The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1882-03-07
PROGRESSIVE PHYSICIANS.

toward the progressive and the liberal.
The mental, as well as the physical world
is to-day characterized by this revolutionary
feature. We see it in the large operations
and investments Of capital and labor; rail-
ways are being built of such lengths and
through such difficulties as would have
been considered some little while back as
impossible Of construction; canals are pro-
posed that would before have seemed as
but the visions of enthusiastic and silly
dreamers; mills, mining operations and
factories are in existence now that would
have astounded the merchants and others
of ante bellum times; houses of nine and
ten stories height are getting to be common
in New York and some other larger cities
elevated and underground rapid transit
railroads, etc, are made to supply the place
Of the slower omnibus and the street-car;
and so on all through the course. Twenty
i've years ago the millionaire was the ex-
ccpuon, to-day they are common in our
great commercial centres, and their homes
vie with and sometimes surpass in mag
niiicencc and expense, the former castles of
prnccly nabobs. So tits in the intellectual
arena, The world wants more thought, new
thought, larger thought and conduct. Ac.
cordingly we observe the increased size of
the daily and weekly newspapers, grown
from the humble single folio, to the nam
moth proportions of quadruple and quin-
tuple sheets, with all kinds of news from
all parts of the universe. Magazines of all
the professions and trades are being multi
piled in number and improved in quality.
In religious matters, too, the world moves
and as civilization thus expands, thought
grows freer in its range and holder in its ex-
preston. The cobwebs that have obscured
and the false lights that have mislcd are
being brushed away and new views are
opening on us all the while. The science of
medicine and of surgery as well, is each
making rapid strides in the achievement
Of good to humanity, the alienation Of
suffering and the extension of life. All
this comes from friction, the friction of
thought with thought, experience with ex-
perience. In this connection we are graft
fled TO perceive what we consider the adj
vanced move recently made by the Medical
Society of the state of New York, more par
ticularly referring to the freedom of action
permitted in regard to consultations with
all legally qualified practitioners, one with
another, be they allopaths, or homeopaths,
or hydropaths. This is surely step in the
right direction by that grand body of men
to whom this world owes so much of COM
fHt and its happiness There was at least
to many layman's mind, an appearance
OF bigotry, intolerance and narrow-minded-
css in the restrictions that the allopaths
had before imposed.upon themselves in that
respect that its effect was.not to allay certain
suspicious of some who were oitentimes
willing to believe reports about bread pills
and aqua pura cures followed by sub
sequent applications of an accountum mag
mum. AS steel striking against steel begets
the spark, so the friction of thought with
thought produces the desired light. If
allopathy be inferior to homeopathy, the
sooner the world knows it the better; and
the same too if homeopathy be astray.
But II each have many things
OF good, and this can be ascer-
tanned only by practical, every day study,
then, in the name of common sense, let lis
suffering mortals have the benefits. Let
humanity's veal take precedence over pro-
fessional rigidity, Let the respectable prac-
titioners of the one school affiliate with
iittcst will follow MS surely as the day the
night. That disposition which ties wholly
and elings with moss tenacity to the old
through prejudice or habit, be this in
what department of life we may
choose, the social, the religious, the
political, will write its own epitaph in
due time. The world moves aud will con-
tinuc TO move; changes are continuously
transporting, and new adjustments have as
constantly to be made, just as IN the human
frame the bones and tissues are being re-
newed through the substitution of the
instantly decaying particles by the
fresher deposits which the blood
conveys along its scarlet course.
For 1t is fundamentally true that the social
organism and the individual organism are
essentially alike, and'the nutritive particles
that circulate along the liie-giving liquid,
has, for each of its corpuscles separate
liic.history as distinct rs our social or other
institutions. The one gives life to the indi.
vidual the individuals compose the aggre.
gated nations with their social require.
mcnts. Universal progress is the law dis
tlnguishing humanity from Others of Cons
existent beings, The human household Is
different from the sponge which represents
kind of subaqueous city, as has been
said, where the PEOPLE are arranged about
the streets and roads so that each mechan
cally.may appropriate his food from the water
as II passes along, And In these new re-
ations and myriad combinations, which
distinguish the human species in its up
ward and onward route, no one man nol
set of men, physicians or others, can OK
pect that through them alone, or any so
system of others, must be evolved or dis
covered the new transpirings. The day ha,
l..