Various

“ In all cases art and observation precede and beget science, and give origin to its gradual construction. But soon science, so built up, begins to reflect new light upon its parents—observation and art—helps them onward, expands the range of vision, corrects their errors, improves their methods and suggests new ones. ”

“ From the earliest ages the pains and disorders of the human body must have arrested men's anxious attention and claimed their succor. The facts observed, both as to hurts and diseases, and as to their attempted remedying, were handed down by tradition or by record from generation to generation in continually increasing abundance, and out of the repeated survey and comparison of these has grown the recognition of certain laws of events and rules of action, which together constitute “medical science.” ”

“ Here is an universal and very strange infirmity, impeding speech, the origin of which must be anterior to the formation of languages. Hippocrates, the “Père de la Médecine,” Galen and Aristotle attributed it to an abnormal moisture of the brain and tongue and to a defective construction of the tongue, and their theories have been revived by modern writers. We find in Aristotle a double definition that stammering is an inability of articulating a certain letter, and stuttering an inability of joining one syllable to another. ”

“ But when there is some definite end to be accomplished, some gross wrong to be righted, some persecuted physician defended, there ought to be some organization including physicians of all schools, independent of the medical societies as now organized. When a physician is sued for damages, if his case is worthy of being defended, the entire profession ought to lend him their moral as well as financial support, and this could be rendered in no way better than by means of some organization similar to the Medical Defense Association of England. ”

“ The more scientific physicians well know and admit that a good pharmacist can better judge of a compound than a physician, who seldom stops to test it, but prescribes it a few times and, in many cases, never thinks of it again, or, perhaps, not until he presents his bill and finds the patient's money all gone for semi-proprietary medicines that cost from fifty to one hundred per cent. ”

“ Hippocrates is the first writer of medicine whose works have come down to us with anything like authority other than fable. Indeed, he was the most celebrated physician of antiquity. He was the son of Heracleides, also a physician, and belonged to the family of the Asclepiades, said to be about eighteen generations from Æsculapius. ”

“ His statue in this temple was formed of gold and ivory, and represents him as a god seated on a throne, and holding in one hand a staff with a snake coiled around it, the other hand resting on the head of a snake; a dog, as an emblem of watchfulness, at his feet (an intimation very appropriate for the medical profession) . The Asclepiades, the followers of Æsculapius, inherited and kept the secrets of the healing art; or, assuming that Æsculapius was merely a divine symbol, the Asclepiades must be regarded as a medical, priestly caste, who preserved as mysteries the doctrine of medicine. ”

“ The manufacturers of the new butter should expend their efforts and their money in perfecting their process, so as to give an innocent and useful food, and in proving that it is so, instead of opposing the action of the Board of Health. The verdict of the health authorities should be regarded as final by every individual of the public, and until the new article is pronounced at least harmless, no one should think of using or handling it any more than they would measly pork or spoilt fish. ”

“ A pharmacist that will not exert himself to furnish the very best article for a physician's prescription is not entitled to the physician's respect. But for a physician to expect a pharmacist to send all over town for some foreign preparation that might, in almost all cases, be 115better made at home, affords a weapon to retard medical science and advance the nostrum manufacturer. ”

“ Purdy, a well-known and esteemed physician, gave notice to the health department of New York City, in accordance with a regulation of the sanitary code which makes it the duty of physicians to notify this department of cases of infectious diseases, that in his opinion a young woman who was under his treatment was suffering with smallpox. The department sent one of its medical officers to investigate the case. The diagnosis made by Dr. Purdy was then confirmed and by the authority of the board of health the patient was transferred to the smallpox hospital. ”

“ Tarnier also, in introducing his axis traction forceps to the profession in 1877 (for an account of which see British Medical Journal, May 26, 1878) , proves by means of diagrams and figures that, “in pulling on the classical forceps, it is impossible to make the traction exactly in the line of the pelvic curve,” and that two forces are actually exerted—one in the direction of the inferior straight, and the other at right angles to this in the direction of the pubes, while the head tends downward in the pelvic curve—the resultant of these two forces. ”

“ The movements performed by the respiratory organs for the modification of the currents of air being produced by muscles owing their activity to nerves—motor and sensory—and the vocal organs being, like all parts of the organism, provided with nerves, it becomes evident that a general excitation of the nervous system, or any unusual excitement of the motor-nerves in action, will affect the muscles, cause irritation and create disturbances in inspiration, expiration and speech. ”

“ As to prognosis, I will say that all stoppages in speech, accompanied by spasms, sometimes hardly perceptible, and which are not the result of paralysis or lesion, may be classified as stammering-stuttering, and can always be cured, whatever may be their origin or cause, or their intensity, and that it is only a question of time and perseverance even for the most stubborn cases. ”

“ Frequently physicians are accused of malpractice, and rather than undergo the expense and inconvenience of a suit they will submit to an extortion of money; or if a suit is lost in court through prejudice, unjust decisions, inability to secure good council or other unavoidable cause, rather than undertake to carry the case to a higher court, the physician will pay the damages, and thus establish a precedent which renders every physician under similar circumstances liable to a suit for damages. ”

“ He will stop on the street and direct a discomfited stranger, and has been frequently known to turn aside from his duties and accompany the lost one to where he could take care of himself. This is a natural element in the entire populace, and is very prominent in the medical profession. A stranger is welcomed so heartily that he feels at home immediately, and can settle down among friends. ”

“ A physician once told an apothecary that he prescribed fluid 114extracts because he found them more reliable than the tinctures. This was not true, and could not be proven. Upon investigation it was found that his prescribed dose of fluid extract of digitalis was equivalent to fifty-five drops of the tincture, a dose larger than he intended to prescribe. With such science the witch-hazel doctor will ride a high horse, and come in on the home stretch with flying colors. No singer can sing well who sings too many songs, and no beginner will prescribe well who prescribes too many medicines. ”

