The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-06-03

| The officers for the ensuing year are:
| PRESIDENT. B. Walker, Thomaston.
First Vice President-Dr +. g. Thayer, Water
Second Vice Presdent-Dr. H. E-Hill, saco.
Treasurer aDr. A. s. Thayer Portland.
| Corresponding Secretary-Dr. G. E. Williams,
| Auburn.
Board of CensorS-Drs NJ c. Wedgewood Lew
| iston; j. A. Richards, Pennington F. N. Wheel
er. Exeter; II. z. Merrill, Portland j. L. Burnett
| Hiram.
Committee on Publication-Drs. Charles D.
Smith. lex off, Portland; Charles o. Hunt, Port
land; John l.. Sturgis,, New Gloucester; c. A.
! Business Committee-Drs. l. e. Kimball, Port
| land; W. NJ. Marshall, S. Windham.
A resolution providing for an addition to
the publication of the association was
| tabled
A resolution making all papers read the
property of the association was lost on a
vote.
DR.. e. Adams of Litchfield read an inter-
esting paper on diabetes.
Evening Session.
The association met at s o'clock and lis
tened to an exceedingly interesting Grafton
by DR.. F. C. Thayer of Waterville, an alb
stract of which follows:
ANNUAL GRAFTON BY FREDERICK C. THAY-
Err NJ D., OF VAUDEVILLE.
After brief review of the advantages ac-
cruing from an acquaintance with the histo-
ry of medical science the methods by which
it has reached its present condition, the men
who have made it and who have left their
mark upon its history, the speaker pro-
ceeded to the discussion of his subject
which was announced as Medical science
progressive, and the physician as force in
that progress.
Abiding to the crude and imperfect at
tempts of the earlier Egyptian civilization to
| build up system of medicine, short histor-
| ical sketch portrayed -Esculapius as the first
| of the known masters of the art and the tenn
| pie at Epidaurus as the first institution to
| dispense public medical services.
On small island in the Turkish archipel-
ago tWenty-three hundred and fOrty-SiX
| years ago, was born Hippocrates. the most
| illustrious physician of ancient times. He
| was a direct descendant of ESculapiuS
| Combining with uncommon acuteness of in
| tellect rich variety of knowledge and eX-
| perience, he soon took advanced ground and
| completely reyolutionized the commonly
accepted medical notions of the day. To the
| present there has been hardly any modifica-
| ton of his divisions of disease, and of the
expressions in every day use, such as
"acute," chronic" sporadic" benign"
'tcrises," ETC., and the "Hippocratic coun-
| tenance" has the same horrible significance
as it had when delineated with the artistic
| skill of the master more than two thousand
| years ago. His lofty conception of the great
responsibility of the physician, of his duty
| to his patient, to the public and the profess
| sion, has had much to do with the subse-
| quent elevation of the profession from the
| level of priest-craft to the plane and dignity
| of a learned profession, He rejected the
| idea of supernatural agency either in the
| cause or cure of disease, and promulgated
| the doctrine that both were assignable to
natural causes
| To the Alexandrian conquest and the sub
| sequent patronage of the Ptolemies, and the
| AleXandrian school, is due the first impetus
| given to the study of practical anatomy.
! which was then legalized. Then, about 1874
| B. c., Herophilus first demonstrated the con-
| nection between the brain and the nerves,
| and announced the nerves as organs of SEN
| satiOn. He first described the different
| portions of the eye and by dissection demon
| strated the different tunics of that organ,
4 giving them Names some Of which are now
| well known. From him is named a certain
| part of the brain, the ''torcua HerOphili.
| No less iiluStriouS was EraSiStratuS, who
first laid down description of the heart,
| recognizing the valves and distinguishing
| them by name. In the whole history of
| medicine there is to be found hardly more
rapid progress than during that period of
| the first AleXandri..n school, If we consider
| from what that progress took its origin.
| With the advance in anatomical knowl-
| edge came improvements in the other depart
| ments Of medicine, prominent among them
| the important operation for stone, remOdeled
| ances for the reduction of dislocations, and
more rational system of administering
drugs.
In the middle of the second century B. G..
| the Frightening prospects of medical pro-
| gress was doomed to decline and disaster.
| Anatomical investigation was frowned upon,
| the AleXandrian school lost thereby the
| former scientific spirit and superstition
| again supplanted reason, and until the time
of Galen there was no material progress in
| the art of medicine.
Born at PergamuS, in the year $780, of high
birth and liberal education and possessed of
brilliant mind, Galen occupied in the medi-
| cal world much the same rank as did Aris-
totle in the field of general science. He sys-
tematized existing medical knowledge, and
his description of the structure of the different
| organs of the body shows evidence of great
anatomical research. His physiology was
ingenious if not always correct, and his
pathology demonstrated that he recognized
the importance of tracing the general symp-
toms OF disease to organs primarily affected.
] He demonstrated that the arteries contained
hemorrhage. He left large number of
treatises on anatomy, physiology and path
| ology, showing evidence of extensive and
original research.
If time, permitted, it might be profitable to
1 consider how it happened that Greek medi-
| cine became the inheritance of the NestOr-
| ians, and how they with the Jews became the
I instructors of the Arabians; to determine
| what was lost and what was gained during
| the transmission of medical science from one
| of these people to another, we should doubt
| less find the SaracenS gatherers and not orig
inators giving back in new garb only that
| borrowed from Alexandria and Judea, and
| yet, but for them many of the best and most
| valuable works of ancient medical writers
| would have been lost.
| 1t would be particularly interesting to re-
| view the school at Salemo fourishing from
| the eighth to the fifteenth century, the first
known to grant diplomas to candidates after
/ passing through a specified course OF study
| and submitting to a regular examination. 1t
| would be pleasing and profitable study to
| see how, after the gloom of the dark ages,
| the school was eclipsed by that at Bologna,
| and how at the latter institution the long ne
| elected study of practical anatomy. was re-
| vived by one OF its professors, Mondlnl, VINO
| in 1915 dissected the human body and pub
| lished a description of the anatomical rela-
| ton of the several parts, with plates OF the
| same drawn from nature, this being the first
| attempt at combining pictorial illustration
with anatomical description; how in the lat
| ter part of the 18th century medicine awak-
| ened from its lethargy, influenced by the zeal
and genius of Andreas Vesalius who dared
to lay bare the mistakes and lmperfectlonS OF
| Galen, and gave the first comprehensive and
systematic view of human anatomy, thus
laying the foundation for rational medicine;
how Ambrose Pare, a barber-Surgeon, alter
ward surgeon to an illustriouS line of mon
archs, freed himself from the past and dared
to think and act for himself; how he re-
vived the practice, long neglected, of tying
the arteries to control hemorrhage, instead
of employing the actual cautery; how he en-
riched nearly all the branches of surgery
with some new discovery; how he gave his
discoveries freely for the public good, saying
he was none the worse for it, '.just as the
light of a candle does not diminish, however
MANY may come to light their torches by it,"
Some one has said that a mans theory, is
always at the mercy of ascertainable facts,
and thus it happened that by the labors OF
Vesaiius, Eustachius, Fallopius, Fabricus
and others, the absolute authority and in
duence of the theories of Galen began to
wane. and the errors and defects fastened
mon medicine were proven to be unsup-
ported and unwaTranted, by the faithful,
painstaking and scientific use of the scalpel;
This rapid Improvement in ANATOMICAL
knowledge had also much to dc, i'll paving the
w Nn for and making possible the grand dis,
e %%S ~ Of Harvey, which so reyolutionizeed
physiology. The great discoveries in medi.
cine during the 18th century, as well as IN IN
physical science, for this was the century Oh