The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-06-11

of medicine. Four hundred thousand
people annually dying in Europe from
the smallpox, Jenner finds that by the
incubation of people with vaccine from
a COW, the great scourge of nations may
be arrested. The ministers of the Cos
pei denounced vaccination; small wits
caricatured Edward Jenner as riding
in a 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 transplant
ed into the human family; and they
gave instances where, they said, aetu-
ally horns had come out on the fore
heads of innocent persons, and people
had begun to chew the eud! But DIR.
Jenner, the hero of medicine, went on
fighting for vaccination until it has
been estimated that one doctor, in so
years, has saved more lives than all
the battles of any one century de-
stroyedl
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, and Mount
Auburn, and Laurel Hill tell something
of the story of those 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 ventilation, sewerage,
drainage and fumigation, until their
sentiments were well expressed by
Lord PalmerstOn, when he said to the
English nation at the time fast had
been proclaimed to keep off a great
pestilence: "Clean your streets or
death will 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 fearful subtraction from human life
that there was prospect that within
few centuries this world would be
left almost inhabitantless. Adam
started with a whole eternity of earth
ly existence 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 200, 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 10th century the average of human
life has risen from IS years to a; and
it will continue to rise until the aver
age of human life will be so, and it
will be 60, and it will be 20, and a man
will have no right to die before 30. and
the prophecy of Isaiah will be literally
fulfilled: And the child shall die a
hundred years old" The millennium
for the souls of men will be the mil
lennium for the bodies of men. Sin
done, disease will be done-the clergy
man and the physician getting through
with their work at the same time.
But it 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. Dis
pensaries and infirmaries everywhere
under the control of the best doctors,
some of them poorly paid, some of
them not paid at all. A half-starved
woman comes out from the low tene-
ment house into the dispensary, and
unwrapS the rags from her babe, bun
die of ulcers, and rheum, and pustules,
and over that little sufferer bends the
accumulated wisdom of the ages, from
Escalapius down to last weeks au-
+oDcu In ono diSDapcarv- II, ono vyaar
1000 prescriptions were issued. Why
do show you what God has allowed
this profession to do? Is it 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 accompaniment in the days when
the barber used to carry through the
streets of London DIR. Brocklesby's
people, saying: Make way, here
comes DIR. Brocklesby's wig" No, /
announce these things not only to in
crease the appreciation of laymen in
regard to the work of physicians, but
to stir in the hearts of the men of the
medical profession a feeling of graft
tude to God that they have been al
lowed to put their hand to such a mag
nificent work, and that they have been
called into such illustrious company.
Have you never felt spirit of graft
tude for this opportunity? Do you not
feel thankful now? Then l am afraid,
doctor. you are not a Christian, and
that the old proverb which Christ
quoted in his sermon may be appropri-
ate to you: physician, heal thyself."
Another reason why think the med
zeal profession ought to be Christians
is because there are so many trials
and annoyances in that profession that
need positive Christian solace. know
you have the gratitude of great many
good people, and l know it must be
grand thing to walk intelligently
through the avenues of human life,
and with anatomic skill poise yourself
on the nerves and fibers which cross
and recross this wonderful physical
system. 1 suppose a skilled eye can
see more beauty even in malformation
than an architect can point out in any
of his structures though IT be the very