1910: The allopaths are organising medicine

Some insights into what was brewing in medicine, public health and statistics, leading up to the 1918 pandemic.

My interest continues in learning the state of mind and the medical system prior to the 1918 pandemic. Here are a few short, but insightful letters to the editor from 1910, preserved in The Homoeopathic Recorder, a U.S. publication.

This first letter (August 1910) on page 327 provides an insight into the allopath’s marketing the term “Organised Medicine”, with the objective of cornering the market and knock out the competition.

Highlights are mine

THE NEW TITLE. —

Once they were termed "allopaths," later "regulars," but now the term that seems to be favored is "organized medicine ;" being but one branch of medicine, they reluctantly realize that there must be a distinguishing name. The president of the Texas "organization" has been telling of all the things done down there. He says, among many other things : ""Never have the 'schools' of medicine, the quacks and the medical bunco steerers had so many things to worry about." Also : '"Height standards of requirements are eliminating the low-grade medical schools and putting out of business the 'isms' and 'pathies' in medicine." It looks as if "organized medicine" is determined to have the "business." Curing? Oh, you know it isn't scientific to use that term any more ; nature cures while "organized medicine" looks after the rest, such as putting down "quacks," shouldering out the non-union doctors and collecting the fees.

It is a pity this estimable organization cannot realize that in medicine it cannot have a monopoly ; that if it cannot draw patients by merit it cannot get them by drastic laws. The cry of "protecting the public" is a telling one from a purely business point of view, but ethically it is fallacious, as statistics have ever proved.

The cry of “protecting the public” is still the Pubic Health mantra today.

The next letter on page 371 is a good one.

VITAL STATISTICS. —

At the St. Louis meeting of the A. M. A. President Welch, among other things, said : "Vital statistics is the very foundation of sanitary science and of practical sanitation, and its neglect in this country has been as much of a reproach to us as our low standards of medical education."

Homoeopaths will be glad to hear that "the organization" has awakened to the importance of vital statistics, something it has always ignored.

A prayerful study of the vital statistics of Homoeopathy, and a soulful application of the teachings thereof, would do more towards raising the low standard of "organized medicine" than would doubling the time required for a medical education. Ability 'to name a microbe does not necessarily mean ability to cure a patient.

Since it is mentioned “A. M. A. President Welch”, I assume the author is referring to Dr William H. Welch, the national president of the allopaths. I wanted to confirm this by trying to find the article (this is what I do, try to find the source!). The American Medical Association held their sixty-first annual session in St. Louis on June 7-10, 1910, so it was likely at this conference that Welch made this statement.

Though I did also find a Professor James J. Welch who spoke at St Louis on the state of University Medical Schools, which I initially thought could be the Welch in question but wasn’t.¹ Though James Welch curiously states:

It is not hard to understand why the foreigner lifts his eyebrow in surprise when he is told that most of our medical schools a generation or two ago required but two terms of four or five months each and that there was just beginning to be a demand for a little more complete course and better facilities. There were many medical schools with these low standards turning out graduates every year with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, which constituted a license to practice in every state in the Union, for there were no laws regulating the practice of medicine.

(As I search to find the right Welch, I am going down many rabbit holes, and discover so many historical insights and data points which I want to add to the Totality of Evidence timeline. But I don’t have the time. These are all important insights for us to better understand our history. I want to capture them all and share with you! I apologise for the seemingly disjointedness of this post, it is my attempt to share with you all my historical my revelations. Some I’ll need to add as a future articles. Lets continue….)

It was only in the late 19th century, early 20th century that effort was being placed into better capturing all manner of population statistics, including the births, mortality and morbidity, these data required cooperation from the medical community. This was the early days of public health statistics.

The Census Bureau of Vital Statistics, appears to have been started in 1890, as the 12th vital statistics census was taken in 1902, according to the CDC records.

It is acknowledged in 1910 that capturing these vital statistics uniformly across all states of the union, is a massive problem, that required coordination and cooperation. There was talk of, and action taken in establishing laws across all states in order to mandate physicians to report. Some physicians raised the issue as to whether they should receive government remuneration for such a responsibility.

Notwithstanding the grievous lack of adequate laws concerning vital statistics in many of our states, an increasing amount of valuable statistical work concerning public health is being published every year.²

In the July 23, 1910 edition of JAMA, it is stated how “imperfect” the smallpox data are.

Last winter smallpox prevailed to a greater or less extent in almost every State in the Union. So imperfect, however, are the vital statistics in most of our states that we are in ignorance of the actual amount of smallpox occurring. We can only guess whether the disease is on the increase or on the decrease, and it is impossible to trace its spread.

