The Vanishing Horse & Buggy

When he went back to his home town in 1915 to practice medicine, young Dr. William Lowry Pressly worked under a small handicap. It was embarrassing to be remembered, and hailed, as "Buck." But before long he was "Dr. Buck." After 33 years he is still Dr. Buck to most of the 2,250 people in Due West,* S.C. But in other ways, times have changed.

In wintertime, when the roads were too bad even for a model T, Dr. Buck used to make his calls in a horse & buggy. He traded in his model Ts every four months, and wore out 22. Last week the American Medical Association, meeting in St. Louis, picked Dr. Buck, 61, from three nominees offered by the board of trustees, as the general practitioner of the year.

The gold medal and certificate given to him, Dr. Pressly says, mark the approaching end of the old country doctor who worked alone. And a good thing, too, he thinks. For the past six years, Dr. Pressly has had two doctors working for him on salary. He has a hard time keeping them because they prefer the "easier life" of the big-city specialist. He has two nurses, a maid and bookkeeper. His brick-veneer, well-equipped clinic building, which started out with seven rooms, now has 13.

If country doctors work together in a clinic, says Pressly, both doctors and patients are better off. The doctors can take time off for vacations or for refresher courses; the patients get more thorough care. A general practitioner, he thinks, can take care of 85% of the people who are sick; only about 15% need specialists. In his early days, 90% of his practice was home calls, 10% office. Now the percentage is nearly reversed. Says he: "People realize they get more for their money in a clinic or a doctor's office."

*So called because the original settlement, De-Witt's Corner, was moved two miles due west early in the 19th Century.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.