A defence of the medical profession of the United States : being a valedictory address to the graduating class at the medical commencement of the University of New York, delivered March 11, 1846 / by Martyn Paine.

  • Paine, Martyn, 1794-1877.
Date:
1846
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A defence of the medical profession of the United States : being a valedictory address to the graduating class at the medical commencement of the University of New York, delivered March 11, 1846 / by Martyn Paine. 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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    riority of the British modern medical practice, but also reasons for an impartial man to pause upon the claim'' Such, it appears, was the admitted superiority of American over British practitioners of medicine, admitted, too, by the most able and eminent of the British profession,—by Beddoc^, Robert Jackson, and others of equal renown,—when there was only one medical school in all America, entitled to any consi- deration, and but few practitioners who had received the honor of a diploma. There was, therefore, gentlemen, in those halcyon days, no rankling jealousy, six only of the 180 professorial chairs for the watchful eye of envy, no extensive superiority to be adjusted to the Agrarian system. But, we have now some thirty excellent Medical Colleges scattered over the land, whose chairs are filled, in numerous instances, by some of the ablest men who adorn the medical profession. And what is more, and more to the honor, and welfare of our country, these thirty institutions are annually contributing about one thousand well educated men to the ranks of the profession, whose light sparkles in every hamlet, and exposes the darkness which is now rolling itself into a mut- tering cloud. Or, shall it be entertained, with the Chairman of the Committee, in behalf of the State Medical Society, that know ledge recedes in proportion to its means of multiplication? Gentlemen, in justice to myself, and the general cause which I advocate, I must be permitted to make one quotation more from my Medical and Physiological Commentaries. It cannot be denied, 1 have there said, that the Faculty of America, in a general sense, have neglected the literature of the profession, and have been even hurried by the necessities of life into its most responsible occupation without those preliminary qualifications which accomplish the minds of Europeans. This may seem to conflict with what 1 have said in another place of the ' advantages of learning. But, it is in no respect an argument against us. Minjh is owing to the national character of Ameri- cans, which is early formed in the most active scenes of life, and renders each in his place a subject of irresistible impulses in all practical pursuits. The influence of such habits on the physician I have already shown. American physicians, also, are generally conversant with the writings of those illustrious observers whom I have mentioned as their chief counsellors in the interpretation of na- ture ; and it is only within a brief period that their attention has been at all directed to those physical theories of life which have so extensively supplanted the Hippocratic and Hunterian philo- sophy in Europe. No obstacle, therefore, having been interpos- ed to divert him from his habits of observing nature, and having no leisure for ambitious views, the American physician has gone