MEDICAL ORTHODOXY

Is realizing the reaction of public opinion against all forms of monopoly. There is some plausibility in the demand that all who heal should educate themselves, if we had a true system of education, which we have not. But there is no justice in the demand that those whom nature has gifted with great healing powers should be prohibited from exercising their natural gifts, or giving advice to their neighbors, whenever they happen to know anything that is useful. To interfere with such acts of benevolence, which are really the performance of a religious duty, is a crime, and it is none the less criminal when it is the act of legislators, who are careless enough to allow themselves to be made the tools of an avaricious monopoly, which would make it a crime for a farmer’s wife to give her neighbor’s children a blackberry cordial or hoarhound syrup. When the law makes benevolence a crime, laws and legislators become objects of contempt, and a dangerous spirit of rebellion is fostered.

In Illinois a law has been obtained from a careless and unthinking legislature, which makes all healing a crime, when not performed by graduated, licensed and registered practitioners, but the law is so odious that it is not enforced against those who are not administering medicines. In Iowa an equally disgraceful law has been obtained, designed to establish a similar monopoly, but the prosecution against a lady for assisting a patient with her prayers resulted in her acquittal, and the medical societies have been paralyzed as to its enforcement. Dr. R. C. Flower, of Boston, has made several addresses to large audiences in that State, in opposition to medical legislation, and the report of his very spirited and effective lecture in the Des Moines Register shows that he carried his audiences with him, and roused enthusiasm in opposition to the law. Dr. F. related some terrific cases of malpractice by eminent physicians, and portrayed the horrible effects of the law in upholding quackery.

The present law of Mississippi is a disgrace to the civilization of that State. It would authorize the prosecution of any one who helped the sick, even by prayer, if the benevolent party was not protected by a medical license.

In Alabama the law gives to the old school State medical association the entire control of medical practice, and the power to examine and license every one who does any practice. Under this law graduates of Eclectic colleges who are outside of the medical ring, have been prosecuted for non-compliance with the law, but the prosecution was defeated. Mississippi and Alabama need to be Americanized. Medical bigotry has carried them back to the dark ages, for there is not a country in Europe to-day which is not more enlightened and liberal in its medical legislation than these two States.

Monopoly is one of the most formidable enemies of American liberty. It is now assuming the form of “Trust” combinations to raise prices, but there is no monopoly so grasping as the medical,—none which assumes to suppress competition by law.

The plea of promoting education is as false as a proposal to elevate the pulpit by compelling every clergyman to pass through a Roman Catholic college. The existing medical colleges hold the same relation to the practice of the healing art as the Sectarian Theological Seminary to the practice of Christianity. One may be a very good Christian without the help of a theological seminary, or a very good doctor without the help of a medical college, but no one can be a first-class physician who goes through a medical college and adheres strictly to all the knowledge and all the ignorance administered by professors, without learning anything from other sources.

MAYO’S ANÆSTHETIC.

The suspension of pain, under dangerous surgical operations, is the greatest triumph of Therapeutic Science in the present century. It came first by mesmeric hypnotism, which was applicable only to a few, and was restricted by the jealous hostility of the old medical profession. Then came the nitrous oxide, introduced by Dr. Wells, of Hartford, and promptly discountenanced by the enlightened (?) medical profession of Boston, and set aside for the next candidate, ether, discovered in the United States also, but far interior to the nitrous oxide as a safe and pleasant agent. This was largely superseded by chloroform, discovered much earlier by Liebig and others, but introduced as an anæsthetic in 1847, by Prof. Simpson. This proved to be the most powerful and dangerous of all. Thus the whole policy of the medical profession was to discourage the safe, and encourage the more dangerous agents. The magnetic sleep, the most perfect of all anæsthetic agents, was expelled from the realm of college authority; ether was substituted for nitrous oxide, and chloroform preferred to ether, until frequent deaths gave warning.

Nitrous oxide, much the safest of the three, has not been the favorite, but has held its ground, especially with dentists. But even nitrous oxide is not perfect. It is not equal to the magnetic sleep, when the latter is practicable, but fortunately it is applicable to all. To perfect the nitrous oxide, making it universally safe and pleasant, Dr. U. K. Mayo, of Boston, has combined it with certain harmless vegetable nervines, which appear to control the fatal tendency which belongs to all anæsthetics when carried too far. The success of Dr. Mayo, in perfecting our best anæsthetic, is amply attested by those who have used it. Dr. Thorndike, than whom, Boston had no better surgeon, pronounced it “the safest the world has yet seen.” It has been administered to children and to patients in extreme debility. Drs. Frizzell and Williams, say they have given it “repeatedly in heart disease, severe lung diseases, Bright’s disease, etc., where the patients were so feeble as to require assistance in walking, many of them under medical treatment, and the results have been all that we could ask—no irritation, suffocation, nor depression. We heartily commend it to all as the anæsthetic of the age.” Dr. Morrill, of Boston, administered Mayo’s anæsthetic to his wife with delightful results when “her lungs were so badly disorganized, that the administration of ether or gas would be entirely unsafe.” The reputation of this anæsthetic is now well established; in fact, it is not only safe and harmless, but has great medical virtue for daily use in many diseases, and is coming into use for such purposes. In a paper before the Georgia State Dental Society, Dr. E. Parsons testified strongly to its superiority. “The nitrous oxide, (says Dr. P.) causes the patient when fully under its influence to have very like the appearance of a corpse,” but under this new anæsthetic “the patient appears like one in a natural sleep.” The language of the press, generally has been highly commendatory, and if Dr. Mayo had occupied so conspicuous a rank as Prof. Simpson, of Edinburgh, his new anæsthetic would have been adopted at once in every college of America and Europe.

Mayo’s Vegetable Anæsthetic.

A perfectly safe and pleasant substitute for chloroform, ether, nitrous oxide gas, and all other anæsthetics. Discovered by Dr. U. K. Mayo, April, 1883, and since administered by him and others in over 300,000 cases successfully. The youngest child, the most sensitive lady, and those having heart disease, and lung complaint, inhale this vapor with impunity. It stimulates the circulation of the blood and builds up the tissues. Indorsed by the highest authority in the professions, recommended in midwifery and all cases of nervous prostration. Physicians, surgeons, dentists and private families supplied with this vapor, liquefied, in cylinders of various capacities. It should be administered the same as Nitrous Oxide, but it does not produce headache and nausea as that sometimes does. For further information pamphlets, testimonials, etc., apply to

DR. U. K. MAYO, Dentist,
378 Tremont St., Boston, Mass.

THE OPEN COURT.

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“FORTY PATIENTS A DAY”

is the name of a pamphlet Helen Wilmans has written on her practical experience in healing. No one seems to have had better opportunity of demonstrating the truth of mental science than Mrs. Wilmans has had in her Southern home, where the report of her skill was carried from mouth to mouth, until patients swarmed to her from far and near. Send 15 cents for the pamphlet. Address: Mrs. Helen Wilmans, Douglasville, Georgia.

Transcriber’s Note: The Table of Contents was copied from the index to the volume.