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?]
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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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    MANEUVERS WITH THE PSEUDO-ECLECTIC CONVENTION. Second, Where agents are incapable of being tested by chemistry, the names and proportions of all the ingre- dients entering into their composition, or used in their preparation, must be made public. '■Third, Agents purporting to be pure alkaloids, resi- noids, acidfi, etc. must not be adulterated, or combined with other substances, unless tbe fact be stated on the labels. j. r. Buchanan, Dean. J. King, Secretary, Drs. Newton and Freeman did not venture to oppose these resolutions before the Faculty, Dr. F. voted fur them, and Dr. N. beard, without objection, the remark ■when the vote was taken, that they were unanimously passed. Nevertheless, they perceived the position in which they were placed, and disavowed supporting the resolu- tions, when they were published; thus, placing them- selves distinctly on the platform of quackery. The treacherous and inconsistent course which they pursued, in reference to the pseudo Eclectic Convention, was very characteristic. In May, 1861, Dr. Buchanan, then President of the National Eclectic Medical Associa- tion, perceiving that it was impossible to gather, in any convention or meeting, a national representation of the Profession, and that each meeting would be nothing more than a gathering of the physicians of the neighborhood] with perhaps a dozen from a distance, recommended such a course as honesty ar 1 truth required under such circum- stances, viz., the omission of the title national, which was untrue and deceptive; leavingeach Eclectic Medical Association to be designated by the locality at which it meets. This policy Dr. Newton agreed to sustain when he attended the meeting at Pittsburg, but it was not adopted. Probably he did not sustain it. Subsequently, the leading editorial of the Eclectic Jour- nal. .Inly, 1853, contained the following sentiments, in which Dr. N. fully coincided, although he was not the author of the article (page 311). True, we have, through courtesy, given to these meet- ings the title which they assumed as national; but we would now say that these poetical liberties in the use of language, should terminate ; and we can not recognize any local meeting of physicians (not large enough to fill a pri- vate parlor) as a national assembly. Whether such meet- ings are held in New England, Florida, or California, we shall recognize them for precisely what they are, and nothing more. Meetings at tbe eastern border of our republic are not central to the Eclectic medical profession, and consequently they merely serve the purpose of en- abling a few gentlemen residing in that quarter, to present themselves and their personal views or wishes hefore the public as national matters, emanating from the repre- sentatives of the entire profession. * * * * In fact, the National Eclectic Medical Association has substantially ceased to exist. The constitution and by-laws are here ; and tbe parties who are carrying on the cere- monies and keeping up the name, are probably not aware of the rules of the society, or that their proceedings are informal, if not a legal nonentity. We have no objection to the meeting of the friends of medical reform anywhere and everywhere; on the con- trary, we deeply regret that our conventions and associa- tions are not kept up with more spirit and extensive co- operation; but we do object to having small tecHonal meetings trumpeted abroad with national titles. Such operations resemble too closely the policy of Dr. Beach, and we hope to see no more of it. I'. S. Since writing the above, we have been informed, to our surprise, by one who had conversed with a mem- ber of the Philadelphia meeting, that it was ridiculously small—-o small that we can scarcely credit the fact that such a meeting could have assumed the title of a National Association. If our informant was correct, we think the gentlemen concerned would have acted with more dignity by laughing over the failure and adjourning sine die on tbe soot. In July, lS5.r), Dr. Newton published, in tbe Eclectic Journal, the following protest, to which he, and others of Faculty, bad previously given assent, but appended to it a qualifying postscript of his own, by which 1 e individually repudiated the idea of calling the meeting a national rion. AMERICAN ECLECTICISM—A PROTEST. In the New York Tribune of tbe Glli and 7th of June, I report of what is somewhat facetiously called the 'National Eclectic Medical Association,' consisting of an assembly, according to the reporter's count of the votes, of twenty-five medical gentlemen. It will be presumed, of course, from its high sounding title, that this assembly bore some resemblance, in its character, to the National Medical Association, and is to be considered an authorized national representative of not less than three thousand physicians, who are known as American Eclectics. As such an impression would be erroneous and unjust, permit me to remark that the so- called National Eclectic Medical Association is in no sense a national affair, and does not represent the views or sen- timents of American Eclectics. It appears to have consisted of a miscellaneous gather- ing, in which Eclecticism, Botanico-Medicalism. Thomson- i-m. Physic-Medicalism and other indescribable forms of independent radicalism, were harmoniously jumbled to- gether. As for being represented before the medical pub- lic by this accidental olla podrida meeting, I beg leave to enter a very decided protest, not only in behalf of myself as an individual and a medical professor, but as Dean, in behalf of the Faculty of the Eclectic Medical Institute, who do not desire to have the little reputation they may have enjoyed rendered entirely ludicrous by the position in which they would be placed, if the New York meeting were recognized as their representative. The Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati is tbe parent school, in which the title of Eclectic was first adopted, as a designation of liberal American principles in medicine ; anterior to which time, the title of American Eclectic was unknown. In this school a majority of those educated American Eclectics, who are fully acquainted with the American sys- tem, have received their education—tbe number of ma- triculants in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, since its establishment in 184), having been 2.143. •' We hope that the press and the public will not be deceived by the high sounding but baseless title of National Eclectic Medical Association, or attach an undue impor- tance to such unauthorized or promiscuous meetings, or bold others responsible for their proceedings, who dis- tinctly and totally disavow all responsibility for and con- nection with the New York meeting, with which they are not and will not be professionally identified. Jos. K. Buchanan. Cincinnati, June 22,1855. We copy the foregoing from the Daily Columbian, of this city. So far as we are concerned individually, and as a member of the Faculty of the Eclectic Medical Institute, we protest only against a few physicians claiming to rep- resent all the Eclectic profession, by u>in>; the title of the ' National Eclectic Medical Association,' That body of men had the right, in their own name, to make such laws, rules and regulations for themselves, as best suited them, and to such a course we have no objections. Yet. we are of the opinion that their action should be regarded by the profession as the doings of a local society, and not those of a national body. N. Yet, after this protest, in 1855, Dr. Newton found him- self, in 1856, desperately in want of friends and supporters, and determined to reverse his course, to secure the co- operation of the New York meeting, with its spurious title, which he had already condemned as an imposition upon the public. The spurious pretensions of tbat meet- ing were perfectly in harmony with his own position and character, and he knew that it was available for any bum- bog purpose that he desired. Hence, he commenced ad- vertising and pulling it in the Eclectic Medical Journal and Express, thus repudiating the policy and position of the Institute, as well as the principles of common honesty. This course of duplicity and intrigue, designed to array a spurious organization against the Faculty, aroused their attention, and the result was as shown above, that Dr. Newton, under the moral force of their indignation, which his conduct had excited, was made not only to pledge him- self, but to sign a written pledge to change bis course, and cease to uphold the New York Imposition—a pledge which be violated without scruple or hesitation. The character of this intriu'ue is further developed in the following article on conglomeration. from the Col- lege Journal, and in the indorsement of the convention by the Bot&nico-medica] organ of Dr. Curtis, as follows: '■The National Eclectic Medical Association, which con- vened in New York last June, embraced within its folds such staunch I'hysio-medicalists as II. M. Sweet, I. M. Comings, J. 1>. Friend, 1'. Stotesbury, and II. A. Archer. mention had a rough synopsis of the Baltimore Platform presented to it. and. upon full deliberation, adopted that platform as tbe expression of its own senti- ments. This was a result co wholly unlooked for, that