Litchfield County Medical Association
Established 1767
About Us
The Litchfield County Medical Association (LCMA) serves the physicians and the community of Litchfield County, representing approximately 250 physicians in all specialties. It is the oldest Medical Society in the United States, founded in 1767, ten years before Connecticut became a State. At that time, 31 "phisitions" traveled on horseback from many parts of Litchfield County to form a medical society as an "Effectual method to advance medical knowledge and discontinuance the growth and increase of ignorant pretenders to the healing arts."
Since its inception, the Litchfield County Medical Association has sought to bring together, into one organization, the members of the medical profession in Litchfield County. The goals of the Association are to advance medical knowledge, to promote the enactment of the best laws by which to serve the public within the practice of medicine, and to pursue advancements of the scientific, social and political interests of the profession.
LCMA works on an ongoing basis with the Connecticut State Medical Society and the AMA to preserve the integrity of the physician-patient relationship by maintaining a constant vigil against federal and state interference in your medical practice. The Litchfield County Medical Association strives to join, into a closer fellowship, all the physicians of Litchfield County so that our united efforts may be a credit to the high calling of the profession.
Since its inception, the Litchfield County Medical Association has sought to bring together, into one organization, the members of the medical profession in Litchfield County. The goals of the Association are to advance medical knowledge, to promote the enactment of the best laws by which to serve the public within the practice of medicine, and to pursue advancements of the scientific, social and political interests of the profession.
LCMA works on an ongoing basis with the Connecticut State Medical Society and the AMA to preserve the integrity of the physician-patient relationship by maintaining a constant vigil against federal and state interference in your medical practice. The Litchfield County Medical Association strives to join, into a closer fellowship, all the physicians of Litchfield County so that our united efforts may be a credit to the high calling of the profession.
Connecticut Medical Beginnings
Home of Dr. Simeon Smith, 1765 - 1915
Thirty-one 'phisitions' were on hand for
Connecticut's Medical Beginnings
Research show colony's medical men first organized in 1767
by Lawrence D. Nizza, reprinted with permission from The Hartford Courant (The Courant Magazine, June 2, 1957)
Today, it is easy and safe to acquire medical attention. Pick up the phone, and soon your physician is at your front door, black bag in hand.
"The doctor" is a man of knowledge, armed with modern medical tools and drugs, an individual in whom we have must trust. But the basis for this knowledge and trust did not come easy. It had to be nurtured by effort, time, patience, experience, and understanding.
Connecticut's pioneer medicine men learned this many years ago. As early as 1767, 10 years before Connecticut became a state, 31 "phisitions" traveled on horseback in freezing weather from many parts of Litchfield County to form a medical society as an "Effectual method to advance medical knowledge and increase of ignorant pretenders to the healing arts."
Yet, thanks to the research efforts of Dr. Byron Stookey of Sharon it has now been proved that a meeting took place in the Litchfield Court House, a significant meeting showing that our early doctors wanted to learn from each other's experience and to raise professional standards.
Litchfield County, located in the most western part of the colony, was far removed from the more settled communities along the Connecticut River. Because of its remoteness and sparse population many quacks practiced in the area.
Historians described these pretenders as those "who with a few Indian nostrums, a lancet, a glisterpipe (used to give enemas), rhubarb, treacle water (molasses) mixed with roman bombast of vena cava and vena portan attacked fevers, nervous disorders and broken bones and, by the grace of perseverance, subdued nature and helped their patients to a passage to the world of spirits before they were ready."
At this time much remained to be learned about the workings of the human body. Fanciful theories prevailed. One was the theory of signatures stating that each sickness had an associated cure through nature. For example, walnut meats because of their resemblance to brain could be used to cure cranial illness.
But still, epidemics of measles, diphtheria, influenza, dysentery, and smallpox were common in Connecticut.
On November 30, 1767, a notice appeared in The Connecticut Courant for smallpox inoculation. This, announcing establishment of an inoculation clinic by Dr. Uruah Rogers, Jr., said: "All that such are disposed to favour him with their custom may depend on being well provided with all necessary accommodations. Provisions, & the best Attendance at the moderate Expense of Four Pounds Lawful Money to each patient."
This was a difficult ear for a young man wishing to become a doctor. There were no medical schools in the colony. Few physicians had the food fortune to study medicine in Europe. The aspiring practitioner apprenticed himself to an experienced doctor. In time, when he felt confident to go on his own, he was examined by one of the societies or set up his offices without examination.
