The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-08-12
THE DocToRs AT LoGGERHEADs.

The County Medical Society has again
pronounced against modern methods by dis
eiplining Dr. Long of the Board of Health
and Dr. Lefevre of the County Hospital for
the hen0us offense of indorsing new rem
edy for disease and advertising it. The So
ciety and the medical journal which it pub
fishes holds that it is wrong for medical
man to indorse new remedies of which the
constituent parts are generally unknown,
and more wrong still to let the public know
that such remedies are in existence In
their view doctor should sit in his office in
solemn grandeur and leave the public to find
out what he can do for the sick. If they do
not find out, why then the patients must die
or get we'll as fortune ordains. at is bet
ter" says Moliere's doctor, "that a dozen
patients should 60 10 their graves than that
law Of the schools should be broken"
The County Medical Society of San Fran
cisco has chosen for its model DR.. Thomas
Diafoirus
1t is remarkable that in profession which
is making such remarkable progress as med
cine leading practitioners should cling to
the obsolete doctrines Of past ages and adj
vertise themselves as BourOOns of the type
of the Count of Chambord. II doctor
possesses an active mind and studious habits
he is all the time making discoveries in the
hospital or laboratory. He is constantly
finding that some new drug or some new
combination of old drugs will effect cures.
What is he TO DO with his discovery The
society says that he must not on any account
imDart it TO the public il chiefly concerns.
At most he may mention il dscreetlY to
eonfreTe. or write a letter about it to the
journal of the society which no one sees.
In the meantime patients die for want of
knowledge which is locked up in his breast.
Is not this lame conclusion for a body of
intelligent and humane men to reach?
The victims Of the medical soeety's wrath
on this occasion are said TO have advertised
a special remedy of their own for dipso-
mania. the opium habit aud nervous dis
orders. THE CALL OF course knows moth
ing Of the merits Of the remedy. Sgch
nOstrums are often failures. But as the
faculty has VIGOROUSLY failed in It's attempts
10 cure these disorders. though physicians
constantly prescribe for them and collect
the usual fees for the prescription, little
harm would seem 10 be risked by allowing
the advertising doctors to try their hand
If any man can cure drunkenness he will
become a public benefactor, and he Will owe
it 20 mankind to make his remedy known
If the medical faculty expels him it will be
the society that viii be expelled, and he
VIII represent the medical faculty.
This question was extensively discussed
when the value Of antipyrine in lowering
the action of the heart was discovered in
Germany. The discoverer was poor man,
who bad spent his life in experimenting
with coal-tar products. 1t occurred to him
that he ought TO reap some reward from his
discovery. The rules OF the schools re-
CURED him TO divuge the component parts
Of his remedy to the profession at large
lie refused 10 be bound by them. He could
not take out patent. So he kept his Sc
cret, and as soon as ladies learned that
there was a new medicine which cured
headache almost instantaneOuslY the de-
mand for antipyrine became enormous, and
the discOverer was fairly rewarded His
success created commOti0n among the B0ur-
bon doctors in Germany. but his example
has since been followed by the discoveries
Of phenacetine and other eoal-tar ex-
tracts, while the regular faculty is impa-
tentiy growing.
The common-sense OF the question is OPP
posite 20 the view taken by medical s0cie-
ties Whenever man discovers or thinks
he has discovered a remedy for disease he
owes it to humanity TO proclaim his discoy
cry far and wide-to shout it from the
housetops, to publish the fact in the news
papers. Ii he is mistaken and his diScoY-
cry is no discovery the truth will soon come
to light, and he will be relegated to back
seat in medical halls. But he is not likely
to have done much mischief. and he may
have started some other explorer on a scent
which may lead to results. If. on tile other
hand he has lit on a real discovery, as Koch
and Pasteur have done, he is criminal if,
to please hidebound medical societies, he
tries To keen If from nnhlic attention