An Essay on Demonology 21

An Essay on Demonology 21

The immortal Harvey, who, in 1628, was the author of the most

important discovery recorded in medical history, the circulation of

the blood, was subjected to base calumny and detraction, while

bestowing blessings on the world, by his noble efforts and pious

example. 'It was, I believe,' says Lady Morgan, 'late in the last

century, that Baron de Luch was executed at Turin, for having

published that the earth moves round the sun.' The Chevalier La Barre,

a minor, was executed in France for an imputed insult offered to the

crucifix.

 

But, God be praised, the rack of torture and the lighted fagot never

have disgraced our native country; nor are these horrid engines any

longer in requisition to punish imaginary crimes and to repress truth

and philosophical research.

 

A pious friend and patron of the present writer, dying in the year

1787, without heirs, bequeathed by will his whole estate, except some

legacies, to thirteen Congregational Societies in the county in which

he lived; the interest of which was to be appropriated, annually, for

one hundred years, to the purchase of certain specified religious

books, to be distributed among the said Societies. After the

expiration of one hundred years, other religious books might be

selected by the existing ministers, except, that one year in every

four, the books first mentioned only should be purchased. In less than

twenty years, the specified books becoming obsolete, new editions were

required to be printed for that particular purpose only, which

occasioned great expense. The Societies interested became dissatisfied

with their restriction to books which were constantly superseded by

more recent publications, keeping pace with progressive improvement.

They all united in a petition to the legislature that the will might

be abolished, which was granted, and the estate sold and the proceeds

divided among the several Societies concerned.

 

Change and decay are stamped in indelible characters upon the proudest

productions of man; all bequests on illiberal conditions and human

creeds to which men may cling as infallible, can be considered as

commensurate only with all earthly objects based on no permanent

foundation.

 

 

 

 

MEDICAL QUACKERY.

 

 

There may be no impropriety in adding a few pages on the subject of

Medical Quackery and empiricism, since, for more than half a century,

the writer has occasionally witnessed melancholy scenes and disasters

among his fellow-men in consequence of their nefarious practice. It is

a matter of congratulation, that from the liberal and excellent

provisions made by our legislatures, and the most ample means of

education which our institutions afford, every candidate for medical

fame may become completely qualified for its attainment. And every

town or parish may be supplied with scientific physicians, meriting

the confidence of the people; and no other should ever be employed or

encouraged, as they have peculiar claim to public patronage.

 

Notwithstanding that in all the medical institutions in the United

States, the most judicious and energetic measures have been adopted to

prevent the evils of quackery, there are ignorant and unprincipled

impostors, who set at defiance all learning and theoretical knowledge,

and practise the vilest acts and deceptions, sporting with the health

and lives of their fellow-men without remorse. Such miscreants are too

frequently encouraged by the heedless multitude, who, delighting in

marvellous and magical airs, readily yield themselves dupes to the

grossest absurdities. From one of this character we have the following

anecdote.

 

An old acquaintance who knew well the character of a celebrated

empiric, said to him, while standing at the door, 'Prithee, doctor,

how is it that you, whose origin I so well know, should have been able

to obtain more practice than almost all the regular bred physicians.'

'Pray,' says the quack, 'how many persons have passed us while you

put the question?' 'About twenty.' 'And pray how many of them do you

suppose possess a competent share of common sense?' 'Perhaps one out

of the twenty.' 'Just so,' says the doctor, 'and that one applies to

the regular physician, while I and my brethren pick up the other

nineteen.'

 

And how often have we seen the contemptible ignoramus raised by the

voice of popularity above the level of the learned and accomplished

physician, and boasting of nineteen twentieths of the practice? It is

not unfrequent that our attention is arrested by the pretensions of

prophets and mystical fanatics, who announce their pretended heavenly

mission, and treat their credulous patients with bubbles and magical

spells. The stranger, called the rainwater doctor, after gulling

hundreds of people of weak minds a few years since, disappeared,

leaving both his origin and his exit involved in mystery. But the most

audacious impostor that was ever suffered to delude even the vulgar,

was one Austin, of Vermont, who, a few years since, proclaimed himself

a prophet, and pretended to cure all diseases by prayer to heaven,

requiring no other information relative to the patient, than a few

lines requesting his prayers. Such was the credulity and such the

faith of the multitude, that letters and messengers were despatched to

him from the sick, the blind, and the crippled, from the distance of

several hundred miles, until thousands had accumulated on his hands. A

certain poor man whom I knew, became so infatuated with the prophet's

proclamation, that, after collecting letters from a number of

invalids, of all descriptions, among whom was one totally blind, and

having received contributions in money, actually performed a journey

of about two hundred miles to receive the benefit of the prophet's

prayers. But he soon returned as he went, and gained for his credulous

employers and himself no other benefit than a conviction of their

folly, and the vile imposition of modern prophets. The two jugglers

above mentioned, it is presumed, jeoparded no lives by the use of

poisonous materials, as they depended on the operation of the

imagination; but there are bolder champions of the craft who can pop

you off the stage in a moment. The country is annoyed by a train of

unprincipled ignoramuses, without reputation, who are prowling about,

brandishing the sure weapons of death, reckless of consequences. But

their punishment is reserved to the day of retributive justice. I well

recollect the following moral lesson of a pious physician. 'If a

patient die through your wilful ignorance, rashness, or careless

neglect, his blood will be required at your hands.' How much greater,

then, must be the accountability in those who administer the most

active and even poisonous materials, without the smallest acquaintance

with the human constitution or the nature of the medicine. It is

characteristic of these people, to undertake to cure incurables,

magnifying a wart to a rose cancer, a simple ulcer to a spreading

mortification, and to set bones where there is neither joint nor

fracture. Although palpable instances of death from their practice are

frequent, should a single cure happen, it is proclaimed as almost

miraculous, and the lawless miscreants are still suffered to seek

their prey with impunity, and no one tells of their thousand victims

concealed in the silent grave!

