The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-10-16
A SURFEIT OF KNOWLEDGE.

nent medical journal of England has
raised a stiff breeze of protest by the
assertion that the the usefulness of
physicians is crippled in these days by
a surfeit of knowledge. That is to say,
the writer believes that the modern
physician, by reason of the vast mass
of matter thrust upon him for consid-
GRAFTON, is practically paralyzed in his
effort to digest and understand, much
less apply it.
Of course this charge has brought
forth hot protests, and it must be said
that the protestants make a strong
case, while equally there is much to ap-
prove in the position taken by the pro-
ponent of the charge. Surfeit Of tech
nical knowledge there may be and is,
but it is certainly true that only the
weaker minds permit this condition to
obtain. The we'll balanced mind in no
calling will take on a mental task it is
not capable of accomplishing. 1t will
not attempt to absorb and digest all
that presents for it's consumption. If it
attempts that, as a matter of course, it
will suffer from mental dyspepsia.
No doubt the profession of medicine
is overlun with pedants; no doubt it is
impeded in its progress by scientific
cranks; no doubt it is injured by
class of mere theorists who never en-
gage in practice, or at least never have
experimental knowledge sufficient to
justify relying upon them as guides.
But it does not follow, therefore, that
physicians know too much. Between
attempting to know and knowing, there
is broad and deep gulf.
The marvelously increasing current.
that has now become a food,
of remedies and preparations pour
ed out by the manufacturing chem
lists and claiming experimentation on
the part of physicians; the larger num-
Der of books on medical subjects turn
ed out annually, good, bad and poor; the
Increasing number Of medical and sur
gical periodicals, claiming the eye of
the physician; the clamor of an aug
menting army of experimenters for
tests of their discoveries-al these may
well enough tend to annoy and confuse
the conscientious physician, but that
the well balanced mind of any man who
has passed the regular courses of in
struction is going to permit itself to
be overloaded is a mistake.
The writer in THE Hospital Lon-
dom we'll says regarding the overplus
Of matter thrust upon physicians:
For the strong, the mentally strong
and resolute, there is, however, a RENE
dy, even for so all-powerful a plague as
the epidemic of medical books and new
remedies. The strong have learnt,
what all diligent students learn in time,
the art Of selection. They do not, and
they will not, read the books and the
papers Of the exploiter, the pedant,
and the notoriety-seeker The study of
a single page is generally quite suffi
cient to show what book is made of.
IF it be pedantically expressed, if 1t be
charged with a great show of learning,
If It evinces a manifest anxiety to give
the opinions Of every other person, liv
the same subject, then it is evident
that it is a manufactured book. 1t is a
pretty safe canon of literary criticism,
especially Of the medical order, that the
book which gives publicity to every
body's opinion has no opinion of it's own
worth publishing.
It might we'll be added, that all this is
true Of any other profession or calling,
beset with a Yoluminous literature,
good portion of which is pedantic. The
truth is that so prolific is this age Of
books, remedies, doctrines. theories,
discoveries, and the like that mental
discrimination must be cultivated and
severe judgment must be exercised in
perimentation or practical use, else one
is very apt to overload, and that, too,
unintentionally.
Those who are already swamped in
the flood of matter and things address
ed to their callings, cannot do better
than begin Immediately on discovery of
after confne study and thought to a
few direct, broad lines, with mental re-
captivity quickened for the best only
and with the intelligence awake to re-
ject with judicial firmness that which
will absorb time without positive re-
turn of a compromising character.