Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-06-09
address on state Medicine.

| The address by A. L. Glhon, chairman OF the
section on state medicine, was one of the most
notable papers OF the entire session. He stated
that, when elected chairman of the section,
he thought he would endeavor to
| impart more interest in the mat
ter, and, together with the secretary,
sent out several hundred circulars asking sug-
gestions from ply sicians. To these he received
only twenty-three responses, and eleven of
these were announcements that they could
not be present at the annual meeting. He
| summarizes the responses received and regrets
the lack OF interest felt. He then pays his re-
spects to the fraternity as follows:
| Beniehted pagans employ physicians to keep
| them we'll, and cease their stipend when disease
stalks In, but the most civilized and sef-sufcient
Of races limits thefuuctions of hemedicus tolthe re-
lief Of ills they have deliberately herited and with
out his office parsphernalis, his prescription papers
| and his pocket cases says to him, "Whst have We
who have neither ache ailing TO do with you? ~
Hence, 1t is not strange that the physician himself
has come to look upon this the chief function of
his Office, especially as 1t only brings him his daily
bread; that associations OF medical men have less
interest in the problems Of health preservation than
In the means by which the dire effects Of disease
msy be overcome, and profits and revenues accrue
from working miracles, AID that when
discord has only to be thrown into their
midst to make them squsbble like children to
who shall and who shall not be recognized In the
Bullu OI DlQQefb ZOE puUuC pdtfOuhR6. WQ6u Tue
physician practice his vocation In q community
where his first thought can be given to the unventi
lated room, the foul drain, the faulty and ntemper
ate diet the contaminated water; when he can pre-
scribe fresh air for the pad cDeek and nutritious food
fer the dlaiing pupil, and exercise for the 5abby
muscle and thick shoes and stockings and proper
underwear for the fragile girl Drawing inciement
weather. and sleep and rest for the worn redsbrain,
instead OF ringing changes on iron and quiuine and
strychnia; when to be considered to have earned
his fee he neei not sit mumbling over the sick.
IA, ,lr fnz1 r
your tongue-How are your bowels?" and then
grayeiy muse while writing harmless placebo,
which shall go to enrich apothecary put in the
stomach some drug with vague idea Of Its doing
exslt hygiene to its proper eminepce, instead Of
giving >, -. quas stree as a
then the section on state medicine will not
be compelled to beg for favor in the American
Medical association, but Its standard will overtop
all the rest. But this will not be until health primers
read, and the masses of the people educated to
understand that health is not the hsnd-mad but the
mistress. Had Asklep been legendized as Hygeia's
bastard son, instead Of her father, she would have
received as she deserves, the greater homage
So long, however, IS society in its highest develop
ment Of rank and culture, ignorantly jostles and
wedges Itself in contracted salons and drawing
rooms, already defed by blazing gas-jets and de-
ective furnaces, where hundreds of lavishy dressed
human beings befoul the air and poison
another with the noxious gases and their own eete
IL
ragged rabb!e which herd in the open streets,
and call this pleasure
30 long as cody people drouse and yawn in badly
ventilated churches, surchargpg their brains and
mpairing their minds by blood not half aerated;
and ungodly ones exhaust their whole reserve nerve
force to resist the insanitsry influence Of the no
less badly ventilated theater ani exhibition hail. aud
call the one pious worship and the other rational
amusement
So long as men toll to amass riches and then build
residences, p3lstia semi psatial or sham-pslatfa
and in the name of luxury and ssthetcism flood
them with artificial Light and heat to consume the
oxygen which prince and beggar both must breathe
same sumptuouely decorated closet and bath room
by which they think to exclude the vile necessities
OF humanity, which prince and beggar alike can not
escape, and call this comfort and re1nement-
So long as our children sent to over crowded
unwholesoms schools, (sixty-seven cubic feet, re-
ports Sanitary Inspector Moreau Morris, as the
average for Ills scholars In q New York primary
their hearing dulled their plastic bodies distorted
and theirbrans fuddled, aud this called education-
30 long as men and women daily violste In Them
selves and in their children, the simplest preceps of
hygiene; parents oountenancing half dressed daugh-
tiers, wearing out their strength In unwholesome
bathrooms, seeking the slumber that cannot refresh
only when the dawn appears; sons launched upon
the world to encounter physical wreck in Thousand
channels, where no beacon warns Of danger: old
men, senators, judges, divines, perchance learned
doctors, uncomplainingy breathing the foul sir of
pub ic conveyances and apartments, In which every
door and window has been carefully closed aud every
ventilatcf carefully ignored; streets reekiuy WITH
filth, which decrepit laborers play the fsrcs ~
sweeping in broad daylight, and whole blocks Of
buildings, IN fashiopable quarters Theoretically seal
ed from garnet to cellar to exclude night air.
What c&n Bt9te Wediclce hope 10 accoRpliGh In