The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-07-31
Two Professions.
THE PREACHERS AND THE PRACrI-
TONERS.
A Comparison and Contrast Drawn by
Thomas Hill.


AT the annual dinner Of the Maine Medica
Association in this city the Rev. DIR. Thomas
Hill was called upon for remarks in response
to a toast to the clergy. and spoke at some
length of the physician and the clergyman
Those remarks he has kindly consented to
write out, and we take pleasure in presenting
them to our readers:
The great kindness with which the medical
profession have always treated the clerical,
puts me in singular embarrassment in speak
ing of either. Whatever l say in regard either
to my own brethren or to yours, and either in
praise or in blame may be supposed neceS-
sarily to lack judicial fairness.
And yet l believe myself in position quail
| flying me unusually well, had only had better
| power of observation and Judgment, for dis
| eliminating estimate of both professions, since
| l have occupied sort of border land first in
| my youth serving 81 years apprenticeship with
| an apothecary, afterwards being for SIX years
| an ex-ot1icio member of a medical faculty; and
| having enjoyed, for over forty years, intimate
| friendships with several physicians of some
| eminence. Then in regard to the ministry,
| have not only been pastor q years and more,
| but this pastorate has been divided in the
midst by an interval of 13 years or more; in
| which l had no pastoral duties, but was my
|
| Concerning the clergy, the medical profess
sion show such an Over-appreciation of us, that
hardly need say anything, except in justiica
| ton of your kindness. There can be no ques-
| ton in the mind of an impartial observer that
| the clergymen are men, in general, of great
| value to the community; and, in general, poor
| ly compensated There are but few, the
pastors of the best city parishes whose income
places them at ease. The majority find it diff
| cult to live. They give their best endeavors
| tn hnr vii and hon re
| comfort the suffering, console the afflicted
| help the weak. relieve the distressed; and do il
| without hope or expectation OF present reward
| Some of them have also always been efficient
cultivators of literature, art and science. /
am by no means ashamed to stand on the same
| roll with Isaac Barrow, the tutor of Sir Isaac
| Newton, with Jeremy Taylor, of the Establish
| ed church in England with Joseph Priestley,
| the discoverer OF oxygen, among the Dis
senters; and with the long list of clerical
as much for their achievements without, as
| within the walk of their profession.
Moreover the clergy who are judicious and
| wise, are of direct value to wise and judicious
| physicians, in their influence upon the healing
OF the sick. Quack medicines it must be
| confessed, are often supported by certificates
| OF men who are called reverend but the wise
| and judicious clergyman knows the value OF
| education, of experience, of clinical observa-
! ton, OF direct contact between wise directing
liiuu diIu VIC ulSOIucrou duu tu0 dlu
| which he gives the physician is in dissuading
from rash experiments, and persuading to
| seek wise medical advice. The mutual action
and reaction of the mental and bodily
| states on each other, make the wise and judi
ciouS clergyman also useful in calming and
| cheering the spirit of the sick. L have known,
| in more than one instance, surprising salutary
effects upon the condition of the patient
arising from the visits of one who brought con-
ISOLATION and good hope through grace, into a
spirit which was worrying and chatting the
enfeebled body. But turn to the othersde
of the main subject.
know not of whom the anecdote was first
told, but first heard it of DR.. Charming; who
being summoned suddenly in place Of his
brother Walter, discovered the mistake, and
to the right; this is the wrong DR.. Charming; /
only preach, it is my brother who practices. ~
have often felt that this anecdote was no
| jokes terribly severe satire upon the min
lstry; all the more severe because it has in it
so much OF truth. L attempt to relieve the
pain OF it, somewhat, by looking to the bright
est and best examples of self-sacriicing labor
ious men in my own profession; but the relief
is only temporary, il cannot but revert again
to my own case living life of ease and enioy-
ment; performing no duties that are not a
pleasure and delight to me; making no sacri-
ices OF my own Wishes except at the COM
mand OF still stronger Wishes then compare
my life OF luxurious ease with the laborious,
self-sacrlticing, generous life of medical
practitioner, who has direct practical
knowledge and practical skill directly
applicable to the relief of human suf-
fering and prolongation of human life, and
who holds that knowledge and skill at the SER
vice of all who choose to call upon it, offering
it freely to the poor, more freely than the Cos
pel is preached by Protestants,) and trusting
to receive pecuniary compensation only from
those able to pay; liable to be called on at any
hour of the night or day; and actually broken
continually of his rest; called into scenes of
the most terrible suffering and heart-rending
agony and forced frequently to assume, with
the briefest possible notice, responsibilities
that involve the issues of life and death. At
such comparisons l shrink, Hand am ashamed
of myself, and feel unworthy the friendship of
men who fulfil so much more nobly than L,
the practical duties of life.
The triumphs of modern surgery and the
results of modern researches into the causes
and means of prevention of some of the worst
fofmS OF disease, seem like fultilment of the
promise of the great Physician, that his disci-
had done.
have often felt that the medical art illus
trates in another way the truth of His teach
ing, and the fallacy of the objections aso often
made to it by certain school of philosophy at
the present day. | am responding for the
on which they all agree, it is that
which, in the Oldest symbols of Christian faith
is called the forgiveness of sins. Their
ministry is ministry of reconciliation, be-
seeching men to be reconciled to God, to
cease to offend against his laws. The mo-
tive with which they urge it, is the promise
of forgiveness to those who turn away from sin
This promise is nowadays frequently secuted,
as fallacious and of immoral tendency. 1t is de-
clared that sin cannot be forgiven, but that
the full penalty must inevitably be paid. But
those who thus speak cannot be aware of the
physiological fact, so familiar to medicalmen of
what is called cumulative effect. In my theory
of Christianity, the laws of nature are the laws
of God, and there is perfect unity between
physical and spiritual law. The power of the
healthy organization to stand certain amount
of abuse, the gradual weakening of that pow
err, the arrival at length of day when it is
too late, when the constitution is ruined be-
You'd remedy, and the stroke of paralysis, or
the fit of delirium, reveals the long course of
previous transgresSion-these are in perfect
harmony and analogy with spiritual facts, and
thunder the moral laws of temperance, chasti-
ty and general care of ones self, with a power
that the pulpit seldom has.
in intellectual directions the medical profess
sion has three several roads open, each leading
to fields OF intense interest. 1t deals with the
highest of all physical things, the human body;
and investigates the laws of its healthy growth
and action; the laws of its diseased action or as
1t may paradOxically be said the normal forms of
abnormal growth and function; and thirdly,
eased states. Each of these fields offers album
dant opportunity for original research and
promises rich results to explorers. To GER
tain extent every practitioner must explore all
three; for on the great whole, and in the long
run, the best results in either can be obtained
only by one who explores to some extent all
three. There was, therefore, more wit than
wisdom in the terse reply of the old Greek
physician, in the days when fennel was the
fashionable carminative. He was asked
rt,n+I l,o1 ali
lency and wheat does not He answered: No!
but know where fennel grows.
Mr.. President, trust that the members of the
Maine Medical Society may always be success
full in regard to all the ills that flesh is heir to-
not only in discovering causes but cures; or,
to keep the old Greeks phrase, in discovering
where fennel grows.
Hon. s. Capper's Lecture.
Hon. Samuel Capper delivered his lecture