(^ 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 {L
 
 ^l)P^tc anb ^l)psician.i^. 
 
 THE 
 
 ANNUAL ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 ALABAMA STATE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, 
 AT THE CAPITOL, DECEMBER 10, 1849. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM O. BALDWIN, M. D., 
 
 FELLOW OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 PRINTED AT THE RIVERSIDE PRESS. 
 
 1866.
 
 « C t « 1 c
 
 -&- 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 Gentlemen of the Association, and Fellow Citizens: — 
 Standing here, for the first time in my hfe 
 a public speaker, I need not tell you the hour 
 is one peculiarly embarrassing to me. Phi- 
 losophers have numbered novelty among the 
 highest pleasures of the imagination. It may 
 be so to the disinterested speaker ; but to me, 
 M the singularity of my present position is ex- 
 « ceedingly painful, from the ardent desire I feel 
 g to give interest and impressiveness to this occa- 
 sion. Leaving, however, any remarks personal 
 . to myself, I pass immediately to the theme 
 8 which I have selected for a brief discussion. 
 f> The gentlemen who addressed you at your 
 
 ^ former meetings, wisely and forcibly presented 
 for your consideration such suggestions relative 
 to legal enactments, and other measures calcu- 
 lated to advance the usefulness and elevate the 
 
 UJ 
 
 462414
 
 4 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 standard of the medical profession, as its con- 
 dition in our State demands; and so compre- 
 hensive were their views, and minute their 
 recommendations in this particular, that scarce- 
 ly any room is left for farther observation. I 
 have, therefore, thought that perhaps I would 
 better consult your pleasure in the present in- 
 stance by offering a few general reflections on 
 Physic and Physicians. 
 
 In the language of a late distinguished states- 
 man, if Cicero, in the commencement of one 
 of his orations, could find cause to congratulate 
 himself upon the felicity of his subject, because 
 the occasion required him to dwell " upon the 
 virtues and achievements of the great Pompey, 
 
 — a man who had been, from his earliest 
 youth, identified with the glory of his country, 
 
 — who had transcended and eclipsed the re- 
 corded honors of her Scipios and Metellus', 
 and under whose auspices ' Victory flew with 
 her eagles ' from Lusitania to Caucasus and the 
 Euphrates : what would not the genius of the 
 Roman orator, who found so much scope for 
 the amplifications of his unrivaled eloquence 
 in the events of a single life and the glory of a 
 few campaigns, have made of a subject so in-
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 5 
 
 teresting in itself — so peculiarly affecting and 
 so dear to his auditors — so fertile, so various, 
 so inspiring, as that to which he who now ad- 
 dresses you will have been indebted for what- 
 ever of interest or of attention it may be his 
 good fortune to awaken." 
 
 I have here, gentlemen, prepared a condensed 
 outline of the history of Medicine, from its 
 earliest records up to the days of Sydenham, 
 together with a narration of some of the causes 
 which combined to hinder its early progress. 
 For want of time, however, I am compelled to 
 omit this portion of my remarks. 
 
 To present even a general outline of the im- 
 portant improvements effected in medicine, 
 since the days of Sydenham, would oppress 
 your patience. Taking the publication of a 
 work on Anatomy in the 16th century, by 
 Vesalius, as our starting-point, the Healing Art 
 has progressed towards a wonderful perfection. 
 Structures invisible to the naked eye are dis- 
 sected, understood, and described with perfect 
 accuracy, and their various uses ascertained. 
 Physiology, in embodying, investigating, and 
 classifying the phenomena, conditions, and laws, 
 which characterize and govern life and living
 
 b PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 beings, has furnished a key and an explanation 
 to many of the secrets of Nature, and thrown 
 valuable light on Pathology, Hygiene, Ther- 
 apeutics, and other collateral branches of Med- 
 icine. 
 
 Materia Medica has been purified of many 
 of its disgusting and inert remedies. The com- 
 plex Mithridatic formula has given place to 
 the simple prescription of one or two articles, 
 whilst by the aid of practical chemistry, as 
 applied to pharmaceutical purposes, medicines 
 are given in a concentrated form, and thus ren- 
 dered much less oiFensive to the patient. 
 
 Chemistry has given up its fruitless search 
 for the arcana of life, and applied itself to more 
 rational pursuits ; earth has been called upon 
 to yield her hidden treasures; ocean and the 
 watery world have been searched for their pro- 
 ducts ; the vegetable kingdom, from the majes- 
 tic forester to the lowly shrub, has been 
 scanned ; the animal creation, from the insects 
 which live in mid-air, to the fishes that swim 
 in the great deep, and the animals that roam 
 the forest — all have been subjected to the 
 crucible of the chemist, and their useful me- 
 dicinal properties isolated and appropriated:
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 7 
 
 whilst the electric fluid which flashes from the 
 near cloud has been condensed in a manage- 
 able form, and made subservient to man's 
 physical infirmities. 
 
 The aetiology of disease has completely van- 
 quished the superstitious notion of its divine 
 origin, and built up the science of Hygiene, 
 whose benign influence is felt over the civil- 
 ized world. Through the study of physiology, 
 pathology, and pathological anatomy, the diag- 
 nosis of disease has become an easy matter to 
 the educated physician, and the exclusive 
 humoral pathology which characterized all the 
 works of the ancients, has been consigned to 
 the tomb of its fathers, where sleep the thou- 
 sand follies which these improvements in medi- 
 cine have exposed. 
 
 With the aid of all these lights, added to the 
 laborious trains of thought of the clinical prac- 
 titioner, it is unnecessary to say that the theory 
 and practice of medicine has approached a de- 
 gree of certainty which could scarcely have 
 been dreamed of a few centuries ago ; whilst 
 the operative branches, surgery and obstetrics, 
 have been advanced in a corresponding ratio. 
 By aid of the recent discoveries of anaesthetic
 
 8 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 agents, the surgeon's knife has lost its pain, and 
 one of the decrees of Heaven, as to the circum- 
 stances which should attend man's advent into 
 this world, has been robbed of, at least, some 
 of its harshness. 
 
 Nor, in the progress of the science of medi- 
 cine, have its improvements benefited the heal- 
 ing art alone. The moral and social condition 
 of man has been much promoted by its facts 
 and discoveries. The science of the law, es- 
 pecially legal jurisprudence, as well as political 
 economy, agriculture, the arts and manufac- 
 tures, have borrowed its light and been bene- 
 fited by its truths. 
 
 Apart from every other fact, the simple cir- 
 cumstance that medicine has laid almost all 
 branches of science under contribution to ad- 
 vance its intelligence and mature its skillfulness, 
 is sufficient evidence of its high claim to supe- 
 riority of position, as well as of its adaptations 
 to the necessities of progressive civilization. 
 The material interests of our nature are indeed 
 its chief concern, and in respect of them, it 
 stands side by side with all efforts of general 
 science or individual art, to meliorate the con- 
 dition of humanity. It is in that field where
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 9 
 
 it has won enduring trophies — a field that 
 Providence has assigned to genius, study, and 
 observation, to ascertain hidden laws, and ap- 
 propriate to itself the reserved energies of 
 omnipotent Nature. To confine ourselves to 
 such an external view of our profession, were 
 indeed folly. It is intimately and inseparably 
 allied with Spiritual science, with the philoso- 
 phy of intellect, with the mysterious relations 
 of mind and matter, with all the wonders of 
 which outward things are only the faint sym- 
 bols ; and therefore do we point with honest 
 pride to the men who, in these associate de- 
 partments of great thought and vast discovery, 
 have so signalized the name of our profession. 
 Can the artist ever forget his obligations to Sir 
 Charles Bell ? or the student of metaphysics 
 the name of Abercrombie ? Can general read- 
 ers overlook the names of Warren, Rush, and 
 Combe ? Will the Christian forget the service 
 of Galen in dissipating the mists of pagan idol- 
 atry, or pass without emotion the names of 
 Averrhoes, Boerhaave, and Haller? Can the 
 philanthropist and moralist recall, without feel- 
 ings of gratitude, the names of Tribunus, 
 Ingrasis, and Arbuthnot, or suppress a sigh in
 
 10 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 remembrance of the fate of that galaxy of 
 kindred spirits, who in all ages have been seen 
 amid disease and death, immolating their own 
 lives in the hope of alleviating the sufferings 
 of man ? The wonders of galvanism were first 
 indicated in the study of a Professor of Anato- 
 my, at Bologna, and the mighty genius of Sir 
 Humphrey Davy took its first impulse over the 
 pestle and mortar of a drug store. 
 
 The advocates of medical reform, in enforc- 
 ing their views, have recently assumed that the 
 profession of medicine has degenerated. A 
 special charge is made against the Professors 
 of our Medical Colleges, who, it is affirmed, 
 are better guardians of their sordid interests, 
 than protectors of the honor and dignity of 
 their science. That individuals occasionally 
 receive diplomas from some of these institu- 
 tions, who do not merit them, is obvious ; but 
 is this the rule or the exception ? If it is their 
 ordinary course of procedure, let them be as- 
 sailed. If, however, it is only the exception, 
 why cast such an indiscriminate censure over 
 those who constitute the brightest ornaments 
 of our profession ? There may be some decay- 
 ing fruit upon the tree, but why reject the ripe
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 11 
 
 growth of summer warmth and autumn full- 
 ness? Whoever observes the character and 
 success of the profession, as organized and 
 operative in our day, can hardly avoid the con- 
 clusion that any given number of young men, 
 who now graduate in the United States, are 
 better qualified than the same number were in 
 any preceding year. 
 
 He who is disposed to doubt that rapid ad- 
 vances have been made, in the facilities for im- 
 parting instruction, by the medical colleges in 
 the United States for the last fifty years, may 
 read with much satisfaction a valedictory ad- 
 dress, delivered by Professor Caldwell, to the 
 graduating class of the medical department of 
 the University of Louisville, in March, 1849. 
 Professor C. is a living chronicler of the trans- 
 actions of the medical profession, for upwards 
 of half a century, in which he has mingled 
 freely during the whole of that time, and now, 
 as with the voice of another age, he speaks of 
 the mode of teaching medicine practiced in the 
 old school of Philadelphia as far back as the 
 year 1792, being himself at that time a mem- 
 ber of her class. No unprejudiced mind can 
 read this account w^ithout being satisfied that
 
 12 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 much of what has been said recently in rela- 
 tion to our medical schools are untruths. In 
 many parts of Europe, especially in France, 
 the medical profession has taken a much higher 
 rank in the last few years than it ever held 
 before, both as regards the estimation in which 
 the science is held and the social position of its 
 members. Look, too, at home, in our own 
 State. When did Alabama ever possess a more 
 zealous and intelligent Faculty ? and when did 
 she ever contribute so largely to the medical 
 literature of the Union, as she has done during 
 the last few years ? One fact should set this 
 subject to rest. The various tests of a pro- 
 fession must all yield, in their clearness of 
 indication and satisfactoriness of proof, to the 
 criterion established by its literature. The 
 amount of wisdom and skill in any profession, 
 will always be developed in this form, for it is 
 in this way that the finest minds naturally seek 
 for their expression. It is here that the results 
 of patient labor and analytic investigation are 
 recorded ; here the hand of industry arranges 
 and unites facts ; here the strength of genius 
 and the resources of learning mutually blend 
 and mutually exalt. Looking at our subject
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 13 
 
 in this light, the most prejudiced mind should 
 acknowledge that the literature of our profes- 
 sion, for the first time in its history, now ex- 
 hibits thoroughness, generalness, and profun- 
 dity ; in a word, that it now represents a pro- 
 fession whose vocation it is to know Nature 
 in all her forms, and minister to her in all her 
 derangements. 
 
