The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-20
The Claims of Medical Science.


The Journal says: ''Dr. j. w. Hervey read q
paper before the Marion County Medical Society
on Utility and Progress in Medicine in which
he reviewed the advancement made during the
last fifty years" etc. Really. what are those ad
vancements2 Do they relieve people of sickness,
and suffering from what they endured thenl Is
the typhoid of to-day any less fatal than was
'typhus" then2 Is cholera any less fatal to-day
In Spain than it was in New York, PHILADELPHIA
or elsewhere then? Is smallpox any less fatal
to-day in Montreal than it was anywhere then?
fatal as ever before in those localities it has
scourged? Was the epidemic which prevailed
last summer in Plymouth, Pa. any less terrible
than any that ever preceded it anywhere in the
country? While the doctors could do nothing
but stand around and wiring their hands, but
finally concluded that it was a violent type of
typhoid fever caused by bad drainage, when re
ally 1t might have been caused by 'disease
germs" blowing away" from some city, where
the people had not been unwise as to sprinkle
their streets.
Is disease or the danger of it. aside from the
cause being removed by clearing and drainage of
the land. any less in our city now than fifty
years agoa If so. why the necessity of one ply
stefan to every one hundred citizens, if the
Changes" new remedies appliances and con
trivances," have been successful in 'investigat-
ing' and curing disease? And, as we'll as the
change in ''the diatheses of disease" did not the
influence of Samuel Thompson, about fifty years
ago. begin to be felt against the "barbarous
practice of blood-letting and drastic medication
such influence being continued by the 'Ec-
lectics"-that the regulars" were induced
to let those practices gradually drop out?
And have not the real advancements and changes
made in the practice of treating disease, for in
stance, in France, where they had learned by
Al IL l. G.
remedy for smallpox and all cutaaeous diseases;
and later, that cold bath in typhoid saves 60
to 80 per cent. of the number that before died in
the hospitals there we'll after the accidental
upsetting from boat in San Francisco bay of
fifteen smallpox patients, they all recovered
Did it not prove that theory, before established
by those French physicians, correct9 And, too,
all the country has it not been demon
strated that the cold bath. or pack, is certain
remedy for all fevers as well as the warm bath
for chills ague. And yet have not these facts all
been ignored in the treatment of those diseases
by the average physician of today Besides. is
not the advancement" and change often in
the interest of the physiclans!-to too painfully
often not to be of interest to 1.-The people who
support them" who ''are already heavily
taxed" as the Journal, in the Sunday issue, has
it in reference to the quarrel between druggists
and physicians, in st. Louis. The Journal not
long since, also quoted from the Milwaukee SEN
tinel article In which occurs this sentence:
'PhySlclans profess falth In meolclne. out really
have very little"
And again. Over twenty years ago Dr. Oliver
Wendell Holmes said that eff the whole materia
medca were sunk to the bottom of the sea it
would be all the better for mankind" The Jour
nal prophesies new hobby will come to mag
nifty the services and needs of the pill and pow
der, and their administrators" Is not that hobby
already in constant use by the average physi-
cian2 Is it not Haunted in the face Of those who
are already heavily taxed" that they must buy,
and continue to buy, these pills and powders,
and to refuse is at the risk of health and lifel
The papers constantly being read and dis
cussed at their medical societies, pOrtraying
the marvellous achievements of medical science,
magnifying its Importance in saving health and
life are all calculated to, and do dupe those who
Support them" who are already heavily
taxed" to continue to pay tribute to those ad
illustrators of pill and powder" Nor in all
this, as we'll as in the thousand and one patent
nostrums which the people are induced to buy
as cures for all the ills human flesh is heir to,
can the administrator alone be at fault The
people are willing to be gued, and become will
ms sacrifices upon the altar of so-called med
ical science" The wages Of their folly is
loss of money, health, and often life,
What can be the amount annually of tax as
sessed upon the people OF Indianapolis by the
half thousand administrators of pill and powder
-$12 prescriptions and ST. for the drug desig
mated therein; or even the more popular price OF
25 cents to the masses, for prescription Would
a half million pay the bill, not taking into &C.
count the time necessarily spent. in consequence
of all those drugs, upon the sick couch, nursing,
etc9 Verify. million would come nearer the
solid facts. 1t may all be true. as the Journal
says, that druggists and physicians are i'm
portant members of the communlty"-"to the
people who support them" to those ALREADY
heavily taxed" but to subtract their Importance
as tax-gathers only. from the general interests
of those people the remainder might dwindle
down to very ANAL proportions compared with
the original proposition. To show that | prac
tice what preach. l will say that not one penny
for pill or powder, or for any medical service,
has been paid by me in the last twenty years.
In that time we had one case of spotted fever,
which we treated successfully, while twelve out
of fifteen cases within sight of our house, and
treated by what were and are supposed to be
the best medical practitioners in the city, were
fatal Other and ordinary cases were treated
with like results A. S. KINGSLEY.
The Faith of the Republican Party.
TO the Editor Of the Indianapolis Jou rnai: