THE MISSISSIPPI DOCTOR 1922-1959 - The seminal medical journal, The Mississippi Doctor, which first appeared in August 1922, is the forerunner of the Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association (JMSMA). It was founded and first edited by Van Buren Philpot, MD (1888-1959), of Houston, Mississippi. Pictured here is a rare copy of the journal in its first year of production: Volume One, Issue Nine, published in April 1923. Mississippi had not regularly published a medical journal for eight years since the Mississippi Medical Monthly had ceased production. Although The Mississippi Doctor is most closely associated with its long-term editor Dr. William Henry “Wick” Anderson (1886-1969), this issue reveals that it had a creation and a life preceding his editorship, which did not begin until 1926. The creator of the journal was Dr. Philpot, and its first home was Houston Hospital, then located at the northeast corner of North Jackson Street and Depot Street in Houston. This publication would begin in 1922 the uninterrupted run of Mississippi medical journals, culminating in the creation of the JMSMA in 1960 and continuing to the present.
This early issue of The Mississippi Doctor from 1923 includes a poem entitled “April” on its cover, which would become a tradition for many of its covers over the years. “The importance of the general practitioner informing his patient early in life of approaching old age,” “The treatment of influenza,” “Hysterectomies,” and “Enuresis” (all by local physicians) are the titles of the issue’s scientific articles and within its pages are news articles on local physicians and information about the coming Mississippi State Medical Association (MSMA) annual session. There is an essay on “The Hippocratic Oath,” a humor/jokes section entitled “Smile,” and the printing of Rudyard Kipling’s wonderful poem “If,” which continues to speak to many physicians in their early practice. There is an editorial complaining about a local chiropractor (scope was on the radar even then). On the masthead is a photograph of the newly constructed Houston Hospital and the assertion that the journal is published monthly by Houston Hospital, with Olga Hooper as business manager and the editorial staff composed of “Mississippi doctors” (but not mentioning Dr. Philpot by name).1
Philpot was born July 11, 1888, at Vardaman in Calhoun County, Mississippi, the child of James J. and Elizabeth Belle Parker Philpot. He studied medicine at Memphis Hospital Medical College (graduating in 1912) and did post-graduate training at Tulane and several other sites. He was one of the owners of Houston Hospital, establishing it with Dr. Dan S. Johnson in 1915.2 He served as a surgeon and as superintendent there for 27 years and later served in both capacities at North Mississippi Hospital in Holly Springs. He married Lois Atkinson in 1917 and the couple reared four children. He was a published medical author prior to establishing this publication, studied at Mayo Clinic, and was widely admired as a surgeon. He also served as president of the Mississippi Hospital Association and of the Mid-South Post-Graduate Medical Assembly, as well as serving as Chairman of the Mississippi Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. He died on December 14, 1959, in the month of the final issue of his creation: The Mississippi Doctor.3
The Mississippi Doctor’s journey to become the official voice of the MSMA was a lengthy process, with it becoming first the “Official Organ” of the MSMA component society Northeast Mississippi Thirteen Counties Medical Society, which occurred by 1926. Ownership of the publication appears to have been transferred to this component society at that time. The Clarion-Ledger reported that year: “This association now embraces thirteen counties in North East Mississippi with a membership of more than two hundred. It has as its official organ, The Mississippi Doctor, which is published monthly and which is the only medical journal being published in Mississippi at the present.”4 The 13 counties included Alcorn, Calhoun, Chickasaw, Clay, Itawamba, Lee, Lowndes, Monroe, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Pontotoc, Prentiss, and Tishomingo. Dr. Wick Anderson of Booneville in Prentiss County, a prominent member of this component society, became its editor and manager at this time and soon moved the publication to 114 Main Street in Booneville. Assisting him in the editing work in 1929 were five associate editors, Drs. V. B. Philpot of Houston (the founder); W. C. Brewer of Columbus; R. B. Caldwell of Baldwyn; G. S. Bryan of Amory; Carl Feemster, Jr., and W. A. Johns of Corinth.5
The early issues of The Mississippi Doctor were usually 10 pages in length, with a poem or photograph on the cover, the editorials, scientific articles, news, organized medicine announcements, and humor columns filling the body of the journal, and, finally, medical advertising on the back of the cover. Early on, the news features and articles focused on the Northeast Mississippi Medical Society, but over time focused on the activities of the MSMA and the The Tri-States Medical Association of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Anderson wrote in 1930 that the “chief duty of a medical editor is to educate his clientele.”6 Over the next decade, readership would increase as would medical advertising and its number of pages. By 1931, the North Mississippi 6-County Medical Society joined the Northeast Mississippi 13-County Medical Society in adopting The Mississippi Doctor as its “official organ,” with Dr. A. H. Little of Oxford joining as an associate editor.7 In February 1933, Anderson’s wife Mildred Paulk Anderson (1908-2006) became the “Assistant Editor” of the publication. By March 1933, the publication became the “official organ” of a third medical organization, the Mid-South Postgraduate Medical Assembly and began running its excellent scientific papers.8 The journal’s mantra or mission, which would be printed on its mast from March 1934 to its last issue in December 1959 (with only a few minor tweaks over the period), was as follows: “The Journal with a vision which encourages a plan of delivering modern medicine to the masses at less cost to the individual and more profit to the practitioner. It champions the community hospital, the hub around which this service must be built.”9
At its annual session in 1935, the MSMA voted to make The Mississippi Doctor its official “organ” and publication. Dr. Anderson excitedly reported in its June 1935 issue: “The Mississippi Doctor was made the official organ of the Mississippi State Medical Association at its last meeting in Biloxi to be effective January 1, 1936. This, of course, is deeply appreciated by the editor, and we believe by many others in this and adjoining states. This journal has served as a medium of expression of both the practitioner and the specialist. It has carried the ideas of many men on our medical problems…We are deeply grateful to our own beloved society for its confidence in giving us a free hand with the journal. The Northeast Mississippi 13 County Medical Society has led the world we believe in the development of the community hospital…To every reader and to every advertiser we want to express our appreciation and we want to ask you most sincerely to continue to co-operate with the journal in going forward.”10
In the January 1936 issue, Dr. Anderson ambitiously wrote, “With this issue The Mississippi Doctor begins as the official organ of the Mississippi State Medical Association. This means a doubling of the circulation and an increase in the size of the journal. It multiplies the opportunities of the journal. It increases the responsibility of the editor. The Mississippi Doctor has had definite aims and plans. Its purpose is service, service to the medical profession and in turn to the people.” The journal was soon transformed with an increase to 64 pages, with numerous new ads and dozens of pages specifically focused on the MSMA, its component societies and their meetings, as well as Mississippi Board of Health activities. The first editors from the MSMA were Drs. Leon S. Lippincott, J. W. D. Dicks, and D. W. Jones. Over the two decades, Dr. Anderson’s title would become “Editor-in-Chief” and his wife Mildred continued as his assistant editor, with three editors serving from the MSMA (called an editorial board: one elected editor and two associate editors) and six editors serving from the Mid-South Postgraduate Medical Assembly. Anderson also appointed an artist and a poet to serve on the journal mast, both from Blue Mountain College (Anderson had once served on its faculty and was a longtime trustee there, and his wife was graduate).11 Incidentally, Lois Atkinson Philpot, the wife of Dr. Philpot and a past president of the Mississippi Medical Association Auxiliary, was a graduate of Blue Mountain College.
