The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1860-06-16
THE MEDICAL FRATERNITY IN FER.
MkNT.


The address Of DIR. 0. W. Holmes, which
Was delivered before the Massachusetts,
Medical Society on Wednesday, has created
much excitemer among the medical frater-
nifty, and the suggestion has been made and
graveiy discussed, that the society decline
to print it in accordance with the usual Gus
tom. But it Is urged that such course
would only defeat its own object, and give
to the address more notorety than is desir-
atle; so the soci,ty will not depart from its
usual course.
We Understand that at a meeting Of the
Massachusetts Medical Society yesterday,
at which about twenty members out of the
thousand belonging to the society were
present, there was considerable discussion
upon the Gred!ency ofprintng the address
and it wasfnally decided to print, but with
notification upon the first page that the
society Is not responsible for its sentiments.
The society will exhibit the dose, but will
not be amwerable for its effects. This
course washrproved by the Affirmative votes
Of only nine members.
There has been Of late years a strong ten
dency among medical men Of long expert
ence and keen observation toward what
They r9y more upon nature and less upon
drugs. DR.. Jacob Bigelow and DIR. Ira
Roxbury, and some other eminent physlc-
ians, in recently published works, have
, manifested this tendency toward . more
rational treatment Of disease. H.,-.
Many other successful practitioners have
fully embraced this innovation. What the
conservatives of the profession have con-
sdered as heterodox sentiments have been
previously uttered in the annual addresses
of the society, but DIR. Holmes has thrown
bomb shell fairly into the stronghold of the
drugging system, scattering the pills and
powders, bunting the lances. frightening
| the apothecaries, and creating general
CONSERVATION among those that imagine
that the world is stationary. and that all
advance in medical science ceased with Hip
pocrRtes Galen. DR.. Holmes did not hesi.
tate TO express the opinion that the public
had been over-medieated. 1t had insisted
on being poisoned and had been humored
by the faculty; that every noxious agent
that hurts well man hurts a sick man: and
that the human race would be better Of if
the whole materia medica was thrown into
the ocean, though the fishes would not be
the gamers. We do not wonder that such
extreme views should have made sensa-
ton among those who act upon the idea
that they are the masters and not the SER
wants OF Nature.
We are glad to see little healthy ex-
citement among the medical faculty. 1t
will do no charm, and poor bled- blistered and
physioked humanity will profit by the ag!-
tation. The time willnever come when the
human race can dispense with the services
of medical men, bat the day is approaching
when families can call in their physician
without misgiving that his remedies may
do more harm than good. The services Of
nature in the cure of disease will be more
and more generally recognized. Neither
The importance nor the cmolumen,s of
physicians will be diminished by this ten
dency, but they viii be forced to turn their
attention as well to the laws of health as
to those Of disease, and to become the fam
lily guides and eounseIlors IN the preserra-
tioH Of that great blessing, as well as in its
restoration. When called upon to treat
disease they will rely solely upon medicines
which Will asst nature, and that "active''
treatment which leaves the patient who
survives it, the wreck Of bis former self.
will no longer remain . monument Of the
dark ages aud Of the conservatism Of med
iaaI science IS