“ Others will follow their example if they investigate and master their remedies.
Having no time to continue this rehearsal, I close with a plea for more science, more investigation, that we may not have to send to Buffalo for syrups of Dover powder or farther east, west or south for nostrums, but master the remedies we have, saving to the physician and patient from fifty to one hundred per cent., thus mitigating the popular cry of the high price of medicine. ”

“ Forty and forty-five years ago a surgical craze, originating in Germany as a pretended cure of speech defects, was raging all over Europe. Stammerers and stutterers suffered a variety of operations, the horizontal section of the tongue, the division of the lingual muscles, the division of the genio-hyo-glossi muscles, the cutting of the tonsils and uvula, etc. Such suppression and mutilation of the vocal organs could not bring any cure, as it was proved, and some patients having died, the operating craze was put to an end forever. ”

“ The treatment of stammering-stuttering, which does not comport any operation nor drugs, is purely educational. It consists in remedying the defect and teaching properly the science of speech. Still, I think, that in many cases a strict attention ought to be paid to hygienic measures; some medical care and prescription would help the patient and the instructor. ”

“ Science may be defined as “classified knowledge.” But all our knowledge is based on experience and observation. Medical science, like other sciences, taking the definition of Sir John Herschel, is “the knowledge of many, orderly and 98methodically digested and arranged so as to become attainable by one.” ”

“ While the Dogmatists, or as they were sometimes styled, the Rationalists, asserted that before attempting to treat any disease we ought to make ourselves fully acquainted with the structure and functions of the body generally, with the operation of medicinal agents upon it, and with the changes which it undergoes when under the operation of any morbid cause, the Empirics, on the contrary, contended that this knowledge is impossible to be obtained and if possible is not necessary ”

“ Professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine in the Medical Department of the Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. It may not be inappropriate to give in your journal a brief sketch of the history of medicine, by the consideration of which we may come to a better appreciation of our present standpoint as medical men. We may also the better understand how much we, as medical men, and the world at large, are indebted to the methodical, plodding workers of the past in the field of inquiry pertaining to the nature and cure of disease. ”

“ The influence exercised on the voice and speech by the respiratory mechanism is so considerable that a variety of theories on respiration have been advanced and discussed by physicians and specialists, not only with reference to speech impediments but specially for singing, elocution, acting and public speaking, and also in reference to general health. ”

“ Mastering the few is said to be the key to success, and the writer believes it, for he has seen it proven. An eminent physician from New York was once called in consultation to a western city. His prescription was mercury iodide, potassium iodide, and infus. gentian. He stated (and the other physician said, “I see”) that the only object of the potassium was to dissolve the mercury iodide. But potassium's great affinity for iodide accepted it, at once dropped the free mercury to the bottom, likely to be taken all at the last dose, equal to fifteen or twenty grains of blue pill. ”

“ In all varieties and forms of stammering-stuttering all the vocal organs can be blamed, and have, in each case, to be reformed and improved. In the majority of cases we find some traces of the organic peculiarities aimed at by authors, even if their influence is doubtful. Respiratory trouble is at the bottom of every case. The internal organs, and the tongue, the 112lips and jaws are to some extent in an abnormal condition, and suffer a convulsive spasm; they have to be treated, strengthened and made flexible. ”

“ Do not think from this that I undervalue the original work done by the great teachers of local dermatology, for they have taken vast strides in the advancement of the science, but other lines of thought and investigation are needed to broaden the scope of the earnest student. The work before me, as its name implies, is a practical treatise on diseases of the skin, of about four hundred pages, with especial attention to diagnosis and treatment. ”

“ There is good reason for the belief that Egypt was the country in which the art of medicine, as well as the other arts of civilized life, was first cultivated with any degree of success, the offices of the priest and the physician being probably combined in the same person. In the writings of Moses there are various allusions to the practice of medicine amongst the Jews, especially with reference to the diagnosis and treatment of leprosy. ”

“ Axis traction forceps are coming more and more into favor, Lusk's modification of Sarnier's forceps being used. Simpson's axis traction forceps is also much used in this country and in Germany. The form used by Dr. Lusk's assistant and in use in Karl Braun's maternite in Vienna, with a hinge jaw where the blade joins the shaft and traction handles, allows more motion of the head and has a number of other advantages.
Electricity is coming more and more in vogue as an oxystocic. It seems to hasten labor without increasing pain. ”

“ This man with a long name—Archagathus—was succeeded by his pupil, Themison of Laodicea, the founder of a sect called Methodics, who adopted a middle course between the Dogmatists and Empirics. During the greater part of the first two centuries of our era the Methodics were the preponderating medical sect, and they included in their ranks C. Aurelianus, some of whose writings have come down to us. ”

“ Just as in many synthetically manufactured wines and cigars, which are not chemically essentially different from the article they imitate, but are fraudulent because they are sold as imported or genuine, which they are not.
If the goods are good, let them be sold for what they really are; and if the old-fashioned butter is higher priced, let those of us who like pay the difference for our fastidiousness. ”

“ These diseases, which are called diseases of the skin, are not so in reality. They belong more or less to the entire organism, revealing themselves upon the external integument with visible and palpable peculiarities which enable us to form an opinion as to their true nature. ”

“ The same practice is approved by the light of latest science.
Chiron, the Centaur, is said to have introduced the art of medicine amongst the Greeks, but the early history of the art is entirely legendary. Æsculapius appears in Homer as an excellent physician of human origin; in the later legends he becomes the god of the healing art. ”