Public opinion being unenlightened in medicine, physicians should not be influenced by it : an address to the graduating class of the Medical Department of the University of Nashville / by Paul F. Eve.

  • Paul F. Eve
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Public opinion being unenlightened in medicine, physicians should not be influenced by it : an address to the graduating class of the Medical Department of the University of Nashville / by Paul F. Eve. 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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    [19] exhibits a failure in the proportion of 444 cases out of a practice in 450, and where the regular profession was beaten three to one by the unlawful demands of the public. Another marked instance of the great misconception of our science occurs in the short sentence met under the editorial head (Gazette) of one of our daily papers. It reads thus: God cures (sometimes) and the doctor takes the fee. We utterly deny both allegations of this very brief sentence. The doctor does not take the fee, for it is neither offered, nor could it be obtained were he to try. About one half of his services are gratuitously rendered. In what other profession or calling of life is there so much charity practice? The other affirmation, that God cures sometimes, is equally erroneous. Physicians never cure—cannot cure. They may prevent, allay, possibly control some affections, but nature alone docs the work of resto- ration—it is God who healeth all our diseases. You see, then, gentlemen, from what has been advanced, that all classes in society, the best informed as well as the most vir- tuous, arc unenlightened in the science of medicine. Hence we find little or no distinction made between the physician and the boastful pretender in the healing art, between the learned and illiterate, and were we'to yield to the opinions of those around us, the practice of our profession would soon become a mere traffic in secret prescriptions for the name of diseases. But fortunately for the good of mankind, and the advancement of medical science, its cultivators have pursued a very different course from that which the public have suggested, and seems yet obstinately determined to enforce. To this very day, igno- rant empirics and designing impostors hold competition with the wisest and best in the profession. Despised, neglected, un- known and rejected as a science, except on certain occasions and under peculiar circumstances, its intercourse with the world
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