The First Doctors in America

The First Doctors in America
The history of the doctor in America commences with early physicians of the North American colonies.

With but little hope of material reward –sharing in every danger, hardship and privation of the other emigrants – a number of medical men of eminence came to the New World during formative days of the colonies; and the treatment and care which the settlers received at their hands were on a par with that administered to the friends and relatives whom they had left behind in their native lands.

Dr Thomas Wooten was undoubtedly the progenitor of medicine in North America.

Carrying a commission as Surgeon-General of the London Company, he arrived in 1607 on one of three ships bearing 165 colonists who landed at the mouth of the James River in Virginia, is named in honor of King James I, son of Mary Stuart who succeed her half-sister, Elizabeth, upon the English throne.

The settlement of Jamestown was built. After their cherished dreams of finding gold had faded, these settlers turned their attention to the rich Virginia soil which was particularly adapted to the cultivation of two plants which were to determine the colony’s future-tobacco and cotton.

During the following year, a Dr. Russel was accompanying Captain John Smith on his exploration of Chesapeake Bay.

But it would seem that neither of these physicians remained very long; because, in 1609, the hardy old warrior who had been the leader and protector to the first white settlement in the New World, after being wounded was compelled to return to England for lack of medical aid in the settlements.

In 1611, Dr, Lawrence Bohun succeeded Dr. Wooten as Physician-General of Virginia.

When Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan for twenty four dollars in 1626, there was probably no physician in his party,

The first records of a doctor in New York-then New Amsterdam-are of one Johannes La Montagne, a Huguenot who arrived in 1637, and Dr. Herman Van den Bogaerdt.

Dr. La Montagne was counselor to the Director General of New Netherlands. Both of these men recorded to have possessed great learning.
The First Doctors in America

Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC

Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC
Egyptian doctors were well aware of their limitations, however and were told not to inflict unnecessary suffering on their patients, so there were many cases where they had to say – at least to themselves –‘An aliment not to be treated’.

They were recommended to take note of the treatments and medicine they used and of their effects, so that they had a record for similar cases in the future.

There were medicine to be taken internally, others to be applied to the outside of the body, and others still to be inhaled. Egyptians ingredients that can be identified today appear to be sound herbal remedies.

However some medicines had ingredients such as mice, beetles and dung which aimed o drive out the demons causing the illness.

The Egyptians had a remarkable knowledge of the way the body worked, and knew about its internal arrangement through mummifying the dead.

To them the heart was the most important organ; they knew that it pumped blood round the body and that the pulse ‘spoke the messages of the heart’. They also knew that injuries to one side of the brain affected the opposite side of the body.

Doctors sometime used surgery as well as medicine to treat patients and opened injured skulls to relieve pressure in the brain.

Before an operation the surgeon gave his patient a drink, presumably a painkiller, ‘to render it agreeable’. In the New Kingdom the painkiller might have been opium, imported from Cyprus.

Because of the importance the Egyptians attached to ritual purity the surgeon and his assistants washed themselves and purified the instruments in fire before the operation. Both of these would cut down the risk of infection.

The Egyptians were a deeply religious people and prayers would always be used as well as medicines, even for the simplest ailments.

In difficult cases, magic might be employed. It was also possible to visit the temple of a deity associated with medicine, such as Imhotep, which had priests trained as doctors.

At some temples the sick could spend a night close to the god’s sanctuary. During such a stay, called ‘incubation’, the patient might be cured by the deity, or dream of the god and receive instructions for treatment.

Even if no help was forthcoming, the sufferer was spirituality comforted.
Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC

1300 BC Egyptians Doctor

1300 BC Egyptians Doctor
Egyptians medicine reached a very high standard, and its reputation spread to neighboring countries. A student doctor learned from an established physician, perhaps his father, but there also seem to have been medical schools attached to the temples, and there was at least one school for midwives.

Many ancient Egyptian doctors were ‘general practitioners’ working in the community, but specialized in one part of the body. Medical texts that have survived give clues to the extent of the Egyptians’ knowledge. There were specialist books about every part of the body, texts specifically on gynaecology, books for surgeons, dentists, and vets, and books giving recipes for medicines.

Doctors were instructed that when making a diagnosis they should, first observe the patient closely, then ask questions, inspect, smell, feel and probe. If they were then confident they could cure the patient they would say ‘An ailment I will treat’: if it was a more difficult case with an uncertain outcome they would say ‘An ailment with which I will contend’.
1300 BC Egyptians Doctor