There may be no impropriety in adding a few pages on the subject of
Medical Quackery and empiricism, since, for more than half a century,
the writer has occasionally witnessed melancholy scenes and disasters
among his fellow-men in consequence of their nefarious practice. It is
a matter of congratulation, that from the liberal and excellent
provisions made by our legislatures, and the most ample means of
education which our institutions afford, every candidate for medical
fame may become completely qualified for its attainment. And every
town or parish may be supplied with scientific physicians, meriting
the confidence of the people; and no other should ever be employed or
encouraged, as they have peculiar claim to public patronage.
Notwithstanding that in all the medical institutions in the United
States, the most judicious and energetic measures have been adopted to
prevent the evils of quackery, there are ignorant and unprincipled
impostors, who set at defiance all learning and theoretical knowledge,
and practise the vilest acts and deceptions, sporting with the health
and lives of their fellow-men without remorse. Such miscreants are too
frequently encouraged by the heedless multitude, who, delighting in
marvellous and magical airs, readily yield themselves dupes to the
grossest absurdities. From one of this character we have the following
anecdote.
An old acquaintance who knew well the character of a celebrated
empiric, said to him, while standing at the door, 'Prithee, doctor,
how is it that you, whose origin I so well know, should have been able
to obtain more practice than almost all the regular bred physicians.'
'Pray,' says the quack, 'how many persons have passed us while you
put the question?' 'About twenty.' 'And pray how many of them do you
suppose possess a competent share of common sense?' 'Perhaps one out
of the twenty.' 'Just so,' says the doctor, 'and that one applies to
the regular physician, while I and my brethren pick up the other
nineteen.'
And how often have we seen the contemptible ignoramus raised by the
voice of popularity above the level of the learned and accomplished
physician, and boasting of nineteen twentieths of the practice? It is
not unfrequent that our attention is arrested by the pretensions of
prophets and mystical fanatics, who announce their pretended heavenly
mission, and treat their credulous patients with bubbles and magical
spells. The stranger, called the rainwater doctor, after gulling
hundreds of people of weak minds a few years since, disappeared,
leaving both his origin and his exit involved in mystery. But the most
audacious impostor that was ever suffered to delude even the vulgar,
was one Austin, of Vermont, who, a few years since, proclaimed himself
a prophet, and pretended to cure all diseases by prayer to heaven,
requiring no other information relative to the patient, than a few
lines requesting his prayers. Such was the credulity and such the
faith of the multitude, that letters and messengers were despatched to
him from the sick, the blind, and the crippled, from the distance of
several hundred miles, until thousands had accumulated on his hands. A
certain poor man whom I knew, became so infatuated with the prophet's
proclamation, that, after collecting letters from a number of
invalids, of all descriptions, among whom was one totally blind, and
having received contributions in money, actually performed a journey
of about two hundred miles to receive the benefit of the prophet's
prayers. But he soon returned as he went, and gained for his credulous
employers and himself no other benefit than a conviction of their
folly, and the vile imposition of modern prophets. The two jugglers
above mentioned, it is presumed, jeoparded no lives by the use of
poisonous materials, as they depended on the operation of the
imagination; but there are bolder champions of the craft who can pop
you off the stage in a moment. The country is annoyed by a train of
unprincipled ignoramuses, without reputation, who are prowling about,
brandishing the sure weapons of death, reckless of consequences. But
their punishment is reserved to the day of retributive justice. I well
recollect the following moral lesson of a pious physician. 'If a
patient die through your wilful ignorance, rashness, or careless
neglect, his blood will be required at your hands.' How much greater,
then, must be the accountability in those who administer the most
active and even poisonous materials, without the smallest acquaintance
with the human constitution or the nature of the medicine. It is
characteristic of these people, to undertake to cure incurables,
magnifying a wart to a rose cancer, a simple ulcer to a spreading
mortification, and to set bones where there is neither joint nor
fracture. Although palpable instances of death from their practice are
frequent, should a single cure happen, it is proclaimed as almost
miraculous, and the lawless miscreants are still suffered to seek
their prey with impunity, and no one tells of their thousand victims
concealed in the silent grave!
It is from a similar empirical source, that the public is annoyed by a
disgusting display of quack and _patent medicines_; which, through
the medium of newspapers, are impudently palmed upon public attention.
It would seem as though a host of ignorant impostors have leagued in
hostility against the profession of medicine, wishing to despoil it of
its dignity and usefulness, and prostrate its character in the dust.