 We are aware that in the face of all the 
 brilliant achievements in medicine, there is still 
 much skepticism in regard to its merits, and 
 the question as to whether or not the science 
 has been a blessing to mankind, has been of 
 late seriously entertained. Let us see whether 
 or not it is a chimerical science, without any 
 claim to the high position which we assign it. 
 Now, it is sometimes difficult for us to estimate 
 the agency of remedies in curing individual 
 diseases, but there are statistics of a general 
 character, which we think settle the question 
 most conclusively. For instance, it is stated 
 that in the 16th century, in the city of Geneva, 
 (which, I believe, was the place where records 
 of mortality were first kept,) one out of every 
 twenty-five inhabitants died annually. At the 
 present time the mortality is as one to forty-
 
 14 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. ' 
 
 six ; and the deaths which occurred during the 
 period of infancy were as five formerly to one 
 at the present date. It is ascertained, from re- 
 liable statistics, that the deaths which now 
 occur from the perils of childbed, are less than 
 one half of what they were in former times, 
 in any given number of cases. In a work on 
 the " Hospitals and Surgeons of Paris," by F. 
 Campbell Stewart, M. D., of New York, the 
 author introduces a table, '' showing the num- 
 ber of admissions and proportionate mortality " 
 amongst the patients in the different hospitals 
 in that city, for a series of years ; from which 
 it appears that in the Hotel Dieu, in 1816, the 
 proportion of deaths to admissions was as 1 to 
 4.57. There was a progressive improvement 
 up to 1834, when the proportion was as 1 to 
 11.03. From the same table it appears that 
 the average sojourn in the hospital was, in 
 1816, forty days, in 1834, only nineteen days. 
 As a familiar illustration of the same fact, 
 and a valuable one so far as it goes, we will 
 take miasmatic fever, as it occurs in our midst, 
 which belongs to a class of diseases that Syden- 
 ham said constituted nine tenths of the diseases 
 which afflict the human family, and was at one
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 15 
 
 time aptly termed the " touchstone and oppro- 
 brium of medicine." It is still our most com- 
 mon affection, and but for the means which 
 the resources of the science of medicine have 
 developed, would, in all probability, be amongst 
 our most fatal. Of the cases of this disease 
 which occurred here, (in Montgomery and its 
 vicinity,) fifteen or twenty years since, from 
 the best information I can gather, about five 
 per cent, proved fatal. In looking over my 
 register, and those of three other physicians 
 of Montgomery,* I find that the whole number 
 of cases of malarious fever (comprising inter- 
 mittent, remittent, and pernicious, or conges- 
 tive,) treated from June 1st, 1847, to June 1st, 
 1848, amounted to one thousand four hundred 
 and fifty, of which four proved fatal, — being 
 between one third and one fourth of one per 
 cent, of the whole number treated. Fifteen 
 years ago our attacks of remittant fever lasted 
 from seven to ten or twelve days. At the pres- 
 ent date this disease is cured in three or four 
 days, and very frequently cut short after the 
 first or second paroxysm ; and the treatment of 
 uncomplicated intermittent fever has become so 
 simple that it is an easy lesson for childhood. 
 
 * Drs. Boling, Sims, and Ames.
 
 16 PHYSIC AND .PHYSICIANS. 
 
 Records of mortality are now much more 
 generally kept over the world, and the statistics 
 of this kind which have been gathered from dif- 
 ferent countries, show, in the aggregate, an ab- 
 solute increase of ten per cent, in the average 
 duration of human life within the last three 
 centuries. 
 
 These truths may be offered as substantial 
 proofs of the fact that the profession of medi- 
 cine has not fallen from its ancient grandeur 
 and usefulness, whilst they should completely 
 put to the blush those who are constantly try- 
 ing to heap reproaches upon it. Sarcasm, 
 directed against our profession, proves nothing, 
 except the absence of argument in him who 
 uses it. The owl has always hooted at the 
 sunshine, and prejudice derided the claims of 
 truth. 
 
 The spirit of rational medicine inculcates a 
 comprehensive humanity and benevolence ; 
 and it is for this reason that we oppose secret 
 nostrums and quackery in all its forms. Hence 
 the great discoveries in the science, which 
 would have enabled their inventors to roll in 
 wealth, if they had been patented, have been 
 joyfully given to the world. Vaccination,
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 17 
 
 morphine, and quinine, are illustrations of this 
 fact. The world cannot understand why physi- 
 cians oppose the administration of what they 
 conceive to be good patent medicines ; but they 
 do not reflect, or are not aware of the fact, that 
 they are the medicines which we are in the 
 daily habit of prescribing, under their appro- 
 priate names and in their original purity, for 
 the successful disguise and pernicious adultera- 
 tion of which the public are expected to pay 
 so largely. The only article of any value 
 which enters into the composition of the various 
 patent nostrums which have been invented for 
 the cure of ague and fever, and which have 
 enriched so many of their unprincipled vendors, 
 is quinine, or some of the preparations of Peru- 
 vian bark ; whilst those who discovered the 
 value of this ao;ent in the treatment of inter- 
 mittent fever, perhaps felt the hard cravings of 
 poverty, rather than keep secret information 
 which was of such importance to the world. It 
 is said that ignorant patients and nurses have 
 taken their physician's prescription, and, by pro- 
 curing a patent, amassed overwhelming fortunes. 
 I designed, in this place, gentlemen, to speak 
 at some length of the certainty of medicine ; of 
 2
 
 18 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 the causes which tend to create differences of 
 opinion among its practitioners ; of the religions 
 tendencies of the profession of medicine ; of the 
 humanity and benevolence of physicians, and 
 of the services which they have rendered in the 
 advancement of civilization. But, as I desire 
 to dwell particularly on quackery, and some of 
 the causes which tend to sustain and keep it 
 alive, I feel constrained to omit my remarks in 
 relation to these points, — fearing, even with 
 this large pruning, 1 shall tire your patience. 
 
 All truth in this world seems to be subjected 
 to trial and persecution. No sooner is any 
 great reality presented to the confidence and 
 veneration of mankind, than some imitative 
 fiction attempts to usurp its place. No sooner 
 is any system established, than it is caricatured 
 and burlesqued. It is so in science, it is so in 
 real life, it is so in every thing. The name of 
 Washington was scarcely diffused throughout 
 the world, before a host of mock-heroes bran- 
 dished their swords and unfurled their banners 
 on the field of battle ; and hardly had the 
 Redeemer left the earth, when fictitious claim- 
 ants assumed the name of Messiah, and asso- 
 ciated with themselves the sanctities of olden
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYvSICIANS. 1*.) 
 
 prophecy. The noblest sciences, however se- 
 curely enthroned, have their assailants, and 
 the holiest truths their irreverent opponents. 
 Amid such scenes as the world exhibits, where 
 barbarism struggles with civilization, where ab- 
 solutism disputes the excellency of republican- 
 ism, and where even idolatry or atheism con- 
 tends w^ith Christianity for the mastery of the 
 human intellect, it is surely not to be wondered 
 at that medicine should undergo the common 
 experience of all great sciences, and be disci- 
 plined in the ordeals of all systems that benefit 
 and bless the world. 
 
 Delusions have ever been springing up 
 around the great profession of medicine, which, 
 through the foulest fraud, have occasionally 
 attained a luxuriant growth, and given a de- 
 formed aspect to our noble science. Many of 
 these systems make out a ijrima facie case, 
 founded generally upon some acknowledged 
 error, abuse, or deficiency, in the science which 
 they are designed to oppose ; and, although to 
 a mind capable of analyzing their hrief^ it is 
 plain that the abridgment of the case consti- 
 tutes their strongest point, yet, in the hands of 
 an ingenious sophist, they are made to wear an 
 imposing aspect.
 
 20 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 Nothino; is mere common than to see men 
 prominent in public favor, espousing the cause of 
 delusions, and lending the weight of their talents 
 and the force of their example to strengthen the 
 dominion of imposition. The associations of 
 things always affect us. A name of merit, in 
 any department of life, commands our homage, 
 and the authority of genius can be transferred 
 to nothino; which it does not exalt and ennoble. 
 It is by such influences that the appropriate 
 sphere of the true physician is invaded, and 
 his just position denied him. Persons^ in this 
 strange world, frequently have more power 
 than either truth or fact ; and, consequently, 
 the legitimate instrumentality of a physician 
 is oftener interrupted by the unwise and un- 
 just intermeddling of others, than by any other 
 agencies. 
 
 It is a characteristic of modern society, that 
 it has created divisions in all labor, and assigned 
 its respective portions to distinct classes of men. 
 It is so both with mechanical and intellectual 
 labor. We owe every thing in recent civiliza- 
 tion to this fortunate arrangement, and we 
 deem it the first article in our creed of common 
 courtesy, as well as the dearest right in the
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 21 
 
 code of common justice, that each profession be 
 held authoritative in its own connections and 
 prerogatives. Medical opinions, even when 
 formed by able votaries of the science, are 
 liable to error. Morbid manifestations assume 
 various forms, and often require the deepest 
 learning, the most cautious study, as well as 
 the most matured and discriminating judgment, 
 to detect their real nature and devise appro- 
 priate means for their removal. Can any 
 thing, then, be more unwise, or more unphilo- 
 sophical, than for persons of general intelli- 
 gence and culture to assume the province of 
 judges and advisers on such intricate subjects ? 
 We protest against this practice, now too com- 
 mon, as a serious and unauthorized invasion 
 of the acknowledged rights of professional life, 
 as most wofully fatal to the true progress of 
 knowledge and science, as well as to the dearest 
 interests of society. 
 
 But how are we to reclaim men from such 
 error and interference ? This, indeed, is a 
 most difficult task. Their minds have not had 
 the training of a medical education, and they 
 are not in possession of even the most elemen- 
 tary truths, which might enable them to com-
 
 22 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 prehend the legitimate reasoning of sound 
 medical philosophy, or aid them, on the other 
 hand, in detecting the errors and falsehoods of 
 the cunningly devised theory which bolsters up 
 this or that medical delusion. What we know 
 to be perfectly impossible, from our knowledge 
 of the well-established laws of Nature, they of 
 ten conceive to be quite probable. Men whose 
 opinions or judgment we would value highly 
 on any of the ordinary affairs of life ; men who 
 are distinguished for their good sense and 
 philanthropy, and their liberal and enlightened 
 views concerning most subjects, and who are 
 deeply learned in all that pertains to their own 
 calling, are generally profoundly ignorant of 
 all the requisites necessary to a just and en- 
 licrhtened view of ours. Thev know nothino; 
 of the difficult and complex study of anatomy ; 
 they understand nothing of physiology, or the 
 laws which govern the operations of the animal 
 economy; and, though these may be as immu- 
 table as any of the laws of Nature, they have 
 not learned and they cannot appreciate them. 
 Yet it is true that such men often lead public 
 opinion in matters directly affecting the science 
 of medicine, — a circumstance which should
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 23 
 
 flatter their vanity more than their sense of 
 propriety. 
 
 Each science has its own evidence. Each 
 one has its own process of thought, its own 
 modes of analysis, its own standards of results. 
 Each one has its separate sphere and its pecu- 
 liar laborers. Each one has its code of ethics, 
 its rights, its duties, its prerogatives. We 
 claim no aristocracy of intellect here or any- 
 where, but we do claim to be the best judges 
 of what constitutes truth and fact in our own 
 department of study and exertion. To be 
 capable of an intelligent opinion on the subject 
 of medicine and medicinal agents, there is much 
 more required than mere strength of talent, or 
 even acknowledged genius. It is not endow- 
 ment, it is not talent, it is not literature, that 
 makes the physician. It is long and patient 
 observation in applying and modifying the re- 
 sults of study ; it is close contact with disease ; 
 it is unceasing mental excitement in pursuing 
 the obscure windings of morbid influences, in 
 the midnight hour, in solitary chambers, or in 
 the deep reflectiveness of office-solitude, that 
 enable him to form the data for a just and philo- 
 sophic practice of his art. The world believes
 
 24 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 all this of other professions ; why not of ours ? 
 — ours, on which the interests of life and death 
 are so often suspended. 
 
