At the 1949 Proceedings of the First Research Conference on Psychosurgery, Charles C. Limburg of the Human Resources Division, Department of the Air Force, presented his research findings, A Survey on the Use of Psychosurgery with Mental Patients in the United States. To begin, Limburg briefly examined a 1949 article written by Lawrence C. Kolb…
Author: Shawn Logan
A Brief Look at Public Health Nursing in Kentucky
In the early 20th-century in Kentucky, a growing movement to educate the public about communicable and preventable diseases began taking place. Kentuckians and, arguably, many other Americans were reluctantly content with allowing the progression of diseases for any number of reasons; largely due to a lack of public health education and tools needed to combat…
Trachoma in Kentucky
Sonnet inspired by the sight of a Kentucky child who was restored from blindness A little girl am I, that once was blindAnd shut in darkness from the shining day,And God through you, your loving heart and kind,From prison led me to the sun-lit wayWhere other children walk and dance and seeThe waving trees, the…
Kentucky’s Female-Led Bacteriology Laboratory
In 1910, Kentucky’s General Assembly established the Commonwealth’s first State Laboratory of Bacteriology in a tiny room in Bowling Green at St. Joseph’s Hospital. The room cost the state nothing and was also furnished by the hospital. Dr. Lillian H. South was voted, unanimously, as the State Bacteriologist making her among the first women in…
The Early Anti-Tuberculosis Movement in Kentucky
How Was Tuberculosis Medically Defined in the early 1900s? When affecting the lungs, it was often referred to as pulmonary tuberculosis or consumption and was classified as an infectious and communicable disease. It was common in humans and some animals, especially in cattle. About 1/4th of all deaths occurring in humans during adult life in…
The Louisville Mental Hygiene Clinic
Established in 1914, the Louisville Mental Hygiene Clinic began as a program of Louisville’s Board of Education as an attempt to aid with “unusual” children both “defective” and those of “superior” intelligence. Approximately six years later the program developed into a Psychological Clinic that was located on East Walnut Street. Aside from moving once again…
A Brief History of the Ambulance
Early Ambulance History In 1864 the United States Congress enacted the Union Army Ambulance Corps. Getting sick and wounded soldiers to surgeons as quickly as possible proved to be a frustrating issue with both the Union and Confederate armies. The sheer ratio of soldiers to surgeons prohibited most surgeons from going directly to soldiers on…
Epidemics and How History Can Potentially Save Lives
Epidemics in Kentucky Cholera Yellow Fever “Spanish” Influenza Tuberculosis Smallpox and Pest Houses Kentucky, and the world at large, is no stranger to epidemics. Whether it is cholera, yellow fever, tuberculosis, or influenza, Kentucky has seen nearly everything. Perhaps the most well-known, or infamous, epidemic in Kentucky was “Spanish” influenza in 1918. At the early…
Resurrectionists in Kentucky & the New Albany Affair
“The anatomy of the human body must be studied, and with or in spite of legal enactments, it will be, for it is the true cornerstone of medical study. Without it the healing art would cease to be healing, the processes of disease would be unknown, the means of cure, a sealed book.” -Dr. David…