New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-09-24

He enters your chamber quietly, slowly. and
he smiles when you turn on your pillow and
look at him He asks you few mild hammered
questions and holds your hand. He gently
pushes under your tongue glass tube, ana
then mods to himself If hailing as an old
friend some thought passing through his mind
Just as imagined" he says. Been eating
too much. Your stomach does not want medi-
cine hut vacation. You want to slow down
bit. Take more time for your meals. but eat
less. Chew as well swallow"
And to prompt your memory, he writes down
a few words on prescription blank AS quietly
he came he has gone. This is the twentieth
century doctor
The terrors which were once associated with
the physician and surgeon are fast disappearing.
A century ago one would have awaited the COM
ing Of his doctor only with apprehension Where
the modern practitioner would simply advise
rest and an abstemious diet his predecessor
would have bled the patient after making him
swallow some vie tasting compound, whose
virtue was believed to be in proportion to its
responsiveness He would have opened vein In
the wrist or he would have applied leeches to
drink the blood.
For much the same reasons that the doctor
has become gentler toward his patient, he has
grown more liberal toward his fellow practi-
tioners. Different schools of medicine do not
hight one anOIner WITH the Same dAiAlloSllS lldl
once characterized them. Although the 'regu-
lar" physician still hates the quack and char
latan as he did in the days of Galen, neverthe-
less he is far more friendly with a brother prac-
titioner who has been graduated at a different
school than his own and who employs different
methods In his treatment of disease
4 striking illustration of the fraternal
spirit Of the twentieth century doctor is shown
Just at the present time by the proposed union
Of
State. After more than twenty years of war
fare, they may at last decide to lay down their
arms and march under a common flag Com
mittees representing the New-York Medical As
ISOLATION ana the Medical Society of the State
of New-York are now comforting together, and
the announcement of the formal amalgamation
of the two organizations is expected in the near
future An act was passed by the last State
legislature which enables the two organizations
to petition the Supreme Court together to per-
init them to consolidate under the name of the
older body-the Medical Society OF the State of
New-York- The petitions are now being pre-
pared for presentation.
The split was caused by difference in opinion
among the allopaths 10 their attitude toward
the homoopatbs and other new schools of medi-
cine. One faction held that regular physi-
clan was at liberty to hold consultations with
any legally licensed practitioner, whether he be
an allopath or a homaeopath. The other faction
argued contrariwise The liberals formed the
Medical Society, while the conservatives were
organized as the Medical Association.
Even casual contrast of the past and present
methods of the Nev-York doctor in treating his
patients shows how much less the world suffers
now than in the good old days" For example,
the lunatics of Manhattan Island one hundred
years ago were compelled to submit TO the
''tranquiIlizer' or the "gyrator." When they
grew lively they were treated to the tranquil
uzer." q sort of straitjacket in which they
were apped hand and foot. Should they be-
come drowsy, they We're placed in another ma
chine, known as the 'gyrator," and were whirled
about like dancing dervishes
In those days surgeons operated without the
use of ether. America had not yet contributed
anasthesia to the world, and thus opened way
through 1.-The realms of painless oblivion" for
the bold use of the knife. Patients who fall
asleep upon the operating table and awaken to
find their broken bones set or ruptured organs
in place cannot realize the agony of their fore
fathers who were conscious of every of
the surgeons hand. medical man who had to
undergo an amputation before the days of anses-
thesia tells of his experience, as related by DR..
James Gregory NIumford, of Boston, in "a Mar
rative of Medicine in America" follows:
During the operation. in spite of the pain,
my senses were preternaturaly acute. watched
sity still recall with unwelcome vividness the
Spreading out of the instruments, the twisting
of the tourniquet, the first incision, the lingering
OF the sawed bone, the sponge pressed on the
nap the tying of the blood vessels the stitching
Of the skin and the dismembered limb lying on
the floor"
Some of the early machines which used
for the replacement of bones caused the patient
almost as much agony the medieval rack.
ssThe occasional use of pulleys," says DR.. Frank
P Foster Editor of The NewYerk Medical
Journal" sis well remembered by some Of US
who are still living, to say nothing OF the booted
foot in the arnpit. The old methods Of
extension Of the limb were painful. required pro-
sracted confinement in bed and often produced
liberation Of the parts on which the extending |
moose pressed"
Prior to 1862 the BARRIERS OF New-York |
classed as surgeons, and performed operations |
which were more painful than skilfuL It ap-
pears that the surgeons Of that time
especially jealous of the BARRIERS, and succeeded |
at last in securing an act which prohibited the |
tonsorial artists from interfering with their |
practice.
Americans have had q foremost part in dis |
arrning surgery and medicine OF its old terrors. |
Dr. Reid Of Rochester: DR.. Bigelow. OF Boston,
and various other American surgeons substi-
tinted manipulation instead Cf the old nerve
ractfng pulleys for the replacement OF bones.
DIR. Gordon Buck, of this city, invented an ap-
paratus to extend limb while the broken parts
of q bone are setting, and thus prevent de-
forrufty or the shortening of the leg arm
Iris device did away with the ulcerating moose.
rr James L. Little, a New-York surgeon. |
vent still further in adding to the comfort
Nv iS oft ha rlac -