The Legacy of Dr. Eduard Boeckmann, East Metro Medical Pioneer Due to the efforts of Boeckmann and others, the Ramsey County Medical Library was established in 1897; however, this was only the first step. Once the collection was started, the Medical Society required ongoing funding to run and house the library.
A Country Doctor Practicing in the City
In 1887, Dr. Eduard Boeckmann (18491927), then a 38-year-old Norwegian immigrant, arrived in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife Anna and their four children. Boeckmann would live in the Twin Cities area for the rest of his life and would become a well-known physician and active member and future president of the Ramsey County Medical Society, now the Twin Cities Medical Society. As a doctor, Boeckmann was attentive to his patients and well respected by his colleagues. Dr. William J. Mayo once said that it was to those such as Dr. Boeckmann “that the profession owes a great debt.” An active researcher, practitioner, and philanthropist, Boeckmann’s presence in the Twin Cities continues to influence medical practice in Minnesota in an age far removed from his own. Dr. Boeckmann was a concerned advocate for the well-being of his patients and dedicated himself to providing them with personal, dutiful care; he often referred to himself as a country doctor who practiced in the city. He spent many late nights at the office, working until he had seen every patient, as was his personal policy. Dr. Boeckmann was also generous with his time and expertise and mentored several of his younger, less experienced colleagues. He graciously offered his professional advice and counsel free of charge. To his friends and colleagues, Boeckmann was known for his honesty, sincerity and kindness.
By Kristin roberts
26
July/August 2012
Dr. Boeckmann the Enterprising Philanthropist
Creation of the Medical Library
In today’s technology-saturated world, it is easy to take accessible information for granted, but for doctors in the 1890s, finding medical information at all, let alone relevant information, could be laborious. Even before Boeckmann’s arrival in Minnesota, the Ramsey County Medical Society had recognized the need to provide access to medical information and research to member physicians, but it took the initiative of Boeckmann and a few of his colleagues to make the possibility of a medical library a reality. Boeckmann understood the importance of the library’s establishment for Twin Cities physicians and their patients, and he gave sacrificially of his time and resources to see that many would benefit from the use of a medical library. For Boeckmann, this meant donating many of his own books to the collection and making door-to-door buggy rides to ask for book donations from other doctors.
Although Boeckmann was not personally responsible for the operation of the medical library, his sense of duty and devotion to the medical profession compelled him to ensure the library’s survival. In one effort to support the upkeep of the library, Boeckmann co-founded the Saint Paul Medical Journal. The Journal provided the library an income through advertising, but it was not substantial enough to support it completely. Yet, Boeckmann’s greatest contribution to the medical library, the Twin Cities medical community, and medical practice across the country was his medical breakthrough: the development of a process for making sterile pyoktanin surgical catgut. Then the primary material for surgical sutures, catgut, made from the gut of sheep, was not always sterile when doctors received it, and it frequently caused infection. Prior to Boeckmann’s research, the only producers of surgical catgut were located in Germany. Dr. Boeckmann, with the help of bacteriologist Dr. Gustav Renz, sought to create a method to prepare an improved catgut suture. In 1899, the year he was president of Ramsey County Medical Society, Boeckmann, aided by the input of his colleagues, finished his development of surgical catgut treated with pyoktanin. This antibacterial dye made sutures sterile, antiseptic, and decidedly preferable to horsehair
MetroDoctors
The Journal of the Twin Cities Medical Society