Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-01
THE GROWTH OF MEDICAL SCIENCE.

"phology with medicine, the natural
" history of disease has, at the present
:" day, attained high degree of perfec-
" ton. Accurate regional anatomy has
" rendered practicable the exploration of
" the most hidden parts of the organism,
" and the determination during life of
I" morbid changes in them anatomical
g and astrological post mlortem investiga-
tions have supplied physicians with
" sure basis upon which to rest the class
E" itication of diseases, and with unerring
90 tests of the accuracy or inaccuracy OF
their diagnoses" This has very en-.
couraging sound. In fact it might be
gathered from it that medical science had
made very great progress of late years, and
that if only physicians are acquainted
with the entire revelations of science they
can hardly fail in their contests with dis
ease Yet though Professor Huxley ap-
pears to be SO sanguine, there are grave
reasons for questioning the soundness
of his conclusions. In the first place
the bills of mortality, those unerring
gauges of the progress of medical science,
show no such falling off as to create the
belief that the struggle against disease has
beca rendered less unequal than in the
past. In the second place, striking
demonstrations occur from time to time of
the uncertainty and fallibility of the most
advanced science. Take for example the
case of President Garfield. What did
accurate regional anatomy" do for him
1t certainly did not render practicable
" the explanation of the most hidden parts
"of the organism, nor did it reveal the
character of the morbid changes going on
in those parts. Neither did any knowledge
derived from previous post morton examin-
ations help the surgeons to an understand
ing of the case, or supply them with
"unerring tests of the accuracy, or in
accuracy of their diagnoses" We know
now that their diagnoses throughout were
entirely and even phenomenally wrong.
We know, in fact, that modern surgical
and medical science failed as utterly to
afford any relief in this case as medieval
surgery might have done. There are no
more skillful and thoroughly educated sur
geons in the world than Drs. Agnew and
Hamilton yet it must be said in all can
dor that their methods and treatment were
as useless in this case as would have been
the Japanese practice of acupuncture, or
the sympathetic cure of the dark ages,
when it was thought proper to apply the
medicament to the weapon which had
caused the wound instead OF to the wound
itself.
In fact it is not too much to say that
Sir Kenelm Digby's sympathetic powder
would have done quite as much for Presi-
dent Garfield as did the ripe knowledge
and full experience of these veteran sur
geons. And it must be observed that it
was not alone in regional anatomy that
their failures occurred, but that the symp-
toms of the patient were on several occa-
sions entirely misconstrued, showing that
the unerring tests J" spoken of by Pro-
lessor Huxley do not in fact exist. The
Japanese physician thrusts steel needles
into various parts of the anatomy, accord
ing to traditional system. He generally
manages to avoid vital organs, and those
who believe in his practice experience
benefit from it. Crude and barbarous
as this mode of treatment is, how
ever, it is really very little less
blind and haphazard than that APP.
piled to President Garfield. For nearly
eighty days the most skillful physicians in
the country were treating an alleged pus
channel as the wound, and leaving the
real wound alone. They assert now that
even if they had known where the wound
was they could not have done anything
with it. There is an evident disposition
among the members of the profession to
concur in this opinion, but the interest of
self preservation may have something to do |
with this Endorsement We for our part |
do not believe that if the surgeons had |
ascertained the real course of the ball at |
first, they would have declared the case
hopeless. We believe, on the contrary,
that they would have been much better
to deal with the case had they
possessed that knowledge. And we do not
think it at all certain that in that case
death would have been inevitable.
But the case of the late President shows
in very striking way how slow is the
progress of medical science. 1t may be
that this science has limits which can never
be overpassed; that it will always be neces-
sary to grope in dealing with morbid action
in internal organs and that it will never
be possible to judge with complete accu-
racy from external indications. In fact it
may be that the allegory of the blind man
with the club will always be applicable to
the practice of medicine. But if this is so
it is obvious that there ought to be less
boasting about the progress of the science.
The Garfield case was of necessity test
one. There was every reason for the full
application of all the appliances of the
most advanced science, and there was
multitude of counselors. Yet every one of
them was equally at fault, and when death
occurred it became manifest that they had
all mistaken the nature of the wound.
Even if it were undeniable that death was
here, it is apparent that the
wound might easily have been durable,
and that yet the surgeons might have
it in the same way, and with
fatal results. In short there is no posi-
bility of evading the conclusion that med
ical science has after all made but very
small advances, and that it is still as liable
to capital errors as it was three hundred
years ago.