Early Texas Physicians 1830-1915: Innovative, Intrepid, Independent

The biographies of Texas' 19th Century medical doctors reveal much more than medical history; they chronicle the lives of men whose influence in Texas extended far beyond their medical practices. Here, in Early Texas Physicians are the biographies of nineteen men who played vital roles not only in the medical health of Texans but in the political and social development of the state.

Following an informative introductory essay on the practice of medicine among the thinly scattered, agrarian and rural populations of frontier Texas, seventeen of Texas' influential 21st Century doctors and surgeons of The Texas Surgical Society contribute their research into the lives of these 19th Century doctors and surgeons.

Essays on John S. "Rip" Ford, George C. Cupples, Frank Paschal, and Anson Jones, are just a sampling of what can be found in Early Texas Physicians. During the era when epidemic diseases such as yellow fever, malaria, and typhoid ravaged the populations and when people sought far more from their doctors than mere formal training and medical degrees, the book provides a fascinating view of Texas history. Medical science has made enormous advances but, as T. R. Fehrenbach states in his introduction, "we may have lost something, too."

R. MAURICE HOOD's numerous accomplishments include Professor and Chairman of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Texas Tech School of Medicine in 1972, Professor of Clinical Surgery at New York University, and active member of the staffs of several hospitals in Texas and New York. While in New York he was editor/author of four surgical textbooks and is the author of chapters in two surgical texts and twenty-three publications including two original research papers.

In addition to being a member of organizations such as The Texas Surgical Society, The American College of Surgeons and the Texas Medical Association, Dr. Hood and his wife have served as medical missionaries on fifteen occasions at the Nigerian Christian Hospital in Nigeria.