The defects of the hospitals in this respect are too well known to require comment; and we think the profession indebted to Dr. Webster for the exertions he has made to draw attention to this subject. In no respect are the hospitals more defective than as regards the division of labour[75]. To supply the requisitions of a yet dawning science, there is too much confided to one surgeon; for, at present, the practical administration and the scientific investigation should be confided to the same hand. If more be entrusted to one man than can be performed without great labour, and the greater labour be voluntary, we shall have little chance of obtaining that full and accurate notation of facts which all cases furnish more or less the means of obtaining, and without which the evolution of the maximum of human ability is absolutely impossible. It seems to us also an imperative duty to avail ourselves of the experience afforded by the history of other sciences, in the cultivation of our own.
All sciences have been in as bad a condition as medicine and surgery, or worse. All sciences have progressed immediately that they were investigated on a rational plan—a plan, which, simply stated, is little more than the bringing together all the facts that can be perceived to bear any relation to the inquiry, and reasoning on them according to well-established and necessary conditions. If this be the case, and this plan have never been applied to the investigation of medical science, we know not how those who are placed in positions which supply the necessary means can be excused; or how we can halt in condemning the system under which such a flagitious neglect of the claims of science and mankind is exemplified. It is true, when we arrive at the acmé of our convictions of the effects of such a system, our reflections remind us that such things are "permitted," and that ultimately they will work for good; that Man is not destined to interfere with the ultimate plan and designs of Providence, however he may be allowed to place his intellect under the direction of a responsible volition, and to discover the path to the temple of truth, only after having fruitlessly threaded the mazes of error.
[75] We are glad to see that there has at length arisen a desire, at least in a degree, to correct this evil.
CHAPTER XXIX.
"Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit
Ab Dis plura feret."
We believe that there is no greater fallacy than that which supposes that private advantage can be promoted at the expense of the public good. We are very well disposed to believe that selfish people are the very worst caterers for the real interests of the idol they worship. The more we consider the Hospital system, the more reason shall we find to distrust it; and we by no means exclude that very point wherein it is supposed to be most successful—namely, in securing the pecuniary advantage of those whose interests it is supposed to serve.