Address before the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York : delivered May 10, 1865 / by the president, Henry D. Paine.

  • Paine, Henry D.
Date:
1865
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address before the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York : delivered May 10, 1865 / by the president, Henry D. 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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    ADDEES8. It is one of the most remarkable thing's in the world, and at the same time, one of the saddest and most lamentable, that the practice of medicine, an art of daily necessity and of daily exercise, which most nearly affects the dearest interest of mankind, and to the improvement of which we are encouraged and impelled by the strongest motives of interest and humanity, of love for our neighbor and zeal for our profession—should, after a proba- tion of so long a period and a recorded experience of at least two thousand years, still remain, as it confessedly does in most respects, and as usually understood, an instrument of such doubtful and uncertain application. Admitting, as we must, that in the nature of things it is one of the most difficult of all arts—dealing with elements and phenomena the most complex, variable, subtle and uncertain—admitting all this, it must nevertheless, seem strange to the thoughtful mind, that with opportunities of daily ob- servation, continued through so many centuries, and by so many interested and anxious observers, there should be so little, either in matters of fact, or theory, that can be considered as settled and established. The phenomena of health and disease, and the effects of drugs and all other agencies capable of influencing the human syssem, however intricate and obscure, are strictly matters of observation; and it would appear reason- able that in the course of time—longer or shorter—some fixed principles ' concerning the manner in which these phenomena and these effects occur, should have been evolved and established, and the relations between them so recognized and defined as to be made available in the cure of the sick, the relief of the suffering and the prevention of disease. That this expectation, both moderate and reasonable, has not been ful- filled in any satisfactory degree, so far, at least, as the dominant and hitherto prevailing systems of practice are concerned, is evident. Not only have the wits and satirists of every age found in the uncertainties, absurdi- ties and inefficiency of medicine, abundant food for their ridicule and their sarcasm, but thoughtful and philosophic men, both in and out of the pro- fession, have admitted and deplored its low estate and tardy progress. There is scarcely a point relating to the nature of any disease or its proper treatment—or the nature, effects, and use of any medicinal agent, upon which there is not to be found the greatest diversity of opinion and practice among medical men. Not only do the writers of one age or country controvert and oppose the views and practice of a previous era or another country, but cotemporaneous physicians of the same school and nation, of the same city or district, are far from being unanimous on these subjects. Nay, examples will readily occur to every physician here present, of pro- fessors in the same college, teaching doctrines and insisting upon principles utterly diverse and irreconcilable with each other.