Dermatology in America : being the president's address before the first meeting of the American Dermatological Association, at Niagara Falls, New York, September 4, 1877 / by James C. White.

  • White, James C. (James Clarke), 1833-1916.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dermatology in America : being the president's address before the first meeting of the American Dermatological Association, at Niagara Falls, New York, September 4, 1877 / by James C. White. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    humanity. On broader principles a hospital board which cannot rise above the petty jealousies of individuals or cliques, which in these days of wonderful advance in special medicine can see no wider field of usefulness than its antiquated divisions of medical and surgical service, with their restricted modern signification, offer ; which fails to perceive its duty to develop means in every practical direction, for the advancement of progressive medical education, is open to the criticism of the profession at large and should receive it. Until such reform is effected we shall have in this country no hospitals worthy the name of general or great. Let it be our most constant endeavor to create the sentiment in the public and profession which shall make such a reproach no longer possible. And our relations to the profession at large and to the public : are they what they should be in all respects ? The hostility which at first existed against all specialties affected that of dermatology also, and has not yet wholly subsided. Physicians, who openly confess ignorance in all matters relating to skin diseases, and who would not venture to attempt the diagnosis and treatment of simple affections of the eye and ear for instance, do not hesitate to as- sume the care of every cutaneous disease which falls in their way. There is the disorder immediately before them, they can at least do no serious harm by their management of it, and such affections are not fatal, they reason. Moreover, they know so little of the advances made in modern dermatology, that they do not know how much more may be known by others than by themselves. Deeply rooted errors, too, with regard to the nature of some of the most common affections, and which form a large part of popular belief concerning cutaneous disease, still hold possession of the professional mind, or are made use of by some for selfish purposes. We constantly hear in our practice patients say that their family physician had advised them, often after ineffectual attempts to cure, that this or that chronic affection had better be let alone, that it would get well of itself, that it would not do to “drive it in,” or that it might “strike in,” and hint at possibly fatal results if it should be treated by the specialist. Such pan- dering to popular ignorance, or intentional perpetuation of error, cannot be too strongly condemned. Another popular belief is that the skin in some way serves as a mirror which reflects upon its surface visibly the disorders of the internal economy, and that ‘ humors ’ and other vices of the blood work their way outwards through the skin, and there express themselves in the form of various eruptions. The skin has thus lost its individual character in disease, and come t<*be held merely as a sort of index of the internal system ; and the immediate conclusion of most persons with any affection of the skin is that ‘ the blood must be out-of- order, or that they have scrofula, or a ‘ humor.” What this last word means nobody knows, so that it may be disregarded as something which does not exist, but so far as concerns the