 A glance at the history of some of these sys- 
 tems of empiricism, or medical mountebanks, 
 is sufficient to convince us that they have 
 oftener involved in their trammels men hiorh in 
 the estimation of the world than perhaps any 
 others. We could offer many proofs in con- 
 firmation of this assertion. The no less celebra- 
 ted than vain medical pretender, Uranius, im- 
 posed upon the monarch of Persia (Chosroes,) 
 the belief that he was one of the wisest and 
 most learned philosophers who had ever visited 
 his court. The notorious quack, Borri, so fully 
 impressed Queen Christina with the belief that 
 he possessed the secret of the philosopher's 
 stone, that she exhausted all her means in 
 administering to his extravagance. He also 
 successfully practiced the same deception on 
 the King of Denmark. The efficacy of the 
 royal touch in the cure of scrofula was ac- 
 knowledged by most of the dignitaries of Eng- 
 land and France, and Lord Bacon, with all his 
 wisdom and philosophy, believed in the influ- 
 ence of charms and amulets. We might add to
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 25 
 
 these the cu7'es of Sir Valentine Greatrakes, 
 the tar-water of Bishop Berkley, and the sym- 
 pathetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby, — all of 
 which were no less the fashion and rage in their 
 day with princes and nobles, than was the vul- 
 gar doctrine of the vaunting St. John Long, 
 of a more recent date. 
 
 Such facts, whilst it is not contended that 
 they prove any thing directly supporting the 
 truth of our doctrines, at least establish, pretty 
 conclusively, the fact that men may be wise 
 and just princes, proud and wealthy lords, 
 right-reverend and pious ministers of the Gos- 
 pel, sagacious and eminent statesmen, and 
 shrewd and wily lawyers, and yet fail to be 
 the best possible judges of a medical doctrine. 
 
 So has it ever been, and so, perhaps, it will 
 long be in every thing. We mistake the world 
 if we suppose that talents and learning shield 
 their possessors from superstition and deception. 
 The profound observation of Dugald Stewart, 
 that mathematicians, accustomed to exact reason- 
 ing, were the easiest deluded of all persons, on 
 other subjects, applies to every relation of intel- 
 lect, and to every department of life. 
 
 Systems of medical delusion are still flourish-
 
 26 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 ing among us. In our own day we have wit- 
 nessed the birth, premature growth, and timely 
 death, in our State, of steam, or Thomsoni- 
 anism. Hydropathy has not yet reached us 
 in a systematic shape, but is nearing our con- 
 fines, whilst Homeopathy has lifted its banner 
 of " similia simiUbus curantur,^^ in our midst. 
 As this latter system is finding some favor 
 among us, I propose to make a few very brief 
 remarks upon it, but do not intend any thing 
 like a critical analysis, which indeed I have 
 neither time or inclination to bestow. 
 
 Homeopathy proclaims as the only funda- 
 mental basis in medicine, the principle of 
 " similia similihus curantur.^^ This, in real- 
 ity, is but a lesser fragment of the stupendous 
 labors of the sage of Cos — recognized as a 
 fact or principle of limited application in ra- 
 tional medicine, and practiced upon, so far as 
 it was valuable, since about the 90th Olympiad. 
 Worthless as a general principle though we re- 
 gard it, it was not, nevertheless, original with 
 Hahneman, except in the absurd and ridiculous 
 importance which he has given it. Among 
 other cardinal points — that seven eighths of 
 all chronic diseases are caused by the itch,
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 27 
 
 (Psora,) — that Nature never cures a disease, 
 etc. — comes the orrand and novel doctrine of 
 infinitisimal doses. That a substance, nothing 
 in itself, (at least so in our estimation,) a grain 
 of oyster-shel], or charcoal, may, with a sub- 
 stance confessedly inert, be so blended, diluted, 
 attenuated, shaken, or levigated, and divided 
 into inconceivable portions, that it will at 
 length develop or attain a strength so subtle 
 that the most minute portion of it is capable 
 of making a sensible and powerful impression 
 upon the animal constitution. The power 
 of the insignificant is admitted to be great. 
 Among the wonders of modern chemistry, 
 nothing is better sustained by proof, or more 
 amply exemplified by illustrations, than the 
 sublime truth, that in the hands and by the 
 laws of the Omnipotent Creator, the most 
 trifling means are made adequate to the grand- 
 est results. Masses of lime rock we know to 
 have been formed by immense accumulations 
 of minute insects, and vast islands often rest 
 on the labors of the tiny coral. We can here, 
 however, trace most distinctly and regularly 
 the operation of cause and effect. We can 
 number the ages, by the data of geology, con-
 
 28 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 sumed in these formations, and observe the 
 consequences of almost unlimited accumulation. 
 The philosophy of Homeopathy presents no 
 such relation and offers no such connection. It 
 pretends to powerful effects, to sudden revolu- 
 tions in the animal economy, to unexampled 
 triumphs of art over diseased and decaying 
 nature ; and when interrogated for adequate 
 means to warrant such prodigious results, it 
 assumes the sobered demeanor of a sage, and 
 offers the millionth part of a grain of an inert 
 substance as its agent. Tell us, gentlemen, 
 after that, that the huge masses of the Pyra- 
 mids were piled amid Egyptian sands by in- 
 fants, and that an idiot discovered the New- 
 tonian system of the universe and elaborated 
 the intricacies of the steam-engine. 
 
 Rational methods of philosophy are every- 
 where based on the same general principles. 
 Medicine is no exception to the established 
 system of Baconian induction. If the mode 
 of argument, constituting the essence of Ho- 
 meopathy, be transferred to other subjects and 
 carried out in daily life, there must surely be 
 an end of all investigation ; for the mind is 
 put by it in such a position as to be uncon-
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 29 
 
 trolled by all scientific connection of cause 
 and eifect. 
 
 The fanciful assumption that the more we 
 dilute a substance and destroy and lose its 
 material parts, the more we develop its " dy- 
 namic force " and increase its medicinal powers, 
 may, perhaps, carry conviction to a mixture 
 of very enlightened ideality and credulity, 
 which we sometimes find in our savayis ; but 
 the falsehood of this and the kindred propo- 
 sitions which go to make up the so-called sys- 
 tem, is addressed so forcibly to common sense, 
 that I think we will not be presuming too 
 much in taking as granted that by far the 
 greater number of converts to Homeopathy are 
 made by its reported cures. And it is for the 
 purpose of exhibiting the occasional felicities 
 of the merest empiricism, and of showing the 
 ease with which proof of this kind may be ar- 
 rayed in support of the grossest delusion, as 
 well as the insufficiency of such evidence to 
 establish of itself the validity of a medical doc- 
 trine, that I shall make the few following 
 remarks. I propose to demonstrate by past 
 experience, that facts of this kind may be ac- 
 cumulated with great facility, and from the
 
 30 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 most respectable sources, in support of the 
 most worthless empirical schemes. 
 
 With this view I will take up a few of the 
 medical heresies which have preceded Home- 
 opathy, and which are now admitted by all to 
 belong properly and justly under the oppro- 
 brious head of quackery, but which were once 
 even more popular, and susceptible of much 
 higher proof, than this system, — so far, at 
 least, as the number of reported cures may be 
 considered as contributing to this end. For 
 this purpose I have selected three out of a vast 
 number of the kind, viz: the Royal Gift of 
 Healing, the Sympathetical Cures, and Metallic 
 JVactors, or Perkinism. 
 
 The Royal Gift of Healing was the birth- 
 right of kings, and was practiced for the cure 
 of scrofula, or king's evil. It was first prac- 
 ticed by Edward the Confessor, King of Eng- 
 land, who ascended the throne in 1014. This 
 power, it was admitted, extended to the poten- 
 tates of other nations, but only such as were 
 connected with the royal family of England^ 
 The French, however, contended that this 
 sacred privilege belonged to their kings exclu- 
 sively. Certain it is that it was practiced by
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 31 
 
 the sovereigns of both nations over a period of 
 nearly TOO years. William III. discontinued 
 the practice, but Anne resumed it. 
 
 There was but little ceremony observed on 
 the occasion. On the patient's being presented, 
 the sovereign touched him with his hand, and 
 then hung a piece of gold or silver around his 
 neck. This completed the treatment, and gen- 
 erally the cure. In proof of the latter, abun- 
 dant evidence like the followino; can be ad- 
 duced : — 
 
 Jeremy Collier, when speaking of Edward 
 the Confessor, in his " Ecclesiastical History of 
 Great Britain," says, " that this prince cured 
 the king's evil is beyond dispute : . . . . To 
 dispute the matter of fact is to go to the ex- 
 cesses of skepticism, to deny our senses, and 
 be incredulous even to ridiculousness." Brad- 
 wardine. Archbishop of Canterbury, w^ho lived 
 during the reign of Edward III. and Richard 
 II., in speaking of this practice, says, " Who- 
 ever thou art, O Christian, who deniest mir- 
 acles, come and be an eye-witness of their 
 truth." Sir John Fortescue, Lord Chief Jus- 
 tice of the King's Bench during the reign of 
 Henry IV., and also Chancellor to Henry VI.,
 
 32 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 says, " The Kings of England, at the time of 
 unction, receive such a divine power, that by 
 the touch of their hands they can cleanse and 
 cure those who are otherwise considered incur- 
 able, of a certain disease, commonly called the 
 king's evil." The Rev. Dr. William Tooker, 
 who was chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, Canon 
 of Exeter and Dean of Litchfield, wrote a his- 
 tory and defence of this power, but confined it 
 to the English sovereigns, and extols very 
 highly the powers of the Queen. Badger, in 
 a report of cases of the king's evil which were 
 cured by the imposition of royal hands, says 
 of Charles I., that he " excelled all his prede- 
 cessors in the divine gift ; for it is manifest, 
 beyond all contradiction, that he not only cured 
 by his sacred touch," &c. 
 
 So important was this portion of the king's 
 duty considered, that frequent proclamations 
 and special bulletins were issued in regard to 
 it ; and the practice of, as well as the confi- 
 dence in, this mode of curing the disease, was 
 so general, that it became a work of exceeding 
 labor to them, and they consequently generally 
 gave notice that they would exercise this power 
 on appointed days. In order to prevent per-
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 33 
 
 sons from applying who were not really sub- 
 jects of the disease, applicants were required 
 to bring certificates from one of the surgeons, 
 who had been appointed for the purpose of 
 examining them. The surgeons also had their 
 regular hours for making these examinations, 
 and so great was the effort to get to their offi- 
 ces on such occasions, that six or seven persons 
 were known to have been crushed to death, in 
 the scramble, in one day. In the diary of 
 Bishop Cartright, he says, in speaking- of James 
 IL, " I attended his Majesty's levee ; from 
 whence, at nine o'clock, I attended him in the 
 choir, where he healed 350 persons ; " and it 
 is stated of one of the French kings, Louis 
 XIV., that he touched and cured 1600 in one 
 day. The number of cases touched by Charles 
 II., of England, according to a register kept by 
 the sergeant and keeper of his closet, amounted 
 to 92,107, and this, too, in the space of twenty 
 years. Judging from the comparative infre- 
 quency of the disease in the present age, one 
 would be inclined to think that this compre- 
 hended not only all of the real, as well as 
 imaginary cases of scrofula Avhich occurred in 
 his realms during this period, but also all that 
 3
 
 34 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 occurred in the world. At all events it is a 
 pretty good evidence of the great popularity 
 of the practice. Indeed, so overwhelming was 
 the cry of '' cures," " cures," and the number 
 of cases reported as such, that we find many 
 of the physicians withdrawing opposition to the 
 practice, and even prescribing this as a means 
 of cure for their patients. Perhaps the fear of 
 royal displeasure and popular prejudice, may 
 have extorted this acknowledgment from them. 
 In any event it shows the mass and plausibility 
 of the evidence which had been accumulated 
 in its favor, William Cloves, surgeon to Queen 
 Elizabeth, in a treatise on scrofula, says: "It is 
 a disease repugnant to nature : which grievous 
 malady is known to be miraculously cured and 
 healed by the sacred hands of the Queen's 
 most royal majesty, even by divine interposi- 
 tion and wonderful works of God, above man's 
 skill, arte and expectation. Through whose 
 princely clemency, a mighty number of her 
 Majesty's most royal subjects, and also many 
 strangers borne, are daily cured and healed, 
 which otherwise would most miserably have 
 perished." 
 
