Journal article
"I Am Their Physician": Dr. Owen J. Wister of Germantown and His Too Many Patients
Bulletin of the history of medicine, v 83(2), pp 245-270
01 Jun 2009
PMID: 19502713
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Owen J. Wister, M.D. (1825-1896) acquired one of the busiest "out- door" practices in nineteenth-century Philadelphia, conducted throughout, the city's large northwest district. Through letters, lie described events in his daily rounds to his wife, the writer Sarah Butler Wister, when site was traveling to restore her own health. Wister's practice was,as filled with the mundane details of any general doctor's existence but also with confrontations with sudden and overpowering disease, and sometimes the grisly deaths of friends and family. Often he worked front early morning until late evening, seeing as many as thirty or forty patients scattered over a thirty-mile range. He endured its well frequent calls at night for real or imagined emergencies and maternity cases. In 1869 lie collapsed front overwork and was able to resume his career only after a three-year respite. This lecture describes Wister's practice and his emotional responses to it., as inscribed in the letters. In addition, I explore what attributes he had as a physician and as a man that accounted for his popularity and why the social environment of his practice trade it virtually impossible for him to control its demands, even at the cost of his own well-being.
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Details
- Title
- "I Am Their Physician": Dr. Owen J. Wister of Germantown and His Too Many Patients
- Creators
- Steven J. Peitzman - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Bulletin of the history of medicine, v 83(2), pp 245-270
- Publisher
- Johns Hopkins Univ Press
- Number of pages
- 26
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- MD (Doctor of Medicine) Program
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000267098000002
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-68149157059
- Other Identifier
- 991019167569904721
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- Web of Science research areas
- Health Care Sciences & Services
- History & Philosophy Of Science