Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1883-05-28
MEDICAL INTOLERANCE.

MEDICAL INTOLERANCE.
a great deal has been said about the
bigotry and dogmatism of ministers.
But they have never been so intolerant of
differences of opinions and practice as
physicians. A case has just occurred
which brings out this latent intolerance
in an unpleasant light. A year ago last
February the Medical Society of New
York state adopted code which left
each and every regular" physician free
to follow his own Judgment in the matter
of practice and consultation. This was
long step towards liberty. Before that
time it was as much as an allopathic doc
tors life was worth to hold consulta-
ton with a homeopathic physician, even
at the request of dying patient. Last
February an effort was made on the part
of the ultra conservatives to rescind this
new rule, and 20 back to the old bond
age, which made it a crime for a "regu-
lar physician to have anything to do
with an eclectic or homeopathic physi-
clan. Again the spirit of progress tri-
umphed. The new rule was reaffirmed.
Thereupon an energetic effort was made
in this city, in which the old-school doc
tors have a majority, to put down the
spirit Of liberality. And DR.. Joseph W.
Howe was forced to resign his chair as
professor Of Clinical Surgery in the Bell
evue Hospital Medical College, because
he was unwilling to take the back-track
from the new rules.
This action looks to outsiders like an
eruption Of spirit of dogmaism and big
otry in marked contrast to the spirit of
our age. The practitioners can do as they
please, but the people who are practiced
upon certainly have opinions if not rights,
and ought to be considered. 1t may be
true that when rouges fall out honest
men get their dues; but it does not follow
that when doctors disagree patients get
well. But it is true that a vast change
has taken place in theories and the prac-
tice of medicine in the last thirty years.
The homeopathic system was brought
to Boston from Germany in 1925. 1t
was considered as the worst Of heresies,
yet it found favor and grew in public re-
gard; and to-day it occupies a respecta-
BILE position in the country. 1t has a
collage in this city which compares fav
orably with any other and numbers in its
ranks physicians Of undisputed eminence.
The Eclectic college is in high standing,
| while the three regular colleges hold
| their own, but no more. These outside
| physicians, heretics though they are re-
| garded, have been so successful in practice
that the people have confidence in them
| and trust their lives to these men. 1t is
folly to ignore these facts. Theories may
be right or wrong, true or false; but the
people who are practiced upon prefer to
live on heresy to dying on the oldest and
most approved system of medicine in tn
world. A sick man does not care cop
per for system; he wants to get well
and blesses the physician who cures him
These facts tell on physicians of al
schools. The desire Of every good ply
stefan is to cure his patient. He care
less for his theory than for success il
practice. He would sooner save lif
than to save his system any time. TIL
scientific temper of our age impresses al
physicians to look beyond the pickle
fence of their particular pathy, and Sc
what other physicians are doing. The
study cases. They try experiments
They seize ON any hint which makes ther
more successful. They use all systems
and are slaves of none. This is the SC
entifc spirit and method, and it impres
S mates all schools of medicine alike, an
5 promises to lead to the most importaI
> and benefcent results. This new spir
has already gained such hold in a
y schools and among all physicians of re-
eminence that it is now impossible to ca
e it out. And the efforts of any set of me
. to put down this spirit, and stop tt
e growing tolerance and liberality of tt
age merely advertises their fogyism.-
u Christian at Work.