Demoine courier., 1854-10-12
For the Demoine C0urie
THE SCIENCE OF MEDICINE.


DIR. Mason Good, the most learned and ac-
compiished physician that ever graced the
school of which he was an accredited member,
bears strong and powerful testimony against
the fallacious and murderous principles of the
system which he himself practiced: He OBJ
serves, in his s'Study of Medicine" that "the
science Of medicine is a barbarous jargon, and
the effects of our medicine, Speaking Of the
regular faculty. on the human system are in
the highest degree uncertain, except, indeed,
that they have already destroyed more lives than
war, pestilence and famine combined" And
the doctor is not alone in these humiliating,
Notifying and truthful admissions; for DR..
Frank, in stronger language, loudly proclaims
to suffering humanity, 'that thousands are an
nually slaughtered in the sick room; that gov
ernments should at once either Danish medical
men and prescribe their laundering art, or they
should adopt some better means to protect the
lives of the people than at present prevail; that
the practice of this dangerous profession and
the MURDERS committed by it, are far less look
ed after than the lowest trade"
If this is the highest claim of the present
system of medical. jurisprudence upon the CON-
munity, where, then, is the safety of the lives
of our wives, our children and ourselves, if
once given up to the empirical pretentions Of
those who cordially acknowledge that their
profession, with its prevailing mode of practice,
is productive of vastly more evil than good,
and that mankind would be infinitely the gamer
were tt absolutely abolished.' CDR. F. Coggs-
well, Of Boston.)
Is not this a loud call to mankind in general
to renounce and denounce such a system; not to
countenance the fraud that is daily imposed up
on them, and 10 discountenance this "danger-
Gus profession, and the murders committed by
it." But men, like chn4ren, are trapanned by
every gaudy stratagem that is laid to entrap
them. monkey or a clown will attract more
general attention than a noble steed or a sage
philosopher;-a bearded woman or a huge giant
than the most symmetrical figure produced by
nature. We all like to deal in the marvellous,
and observe a kind Of superstitious awe and
reverential feeling for the mysterious. Students
Of nature observed this, and hence that which
would be odious, r~epulsive and revolving in its
primordial state, is hidden behind a flowing
garb of decorated falsehood. The true science
Of medicine is thus hid from the eyes of the
world with the sacred garb of learned lore
and antiquated philosophy. From all other
sciences this veil has long ago been removed,
and they have almost advanced with incredible
rapidity to the outstretched bounds Of human
perfection, while medicine is still under the de-
tr,, ~, ra,ona e I1.1z -,
perstition and quackery, and this must contin-
lie to be the case as long as its professors dread
a revelation of the ignorance in which they are
bound.
Medicine, as a secret science, began about
420 years before the birth of Christ, and in
those early days, philosophers and learned men
were looked upon by the credulous multitude
as beings of supreme order, and connected to,
or under the immediate patronage of their THU
lar gods. This ignorance Of the populace was
taken advantage of, and used as capital, by
which they were brought into servile obedience
and superstitious w 1t was pretended that
the gods infused medicinal virtues into certain
plants for the purpose of controlling disease and
revealed them only to a certain few. So secret
ly and fraudulent was this pretended science
conducted, that after a time it was fifty repre-
sented under the emblem Of a snake-and 20
years before the Christian Era, this Escula-
plan god-his snakeship-rcceived divine hon.
age, and was enyoked as the patron Of the heal
ing art.
There Is no scheme of ancient birth that can
stand the test of enlightened reason; !iketwink-
ling stars in the ebony vault of heaven they
appear most beautiful in the midnight hour of
darkness, but when the morning dawn casts its
mellowy light on those distant sparks, they
shrink with becoming modesty and dwindIe
into insignidcance before the majestic splendor
Of the fiery god of day. The morning star,
like a Lilliputian, may appear disposed to con-
tend for victory; but as Phebus, in his chariot of
fire, rolls up, it, too, like every other empty
pretension, must vanish.
DR.. Evans says, s'The medical practice of
our day is at best a most uncertain and u~nsatis-
factory system; it has neither philosophy nor
common sense to commend it to confidence"
Consequently the medical faculty hav sung their
own requium by voluntarily confessing the evil
it has done, and its inadequacy 10 heal disease,
and by renouncing all allegiance to common
sense, philosophy and sound principles.
DR.. Rush, of Philadelphia, says: "We, (speak-
ing of the regular practice,) have done little
more than multiply diseuse." There is no de-
nying the truth of these statements, nor the I'M
told mortality produced by the drug system:
which system,~ dangerous in itself in the hands
of intelligent, j~udicious and practical chemists,
must be athousand fold more SO in the hands of
unprincipled men who leave the farm and the
pillow to engage in this precarious business,
without any previous knowledge or acquaint-
ance with the same. CIV. BENSON.
FRO BE Continued
IAN ABoLITIoNIsT STABBED.-A Nj.
Cody, a noisy abolitionist, living near