MEDICINE IN BLACKFOOT IN THE 1890s

The title of "dentist" in Blackfoot's early days could be conferred to about anyone with a pair of pliers. In 1896, though, the local dentist Dr. Mingus began practicing with a newfangled bit of technology called "nitrous oxide"--it must have been a godsend for those with dental ailments at the time.

Optometrists, as well as dentists, often came as itinerants, stopping for three or four days in a hotel room in Blackfoot and then moving on. Regular doctors moved with less frequency, with the County keeping one on salary for decades. If you complain about the cost of today's doctor visit, you might take a copy of this price schedule to show your physician--maybe you'll get a better deal if you ask him or her to match the charge (particularly if you're pregnant, the delivery charge then being $10):

Pharmacists, almosts wholly unregulated, dished out laudanum (an opiate) and often sold alcohol as medicine--even during pre-Prohibition days, when the County had outlawed alcohol at bars, you could often procure it at the druggist's establishment. Doctor Monroe kept a large supply of drugs at his office, and published his charges--fifty cents a prescription:

Apparently a doctor's credentials might be suspect. Dr. Mitchell, an Idaho Falls doctor who later would practice at Blackfoot and be the center of a trial regarding a botched abortion, had his license denied--the board found he had no diploma.

Diptheria, Typhoid Fever, Scarlet Fever, Smallpox--these diseases commonly spread through the area at the time, and the commonness of amputations would startle a present-day citizen. Children frequently drowned, suffered many--sometimes fatal--burns due to the usage of open fires for heating and the omnipresence of the wood burning cookstove.

Maybe the present-day is not so bad.

Ralph Thurston is the author of The Shanghi Plain: Bingham County's Early History, available at Kesler's Market in Blackfoot and online at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCCS7XLR?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860