We are pleased to announce a new exhibit has been mounted in the display case on the 3rd floor of the J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library. It features Dr. John Sappington of Arrow Rock Missouri who was one of the many unsung heroes in the opening of the West. A pioneer physician, he was the first person in the United States to advocate the use of quinine to treat malarial fevers. However at the time, he was called a heretic by the other physicians in the U.S. The recommended mode of treatment of the day was to bleed and administer purgatives.
He sold over a million of his Sappington Anti-Fever pills (containing quinine) thereby saving countless lives of the settlers living in the Mississippi Valley region and of those travelers headed westward. The pills also played a large part in the success of the Santa Fe Trail. In 1844 he published his book The Theory and Treatment of Fevers which was the first medical text published west of the Mississippi River. Stop by the exhibit to learn more about the career of this fascinating man. More can be learned about Dr. Sappington at: http://shs.umsystem.edu/historicmissourians/name/s/sappington/