Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-06-06
THE AMERICAN MEDICAL 4SSOCIA-
TON

The meeting in this city to day of physicians
representing every section of the union, will
no doubt be one of the most important in the
history of the American Medical association.
Aside from the interest which centers In the
final disposition of the question of the
admission of the delegates from the
New York society, unusual interest is taken
by the members of the medical profession in
the result Of the deliberations of the Assocla-
ton. The great advancement that has been
made in the science which relates to the preven-
ton, cure, or alienation of the diseases of the
human body during the present decade, will
no doubt receive recognition at the hands of
the Association at its present session, by the
initiation of movement looking to the adop-
ton, for the future government of the
members Of the Association, of a code
of ethics sufficiently comprehensive and
rational to meet the requirements of the pro-
fession, and at the same time throw around
the guild those safeguards that are as essential
to its future-as they have been conservators
Of its past-integrity.
Passing from the theory which ascribed
diseases to the anger of some invisible being,
when the temples of Esculapius were the
places OF resort for the sick, to the epoch
in which Hippocrates codifed all
that was known of the science
and practice of rational medicine; to the Alex
andrian school, of which Herophllus and
Erasistrotus were the ablest representatives;
the school of Asclepiades, at Rome, two Gen.
turtles later, to whom has been accorded the
credit of dividing diseases into the two now
well known classes of acute and chronic-we
find medical science on the decline
under 1.-THE school of Galen during the
second century of the Christian era. Preserved
by the Arabans and Europeans, the Canon of
Avicenna at length passes into the hands of
the Jews and Saracens and was by them pre-
served from the ninth to the thirteenth cen.
fury. During the thirteenth century the
Therapeutics Of Galen, the first book of Ayi-
cenna, and the Aphorisms of Hippocrates
were made medical textbooks under
the edict of Frederic the II, of Naples,
and in the Italian universities the
anatomy of Mondini was used until the CON-
mencement Of the seventeenth century, al
though but little in advance of the crude
work of Galen, which was yet considered a
work of great merit.
During the reign of Henry VIII, interest in
the science of medicine began to revive, and
the foundations for the Royal College of
Physicians, at London, were laid. The dis
coveries of the sixteenth century paved the
way for the discovery of the circulation of
the blood by Harvey at the beginning
OF the seventeenth, Then followed the true
theory of respiration and the discovery of the
lacteal vessels. In 1647 the work of Halter
gave physiology distinct existence, and ma.
terra medica was enriched by various addi.
tons. In the middle of the eighteenth GEN.
fury the use of broken doses of corrosive
sublimate in solution became common
throughout Europe, which was followed a half
century later by the discovery of incubation
by Jenner. During the last half century great
advancement has been made in the methods
which make the diagnosis of disease more
certain and by which they have been rendered
more amenable to the resources of art
The consideration of the papers that
have been prepared for presentation to the
several sections of the association which
meet in st. Paul to-day, will no doubt excite
a lively interest among its membership, and
the result of the labors of the association will
no doubt reflect great credit on the profess
sianal skill OF the distinguished gentlemen
charged with its direction and lasting benefit
90 I,o, of ho OF Love