The earlier physicians were men of several professions. Some were both tailor-surgeon, schoolmaster-doctor. These duties were not far removed from each other. In 1649, Jasper Gunn became a licensed physician. In addition to treating sick and broken bodies, he also repaired broken pots and pans. His accounts included bills for kettles and skillets as well as for attending the sick.
Clergymen became doctors. This was a natural turn of events since they were among the few who could read and write Latin, who knew the settlers intimately and could treat both the soul and the body. The settlers were wrestling a hard living from a new land. Many villages and townships could not afford full time physicians.
One of the few doctors who had studied in England was Dr. Simeon Smith who lived in a large, stone colonial home in Sharon. Dr. Smith attended both the first and second meetings of the Litchfield Society held at the Litchfield Court House. The Court House was burned down but the Simeon Smith home still stands and is today the home of Dr. Byron Stookey, a neurological surgeon and professor emeritus at Columbia, who recently tracked down the records and activities of the society.
Dr. Stookey said:
"We bought this house some 20 years ago and I became interested in finding out more about Dr. Smith and the society. The Smith family occupied the house from 1765 to 1915 and the garret contained many of their letters and papers."
The house was often used as a gathering place for doctors. In February, 2780, an oration was read in the home and this mentioned an earlier meeting of the society.
After following many leads, Dr. Stookey found a photostatic copy of the Connecticut Courant, dated August 1769, containing arguments against the medical society. "After this it became a matter of tracking it down," he said. "Thanks to the Connecticut State Library and the Connecticut Historical Society, I found the copy of the Connecticut Courant (Feb. 23, 1767) which announced the first meeting of the Society.
At this meeting, eight resolutions outlining the purposes of the "Medical Corporation of Litchfield County" were reported. "Two physicians were examined and welcomed to membership and w code of professional ethics was adopted," Dr. Stookey said.
The Connecticut Courant of Sept. 7 and 14, 1767, reported activities of the second meeting, at which an oration "for the instruction of new members" and a dissertation on mercury were read. It is interesting to note that the article contains a statement from the members expressing their desire that the Dissertation and Oration be published in the Courant.
"And as most of the members of the Corporation take the Connecticut Courant, it is their special desire and request that the printer thereof publish the before mentioned Dissertation and Oration, principally for their own Benefit. At the same time humbly hoping, that if they convey no Instruction, they may afford no disagreeable Amusement to any Gentlemen who read the Courant."
The Courant was a weekly paper during those years. Evidently, it filled many needs. It was a farmer's journal, magazine, medical journal, carrier of all State news, and what have you, all rolled into one. The feeling of the members that the dissertation "may afford no disagreeable amusement," was indeed ironic.
In reading the dissertation today once cannot help but be amused - "Mercury is the most ponderous of all Fluids...is the most fluid of all bodies...is specifically heavier that our blood in a ratio of 13 to 1...that with regard to acids and alcalies mercury is the perfect neuter...the mercury in the left ventricle of the heart will acquire velocity 13 times greater than the blood from the first Impetus given by the heart."
Thirty-one 'phisitions' were on hand for
Connecticut's Medical Beginnings
Research show colony's medical men first organized in 1767
by Lawrence D. Nizza, reprinted with permission from The Hartford Courant (The Courant Magazine, June 2, 1957)
Today, it is easy and safe to acquire medical attention. Pick up the phone, and soon your physician is at your front door, black bag in hand.
"The doctor" is a man of knowledge, armed with modern medical tools and drugs, an individual in whom we have must trust. But the basis for this knowledge and trust did not come easy. It had to be nurtured by effort, time, patience, experience, and understanding.
Connecticut's pioneer medicine men learned this many years ago. As early as 1767, 10 years before Connecticut became a state, 31 "phisitions" traveled on horseback in freezing weather from many parts of Litchfield County to form a medical society as an "Effectual method to advance medical knowledge and increase of ignorant pretenders to the healing arts."
Yet, thanks to the research efforts of Dr. Byron Stookey of Sharon it has now been proved that a meeting took place in the Litchfield Court House, a significant meeting showing that our early doctors wanted to learn from each other's experience and to raise professional standards.
Litchfield County, located in the most western part of the colony, was far removed from the more settled communities along the Connecticut River. Because of its remoteness and sparse population many quacks practiced in the area.
