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Nathan Jackson frequently insists that he's "no doctor," just a man who knows "something about healing." But, in a very real sense, that was all any 19th-Century doctor was, regardless of whether he had the advantage of a specialized medical education or not.
Although the profession was a highly respected one from Colonial days, most American doctors, as late as 1876, had never even seen a medical school, or, at best, had spent a few months of required college study to receive an M.D. degree. Instead they apprenticed to an established doctor in their home town until they had learned all he knew, then put on a bit of polish by finding a school that would award a diploma for just two or three semesters of attendance--or simply got a letter of recommendation from their mentor and went into business for themselves. Often they began as assistants in a drugstore, mixing prescriptions until they learned what medicine was prescribed for which ailment, then went on to study with a local physician, a system known as "reading medicine:" the hopeful paid his teacher $100-$250, then boarded in the latter's home, read his books (concentrating chiefly on biology, anatomy, chemistry, physiology, and pharmacy), swept the office, kept the accounts, chopped the firewood, delivered messages, ran errands, looked after the horse, mixed plasters and gathered herbs and pounded drugs, and tagged along on house calls till he picked up enough medical knowledge to strike out on his own--three years was generally considered sufficient.
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Lacking knowledge, many people feared being cut by the surgeon's knife, and believed that a person went to a hospital only to die. Quacks were widely patronized by those too poor, too ignorant, or too frightened to consult a doctor or a druggist. Faced with cures that often failed, or at least felt worse than the ailments, country people especially, instead of going to professional doctors, depended a good deal on "patent" medicines and on folk-medicine advice passed on by word of mouth: "If you get a nail in your foot, wrap the foot in a rag soaked in coal oil to prevent lockjaw." "Put snuff on red-ant bites." "Turpentine will heal almost any sore."
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Theories abounded regarding the best means of maintaining good health. In 1830 Edward Hitchcock of Amherst College wrote a book he called Dyspepsy Forestalled and Resisted, in which he advocated abstemiousness, exercise, fresh air, and bathing--even in winter. During the same decade Sylvester Graham, a Connecticut lecturer on temperance, preventive medicine, and food reform, came into prominence with his teachings regarding chastity, total abstinence (from liquor), loose light clothing, daily exercise, hard mattresses, early rising, cold sponges, pure drinking water, a bath at least three times a week, and a meatless diet of milk, fresh fruit and vegetables, "graham" ...
