Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-09-01
WHEELING, VA, SATURDAY MORNING
Doctor Holmes ON Disease, Medicine,
ahdHis Brethren of the Profession.

GAAG EOGGSSlOAs
Disease, the effect of certain violations
of Natures laws by ourselves or our an
cestors, cannot Oe in many cases material
~ remcdied by medication. 1t seems. in
the present order of things, like death,
necessity, aud its diminnIion, to any con-
siderable extent, can ouIy lie attained bv
return to the observance of the laws OF
the pbysicaland moral universe Again"
says the Doctor, 'invulidism is The normal
state of many organizations 1t can lie
changed to disease, but never to absolute
health. by medicinal appliances. There
are many ladies, ancient and recent, who
are perpetually taking remediesfo for IRENE
dlaole pains and aches. They ought to
have had headaches and back-nches: they
are not we'll if they do not have them. To
expect them to live without frequent
twlnges is ike expecting doctors old
chalse to go without creaking; if it did.
we might be sure the springs were broken"
The expectation entertained by some,
that there may yet be discovered specific
for every disease, the doctor dispatches as
follows: when an oil is discovered that
will make bad watch keep good time;
when recipe is given which will turn au
acephalous f9tus into promising child;
when man can enter the second time
into his mothers womb, and give her back
the in6rmIies which twenty generations
have stirred into her blood, we may be
prepared to enlarge the National Pharma-
copGia with list of specifics for every
thing but old age-and possibly for that
also"
The best proof that the community is
overdosed is declared to be "that no fami-
lies take so little medicine us those of doc
tors, except those of apothecaries, and
Nnf 4
active medicines than younger ones" A
letter from Sir James Clark, physician to
Queen Victoria, dated May 2Gth, 1850, to
DR.. James Jackson, of Boston, who enter
tains very mnch the same opinion, says:
"AS q physician advances in age he gen.
orally, l think, places less confidence in
the ordinary medical treatment than he
did, not only during his early, but even in
his middle period of life"
This exposure of professional mistakes is
certainly startling, considering the sources
whence it proceeds. Que would think The
doctor had lifted the curtain Al little too
far, and that, if his structures are well
founded, no physician could meet another
without laughing, like Cicero's sooth-sny-
ers, at such Al reminder of their fraternity
in humbug. Yet, without denying that
there is large amount of painful truth in
1tANSS Si4hi 5CSi W ( DCIICNSluG uEe lOO COlu-
'Prehcnsivc. Certainly in New York city
the conspicuous leaders in the medical
profession are distinguished by their
avoidance of the qunckery of over-medicn-
ton, and the '.heroic" STYLE of practice hus,
ever since the introduction os homeopathy,
been abandoned by them.
But some say that, with the disusc of
uncertain OF dangerous remedies. the doc
tors occupation would be gone. Not SO. is
the reply. for if every drug and specific
were to be lost forever, ''a body of en-
liEhtened men, organized asa distinct pro-
tession, would be required just as nnch
rs now, and respected and trusted as much
as now, whose province should be to guard
against the causes of disease, to eliminate
them, ii possible, when still present, to or
der all the conditions of the patient so as to
favor the efforts of the system to right it.
self mud to give those predictions of the
course of disease which only experience
can warrant, and which in so many cases
relieve the exaggerated fears of sufferers
and their friends, or warn them in season of
impending danger. Great as the loss would
be if certain active remedies could DO
longer be obtained, it would leave the med
iCnl profession the most essential part of
its duties. and all, and more than all, its
present share of honorz; for it would be
the death-blow to charlatanism, which
depends for its success almost entirely on
drugs. or, Mt least, on nomenclature
that suggests them" -