Frontier Doc
Not-So-True True Grit
- Published November 08, 2011
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
Four riders surrounded the Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf (Matt Damon).
Sioux Success, Against All Odds
- Published October 05, 2011
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
On May 28, 1868, during a U.S. Congress floor debate about an Indian appropriation bill, Montana Territory representative James M. Cavanaugh remarked, “...I
will say that I like an Indian better dead than living.”
Too Much Sun
- Published October 06, 2010
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
In mid-January, the high country was covered with snow, three feet in places.
TB Havens in the Old West
- Published August 28, 2011
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
Recall that powerful scene in the 1993 movie Tombstone in which Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) sat by the bedside of his dying friend Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), playing cards.
Jesse Blue Eyes
- Published August 31, 2010
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
Jesse James' strongest features were his soul-piercing crystal blue eyes.
Spittle, Flies and Dixie Cups
- Published July 28, 2011
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
The Old West frontier town was dirty, dusty, smelly and often dangerously unhealthy.
The Myth of the Single Shot Kill
- Published July 27, 2010
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
Is it physically possible to stop a man dead in his tracks?
Docs, Dentists & Booze
- Published June 27, 2011
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
American Western lore has spawned many stereotypical depictions of men and women in various professions ranging from sheriffs to prostitutes to men of medicine.
What's in His Head?
- Published June 29, 2010
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
In his 1910 treatise, Medical Education in the United States and Canada, Mr. Abraham Flexner reported the following startling words to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching:
Worms, Lice and Nothing Nice
- Published May 24, 2011
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
Dr. Harold Brown (my professor at Dartmouth Medical School in 1975) wrote a masterpiece titled Basic Clinical Parasitology.
Feel Lucky, Clint?
- Published May 25, 2010
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
During the medically captivating scene in 1970’s Two Mules for Sister Sara, Hogan (Clint Eastwood) lay in pain for about 70 minutes after being shot through the shoulder by a Yaqui Indian Arrow.
Strychnine, Hollywood Style
- Published April 26, 2011
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
In the Old West, the rancher’s cupboard contained a myriad of hazardous substances, ranging from rat poison and lye (caustic soda for making soap) to lead bars (to melt and cast into bullets) and patent medicines containing mercury, arsenic and even cocaine.
Mellow-Trauma
- Published April 27, 2010
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
“Mellow-Trauma” appears dozens of times in just about every Western movie where the prerequisite for success is at least one and, better yet, even two fistfights.
Baits, Traps and Old West Rats
- Published March 29, 2011
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
In the Frontier West, and throughout history, rats and men have lived in a delicate, fascinating equilibrium.
Eye Tech in the Old West
- Published March 30, 2010
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
Fictional frontier doctor Elijah Baines quietly studied his rancher patient, 57-year-old J.M., who presented with a two-year history of decreasing vision.
A Deadly Oasis
- Published February 22, 2011
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
It occurs naturally, everywhere in the West.
Sawbones, Literally
- Published February 16, 2010
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
Let’s revisit those beginning scenes in Dances With Wolves, when Lt. Dunbar (Kevin Costner) is lying, bootless, with an injured right foot in the surgical tent awaiting medical attention.
Frontier Headache
- Published January 11, 2011
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
One of the most unpredictable, harrowing, sometimes embarrassing and always painful misfortunes that a cowboy could expect in the Old West was being bucked off, knocked off or even shot off his trusty horse.
An Insane Treatment
- Published January 06, 2010
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
A 1967 ABC episode of The Big Valley illustrated the institutional horrors faced by mentally ill persons and those “undesirables of troublemakers” who could be made to disappear from society by powerful men.
Dust, Death and Disability
- Published November 09, 2010
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
Dust storms undoubtedly inspired heroic resolve in some pioneers committed to the land, while causing madness, disease and disability in those less able to cope with this chaotic distuption of their lives.
A Hair-Raising Tale
- Published November 03, 2009
- Written by Dr. Jim Kornberg
The origins of scalping during warfare seem to originate hundreds, if not thousands of years ago in Europe and may have been practiced on this continent in pre-Columbian times, as well.