The world is inundated with nostrums, usurping the power, not only to
remedy all the diseases of our nature, but actually to fortify the
human constitution, and render it invulnerable. In their ostentatious
display, they extol a single nostrum as adequate to the prevention and
cure of a whole catalogue of diseases, however opposite or discordant
in their nature. They are suited to all constitutions, as the
shoe-black's composition is applicable to _every one's boots or
shoes_. Thus are we kindly invited, at the expense of a few dollars,
to purchase of those self 'dubbed doctors,' that health and longevity
which even the judicious hand of science is unable to bestow. The
inventors and venders of these pretended specifics, in most instances,
have no knowledge of the diseases which they pretend to cure; they
depend, as it were, on a random shot, and whatever may be the issue,
they are sure of their enormous gains, from two to four hundred per
cent; articles sold for a dollar might be afforded for ten cents.
By such fraud and imposition, a noted Charlatan in London accumulated
such an immense fortune as to parade the streets in a splendid
equipage, the effects of public credulity. But the public may be
assured, that since the great improvements in chemical science, a
large proportion of patent medicines have been analyzed, and are found
to consist of old articles which physicians have expunged from their
materia medica, to give place to more valuable and efficacious
remedies. Here, then, is a boundless source of knavery and fraud,--but
I desire to have it understood, that these observations are not to
extend to all patentees of medical compositions, without exception,
for all are not equally censurable. Few, indeed, there are, which
scientific physicians are willing to concede may be of public utility.
But that indiscriminate application in all cases and circumstances,
should be most pointedly reprobated. Were the annual amount of money
expended for useless nostrums made public, it would excite
astonishment, and were the innumerable disappointments in their
creative powers promulgated, public indignation and contempt would be
the portion of the inventors and venders of patented nostrums.
There is not a more provoking absurdity, as applied to the economy of
health, than the idea of _spring medicines_, _family medicines_, _&c_,
and it should be distinctly understood by every individual, that such
medicine administered to persons in health, as preventive of disease,
as well as those administered without a skilful reference to the
present condition of the system, are absolutely dangerous to health
and life. And the same observation will apply to the practice of
blood-letting in the spring season.
Those who maintain the ridiculous idea that individuals are endowed
with supernatural gifts and knowledge, and become skilful physicians
without education or study, betray a pitiful credulity, equalled only
by the conceits of those who believe in ghosts and spectres, haunting
the dwellings of the dead. We now witness with the deepest interest,
the rapid strides in the march of intellect, keeping pace with the
advance of light and truth, looking for that political and moral
millenium, when knowledge will be more sought for than wealth, and the
charms of virtue more prized than those of vice; when prejudice,
superstition, and licentiousness, will be discountenanced among all
classes of mankind, and righteousness shall exalt our nation.
Truly 'the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places, and we have a
goodly heritage.' But it were unjust to look back to antiquity and
compare the beauties of the present day with the deformities of
ancient times; to attribute exclusive perfection to ourselves and
deprive our ancestors of their real worth and merit; for we know not
the period among them when wisdom and virtue were lightly esteemed.
Let us reflect, with religious gratitude, on the momentous privileges
and benefits bequeathed to us by our fathers. In all their actions we
trace a zealous solicitude to transmit to posterity a glorious
inheritance. Like angels of light, they would illuminate the minds of
their children, with the high importance of religious institutions,
seminaries, and free schools. If, in any form, they would enchain our
minds, it would be in the principles of civil and religious freedom,
of patriotism, philanthropy, moral rectitude, and public virtue. But
'our fathers, where are they?' Let us with laborious fidelity follow
them in every good word and work, that our children may, in the spirit
of gratitude and love, reiterate the exclamation 'our fathers, where
are they?' It is our glorious privilege to live in an age when the
elements of our terrestrial abode are rendered subservient to the most
stupendous operations. The works of men's hands appear as if endowed
with intelligence; the heated steam subverts the power of the fleetest
steed, and the facilities of traversing the earth and seas, are like
the airy flights of the feathered tribe. But oh! humbling
consideration, death triumphs over the frail nature of man; our life
is but a continued miracle, capable of being sustained only by the
hand of that omnipotent being whom we adore as the 'former of our
bodies, and the father of our spirits.' All must bow to the awful
summons, and quit this earthly tabernacle; the last remains of
mortality are consigned to the silent tomb to mingle with the parent
dust.