No One Ailing Except a Physician Medicine in the Mining West, 1848-1919

From burying scurvy victims up to their necks in the earth to drinking kerosene mixed with sugar to treat influenza, mid-nineteenth century medicine in the mining communities of the West usually consisted of home remedies that were often remarkable for their inventiveness but tragically random in their effectiveness. Only as a desperate last resort would people turn to the medical community, which had developed a deplorable reputation for quackery and charlatanism because of its lack of licensing regulations and uniform educational standards. No One Ailing Except a Physician takes readers back to those free-wheeling days in the mining towns and the dark recesses of the mines themselves, a time when illness or injury was usually survived more due to sheer luck than the interventions of medicine. This book is a must for both mining and medical historians, as well as the general reader interested in the history of the American West.Smith, Duane A. is the author of 'No One Ailing Except a Physician Medicine in the Mining West, 1848-1919' with ISBN 9780870816116 and ISBN 087081611X.