The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-17

of the medical fraternity over the dis
ease which is now giving the doctors
and the people of Butte much concern.
Efforts to eradicate the contagion are
stringent, and although the health Off
GERS may err sometimes on the side of
safety they still have the public in
| dorsement in all their efforts, and the
matter Is adverted to here only for the \
| purpose Of a few words of comment
| that are to follow on the discussions in
the ranks of the physicians and the
| proposition that even doctors are falli-
! BILE.
A few days ago a well-known Butte
| physician, one who is clothed with
great authority and discretion, dis
coursed learnedly upon the characters
tics Of the disease in question and de-
! clared that such and such were un-
| failing signs by which it could be iden-
titled. Three other physicians who
| were questioned agreed with him, while
half dozen others ridiculed him and
| pointed to the fact that the schools Of
| the city were full of pupils who were
or had been affected with harmless
disease peculiar to childhood, and in
which all those characteristics were
present Those six physicians laid
themselves liable to arrest because they
did not agree with the other three. Ono
of the latter had a suspicious case un-
der observation and reported that ho
was not certain whether 1t would de-
velop into a case of confinement or tho
prevailing disease, but to be on the safe
side quarantine had been established.
1t developed that the case was one of
confinement But doctor should not
be blamed for so small doubt in the
matter Of diagnosis, for medicine and
the profession are, after all. still in the
experimental stages and in many re-
spects where they were 1000 years ago.
In view of this fact layman would
expect great deal of charity to be
shown by one practitioner, who does
not know it all, to another who also
has few things yet to learn. But that
is not the case, especially where the Of
fender has been guilty of the violation
of one Of those strange and curious
rules known as medical ethics, perhaps
by paying for his newspaper advertis-
| ing or by having his name painted on
the sides of his carriage. or more likely
by having made a success in the treat
ment Of disease and allowing the pub
| lie to learn of it.
To a layman searching for the rea- .
son it might appear that the iron
bound rules Of medical ethics, which
were probably first laid down by Hip
|
since, were responsible for the slow ad-
vancement that has been made in medi-
cine during several centuries past, as
compared with the progress in other
| sciences and arts. Pythagoras and
J Democritus could guess as successfully
| in the diagnosis of the disease and ex-
| pertinent as widely as some of their
present day followers. More than three
hundred years before the beginning of
the Christian era Chrysippus and Eras-
istratus fought the bleeding method as
a cure for disease, but it has been only
within the last quarter of a century
that the medical profession learned and
admitted that those ancient quacks
were right.
Jenner, who discovered vaccination,
was opposed by nearly the whole medi-
cal profession of his time and de-
nounced as a quack, and there are
| members of the regular school to-
day who will tell you that Jenner be-
longs in the same class of physicians as
Paracelsus the man who raised havoc
with medical ethics during the early
part of the fifteenth century. Paracelsus
was diligent chemist and an original
investigator; he despised theories that
were not based on actual practice, and
ignored all the set rules Of the books
declaring that patients were his books.
He met with marvellous success in his
practice and the regulars were left
without patients. The druggists also
were against Paracelsus because he did
not consume enough of their wares,
| Something had to be done. and the doc
tors and the apothecaries put their
heads together and decided that Para
CELSIUS was coniurer, necromancert
a profane person and a quack. They
| discovered that he was practicing med
icine without a license, and probably
that he had paid for newspaper adver-
| Using and had his name in gilt letters
on his OK cart. He was arrested and
| prosecuted. The case went against him
and he was driven from his town and
his country and pursued to his death
] by the regulars" and druggists. The
story told by them is that after wan
dering about for years he was killed
in a drunken saloon brawl, but other
writer's of history say he met his death
by being thrown from a window by
emissaries of the doctors. He is re-
ferred to by their writer's as d vaga-
bond fakir and the arch quack.
Times have not changed much since
the time Of Paracelsus. The physician
who attempts to leave the beaten paths
aud ignnreS the rules that have been