Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1879-12-04
lCOMMUNICATED.
JARBoEsvILLE, ST. MARY's Co,
Nov. 30. 1879. |

JARBoEsvILLE, ST. MARY's Co,
Nov. 90, 1879. !
.MeSsrs. Editors IL picked up your
issue of to-day few minutes ago and
the first thing | saw which had not
read (youg first article, "Mrs. Margaret
L. Eaton" was happy selection from
Weekly World, New York City, Nov.
II, inst-in Washington have heard
OF Mrs. Eason's record from time TO time
for many years,) was-"How we catch
cold" Before reached the end and
found il accredited to The Lancet Lion
dom supposed it was the product OF
an unprofessional pen, and was disposed
to pardon the effort as such. But for a
journal purPorting to Popularize medi-
cal intelligence, and for.one which has
gotten of some very wise things in its
long life, il is the stupidest stuff that
has ever confused the public.
But why should he "born to set il
right" as Richard III says. (Shaks-
/ peaTe, RiCUaEu II.
| Answer. As 10 the relations between
the Medical Faculty and the public,
There's something rotten in Demark,"
| Shakespeare, 'Hamlet'-lest get the
credit with the un-Shakspeare-ical
among your readers for originating an
unsavory ideal; among others this !:
that for the highest function of the phys
icisn, ]. e., teaching bis patients and the
community around him HYGIENE (please
spell il right, for editors generally do
not, or how to So hive as TO prevent or
avoid disease, is the function Tor the ex-
ercise OF which he gets no pay, unless
II be exercised in office with salary at
tached. Yet this "rottenness" cannot
eradicate public spirit from true phys
ician, and there are few such even in
our over-fIee country. The hardest
thing some men have to conquer Is their
own kindness of heart. Selfshness
and its antithesis, altruism, are inherI-
ted, not made by our environments, at
least in any number of generations that
we can take account of. But when
HygeieDe and the still more unsavory
unwIllingness Of patients TO pay for GU
rative services. taken with ITS cause, /.
e., that our free institutions leave the
medical man no method of either avoid
ing the credit system or Of compelling
payment, when these briag physician
into debt. pro bono pUblieo, for HIM TO
continue in the practice would 90 be-
yond altruism, and become suicide.
Now these considerations have driven
me out OF the practice, except for i'm
mediate payment, aud only for after
p. NJ. Uf the last sentence smacks too
much of advertising gratis. you may
strike u out, with this accompanying
parenthesis).
Now, therefore, NAV be considered
q disinterested critic OF "The Lancet's"
nonsense, and undo the damage il may
have doae your readers, without suspi-
cion OF egoism (sel6shness,-distinct
from egosism-which means DISPOSE
tion to.ialk too much of oneself. | hope
am not herein illustrating this latter
term as well as defining it).
Impumis. "The Lancet" saws -
"The idea of chill is perhaps nearer
the truth than the modern notions OF a
"cold." By this il conveys the idea
that the phenomena Of catching a cold
give warning, by producing a sensation
of cold; nothing could be farther from
the fact to say that they do not, and
that in this truism lies their insidious-