An address to the annual convention of the Medical Society of Connecticut, convened at Hartford, May 10, 1837 / By Thomas Miner.

Thomas Miner

Date:: 1837

Credit: An address to the annual convention of the Medical Society of Connecticut, convened at Hartford, May 10, 1837 / By Thomas Miner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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a In the first place, our system has hitherto worked well, and to the great benefit of the public has given the profession of medicine an elevated position, which it otherwise could have hardly reached. Notwithstanding every regulation, some unworthy officers are to be found in the army and navy; in the law, there are several who are little more than pretenders ; and our schools are not always furnish- ed with suitable teachers ; but on the whole, all these departments have been improved, just in proportion as the laws have been strictly executed. ‘The state of our profession is exactly parallel. Quackery and false pretensions, in a great measure, are excluded from our body. In order to be a quack, a man must now openly avow himself to be one, before all the world. People, who are so ignorant or so gullible as to employ him, are not deceived by a hid- den pitfall, but plunge into the gulf with their eyes open. It isa common idea, I well know, that quackery has much increased, of late years. ‘This is very questionable, and on a little consideration, most probably, will be found to be a mistake. While human infirmity is the same as at present, there is always likely to be about the same proportion of attempts at imposition and delusion. It only operates in different ways, and exhibits itself un- der various garbs. Formerly, empiricism, in a greater or less de- gree, tinged most of our physicians, and therefore, the counterfeit was often found in the same purse with the sterling coin. Now, though the wheat may not be entirely winnowed from the chaff, it is not noxious from being intermingled with tares. Each portion is by itself, and easily distinguished. Empiricism, therefore, makes a greater show, assumes a more formidable appearance, and seems to have much increased, though it may not be, by any means, more general or extensive, as respects numbers and limits. It is very possible, in reality, that it should increase in noise and impertinence, just in proportion to its ill success and want of employ. Clamor of this kind is not rare in the world. Further, quackery has become organized ; it has its associations, conventions, and secret unions, so as to be one of the most hideous and impudent monopolies, which has ever appeared in civilized society. Who would have believed, that in the boasted light of the nineteenth century, a body of empi- rics, a monopoly that excludes and condemns all who are not initia- ted into its mysteries, and of course who are not as ignorant and dis- honest as themselves, could have been organized upon the principles of ignorance, fraud, and impudence? ‘That all the qualifications, which should be required to make a man fit to take charge of the health and life of his fellow creatures, consists in purchasing a book for twenty dollars, with an oath or promise of secrecy as to its con- tents? It is said, though I do not know upon what authority, that the price is now reduced, so that any one may become a physician, for the trifling sum of five dollars. Upon such a disgusting subject, as that of being obliged to defend learning and science, with the ex- perience of ages, against the most palpable ignorance and imposture,

An address to the annual convention of the Medical Society of Connecticut, convened at Hartford, May 10, 1837 / By Thomas Miner.

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