The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1883-04-27
.VEDICAL BUSINESS

r.,,,e. a Disciple Of Esculapius and
,,,anres the Right of His Brethren to
-. themselves Among Gentlemen
The Cloth-His Reasons.
-, Won resist the conclusion that cl ass
... he medical business among the learned
-,,s..ions is altogether smistake 2' These
=. me words Of DR.. Mclntire, of Penusyl-
vi. used in an address delivered before
-, American Academy Of Medicine last
sg and recently published.
This question was suggested Ply the fact
"a, statistics show that less than 5 per
~, of the doctors in this country are
S.s6ustes Of colleges other than those pro
s'.jonsl training schools called by that
r.r,e while over p per cent. of the lawyer,
s~3 FL per cent. OF the ministers have taken
collegiate degrees. These are iacts which
.s-~ot be successfully challenged.
The fact of there being many highly ed
ted men in profession, does not con-
mia a learned profession. A man NAV
Lsnrodigy OF general information, yet so
Tssclsnt i'm all lines OF training for practi-
Ssi things that he really belongs to no pro-
G.sion al all. The proper test of profess.
icnsl learning is education in the facts.
n-inripals aud methods of q profession.
t;sW,d from this point of observation il
nav well be doubted if the doctors have
any occasion TO blush, From still another
lint ofview medicine outranks both law
sld theology
new things and explore unknown CONT
nents OF thought. lis stream which has
lowed down the ages from the fountain OF
inspiratiou However gibly one may talk
Tpr0gress, the science of theology is the
learning of what is as old at least as our
"a and in part dates back to Moses. The
Sreat theolOgians have simply been ex-
Sornders of book which, in its main fea-
lures. is perfectly Ineligible to the most
unsophistcated reader. Said an eminent
Chicago divine not long ago "ln theology
making progress is going backward, and
M supreme advance is reireating to Cal
yary and the Garden of Eden.' IL is muca
Me- same in law. There is not, it is true, a
buntain Of inspiration in the background.
but from the stress put upon presidents
one would suppose that somewhere in the
highlands back of the city was mighty
reservoir of legal lore, and that the science
Of law must be a sort of Croton waterworks.
Bench and bar constantly appeal in the
discussion of legal propositions to pre-
cedens Instead Of principles, to the prac-
tee of the past rather than the discoy cries
and demonstrations Of the present. Such is
slke the case in England and America,
The practice of the law involves
constant alteration of the setting sun.
studious disregard of auroral
splendors. The actual progress IN the law.
Il il does not come crab-fashion, has GER
tainly been largely brought about by the
ingenious use of legal iictions, tricks by
which the appearance of progress was dis
elised behind show Of conservatism. 1t
isa curious and illustrative fact that John
Howard, the philanthropist,' was led to ex.
plore jails and thus accumulate a mass of
facts which had the retormatory force of
dynamite by the refusal of the court of his
country to inaugurate prison reform until
sprecedent could be found for the changes
which be urged, He failed to find what he
was looking for, but that was case in
which petty failure was grand success.
Whatever justification may be urged Tor
the difference the law pays to mere custom or
precedent the fact itself is indisputable,
In medicine there is no force in mere
usage. Many practitioner OF to-day has
witnessed almost a complete change in the
treatmt mt OF diseases, and the best minds
IN the profession are not concerned with
what was taught or done by the fathers,
but are studying constantly to weed out old
errorsa and ascertain new truths. The good
physician is a veritable atheneum, spend |
In all his spare time in trying to learn
something new, not to test some quack pan
scea but to explore some hidden cham Der
Of science. II is generally conceded that
tile scientific study of surgery and medi- !
cine dates from the era of Alexandria and
the PtOemies but for the most part it is |
thoroughly modern. 1t is hardly an exag- |
eeratiOn to say that the older members of
the profession have witnessed more pro- |
gress than all the ages had made before |
their day. The true test of medical learn |
ing is not in the domain of either higher |
mathematics or the dead languages
An eminent physician of Chicago does |
not hesitate to say that every medical work |
more than twenty-five years old could be
annihilated without any serious loss to "the |
medical business" Surely profession |
which has made such strides in less than !
one generation has pre-eminent claims to |
the term profession, in distinction from
mere business, and so long as it continues |
to progress so rapidly IN mastering the me.
chanIsm of the body and the adaptation of
Aaature to sanitary wants, it will deserve
'front.' rank amo" < the learned walks of life.
-IChicago Inter. Ocean.