The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-01-25
The War Among the Doctors.

has above that Of the provinces is in the fact that
in the world of great city there is always a new
topic-0ne of vital, unanimous, absorbing inte-
rest. In New York neither the public nor the
journals can have any excuse if they relapse iuto
Tat crary Gulness which characteristics the
newspopers-we use the term entirely in q con
veplional sense-of Boston or Philadelphia.
Every important question is looked upon there
from provincial point of view; here we have
thoroughly cosmopolitan variety of opinion,
which cuts up all shams and humbugs without
mercy and ventilates every subject however in
volved, with the scalpel of analysis, the sledge
hammer of solid logical argument, the gliteripg
shafts of wit the trenchant blade of satire or the
broad stroke of the humorist's pencil.
From this rule there are no exceptions. Let
leader of the bar make himself ridiculous in
court to- day. and the town is quizzng him to-
morrow; the pulpit is not too sacred to be
shielded from merited censure; and the ponlpous
doctors, who were formerly supposed to carry
the secret of life or death in their breeches
pockets have lately seen terrible rupture in the
s;crcd veil that Las heretofore concealed from
public eyes the patented, certified, sealed and
ribboned wearers of the mantle of Hippocrates.
We alude, of course, to the effect of the recent
debate in the Academy Of Medicine, Gan nstita-
ton heretofore distinguished for its more than
Eleusinian MYSTERY, upon the manner by which
Mr.. Samuel Whitney came to bis death. Freed
from the mass of technicalities under which
many of the profession seek to hide their stu
pdity, it would appear that two physicians, be-
longing to different schools treated the patient
for disease of the throat or the lungs, aud that
the patient died under the treatment The de-
bate does not throw any light upon the particu-
lar cause of Mr.. Whitney's decease. The elder
Mott, who conducted the post norton cxamina-
ton, confined himself to description of the ap-
pearance of the organs after death; the younger
Mott, who performed the surgical work, could
arrive at no more definite conclusion than that
of his father, or if he could, it does not appear
from what he said. After great deal of acri-
monious debate, hardly in accordance with the
dignity which the profession claims, motion to
refer the whole matter to a committee was lost,
and it was quietly hid away under the table.
So much for the Academy. But neither the
public nor the press show any disposition to let
so important matter drop SO easily. The par
ties involved in it stand at the head of the pro-
fession in this country, and the names of some of
them are not unknown in Europe; their works
are quoted as standard medical authorities, and
each year they let loose upon society large
number of young men licensed to cut, carve,
saw, blister and purge their way to fame
and fortune. So influential are these sa-
vans that they have their organs among
the prominent metropolitan journals, some of
which take the side ofone party, while others are
in the interest Of the opposition. We do not,
however, hear of any one on the side of the
public, who, it strikes u.s. are the real sufferers in
the matter. The journals have aired the theo-
ries Of the Sangrados in articles of due weight
and properly mysterious technicalty. We speak
few plain words for the patients of the con-
tending schools-for it is war of schools and
nothing more. 1t is the bitter quarrel between
the old school fashionable practitioner who
adheres to the traditions of the last century, and
the man of science, who brings to his aid the
newest discoveries, and in his over ambitious
zeal to attempt hazardous experiments offers up
his patient as sacrifice upon the shrine of his
divinity. 1t is the theory Of your fashionable
physician to keep his delicate patients in such a
condition that the yearly bill will be plethoric.
He attempts no new tangled experiments; he
does not rudely tell Madame that nothing really
ails her except hziness, but gives her good
deal Of the latest gossip and little harmless
medicament He is nice doctor-affable to the
ladies, not unpopular with the men, and SO kind
to the children. He lives in good quarter of the
city, has a fiue equipage, and altogether makes
good thing Of it. He is an amiable man,
takes things as they are, and when his patients
die he lets them down easy. His funeral manner
is superb, and nothing can be finer than the way
in which he carries his work home. But some
times the even tenor of thc<good mans life is
disturbed by horrid 6end in the shape Of
new light doctor-a fellow that has been abroad,
and kept his eyes open; one who walks the hos
pitfalls. is constant OF cliniques, hard reader,
and thoroughly informed upon all the latest ex-
periments, operations and discoveries of Euro
pean souons. The fashionable doctor is afraid of
the new light. lie commences by calling him
young-whch is terrible blow, but one which
is easily got over. Then he is a specialist. The
old ladies-like the apple woman who was called
a parollelogram- exactly know what a
specialist il, but concludes 1t must be something
awful. Then the new light does not recognize
any distinction between o banker and beggar,
when any important fact in science is to be
demonstrated. He would as quickly cut off old
Coupons leg, in the Fifth avenue, as saw ont
Bill Smiths lower jaw, in the Five Points. This
democratic system, which places the limbs of
the belle upon the same footing as the legs of
the laundress, is the strong battery of the
fashionable doctor against the scientific practi-
toner. Sometimes, however, as in the case be-
fore us, the nice little preserve of the former
will be invaded indirectly by the latter, whose