Historians described these pretenders as those "who with a few Indian nostrums, a lancet, a glisterpipe (used to give enemas), rhubarb, treacle water (molasses) mixed with roman bombast of vena cava and vena portan attacked fevers, nervous disorders and broken bones and, by the grace of perseverance, subdued nature and helped their patients to a passage to the world of spirits before they were ready."
At this time much remained to be learned about the workings of the human body. Fanciful theories prevailed. One was the theory of signatures stating that each sickness had an associated cure through nature. For example, walnut meats because of their resemblance to brain could be used to cure cranial illness.
But still, epidemics of measles, diphtheria, influenza, dysentery, and smallpox were common in Connecticut.
On November 30, 1767, a notice appeared in The Connecticut Courant for smallpox inoculation. This, announcing establishment of an inoculation clinic by Dr. Uruah Rogers, Jr., said: "All that such are disposed to favour him with their custom may depend on being well provided with all necessary accommodations. Provisions, & the best Attendance at the moderate Expense of Four Pounds Lawful Money to each patient."
This was a difficult ear for a young man wishing to become a doctor. There were no medical schools in the colony. Few physicians had the food fortune to study medicine in Europe. The aspiring practitioner apprenticed himself to an experienced doctor. In time, when he felt confident to go on his own, he was examined by one of the societies or set up his offices without examination.
The earlier physicians were men of several professions. Some were both tailor-surgeon, schoolmaster-doctor. These duties were not far removed from each other. In 1649, Jasper Gunn became a licensed physician. In addition to treating sick and broken bodies, he also repaired broken pots and pans. His accounts included bills for kettles and skillets as well as for attending the sick.
Clergymen became doctors. This was a natural turn of events since they were among the few who could read and write Latin, who knew the settlers intimately and could treat both the soul and the body. The settlers were wrestling a hard living from a new land. Many villages and townships could not afford full time physicians.
One of the few doctors who had studied in England was Dr. Simeon Smith who lived in a large, stone colonial home in Sharon. Dr. Smith attended both the first and second meetings of the Litchfield Society held at the Litchfield Court House. The Court House was burned down but the Simeon Smith home still stands and is today the home of Dr. Byron Stookey, a neurological surgeon and professor emeritus at Columbia, who recently tracked down the records and activities of the society.
Dr. Stookey said:
"We bought this house some 20 years ago and I became interested in finding out more about Dr. Smith and the society. The Smith family occupied the house from 1765 to 1915 and the garret contained many of their letters and papers."
The house was often used as a gathering place for doctors. In February, 2780, an oration was read in the home and this mentioned an earlier meeting of the society.
After following many leads, Dr. Stookey found a photostatic copy of the Connecticut Courant, dated August 1769, containing arguments against the medical society. "After this it became a matter of tracking it down," he said. "Thanks to the Connecticut State Library and the Connecticut Historical Society, I found the copy of the Connecticut Courant (Feb. 23, 1767) which announced the first meeting of the Society.
At this meeting, eight resolutions outlining the purposes of the "Medical Corporation of Litchfield County" were reported. "Two physicians were examined and welcomed to membership and w code of professional ethics was adopted," Dr. Stookey said.
The Connecticut Courant of Sept. 7 and 14, 1767, reported activities of the second meeting, at which an oration "for the instruction of new members" and a dissertation on mercury were read. It is interesting to note that the article contains a statement from the members expressing their desire that the Dissertation and Oration be published in the Courant.
"And as most of the members of the Corporation take the Connecticut Courant, it is their special desire and request that the printer thereof publish the before mentioned Dissertation and Oration, principally for their own Benefit. At the same time humbly hoping, that if they convey no Instruction, they may afford no disagreeable Amusement to any Gentlemen who read the Courant."
The Courant was a weekly paper during those years. Evidently, it filled many needs. It was a farmer's journal, magazine, medical journal, carrier of all State news, and what have you, all rolled into one. The feeling of the members that the dissertation "may afford no disagreeable amusement," was indeed ironic.
In reading the dissertation today once cannot help but be amused - "Mercury is the most ponderous of all Fluids...is the most fluid of all bodies...is specifically heavier that our blood in a ratio of 13 to 1...that with regard to acids and alcalies mercury is the perfect neuter...the mercury in the left ventricle of the heart will acquire velocity 13 times greater than the blood from the first Impetus given by the heart."
