American Proctology Before 1899, Part 1: "Shoals of Quacks"-The Itinerant Pile Doctor.

Abstract

The early history of the American medical specialty of proctology before the 1899 establishment of the American Proctologic Society was animated by an extensive scene of itinerant pile doctors, from at least as far back as 1871. It was inspired by the initially proprietary carbolic acid injection treatment of hemorrhoids credited to Milton W. Mitchell (1833?-1887), long known only from oral history. Expanded entrepreneurial approaches seen in the 1880s are exemplified by the work of the initial exploiters of Mitchell's method, Alexander William Brinkerhoff (1821-1887) and son, and a mid-1920s recommercialization of "ambulant proctology" by its ambassador Charles Elton Blanchard.