The National tribune., 1885-06-18
A CHANGE NEEDED.

bureau IN determining penSlonabnlty.
Medical knowledge is the least exact of
all the sciences. In fact there is so little
certainty about its postulstes and conclu-
sions that many of the worlds best think
ers deny its right to call itself a science,
in the modern acceptation of the term. 1t
can affirm nothing with positiveness, except
that birth is an incomprehensible phenome-
non, life an insoluble problem, and death
profound mystery. Beyond this it has moth
ing but probabilities and more or less shrewd
guesses. 1t can tell nothing as definitely
and surely as other sciences can. chemist
can tell to thousandth of grain how
much strychnia there is in st. Ignatius
bean, but no physician in the world can say
how that strychnia kills man. An astron-
of an eclipse, and can give the distances to
the planets in miles, but no doctor can tell
what causes typhoid fever, what is the best
method Of combating it, Dor why one man
attacked with it dies, while others survive
An engineer can compute to a nicely the
breaking strain of bridge, or the velocity
of cannon-ball, but no medical college can
teach its students why chills and fever rack
mems frames, nor why quinia is specific
for the disease. This same uncertainty per-
vades every operation of the science. man
who is diagnosed to be suffering from some
affection of the liver may die of disease of
the heart. The commonest experience of
every physician, no matter how able, is that
his diagnosis turns out to be radically incor-
rect. 1t will be remembered that a few
years ago the present Vice-President of the
United States was declared by his physicians
to be dying of senile gangrene. A lifelong
friend from the country insisted upon seeing
the evidences of the fatal malady. "Sheol,
Tom !" he said, "all the matter with you is
that you've got bile on yer toe" So it
proved.
In spite of the frank admission by the
profession at large of the untrustworthy
nature of all examinations of the living body,
the practice of those charged with the exam
ination of applicants for pensions has been
to insist that they are infallible as a process
in mathematics. They have pretended to
be able to investigate the machinery Of the
body with the ease and certainty of jew
eler inspecting o watch, and thousands of
suffering men have been denied well-deserved
pensions because these examiners have re-
jected evidence as to the history of the cases,
and refused to accept anything but the con-
clusions they formed after hasty and imper-
feet examinations.
Lay and medical testimony Of the highest
character is calmly ignored whenever it con-
flicts with the conclusions arrived at by the
Examining Surgeons after half hour or
less of investigation. Even the evidence of
family physician, who may have been in
timately acquainted with the patients case
for the past 20 years, has little weight if it
does not agree with the ideas the Board may
gain by its cursory inspection. The man
may be cramped with rheumatism and
unable to leave his house for months at a
time. Yet if he takes advantage of a fair
day, when he is feeling his best, to visit the
Examining Surgeons, they will probably
admit nothing worse than he can demon
strate at that moment, and either cut him
down far below his deserts or reject his
application altogether. This course of pro-
cedure is alike offensive to common sense,
common justice, and true science.
Another fruitful source of injustice is the
obstinate insistance by Medical Examiners
| that the links connecting disability with
| an incident of service in line of duty, shall
be proved beyond possible doubt. An in
stance illustrating the absurd length to
| which this practice is carried was cited in
| these columns few months ago. A West
Virginia soldier applied for pension on the
ground of total deafness. The Medical Exam
liners admitted that he had proved clearly
that, while lying behind broad fence a
bullet which had passed through the fence
shattered his gun-stock, and bored into his
left ear. They admitted that this terrible
conclusion was sufficient to destroy the hear
ing of his left ear, but that no proof eristed
that 1T had also destroyed the hearing of his
right ear. Thus, to keep the man out of his
pension. they went directly in the face OF
common sense and the teachings of science
which would be that the man having lost
the hearing of his right ear, without any
assignable cause, the presumption amounted
to almost absolute proof that it was due tc
the close sympathy of the delicate organs te
each other.
So common sense also says that any mar
who is now broken-down and disabled ha.
the right to the presumption in his favor
that his disability was directly caused by
, the strains and hardships of the service, i
he was healthy man at his enlistment ant
participated actively in the campaigns