"Hammering Home Public Health" by IMHM Graduate Student Intern Jacob Scherer

When assessing our growth in topics like health and medicine, noting the pioneers and important figures is critical. One name Hoosiers should recognize is Dr. John Newell Hurty (1852-1925). Educating the public about bacteria and disease was Dr. Hurty’s primary goal as secretary of the Indiana State Board of Health and state health commissioner. From 1896-1921, he worked tirelessly to change Hoosier’s understanding of health and championed legislation to protect the public well-being. 

Hurty was born in Lebanon, Ohio and relocated to Indianapolis in 1873 to work as the chief chemist of Johnston & Lilly, a company started by Colonel Eli Lilly and his dentist friend Dr. John Johnston. In 1879, Hurty left the company and opened Hurty Drug, where he also built a chemistry lab. This period was formative for his understanding of public health, as people came to him for their medicine. In 1891, he received his MD from the Medical College of Indiana.

Indianapolis had a reputation for being a dirty city in the late 19th and early 20th century. Whether it be the cows that roamed freely, the White River as the dumping ground for all things toxic, or the illnesses running rampant through the city, Indianapolis was far from safe. In order to combat the dangers of daily life, Dr. Hurty’s mission was educating the public about these dangers. Hurty often did so through political cartoons. They were easy to understand, as well as shocked the general public enough to get them to pay attention to what he was saying. 

On display at the Indiana Medical History Museum is the cartoon, “Meet me at the Town Pump - Signed a Typhoid Germ.” Released in 1904, this is the most prominent of the cartoons Hurty commissioned The cartoon below showcases Typhoid, how it spreads, and the danger it poses to the public.

Another Dr. Hurty-commissioned cartoon depicted the harmfulness of formaldehyde, a preservative often used in milk. The milk in Indianapolis had other issues aside from formaldehyde, however. Dairymen would cut the milk with water and then use chalk or plaster to give the milk the white color back. Often containing hair, sticks, insects, and more, milk was a health risk. In 1900, it is estimated that Indianapolis residents consumed 2,000 pounds of manure through the ingestion of milk. Distribution of milk looked much different than it does now, with the dairyman delivering the milk from a drum and dumped into a container left outside of a person's home. The dairyman would often drink from the communal ladle as he worked. Milk was a cesspool for disease during the early 1900s, well before pasteurization became the standard, so Hurty educated.

The most shocking interaction Dr. Hurty had with the public came in the form of an autopsy for the general public. According to state law, doctors had 30 days after their former patient went in the ground to fill out a death registration, but this was often ignored by physicians. One day, after the 30 day period had passed for one individual, Dr. Hurty arrived at the cemetery with a bodyguard. On a mission to perform an autopsy and prove a point, Hurty went to an unfortunate soul's grave. After the autopsy, he returned the body to the grave and walked away. Hurty yelled at the crowd that had grown, stating, “Men are not dogs that they should simply be thrown in a hole and covered up.” Dr. Hurty was an advocate for patients before and after life, as well as for Hoosier health in general. 

Sewage was another issue Dr. Hurty wished to tackle, specifically at a hotel on Monument Circle in Indianapolis. There was speculation that the hotel’s sewer and water lines were connected. To show this was true, Dr. Hurty poured kerosene into a toilet at the hotel. A few days later, occupants began complaining about the water tasting like kerosene, thus proving that the sewage and water lines were connected in some way. 

Dr. Hurty remained a prominent figure in all conversations regarding public health until his death in 1925. Another notable achievement by Hurty was his implementation of the first comprehensive FDA-style regulations in the country in 1899. This came six years before the official FDA was created. Other states had similar laws regarding safe food, but Indiana took it a step further to cover all bases. Harvey Washington Wiley is credited as the Father of the Pure Food and Drug Acts and is a native Hoosier. Between Hurty and Wiley, Indiana was at the forefront of conversations regarding the food and drugs Hoosiers and Americans consumed. 

Not only radical in his approach to educating the public, Dr. Hurty was also radical in some of his beliefs. Hurty was loud and proud about his pro-eugenics narrative. He believed in “the science of being born right” and wanted, and achieved, laws that allowed for varying degrees of eugenic thought. One such law was enacted in 1907 called the Sterilization Law which sterilized individuals seen as unfit to have children by force, a law which was not repealed until 1974. Indiana was the first state to enact this law, which is in part due to Dr. Hurty. 

Hurty leaves behind a legacy of great things achieved for public health, but also leaves another legacy of eugenics, believing that people born with defects should not be able to procreate. 

References: 

Bennett, Pamela. “Indiana Historian: Public Health in Indiana.” in.gov, 2024. https://www.in.gov/history/files/publichealth.pdf. 

Fischer, Jessica. “John Newell Hurty.” Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, June 5, 2024. https://indyencyclopedia.org/john-newell-hurty/. 

Magazine, Smithsonian. “The 19th-Century Fight against Bacteria-Ridden Milk Preserved with Embalming Fluid.” Smithsonian.com, October 5, 2018. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/19th-century-fight-bacteria-ridden-milk-embalming-fluid-180970473/. 

Mitchell, Dawn. “How a Hoosier Dug up Corpses and Poured Kerosene in Hotel Toilets to Further Public Health.” The Indianapolis Star, September 14, 2018. https://www.indystar.com/story/news/history/retroindy/2018/09/14/one-mans-crusade-scare-health-into-hoosiers/1279652002/.

Rice, Thurman B. “The Hoosier Health Officer: A Biography of Dr. John N. Hurty.” Indianapolis Public Library, 1946.