As an interesting note, this author goes on to blame the “unvaccinated” for incidence that “flame up”, though in the most part the disease “has been mild and the mortality on the whole comparatively low”. They continue to praise and aspire to be like Germany.

When we compare the smallpox situation in our land with the superb results obtained in Germany since 1874, through compulsory vaccination and revaccination, we have reason to feel humiliated at the backwardness of our public health forces.

Note the word’s “compulsory” and “revaccination”. If you have to revaccinate, the vaccine didn’t work in the first place, assuming the intent was to make one immune. Is this author also suggesting that Germany has solid statistical records?

When armed with this knowledge of inadequate data collection, how much trust can we put on the “influenza” statistics just a few years later in the 1918 pandemic, and especially in the chaos of a world war?

Lets get back to these letters. Page 379 two comment about President Dr. William H. Welch’s address at the annual AMA conference, noting them closing in on the competition.

THE ORGANIZATION. —

President Dr. William H. Welch, in his address at the annual gathering of the allopaths at St. Louis, dwelt on the "striking beneficial results'' accomplished by the "effective organization of the profession." Whether he did well to call attention to what has been done is, at least, open to question, for it brings to light the fact that a comparatively small body of physicians have succeeded in getting about all the official plums there are in sight, and are now showing signs of trying to put all medical colleges out of business who compete with them. Politically their work has been skillful, but old politicians could tell them that there is danger in too much unrestrained power. The people are, as it were, from Missouri, and sooner or later must be shown — and the organization cannot show them.

Then this one:

NON-PARTISAN. —

President Welch also said ('under ''sectarian" medicine) : "We represent no school of medicine and no system of healing, allopathic, old, regular or other."' From this one would infer that our old friend, the allopath, or "regular," is now a "nothing!" But Doctor Welch says they are simply physicians who practice ''our art on scientific principles." Very fair — on paper. But suppose some man were to follow a paper on vaccines and serum with one in which Lycopodium 30. Corbo veg. 6, Natrum mur. 30. etc., played the part the vaccines and serums did on the supposed preceding paper, would Dr. Welch and the other "physicians only" receive it? It would have a much clearer scientific backing than that on which the use of dead bacteria rests : would The Journal print it? As the old time editors used to say, We pause for a reply — which we will not get.

It was known in 1910 the power of the medical journal at restricting what gets published. This also highlights the popularity of the time of publishing works on “vaccines and serums,” and that “scientific” seems to be what the allopaths determine to be so.

Let’s go back to page 377, where we find reference to the recently released Flexner Report commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation.

CONCERNING MR FLEXNER —

Dr. A. F. Stephens, of St. Louis, says of the Carnegie report :

"Flexner is one of Carnegie's hirelings, and is associated with a clique in the medical association which wants to wipe out independent colleges. This trust has been growing fifty years. It wants to do away with Christian Science, homoeopaths, osteopaths and eclectics. There are 17,000,000 people in the United States who are treated by the class of practitioners the trust is trying to put out of business. A greater per cent, of graduates of small colleges pass the State Board of Examinations than of graduates from larger colleges."

The "organized medicine" that the Carnegie Foundation seeks to make supreme knows more about the showy side of medicine than any other branch ; it also has the money, the laboratories and a huge array of scientific paraphernalia, but it knows less about the cure of disease than did the old time herbalists — and Osler practically admitted the fact. So "organized medicine" will have to come down from its height of barren knowledge and learn something useful or the people, who pay the freight, will oust them. Results count — not a splutter of doggerel Greek terms.

History has proven the power of the AMA lobby organisation funded by Big Pharma has managed to nearly root out all competition.

In case you are not aware, the AMA was formed in 1847 with the stated objective of reforming medical education, but the obvious desire to elimiate competition! If you are new to this history, reporter Annie Riley Hales provides a great overview in her book titled These Cults.

On page 326, is more about the Flexner Report.

A FORESHADOWING OF THE FUTURE. —

The official organ of the American Medical Association, in a highly laudatory editorial (June 11) on the report sent out by the Carnegie Foundation, says : "The actual facts, in the end, will be more helpful than the poetry of medical school catalogues and advertisements, especially State licensing boards, some of which are now endeavoring to ascertain the actual character of the medical schools that send them applicants for license."

Probably you have heard of the old Arab story, of the camel that pleaded with the man to let him put his head in the man's tent. The man granted the request with the result that the camel, head, hump and tail, entered and the man had to get out. Licensing and examining boards were granted the "regulars" to protect the public from incompetent practitioners of medicine ; now, as may be seen by the above quotation, they propose to examine colleges instead, though who gives them the power is a mystery.

