Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1897-06-17


Jenner halkcd the worst disease that
ever seourged Europe, and Sydeuhau,
developed the recuperative forces ot
the physical organism. and cinchona
bark stopped the shivering aGues of
the world, AM Sir Ashley Cooper and
Alternately, ard HoSack, and Romeyn,
and Griscom, and Valentine Mott, of
the generation just past, houorrd Goa,
and fought back death with their keen
scalpels.
If we who are laymen III medicius
would understand what the medical
profession has accomplished for the iu-
sane. let us look into the dungeons
where the poor creatures used to be IN
carccratcd. Maamcn, chained naked
to the wall. \ kennel of rotten straw
their only only sleeping place. Room
unventilated and unlighted. The
worst calamity of the race punished
with the very worst punishment And
then como and look ut the insane &sy-
lums of Utica and kirlihride- sofard,
and pictured ihraried concerted, uu-
Ill all the arts and adornmentS come To
coax recrTant reason to assume her
throne. Look at Edward Jenuer the
great hero of lrrdicine Four hun
dred thousand people annually dying
in Europe from the smallpox, Jeu-
ner finds that by the inocula.
ton of people with vaccine from n
COW, the great TcOurwH Of nations may
BE arrested The ministers of The Cos
pei denounced vaccination; small wits
cariratur,d Edward Jrrner as riding
in great PROCESSION on the back of Il
COW. and grave meu expressed 1t as
their 0piEi,l that all the diseases of
the brute creation would be trans
planted ia.o the human family; and
they gave Instances whore they said,
actually horns had come out on the
furrArna> OF innocent persons, ana
p2uplG had began to cheW the cud,
But Or ,lcunrr, the hero OF medicine.
went ON lighting few vaccination until
ii has hccu estimated that one doctor,
in fifty wears, has saved more lives
than AL the battles of any one century
destroyed.
pas,.ug along the streets of Edin-
hurrh 4 few weeks after the death of
Sir James \. Simpson, saw the photo
graph of the doctor in all the windows
of the shops and stores, and well might
that photograph he put in every win
dow, for he first used chloroform as an
;,nacsthctic agent In other days they
tried to dull human pain by the has
hcesh of the Arabs and the madrepore
of the Roman and the Greek; but it was
left to DIR. james Simpson to introduce
chloroform rs an anaeSthetic. Alas
for the writing sub ects of surgery in
other centuries! Elessed be God for
that wet sponge or vial in the hand of
the operating 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 tons. Napoleon, after a
battle, rode along the line and SAW
under a tree, standing in the
snow, Larrey, the surgeon, oper-
ating upon the wounded. Napoleon
passed on, and twenty-four hours af-
terward came along the same place.
and he saw the same surgeon operating
in the same place, and he had not left
it. Alas for the battle fields without
takes few breaths from the sponge
and forgets all the pang of the gun
shot fracture, and while the surgeons
of the field hospital are standing
around him he lies there dreaming of
home, and mother, and Heaven. No
more parents standing around "a suffer
ing child struggling to get away from
the sharp instrument, but mild slumber
instead of eXcruciation, and the chilli
wakes up and says: Father what's
the matter? What's the doctor here
to-day for" Oh, blessed be God for
James Y. Simpson and the heaye n-de-
scended mercies of chloroform.
The medical profession steps into the
courtroom, and, after conflicting wit
ncsses have left everything ina fog, by
chemical analyses shows the guilt or
innocence of the prisoner, as by mathe-
natsal 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
monuments in GREENWOOD, an | Mount
Auburn, and Laurel Hid tell some
thing of the story of those men who
stood face to face with pestilence in
southern cities, until, staggering in
their own sickness, they stumbled
across the corpses of those whom they
had come to save. This profession has
been the successful advocate of ven
tilation, sewerage, drainage and fumi-
CATION, until their sentiments were
well expressed by Lord Ialmerston,
when he said To the English nation at
the time fast had been proclaimed to
keep off great pcstilence: Clean your
streets or death will ravage, notwith-
standing 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 fearful satisfaction from human life
that there was a prospect that within
a few centuries this world you'd be
left almost inhabitantless. Adam
started with whole eternity Of earth
ly existence before him; but he cut OF
the most of it and only com paratiYcly