Guest Post by Elizabeth G. Macalaster
Editor’s Note: Palomacy Pigeon & Dove Adoptions appreciates this unique story as part of pigeon history but opposes using pigeons and doves for business, sport, or hobby.
Dr. Charles Lang, a country doctor in upstate New York at the end of the 19th century, had an idea—commission his flock of homing pigeons as nurses!
Practicing rural medicine in the late 1800s and early 1900s was a challenge. Telephones were rare, so house calls were almost daily occurrences. Doctors traveled to a patient by foot, horseback, horse and buggy—and sleigh in the winter. They struggled down poorly maintained roads, sometimes through blinding snow, storms, and floods. Patients lived dozens of miles from a town, and from each other, so if two patients were critically ill, the distance between them made daily visits and staying updated with their progress nearly impossible. That is, until homing pigeons flew in to help.
The use of homing pigeons as a wide-spread method of communication didn’t exist in the United States until the mid-1800s. It didn’t take long for rural physicians throughout the United States to see the value of using homing pigeons to carry critical updates about their patients. Dr. Charles Lang was particularly enthusiastic about his flying nurses. He housed about 20 pigeons in a loft outside his home in Meridian, NY, and always took a few birds with him when he set out on house calls. After a visit, he’d leave a couple of pigeons with the family of each patient about whose condition he wished to be posted. On a tiny piece of paper, a family member wrote records of time, pulse, temperature, and respiration—whatever Dr. Lang needed to know about that particular patient. The note was rolled up tightly and tucked inside the bird’s leg band. Once released, the pigeon sped home to Dr. Lang’s loft.
In this way, Dr. Lang was kept abreast of a patient’s condition. He could return to the house if needed, or stay at his town office if not. He was able to visit patients while feeling sure that when he returned reports on others would be waiting.
Dr. Lang published many articles in medical journals extolling the value of homing pigeons to medical practices and often included stories about his birds’ service. One story described the sudden collapse of a man with severe diphtheria-like symptoms. Dr. Lang had only just left the man’s house where he’d been feeling fine. Fortunately, a couple of pigeons stayed behind. Soon after Dr. Lang reached home, a pigeon landed at his loft with a desperate note from the family. The good doctor hurried back, and eventually, his treatment was successful. But had it not been for the pigeon’s unerring flight, the man might have died.
Another story included a note about young Bessie, who had been suffering from dysentery for weeks. Dr. Lang must have felt not only relief, but gratitude for the work of his couriers.
April 2, 1895, 5 pm
Meridian, New York
Dr. Lang: Bessie has enjoyed the same favorable conditions since your visit. The bowels have not moved since morning (8:30). She has had portions of four cooked eggs, and about the same allowance of beef as usual beside two raw eggs. She was very glad to have grandpa bring his paper and sit in her room after dinner. I wish you could have enjoyed a glimpse of them with me a short time after – grandpa sound asleep, resting after his morning’s work, and the little one cuddled in her bed enjoying her needed rest. She has been quiet since waking, and I feel she is improving every hour. M.C.F.1
On his next visit to Bessie, Dr. Lang likely brought along one of his pigeons, as the soft, gentle birds always brought smiles to his young patients. Dr. Lang had discovered the magic of pigeons. Much more than high speed communication, they provided comfort and cheer to his patients, and sometimes that was all he could offer.
In his articles, Dr. Lang also described how to care for pigeons and train them, and he emphasized the importance of forming a bond with the birds, believing pigeons were as beneficial to himself as to his patients. He claimed they made him feel fresher and stronger, and thus better able to serve his community. And sometimes they made the difference between life and death.
1 Maryland Medical Journal, Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 39, June 25, 1898. p. 670
Elizabeth G. Macalaster is the author of “War Pigeons: Winged Couriers in the U.S. Military, 1878-1957”, the first complete accounting of the remarkable service of homing pigeons with American armed forces, from its fledgling beginnings after the Civil War, to the birds’ invaluable role in communications through both world wars and beyond. “War Pigeons” chronicles a poignant and enduring legacy.
