2019s constitution. As a result, various procedural and legal changes were implemented, and instead of being a %u201cSociety%u201d it became an %u201cAssociation.%u201d As time went on, the practice of medicine continued to improve, with diagnosis and treatment tending to evolve in more successful directions. The germ theory gradually became an accepted fact, and antitoxins took the place of bloodletting and purging. Surgery was also becoming more sophisticated and safer. However, not all well-considered suggestions for improved healthcare were adopted. In 1912, the Committee on Venereal Diseases recommended licensing prostitution%u2014but it resulted only in public outcry. In 1909, the annual conference, which traveled to different Indiana locations each year, was held in Terre Haute. For the very first time, a social affair was held the evening before the official sessions began. In essence, it was a stag party, or smoker, designed so the all-male members could renew old acquaintances and make new ones in an informal atmosphere. It was huge success. By the 1940s, only Indianapolis and French Lick had facilities large enough to accommodate all the attendees. In 1948, it was noted that, %u201cthe golf, trap and skeet tournaments are indispensable in the eyes of their devotees%u201d at the convention. Still, the %u201cbusiness of medicine%u201d was also seriously considered, with popular discussions revolving around sickness insurance, socialized medicine, and free medical care to servicemen%u2019s dependents. In 1947, four $500 scholarships were awarded to medical students who agreed to practice in rural areas for 5 years after graduation, and golden keys were presented to the three male students with the highest senior grades. Six $200 scholarships were also awarded to student nurses%u2014all females. Indiana State Board of Health Bloomington had a Board of Health as early as 1833, but the State Medical Society debated at length about creating a statewide organization. In fact, it took nearly 50 years before the Indiana State Board of Health was founded in 1881. With a $5,000 appropriation, it was able to procure some modest furnishings, including three desks, eleven walnut chairs, one wash bowl and pitcher, and four cuspidors. It was also able to hire Dr. Thaddeus Stevens, who had originally proposed its existence and became its first Secretary. But he was quickly forced from office because of poor penmanship. At the time, it was said %u201cthe minutes...in the record book are barely legible, having been written in his own scrawly hand.%u201d In 1896, during a typhoid fever epidemic, Dr. J. N. Hurty became Secretary of the Indiana State Board of Health. Three years later, he was responsible for the passage of a state law specifically defining %u201cadulteration%u201d in foods%u2014one of the first such laws in the world. The same year, he became interested in stream pollution. Despite manufacturers, who maintained they had a right to discharge waste matter into rivers, Hurty was instrumental in getting a stream-pollution law passed. By 1912, he had two houseboats equipped with laboratories aboard so his staff could take water samples and analyze them quickly. As a maverick, and one of the nation%u2019s foremost health officers, Dr. Hurty was given an award of excellence at the Paris International Exposition in 1900. But his beliefs weren%u2019t always forward thinking. In fact, he was a firm believer in eugenics, and said an end to defective human beings could