 Wiseman, a surgeon and writer of some dis-
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 35 
 
 tinction, in speaking of the king's evil, says : 
 " I myself have been a frequent eye-witness of 
 many hundreds of cures performed by his 
 majesty's touch alone, without any assistance 
 of chirurgery : and those, many of them, such 
 as had tyred out the endeavours of able chirur- 
 geons before they came thither. It were end- 
 less to recite what I myself have seen, and 
 what I have received acknowledgments of by 
 letter, not only from the several parts of this 
 nation, but also from Ireland, Scotland, Jersey, 
 
 and Guernsey I must confess that wdiat I 
 
 write will do little more than show the weak- 
 ness of our ability when compared with his 
 Majesty's, who cureth more in any one year 
 than all the chirurgeons of London have done 
 in an age." 
 
 Evidences of this kind could be multiplied 
 without number, but it is thought that enough 
 has been said to prove that this means of treat- 
 ing scrofula obtained a high reputation by the 
 number of cures which it w^as said to have per- 
 formed. The practice continued for a con- 
 siderable portion of the eighteenth century, and 
 Dr. Samuel Johnson, known to you all as the 
 distinguished lexicographer and moralist, was
 
 36 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 "cured" of scrofula, it was said, when about 
 five years of age, by the imposition of the hands 
 of Queen Anne. On the same day that he 
 was " cured," she touched two hundred other 
 persons for the same disease. 
 
 It is strange, however, when stated in con- 
 nection with the general resort to this sovereign 
 remedy, and in the face of all these reputed 
 cures, that more persons died of scrofula dur- 
 ing the reign of Charles II. (who practiced 
 this " divine gift" more extensively than any 
 other monarch,) than in any other period em- 
 bracino; the same length of time. 
 
 The SympaiJietical Cures, were practiced 
 more extensively in the reigns of James I. and 
 Charles I. There were two different modes 
 of conducting this practice. One was tlie sym- 
 pathetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby, the secret 
 of which he obtained from a Carmelite friar, 
 who had been an extensive traveler, and ob- 
 tained his knowledge of this wonderful remedy 
 during his peregrinations in the East. This 
 friar was much disposed to keep his knowledge 
 a secret still, having resisted the entreaties of 
 the Grand Duke of Florence ; but the versatile 
 knight succeeded in bringing him under obliga-
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 37 
 
 tions which called so strongly upon his grati- 
 tude that he revealed his secret to him. There 
 was about as much hocus-pocus observed in the 
 preparation of this powder, as there is in the 
 trituration of some of those of the present day. 
 It was to be crystallized, dissolved, filtered, and 
 re-crystalhzed, and this process several times 
 repeated. It was thought necessary to expose 
 it to the action of the sun 365 days, much care 
 being taken, during this time, to secure to each 
 crystal the action of the rays, and the processes 
 of triturating, dissolving, and re-crystallizing, 
 was continued in rapid succession ; and, at last, 
 it came out what it originally was — Blue 
 Vitriol, 
 
 This powder was used for the purpose of 
 curing wounds, but instead of being applied to 
 the wound itself, a portion of it was dissolved 
 in water, and any garment, or substance, 
 which had been stained with the blood which 
 had escaped from it, was steeped in the solu- 
 tion, whilst the wound was dressed and left 
 seven days to nature, and the influence which 
 this powder could exert on it at a distance. 
 
 The following is a remarkable cure which it 
 is said to have performed, and which established 
 
 462414
 
 38 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 the practice in England : " Mr. James Howel, 
 a gentleman celebrated by his ' Dendrologia,' 
 and other works, in endeavoring to part two 
 of his friends in a duel, received a severe 
 wound of his hand. Alarmed at this accident, 
 one of the combatants bound up the cut with 
 his garter, took him home, and sent for assist- 
 ance. The King, upon hearing of the event, sent 
 one of his own surgeons to attend him ; but, as 
 in the course of four or five days, the wound was 
 not recovering very favorably, he made applica- 
 tion to Sir Kenelm Digby, of whose knowledge 
 regarding some extraordinary remedies for the 
 healing of wounds he had become apprized. 
 Sir Kenelm first inquired whether he possessed 
 any thing that had the blood upon it, upon which 
 Mr. Howel immediately named the garter with 
 which his hand had been bound, which was 
 accordingly sent for. A basin of water being 
 brought, Sir Kenelm put into it a handful of 
 powder of vitriol, and dissolved it therein. He 
 hen took the bloody garter and immersed it in 
 the fiuid, while Mr. H. stood conversing with 
 a gentleman in the corner of the room ; but 
 he suddenly started, and upon being asked the 
 reason, replied that he had lost all pain — that
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 39 
 
 a pleasing kind of freshness, as it were a wet 
 cold napkin had passed over his hand, and that 
 the inflammation, which before had been so 
 tormenting, had vanished. He was then ad- 
 vised to lay aside all his plasters, to keep the 
 wound clean, and in a moderate temperature. 
 After dinner the garter was taken out of the 
 basin and placed to dry before a large fire : but 
 no sooner was this done than Mr. H.'s ser- 
 vant came running to Sir Kenelra, to say that 
 her master's hand had again inflamed, and that 
 it was as bad as before ; whereupon the garter 
 was again placed into the liquid, and, before 
 the return of the servant, all was well and easy 
 again. In the course of five or six days the 
 w^ound was cicatrized, and a cure performed." 
 Through the influence of James I. and his 
 surgeon Dr. Mayerne, known to commentators 
 as the Dr. Caius of Shakespeare, the practice 
 was extended throughout Great Britain and 
 France, so that not only Sovereigns, Princes, 
 Knights, and Court Physicians practiced it, but 
 there was scarcely a village barber who was 
 not prepared to treat wounds after this fashion. 
 Sir Kenelm Digby, in a lengthy discourse 
 before an audience composed of noblemen, and
 
 40 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 other distinguished personages, at MontpeHer, 
 attempted to explain the rationale of its opera- 
 tion upon philosophic principles. His views 
 in relation to the emanation of light, the im- 
 pinging rays of the sun, the formation of wind, 
 &c., as bearing on his doctrines of the Sympa- 
 thetical Cure, I am sorry I have not space 
 to introduce, as I am sure, that like some of 
 the propositions and arguments of Homeopa- 
 thy, if they possess no other merit, their subtle 
 and refined ridiculousness and want of common 
 sense would amuse you. 
 
 The Unguentiim Armarium^ or Weapon 
 Ointment was also used for the cure of 
 wounds, but, like the Sympathetic Powder, 
 instead of being applied to the wound, the 
 instrument which inflicted it was anointed, 
 carefully wrapped up, placed away, and dressed 
 anew whenever the wound became painful. 
 If .the sword, or instrument with which the 
 wound was made, could not be found, it was 
 thought all sufficient to make one like it, which 
 was treated as if it was the original. 
 
 The unguents used for this purpose were 
 made from human fat and blood, mummy, 
 moss obtained from dead men's skulls, bull's
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 41 
 
 blood, &c. A serious and animated discussion 
 was for a long time kept up in the Sympathetic 
 School, in consequence of a division among its 
 members as to " whether it was necessary that 
 the moss should grow absolutely in the skull 
 of a thief who had hung on the gallows, and 
 whether the ointment, while compounding, was 
 to be stirred with a murderer's knife ? " 
 
 A case is reported, in which it is said that 
 Lord Gillbourne, an English nobleman, per- 
 formed a wonderful cure upon a carpenter, 
 who had severely wounded himself with an 
 axe. " The axe, bespattered with blood, was 
 sent for, besmeared with an ointment, wrapped 
 up warmly, and carefully hung up in the 
 closet. The carpenter was immediately re- 
 lieved, and all went on well for some time, 
 when, however, the wound became exceed- 
 ingly painful, and, upon resorting to his lord- 
 ship, it was ascertained that the axe had fallen 
 from the nail by which it was suspended, and 
 thereby became uncovered " ! This was called 
 the cure by the dry way, in contradistinction to 
 the Sympathetic Poivder^ which was called the 
 cure by the wet way. 
 
 There is no want of evidence to prove that
 
 42 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 this practice was extensively resorted to, and 
 performed many very astonishing cures, not 
 only in the treatment of wounds in the human 
 subject, but also in those of the lower order of 
 animals. Lord Bacon alludes to it in his 
 "Natural History," and speaks of the high 
 testimonials in its favor. Sir Walter Scott, in 
 the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," introduces 
 the practice thus : — 
 
 " But she has ta'en the broken lance, 
 And washed it from the clotted gore, 
 And salved the splinter o'er and o'er, 
 William of Delorain in trance. 
 Whene'er she turned it round and round, 
 Twisted, as if she galled his wound; 
 Then to her maidens she did say 
 That he should be whole man and sound." 
 
 Dryden makes Ariel say, when speaking in 
 reference to Hippolito's wound : — 
 
 " Anoint the sword which pierced him with this 
 Weapon salve, and wrap it close from air 
 Till I have time to visit it again." 
 
 Perhinism^ or Metallic Tractors^ was a true- 
 born Yankee, and I am proud to say, I believe 
 it is the only thing of the kind that we ever 
 floated upon our transatlantic brethren. Dr. 
 Elisha Perkins, a native of Norwich, Connect- 
 icut, made known the discovery of a remedy
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 43 
 
 for the cure of rheumatism, inflammations, and 
 various other complaints, ^yhIch he termed the 
 " Metallic Tractors," and which also bore the 
 name of the inventor — " Perkinism." This 
 great discovery (!) was made shortly after 
 Galvani had completed his experiments and 
 discoveries in relation to the effect of two dif- 
 ferent metals in producing muscular contrac- 
 tions, when applied in contact, which were 
 published to the world for the first time, about 
 the year 1791, and from which it is supposed 
 Perkins borrowed the idea upon which he 
 founded his system. 
 
 This system consisted of two small bits of 
 metal, one iron and the other brass, of the 
 same shape and dimensions, about three inches 
 long, pointed at one end and blunt at the 
 other. These were to be drawn over the dis- 
 eased organ for about twenty minutes, and the 
 cure, as many were willing to vouch, followed 
 in a very few minutes after. The inventor 
 took out a patent for the discovery, was ex- 
 pelled from the Medical Society to which he 
 belonged in consequence, and very soon ob- 
 tained high evidences of the value and success 
 of the practice by a number of cures which
 
 44 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 were affirmed by clergymen, members of Con- 
 gress, &c., who also very modestly gave it as 
 their opinion that it was the most important 
 discovery ever made in the Medical Science — 
 surpassing even those of Jenner and Harvey. 
 Thus panoplied, in two years they had crossed 
 the Atlantic. In Copenhagen they were em- 
 ployed at the Royal Hospital, and a large 
 volume was published in the Danish language 
 containing accounts of experiments with them, 
 and, in illustration, a vast number of cases in 
 which they had performed cures. Among the 
 highly educated and intelligent population of 
 London they received much favor, and by them 
 a Perkinean Institution was founded, and the 
 distinguished Lord Rivers elected its President, 
 and eleven other gentlemen, scarcely less dis- 
 tinguished, were elected Vice-Presidents. The 
 transactions of this Society were regularly 
 published, and the triumphs of the system 
 celebrated by public banquets. 
 
 Among those worthies who sent their evi- 
 dence across the water, the names of thirteen 
 clergymen, besides members of Congress, and 
 other functionaries of minor importance, appear. 
 A " Perkinistic Committee " in Great Britain,
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 45 
 
 in making their report, stated — " ^Ir. Per- 
 kins has annually laid before the public a large 
 collection of new cases, communicated to them 
 for that purpose by disinterested and intelligent 
 characters, from almost every quarter of Great 
 Britain. In regard to the competency of these 
 vouchers, it will be sufficient simply to state 
 that, amongst others whose names have been 
 attached to their communications, are eight 
 professors in four different Universities, twenty- 
 one regular physicians, nineteen surgeons, 
 thirty clergymen, twelve of whom are doctors 
 of divinity, and numerous other characters of 
 equal respectability." 
 
