The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1874-02-05

Professional Brethren In this
brief essay, tossed to together atran
dom, in a reckless aud hap hazard
sort of way, and totally regardless OF
rules of composition, do not pro
pose to show the coming doctor Of
the dim and distant future-the doc
tor TO be at the time OF the milleni-
um. Such task were indeed hope
less, mere speculation. Let it be
mine to speak ofthe things do know
rather than speculate on things |
know not Of.
am aware that it is not an easy
task to address society on the sub
iect of itself in factions, for, in draw
ing pictures of the imagination they
are so apt, like the money bags in
Nast's caricatures of Boss Tweed, TO
assume human c0untenance, and
though they seem quaint and odd at
first, we soon learn t. recognize them
as our own likenesses.
We are apt to run in grooves or
certain channels of thought to mould
ourselv es to circumstances that we
become staid and old ere we know it,
and though we look on the picture
with such repugnance as to explain
with Benedict IN the play "Can
be 90 converted and see with these
eyes ?' Yet We must needs acknOwl-
edge the picture.
One of the most impressive pas.
sages in all profane literature is re-
pealed daily IN onr schools, and no
one thinks of it's meaning 81 might
have been, thus mightst have been,
be might have been" In the mind
of the boy coming his lesson these
words have but little meaning, for
all his possibilities are in the future,
but in their strict sense, in their sig
nificant meaning, they imply pow.
er, capacity that once existed, but
exists no more. Capacities which,
like the raven in the immortal poem,
live only in the undying echoes OF
"Nevermore."
Such is the tendency of life.
The physician that iS-the doctor
acho has come, ls apt, IN reviewing
his professional career, TO be a Sc
rious critic. While the coming doc
tor is the boy at school, be is climb
ing the rugged heights from which he
hopes to obtain glimpse of his fu
ture, all is but a blank or idle specu
lation. Like Patrick Henry, VIC
know of no way OF Judging the future
except the past. Let the person who
would speculate on the coming doc
tor compare the 18th and I9tl
centuries. Let him compare the Lon
don OF to-day with tn, London OF the
sixteenth century. Let him comp art
the ravages of the plague and small
pox of the sixteenth century witt
the effect of the same or any othel
diseases of to-day. Alexander the
Great, 1913 years B. c., Emperor
Charles in the Fifth, James Ist, Oil
yer Crowell in the 18th century, anC
others of still more recent date, dieG
of simple remittent fever, which thel
had its compeers only in the small
pox and the puepurai state.
Diseases OF the chest were then al
uninielligible to the practitioner al
are Blackstone's commentaries t.
the unlettered rustic. He knew al
little of ausculation and PERCUSSION
as the clown does of the analogies o
Kirkwood or sthe laws of Helper
But within comparatively q few
years, the discovery of the proper
ties of cinchona has robbed remitten
feyers of all their terroFs. The i'm
mortal Jenner has placed small bono
for It's permanent good behaviour Il
the end of time. The advance d
science, especially of anatomy, ha
rendered childbirth comparatiYeI,
free from danger, and Leanec, wit
his "pocket spy glass for looking In
TO peoples chests with your ears,
has taught the diseased h0rocic vis
cera to speak in accents audible.
were useless | say, to attempt t
probe the future and speculate ..ol
the coming man, with this might
age of steam and domest'cated light
ming as q data, "When Ounce
lecture and dandies write, when ni
tlons siezed with oratoric pangs Civ
happy births to masculine harangue
when maidens tremble for their fate
neglect their stockings to attend th
state" When the deciIionth part {
a grain of a drug is terribly potter
tor good or evil, when the gres