Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1884-08-23
IDEAS ABOUT MEDICINE.

what . Phys1eiaa says About the
xRn113s aAA Acctdenss Of Doctors.
[Address Of Geoexe T. Welch, NJ D., before
New Jersey Medical Society.l
The modern physician, in his multi
tndinous drugs, finds few remedies. The
average of human life il greater, bat
comEerce and the arts have given greater
comfort, better food, new thoughts,
wiser horizons, and none of the sciences
can claim too great share in the world s
advancement. Medicine finds its highest
achievements in the prevention, not in
the cure of disease. Cancer shows Q
steady relative increase in England; in
New Jersey the average death rate from
this disease is one in fifty four of all the
deaths that occur Malarial diseases
spread in wider circles. Do not the
ravages of tuberculosis 60 on? Who has
Won eminence in curing yellow fevera
The exanthemata sweep into and out of
every neighborhood about once in five
years Who cures rheumatism OF ty-
phofd fever, or chronic Bright's diseased
Who never recoiled before a patient sim
mering in the horrible slow flame of
py8mia2 And yet who refrains from
prescribing2 The journals TEEN with
fortunate prescriptions the nostrums of
manufacturing chemists push braggart
charlatanism to the wall. No monstros-
ity of theirs so impudent that a dozen
college professors will not laud the mix
ture. This was once the province of
the clergy, but We do things differ
emily now.
The young doctor believes in
the magic of drugs; the old
doctor regard the majority of
ha
pathologist suspects them all. We hear
Of the so-ealled cures, but rarely do we
hear Of the failures. Truth can never
As to the drugs, most of them are
them eiostroy..plants, and corrode the
vital organs of animals. The test of
new drugs upon animals, and the argu-
ment from these to man, is in many in
stances highly fallacious. Such drugs
aS morphia and atrophia have slender
effects on birds and herbivorous ami
mails, while many others have fire.
quently toxical effects, without CORE
sponding symptoms in man. As, for
instance, citric and tartaric acids, cam
phor, coceulus. dulcimara and iq.
;azlmop. acct, poisons fatally in
their order cats, rabbits, dogs and
hsnl Some drugs act differently
upon different animals, as colocynth,
which mas feeble action on horses, sheep
and swine, while it purges dogs and rab-
bits violently; cyclamen poisons fish,
while pigs can eat any quantity of the
root; hyoseYamus is eaten without harm
oy hogs, and does not injure sheep or
lows, while upon dogs it has much the
same effect IS upon man.
The only way to arrive at the average
merit of new drugs or the old is to re-
cord the results of their application in
the same classes of disease under the
varying conditions of hygienic surround
ngs over vast areas But this is not
for the majority of physi
,ians are plodders, followers, men of
routine. One other means presents it
self: colleges of experimental medicine,
conducted under the eyes of the state,
DR. the supervision of the highest
medical authorities. Here should be
ISgorous system, exact registration,
frequent comparison and correc-
ton. At the same time we must
for all our attainments, that
but comparatively little is known of the
natural history of diseases. The tend
sncy of nature to remedy ills without
would astound the medical
world could it be known Alright. Hun
lreds of diseases would end in recovery,
f never a drug were given. We deceive
with cures. The last drug gets
he credit, where none deserves it. On
he other hand, many diseases have con-
inued to be incurable for ages, though |
wen the wisest physician would proba
by feel himself criminal not to prescribe |
And given one thing, to |
give another is natural sequence.
Even to give an ample margin, after
leading medicines, as iron,
odine. quinine, strychnine, brandy and |
opium have been selected from the mass
If drugs persistently thrust upon the
the rest might be lin the fat |
ea sunk" and the death-rate be no |
greater.
The monkey-Wrench was named for /