Fighting for business: the limits of professional cooperation among American doctors during the First World War.

The American medical profession participated extensively in preparedness and mobilization for the First World War, with more than one in five doctors voluntarily enlisting in various branches of the Army and Navy Medical Corps. Medical officers were widely valorized for suspending their civilian careers and for sacrificing their professional income while in service. Because of the meager commissions that medical officers received by comparison with fees many doctors earned in established private medical practices, scores of county medical societies implemented organizational solutions to this business problem, with the hopes of removing a significant disincentive to enlistment. In these "practice protection plans," a civilian doctor promised to take care of the patients of a military doctor, to forward a portion of the fees collected thereby to the family of the military doctor, and to refer these patients to the military doctor upon his return. Despite initial enthusiasm and promotion, these plans ultimately failed to achieve their objectives, leading some medical officers to accuse civilian doctors of being opportunistic, unpatriotic "slackers." This episode reveals the limits of professional cooperation in American medicine at the time and the need to explain organizational failures in the grand narrative of professionalization during the "Golden Age" of American medicine.

Once upon a time--starting up a dental practice in the 1980s.

A description of how a dentist could establish a practice in the UK in the 1980s.

[Town physician or physician in a town? Three early modern physicians and their understanding of their municipal function]. / Stadtarzt oder Arzt in der Stadt? Drei Arzte der Frühen Neuzeit und ihr Verständnis des städtischen Amtes.

The institution of the town physician has been up to now discussed mostly on the limited scale of regional studies. In this article three early modern period town physicians are compared regarding their own understanding of their office. Their individual approach towards medical practice is examined on a broader spatio-temporal range within the context of medicalization, which was an integral part of the development of early modern territorial states. This comparison shows that beyond contemporary normative concepts town physicians also claimed particular roles within their social context. By achieving these, they often broadened or even transgressed the assumed delineation of the function subscribed to town physicians.

Dermatologists in the Wild West, 1870-1900: The early pioneers from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast.

During the Wild West era of American history (approximately 1870-1900), at least 53 dermatologists settled between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Coast. In 1870, two dermatologists began their practice in the city of St Louis, Missouri (William Augustus Hardaway and Solomon Claiborne Martin, Sr) and one dermatologist started his practice in San Francisco, California (George J. Bucknall). By 1900, 50 more dermatologists had settled in 19 cities located in the American West (Tables 1,2). There, they established practices, initiated academic programs, and pioneered dermatology as a medical specialty in the western United States. This contribution provides brief biographic profiles of these early western American dermatologists. It also presents several dermatology-related vignettes from the Wild West that involved such colorful personalities as Doc Holiday, Calamity Jane, and Sister Mary Joseph. From these beginnings, 150 years ago, the specialty of dermatology would further spread and develop across the American West during the 20th century.

Laryngology in Art: The Portrait of Dr Wilhelm Mayer-Hermann.

Otto Dix's portrait of the laryngologist Dr Wilhelm Mayer-Hermann represents a shining example of Neue Sachlichkeit, or New Objectivity, offering a return to unsentimental reality and a focus on the objective world, as opposed to the more abstract and idealistic tendencies of expressionism. However, precious little is known about the subject of the portrait. This article examines the portrait and attempts to shed light on the life and career of the Dr Wilhelm Mayer-Hermann.

A Danish provincial physician and his patients; the patient records from the practice of Christopher Detlev Hahn in Aarhus around 1800.

The Danish physician Christopher Detlev Hahn (1744-1822) graduated in medicine from Halle and set up a medical practice in Aarhus in 1766. More than 2000 of his patient records, bound in twenty-seven volumes, are kept in the archives of the Medical Museum in Copenhagen. The records, which are written in Latin and resemble hospital records, contain entries from each visit to the patients. A sample of these records, especially those from 1806, have been analysed regarding diagnoses, alleged causes of disease, examination of patients and prescription of different treatments. It was noticeable to what extent Hahn, who belonged to the Hippocratic tradition, individualised both diagnosis and treatment. The introduction of variolation and later vaccination is discussed. This collection of records provides a unique insight into medical practice at that time outside the hospitals.

[General practice, theory and science of self-knowledge by the urban physician Christoph Jacob Trew (1695-1769)]. / Praxis, Theorie und Wissenschaft im Selbsverständnis des städtischen Arztes Christoph Jacob Trew (1695-1769).

In addition to universities and courts, large towns were regarded as attractive locations for a successful career by physicians in the 18th century. This study reveals the spectrum of practical and scientific activities of a "physicus" like Christoph Jacob Trew (1695-1769) who lived in the German town of Nuremberg. Emphasis is put on his attitude towards the meaning of medical practice, theory, and science in his work. Letters and drafts which form the basis of this study prove their usefulness as sources for medico-historical studies on the professional world of practicing physicians in the 18th century.

[The practice of medicine at the end of the Second Empire: according to a book, appearing in 1865, by Dr. Camille Delvaille, physician in Bayonne]. / L'exercice de la médecine à la fin du Second empire: d'après un livre, paru en 1865, du docteur Camille Delvaille, médecin à Bayonne.

Dr Camille Delvaille (1835-1904) was a physician in Bayonne. He wrote many books about scientific problems and social medicine; he was one of the first to suggest medical control at school. In a book, written in 1865, he studied everyday practice in France. He complained against the "Officiers de Sante" who exercised medicine mainly in the countryside but were not doctors and had followed very short medical studies. Dr Delvaille deplored that it meant two kinds of cares: doctors for top people and Officiers de Sante for poor patients. In fact, the end of the Officiat de Sante occured only in 1892. Dr Delvaille studied also some problems related to medical demography; he purposed for our country a law cutting down foreign practice in France. Then, he put forward nomination of Professors or hospital's physicians through an examination instead of routine cooptation. Some of his minds are ahead and were applied later.