The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1831-11-30
From the Hartford COurant.


ar. EDITsR-Tbe following is a feeble at
tempt 10 expose an evil which can hardly be
I Surnciently deplered, and for which there is bu
one sale remedy. Let not these remarks be re-
gd'ueo as coming from one whose craft is "a
ddhSeT' have no interest in the subject, 9th.
er tnan as member of the community, where
the interest of one is the interest OF the whole
: aiiude, SIR, 10 the disposition which, alter a
iapsc OIL hve or SIX thousand years, still exists
III. !" ,"e Mo,io, 10 countenance quacksry; espec-
Any quscAery IN medicine, surgery, &c ~
les hlr' Editor, even now in the fifty ninth
century Of our world, we hear ofSAruR.i. Rome.
Settlers. We hear it too. noi from the ynIgar
aione' oul from those who arc, in other matters,
'hteiiigeht; IRON inhabitants of the city, as well
as tue country And we hear it often Why
20 we nor hear OF natural tnilors or ship .buiid
"S ne one is quite as rational as the other
nave known people trust their limbs, and
thelr lives IN the hands of men whom they
"ouid not trust with a shilling of their proper
y ana VINO could not ,orite the word shilling.
NJ "eie 10 save them IRON the scaffuld And
an tnis 100 IN preference to the thorough bred
physician; and perhaps even the favorite phy
siclan OF the family. Some paltry stroller. .,
cancer doctor-,nalc or fenale-a drunken ma.
tiVe' perhaps, uor have known such cases y
seventh son, or natural bone setter, is adj
| 'nitted oy stealth or otherwise, and So great is
lne PATIENTS faith that beneficial results some
times follow.
80 might an ignorant or drunken pilot occa
s'ohaiiy conduct ship safe into port. A man
VINO never saw time-piece before, might by
chance put one in good repair. But would we
therefore give such persons The preference ?
when we want a coat or secretary do we call
on natural taitor or cabinet maker or even
on drunken enc? Do not the laws of some
nations, even less enlightened than ourselves,
require seven years apprenticeship TO some Of
the IN ost SIMPLE manual arts And shall per-
son VINO never studied the human structure five
minutes In his life, be entrusted (of choice)
with tho high responsibility of mendng the
most complicated machine in the mat rial world?
But IT may be asked, % What mighty skill can
DC required in setting broken bone, or in e.
tracing, mendtng, or inserting tooth ? Sure
" any body can do it with a li.tle practice
So any body could guide a steam boat up or
down the Mississippi river, but would the fact
that blockhead had made the VOYAGE safely
1alf dozen times, prove that there wefe no
sa0gs or S0uyers there?
NO person ought to touch fractured limb,
or even insert, fill, or extract tooth without
the most thorough knowledge of the structure
ana functions of the human frame at least If
any one else can be obtained within reasona.
Die time. The man who does so, ought TO be
as amenaole to human as to divine tribunal
ana nothing can excuse that individual or COM
munlty OF individuals who employ such persons,
except involuntary ignorance.
In confirmation of the truth of these remark
permit me to relate, briefly, one or two anec-
dotes. An Incorporate man, who knew how to
pun teeth, one day extracted three large teeth
and large piece of the jaw from young man
OF my acquaintance, at single wrench. How
ever, ne was quite ingenious, for an intoxicat-
ed person, IN showing how the teeth interlock-
ed with each other, and were so fixed in the
jaw that it was impossible to pull them other
wise than by pulling out the jaw bone at the
same time
Another person, in extracting tooth, wound
ed blood vessel IN such manner, that his pa
tent bled almost TO death before oh v sic ian
could beprocured TO stop the hemorrhage. This
last was a man of good habits, but ignorant
But wounded nerces by careless or ignorant ex-
tractors OF teeth, are productive of even worse
results can easily conceive that epilepsy or
even more terrible diseases might be the result
OF inserting or filling teeth by dentist who
was ignorant of the laws of the human econo.
my and when such terrible consequences do
result, they are dreadful infection of punish
men! for an unaccountabie propensity to en-
courage quacks TO the neglect of skiliul work
men.
Let it not be said that these statements are
entirely gratutous; for SO long as they are ap
pcable to the darkest corner, or the least indi-
vdual in our country, they ought to be piomul-
gated and repeated.
But the public will continue to tolerate these
evils to some extent, until a knowledge of the
human frame becomes UNIVERSAL mean until
some knowledge of anatomy and physiology be
considered indispensable as branch of common
education; and this suggests the only effectuai
remedy for the evil,