 In different parts of Europe it is said that 
 the demand for these little pieces of metal was 
 so gfeat, that ,the mechanics could not manu- 
 facture them fast enough to supply the wants of 
 the people ; and although the labor, together 
 with the materials of which they were com- 
 posed, was not really worth more than a few 
 cents, they were greedily purchased at twenty- 
 five dollars a pair, which was the regular price 
 of the patentee. All benevolent females car- 
 ried a pair in their pockets to use on persons 
 who were not able to purchase them ; poets
 
 46 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 courted the Muses in recording and consecrat- 
 ing their many triumphs ; royalty and nobility 
 smiled upon them, and the clergy were indus- 
 trious with their pens in writing lengthy arti- 
 cles, in order to spread their usefulness. One 
 wrote in metaphoric strains as follows : — ''I 
 have used the Tractors with success in several 
 other cases in my own family, and although 
 like Naaman the Syrian, I cannot tell why the 
 waters of Jordan should be better than Abana 
 and Pharpa, rivers of Damascus ; yet, since 
 experience has proved them so, no reasoning 
 can change the opinion." Thus verifying the 
 lines of Burns, that — 
 
 Ev'n Ministers, they hae been kenn'd, 
 
 In holy rapture 
 A rousing whid to vend 
 
 And nail 't wi' Scripture. 
 
 It were useless to enumerate the many evi- 
 dences of the positive success of this practice ; 
 page upon page, and indeed volumes might be 
 filled up with examples of the kind. The 
 number of cures reported to have been per- 
 formed in a very short time, in Great Britain, 
 amounted to 5000 ; and the number estimated 
 from the best data the friends of the system
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 47 
 
 could gather, including those not regularly 
 reported, amounted to one million and a half. 
 The mass of the medical profession, compre- 
 hending the more enlightened and independent 
 of its members, opposed the practice .and pro- 
 nounced it a delusion, — not, however, without 
 first making experiments and ascertaining that 
 wooden tractors (the patients not being aware 
 of the deception) produced effects quite as sud- 
 den, and relief full as marked as when metallic 
 ones were used. For their opposition they 
 were accused of the basest motives and feelings, 
 in terms like the following : " For very obvious 
 reasons medical men must never be expected 
 to recommend the use of Perkinism. The 
 Tractors must trust for their patronage to the 
 enlightened and philanthropic out of the profes- 
 sion, or to medical men retired from practice, 
 and who know of no other interest than the 
 luxury of relieving the distressed." And 
 again, in the shape of a query — " Will the 
 medical man who has spent much money and 
 labor in the pursuit of the arcana of physic, 
 and on the exercise of which depends his sup- 
 port in life, proclaim the inefficiency of his art, 
 and recommend a remedy to his patient which
 
 48 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 the most unlettered in society can employ as 
 advantageously as himself"? Much offense 
 was taken (as we see now is the case with the 
 friends of Homeopathy), at any attempt to class 
 this system of practice in the same category 
 with those acknowledged delusions which had 
 preceded it ; in relation to which Perkins him- 
 self says : — " The motives which must have 
 impelled to this attempt at classing the Metallic 
 Practice with the most paltry of empirical proj- 
 ects, are but too thinly veiled to escape detec- 
 tion." 
 
 Notwithstanding the great popularity of this 
 system ; its thousands of vaunted cures ; the 
 brilliant hopes which it excited in the lovers of 
 health and longevity, and its prevalence even 
 in the present century, it has yet been buried 
 so long in the tomb of its sisters, that I doubt 
 whether many of you ever heard more of it 
 than what has just been detailed. During the 
 last summer I commissioned a friend, who was 
 visiting the Eastern cities, to procure Dr. Per- 
 kins' book for me, who assured me that he had 
 searched, faithfully, all the bookstores that he 
 could find in three or four of the largest cities 
 in the United States, without being able to find
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 49 
 
 a man who had ever heard the subject mentioned 
 before, until at last he met with one who 
 laughed outright as he propounded his inquiries, 
 and, in explanation to my somewhat offended 
 friend at this novel reply from a stranger, told 
 him that he had once been a melancholic, and 
 that his physician had recommended to him the 
 reading of this book, which he did very much 
 to the exercise of his risible faculties ; and that 
 his question had suddenly brought to his mind 
 two very ludicrous subjects — Perkins' book, 
 and his disease. Since that I have made other 
 efforts to procure the book, but have not been 
 able to do so, and all that I know about the 
 subject I have gathered from Reviews. Here 
 allow me to acknowledge my indebtedness for 
 most of the facts which I have obtained in re- 
 lation to it, to that beautiful little book written 
 by our distinguished countryman, Oliver Wen- 
 dell Holmes, M. D., of Boston, entitled, " Ho- 
 meopathy and its Kindred Delusions." 
 
 It may here be mentioned to the credit of our 
 profession, that, although we oppose these sys- 
 tems of delusion during the days of their 
 triumph and prosperity, yet when they have 
 outlived the aflPections of their best friends, and 
 4
 
 50 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 are called upon to yield up the last lingering 
 spark of vitality, then it is that the firm and 
 faithful enemy who opposed their progress in 
 life, steps forward, and magnanimously per- 
 forms for them the last sad offices — sees them 
 quietly entombed, and writes their brief history 
 and epitaph. This is a duty always left for us, 
 and most cheerfully we perform it ; and, dis- 
 claiming any feelings of irreverence in the sacred 
 figure, may we not say, if not " first at the 
 cross," we are at least " last at the sepulchre." 
 Such is a brief and very imperfect enumera- 
 tion of the vast amount of " facts," in the form 
 of cures, reported by men of high literary, 
 scientific, and political distinction, which, amid 
 all the light of Christianity and science, ren- 
 dered formidable medical delusions as gross 
 and contemptible as any that ever marked the 
 darkest days of superstition and barbarism. 
 Alas, for that word " facts " ! It is indeed 
 a potent word, but, in our modern vocabulary, 
 what is it ? Ghosts are facts to some, but sun- 
 shine never shone on ghosts, and midnight 
 always wraps them and the — facts. Comets 
 portended wars — was a "fixed fact" for cen- 
 turies ; but unfortunately science became too
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 5l 
 
 wise for the omen, and comets turned from 
 prophets into things. It is a most accom- 
 modating name, as it will humor any whim or 
 subserve any conceit. One man makes it an 
 ignis-fatuus. One stamps it on an invention of 
 perpetual motion; a second on a huge air- 
 carriage that is to navigate the atmosphere ; a 
 third on the certainties of Millerism and the 
 immediate end of the world ; and the sad in- 
 mates of lunatic asylums finish the list, and, 
 in virtue of the all-redeeming force of fact, 
 claim the homage of kings and queens ! It is 
 a great Tiohhy indeed, and some men seem born, 
 (to vary the figure of Walpole) " booted and 
 spuiTed " to ride it — to death. 
 
 Of such is Homeopathy. Among the many 
 false and puerile systems of medical charlatancy 
 which have been devised by man in his darkest 
 hours of cupidity and avarice, — which have 
 bewildered and perplexed the credulous invalid, 
 and captivated and blinded the over-learned 
 out of the profession, — we regard this as the 
 most ridiculous and absurd, as well as the most 
 fantastic and worthless, fabrication ever yet de- 
 vised. The systems of medicine practiced by 
 the priests in ancient times, show us the power-
 
 52 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 ful influence which the imagination possesses 
 over disease. The folly of Sir Kenelm Digby 
 dates the correct appreciation of the principle 
 of union by the first intention, and led John 
 Hunter to comprehend and elaborate the doc- 
 trines of adhesion. The history of Paracelsus, 
 that impious charlatan and pioneer in chem- 
 istry, is an example of the fact that the minds 
 of bold and crazy empirics have sometimes 
 fostered the germs of important discovery, 
 which have afterwards been matured by patient 
 and philosophic observers. And thus by many 
 other systems of medical quackery and farrago 
 of remedies, our profession, never too obstinate 
 to 
 
 " Gather gear by ev'ry wile 
 That 's justified by honor," 
 
 has searched out the grain of wheat, and been 
 the recipient of the little of good that has occa- 
 sionally resulted from the folly of those who, in 
 different ages, have attempted its subversion. 
 I would fain think so of Homeopathy ; I would 
 fain believe that, under an exterior of falsehood 
 and deception, it yet conceals some precious 
 jewel — some latent principle, which, in the 
 hands of rational cultivators of the science of
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 53 
 
 medicine, may yet prove a blessing to human- 
 ity. But, too much I fear, that, when it has 
 had its brief race and its tale is told, it will be 
 placed on a parallel with talismans, charms, 
 Perkinism, and the hundred other exploded 
 medical delusions which have disgraced human 
 comprehension, and be remembered only as 
 one of the follies of the nineteenth century, 
 without leaving a single truth to compensate 
 for the mass of error and skepticism which it 
 has disseminated in regard to rational medi- 
 cine. 
 
 If I am asked here if I have submitted 
 Homeopathy to the test of experiment, I answer 
 no ; and for two reasons. I maintain that a 
 physician cannot conscientiously tamper with 
 the lives of his fellow-creatures, in experiment- 
 ing with any system which has falsehood so 
 legibly imprinted on its front. And, secondly. 
 Homeopathy has been subjected to trial and 
 experiment by a few of the most distinguished 
 members of our profession, who, having the 
 most ample opportunities for testing its value, 
 arising from their connection with large hos- 
 pitals (where, from some cause or other, human 
 life is not estimated so highly as with us), sub-
 
 54 PHYSIC ^ND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 mitted It to the most exact and rigorous experi- 
 ment. Among those who fully and fairly ex- 
 perimented with it, and stated their sincere 
 convictions of the utter worthlessness of its 
 doctrines and nullity of its remedies, were 
 Esquirol, Andral, and Baillie, — men known 
 over the civilized world, and whose fame ex- 
 tends wherever learning is appreciated or 
 science has a home. 
 
 It has been suggested by some of our profes- 
 sion, that, as it had long been a desideratum in 
 Therapeutics, to ascertain how far the unassisted 
 powers of nature were competent for the re- 
 moval of disease ; and, as the conscientious 
 physician was debarred from making this ex- 
 periment, as well by his own code of morals as 
 by the requirements of society, that Homeopa- 
 thy might in this way, make some develop- 
 ments, which, in the end, would prove bene- 
 ficial to our science. But this experiment 
 has been made, time after time, not only by 
 the advocates of some of the systems of delu- 
 sion which have been conceived and practiced, 
 but also by Broussais and his followers, who 
 were, at least, intelligent and qualified observers. 
 
 But even suppose, in the face of the inves-
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 55 
 
 ligations of the distinguished personages just 
 alluded to (who, though not pledged to the 
 system, divested themselves of every thing like 
 bias or prejudice, save that which will naturally 
 cling to the mind in entertaining a proposition 
 so utterly opposed to common sense and com- 
 mon reason), that a necessity for an experi- 
 ment of the kind did still exist, could we hope 
 the friends of Homeopathy would make it with 
 a true and honest spirit of inquiry ? Could 
 we hope that the truths of this character, which 
 it might develop, would ever be faithfully and 
 fairly stated by them ? On the contrary do 
 we not see a spirit of party-warfare pervading 
 all their acts, and the feeling of deception and 
 fraud so prominent as not to escape the notice 
 of the most superficial observer? From the 
 little practical details which we have been per- 
 mitted to witness, w^e cannot refrain the belief 
 that it is not practiced with the desire, if indeed 
 with the ability, in many instances, to deter- 
 mine any important fact. Have we not seen 
 them, with venal designs too obvious, shroud- 
 ing their cases in false colors ; torturing disease 
 into being whatever it was believed w^ould give 
 the physician most eclat in case the patient re-
 
 56 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 covered ; calling simple hysteria " Ircdn fever ^"^ 
 and naming mild bronchitis '•'• 'pneumonia^'' at a 
 time when these latter affections were prevail- 
 ing, and looked upon with much gravity by the 
 scientific physician ? It is not necessary for 
 us to ^ee their cases to know they are misrep- 
 resentinff them. When we hear it circulated 
 that such an individual, dangerously ill of 
 pneumonia in the second or third stage, or any 
 other disease involvino; orcranic lesion to the 
 same extent, was cured in " fifteen minutes," 
 or fifteen hours after the administration of the 
 first globule or drop, we want no higher evi- 
 dence of its falsehood than the simple statement 
 of the " fact." From our knowledge of dis- 
 eases, of their morbid anatomy, and of the 
 time which Nature requires to repair her in- 
 juries, we know that such statements are in- 
 consistent with her order, and cannot possibly 
 be true. But thus 
 
 " The whole ear of Denmark 
 
 Is, by a forged process, 
 
 Eankly abused." 
 
