The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-10
MEDICAL.
The Horrible Abuses and
 MiSuSeS of Modern Surgery

tice of medicine for thirty and forty years, and who have never lost by death a single patient whose symptoms could have been even remotely ascribed to the appendix? Certainly not in my extensive practice of nearly thirty-five years have I ever had q man or woman patient to die whose demise could have been in the slightest degree ascribed to appendicitis. And certainly do not claim for myself any superior abilities not possessed by other doctors, who have diligently ap- piled themselves to the work and study of the "Healing Art" Then why if this so recently discovered disease of such grave and fatal character Is really so common, why are I and other conserva- tive doctors not confronted with more cases of this terrible ma1ady, which is so constantly engaging the attention of the many modern "Cut and Rip members or the medical profession. I am informed that five persons died recently within one week in one of Birminghams innrma- ries. each death following sn operation for appendicitis. Whilst another BIT mingham surgeon claims to have done one hundred and three appendectomies within twelve months. All these opera tions may have been done under circum- stances that might have warranted the surgeons in their work. but my own ex- perience in such cases compels me to doubt it. And can any time furnish the names of numerous men and women who have been treated and cured by me after they had been informed by other sur Reons that their lives depended upon their submitting to the knife.
 But I do not wish to be understood as ha fn min great importance of surgery in it's proper domain. for I would not, if I could, cast the lightest shadow of discredit upon it's glorious, brilliant, and benefcient achievements, nor would pluck one faintest ray from the lustre Of any Wor- thy surgeons justly earned reputation. But I would to God that could cleave the masks and expose the selfish amoi- ton, eupidity and purblindness or those who, under the license of their profes- sion, are doing so much more to populate our grave-yards than they are doing 10 prolong their patients lives, and who all the while are heaping shame and dis grace upon that profession, which by right should be held in reverence ana honor above all other callings. Hait a century ago the lancet was the Vaoe me cum of every doctor, and hundreos or thousands of human lives were sacrlnceo through it's misapplied use. and as we oA today stand agast and shudder at Ine horrible records of phlebotomy, so VIII intelligent men of the next coming gene ration regard with horror the recoros oi
 the perblind. selfish and crazy Laparou roists of the present time, who are vainly and mischievously attempting to cure every case of cholic, uterine, and ovarian trouble by the extirpation Of some esseh- tial organ of the human body
 What shame. Has there been no pro- gresa fin the science of medical practice except in surgery? Is it necessary no" to resort to the scalpel of the surgeon 'o properly arrest the pains that used 10 pe so effectually cured by the olo-tii,e country doctor, and by our graho o-h,o'' CTS with ipicac and castor oil? don tbin,, so Rut I do verify believe that the aforesaid oldtime country doctor was hy q thousand times more safe reliance in almost every character of apdoinihai and pelvic disorder than are the mooeih knife-crazy surgeons whose mama io' ..onerations'' make them far more oah 1erous than the unskilled ignorant lancet butchers who used to breed 10 oea.h thousands whom they were trying eo cures But the lancet has long since oeeh thrown away, and It cannot De very iohs In this enlightened age until these modern
 
 cruel tools. will be relegated to the gar ref of eternal oblivion. Yes, their cruel rnethods should be stopped, ana these crazv monomaniacs of the knl1e shouiu be either driven from the feid or so iiin- tied and regulated by law as 10 put al. end to their uncensored operations UT ae least to bring them under some s.a'u's of law that will both limit their work anu render them responsible for their oiapon- cal outrages done under their present o.
 restricted license which permits them to o,,t and s,av at their own sweet will, ana who from oft repeated murders, are themselves emotionally dead and tnere- fore without even the appeals or synhpa- Inv or conscience to restrain them HI their inhuman slaughters appear 'o ,h. nathy and to the intelligence or the laity and to the conservative. ratioha, and honest members of the meoical pro- fession everywhere to wake up ana looiA to the duty of putting some restraint unon these unrestricted, crazy and mer- cenary murderers, who are seemingly run mad wooly wild in their frenzied and fiendish fad for cutting on every side, for every thing and on every preteSt' without the guide of comon sense, con science or moral scruple. There IS no ex- cuse for such a saturnala or sureicai deviItrv. The Godsent blessing of the x-Rays to aid in diagnosis, and the boon of the blessed Violet Rays for the aiie- viation of pain, with the winning WIS dom in electro therapeutics, with all the accumulated knowledge pertaining to the science of curing the sick as exemplihed in the light of chemistry and revealed in the experiments with heat. light, mas sage vibrations medicated, inhalations and a comprehensive hygiene, precludes reason for the exhibition of surgical skill in the alleviation of our simplest Ills and ailments. For more than ninety per cent of the cases now operated on by surgeons could in all reason by proper treatment be cured by milder, safer ana saner methods