Dr. Anderson was born at Dumas in Tippah County and graduated from Mississippi College, the University of Mississippi, and from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1918. His interest in journalism began prior to his medical career. While at Mississippi College he had been business manager of the college annual, and later at Ole Miss he served as a reporter for the Jackson Daily News and the Times-Picayune. He did postgraduate medical training at New York and at the Mayo Clinic. He began his medical practice in Booneville in 1918 and was partners with Dr. W. H. Sutherland until the opening of his Anderson’s Clinic. He was long associated with Northeast Mississippi Hospital in Boonville and served as health officer of Prentiss County. He also served on the Mississippi Commission on Hospital Care from 1948 to 1950 and as chairman of the group from 1950 to 1966, leading the establishment of many of Mississippi’s hospitals via the Hill-Burton program. He served as MSMA’s president from 1940-41. Anderson possessed extensive expertise as a journalist and publisher, serving as president of the Booneville Printing Company from 1928-1949, editor of the Booneville Independent, the Progressive Hospital (1945-48), and the Booneville Builder (1958-1965).12,13
Although MSMA’s relationship with The Mississippi Doctor had been largely beneficial for both parties over two decades, MSMA executive secretary Rowland B. Kennedy, who was hired in 1952, envisioned a monthly medical journal wholly owned by MSMA, and with the encouragement of Dr. Lawrence Long, the longtime Publications Committee chairman (who had been working editorially with The Mississippi Doctor since 1940), worked to bring the publication from Booneville to MSMA’s new office at 735 Riverside Drive in Jackson, with Kennedy serving as Managing Editor. Anderson’s longtime arrangement with MSMA since it had become its “official organ” in 1936 involved Anderson assuming the production costs by keeping the advertising revenue, which had become significant due to its wide distribution, which was over 2000 copies/month. MSMA’s contribution was to pay a dollar per year for each member to The Mississippi Doctor. Kennedy felt the association could provide the infrastructure and leadership through its growing staff to produce a more MSMA-centric publication and also direct much of the advertising revenue to other MSMA operations, thus improving the association’s work for Mississippi physicians.14
By the end of 1959, Kennedy and Long successfully accomplished the transfer of ownership of The Mississippi Doctor to MSMA with a vision to keep its basic format but change its name to the Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association and assume its internal production as a new publication. As the transfer was finalized, Dr. Anderson expressed his desire to continue printing the new JMSMA on his Booneville presses, but Kennedy found a cheaper printer and appeared to seek an end to MSMA’s relationship with Anderson, who always played a dominant role in both production and editorial writing. Some animus towards the new system is felt in Anderson’s last issue, where he criticizes MSMA’s selection of an “out-of-state” plant to print the journal and suggests MSMA membership dues should be reduced in light of their increasing advertising revenue in the new model of production. Despite the uneasy relationship with Anderson, he was given the honor to hold the official title on the masthead as first editor of the new JMSMA for its first 5 issues; however, any other presence of Anderson in those issues is minimal.14,15
Anderson wrote on the final page of the final issue of The Mississippi Doctor in December 1959: “Through the past three decades, we have consistently endeavored to place Mississippi in the forefront in medical progress by lifting the standards of medical care from Possum Trot to the urban center. Whatever progress has been made, and there has been much, it has accrued through the cooperative efforts of men of vision and dedication. It would be difficult to compile a roster of those meriting recognition. The list would include many who have passed on. But we could not come to our last editorial effort without acknowledging indebtedness and fervent gratitude.” The first name, and only physician he remembered by name on his list, was appropriately the magazine’s visionary founder from Houston, Dr. Philpot.16,17
Many past issues of The Mississippi Doctor as well as our JMSMA can be found in bound format at the Gamble Library at MSMA headquarters in Ridgeland or seen online at https://guides.library.harvard.edu/c.php?g=947422&p=7468200. If you have an old or even somewhat recent photograph which would be of interest to Mississippi physicians, please send it to me at drluciuslampton@gmail.com or by snail mail to the Journal. - Lucius M. “Luke” Lampton, MD; JMSMA Editor