 I have known little coincidences, or " Homeo- 
 pathic cures," as they were termed, but really 
 unimportant and of no force or value in fact, 
 which, after being circulated a few days by the
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 57 
 
 friends of the- system, were so magnified and 
 distorted that scarcely any of their original 
 features could be recognized : — 
 
 " The flying rumors gather' cl as they roU'd, 
 Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told; 
 And all who told it added something new, 
 And all who heard it made enlargements too; 
 Jn every ear it spread, on every tongue it grew. 
 Thus flying east and west and north and south, 
 News travel'd with increase fi'om mouth to mouth." 
 
 It is astonishino; how a certain class of the 
 community love to aid and abet, with their fer- 
 vid imaginations, these idols of the fancy, these 
 mocking counterfeits and libels upon a system 
 so important to the happiness of man, that it 
 is scarcely less than sacred. We have often 
 heard such persons make statements as to the 
 sensible and powerful effects of the attenuated 
 powder or drop, and as to the results of the 
 Homeopathic treatment in the cure of specified 
 diseases, of which they themselves, perhaps, 
 had been the subjects ; but, from our positive 
 knowledge of the impossibility of there being 
 any truth in them in reality, and in order to 
 free them from the charge of misrepresenting 
 facts, which otherwise might follow, we have 
 almost been tempted to hope that they had not
 
 58 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 the same '^ dimensions, senses, affections, pas- 
 sions," — not " subject to the same diseases, 
 healed by the same means, warmed and cooled 
 by the same winter and summer," — not mani- 
 festing the same phenomena, or bound by the 
 same laws and restrictions which Nature has 
 imposed upon ordinary mortals, and " that 
 some of Nature's journeymen had made them, 
 and not made them well, they imitate humanity 
 so abominably," if we are to credit their own 
 statements. 
 
 When, as has sometimes been the case, we 
 have been forced to listen to the vagaries of 
 these zealous proselytes to Homeopathy, we 
 could not refrain the thought that it was unfor- 
 tunate for the perpetuity of kindred delusions 
 which have long since perished, that they did 
 not live in the days of alchemy, of the doctrine 
 of signatures, of amulets, of charms, or the 
 sympathetic cures. They could then have 
 feasted their admiring eyes upon the philoso- 
 pher's stone, and, with the aid of the elixir 
 vitce, lived on to tell us of those good old days, 
 and marvel yet at the still greater develop- 
 ments of Samuel Hahneman. Without con- 
 sulting books or Dutch doctors, they could
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 59 
 
 have read on every medicinal substance the 
 disease to which it was appHcable ; in the coral 
 which the fond mother still hangs round the 
 neck of her helpless babe (unconscious of the 
 superstitious origin of the custom), they could 
 have found wonderful efficiency in portray- 
 ing the phases of Protean disease, and in " keep- 
 ing off evil eyes, and devils ; " with the Druids 
 of Gaul and Britain, they could have watched 
 the hours of the moon, and, when it was six 
 days old, cut the mistletoe with a golden knife, 
 as their voices made rich melody in chanting 
 the choral hymns, or resounding through the 
 groves the mystic chorus of Derry down ; and, 
 doubtless, under the direction of Sir Kenelm 
 Digby, they could have washed their hands in 
 the reflection of a moonbeam and found much 
 and potent humidity therein ! 
 
 Exaggeration, however, is one of the infirmi- 
 ties of human nature. The desire to attribute 
 every simple and ordinary phenomenon to the 
 operation of some wonderful and unnatural 
 cause, is an inherent faculty of some minds, 
 which, together with a knowledge of the ex- 
 tremes and errors into which an ideal and fer- 
 vid imagination sometimes betray enthusiasts,
 
 60 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 may form an apology for these miraculous 
 statements — so often in opposition to the well 
 established laws of Nature. 
 
 The science of medicine has had many ob- 
 stacles and hindrances to its progress, and 
 many vicissitudes of fortune. At one time the 
 pet of monarchs and royalty ; at another time its 
 professors were banished from the classic shores 
 of Italy, and the practice of medicine positively 
 prohibited in the Roman empire for a number 
 of centuries. But, strange as it does seem, one 
 of the greatest stumbling-blocks in its path has 
 ever been the interference and influence of the 
 clergy. Nor need we, for proof of this, recur 
 to the pages of fabulous history, where we 
 gather that, after the gold had been laid upon 
 the altar, the pain-stricken victim reposed upon 
 the skins of sacrificed rams, that, through the 
 intercession of the priests, they might receive 
 heavenly visions in lieu of the anguish of dis- 
 ease. The clergy have ever had an " over- 
 weening desire " to dabble in the affairs of 
 medicine, and especially during those dismal 
 centuries denominated the dark ages, they 
 were not satisfied with corrupting and adul- 
 terating the doctrines of Christianity, and pros-
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 61 
 
 tituting their own sacred calling to unholy 
 purposes, but claimed and exercised the right 
 of practicing medicine, which they incumbered 
 with the A'ilest charlatanry, and disgraced with 
 the grossest superstitions. Indeed, the outrages 
 and enormities of this class of individuals had 
 reached to such an extent in this particular, that, 
 in the twelfth century, the more liberal and 
 enlightened of their order thought it necessary, 
 for the protection of the laity, to interfere and 
 prohibit their " attendance at the bedside of 
 the sick, except as ministers of the consolations 
 of religion." This right, however, they were 
 loth to give up ; for free access to the sick, and 
 the power which the authority of the physician, 
 added to the terrors of the Church, gave them 
 over the fears and apprehensions of the invalid, 
 enabled them to enforce much more easily their 
 pecuniary exactions. Repeated edicts of this 
 kind were passed, and, though threatening those 
 who should infringe them with the anathemas of 
 the Church, they still rebelled ; and, it was not 
 until the passage of " a special bull permitting 
 physicians to marry," that the evil began to 
 abate. Medicine was not entirely divorced 
 from its pernicious union with theology, until
 
 62 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 the revival and spread of letters. Even as late 
 as 1518, we see the " Bishop of London and 
 the Dean of St. Paul's possessed of the impor- 
 tant privilege of examining and admitting 
 medical candidates to practice within their 
 jurisdictions ; while other bishops claimed a 
 similar power within their several dioceses." 
 And the abrogation of this privilege and power, 
 so full of danger to the community, and so fatal 
 to the science of medicine, was at last effected 
 in an indirect manner by the efforts of Linacre, 
 who, with a view to this end, procured the 
 establishment of the College of Physicians in 
 London in 1518. 
 
 Although I approach with much delicacy 
 and deep solemnity any accusation calculated 
 to reflect discredit upon this truly noble and 
 philanthropic class of men, yet the charge of 
 meddling in the affairs of our calHng has fre- 
 quently been made against them, even at the 
 2oresent day^ and I fear too often not without 
 good grounds. Happily for both Christianity 
 and medicine, the two professions have been 
 separated ; but, although the substance has 
 been wrung from their grasp, yet, through the 
 Influence over human opinion which their
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 63 
 
 talents and social position give them, the clergy 
 still wield a shadowy sceptre over the pros- 
 perity of our calling. In making these re- 
 marks, I would do violence to my own feelings 
 were I not to state my knowledge of the fact 
 that their interference at the present day does 
 not arise from the same motives which prompt- 
 ed those pseudo-saintly men of olden times, 
 who, whilst they perverted and profaned the 
 doctrines of Christianity, constituted a libel 
 upon our science. But the fact cannot be 
 denied that, in too many instances, it is their 
 practice to embarrass, rather than promote, our 
 science, and to encourage the vain and inso- 
 lent quack, who deserves their pious indigna- 
 tion more than their zealous aid. How often 
 do we see the filthy patent nostrum rendered 
 palatable and find ready sale by the indorse- 
 ment of some minister of the Gospel ? And 
 what medical heresy floats in the breeze, that 
 does not find favor and patronage through the 
 example and influence of some of these right 
 reverend gentlemen. All this, I verily believe, 
 is but the offspring of the purest philanthropy 
 on their part, and the natural and instinctive 
 desire, which every good man has, to render
 
 64: PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 assistance to the suffering and afflicted ; but it 
 does appear to me that any one, who will re- 
 flect but a single instant, cannot fail to perceive 
 that such conduct is fraught with mischief to 
 the community, and full of injustice toward 
 us. We would not desire to restrict them, so 
 far as they are individiiallif concerned, to any 
 system of medicine ; neither would we have 
 them travel out of the pale of their sacred 
 calling to enter the personal conflicts of human 
 affairs. We do not ask them to aid us, for we 
 regard the holy mission, and the robes with 
 which Heaven has clothed them, as too pure to 
 be soiled in the advocacy or defense of any 
 system, of the true merits of which they are, 
 in all prohahility^ ignorant. 
 
 We desire to speak with truth, and with 
 veneration too, and thus saj?- to these holy men 
 of the cross, who think proper to invade our 
 precincts : You have given us wise and friendly 
 admonitions relative to that awful eternity be- 
 yond the grave : for this, and for your noble 
 efforts in the cause of humanity, we esteem 
 and venerate you. To your opinions and ex- 
 ample the world has vouchsafed an influence 
 in most of the affairs of life, and in the pro-
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 60 
 
 fession of medicine not less than any other. 
 This profession, you will concede, touches 
 more immediately the temporal happiness of 
 man than any other — your own not excepted. 
 If you have devoted the energies of your life 
 to the glory and advancement of that calling 
 for which Heaven has ordained and appointed 
 you, you cannot be presumed to be competent 
 judges and advisers in matters pertaining to 
 ours ; and, when you come in contact with its 
 affairs, we therefore entreat you, as you love 
 virtue and scorn vice, to be careful how you 
 throw the weight of your influence between 
 the man who cultivates it as a high and noble 
 science, and him who fraudulently follows it as 
 a trade. In your own families you have some- 
 times required our services : under such cir- 
 cumstances have you not always found us 
 liberal, rendering our aid freely, without re- 
 muneration ? This you had no right to expect, 
 any more than that the carpenter should build 
 your house free of charge, for the principle 
 that the laborer is worthy of his hire, is as 
 applicable to physicians as any other class of 
 men. Of this we do not complain, but recur 
 to it only as showing an elevated sjnrit in the 
 5
 
 66 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 profession. It is a custom, grown into law by 
 lono; usage, and we trust it will long continue 
 prominent among the many other features 
 which dignify our code of ethics. Often we 
 have met : sometimes in the business pursuits 
 of life, sometimes in our social intercourse with 
 the world ; but, oftenest we have met around 
 the sick-bed, or the couch of death — amid the 
 anguish of the dying and the lamentations of 
 grief. Sometimes in the palace of wealth, it is 
 true, where the victim of disease was sur- 
 rounded with the " embroidered pillow and 
 the purple canopy," and every luxury which 
 wealth could command ; but, often we have 
 greeted each other in the lowly and comfortless 
 hovels of poverty, where we had gone — we to 
 " blunt the arrow of death," you to administer 
 a sacrament to the soul, — under circumstances 
 which could promise no other compensation to 
 either of us, than the approval of that con- 
 science which whispers to us in our retirement 
 and solitude, " well done thou good and faith- 
 ful servant." From all this you should learn 
 that as it requires, to be successful in the treat- 
 ment of the spiritual diseases of man, a single- 
 ness of purpose, so also, to be competent in
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 67 
 
 the management of his tempOT'al ailments, re- 
 quires more study and observation than your 
 leisure should have permitted you to bestow. 
 
 Thus much, I hope we may be permitted to 
 say in opposition to what we believe to be an 
 error of many of the clergy — an error of " the 
 head, not of the heart." We have often 
 listened to reproof from them. Seldom have 
 we indulged in censure. 
 
