Good Medicine and Good Records

The Los Angeles County Medical Assn. was founded when seven physicians got together to combat quackery and improve their knowledge and skills by sharing their experiences. The leader was Joseph P. Widney, an early president of USC. He said that God spoke to him in the desert, and he counted among his patients the infamous bandit Tiburcio Vasquez. Association members not only dispensed medicine but also kept good records, taking note of Southland scourges such as smallpox, a typhoid outbreak in 1905 and the pneumonic plague, which killed 33 people in East Los Angeles in 1924 and 1925. The association still exists today, with 3,500 members.