The Sierra Sacramento Valley Museum of Medical History will host three evening lectures this year on medical history topics, at the Medical Society building, 5380 Elvas Avenue. Open to the public. Admission is free. Reservations are requested to ensure adequate seating. Lectures are open to the public.

2008 Medical History Lecture Series Presented by the Sierra Sacramento Valley Museum of Medical History *All lectures begin at 7:00 PM*
Wednesday May 21	Physicians: Their Finances, Prescriptions, and Personal Lives From 19th Century Letters Presented by Pat Schrader The speaker will bring original letters (1830-1860) and open with physicians' financial problems and their clever solutions (one earns $4 a year, his expenses are $40). It's common in the 1800s to depend on leeches, bleeding, and laxatives, but a physician in 1821 advises no treatment, and is surprised by the autopsy. Physicians also write about their personal lives: one says, "Please find me a wife," another pleads for help in saving his son's hand. …Here are physicians' views in the 19th century -- some serious, some humorous! Pat Schrader is a historical researcher who specializes in 19th century social history as it relates to doctors, disease, and death. Her articles have been published in The Chicago Sun-Times, and in October she presented a paper at the 2007 Conference on Illinois History. In January, 2008, Podiatry Management published her off-beat article "Home-Grown Podiatry" -- how to avoid ingrown toenails in 1836.
Wednesday August 27	The Doctor Wore Petticoats: Women Physicians of the Old West Presented by Chris Enss "No women need apply." Western towns looking for a local doctor during the frontier era often concluded their advertisements in just that manner. Yet apply they did. And in small towns all over the West, highly trained women from medical colleges in the East took on the post of local doctor to great acclaim. In this new book, author Chris Enss offers a glimpse into the fascinating lives of ten of these amazing women. Chris Enss is an award-winning screen writer who has written for television, short subject & feature films, and standup comedians. She is the author of Hearts West: True Stories of Mail Order Brides on the Frontier, How the West Was Worn: Bustles and Buckskins on the Wild Frontier, and Buffalo Gals: Women of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The Cowboy and the Senorita, Happy Trails, and The Young Duke were co-authored with film producer Howard Kazanjian.
Wednesday November 5	Magical Medical History Tour Presented by Faith T. Fitzgerald, MD The series of cases of famous people, their illnesses, their accomplishments and associated interesting things. These are 'cases' designed to illustrate the rich access all doctors have, through their patients, to history, literature, art, philosophy, music, poetry, religion, in fact, all things pertinent to human beings. Faith Fitzgerald is an Internist and Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean of Humanities and Bioethics at the University of California Davis. She took her M.D. at the University of California, San Francisco in 1969, was Board Certified in Internal Medicine in 1973 and has been teaching medical students and residents ever since. She has written on a wide variety of topics in medicine, including protean disease states, medical education, physical diagnosis and bioethics. She is a Master of the American College of Physicians, past Governor of the Northern California Chapter of the American College of Physicians (1997-2001), and sees patients in both hospital and clinic.
Lectures sponsored by Amgen, Inc.

Each lecture begins at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted and is expected to last most of an hour, followed by questions and answers. The museum will open at 6:00 PM on these dates.

About Us |  Membership |  Scholarships |  Directory |  CSERF |  Resources |  Publications |  Museum |  Home