physicians — Spain , Gerstmeyer and Roberts — performed the first successful Caesarean section in the state , was among the first doctors nationally to promote the use of “ music as a therapeutic agent ,” and preached a doctrine of preventive medicine long before it became popular . In a paper entitled , “ What We Should Know at Forty-Five ,” he foreshadowed his own long life by saying , “… at 45 we should be entering the second lap in the race of life , with more fortitude and endurance than at any time in our existence . In other words , we should be at our prime — sufficiently fortified for another 45 years of usefulness , combined with happiness .”
Dr . Wiedemann first made headlines as a pioneer radiologist , taking the first X-ray image in the nation ’ s history in 1896 with a device he created himself in a Rush laboratory . “… the machine was hooked up with a second-hand storage cell , Ruhmkorff coil and a couple of old Crookes tubes — and it worked ,” he said , adding that the contraption was capable of projecting the outline of a key through a book ’ s cover onto a fluoroscopic screen . His work came just a few months after he made a trip to Germany and marveled at physicist Wilhelm Roentgen ’ s groundbreaking device .
The man who did post-graduate work at Harvard , Tulane , Emory and Northwestern , who had seen the great cities of the world , endeared himself to generations of local patients with his gentile and often old-fashioned lifestyle . A believer in mid-day rest , he usually napped at noon after a modest meal . Horrified by the slaughter brought about on the nation ’ s highways by faster and more powerful automobiles , he advocated in a letter to the Indiana State Medical Society that
Dr . Frank Wiedemann : At right , a young Frank Wiedemann poses for a portrait early in his medical career . ( Courtesy of Vigo County Public Library )
January / February 2022 • Terre Haute Living 89