Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-01-25
From the Wilmington Journal.
THE MEDICAL BOARD, No. 4.

pretenders. Not that any one is to be absolutely
prohibited from practiclng it others will swallow
his medicines; no such prohibition IS implied in the
Medical Bill every body can call himself Doctor
who chooses, and give physic to all who choose to
take it; but the protection arises from an Inability
to collect his fees unless he has license from the
Board, and from the moral bearing and force OF the
law in favor of the Institution. Thus far the Legis
lature went, and no farther. Nor is ii contended
that anu medical legislation can entirely suppress
quackery The history of the world, and the delu-
sions that have been and can be practised upon
mankind, prove that vain would be the attempt to
extinguish empiricism by statutes alone The
more effectually to overthrow errors and evils of
this kind, law should be united with more general
diffusion of intelligence in the community in regard
to the laws of health and to the structure and Offices
of the human system And such / am reoiced to
know is the tendency of public sentiment now
The more the truth Of the doctrine is put to test
the more will it be adopted correct the less of
quackery will there be- in and out OF the profession,
and the more generally will prevail correct views
among the people,
But because lao cannot ,oholly suppress quack
cry is no argument that it does not aid in its sup
preston Admit this sort of reasoning, and there
would be no use of any law-there would be no
need of laws against stealing, seduction, and muir
der, because laws do not wholly prevent these
crimes They can lesson them-they do stay the
violent passions of the murderer, the midnight
prowlngs of the thief and the brutal villany of the
libertihe. What would check mans evil nature,
what would keep society together, were it not for
the power and terror of the law
An additional reason in favor of the wisdom of
the Medical Bill in question, exists in the fact that
no subject has had more decisions connected with it.
than that of medicine. Its history shows that
multtudes in all ages have been easily deluded and
imposed upon by crafty medical practitioners In
the great matter OF Religion, many decisions have
the infinite value of the soul has not been en-
trusted to the vain Imagination of man. His relig
ious pathway has been plainly marked out by a
flood of divine light that the Creator has concen-
trated upon it. Infinite goodness has condescended
to erect an unerrng standard-the Bible-by which
all religious theories to be tested If man will
not profit thereby, and save himself from deusion,
it is because of his own perverseness and guilt
Not so in reference to man physical system knowl
so easily obtained. 1t is true, the elements of
medical truth have been implanted in his physical
nature, are those Of moral truth in the soul end
conscience. In the latter We have Revelation as a
guide but the former are left to mans own judg
ment and reason, and to the hints and searches of
nature. On this foundation enlarged and beautI-
fled by each succeeding age, rests the noble fabric
of Medicine. But because medical science is neces
sarily limited in its powers, as all science is: be-
cause physicians cannot raise the dead and confer
earthly Immortality, multtudes turn from the mod
est practitioners of true medic II worth and embrace
the arrogant assumptions of quackery. 1t has been
well said by Southey, well skilled in knowledge of
human nature that "man is a dupabe animal
Quacks in medicine, quacks in religion, and quacks
In politics know this, and act upon that knowledge
There is scarcely any one who may not, like trout
be taken by tickling" The success of quackery is
a monument of the truth of this saying and
though the Medical Bill cannot suppress it entirely,
yet, it will decrease the number of quacks lesson
their danger materially, ward off their approaches
and show to the people that in the opinion Of the
State human health and human life are too valuable
to be tempered with by the ignorant and unprinci-
pied. The Legislature had as much right to place
an estimate upon life and health as upon any other
important interest of legislation and to decide what
precautions are calculated to prevent horde of
quacks from being let loose upon society to swell
The throng that already ttcn upon and infest it In
the exercise of this privilege and duty, the Legisla-
ture made provisions for the establishment of this
Institution whose objects. despite the aspersons of
adversares, are to provide suitable medical men to
supply the wants Of the community. The passage
of the act is but utterancc by the State Of the
important TRUTH that ignorance is the great enemy
of medicine As general thing the community are
ignorant of the principles of medicine. This is why
empircism succeeds at all. Mutitudes regard medi-
cine as mystery. They are ready to believe any
thing that promises an insight into the mysteries Of
medicines Of life, of disease, and of death. Hence
they ready to accept the widest impostures and
most visionary schemes, that promise relief from
fatal disease and death. Designing medical men take
advantage Of this weakness.
1t il intelligence that furnishes the profession its
best security for its just influence with the public.
The of intelligence who perceivcs the conscent-
ious and laborous course of study pursued by the
sincere student and practitioner cannot fail to per-
ceve the solid basis of facts of experience of obser
walton, of science, upon which the enduring fabric
Of the regular profession reposes He sees the Gle
waiting character of a profession in which all the
energies of the mind and all the affections of the
heart directed to the pursuit of truth and the
good of men, He observes the sclfdenials, the pro-
longed mental and physical labor, the constant risk
of health and life of the earnest student and pract
toner of medicine; and if he speaks his honest con-
vctions, he must acknowledge that the true medical
character is one Of integrity and nobility The ma
jority Of such men know how to estimate at their
true value the spurious of empiricism and the vain
dreams of ignorance and fraud.
1t becomes the province of the lawyer to contend
for the side, right or wrong on which he may be
employed; it is the mission of the divine to dea
with truth only as it has been rerealed and ascer
tanned but the physician, differing from both, is
engaged not alone in the pursuit. but in the erplora
ton of truth-not only in the acquisition but in the
extension of knowledge. He is from the first in con
slant pursuit after the revelations of Nature which
are but manifestations Of the Creator There car
be no more noble study-none more elevating to the
understanding, better fitted to refine and pur;i,
the heart than the investigation of the works o
Him who has stamped the whole creation with thu
impress Of His power, His wisdom, and His love.
The legitimate practice of medicine is based OF
fixed laws, and is not the result of luck and chance
as many suppose. 1t is as much the result of set
tied principles as any other result of a physica
cause. The All-wisc Being has not left out health
and disease from His general plan. Sickness is no
the lot of to the extent often taught 1t oene
than otherwise voluntary transgresson of the law
of health, which are the laws of God Certain
causes, acting under certain circumstances will al
ways bring on disease. Certain remedies, given un
der certain conditions, will invariably, with thu
aid Of Nature, throw off disease. This is no luck
no chance no hap-hazard, but the operation of es
IL