Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1857-08-22
The Medical Profession.
BY ONE WHO X NEW IT.

The American Medical Gazette, for June,
| gives d medical student in Paris. This wri-
| ter saws that he once heard MageEdie, the
celebrated French physician and Psychologist
open a lecture somewhat in the following
words:
"Gentlemeu Medicine is a great hum
bug. know it is called a science--science,
indeed ! 1t is nothing like science. Doctors
are mere empires, when they are not charla-
tans. We are as ignorant as men can be.
Who knows anything in the world about
medcine2 Gentlemen, you have done me
the honor to come here to attend my lectures
and must tell you frankly now in the be-
ginning, that know nothing in tho world
about medicine. and l don't know anybody
who does know anything about it. Don't
think for a moment that haven't read - e
bills advertising the course of lectures arIhe
NJ edical School; / know that this man teach
es anatomy, that man teaches pathology, an-
other man physiology, snchn-cne therapeu-
tics, such-anUther Heteria medica. En- tien
ct dpreS? What's known about all that
Why, gentlemen. at the school of Montpelier
(God knows it was famous enough in its day, J
they discarded the study of anatomy, and
taught nothing but the dspensary; and the
doctors educated there knew just as much
and were quite as successful as any others. /
repeat It, nobody knows anything about med
iclne. True enough We are gathering facts
every day. We can produce typhus fever,
for example, by injecting certain substance
into the veins Of dog-thats something; we
can elevate diabetes, and. ! see distinctly,
we are fast approaching the day when phth-
sis can be cured as easily as any disease.
1--WE are collecting facts in the right spirit
and l dare say. in century or so, the accu-
l., e II.
TO form medical science, repeat it to you,
there is no such thing now as a medical
science. Who can tell mc how to cure the
headacheH or the gout? or disease of the
heart Nobody. Oh /! you tell me doctors
cure people. grant you people are cured
But how are they cured? Gentlemen, nature
does great deul--inagnatlou does great
deal-dOctors do-devilisb lttle--when they
don't do harm Let me tell you, gentlemen.
what | did when | was the head ply yslcan at
Hotel Dieu. Some three or four thousand
patients passed through my hands every year
l divided the patients into two classes with
one followed the dispensary. and gave them
them the usual medicines, without having
the least idea why or wherefore to the other
| gave bread pills aud colorrd water, without
of course, letting them know anything about
it; aud, occasionally, gentlemen, L would
create u third division, to whom | gave no.
thing whatever. These Inst would fret a
good deal, they would feel they were neglect
ed (sick peopL always!eel they are neglected
unless they are well drugged--ies imb"ciles!)
and they would irritate themselves until they
got really sick but nature invariably came
to the rescue, and all the persons in the third
class got WELL There was Il little mortality
among those who received but bread pills
and colored water. and the mortality was
greatest among those who were carefully
drugged according to the dispensary."
This is pretty plain speaking for doctor