Heritage, Volume 17, Number 2, May 1999 Page: 15
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It is likely that the country air and not a
too narrowly restricted diet did the trick.
Perhaps the distance from the doctor was
a factor."
Folk remedies were common in his
boyhood. "I recall that early in my childhood
I could not engage in the usual
childhood sports as energetically as the
other children without being 'out of
breath'. There were occasions, seemingly
oftener than for the other children, when
I followed the customary advice of the
times to find a stone, pick it up, spit in the
impression in the soil made by this stone,
replace the stone carefully, and 'lo and
behold' the stitch in my side from fast
walking or running would disappear. Of
course it was the rest, though short, which
relieved the ache in my side."
Doctors did not arouse his admiration.
"Besides my early digestive and intestinal
troubles I recall that I suffered from a
discharging ear which required many visits
to the doctor's office for treatment. On
one of these visits I was wearing a blouse
with a large white collar which mother
had made and of which I was very proud.
During the visit the doctor dropped some
medicine on the collar which left a large
black stain. My blouse was ruined and I
was sorely 'put out' at the doctor. I am not
sure that I entirely forgave him."
The amateurish ministrations of family
members were equally distasteful. With
four older brothers he often straggled behind
when the active Moursund boys,
with horses, guns, and dogs, were hunting
for game animals. "I recall one such expedition
in particular. We were following
the dogs chasing a fox, and I was laboring
manfully to keep up with the other boys.
While struggling up a hillside, my feet
went out from under me and I rolled
downhill until my backside landed in a
large prickly pear cactus bush. After the
fox chase ended, a large fire was built, my
clothes were removed, and in the fire
light, big brothers extracted many thorns
from little brother's rear anatomy with
many expletives of disgust. I often marvel
how my little mother [she was the former
Henrikke Marion Mowinkcle of Oak Hill,
eight miles west of Austin] kept her calm,
sweet composure under all of the trying
conditions she experienced with that
group of lively humanity she raised to
maturity."
In 1900, however, while in high school,
Moursund participated in life-saving reView of the Roy and Lillie Cullen Building of Baylor College of Medicine, 1955. In 1947, Mr. & Mrs. Cullen
donated an initial $800,000 towards this building; later, they pledged additional gifts to equal the $2.25 million,
which covered the entire cost of the building. Courtesy Baylor College of Medicine.'Clinical instructions...in some branches, was
rather limited. To illustrate. thefirst obstetrical
case I witnessed and/or had apart in the delivery
was after I entered the practice of medicine."sponsibilities at the request of a physician.
The patient was a young druggist who had
overdosed himself with morphine, either accidentally
or otherwise, and the doctor commandeered
Walter and another teenager to
keep this victim from dozing into a permanent
sleep. "Under instructions, we washed
the patient's face periodically with cold water,
slapped his body with cold wet towels,
and virtually lifted him to his feet and made
him walk. It was a question of whether the
effects of the drug would 'wear off before the
doctor's aides would 'wear out.' In the end
the aides won. The patient recovered completely."Receiving his diploma from Fredericksburg
High School in 1902, as a member of the first
graduating class, he was asked by his father, a
lawyer and district judge, what career he
wanted to pursue. "I am certain he was very
much surprised when I told him I wanted to
study medicine." No other member of the
Moursund family had ever become a doctor.
Ruminating on why medicine was appealing
to him caused Moursund to recall that he
often served as his mother's chief helperwhen his siblings were ill. But he conceded
with droll irony that years later, when
interviewing candidates for admission to
Baylor's medical school, the explanation
was similarly elusive for those aspirants as it
had been for him. "I know that many applicants
for admission to the medical college
have had the same difficulty, as I had, in
finding a real reason for the decision when
asked the question, 'Why did you decide to
study medicine?"'
Even if the reasons were vague this selfdescribed
"young country boy" went to
Galveston in the fall of 1902 to be a student
at the University of Texas Medical Department,
living in a two-story frame house on
the Strand. Galveston struck him as "a
rather dreary city" showing the devastating
effects of the great tropical hurricane of
1900. "Added to this came the confusion
incident to raising houses on stilts, filling
in the island, and building the sea wall. It
was an interesting experience to witness
this engineering feat. Though this caused
the students much inconvenience at times
in getting back and forth between the colHERITAGE .MAY 1999 15
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 17, Number 2, May 1999, periodical, May 1999; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45394/m1/15/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.