The legendary Smiths and their Paris hospital.

The Paris Hospital in Paris, Arkansas, provided high quality care during its existence from 1910 to 1971, offering a prepaid health care plan from 1920 to 1971. Three generations of Smith doctors were its nucleus, subsidizing the annual losses of the hospital and providing care to all, regardless of ability to pay. The hospital was a community unto itself for the nurses who lived, trained, and worked there. A unique family in the history of medicine in Arkansas, the Smith physicians were well trained, altruistic, compassionate, and conscientious, exemplifying the traditional values of twentieth century medical practice.

Kitchen surgery and house calls in old Fort Smith.

Medical practice in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries consisted largely of kitchen surgery and house calls. The practices of Dr. St. Cloud Cooper and other Fort Smith doctors reflected the standards of practice in Arkansas and the nation as the principles of aseptic surgery gradually gained acceptance. The doctor's black bag used on house calls still lacked the effective agents which became available during the mid-twentieth century, leaving the physician to rely on personal inner resources in order to perform a useful service.

Medicine in old Fort Smith: struggles with mud and quacks.

Dr. J. G. Eberle's efforts to pave the streets of Fort Smith are illustrative of the challenges facing Arkansas in the nineteenth century. Development of sewers, drains, and a safe water supply helped control epidemics of malaria, yellow fever, cholera, and other forms of dysentery. During this time the medical profession struggled to establish professional standards before the great reforms of medical education took hold in the twentieth century. The military hospital of the Civil War was a precursor of the role hospitals would play in bringing higher standards of care to their communities.