Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-06-11

and Valentine Mott, of the generation
just past, houored God and fought back
death with their keen scalpels.
II we who are laymen in medicine
would understand what the medical
profession has accomplished for the in
sane, let US look into the dungeons
where the poor creatures used 10 be in
carcerated-madmen chained naked to
the wall a kennel Of rotten straw their
only sleeping place, room unyentilated
and unlighted, the worst calamity Of
the race punished with the very worst
punishment-and then come and look
at the insane asylums Of Utica and
Kirkbride-sofaed and pictured, libra
ried, concerted, until all the arts and
adoTnments come 70 coax recrcant rea.
son to assume her throne. Look at Ed
ward Jenner, the great hero Of mcdi-
cine. Four hundred thousand people an
nually dying in Europe from the small
rox, Jenner finds that by the inocula-
tion of people with vaccine from a COW
the great scourge Of nations may be ar
rested The ministers Of the gospel de-
nounced vaccination, small wits carica-
tured Edward Jenner as riding in i
great procession on the back Of a COW
and grave men expressed it as their
opinion that all the diseases of the brute
creation would be transplanted into the
human family, and they gave instances
where, they said, actually horns had
come out on the forehead Of innocent
persons and people had begun to chew
the cud. But Dr.. Jenner, the hero of
medicine, went,on fighting for yacciua-
ton until it has been estimated that one
doctor in JOyears has saved more lives
than all the battles Of any one century
destroyed.
Medical Progress.
Passing along the streets Of Edin-
burgh a few weeks after the death Of
Sir James Y. Simpson, l saw the pho
tograph Of the doctor in all the win
dows Of the shops and stores, and well
might that photograph be put in every
window, for he first used cblorotorm as
an masthetic agent. In other days they
tried to dull human pain by the hasheesh
of the Arabs and the madrepore Of the
Roman and the Greek, but it was left
70 DR.. James Simpson 20 introduce chic
rofOrm as an anRsthetic. Alas for the
writhing subjects Of surgery in other
centuriesl Blessed be God for that wet
sponge or vial in the hand Of the opcr-
ating surgeon in the clinical department
Of the medical college or in the sick
room Of the domestic circle or on the
battlefield amid thousands Of amputa-
tious.
Napoleon after a battle rode along the
line and saw under tree standing in
the SHOW Larrcy, the surgeon, oper-
ating upon the wounded Napoleon
passed on, and 2l hours afterward came
along the same place, and he saw the
same surgeon operating in the same
place, and be lad not left it. Alas for
the battlefelds without chloroform. But
now the soldier boy takes few breaths
from tho sponge and forgets all the
pang Of the gunshot fracture, and
while the surgeons Of the field hospital
are standing around him he lies there
dreaming of home and mother and heay-
en-. No more parents standing around
a suffering child, struggling TO get
away from the sharp instrument, but
mild slumbcr instead of oxcruciation,
and the child wakes up and says: "Fa-
ther, what's the matter? What's the
doctor here today for:" Oh, blessed be
God for James Y. Simpson and the
heaven descended mercies Of chloroform.
The medical profession steps into the
courtroom, and after conflicting wit
nosSes have left everything in fog by
chemical analyses shows the guilt or in
nocence Of the prisoner, as by mathe-
matical demonstration, thus adding
honors to medical Jurisprudence
This profession has done wonders for
public hygiene. How often they have
stood between this nation and Asiatic
cholera and the yellow fever The mon
uments in Greenwood and Mount Au-
burn and Laurel Hill tell something Of
the story Of those men who stood face
to face with pestiience IN aoutAcrn cit
les, until stage ring in tier own sick
ness they stumbled acIoss toe CC1pscs Of
those whom they had come to save.
This profession has been tie sucec.sfu'
advocate Of ventilation. sewerage
drainage and furiel'icn, until the:
sentiments were weI expressed iy Lo''
Palmerston, when ha said 20 The Ln-
lish nation at the time "a fast bad nccn
proclaimed to keep Of great restl-
lence: "Clean your streets or death
will ravaee. Notwithstanding al ~,
prayers Of this nation. Clean youl
streets and then call on God fer help.
See what this profession has done for
human longevity. There was such
fearful subtraction from human life
that there was a prospect that within a
few centuries this world would be left
almost inhabitantless. Adam start
ed with whole eternity Of earthly ex-
istence before him, but he cut OFF the
most of it and only comparatively few
years were left only 700 years Of life
and then 500, and then 400, and then
900. and then 100, and then 80, and
then the average of human life came to
40. and then it dropped to IS. But
medical science came IN, and since the
sixteenth century the average OF human
life has risen from IS years to a, and
it will continue to rise until the average
Of human life will be 90, and it will be
60, and it will be 20, and man will
have no right TO die before 80, and the
prophecy Of Isaiah will be literally full
filled, "And the child shall die leo
years old" The millennium for the
souls of men will be the millennium
for tbe bodies Of men. Sin done, disease
will be done, the clergyman and the
physician getting through with their
work at the same time.
Doctors For the Poor.
But il seems TO me that the most
beautiful benediction Of the medical
profession has been dropped upon the
poor. No excuse now for any ones not
having scientific attendance. Dispense
ries and infirmaries everywhere, under
the control of the best doctors, some oil
them poorly paid, some Of them not PAID