 There is another class of men, who occasion- 
 ally distract public opinion in regard to the 
 value of rational medicine, by being found 
 advocating some of these popular humbugs. 
 These are known by the very imposing title of 
 ^^ retired physicians ! ^^ Men who have come 
 into the ranks of medicine, shared its honors 
 and reaped its rewards — perhaps without de- 
 serving either; men, who, probably through 
 the force of circumstances, cunning and chi- 
 canery, have cheated a community into patron- 
 age and confidence, and who, after gathering 
 enough of this world's goods, have retired from 
 its precincts, and, viper-hke, turned and stung 
 her whose breast had warmed and nurtured 
 them into existence. Oh ! I have been pained 
 to hear such men laughing at, jeering and
 
 68 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 ridiculing tlieir old profession, in public places, 
 and calling its operation " murderous," (and 
 perhaps it may have been in their hands.) 
 Much importance is attached, by the non- 
 medical public, to the opinions of such men. 
 But, to one competent to judge, I imagine it 
 would not be difficult, in most instances, to 
 discover that they are as deficient in medical 
 knowledge, as they are in moral principle ; that 
 they only gathered, or had ground into them, 
 sufficient to enable them to procure a diploma, 
 or license to practice, without ever compre- 
 hending the truths or principles of their pro- 
 fession ; that, in its practical discharge, they 
 did not observe with a view of enriching a 
 noble science, or adding a superstructure to 
 the foundation which they had but imperfectly 
 laid ; and, when at last they retired from a 
 sphere for which they had never been quali- 
 fied, — taking with them only the name, the 
 errors, and the vices of an honorable profession, 
 without any of its virtues or embellishments, — 
 perhaps we should not marvel at their adoption 
 of any species of quackery, however absurd. 
 But it is hard to abide the conduct of such men 
 with any thing like patience, and we are in-
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 69 
 
 sensibly led to ask them ■ — Have you read the 
 oath of Hippocrates, or the ethics of Percival ? 
 In taking leave of this part of our subject, we 
 would recommend for the perusal and moral 
 reflection of such, a few of the verses found in 
 the latter part of the 9th chapter of Genesis, 
 in that good book, the Bible, — particularly in 
 reference to the conduct of Ham, when he dis- 
 covered the temporary nakedness and weak- 
 ness of his father, the Patriarch Noah, and 
 went about lauo-hino; to his brethren without, — 
 as compared to that of Shem and Japhet, who, 
 feeling a proper filial regard for him to whom 
 they were bound by the tenderest ties and 
 deepest obligations, " took a garment and laid 
 it upon both their shoulders, and went back- 
 wards and covered the nakedness of their 
 father." We would also ask them to note 
 the consequent rewards and punishments of 
 the several sons. 
 
 The world is frequently misled in regard to 
 the mei'its of our science, by the conduct of 
 what they terra "distinguished physicians" — 
 still engaged in the practical discharge of their 
 profession. Now, we are frequently told, as a 
 proof of the merits of some of tJa^se delusions,
 
 70 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 that physicians of eminence have become con- 
 verts to them. True, the royal touch, metallic 
 tractors, and many delusions of our own day, 
 have boasted among their converts " distin- 
 guished physicians." No wonder ! Judas Is- 
 cariot betrayed his Lord, for thirty pieces of 
 silver. The American Revolution had its 
 " distinguished " General Benedict Arnold ; 
 Paradise had its wily serpent, and Heaven its 
 rebelhous Satan. Men have proclaimed them- 
 selves heralds of the cross of Christ, and, 
 through their treachery, have brought odium 
 upon their holy calling ; and who has not heard 
 that it is sometimes true, that lovely woman is 
 wooed and won, and then abandoned by the 
 heartless wretch, when he has wasted her once 
 too alluring gold? " Distinguished physicians " 
 have not, in every instance, as much practice 
 as they would like, and are not always entirely 
 free from moral obliquities ; we have shown, 
 too, how medical humbugs occasionally infat- 
 uate and craze communities, and that quacks 
 are sometimes very formidable rivals ; and, 
 
 " When thus ripe lies are to perfection sprung, 
 Full grown, and fit to grace a Doctor's tongue," 
 
 it should not be matter of very great astonish- 
 ment, if they should sometimes
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee 
 
 Where thrift may follow fawning; " 
 
 affect to change their opinions, and to become 
 converts to one of these delusions ; coin a smile, 
 to approve the insane absurdities of an Or- 
 ganon ; drown rational medicine in the watery 
 vagaries of an ignorant German peasant, and, 
 with the earnestness of a Mussulman, " cry 
 aloud in worship of a" — 'pathy ? Or, with 
 wisdom and discretion, announce themselves 
 ready to " take truth wherever they can find 
 it," and proclaim to the world " we '11 combine 
 the two, and take the good of all." The 
 brilliant halo which surrounded Napoleon, took 
 the sycophant's blot when he worshiped at 
 every altar, and became, at the same time, 
 " a Mahometan, a Catholic, and a patron of 
 the Synagogue, . . a Christian and an In- 
 fidel!" 
 
 It is true, there are in our profession, as in 
 all others, men of gross and sensual minds, of 
 sordid and selfish views ; men of dark and 
 crooked councils, — calm-thinking, calculating 
 sycophants, whom no faith can fix in opposi- 
 tion to their interest. Such men may some- 
 times obtain distinction, but, in any event, are
 
 72 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 always willing to cringe and cater to public 
 prejudices, and will advocate the vilest false- 
 hood, provided their coffers are more easily 
 filled by so doing. Various, indeed, is the 
 moral constitution of man, and dark and fear- 
 ful the depravity of the heart to which it some- 
 times leads. One would think, however, that 
 this moral abandonment, as it raised the curtain 
 of misery and death, to feed its avaricious pro- 
 pensities amid the last and saddest scenes in 
 human life, would pall before spectacles so sub- 
 duing, that the blackest turpitude and most 
 profligate avarice might borrow from them a 
 momentary feeling of pity and tenderness ; and 
 thus beguile themselves, at least, into a tem- 
 porary virtue. But once they have taken up 
 this calling, for selfish and unholy purposes, no 
 picture can affright and no moral consideration 
 can awe them. The presence of the Lord in 
 the Garden of Eden could not restrain the 
 entrance of the Tempter ! 
 
 The practice of one of these medical delu- 
 sions, by a physician who believes it to be 
 such, we regard as one of the grossest of all 
 vices. The muffled assassin, whose hands are 
 dripping with the blood of murdered innocence,
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 73 
 
 steals upon his slumbering and unconscious 
 victim under the shades of midnight, and con- 
 ceals his dagger of death under his mantle, but 
 carries not upon his lips in syren songs the 
 delusive promises of health and security ! 
 
 Such perversions of the true and legitimate 
 objects of our profession, gentlemen, should only 
 cause us to form amonc^st ourselves the " coo;uate 
 habit of despising" the low, the hollow, and the 
 tricky ; and excite us to resist, with an honor- 
 able solicitude for the dignity, usefulness, and 
 well-being of our science, all attempts to mingle 
 with it any of those delusions which have been 
 conceived in fraud and practiced with decep- 
 tion — " to stand aloof, at a far distance, from 
 the very appearance of tampering with such 
 unholy aidances. ' To act in the spirit of 
 science where I can, by the mere light of ex- 
 perience, without scientific insight, wdiere I 
 must, but with the uniform avoidance and con- 
 tempt of quackery in all cases.' This is, or 
 ought to be, the moral code of every medical 
 practitioner." 
 
 But, gentlemen, we need not repine at such 
 things. Truth, even when clothed in its high- 
 est graces and embelhshments, has not always ,
 
 74 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 escaped the assaults of the world. Great 
 sciences, as well as great men, have ever been 
 subjected to severe trials. So true is this, 
 that it has almost grown into a proverb, that 
 " in much wisdom there is much grief," and that 
 " adversity is the only school in which genius 
 and virtue are permitted to take their highest 
 degrees." Were we not made to be tried ? 
 Is there any sentiment, principle, or affection 
 of our nature, that knows not this all-pervad- 
 ing law, and will not eventually glory in this 
 all-ennobling experience ? The martyrs of 
 science and truth have, in all ages, and in all 
 lands, made science and truth what they are ; 
 and it is our part to suffer, that we may learn 
 our strength and realize our power. Delusions 
 and impostors have always had their friends 
 and advocates. But, wherever found, and 
 however operative, it is consoling to remember 
 that quackery, like all other species of dema- 
 gogueism, belongs to the things that float in 
 the air, but fix not upon the rock. It makes 
 no appeal to what is permanent in oui* being. 
 It cannot have an enthronement in the upper 
 firmament. It is too short-sighted to see its 
 own policy, and too narrow-hearted to feel its
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 75 
 
 own defects. It may worship Neptune on the 
 sea, Pluto in the bowels of the earth, or Jupiter 
 in the upper regions, but even idolatry scorns 
 a divided heart, and abhors the treachery of a 
 time-serving offering. It may cry " hosanna " 
 to-day, and " crucify him" to-morrow, but the 
 words perish in the foul atmosphere that breeds 
 them. It may pander to the grosser passions, 
 but it is the everlasting law^ that passion should 
 recoil in fiery vengeance on whatever has de- 
 scended to its own level and polluted itself in 
 its own corruptions. The time-serving of Na- 
 poleon met its reward at the battle of Water- 
 loo, and on the dreary rock of St. Helena ; 
 remorse for treachery planted in the bosom of 
 Judas his own sword, and retributive heaven 
 directed the lightning's stroke to the tomb of 
 Arnold. 
 
 No, gentlemen, we need not repine. The 
 impure exhalations may rise from the earth and 
 obscure the sunshine ; the landscape may darken, 
 and the sky be covered with gloom ; but the 
 same cloud holds the electricity, that shall soon 
 dart its vivid lightnings, and burst its heavy 
 folds. It is so with truth and error. The one 
 is omnipotent, the other feeble. The one is
 
 76 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 immortal, the other perishable. Wherever 
 there is a great thought, a just philosophy, a 
 rational science, the interests of humanity are 
 united with it, and heaven will see that its 
 foundations shall not be overthrown, nor its 
 utility permanently invaded. Thus with ra- 
 tional medicine. When the evanescent ex- 
 crescences, which spring up around it, shall 
 have perished and passed from the memory of 
 man, it will still stand — an emblem of virtue, 
 to wisdom a monument, for humanity at once a 
 beacon and a trophy. 
 
 " P"'ond impious man ! think ye yon sanguine cloud 
 Eaised by your breath, hath quenched the orb of day? 
 To-morrow he repairs his golden flood, 
 And warms the nations with redoubled ray." 
 
 Now, gentlemen, addressing myself exclu- 
 sively to the junior members of the association, 
 allow me to remark : You have attached your 
 fortunes to a noble profession, but, at the same 
 time, an exacting one ; — one that requires all 
 your affections, all your attentions, and the 
 best and highest exercise of your talents ; but 
 one also that will fully reward you for all your 
 toil and labor. But, gentlemen, if you are 
 ambitious of public applause, and frequent 
 popular tributes of respect, in this you will
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 77 
 
 generally be disappointed. Your paths will 
 not be strewn with flowers, and your highest 
 and worthiest intellectual efforts and triumphs, 
 as w^ell as your best deeds, will generally remain 
 concealed from the world at lar^e. The life of 
 a physician, however wise, is alwaj's quiet and 
 peaceful, and generally obscure. It is not like 
 that of the orator and statesman, wdio, in re- 
 counting the deeds of illustrious ancestry, and 
 alluding to the heritage of national honor and 
 glory, inflames the feelings of patriotism, and 
 fires and moves with his passionate eloquence 
 the popular masses ; or the poet, whose tender 
 and melting strains of thought, woven into har- 
 monious verse with the richest and choicest 
 language, charm the sense, enchant the ear, 
 and fill the lipart with the most touching and 
 intense emotions. These are but some of the 
 pleasures and pastimes of an intellectual life — 
 they flatter pride and gratify ambition, wdthout 
 the toils which we endure, or the unpleasant 
 scenes which we witness. Neither is it like 
 that of the military chieftain who carries his 
 armed legions to battle, and revels in victory, 
 though it be over the gory bodies of a thousand 
 slain of his fellow-beings. This is the " pride.
 
