The typical practitioner could stuff all his supplies and equipment into his saddlebags. Like the patients they treated, the pioneer physicians were long on courage and endurance, and short on almost everything else.
When the illness was really grave, they summoned what was rather loosely called a doctor-if there was one within fifty miles. Drinking sulphur, for instance, was thought to be good for almost anything. Pioneers closed themselves with folk remedies and patent medicines, believing as a general rule that strong smelling, vile-tasting, thoroughly disagreeable treatments were the most effective.
Against such hazards there were few defenses.
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