The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-07-20

An eminent doctor and professor, OF
the city 81 New York, writes. "The
critic who Will take pains to examine
the standard works Of the most popular
authors on theory and practice. Good,
Watson, Thatcher, Ebere, Elliots0n,
Dunglison, Dickson, and others, who
have written recently - will find on
almost every page, the most contradictory
theories supported by equal authority,
and the most opposite practices recon-
mended on equal testimony, Wellmight
the celebrated DIR. Rush, OF Philadelphia,
after life-long experience in witness
ing the effects Of drugs upon the human
constitution, declare TO his medical
brethren. We have done little more
than to multiply diseases and increase
Sir William Hamilton says: "The his
toryo medicine, on the one hand, Is not
ing less than history OF variations, and
on the other. only still more marvellous
history of how every successive variation
has by medical bodies been furiously
denounced, and then bgotedly adopted"
DIR. Ramagc, II. X. G. S., London,
says: ut cannot be denied that the
present system OF medicine Is a burning
reproach TO its professors - il, indeed, a
series of vague and uncertain incon-
gruities deserve TO be called by that
name. How rarely do our medicines do
patients really woTsei fearlessly
assert that in most cases the sufferer
would be safer without physician than
with one. l have seen enough of the
malpractice Of my professional brethren
to warrant the strong language 1 em-
ploy."
Dr. Samuel s. walllan. of New York,
said: 1.-The medical art has not reached
that stage of exactness emitting Il To be
nj
the verge of its mythOlogical age"
DIR. Marshall Hall, the distinguished
English Psychologist says: "Let us no
longer wonder at the lamentable want
of success which marks our practice,
when there Is scarcely q sound physio-
logical principle among MS.
Sir William Knighton says. Medicine
seems one OF those ill-fated arts whose
Improvement bears no proportion to its
antiquity"
DIR. Andrew Combe says: "As often
practlced by men of undoubted respect
ability, medicine Is so nearly
allied to, II not identified with, quackery,
that IL would puzzle many rational
looker-on to tell which is the one and
which Is the other"
DR.. X. Noyes says: "A drug or SUBJ
stance can never be called a healer Of
disease; there Is no reason, Justice or
necessity for the use OF drugs in diseases,
believe that this profession, this art,
this misnamed knowledge OF medicine.
Is none other than practice of funda-
mentally fallacious principles, impotent
OF good. morally wrong and bodily hurt
full"
DIR. Mason Good says: "My expert
ence with materia medica has proved the
Daseiess fabric OF dream, its theory
pernlclous, and the way out Of il the
only interesting passage ii contains"
Dr. Alex. Ross, +. X. H. SS. H., Eng,
says: 1.-The medical practice of to-day
has no more foundation in science, in
philosophy, or common-sense, than it
had one. hundred years ago. 1t is based
on conjecture and improved by sad
blnnders. often hidden by DEATH"
Prof; A. II. Stevens, NJ. D., New
geons, says: "The older physicians
grow the more skeptical they become of
the virtues of medicine, and the more
they are disposed to trust to the powers
of nature"
Prof. Z. II. Davis, of the New York
Medical College, says: The vital
effects OF medicine are very little un-
derstood. 1t Is term employed to cover
an Ignorance"
Prof; f.: r. Peaslee, NJ. d., Of the New
York Medical College, says: "The ad-
most fruitful cause of arrangement Of
the digestion"
Prof. st. John, NJ. D.. says: "All
medicines are poisonous"
DIR. Trail says: "What do persons
who call themselves reasonable do In the
midst OF hundred doctors, with hun
dred different medicines, each affirming
that his own is good. and that all the
rest are bad? DO they reject them all (?
M fbav cUa llnu tba,n nIf
The poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, de-
ciared mankind had been drugged 10
death, and that the world would be bet
ter of IL the contents Of every apothe-
cary shop were emptied into the sea,
though the consequences TO the fishes
would be lamentable.
Prof. Chas. ID. Meigs, Jefferson Medi-
cal College, Philadelphia, says: "All our
cogltations respecting the modus oper-
andi Of medicines are purely empirical"
Prof. Clark, n. Y, says: "All our
curative agents are poisons.. and, as a
consequence, every dose diminishes the
patients vitality"
DIR. Bailie, Of England, says: ~ have
no faith whatever in medicine"
Prof. Parker, of New York says:
Hygiene is of far more value in the
treatment of disease than drugs"
Dr. Marshall Hall, +. X. s., says:
Thousands are annually slaughtered
IL the quiet sick room."
Prof. Davis says: "The vital effects
OF medicine are very little understood.
1t is a term used 10 cover Ignorance"
Bostwick's History Of Medicine says:
Every dose of medicine is blind ex-
pertinent on the vitality of The patient"
Dl Abernethy, of London, says:
"Chere has been great increase of
medical men OF late, but upon my life,
diseases have increased in proportion"
Prof. Alonzo Clark, Of the New York
College of Physicians and Surgeons,
says: Every dose of medicine dimin.
ishes the patients vitality. In
their zeal to do good, physicians have
done much harm. They have hurried
thousands TO the grave who would have
recovered If left to nature"
Prof. Joseph Smith, NJ d., New York
College Of Physicians and Surgeons says:
"Al! medicines which enter the circula-
ton poison the blood in the same man
ner as do the poisons that produce
disease"
Prof. Horace Green. Of New York
Medical College, says: "The medical
confidence you have in medicine viii be
dissipated by experience in treating
disease"
Prof. Parker, of New York, says cit
must be confessed that the administra-
tion of remedies is conducted mora in an
empirical than i'm rational manner. AS
we DlaPp mora panffIa.,..a In pnttfro onH