 78 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 pomp, and circumstance of glorious war ! " 
 This the world calls greatness ! This the 
 world calls glory ! This, the world says, 
 " makes ambition virtue ! " For this the 
 gaudy pageant moves, the triumphal car is 
 decked, and the voices of millions unite in songs 
 of praise to the heroes of Marengo and Water- 
 loo. Not so with the physician, gentlemen. 
 He goes forth to battle against disease, which 
 in itself is repugnant to his sight, and leaves 
 no pleasant reminiscences with the patient or 
 friends. His march is often lonely, and per- 
 chance amid the perils of a stormy and star- 
 less night. His victory may be signal and 
 complete, yet success on his part does not erect 
 the triumphal arch, or swell the bosom of the 
 multitude. His victories are the peaceful tri- 
 umphs of observation and reason. His trophies 
 are the heralds of health, and the subjuga- 
 tion of the common enemy of man. His re- 
 joicing is the lulled pain, the returning bloom 
 of a wan and hollow cheek, and the voice of 
 gratitude. These, though noiseless, are grate- 
 ful emblems to him — they gratify his highest 
 aspirations. 
 
 Let your labor, gentlemen, be " a labor of
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 7'.^ 
 
 love," and believe me, it will be no difficult 
 task to read your ultimate destiny and final 
 reward. Few, if any of you, are so poor or 
 humble as many who have risen by their patient 
 labor in the fiekls of medicine to the highest 
 ranks in society. Remember Winther, famil- 
 iarly known in his early youth as the " beggar 
 of Deventer," who, through his own unaided 
 merit, rose from the humblest walks in life to 
 the highest distinction. Conrad Gesner, too, 
 who was so humble as to commence life in the 
 capacity of a menial servant, but by his own 
 labor was justly regarded, before the days of 
 Linnaeus, as the father of systematic Botany. 
 The great Dupuytren was "compelled, from 
 poverty, to trim his students' lamp with oil 
 from the dissecting room ;" and most of the emi- 
 nent living surgeons of France have " succeeded 
 without friends, interest, or pecuniary assistance, 
 in attaining enviable positions among the scien- 
 tific men of Europe." The distinguished Civ- 
 iale, Roux, and Velpeau, " rose from the lowest 
 depths of poverty by dint of their own un- 
 friended apphcation," — the latter of whom, 
 independent of his arduous practical duties, is 
 said to have supphed, up to his forty-sixth year,
 
 80 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 tlie almost incredible amount of "more than 
 twenty-five thousand pages for the press." 
 
 These examples, and numberless others of a 
 like character, are familiar to you all, and need 
 not be referred to by me as worthy of your 
 emulation. Recent demonstrations tell me you 
 are not wasting your time by the way-side, 
 but that your hours are devoted to the cultiva- 
 tion and improvement of your profession ; the 
 present occasion, and the large audience of 
 physicians before me, speak a kindling zeal in 
 jts behalf; and I hope to see the day when, 
 through your efforts, the profession of medicine 
 in our State will stand second to none other in 
 the scale of social and intellectual rank. Even 
 now " methinks I see her as an eagle, mewing 
 her mighty youth and kindling her undazzled 
 eyes at the full mid-day beam, purging and 
 unscahng her long abused sight at the fountain 
 of heavenly radiance, — while the whole noise 
 of timorous and flocking birds, with those also 
 that love the twilight, flutter about amazed at 
 what she means." 
 
 In the exercise of your profession you prob- 
 ably have, and will continue to meet with the 
 'unjust censure and ingratitude of those who
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 81 
 
 are Incapable of properly appreciating your 
 services ; and possibly the worldly returns 
 which it may make you, will be inadequate to 
 your bodily toil and mental anxiety. Indeed, 
 this is altogether hkely ; for the world has but 
 a very limited conception of the amount of 
 mental anguish and suffering'which we endure, 
 when it presumes that we can be compensated 
 for it independent of their sympathy of feeling 
 and friendship. The life of a physician is one 
 of peculiar hardships, not always properly esti- 
 mated even by those who are the recipients of 
 its fullest beneficence. His days are spent in 
 visiting chambers of disease and death ; sympa- 
 thizing with his fellow-creatures, his heart often 
 grows sick and faint with their suffering. He 
 denies himself the pleasures and social enjoy- 
 ments of home, kindred, and friends, to accom- 
 plish some errand of mercy. In his toil and 
 anxieties for that of others, his own health is 
 wasted. At night, when all others retire within 
 the bosoms of their families, and forget the dis- 
 turbing cares of business in intercourse with 
 the dearest associates of the heart — the sweet 
 and endearing converse with wife, and the 
 prattling innocence and fairy enchantments of 
 6
 
 82 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 children around the knee — he can calculate 
 with ^certainty upon no such relaxation. When 
 Sunday comes, he is not permitted to retire to 
 his closet and spend the day in communing 
 with his God, or to obey with regularity the 
 mellow summons of the church bell. Truly 
 has it been said, that — 
 
 " Even Sunday shines no Sabbath day to the physician." 
 
 Can pecuniary compensation alone reward him 
 for all this, without the kindness and interest 
 of friendship and gratitude? He who thinks 
 so has but a very limited conception of the 
 amount of mental endurance and anguish in- 
 volved in such a life. 
 
 But, gentlemen, our life is not all a gloomy 
 picture. It has, too, its green spots. Some of 
 the most cherished and lasting friendships which 
 you will ever form, will have had their begin- 
 ning in a professional intercourse ; and you will 
 find that, amid all your hardships, and the 
 rudeness of a few unfeeling ones, there will be 
 many whose eyes, even in health, " will mark 
 your coming and look brighter when you 
 come ; " and who, in disease, will be lulled 
 into quiet from your presence alone.
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 83 
 
 " At his approach complaint grew mild, 
 And when his hand unbarred the shutter, 
 The clammy lips of fever smiled 
 The welcome that they could not utter." 
 
 (Lines often quoted, but they never weary a 
 physician's ear.) Such tokens speak to the 
 heart, in language mute and noiseless, but 
 the deafest hear. When Swift bitterly com- 
 plained of being ill, — 
 
 " Far from his kind Arbuthnot's aid, 
 Who knew his art but not his trade," 
 
 the sentiment was a welcome offering to the 
 distinguished personage whose character it thus 
 briefly portrayed. 
 
 There is yet a higher, a nobler, and a richer 
 inheritance, which, for a virtuous and honor- 
 able servitude, your profession never fails to 
 bequeath — the happy consciousness of having 
 been instruments of lessening the load of human 
 suffering. All your charities to the poor, and 
 your good and benevolent deeds to mankind 
 generally, will remain a constant source of 
 pleasure to you in after-life ; like the dew 
 which rises from the surface of the river, and, 
 clustering on the verdant foliage which over- 
 hangs the stream, drops again into the bosom 
 from whence it emanated, purified by its tern-
 
 84 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 porary absence. It is, in itself, a purifying 
 and ennobling profession. This is manifested 
 jn the lofty spirit which it inspires, as we read 
 prominent in the arch of its ambition — its 
 highest aim, its holiest hope, the end and goal 
 of all its aspirations — the amelioration of liw- 
 man suffering! How pure the example of 
 piety, how lofty the ambition which it testifies ! 
 How bright, how beauteous, when compared 
 to the numerous devices for the infliction of 
 cruelty and pain which so often engage human 
 invention ! 
 
 The recollections which follow him who has 
 pursued the profession of medicine with a strict 
 adherence to the spirit which its code of ethics 
 inculcates, must inspire old age with grateful 
 reminiscences, and yield a full reward for the 
 hardships and perils which were joyless and 
 even painful at the time they were endured. 
 When man reaches that stage of life in which 
 ambition ceases to disturb the mind, and power, 
 with its serfs and sycophants and sceptres, 
 loses its earthly interest in the contemplation of 
 a future state ; when wealth, with its glittering 
 symbols of pride and pomp, no longer inflates 
 the mind with a feeling of contentment ; when
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 8o 
 
 the plaudits of fame are insipid, and " all the 
 blandishments of life are gone ; " when the 
 grave is mocking all his earthly possessions, 
 and beckoning him on to his last and final rest- 
 ing-place on earth, — then it is that the vir- 
 tuous physician, whose sinews have grown old 
 and stiff in his kind ministrations to human 
 suffering, like the " philosopher seated amid the 
 ruins of some ancient temple, which speak that 
 some time they were a worthy building," calmly 
 reviews his life, and reflects with grateful pride 
 and pleasure that he has not lived in vain ; that 
 through his instrumentality others have been 
 permitted to enjoy the matchless blessing of 
 health, and that his life has been one faithful 
 ministry to man and God. 
 
 In this retrospect, upon his memory there 
 comes, peradventure, the recollection of " burn- 
 ing sands and bitter waters ; " of the ingrati- 
 tude and keen injustice of friends, by whose 
 couch he has often kept vigil, with limbs weary 
 of much doing, and eyes heavy of long watch- 
 ing ; sad scenes of human misery are brought 
 to view, many of which, to his terror and 
 warning, often called to his mind that fixed 
 law, that frightful truth, that emblem of the
 
 86 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 appointed scheme of Nature's God — " dust 
 thou art and unto dust thou shalt return." 
 And here, too, perchance, there comes upon 
 his memory the recollection of that fond 
 mother, whose child he once saw suddenly 
 taken from her. Does he not remember how 
 it pierced his heart, when he saw her, in her 
 almost frantic grief, bending in tenderest affec- 
 tion over the little babe who had been the day- 
 spring of her existence, bathing its bloodless 
 cheek with her own tears, muffling her pent-up 
 agony, as though fearful its outburst would 
 scare the little fluttering spirit hence, and clasp- 
 ing its almost lifeless body as if to chain it yet 
 longer to earth ? And ah ! how much was his 
 own grief heightened, as he felt and realized 
 that soon, instead of a mother's lap, the coffin 
 in the lonely mansion of the grave would be its 
 cradle, and that, instead of a mother's voice, 
 the sad and mournful winds of Heaven would 
 sing its nightly lullabies ? And when at length, 
 overcome by a scene so awfully, so painfully 
 sublime, and unwilling to disturb a picture so 
 heavenly, he turned away, does not that voice 
 still echo in his ears, as in her wild despair she 
 grasped his arm and imploringly cried — "Oh
 
 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 87 
 
 Doctor ! Doctor, do not leave me ! save my 
 child ?" Such is an example of the scenes of 
 woe, the hours of grief in which we mingle 
 and with which we sympathize. TJiey leave 
 their impress upon the hearty and, though pain- 
 ful, are durable mementos of a high and holy 
 calling. 
 
 I see some before me whose locks are whiten- 
 ing for the grave — war-worn veterans in the 
 cause of humanity. And, methinks, I see 
 such even now, in their contemplations, as the 
 remembrance of some benevolent act or pro- 
 fessional kindness calls to their minds the 
 acknowledgments of gratitude as they came 
 fresh and gushing from the heart of some 
 friendless inmate of a lowly dwelling. How 
 grateful to the recollection ! Stealing upon 
 the memory like some loved strain of music 
 heard in boyhood : kindling in that old but 
 tender heart a serene and quiet pleasure, and 
 wooing it to forget the harshness and asperity 
 with which similar deeds have too often been 
 requited. From such we prefer to ask counsel, 
 rather than give it. If they have pursued their 
 vocation in its true spirit, a generous benevo- 
 lence, an extended humanity, and a self-sacri-
 
 C5 PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS. 
 
 ficing charity — those vestal virtues which 
 adorn and decorate man — were early wedded 
 in their bosoms, and have kindled in their 
 hearts a mingled flame, whose rays have ever 
 cast a pure and mellow brightness around the 
 bed of suffering. A comfort to the rich, it has 
 been a balm to the hearts of the poor ; and, 
 whether basking in the noontide of prosperity 
 and affluence, or trembling in adversity and 
 want, it has never foru;otten the holv alliance 
 which gave it birth. It now clings to the heart, 
 illuminates the soul, and hallo^vs the profession 
 which it at once typifies and venerates, and 
 their passage to the tomb will be but the har- 
 binger of their highest reward. 
 
 The stars that set to us rise on other lands 
 and beautify other skies ; and so, departed 
 worth and honored genius are never lost, for 
 they carry within themselves their own immor- 
 tality. 
 
 THE END.
 
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