Introductory lecture before the medical class of the Kentucky School of Medicine : on the truth of medicine as evinced by its origin, progress and present condition / by N. B. Marshall.

  • Marshall, N. B.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture before the medical class of the Kentucky School of Medicine : on the truth of medicine as evinced by its origin, progress and present condition / by N. B. Marshall. 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.)

    10/22
    prepared to sec a short time afterward the ample testimony furnished by one of the books of the Bihle to the great value of medicine, the truth of the art, and the great good and benefits it is capable, under the blessing of Providence, of affording our race. What can be more full, more direct, and I may add, without, I hope, being charged with overweening pride in my calling, more appropriate than these words? 1. ''Honor a physician with the honor due unto him for the uses which ye may have of him, for the Lord hath created him. 2. For of the Most High conieth healing, and he shall receive honor of the king. 3. The skill of the physician shall lift up his head; and in the sight of great men he shall be in admiration. 4. The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them. >. Was not the water made sweet with wood, that the virtue thereof might be known? 6. And he hath given men skill, that he might be honored in his marvellous works. 7. With such doth he heal [men] and takcth away their pains. 8. Of such doth the apothecary make a confection ; and of his works there is no end; and from him is peace over all the earth. 9. My son, in thy sickness be not negligent, but pray unto the Lord, and he will make thee whole 10. Leave off from sin, and order thine hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from all wickedness. 11. Give a sweet savour, and a memorial of fine flour ; and make a fat offering, as not being. 12. Then give place to the physician, for the Lord hath created him ; let him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him. 18. There is a time when in their hands there is good success. 14. For they shall also pray unto the Lord, that he would prosper that which they give for ease and remedy to prolong life. : Now this, as well as all that has been said, can only apply to medi- cine at that day, and from which regular medicine is descended. All that was believed then is not believed now, but many of the principles then laid down are not disputed to the present day, while we have been steadily advancing, adding improvement to improvement, and relinquish- ing error, according as the sagacity, research and observation of inves- tigators could eliminate more and more of truth. If, then, these obser- vations apply to medicine at that day—and who can deny it?—they cannot apply to any of the fancies with which crazed or designing brains have attempted to overthrow what is here so emphatically ad- mitted, and by such silence in regard to them, as much as they could by direct abnegation, ignore them all. But it will surely be claimed that these innovations are improvements on the regular system, and, being derived from it, the above testimony does apply to them. It will apply certainly as much to one as to another of them, to Thompsonian- lsm, Homeopathy and all that ilk. Are they all right? All claim to be so, and equally condemn each other and regular medicine. There is and can be no common ground between regular medicine and any of these absurdities; they are at utter variance and antagonism. There can- not be two truths asserting entirely opposite doctrines; either they, or some one of them is true, and medicine false, or vice versa. They are opposed to what was then admitted to be true; they did not exist, nor the semblance of any one of them at that day, and as the testimony above adduced can only refer to what then existed, it cannot apply to any of the forms of modern quackery, but must point to regular medi- cine, and to that alone. They apply as much, and no more, to all of SEcclesiasticus, chap, xxjcviii, ver. 1 to 14 inclusive.