In the same editorial reference is made to "sectarian medicine," and it is said "the foundation has taken the only logical position, namely, that, regardless of treatment employed, all practitioners alike should have a thorough grounding in the fundamental medical sciences." A very plausible platitude, but conveying the subtle insinuation that the "sectarian" does not receive those fundamentals. The examining board camel after a bit will see to it that the tent is carried away from the "sectarians" unless the latter get together, come out flat-footed for their great Law and "make a noise" among the law makers. "Regular" medicine is too narrow and sectarian itself, too hide bound, too much the slave of the dictum of those who lead its members, to be entrusted with absolute medical power.

When their big men announce that so and so is the right thing, it is the right thing until it is proved to be wrong, which proof, however, docs not affect the status of the leaders, who announce what follows as a sort of evolution of '"medical science'' towards higher things, and no matter what is to the fore the lightning hits the smaller man who rebels, and takes up with, Homoeopathy or anything else not sanctioned by the leaders.

If the Medical Trust grows unchecked the time will soon come when a man's ability to heal the sick will have nothing to do with his legal right to heal them.

The Medical Trust did grow unchecked, and the world is sicker for it.

On page 378, we get some insight into the practice of jabbing the military with bacterial sludge.

ANTI-TYPHOID VACCINATION. —

Dr. Hartsock, U. S. Army, favors this vaccination (J. A. M. A., 6-25).

Of 1,100 cases he gives the following results: 122 had no reaction, 908 had mild, 60 had moderate and 10 severe reactions. These doctors never seem to consider the possibility of constitutional changes resulting from their practice. It is known that a dose of antitoxin changes a man so that the effects last for years. Is that change from normal advantageous? Consider a man vaccinated against small-pox, against typhoid, against tuberculosis, rabies, tetanus and several other diseases, does any one in his heart believe that that man can retain his health under the strain?

Imagine a regiment vaccinated against everything for which a vaccine has been prepared, and another left to nature and a common sense sanitarian, would any sporting man put his money on the "protected" regiment?

Proposing a placebo controlled trial! It is 2025 and it still hasn’t been done for an individual vaccine, let along a concoction of many!

I like this data point as WW1 is about to break, and vaccinating the military with their brews of “dead bacteria” went into overdrive.

The Proposed National Department of Health on page 325

THE PROPOSED NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH —

If our allopathic friends displayed as much ability in office as they do in getting there all would be well. The glowing promises of what would be done by them with a Government Department are fine, but they cannot fulfill those promises. If they were given absolute power, and the money of Rockefeller and Carnegie, they could easily spend the money, but disease would prevail just the same.

And so it has. The populations state of ill-at-ease has grown.

One gentleman in their Journal points the late foot and mouth disease as a case where such a department would be very useful, but he forgets its origin was in a manner under governmental auspices.

In Dr Suzanne Humphries book Dissolving Illusions with

Roman Bystrianyk

, they point out the connection between vaccines and foot-and-mouth disease - due to it’s manner of production.

With their theory of disease, and their fondness of putting all sorts of new things into the human blood, no one need be surprised at any day to see something akin to the experience with the cattle happening to humanity. In fact, there have already been several incipient outbreaks that nearly gave them heart disease, as at Camden, St. Louis (?), and other places a few years ago. Had these things happened under the "irregulars" they would have been struck and blasted by the '"regular" lightning and thunderbolts.

In this republic there are too many voters who do not believe in allopathy to have all medical power given into the hands of one medical sect — for in reality that is what our esteemed allopaths are. Every such sect has a central idea: the central idea of the "regular" is authority, which by the way is by no means fixed, but changes with each decade. Scientific truths are fixed, as truth does not change. If one looks at the matter from this point of view the homoeopaths are the only medical body to whom the proposed department should be entrusted, as being the only medical body founded on an unalterable base.

Today, more than 200 years since homeopathy was founded, it is still rooted in the same unaltered Law of Similars.

It is hardly possible that the House and Senate can be brought to see the matter in this light, but they ought to at least see the impropriety of giving entire power into the hands of one of the many schools of medicine. Do the fair thing or let the matter die.

But also…the power did get swayed into the hands of the allopaths, as it still is today.

I hope you enjoyed that little collection of historical insight. It has taken me a good part of my Sunday to put these together.

Until next time…

1. https://archive.org/details/pt01journalamericanm55ameruoft/page/654/mode/2up

2. https://archive.org/details/pt01journalamericanm55ameruoft/page/506/mode/2up?q=vital+welch