The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-09-05
THE TANNER FAST QUESTION.

Nights that when the adventurer In the tai
anointed one Of his eyes with the contents {
the magical box, he became completely bin
in both. But when he rubbed the enchante
elixir on both eyes, all the riches of the cart
became visible to him. The lesson suggeste
by this figure is akin to that taught by tn
fable of the spectacles presented by Jupite
through Momus to mankind, and which
with their different colored lenses, oftere
such diversity of hues that they produces
opinions that begata all sorts ofquarrels. ou
correspondent, an accomplished scholar an'
leading physician of this city, whose commu
nication over the signature of Esculapius, W,
publish this morning, would seem to be IL
the condition Of having but one eye anonted
or in that of one of the spectacle
multitude mentioned, who insistet
that everything was blue or greer
or yellow, as the lenses used gave color
He rushas at us with javelin and the earn
estness Of some knight-errant Of old, in de-
fence of his attacked 'adie love" but unpro'
vided with a shield to avert the sturdy stroke
of facts. 1t would appear that he was little
disturbed by Tanners success, and some
what over-sensitive as to its eliecton the pop
ular mind, and, in the blaze of a truth which
at first SO often dazzles and pains and bewil-
ders, he falls into errors and conflicts and in
constituencies with his brothers natural to
those who have been, rs it we're, in the house
of bondage on certain tenets. But EsCula-
Plus must not despair. The first truths Of
geological science not long since seemed at
utter variance with the averments Of revela.
ton, when, in due course Of time, although
rejecttd as unwecome invaders at first, they
were subsequently hailed as confrmatory
witnesses. Before the time of Hippocrates
and Galen and Esculapius and
Harvey and the rest, medicine
and surgery, anatomy and physiology were
in the crudest shape. And yet even some OF
their systems are to-day and have long since
been discarded. Hippocrates with his views
about the four fluid, or humors and his tex
pectant treatment" was long way in ad-
vance Of his.predecessors as his views are now
far short of those of his successors, but yet
in his day he was often reproached with let
ting his patients die by doing nothing to keep
them alive. The practice of many of this
generation is to allow the patient to eat
freely instead Of dieting almost to starvation.
Galen, the practical anstomist, was fearfuly
deficient in myology and his angiological
knowledge and dissertations we're pronounced
a fraud. Harvey, the physiologist and dis
coverer of the true circulation of the blood,
exploded the dictum of Praxagor as that the
arteries were full ofair and not blood, and
yet Harvey experienced the treatment which
is the lot of nearly all innovators and after
the publication of his treatise his practice
frightfully decliaod, and had it not been for
the support by the king whose attendant he
was and his own previous accommodations he
might have starved, as he was cast aside as
an empire. So it has been in all ages; as
facts accumulate, as fresh experience
is obtained, systems change. Cali
leo's theory sent him to prison
and Columbus discovery of America,
which was at first doubted, manacled him
with chains. The advance of political
knowledge with its requirements has met
with similar fate as that Of science and
religion. Wise men who are eagerly press
ing forward in p irsuit of truth are grateful
to every one who clears or blszes an inch of
the way for them. 1t is only the mediocre
man who disdains this aid, looks upon new
things as startling parsdoxes and damnable
heresies. Thus it Is that we of to-day laugh
at the jargon of Bacon, the vagaries Of
Aristotle and smile at the errors of Pray.
agoras and Galen. But In this we trust We
are guilty Of no irreverence toward that crea,
and noble profession to which the human
race owes so much Of its life and its comforts
as we say that the stock Of knowledge be-
queathed BY them to US has been SO careful,
improved that the accumulated interest nov
exceeds the principal nor yet of any I'm
suit" to them Of to-day when we intimat
the idea that a century hence or less, SOM
other writor may use similar Language
about our Esculapian friends of 1880
The splendor of their fame vii
bear many spots without much marring q
their magnificent escutcheon in its entret,
hippocrates, with his fluids theory, and Hai
vey' with his blood circulation, upset tb
doctrines of the contemporary physician
and they, too, were accused, like Holi,
one IN the irat century, of "insulting III
whole fraternity" BY throwing doubts on tn
accuracy Of past teachings. In the case ur
der discussion DR.. Tanners experiment ma
not be as the clearest type on the fines, pane
but this Is not essential for the due est;ma,ir
of is value by the public intelligence. how
ever 'unscientific" may have been Inc mr.,
cess. sydenhsm first discovered, ,hroug
experiment and contrary to accepted mi
that the cool regimen best succeeded in ca,
o. smallpox, and he thereby began, "de,pi
Of rule" 70 save thousands Of lives. VII;
hundreds secuted The idea. Lady Montav,
0asns inoculasion into use BY the mo
ns0'snafc" Of operation, though abe h,
ne's nsard Of aregularv inoculstion A,