The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-07
MEDICAL PROGRESS.

The Jubilee session of the American Med
ical Association at Philadelphia during the
past week evidently justified it's name in
more senses than one, for the assembled
physicians in addition to formally cele-
brating the semi-centennial of their society,
apparently found the occasion one of great
harmony and enjoyment. Naturally, as in
all such gatherings, there was a good share
not of self-glorifcation, but of laudation OF
the profession. Much was said of its prog
ress within fifty years, and probably the
facts were not overdrawn even by the most
enthusiastic speakers. Surgery has GER
tainly approached a state of perfection of
which old-time doctors scarcely dreamed.
Anaesthetics have come into use within the
time mentioned, and the antiseptic treat
ment has worked wonders, while the del
icacy and variety of instruments used have
supplemented the increased knowledge of
the operators until there is scarcely an
organ of the body which has not passed
safely under the knife But even surgery
has not reached the point where practition-
ers have nothing more to learn or expect
no new developments One speaker said:
The discovery oil the X rays ana the use
of electricity in diagnosis suggest that there
may soon be other forces placed at our
service which will produce as striking
changes in the next half century as in the
past one Erickson twenty years ago said
that surgery had reached it's ultimate limit
and that the brain, the lungs and the heart
surgeon. Recent triumphS in cerebral OPP
erations and the surgery of the lungs make
it seem that every organ of the body, ex-
cept possibly, the heart should strictly be
classified as Injuries. Even the heart in
two cases has been partially removed and
successfully sutured
The men who follow the science of medi-
cine as distinct from surgery look forward
to time when the knife will not be needed
and their present indispensable coadjutors
will be out of business. Medicine can never
be an exact science, but the physicians fiat
ter themselves that they know a vast deal
more about the mysteries of the human
system than their predecessors of half
century ago did, and they are doubtless
right, though observant persons have no
ticed that the modern doctor is not so in
tolerant of early methods as he was few
years ago, and, in fact, has been known
to resort to certain methods of treatment
once held in esteem, but that were later in
disrepute. The science of bacteriology has
done much to advance medicine as we'll as
surgery, and, as one physician at the meet
ing said THAT will be a surgical paradise
when we can lay aside the knife, and by
means of suitable toxins or anti-toxins,
drugs or other methods of treatment con-
troll Inflammation, arrest suppuration, stay
the ravages of tuberculosis abort or dis
perse tumors, cure cancer, and, it may be,
so prolong human life that all will die either
of accident or of old age. Would that you
and l could be alive in 1947 to join in the
glorious surgical TIE Deumv'
There is wide opportunity yet for investi-
cation in this field, for, wise as they are
in the treatment of many diseases there are
some that they have not mastered. Tuber-
culosis is yet beyond their control and of
cancer they have never reached the secret
That their studies may lead to discoveries
that will lessen the suffering from these
and other maladies yet unmastered is de-
voutly to be hoped. Meanwhile it is COM
forting to the afflicted to know that when
they put themselves in the doctors hands
they will receive the benefit of all that
science and experiment have as yet dis
closed for it has come to pass that doctors
as individuals must keep pace with their
constantly advancing profession, else com
petition crowds them out. 1t is the fittest
who survive.