The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-06-14

tlOu VI vno suHorer 10 the healer Is discharged.
What physician has not felt the chill touch of
the disseminating hand, extended with the
ceremonlous fee that thrusts him 'out of the
garden OF humanity into, the market place of
none! Our profession is not gain, but heal
ing, 10 which gain is an incident aud not the
During our appeal to the Legislature for
State Board of Health, nothing seemed go in
COMPREHENSIVE to that august assembly of
phllanthropists and political economists as the
apparent dislnterestedness of body of doctors
laDoring for the public welfare. 1t was so alto
gether uncomfortable, that the question was
adroltly raised by an opponent of the measure,
whether this bill was not, in reality, mere
supteIIuge for the surreptitious introduction of
private or professional stock jobbing. While
the scientists are undermining our most sacred
0elieIs, IN their memorable determination to
prove that matter ''carres in it the promise
ana potency Of all terrestrial life. Including
that or consciousness-thus abolishing the dis
tnction between mind and matter-putting
maaGIerlalstic mask on that exiled phantom
stu permitted to bear the name of religion
the tendency of the same doctrines is entirely
diHerent in their bearing on medicine.
NO physicist could desire to restrict himself
more rlgidly to the phenomenal, than does the
son OF Esculapius, from habit and necessity.
we can 60 little behind the outward phenomena
OF alsease; as practical men, we are obliged to
STUDY the morbid processes and learn the law
them under our control. To go beyond this
carries US into the field of speculation.
Iyndall says religion is childish fear, begot-
ten IN US by feeling of awe from coming in
contact with the unknowable; if this were true,
physicians would of all men be the most relig-
ious. We follow the inductive system of logic
and repudiate the priori method as seductive.
contrary to the general impression, we disclaim
belief in or practice of any exclusive system or
principle. The epithet allOpdthic is misno-
mer OF our infancy, which our enemies take
delight in flinging at us.
In religion and medicine alike, human nature
is unsatisfied with what is obviously natural
and simple; men chafe under the necessity of
attaining to high moral excellence by slow pro-
cess OF painstaking in thought and action, but
prefer TO gain this eminence by some cOnspicu-
Gus sacrifice or going on crusade. In medi-
cine 1t will not satisfy to say you purpose to re-
store disordered function, but you will be ex-
pected to renovate the blood with the elixir of
life. The rubbing and the electrical current
are not what the paralytc Graves, but the lay
ing on of the all-healing hands of some sew
enth son. Even the invigorating sunlight has
more efficacy when transformed in nature and
reduced to the seventh dilution by percolating
through blue glass. But if this latest fashion,
able foible has tendency to make people less
afraid of sunlight, let us be thankful for this
blue glass epidemic. And if Gen. Pleasanton,
or some other wonder-worker would supplement
the blue glass sunlight by a system of cerulean
ventilation and introduce plenty of air which
has been mysteriously medicated by an azure
sky, we should have time to go with DIR. Schlie-
man and attend to the fractures of the recently
exhumed Esculapius and perfect the Taliaco.
tian operation on his marred face.
The most serious phase of materialism is the
manifest conflict going on between science and
religion. This apparent antagonism has exist
ed for centuries, only the tables are turned
Formerly it was the church that acted on the
offensive against science, and Illuminated its
edicts, now against Calico for declaring the
motion of the earth, now against Copernicus
for suggesting the heliocentric theory, and not
satisfied with disproving or suppressing the i'll.
novations Of science, she deemed it necessary
to extuguish the authors Of whatever seemed
like heresy to the established theology. But
the reaction has come, and science is now aveng-
ing herself on the church, Science in turn has
become aggressive, and claims to assume abso-
lutte sway in the domain of knowledge. She
has invested herself with the old dogmatism of
the church, and ESSAYS to lay down the precise
boundaries within which Belief may walk
The result is che engendering of skepticism
about the trustwOrthiness of all religious doc
trine, and religion perceiving herself attacked
at every point, pursues line of defence calcu-
lated in every respect to strengthen the assaults
Of science acknowledging no defeat, pretend
ing to still hold sovereignty in fields long since
virtually abandoned. The church has lost pow
er from lack of candor in owning her defects
and her reluctance to correct mistakes. We
are SO apt to confound religion with theology,
the mistakes of the latter have brought disre-
pute upon the former. Theology is but the in
vestiture of religion, the architecture of the ed
ifice, sometimes beautiful or grandly symbolic,
and not unfrequently whimsical, frivolous and
inane.
