The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-11

the pathway of it's glorious progress stand
 the ruins of the shrines and temples of l the gods.
 Among the most iIlustrlous medical au-
 thors who ever lived l may name Moses, who also belonged to the Foundation
 Age Learned in all the wisdom of the l Egyptians,' his writings on sanitary
 medicine is even in advance of this age of progress. -
 "Renouard, a French photographer, | born in 1765, A. D., quotes extensively from him, and says of him: The writings of Moses constitute a precious monument for the history of medicine
 "The Levites were the physicians of ancient Israel; and the Talmud stands to- day remarkable treatise on practice and hygiene. The Rabbis were among the frst to reconstruct from the bones of the dead
 the mysterious framework of the human body and to count as many as 252 bones in the human skeleton. The book of Le- yiticus is an excellent compendium of sanitation and hygiene. But. gentle men, the sublime, the supreme sanctity of your vocation is found in the life of Him who came down from heaven and dwelt among men, the fruition of human hope the fulillment of all di- vine prophecy We are told that He healed the sick and cast out devils; and there are no more beautiful scenes i'll all the splendid history of medical science than that of Christ as He sat, the family physician of Mary and Martha as He rebuked the disease of Syro- Phoenician woman, or as He spoke visions to the sightless eyes of Bar timeus.
 Sacred Origin of Vocation
 Tn the light, then, of the sacred origin and past of your vocation, you assume a most solemn responsibility i'll entering upon your life's work. Yours is a professional lineage, which Is traced back toward the very dawn or time; beyond the days of kings and princes. Your art was for thousand years the handmaid of religion and the elder sister of philosophy. It wrapped the mummies of the Pharoahs in the cerements of an earthly immortality and imbedded its principles as sacred treasures in the old dispensation of Gods holy word.
 "In the second age of medicine dating from the second to the four teenth century, there was no progress worth speaking of, if indeed there was not a retrograde, due, perhaps, in large measure, to the following causes: First, northern barbarians overran the Roman provinces and finally Rome itself, de- stroying nearly all her institutions of learning.
 "Second. Religious intolerance. big  science to a standstill until, as ono historian said, commenting upon the treatment of Calico received at the hands of the church, Men of science preferred to prosecute their studies outside the pales of religion to being torn limb from limb for doing so with in them This practice caused the so- called divorce between science and re- iligion.'
 Third. Science suffered much at the hand of the saints, is the language of q distinguished writer on the sub iect. With the revival of letters,' which began the third stage men broke away from superstition and tyranny an1 science followed with rapid strides until there arose in the reign of Henry VIII the first chartered medical col llege in the world. From this institu- tl6n the modern doctor of medicine dates Then in quick succession arose some of the greatest lights of med- fcine Sydneham. the medical philos- opher: Harvey, the discoverer of the circulatory system; John Hunter, the master of surgery; Jenner, whose dis covery of vaccination was the triumph of the three ages, and many others whose praises fill the tongue of grate- full humanity.
 Fourth Age of Medicine
 ITO these three ages l might pre- sume to add a fourth, beginning with the discovery of anaesthesia, which the immortal Crawford w. Long of Geof- gig, gave to the world; which, with that of Lister, drove the armies of linortuary statistics that deployed
 around general and abdominal surgery
 to their Waterloo, ana consigned to aa endless and unwaking exile that re l ilcntless and universal emperor-Pain. Time would fail me to speak or tho revelation made by the aid of the microscope in the domain of bacter- iology. In few years during the fourteenth century the disease known as 'the black death destroyed 25,00O.- 900 out of European population or 100 100000. This horrible pestilence has been driven from the face of the earth; while cholera, stripped or It's power, is also fast disappearing Tn CIV ilized nations because this branch ol medicine has turned to prevent 1t. The superstitious ideas of malignant spirits and demons attacking men and pro ducing sickness have yielded to an intelligent and scientific diagnosis made upon a knowledge of well authenticated l bacilli or germs. The blind beating or l the air in the endeayor to cure cer- tain classes of diseases has now ceased and an intelligent warfare instituted lbocause their causal nature and origin
 are known The bacilli of tetanus, tu- | lberculosis, typhoid fever, cholera, ldiDhtheria and an army of diseases | belonging to this class have opened
 up a new world to your calling. The discovery of pr. Koch of the bacillus tuberculosis has at least located an other dread enemy or our race and
 shows you what your science never Ikrew before.
 | "The same may be said of Pasteur and his treatment for rabies, with this la1ditional, that although 1t has not
 driven hydrophobia out of existence, it l has at least brought great relief to the unfortunate victims of this horr ble
 malady.
 Tt may be possible that bacteriology | Is rot vet an assured success but say
 what you will, I leave it to candid 1profossion to say if 1t is not more
 scieL tific than the following prescrip- ion for rabies for which the New Yors
 Legislature, about 100 years ago, paid
 the sum of 5000, viz:
 | "sOne ounce of the jawbone of a dow burned and pounded to dust.
 "'One false tongue of newly foaled
 colt pulverized.
 zone drachm of verdigris from old copper which has lain under moist
 earth; the copper or pennies of George
 I or II are the best
 l Medical science has accomplished
 more the last 300 years than was ac-
 complished during all the ages before, and it may be stated that 1t has done evnn more within the last 75 years than
 during all past ages put together. Tho discoveries and achievements which
 em5lazon the pages of modern medical
 science are more glorious and lasting