History of the expulsion of Drs. R.S. Newton and Z. Freeman from the Eclectic Medical Institute : with the causes which rendered it necessary, and an exposition of the slanderous and factious course which has been pursued by the off-casts from the Institute / by W. Sherwood.

  • William Hall Sherwood
Date:
[1856?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the expulsion of Drs. R.S. Newton and Z. Freeman from the Eclectic Medical Institute : with the causes which rendered it necessary, and an exposition of the slanderous and factious course which has been pursued by the off-casts from the Institute / by W. Sherwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    performed ; and Mr. L. will not gay it was true. The infamy ot the act lies, not merely in its cunning se- cresy, but in its assassin-like purpose, and its utter falsehood; it would have been thoroughly criminal without the extra meanness of the concealment. Knowing what Dr. Newton has done in this ease, without apology or repentance, can any one doubt that if, in any other case, honest men were engaged in a struggle against fraud and violence, Dr. New- ton would be very apt to sympathize with the fraud- ulent, and to assist them, by the same assassin-like ehanje's, secretly circulated. We have no doubt that he has, in this very manner, secretly made bat- tle for adulterated medicines, against a Faculty Struggling to uphold professional honesty.* We may judge of his secret slanders from the character of his public calumnies. The depraved character of Newton's Express, and the manner in which its editor sought to use it as an instrument of power, was alluded to by Dr. L. E. Jones, in 1853, showing, that from its editor's unscrupulous character, it was ready to be used, at any time, to blacken the reputation of young men, commencing their professional career. Thus, it enjoyed the same kind of influence which is exer- cised by the scandalous black-mail sheets of the worst class of publications. This has been fully verified since; a large num. ber of graduates of the Institute have been assailed by name, in the Express, because they would not sustain Dr. N., and pay for his worthless diplomas. He supposes, that by gratuitously puffing those who patronize him, or those who have not actively op- posed him, and denouncing, personally, those who refuse to sustain him, he can drive a considerable number into the support of his spurious organiza- tion. Whether the profession will tolerate such Satanic press manoeuvres remains to be seen. Such was the exposition by Dr. L. E. Jones, in 1854, of the professional character of Dr. Newton. Coarse and vindictive as his language was, his spe- cific accusations against Dr. Newton were generally based on facts, and although Dr. Newton was de- fended by the Committee of Eclectic Physicians from the previous attack, the third pamphlet re- ceived no answer. It was not convenient then to make any answer. Tho members of the Faculty were not willing to say that Dr. Newton was a learn- ed, or even a well-qualified teacher—their defense would have been too lame to do him much service. But the pamphlet had very little weight, because it contained so many misstatements and misrepresen- tations of well known facts, and manifested such a rancorous malice, it was very little regarded ; and moreover, as the Committee of Eclectic Physicians, of which Dr. Powell was chairman, remarked, Dr. L. EL Junes himself had not sufficient char- acter for veracity. The pamphlets of Dr. L. E. Jones were uninten- tionally of great service to Dr. Newton, for the ma- jority of the Faculty, as early as the spring of 1S54, had becomo deeply disgusted and dissatisfied with Dr. Newton, and nothing did so much to uphold him as the fact that he and the Faculty, generally, ♦Since the opinion was formed, it has been verified to the letter. f)r. Newton, following iu his own footsteps, regard- less of the past denunciations of the press, lias brought Out again a i>a(<li of queries in his scurrilous Express, of such a character that no ono could have written them who had not beoOms oalloui to al! sense nf shame. They are of the pame character as his infamous Martha Washington article--, and convey the insinuation that members of the Faculty are connected with the underground railroad—a wilful, malicious and groundless fabrication as he knows. were assailed by Dr. L. E. Jones. The Faculty were not willing to aid Dr. L. E. Jones, by making a violent rupture in tho college, and throwing Dr. Newton overboard to unite with Dr. Jones, as it was even then affirmed by Dr. Bickley, that he was capable of doing. [Dr. Bickley understood him then, and knew him to be a desperate demagogue.] Dr. Newton was sustained and borne with, simply because he was a selfish and dangerous man, who would not hesitate to destioy that which he could not make profitable to himself. He was of little scientific utility as he was, but dangerous as he might be; as an old writer says of some people, that they are like a crumb of bread in the throat, which gives very little nourishment if it goes right, and a great deal of annoyance if it goes wrong. The chief value of Dr. Newton to the Institute was as a publisher, a business man, and a politician, lie attended to matters which no one else of the Faculty wished to engage in, and for such purposes he was considered desirable. All the reputation that he has ever acquired for science, has been acquired by three methods ; 1st. By getting into the company of scientific men ; 2d. By getting scientific men to write for him, and prepare articles or books to be published in his name; and 3d. By a system of advertising and puffing. The Faculty announcements, of course, spoke as favorably as possible of Dr. Newton. The Dean set forth the pretensions of Dr. Newton according to his own claims and statements, without knowing anything of thecharacter of his Lectures, which he had not heard. Yet with all the desire existing to uphold the Faculty against outside attacks, there is no instance on record in which the Dean ever pro- nounced him a man of learning, an able professor, a competent teacher, a man of fine talent*, or even competent to authorship. During the year of his first appointment, not one complimentary word was published in reference to Dr. Newton, as was cus- tomary in reference to other professors. During the second year, 1852, the same silence was ob- served. During the third and fourth years, 1853 and 1854, he was complimented at a mode of help- ing him against the attacks of Br. L. E. Jones, by describing his mode of lecturing as stated by him. self and speaking of him as the most prominent Eclectie practitioner and surgeon in Cincinnati, (where he had so little Eclectic competition,) a prominence gained by the arts of advertising chiefly—also by referring to his having had the proper education, or preparation, and to the won- (kr'ul success which he claimed in practice. In 1853, having lost all confidence in Dr. Newton's ve- racity, the Dean struck out of the Announcement all reference to Dr. Newton's wonderful success, as claimed by himself, and to his mode of lecturing, since the character of his lectures became somewhat known to his colleagues, saying nothing in his be- half, except to refer the reader to what was known of his reputation, and to his success and stand- ing as a practitioner, to which Dr. Newton added, in the printing office, one of the author* q/JVeir- ton's and PokcU's Practice of Medicine. The Dean, through politeness, allowed the interlineation to re- main as the book was among the text books which Dr. Newton announced for his department. I have been particular to explain this matter, as it seems to be the only peg upon which Dr. Newton bangs his hopes, of credit for scientific knowledge, and he is continually parading boastfully the par- tial recognition which he once received from those who were forbidden to criticise him.