The Osceola times., 1885-08-15
A PHYSICIANS POWER,
the Uniformity OF Natures Dessyoyi,~
Agencies.

The Uniformity OF Natures Dessyoyins
Agencies.
The art Of the physician can do much
% remove its subjects from deadly and
dangerous influences, and something To
control or arrest the effect of these in
luences. But look at the records Of the
Reinsurance Offices, and see how uni
orm is the action Of natures destroying
agencies. Look at the annual reports
If the deaths in any Of our great cities.
and see how their regularity approaches
he uniformity of the tides, and their va
ristions keep pace with those Of the sea
sons. The inundations of the Nile are
not more certainly to be predicted than
The vast wave of infantile disease which
flows in upon all our great cities with
he growing heats of July-than the
levers and dysenteries which visit our
rural districts in the months of the fall
ing leaf.
The physician watches these changes
ls the astronomer watched the rise Of
the great river. He longs to rescue in
dividuals, to protect communities from
the inroads Of these destroying agencies
He uses all the means which experience
has approved, tries every rational meth
od which ingenuity can suggest Some
fortunate recovery leads him to believe
ne has hit upon preventive or n crNe
Tor a malady which had resisted ali
known remedies. His rescued patient
sounds his praises, and wide circle Of
his patients friends joins in a chorus Of
.ulogics. Self-love applauds him for
his sagacity. Self-interest congratulstes
him on his having found the road to for
tune; the sense Of having proved ben
sfactor of his race smooths the pillow
on which he lays his head TO dream Of
the brilliant future opening before him.
II single coincidence may lead =
person of sanguine disposition to be-
iieve that he has mastered disease
which had bailled all who were before
his time, and on which his contempOra-
ries looked in hopeless impotence, what
must be the effect of series of such
condolences even on mind of calmer
temper! Such series Of condolences
will happen, and they may well deceive
the very elect. Think of DIR. Rush.
you know what a famous man he was.
the very head and front of American
medical science in his day.-and re-
member how he spoke about yellow
fever. which he thought he had mas
tered
Thus the physician is entangled in
the meshes of wide conspiracy, in
which he and his patient and their
friends, and Nature herself are involved.
What wonder that the history OF Medl-
cine should be to so great an extent
record of self-delusion!
II this seems dangerous concession
to the enemies of the true science and art
of healing, | will remind you that II is
all implied in the first aphorism Of Hip
pocrates, the Father of Medicine. Do
not draw q wrong inference from the
frank statement of the difficulties which
beset the medical practitioner. Think
rather. if truth is so hard of attainment.
how precious are the results which the
consent of the wisest and most expe-
rienced among the healers.of men agrees
in accepting Think what folly il is to
cast them aside in favor of palpable i'm
positions stolen from the records OF Tor
gotten charlatanism, or of fantastic
speculations spun from the squirting
brains of theorists as wild as the Egyp-
tain astronomer
Begin your medical studies. then, BY
reading the fortieth and the following
four chapters Of Rasselas. Your first
lesson will teach you modesty AMI eau
ton in the pursuit of the most decep-
tive of all practical branches of knowl-
edge. Faith will come later, when you
learn how much medical science and
art have actually achieved for the relief
Of mankind, and how great are the
promises it holds out Of still larger
triumphs over the enemies Of human
health and happiness. .--Otirer Wendell
Holmes in Atlantic Monthly.