The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1877-08-23
Why Have We 80 Many Doctors.

There is no profession orreputable pur-
suit Of any kind that seems to offer a
stronger temptation to the spirit Of iempir-
icism, than does the practice ofmedicine.
There are several transparent reasons for
this. One is, the eagerness of the people
to give to medicine the credit due only OF
chiefly to the curative powers of nature.
The other is that, owing to the many
forms which certain disease may assume
to the modifying effects Of air, diet, nurs-
ing; to the vitality, the hereditary and
acquired physical and mental peculiari-
ties Of different patients, it is impossible
-impracfcable-to prove that a given
medicine is in ito effects injurious or bene-
fetal, There are medicines that are posi-
lively known to be curative in certain
diseases. Thus, we are positive enough
that quinine will, at least for time, pre-
vent the recurrence Of certain malarial
fevers. But in the whole medical* phar-
macop@ia there are very few medicines
that are followed by effects so immediate
and evident. For the generality of dis
eases, there is no specific medicine the
administering of which is attended with
results so immediate that we can point to
them as unquestionably the cause of those
results. In the case, let us say, of scarlet
fever, as soon as the malady is recogniza-
BILE, certain medicines are exhibited. The
patient grows worse. Is it the usual
progress of the malady towards climax
that its aggravation is due2 The patient
RECEIVERS or dies. If the former, he was
treated with great medical skill. The
medicines are deemed to have worked like
charm, and the next scarlet fever pa
tient is treated in the same manner
who. nevertheless dies. What are we to
think? Why, simply that the malignancy
of the disease was beyond the reach of
medical skill! That it is-if we are sick
and employ doctor and get vel, the doc
tor inspires our gratitude and confidence.
five do not get we'll, our gratitude is still
due to him just the same-his best efforts
were simply unavailing.
While there is any vigor in the body,
its functions are every moment employed
to remove every element, and finally every
vestige of disease, and to restore the healthy
action of the disordered part. The re-
storative power Of nature is ceaselessly al
workout it works quietly-we cannot
feel or see it. If pills be administered
whether of calomel or sawdust, there is
something to see and know. Here we
have the cause, now for the effect. We
credit the first change to the medicine. II
we grow worse, the medicine caused it
It makes us worse that we may soon get
better. If we get no worse, the medicine
is staying the malady -cornering it. Then
of course, we must swallow more medi-
cine, that from cornered, it may be con-
quered and expelled.
We are far from scouting the Healing
Art. We are filled with respect for the
physician who has spent the needed time
who has given the needed study to this
science, respecting which those who have
devoted their entire lives know compare.
lively little, it is to such that we owe il
that bitter antipathies, founded, as are all
antipathies, in ignorance, are being quell.
ed, and that the good Of all schools is
being united for the benefit Of intirm hu.
mainly.
From the above standpoint, it would
seem that the profession ur medicine, which
ought to be one of the greatest response
bilities, is rendered one of the least, and
that many lazy young fellows, who have
looked about and questioned themselves
in vain as to their life pursuit, settle upon
itas at once promising an easy living and
afording the semblance of distinction
that, in its purity, could be purchased
only at the cost of lifetime Of mental
tOil