The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-06-18
| For the CITIZEN.
To the Physicians of Giles
I County.

At the last meeting of our Medical
Society l was appointed to address You
this article, anu to endeaVer to stir uD
your pure minds by way of remem-
brance. The Giles County Medical So
ciety has been in existence now about
seven years. At least three-fourths of
the doctors of the county are members
OF it, yet we meet from time to time
with not more than six or eight mem
bers present.
Surely the doctors of Giles have adop-
ted the sentiment of the querulous old
DIR. Samuel johnson who describes
medicine as "melanchOIy attendance
on misery, a mean submission to peevish-
ness, and continued interruption of
pleasure" The sentiment of another
and better man is the one that addresses
itself to our admiration: To nv mind
it Is recommendation of the medical
profession that it brings US into contact
with the pure and the gentle of the
world, though peevish, rather than with
the unprincipled and the abandoned
with sick women and children rather
than rOSues ana murderers.T surely
medicine has lost its former dignity, and
doctors are not so respected as they
were when they spOrtcd gold headed
canes and wore silver buckied slippers.
1t has been said that advise is a cheap
commodity and often dear at any price:
but gentlemen this is all mistake.
There never was a time in medicine
equal in all respects to the present time.
Never was there period in all its his
tory when 1t was so sale, so rational, so
scientific, so salutary. 1t never was so
respectable, so worthy OF the confidence
of men. In no age of the world was it
ever so infused with the spirit of enquiry
or more progressive. Its Improvement
is wonderful, its resources immense.
Great men there were, no doubt, in the
past history of medicine, but those who
now practice it have the advantage of
standing on their shoulders, and OF
course have a wider horizon than the
tallest of them commanded.
If a Rush, a Chapman or a Physic
could come back to Us again, they would
be astonished and feel that it would be
necessary for them to take up the study
of medicine again. All their theories
they would find brushed away, their
speculatiOns, once so satisfactory, sup
planted by scientific facts, and the sys-
tens to which they were once so we'd
ded all gone. Yes, gentlemen, to be a
doctor now means something more than
the mere knowledge of carrying saddle
bags; his horse knows how 30 do that
To the sick man on his bed the quick
step on the stair is no longer the leech's
'stealthy tread" 1t means to the suf-
terer respite from self; it means a re-
spite from a study of the pattern on the
wall; and more than all, it means re-
spite from pain and suffering, and mo-
ments of bright sunshine thar will leave
behind them hours of blessed twilight.
NJ. ID. attached to a mans name now
ought to be of more significance than
Extra" written on the red head of a
whisky barrel. 1t means ability to de-
wise means for the care of the sick. But
is il possible that we have been lead into
the indiscretion of defending or eulogi-
zing the science Of medicine to the dos
tors of Giles county: If it be true that
medicine has attained such heights,
must not he climb who would reach its
summit? To climb implies work; TO
work implies the use of means and ia
cilities. Among ali the means and facili-
ties of obtaining medical knowledge the
young man viii find none more potent
than a medical society. Nothing does
more towards cementing and strength
ching the ties OF fTaternal relationship,
for it is proverbial that of all classes
doctors have less social regard for each
other; a humiIiating confession, never
theless a true one. One great cause of
this is their dlsintegrated habits. A
working, live medical society is a per-
feet antidote to all of this. We learn
more about the duties we owe to each
other, our obligations to our patients, in
one short years attendance of medi-
cal society than we can in ten by the
casual interviews with each other that
chance and circumstances may throw in
our way. In view of such facts, and
the little interest we manifest in our So
ciety, in the language of an older and
wiser sinner, we wonder show can these
things be- To be remembered by fu-
ture generations and live in the mem
DRY of pOsterity is an instructive desire
of the human heart. Some Of us are
/ getting in the ''sear and yellow leaf"
l To US ''the evening shades appear" and
our active duties in the profession viii
soon cease. SOOn-ah, soon what we
/ say of others viii be said of Us, and we
1 wish il to be said Of us that we lived
and died in the faithful discharge OF the
/ duties of our PROFESSIONALISM we did all
! that we could both By precept and ex-
| ample to encourage and 10 stimulate the
/ young men of our profession To proper
diiigence-that we did all that we could
/ to impress them with the weight OF their
possibility, and persuaded them TO
! use all the powers of mind and body
/ with which providence had blessed them
in preparation for the great and respon-
sible duties which lay out before them,
and TO inspire them with a spirit
/ Of emulation of the great and the good
of other days. We trust that this may
be said OF Us, and that these feelings
may be our winding sheet, and we ask
no louder funeral dirge.
Thomas u. DEAvESPoRT.