 

It is from a similar empirical source, that the public is annoyed by a

disgusting display of quack and _patent medicines_; which, through

the medium of newspapers, are impudently palmed upon public attention.

It would seem as though a host of ignorant impostors have leagued in

hostility against the profession of medicine, wishing to despoil it of

its dignity and usefulness, and prostrate its character in the dust.

The world is inundated with nostrums, usurping the power, not only to

remedy all the diseases of our nature, but actually to fortify the

human constitution, and render it invulnerable. In their ostentatious

display, they extol a single nostrum as adequate to the prevention and

cure of a whole catalogue of diseases, however opposite or discordant

in their nature. They are suited to all constitutions, as the

shoe-black's composition is applicable to _every one's boots or

shoes_. Thus are we kindly invited, at the expense of a few dollars,

to purchase of those self 'dubbed doctors,' that health and longevity

which even the judicious hand of science is unable to bestow. The

inventors and venders of these pretended specifics, in most instances,

have no knowledge of the diseases which they pretend to cure; they

depend, as it were, on a random shot, and whatever may be the issue,

they are sure of their enormous gains, from two to four hundred per

cent; articles sold for a dollar might be afforded for ten cents.

 

By such fraud and imposition, a noted Charlatan in London accumulated

such an immense fortune as to parade the streets in a splendid

equipage, the effects of public credulity. But the public may be

assured, that since the great improvements in chemical science, a

large proportion of patent medicines have been analyzed, and are found

to consist of old articles which physicians have expunged from their

materia medica, to give place to more valuable and efficacious

remedies. Here, then, is a boundless source of knavery and fraud,--but

I desire to have it understood, that these observations are not to

extend to all patentees of medical compositions, without exception,

for all are not equally censurable. Few, indeed, there are, which

scientific physicians are willing to concede may be of public utility.

But that indiscriminate application in all cases and circumstances,

should be most pointedly reprobated. Were the annual amount of money

expended for useless nostrums made public, it would excite

astonishment, and were the innumerable disappointments in their

creative powers promulgated, public indignation and contempt would be

the portion of the inventors and venders of patented nostrums.

 

There is not a more provoking absurdity, as applied to the economy of

health, than the idea of _spring medicines_, _family medicines_, _&c_,

and it should be distinctly understood by every individual, that such

medicine administered to persons in health, as preventive of disease,

as well as those administered without a skilful reference to the

present condition of the system, are absolutely dangerous to health

and life. And the same observation will apply to the practice of

blood-letting in the spring season.

 

Those who maintain the ridiculous idea that individuals are endowed

with supernatural gifts and knowledge, and become skilful physicians

without education or study, betray a pitiful credulity, equalled only

by the conceits of those who believe in ghosts and spectres, haunting

the dwellings of the dead. We now witness with the deepest interest,

the rapid strides in the march of intellect, keeping pace with the

advance of light and truth, looking for that political and moral

millenium, when knowledge will be more sought for than wealth, and the

charms of virtue more prized than those of vice; when prejudice,

superstition, and licentiousness, will be discountenanced among all

classes of mankind, and righteousness shall exalt our nation.

 

Truly 'the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places, and we have a

goodly heritage.' But it were unjust to look back to antiquity and

compare the beauties of the present day with the deformities of

ancient times; to attribute exclusive perfection to ourselves and

deprive our ancestors of their real worth and merit; for we know not

the period among them when wisdom and virtue were lightly esteemed.

Let us reflect, with religious gratitude, on the momentous privileges

and benefits bequeathed to us by our fathers. In all their actions we

trace a zealous solicitude to transmit to posterity a glorious

inheritance. Like angels of light, they would illuminate the minds of

their children, with the high importance of religious institutions,

seminaries, and free schools. If, in any form, they would enchain our

minds, it would be in the principles of civil and religious freedom,

of patriotism, philanthropy, moral rectitude, and public virtue. But

'our fathers, where are they?' Let us with laborious fidelity follow

them in every good word and work, that our children may, in the spirit

of gratitude and love, reiterate the exclamation 'our fathers, where

are they?' It is our glorious privilege to live in an age when the

elements of our terrestrial abode are rendered subservient to the most

stupendous operations. The works of men's hands appear as if endowed

with intelligence; the heated steam subverts the power of the fleetest

steed, and the facilities of traversing the earth and seas, are like

the airy flights of the feathered tribe. But oh! humbling

consideration, death triumphs over the frail nature of man; our life

is but a continued miracle, capable of being sustained only by the

hand of that omnipotent being whom we adore as the 'former of our

bodies, and the father of our spirits.' All must bow to the awful

summons, and quit this earthly tabernacle; the last remains of

mortality are consigned to the silent tomb to mingle with the parent dust.