The calomel was nearly sure to salivate the patient and cost him some of his teeth.
There were no dentists.

When teeth became touched with decay or were otherwise ailing, the doctor knew of but one thing to do: he fetched his tongs and dragged them out.

If the jaw remained, it was not his fault.
Doctors were not called, in cases of ordinary illness; the family's grandmother attended to those.

Every old woman was a doctor, and gathered her own medicines in the woods, and knew how to compound doses that would stir the vitals of a cast-iron dog.

And then there was the "Indian doctor"; a grave savage, remnant of his tribe, deeply read in the mysteries of nature and the secret properties of herbs; and most backwoodsmen had high faith in his powers and could tell of wonderful cures achieved by him.