I imagine that, at one time, doctors only needed a shingle in order to
practise in the Wild West.

So, when did medical school training become a requirement in San Francisco?

The late 19th Century period interests me.

Thanks!

Bryan

---

Clarification of Question by probonopublico-ga on 28 Aug 2006 21:41 PDT

Many thanks to one and all ...

I've now got what I wanted!

Here are snippets of information that might help to further your
research. Medical training was available in SF as soon as 1858:

"1858
Dr. Elias Cooper organizes the West's first medical school with a
charter from the University of the Pacific. The school is located
above his office on Mission Street. In six years, 28 men complete the
18-week course. On Dr. Cooper's death from a brain tumor at age 40 in
1862, his nephew Levi Cooper Lane attempts to take over as leader, but
the school flounders and he and his colleagues join the faculty of
Toland, now UCSF.

1863
Elizabeth Pfeifer Stone, the first woman to practice medicine in
California, settles in San Francisco. Probably German-born and
-trained, she previously practiced in New York."
(Nancy G. Thomson, "Women Pioneers in San Francisco Medicine",
<http://www.sfms.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID=1792&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&SECTION=Article_Archives>).

Only a shingle?  They would also have needed a saw.  The obvious thing
to do with a troubled limb is to saw it off.

A typical German academic's approach ...  ;-)

Bryan, he only needed chuzpa and a forged certificate, a serious
looking suit, a doctor's or "gladstone bag"  - here is one:
http://www.prozacblues.com/travo/gigBagMuseumPiece.html

The contents are a bit wrong, but the pliers suggest the forceps he
needed to extract bullets.  He would have needed a few bottles of
nostrums (might have called them "nostra" to sound educated),
belladonna, morphine, ether, and a few harmless placebos, and probably
some strongly alcoholic "medicines", which made him popular with the
more serious ladies in the community, who decried the bars in town and
the women who frequented them.
Oh, for those, he may have had a few special medical implements and
hopefully effective remedies for the risks of their profession.

If his name was Holliday, he had a shooting iron in his bag.

Of course, there were some doctors who didn't need chuzpa or a forged
certificate, just a change of venue after have done something in the
East that today would cost their malpractice insurance seven figures.

The ether was important, it not only gave off an odour of "here's the
doctor", but also masked his interest in his own liquid medicines  -
taken, of course, only to steady his hands when performing delicate
operations.

  ;-)  Myo