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
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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.)

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    voidable error was mixed up with the truth. The history of the Jews, de- rived from writers sacred and profane, may also he appealed to as affording conclusive evidence of the existence of, and a thorough belief in, medicine. All knowledge of this subject among them, as among all other nations, was at first confined to tlie priests, and we therefore find Moses in the place of high prie9t, issuing laws and directions in regard to leprosy, and other uncleanness or disease. The views among the Jews at this period were no doubt similar to those entertained by the Egyptians, as all knowl- edge on this subject, exclusive of that afforded by direct revelation after the departure from Egypt, was no doubt that which had been obtained in the land of Egypt, as we can hardly suppose that the teachings of the pa- triarchs in this matter, if they taught at all, could have survived, as dis- tinct notions, the long and oppressive Egyptian bondage. At the death of the patriarch Jacob, his son Joseph employed Egyptians, as wc find in sa- cred writ that ''Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. [Genesis, c. 1, ver: 2.] These servants were unquestionably Egyptians, who would not have been employed to perform this last offico for the deceased patriarch, if among the Hebrews there had existed knowledge sufficient for this purpose. But later in the history of this latter people, as will be presently referred to, medi- cine, as among the Egyptians and Greeks, instead of dying out, as fancies and traditions unfounded in truth ordinarily do, had steadily advanced, and at a period when they were better able to discriminate between impos- ture and truth, commanded almost universal belief. An examination of the earliest records of the Hindoos, Chinese, Ara- bians, and at a later day the Indians of North and South America, afford the same testimony; among all we find a belief in medicine, and a system of practice. Is it not beyond all reason to suppose that this idea in regard to the truth of medicine, found to exist as the spontaneous conviction of the human mind, should havethus universally prevailed, if there were not truth connected with it somewhere? Had it passed away, as superstitions and fallacies ordinarily do, with the advance of civilization, this question could not be before us to-night; but here it is—medicine is still practiced and believed in all over the world, and that too by the wisest of our race, the test informed and the most intellectual of mankind being fche most decided adherents and supporters of regular medicine. I do not yet advert to the evidence afforded by what our profession is doing, and has already accom- plished, for the good and happiness of the human race, that being an argu- ment of no little weight as will be seen; but I have simply considered and applied one of tthe forms of evidence wTiich is urged to prove the existence of a Supreme Being and the truth of religion. I pass on to the consideration of the condition of medicine at a later pe- riod in the world's history, when civilization had extended its beneficent influences, when states were established on the basis of right, law, and or- der, when the records which have come down to us are fuller and more reli- able, and when medicine had attained a position and system worthy of a science. The limits of a lecture permit me to refer only to facts and cir- cumstances establishing the truth of medicine, without noticing the differ- ent attacks which have been met and defeated, and the heresies which at various periods in its history have assailed it, which are yet attempting its overthrow, and which will no doubt continue to affliot mankind, so long as there shall be found those who are ready to use charlatanry and imposture to gratify insatiate lust for gold, and there exists in the human mind such passion for the marvellous and absurd, as must ever render man an easy victim to impudence and nssurance. But this much at least may be re- marked, that none of the different forms of quackery which either hereto- fore have attracted, or are at present gulling the people, possess the evi- dence of truth which I am now considering, and are therefore declared, so far as this evidence goes, to be utterly false.