Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-09-29
Ea:,caster Tlltellige1lrer.
FRIDAY EVENING, SEPT. 20. 1882.
Use OF PhysIcisnS.

Use OF Physicisns.
New York Star.
One of the marked changes OF our time
il the altered position of the physician IN
the.community. The traditional duty OF
tho doctor is to cure disease and disease
was supposed to be q sort OF malignant
entity which had got into the system ana
could be expelled only by tho most ener-
getic and heroic remedies. PhyEclans
vera said to belong to the medical profess
sion AZ the chief business of the doctor
was to prescribe medicines, which were
mostly drugs. And Voltaire wittily sum-
married the work of the physician as an
attempt to work q miracle by reconciling
iutsmperance and health.
A half century has altered the whole
scope of mental study. Physiology has
developed, and nearly appropriated the
science of biology. Tho study Of diseases
and their phenomena is now included IN
the structure and action of tho body IN
health. In fact, health, instead OF dis
ease, is the chief object of investigation.
Professor Perking, in recent address BE-
fore the university of Vermont, points out
what the theory of evolution has done for
medical science. It has shown tho I'M
portanoe of the equilibrium between the
body and its environments. Inside of the
body arc forces that build up and forces
that destroy, while outside of it are de-
structive and constructive elements be-
tween which an equilibrium must be pre-.
served or death will follow. Professor
Huxley says "Thc search for the ex-
PLANTATION of diseased states in modified
cell-life, the discovery of the important
part played by parasitic organisms in the
etiolOgy of disease, the elucidati0n of the
action of mendicaments by the methods o1
experimental physiology, appear to mo to
have been the greatest steps which have
ever been made toward the establishment
of medicine on a scientific basis" Tht
insight into the truths of evolution has
achieved wonders for medicine, and ha:
established forces that may revOlutionizt
medical science. Sanitary science pro
foundly affects medical theories. And ths
upshot of it all is that the old faith il
drugs and medicines of ali kinds is fas
dissolving. People are everywhere learn
ing that sunlight, pure air, good food,
proper dress, regular habits, plenty o
sleep-in short, that right living is I;iii
lion times better than all the medicines O
the world.
The great physicians of our time are
vastly more interested in sanitary scienct
and hygiene than in therapeutics. The.
are studying anew the questions pertain
ing to life. They are investigating tn
condition of perfect physical existence
They are giving lectures and writing
books on the great art of keeping we'll, 0
developing physical force, of building III
a perfect body. The questions Of drain
age and ventilation, of tho nutritive value
of the different kinds of food and tn
proper methods of cooking, of artificia
exercise when it is necessary to reso,
to such expedients, the heating of house
and the quantity and fashion 9
clothes that should be worI-are assun
ing an importance hitherto unknown
Everything that relates to the art of liV
ing so as tc avoid sickness and pain an
maintain the highest degree of power an
enjoyment, is invested with new import
ance. The physician is no longer a med
cine man :" we send for him when i'll it
true, and value his curative services a
highly az ever but We would pay him
double fee to keep us we'll. He is a men
ber of health police, whose function it
to keep people from getting sick and hOl
disease at hey. And instead of killing
doctor whom patient dies, after the man
ner of the emperor of China, the skill al
proficiency Of the physician Of the futul
will be determined by his success in keeI
ing his patients strong and well an
should they fall i'll he may be dismisse
for better one.