Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-06-22

f Ne,o York Journak and one or two Others
f comprised the whole journalistic literature OF
: this side of tie Atlantic, while the Londo
1 Lancet, Braithwait's Retrospect, Ranking
n Abstract and the British and Foreign Medic
t Cherurgical Revicw, constituted all tn
e foreign Journals reproduced in this country
| Now the journals are legion, and published
: monthly, fortnightly and weekly, and all ar
filled with new and interesting matter Btu
here again there is tendency to plethora, ant
much of the matter published is introduced
: more to fill up the columns than to convey
J new or useful information. Many coutrbu
T tors have not read what has been published
J long ago, and as soon as they find something
} new in their experience, take for granted tha
it is discovery, and rush into print and cacklt
i, over it like pullet over her first new lai(
egg, as if there never was such an egg. Time
and further experience will correct this ten
dency in most men, but there will always re
main a few, who are constitutionally scribble
omaniacs, for whom there is no sure cure.
Another comparatively harmless form o
idiosyncrasy prevails largely in the profession
which consists in believing that because a pa
tient has been very alarmingly i'll, and got vel
under the use of certain remedies, therefore he
got well because he used those remedies They
do not seem to remember the most alarming
of acute diseases are self limited, and run in j
circle ending in health, or that where there are
|
course of the sickness there may be several en-.
tirely different and equally successful methods
of averting the danger. This is the class of ply.
sicians who publish sprightly letters to the
Journals, telling of the magic results following
the use of new remedies, or, from a single
case, argue the general applicability of the
remedy to all similar cases. This class of phy-
sicians are always looking for medicine that
aciH cure, instead of trying to understand the
true nature of the perverted life force that we
call disease, and studying the means indicated
to restore th0functions of the suffering Or
gans, SO as to enable them to effect the cure in
natures own method, the only way in which
cure is possible.
Some of the new journals are osenslbly med
ical Journals, but are really little more than
advertising adventures, to bring into notice
certain new remedies, or proprietary mixtures
or pills, to the profit of the inventor or manu-
| facturer. Some of these are sent us regularly
as specimens, till our tables are Uttered with
testimonials from leading physicians and theo-
logians, bearing witness to the efficiency of
certain proprietary medicines or mineral wa
ters. Even that much abused creature, cod
liver oil, is subjected to the tortures OF the
alembc, and comes 10 us.bespanged like Jo-
seph in his coat of many colors.
| OF course, some of these are mertorious in
themselves, and justly deserve approval and
use; but, like everything else, the business is
| overdone, until cod liver oil combinations are
published in the secular papers as a sure cure
for consumption and scrofula, and the popular
mind cOnceives that means so much used by
the profession in suitable cases must needs be
| suited to all cases, and so, to use a phrase
frequently heard by US, patient will tell us
he has taken gallons of cod liver oil without
benefit. Still, amongst all this rubbish, there
will be found some grains of pure merit and
we must submit to the process of its elimina-
tion with such grace of patience as we may.
All through the ages, since the days of Hippo
crates, there have arisen men in the profession
who have promulgated new doctrines, and an
nounced radical departures from the empirical
teachings of experience, in some instances
placing themselves at the head of q me1o school
and giving themselves out as apostles of new
science, and they have had their followers and
disciples and fourished for time,
but gradually their lights paed and
ultimately died out leaving only record
of their names and failures on the pages of
the history of true experimental medicine.
The whole of these so-called schools were
were based upon a single idea, around which
their professors collected a series of facts and
condolences to prove their trnthfulness, In
deed, some of these schisms had quite guam
tity of truth in them, and the result was, that
by exalting one truth to the exclusion of
all others, they drew after them considerable
|
for long periods of time, into sects and
schools, and the jarring sectaries turned their
energies against their rivals, instead of pursu-
| ing their investigations into the arcanun. of
nature, to discover if possible, whether there
were not valuable truths outside of, both their
own creed and that of their rivals But after
the orginators of the new schools and their
Immediate personal friends and partisans
passed away, the professional mind swung
back into the old and safe path of trying ali
things and proving all things. Whatever of
! truth was contained in the dOgmas of the
schools was retained, but incorporated with
other truths, to form a body of doctrine that
could be substantated by the severest tests of
science and experience.
There has never been one OF these tangental
offshoots of Hippocratic medicine that
has not Topped off some crudity from the tree
of knowledge, or left some shoot of truth,
that properly engrafted, has not borne good
fruit in after years. Leaving out the details
of the older innovations, we will allude only
to those OF our own day, Thomsoniansm
Preistnitzsm and Hahnemanism.
ThOmpSonianism took its rise from an OBJ
scure nonprofessional source, and aimed its
shafts at the notorious professional abuse of
the lancet and mercury. Thompson rallied
against all depletion except emesis, and
| against all metallic remedies of every kind.
He promulgated vegetable materia medica,
free and simple, and rung the changes from
lobelia to elecampaue and number six. He
was followed by that crowd of enthusiasts,
who having more zeal as iconoceasts, than
knowledge of the art of substituting bet
ter objects of Worship and his principal fol-
lowers were the disciples of Alexander Camp
bell, the founder of the sect of Christians who
from being known as Campbellites, are now
known as the disciples"
The first Thomsonian doctors were men who
had failed of success in other callings, and
felt call to be doctor, and having NO
preliminary education, or at least but a
smattering, were for long time subjects of
ridicule, but after time, some men of
considerable education were found amongst
them, and they changed their designation
from Thompsonian to Eclectic physicians, and
established some Eclectic medical schools,
and devoted their energies to the study of the
medicinal properties of vegetables, and had
provings and experiments, and have given us
to-day some of the most valuable vegetable
alkalods in our materia medica, while they
themselves have gradually ceased to be ex-
clusively herb doctors and in many casee as
simulate with the regular profession, and are
| no longer "new school DOCTORS"
The school of PreistnitZ was of German
origin, and du,ing its short period of ag-
gresslve practice accomplished a great deal of
good to the profession and the world at large.
Previous to the advent of the water cure, there
was mild form Of hydrophobia, which pre-
vailed all over the world, and made it almost
impossible for the intelligent physician to
prescribe water externally or internally in
the treatment of disease, because the popular
mind inclined to hot measures, and had a
horror of taking cold from the application of
cold water In.disabusing the public of its
foolish prejudice, the water cure redeemed
many thousands of filthy people to habits of
personal cleanliness, by soaking themselves in
wet packs for several hours daily, and gave
the professional carte blanche to avail itself
of the popular wave, and use cold water as an
agent of very great power, when properly ap-
piled. But being a very potent agent, it some
times chilled feeble patient to death in the
| mack: and not satisfied with the oripinal