None of us were born in hospitals. All nine kids were brought to birth at home by Dr. E. D. Mudd, one of two doctors in New Haven back when I was a kid. Dr. Mudd practiced medicene for 64 years and he was a philosopher as well as a physician, with a dry sense of humor and strong beliefs which he did not hesitate to voice. He was the son of a physician who served as a medical officer in the confederate army during the Civil War. Dr Mudd had eight daughters and two sons both of whom also became physicians. 

Dr Mudd worked out of his home on Main Street where a couple rooms were set aside for his infirmary. One of his rooms adjacent to the infirmary room had an entrance to the outside and was used for waiting patients. No appointments were needed in those days. He made house calls which was a common practice, first using a horse and buggy and later, a car. He stocked his medication and dispensed it from his own shelves. There was no drugstore in town. It would have been a problem to get a prescription from the drugstore in Bardstown as it was 12 miles away and we didn’t have a car. He accepted payment in currency other than dollars at times.

The frequent sore throats which I suffered were quickly cured by an application of iodine by a swab. It tasted terrible but worked immediately. He dealt with all kinds of ailments. He stitched up cuts and reset broken limbs. Dr. Mudd, probing around would ask, “Does it hutt? Does it hutt?”