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Images in Mississippi Medicine: A Photographic History of Medicine in Mississippi
PHYSICIAN'S BOOKSHELF
Philip L. Levin, MD
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IMAGES IN MISSISSIPPI MEDICINE: A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN MISSISSIPPI
Lucius "Luke" M. Lampton, MD and Karen A. Evers
Invalid Carriage in front of Hardy Funeral Home
Mississippi Department of Archives and History
With a reference to the father of western medicine, Hippocrates, Dr. Luke Lampton and Ms. Karen Evers launch this impressive 266-page coffee-table style expedition into the history of medicine in Mississippi. From Indian tribal techniques through early French colonial physicians onto U.S. territorial regulations, the book explores the path of medicine in our lovely state into the modern age. Gathering nearly 400 amazing photos, meticulously restored, the book follows the development of the healing arts through the early medical schools, the formation of medical societies, and the founding of regional hospitals. As the book develops, the reader delights in reading the physician biographies, studying the old-time handbills about diseases and quarantines, and delving into the development of the many medical institutions that formed the foundation of modern Mississippi medical care.
People, places, and things: these make up the substance of our history. In Images in Mississippi Medicine, the authors pepper the book with a delightful collection of each of these three. Here we read of Dr. William Lattimore, the early 19th-century physician and Congressman who led the creation of, and served on, the first medical licensure board in 1819, which was a rare accomplishment in the United States. Images include his coat and his elegant signature. Politics of the time come to light as we read of a so-called physician who successfully sued this early board, effectively leaving “the profession in a state of disarray and medical standards in shambles for nearly half a century.” The biography of Samuel Cartwright, MD, the first president of the Mississippi State Medical Society, reports how his extensive writings on “principal diseases of the Southern states” brought him recognition as a “specialist in Southern diseases and medicine.” His career in Mississippi was so lucrative, he was able to take his family on an 18-month European tour where he lectured on the inferiority of the “dark-skinned race.”
The great variety of physicians documented in this book tell tales of the social changes which progressed in our Magnolia state. Felix Underwood’s public health career earned him the title, “The Man Who Saved a Million Lives.” One learns of the research on yellow fever by antebellum physician John Wesley Monette, physician, epidemiologist, author, and historian, one of six physicians in the Mississippi Hall of Fame. Photos of their tombstones decorate biographies, such as of David Phares, MD, naturalist, botanist, and writer. William Henry Holcombe, MD, a homeopath whose treatment of yellow fever was recognized nationally, is also noted. Heroes of medical campaigns tell their stories: Lloyd Tevis Miller, MD, and his fight for African- American health access; Dr. B. L. Crawford fighting the White Plague of TB; and Henry Boswell, MD, Mississippi’s “Conqueror of the White Death.”
Vicksburg Mississippi Charity Hospital Surgery in Amphitheatre
The history of medical facilities makes for a fascinating read. Tom Franklin Hospital in Columbus, created in 1885, served as the hospital for Mississippi’s first public all-female institution. The 1879 state charity hospital in Vicksburg had 75 beds, with an annex added later for Confederate veterans. A 1904 postcard illustrates the “Jackson Institute for the Deaf and Dumb,” and another postcard the “Mississippi Institute for the Blind” from the 1920s. These landmark buildings, now all gone, tell of how Mississippi physicians reached out to those suffering from every affliction, determined to bring help to invalids and the medically needy.
South Mississippi Infirmary of Hattiesburg - 1908
Collection of Dr. Lucius M. Lampton
A kaleidoscope of medical associated items graces the pages of this remarkable book. Hardy’s Invalid Carriage from 1907 was one of the first ambulances in the state. There’s a photo of one of the Board of Health’s 1950s portable chest x-ray machines in a truck parked on a street, encouraging pedestrians roaming the sidewalks to come in and be checked for TB. Posters illustrate Mississippi’s crusades against polio, malaria, and typhoid fever. There’s a photo of a handbill advertising the summer term for the 1904 University of Mississippi School of Medicine across from a photo of the 1904 gross anatomy class.
Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Lest we forget, Dr. Lampton and Ms. Evers have brought together this most remarkable photojournalism of the progress of medicine throughout our history. Each page in this spellbinding book brings discovery of a new wonder. At only $80, I urge anyone interested in Mississippi history to urgently order a copy, as only a thousand copies were printed of what is sure to be a collector’s item. Although it is termed a “Photographic History,” this exemplary book is a full history in every sense of the word. Here is where any study of Mississippi medicine and its history should begin.
This unique collection of rarely seen historic medical images dates from the antebellum period to modern medicine and tells in vivid imagery Mississippi’s important story of the evolution of medicine from horse and buggy days to the current era of high technology and robotic surgery. Also included with the 300-plus images is a comprehensive narrative history of medicine. 9 780692 124598 58000> ISBN 978-0-692-12459-8 $80.00
Journal MSMA Editor Dr. Luke Lampton and Managing Editor Karen Evers in the JMSMA office at MSMA headquarters in Ridgeland, MS.
Dr. Lucius M. “Luke” Lampton of Magnolia, has served as Editor and Associate Editor of the Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association for more than two decades, writing thousands of articles on medicine and health care and receiving national awards for excellence in writing and journalism. He also served as Medical Editor of the recently published Mississippi Encyclopedia, authoring multiple entries on the history of medicine in Mississippi. He recently contributed a chapter to America’s leading primary care textbook Conn’s Current Therapy. Dr. Lampton has also served as a member of the Mississippi State Board of Health since 2006 and served as chairman of the Board from 2007-2017. Dr. Lampton specializes in Family Medicine in multiple settings: clinic, hospital, nursing homes, geri-psych, long-term acute care, and hospice. He has been recognized as Mississippi’s “family physician” of the year by the MAFP, alumna of the year by his medical school, professor of the year nominee by his Tulane medical students, and has received national citation for his hospice work. He serves as Clinical Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine, Clinical Instructor in Family Medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, and as Adjunct Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Hattiesburg. Dr. Lampton also serves as President of the Foundation of Mississippi History and helped oversee the creation of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
Karen A. Evers, a native of Jackson, graduated from the University of Mississippi with a B.S. in Journalism and Advertising. Fascinated with graphic design, advertising, publishing and media, she went from Ole Miss to New York City working with such magazines as Better Homes & Gardens, Hippocrates and Health. After 10 years in advertising sales and magazine publishing, she returned home to Mississippi. In 1995, she became managing editor of the Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association (JMSMA), a position she’s held since, overseeing and coordinating the Journal’s publishing process from content acquisition, writing, editing and production to the printed and online magazine distributed in members’ mailboxes. With her physician editors and the MSMA Committee on Publications, Karen has produced more than 20 bound Journal volumes containing more than 250 issues. She is the recipient of several APEX awards including Best One-Person-Produced Magazine, an Association Trends All-Media Contest Silver Award for Most Improved Magazine, and a Lantern award for a special JMSMA issue “From Doc on Horseback to Managed Care.”
