New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-04-17
p5THIES.
ern State.


miscellaneous and meandering legislation, are
discussed in our capitOls While the Senate OF
the United States has been debating abo1t
geography and Mr.. Stewards icy acquisitions,
our own Assembly has varied the monot0ny OF
business by little medical jangle. We have
now the opinion of Mr.. Senator Murphy that
allopathy is hlimbug, that homeopathy is a
humbug, and that hydropathy alone is orthodox
for killing or for curing. This is Mr.. Murphy's
notion it hardly deserves the name OF opinion,
for the question forcibly arises, What does Mr..
Murphy know about the matter at all? III we
consider how much knowledge goes to the
making up of fair and respectable medical
judgment--knowledge of anatomy, physiology
natural philosophy, chemistry, clmatology-
if TO this we add the necessary genius for
diagnosis and the long and varied experience
which alone can make that genius available; II,
moreover, we reflect that Mr.. Murphy probably
could not tell human liver from a sleeps
liver. and would be bothered to explain the
difference between epidemic and endemic dis
eases, between the two systems which he con-
dennis, or the rationale of the system which he
approves, we shall then clearly see that, flip
PANTY as Mr.. Murphy may talk, his "Opinion
woman who has nursed numberless patients
and administered innumerable doses. His
ideas are simply accidental, as must be
those of any man upon any subject which he
imperfectly understands. 1t is not the least
evil of empiricism that it betrays the sell
sufficient into talking without knowledge amt
deciding without data. Every kind OF bottled
nastiness has its advocate. Every extreme has
its Jealous champions. There are those who
are willing to take mercury until all their teeth
drop out; there are those who believe them
selves TO have been cured by the decilliOnth of
a grain of nllx vomica; there are those who
think steaming and red pepper the only remedy
for pulmonary consumption; there are many
adorers of particular pills and of special ex-
tracts; and as ignorance is the fruitful parent
Of zeal, tAs moment non. the ASse@Ply begins to
NEEDLE with these matters, every pill Will have
its partisan, and every system its nursing
statute. Quackery is bad enough in finance,
but legislative quackery in physic will he
simply intolerable. The only safe course is for
the Legislature to let the whole subject severely
alone. granting no favOrs to any system, and
bolstering up no theory by special enactment.
Let every man be sole Judge of the manner
and form in which he will be physicked, bled,
poultced, blistered, or glObuled and when an
ignoramus causes death by malpractice, let him
be given up to the mercy of the coroner, the
court and the jury. Clumsy and murderous
treatment there will always be, while semi
doctors are deficient in brains and others in
conscience but a few plain and simple laws
are all that are needed to meet this evil, al
ways provided they are properly enforced
This we can hardly hope for, but we have
nothing better to suggest.
But what we have said while ii may he true
as to general does not cover the question of
hospital practice. Here the whole matter Is
full of embarrassment A man falls down IN
the street in fit, or is suddenly attacked by
cholera. There is an allopathic hospital upon
one side of the street, and homeopathic
hospital upon the other; and to which of these
shall the unfortunate creature be carried
They are whcttng their lancets i'll one institu-
ton, and diluting their tinctIlres in the other
The patient may be one of those who would
prefer to die scientifically rather than be cured
10y quack he might be for wet sheet and
n doucle bath if he were in his senses, but his
Judgment at present is slightly obscured, and
he must submit to what is done to him, and
take what is given TO him, be the same shaken
or mistaken. There is no other way to con-
slider this however but as one of the risks of
mortality. Sick people are very much at the
mercy of their fate; some of them recover
without phySic, and some of them IN spite OF
il when a chance doctor il called IN he may
be worthy of his name, or he may be an ass IN
spite of his diploma; and since to the perlls OF
disease must be added the perils of profess
sional mediocrity, it becomes us all to I'VE
wisely and to keep out of the hands of both the
Brobdignagian and the LiGputian exhibitors
rs long as possible. Those who are liable to
fall down in fits might wear n label indicating
what treatment they would prefer and espe-
cially warning their bearers not to carry them
TO the next apothecary shop to be manipulated
nv the young man. Another difficulty is that
there is no homeopathic practice of surgery and
with an alopathic surgeon TO cut on the hlno
and homeopathic to watch the healing by
first intention, there would be chronic battles
which might prove more fatal to the sufferer
than hospital gangrene itself.
We feel rs keeny as the reader can that
we are merely stating difficulties without point
ing ont how they are TO be met. As III illness
we must trust good deal to nature-so in
this dilemma we must trust q good deal to
time. The Old School has possession, and the
nine points that possession carries with it; to
say nothing of its learning, its science, and its
long experience, the New School has novelty,
enthusiasm, and the palates of mankind upon
it's side. The world will discard the bolus
when it's faith in the pellet is confirmed