The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1883-11-23
Niscell anenus.
Published By Request Of The Society.
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
DIR. j. WARD SCOTT, President of the
Medical Society of Hartford County, at
It's Meeting In Bel Air, Nov. 18th, 1883.

BY
DIR. j. WARD SCOTT, President of the
Medical Society of Hartford County, at
Its Meeting In Bel Air, Nov. 18th, 1883.
GENTLEMEN: Accept my thanks for the
honor conferred in selecting me to preside
over your deliberations. l feel my incapaci-
ty, but shall use my every effort to so rule as
to meet your appreciation.
1t has been customary for the newly elected
President, on taking the chair, to call your
attention to some particular subject affecting
our professional standing, or criticise
mildly the numerous unjust censures leveled
at our mode of practice. On our shoulders,
innocent as they are, is laid the odium of
many foolish schemes. We are made fathers
much against our will to many children OF
the devil. We are forced by circumstances
to stand sponsor" for the extremes to which
the world has carried alcohol.
All good things have been abused since the
foundation of the world, and will continue to
be abused It'll time shall be no more" Yet
alcohol is not u whit worse in its effects on the
human system than "opium," and you will
find some preparation of "opium" on the
shelves of every cross.road store in Hartford
AS yet no crusade has been preached by
"modern Peters" against "ipecac" or tar
trate of antimony," both most excellent rem
edies, in their way, simply because there is
an antipatly existing between them and the
stomach. If we could possibly so disguise
their taste and make them equally as pleas
ant to the palate as wine, whisky or the Sc
ductive "julep," another raid, similar to the
one just concluded, would be made on very
good things, under leadership of men who
forget the sacredness of their calling, and in
heat of controversy descend to the low arts
of pot house politicians, all in the name OF
"public virtue"
What is public virtue? Has it existence ?
Oh, how broad it is ! Under its ample folds
are hid all manner of deceit and Hypocrisy
1t is dream, Utopian fancy.
The doctor is the best judge of mans needs
when sick. We have at heart his bodily well
fare. flour patients condition calls for stimu-
lants, we give them. He may require an ounce
pint or quart. Our prescription should be
his authority for getting it, and no questions
asked. If unfortunately, by this very free use
of stimuants, our patient contracts an unrea
sonable fondness for the remedy, and "deleri.
I'm trenens" results, we cure even that; at
least we make use of every means to save
life. We do all expected of US. Our sympa.
thies are ever with our patient Ofall men the
most intensely human are ''country DOCTORS u
Long cold rides in depth of winter fall more
ancients, on the modern dollar of the dad
dies" Yes, gentlemen, as class of benefac-
tors, we are necessary evils. Sickness is a
lurury. We are indeed poorly remuncrated
We live principally on hope, and raise our
matrimonial fruit on wind. 1t is very pleas
ant, however, to look on pictures of Hope
It's what / call desperately cheering Such q
little fellow carrying such an enormous an.
ch0r
Then how sympathetic we are. Out efouI
ranks you find little patience with diseased
and suffering humanity. In this great bic
world OF ours every man is for self-mounts
to the giddy height of ambition gratifed
over the crushed hopes, shattered bodies ofhis
fellows. In the race for wealth and power
all ties are forgotten. In truth friendship il
but name. The only friendships that ar,
really with us in the hour of need are these
which are cemented by our equality of cir
cumstanc6s. In the depth of home, il
the hour of retribution, by the bed of death
the rich and poor, the happy and miserable
are never found side by side-but the doctor
| is there-it is his place, and by kind, cheering
words comforts the griefstricken wife, mother
and father, and on his bosom often is breath
| ed out the last wall of dying mortal
Will the history Of medicine from its in
cipiency ever be written Scarcely canno
think il. If Donnellyis correct, and an
inclined to think he is, the sudden terrible wip
ing out of Atlantis carried with it into oblivi
ons the authentic records of our antiquity.
The Egyptians, the most direct, the most en-
| lightened of the descendants of the Atlant
cans preserved by sign writing and tradi
ton, remnant of the sciences, but th,
"Disciple of Mahomet' in DESTROYING tn,
Alexandrian Library did away with that, ant
left the world for generations cropping il
darkness and desolation.
With the Egyptians medicine and theology
were united in the person of one man. H,
was sacred Far was his place above othe
men, and the world was better and happier
for It, No sooner did superstition and re
| ligious fanaticism draw the line sharply be
tween things celestial and things terrestrial
than medicine and the sciences, languished
! and but for the Emperor Julian, last ant
best of Romans, would have persisted and beer
forgotten. Theology has made man very
intolerant What can be more affecting thar
the story of Gallileo, with bowed head
hoary locks, before the ecclesiastical tribunal
lying to his own soul, retracting the truth O
the Capricornian system at command of al
ignorant gownsman. 1t was retraction OF
the stake. Make your choice, poor friend
less old philosopher, you nave but one. HUI
man nature is weak-very weak. Gallilec
was human Well was it for Harvey tina
he was an Englishman, far removed from