The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-06-26
COULTER WEDNESDAY 26

Many may be assimilated under tn
 kindly offices of the physician, Much |
 taught by such public measures aI
 health boards may enforce. But, learn
 ed, these lessons must be sooner or lat
 er and learned they are too often now
 at the bedside and the grave.
 Physicians know well enough that 2
 stringent system of dairy inspection
 should be at once and widely enforced
 and 1t Is really for them more than fol
 any other class of citizens to say hol
 many more object lessons will be neces- sary like those recently enforced al Montclair, at Waterbury and at Stam- ford, before all such caterers shall be compelled to conform to the rules of
 sanitary deceney. The prevention oi pollution of water supplies, the compell- ing of reasonable cleanliness in public vehicles for human transportation by
 land and sea, the enforcement of pre-
 cautions against the spread of disease in public hostelries and places of as-
 sembly the organization of a national
 health bureau-these are all tasks
 which must speedily be undertaken, and | they may be led td rich accomplishment | if the physician will but hold more clearly in his consciousness his primal i duty as citizen.
 | In all that which have urged about | the more precise physical and, l might almost say, mechanical nature of the professional duties which in the new 1 light the physician Is called upon
 to assume,I have purposely left largely
 out of sight his more intimate personal relationships to those to whom he min | isters. And yet, lest one should fear | that in our eager search for light we overlook the man in the machine, l should like to assure the tinlid that all | that which always has and always will dignify and ennoble his calling, as one
 who is strong serving the weak, remains unchanged in the physician, and Is po- tent or feeble not in ratio to his sclen- tife knowledge, but as he Is more or less honest, keen of insight, high of
 purpose, sympathetic; and finds It's highest fruition joined to good iudg-
 ment and self reliance, and to whatever
 confidence winning and hope-inspiring
 qualities he can command.
 It is not easy to estimate accurately
 the scope and value of temporary
 achievement. But as I look over the field of medicine, with all it's varying
 lights and shades, it seems to me that
 the things which are most deeply sig nifcant in these closing years of the century are not the newly gained skill of diagnosis, not the marvellous strides which surgery has made, beneficent as these may be, not the more exact and
 | nf not the insight which has been gained in regarding the complex nature of the nervous system, nor even in the high achievements, too numerous and varied to be even mentioned here, which the new science of bacteriology has made possible.
 Beyond all these accomplishments, notable enough though they be for any age, the things which more than all else, it seems to me, will signalize this time, are that we have not definitely freed medicine in all it's borders from the thraldom of mystery and supersti- ton, have finally and clearly reccgniz- ed that its problems are the problems of biology, and are to be solved only by such patient research and guarded in- ference as all science has learned to trust: that the doctor is in command of no mysterious forces, and that the only chance for the full and speedy fruition of our hopes In the prevention of disease lies in general education, and in the enlistment of the interests of the people, of whom the medical pre- fesslon should be the teacher and the guide.
 Of course, the .shadows here and there will finger on; of course, one and another for some time to come will stlll invest his calling with the puerile mysteries which were fostered in ig- and which should have been put aside with the scarlet cloak and the wig and the ponderous walking stick. Of course, so long as the people are largely ignorant of elementary facts the human frame, quacks will flourish, and more or less well meaning advocates will be found of water, of electricity of faith, of exor cism, of infinitesimal dosage, and of every sort of named and unnamed folly, as panaceas and as substitutes for science. But after all, when medicine Is once placed where 1t belongs, close to its sister disciplines, from which it gathers light, and, In It's turn, inspires, the shadows are certain soon to fade, and the truth prevail.
 You will observe, ladies and gentle men, that the current of my thought has led again and again to the outlooks which command the field of preventa- tive medicine. This is not only because here the new light shines brightest, | and gives dearest glimpses Of definite | but also because upon | .his field success Is possible only If we ,an secure general and earnest cooper l ,tion In the spread of the new ideas of | cleanliness.
 Tn truth, the exactions of our mod | srn sanitary codes, so far as they af- | 'ect the performances of the individual | md the routine of the household are | neither complex nor burdensome. And l very moderate amount of care, if hap | oily joined to informal intelligence will suffice almost under all conditions, | Or the maintenance of a safe regime
 You will, hope, forgive me for cast ng the shadow of disease over the fes- ival spirit of this hour. But after all, ! ,ur last enjoyment is most frequently | ecured by such physical well being as hese new outlooks in medicine promise 0 cherish.