Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1880-03-04
For the Herald
Is a Diploma a Guarantee TO QuaIi-
fIcatIOnl


fICatiOnl
1t is cOntended by some that it is
necessary for every one who practices
medicine to have a diploma from a
medical college, and without it they
are not fitted for, Or capable of, reliev-
ing the sick and suhering-it matters
not who is the person, or whether he is
really qualified or not. Many diplomas
are without doubt bought with money,
when the holders have not possessed
the ability, or have not had the expe-
rience which is necessary to guarantee
qualification. We think no one will
doubt this who has Investigated the
subject.
A true physician adopts all means
which he believes will afford relief to
his patient, whether sanctioned by
books and institutions or not. Acquired
knowledge is well, but we claim that
without material ability no one is fitted
to practice medicine.
1t is an acknowledged fact that dis
eases and the modes of treating them
are all the time changing. The reme-
dies which will relieve a patient now
would not do so in the past; neither
will they in the future. That what
will effect a cure when given to one pa
tient will prove an injury to another
afflicted with the same disease. 1t fol-
lows, therefore, that those who can
clearly see the condition of the patient,
and who know the chemical qualities
Of the medicine required, must be the
most successful, whether they have
diplomas or not. If these statements
are true, it appears to us the practice in
many cases is xperimenting with life
in the material body. We suppose it
can be safely said that One-half of the
medicine given may be so considered;
and hence it is that, with the change
referred to, new remedies are being
yearly introduced. DIR. Jameson, of
Edingburg, said that "nine times out
of ten our misscalled remedies are abb
sOlutely injurious to our patients, suf-
fering under diseases of whose real
character and cause we are most cul-
pably ignorant" DR.. James jackson,
of Boston, highly educated physi-
clan, prOpOunded the following ques-
tiOns: "Shall we have fixed laws?
Shall we ever know, or must we ever
be doomed to suspect or presume? Do
we know, for example, in how many
cases such treatment fails for the one
time that it succeeds" The distin-
guished Magendie, of Paris, gave the
following opinion: a" hesitate not to
declare, no matter how sorely I shall
wound our vanity, that so gross is our
ignorance of the real nature of the
physiological disorders called diseases,
that it would perhaps be better to do
nothing, and resign the complaint we
are called upon to treat to the resources
of nature than to act as we are fre-
quently compelled to do, without know
ing the why and wherefore of our con-
duct, and at ObviOus risk of fastening
the end of the patient"
If these statements and opinions of
some of the most distinguished medical
men of both the Old and New Worlds
are founded in truth, is it not inCum-
bent upon physicians everywhere to
lay aside their prejudice and wrangling
about their schools, or who have diplo-
mas and who none, and investigate the
life forces of nature and the laws of
mind, and avail themselves of means
natural or acquired-that will relieve
the afflicted who place implicit conf
dence in their imputed skill?
At the same time we believe that liv-
ing a true life, in obedience to the laws
of hygiene, the business of the physi-
clan would be in a great measure super
ceded, and the drug shops, which in
cities are on every third corner of the
streets, might be converted into greCer-
les and provision stores. Then "Eph-
rain would no longer envy Judah, and
Judah no more veX Ephraim."
PHYSICIAN.