Early Medical Practice in Bath

At the beginning of this century, Bath was a well-known spa and a residential town for those who had retired from service overseas. It was also known as a place that relied overmuch on past history, being associated with Roman remains, Bath chairs, and Bath buns. Cynics looked upon it as a sleepy old place, resting on its laurels. Actually this was far from being the case. Mineral water treatment was actively practised, and the general medical standard was at least as high as in comparable towns elsewhere. What many did not realize was that Bath had many other substantial mterests; an engineering firm employing i ,000 hands, a number of smaller factories, and two main railways with their employees, all these activities maintaining the Population of important suburbs. The lapse of more than 60 years has naturally seen many changes in medical outJook. The span of life has increased by about 20 years. X-rays and radium have come *n, the tuberculosis problem has been almost solved, thyroid and insulin treatment have been discovered, and what to my mind is the most spectacular advance of all, the outlook of a patient with pernicious anaemia has changed from 100% mortality to i?o% viability. Unfortunately there is the other side of the picture. The improvement in the treatment of cancer is only slight, and for the common cold none at all. At the beginning of the century antiseptic surgery was in full swing, aseptic methods following later. Rubber gloves were not used, and face masks were unknown. Preparation of surgeons' and dressers' hands was a great ceremony, and the magic letters P.F.O." over a bed in a surgical ward meant that for 24 hours the preparation, Specially of the skin at the site of operation, must be taken very seriously. There was then no pathological department at Bath Hospital except for post Mortems, and if I wanted a sputum tested for T.B. the patient had to pay for it. ftlood counts were done privately, sedimentation rate tests had not come in, and