The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-07

Edward Jenner, the great hero of medi-
cine. -Four hundred thousand people an
nually dying IN Europe from the small
pox, Jenner finds that by the incubation
Of people with vaccine from a COW the
great scOHrge Of nations may be arrested
The minister's OF the Gospel denounced
vaccination; small wits caricatured Ed
ward Jenner as riding in a great process
sion on the back of 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 foreheads Of innocent persons, and
people had begun to chew the cud! But
DR.. Jenner, the hero of medicine, went on
fighting for vaccination until it has been
estimated that one doctor, in fifty
years, has saved more lives than all the
battles of any one century destroyed
Passing along the streets Of Edinburgh
a few weeks after the death of Sir James
Y. Simpson, I saw the photograph of the
doctor in all the windows of the shops and
stores, and well might that photograph be
put in every window for he first used
chlorofOrm as an anaestheic agent. In
other days they tried to dun human pain
by the hasheeSh of the Arabs and che
madrepore of the Roman and the Greek;
but 4 was left to DR.. James Simpson to
introduce chloPoform as an anaesthetic.
Alas for the writing subjects of surgery
in other centuries! Blessed be God for
that wet sponge or vial, In the hand of the
operating surgeon i'm the clinical depart
ment of the medical college, or in the sick
room OF the domestic circle, or on the
battlefield amid thousands of amputatiOns.
Napoleon after a battle rode along the
line and saw under a tree, standing in the
snow, Larrey, the surgeon, operating upon
he CaH nd
twenty-four hours afterWard came along
the same place. and he saw the same sur
geon operating in the same place, and he
had not left il. Alas for the battleields
without chloroform. But now, the soldier
boy takes a few hreaths from the sponge
and forgets all the pang of the gunshot
fracture, and while the surgeons of tho
field hospital are standing around him,
he lies there dreaming of home and moth
err and heaven. No more parents stand
ing around a suffering child, struggling to
get away from the sharp instrument, but
mild slumber instead of excruciation, and
the child wakes up and says: Father,
what's the matter? What's the doctor
here to-day for?' Oh, blessed be Cod
for James Y. Simpson and the heaven
descended mercies of chlOroform.
The medical profession steps into the
court room and after conflicting witnesses
have left everything in a fog by chemical
the prisoner, as by mathematical demon
stration, 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 feVeri The monu-
ments in Greenwood, and Mount Auburn,
and Laurel Hill tell something of the
story of those men who stood face to face
with pestilonce in southern cities, until
staggering in their own sickness, they
stumbled across the corpse of those whom
they had come to save. This profession
has been the successful advocate Of ven
ulation, sewerage, drainage and fumiga-
ton, until their sentiments were well ex-
pressed by Lord Palmerston. when he
said to the English nation at the time
fast had been proclaimed to keep off
great pestilence: "Clean your streets, or
death win ravage, Notwithstanding all the
prayers of this nation. Clean your streets,
and then call on God for help"
See what this profession has done for
human longevity. There was such a fear
ful subtraction from human life that
there was a prospect that within a few
centuries this world would be left almost
inh2bitantless Adam started with a
whole eternity of earthly existence before
him. but he cut off the most OF it, and
only comparatively few years were left
only seven hundred years of life, and then
five hundred. and then four hundred and
then two hundred. and then one hundred
and then fifty and then the average Of
human life came to forty, an then Il drop
ped to eighteen. But medical science
came in, and since the sixteenth century
the average of human life has risen from
Is years to "a; and il will continue to rise
until the average of human life will be
go and 1t viii be 60, and Il will be 20. and
man Will have no right to die before
q If tah Ia
orally fulfilled: And the child shall die
hundred years old" The millennium for
the souls of men will be the millennium
Tor the bodies OF men. Sin done disease
will be done-the clergyman and the ply
stefan getting through with their work a I
the same time.
but it seems 10 me that the most beau
tful benediction of the medical profession
has been dropped upon the poor No ex-
cuse now for any ones not having scien-
tilc attendance. Dispensaries and infrm-
aries everywhere under the control of the
best doctors, some of them poorly paid.
some or them not paid al ALL \ half
starved woman comes out from the low
tenement house into the dispensary, and
unWraps the rags from her babe, a bundle
OF ulcers, and rheum, and pustu,es and
over that little sufferer bends the accu-
mulated wisdom of the ages, from Escul-
! apius down 60 last weeks autopsy. In
ana hfty thousand prescriptions were is
/ sued. Why do I show YOU what God has
| allowed this profession to do2 Is il TO stir
| up your vanity? Oh, no. The day has gone
| by for pompous doctors. with conspicuous
/ gold-headed canes and powdered wigs
| which were the accomplishments In Inc
! days when the barber used to carry
! through the streets OF London Dr.. Brock
| olsby's wig, TO the admiration and awe of
| the people, saying: Make wayi here
comes DR.. Brockolsby's wig" No, l an.
nounce these things not only to increase
! the appreciation OF laymsn In regard TO the
| work OF physicians, but 20 stir In the hearts
/ Of the men OF the medical profession a feel
/ ing OF gratitude 20 God that they have beer
| allowed 60 put their hand TO such a MAG.
| nihcent work, and that they have beer
/ called into such illustrious company. Have
you never felt a spirit of gratitude for this
! opportunity? DO you not feel thank fuI
now? Then am afraid. doctor. YOU are
| NOT a Christian, ana that the OLD proveri
| wlich Christ quoted IN his sermon may b,
| self"
Another reason why I think the medical
| profession ought TO bc Christians. ls be.
/ cause there are so many trfate ana onn,,.