The misfortune is that the theological stat
uettes of doctrine have been so deeply built into
the religious temple, that when the iconoclasts
of science destroy the idolatrous images and
tear down the symbols, the very structure of
religion seems to be undermined
Theology is necessary Outgrowth Of relg,
ion, and holds legitimate place in our culture;
how then does it happen to have lodged in its
branches so many false conceptions of life and
so many distortions of the truth? Because it
mon among philosophers and metaphyscians,
of attempting to reason from the infinite to the
finite, instead Of beginning with finite prem
Use and proceeding toward the infinite.
This theological error is unwittingly initiated
by not a few scientists of the present lday; O
tai which blnnts the deductive arrows aimed
atreligion, and vitiates their conclusions.
1t IS true OF men of science as Of doctors,
the more they contine themselves to the con-
temptation OF one narrow province of knowl-
edge, the greater the danger of contracting the
power of observation within narrow limits
When We are able to take bird s-eye view of
the whole field of knowledge, when science
means ultimate truth instead of being an hon.
UTdDlc tltlc pT6uAeu W til6 ldbtSb OplulOu, VIC
shall see there is really no more conflict between
science and religion than astronomy and math-
ematcs. Much that passed current for science
twelve-month ago, turns out to be in need of
considerable revision to be accepted by the sa-
vans of today.
The history of science is history of correc-
tons of earlier experiments and observations.
Recent discoveries, such as the finding of
worked ftints lying in strata and in connec-
ton with extinct mammalia, hitherto sup
posed to be anterior to man; the discovery of
the Cocoon in the Laurentian rocks of Canada
land especially the revelations made by the
dredging expeditions, have worked almost a
revolution in geology. The strata of the
earth's crust are hardly more various and ir-
regular than the theories in regard to their
origin and history. If under the belief that all
truth must be in perfect harmony, religion,
hundred years ago, had constrained herself in
to conformity with science, the discrepancy
now would be as appalling as it probably would
be century hence, were we in harmony at
present.
The vanity of Pope julius II had prompted
him to order Michael Angelo to give him de-
sign for his tomb; which the artist made on so
grand scale, that the choir of Old st. Peters
could not contain it. every WELL" said the
Pope, ''enlarge the choir. aye, holy father,
bit to preserve due proportion between I, the
build new church" ''That we will then do,
replied the Pope, and the result was that mar
vel of architecture, st. Peters church at Rome.
Let theologians initiate the example of julius
II aud enlarge the church to enfold science and
all the grandeur of st. Peters will be but a
faint symbol of the divine proportions of the
church triumphant.
1t behooves the profession against which the
fling of "Ubi tres medici duo athei" has stood
so long unchallenged, to put in disclaimer
against that construction of modern evolution
that implies belief in fatalism and the nulli-
fication of human responsibility. 1t is not with
evolutonists at large 1 would take issue, but
with those who resolve the whole phenomena
of life into functions of matter. Without
making single thrust at science, but only at
some of the untenable heresies against philoso-
ply and metaphysics, which have found shelter
behind her, would fain rescue few of our
most sacred beliefs from the contempt to which
materialism would doom them.
Mathematics is so exact science, we fire.
quently test the2truth of metaphysical spec
ulation by comparing it with parity of reas-
oning in mathematics. A mere survey of the
battle-ground will often tell you the result of
an impending conflict As long as the enemy
persists in keeping up guerrilla warfare,
nothing is decisive; but lure the foe to attack
your entrenched position and you feel secure.
So when heard that DR.. Hill had decoyed the
scientists into his own domain and with his
mathematical legions entrenched on the noun
tains of thought, stood ready to hurl on their
heads his huge mathematical powders, 1 felt
perfoctly confident wa should witness their