tihvavy of Che theological ^tminavy 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 A. G. Caineron. Ph.D. 
 
 -s^/o 
 
M 
 
 PKESIDENT'S ADDEESS. 
 
 lyis my high privilege, this evening, gentlemen, to welcome 
 yoi/to the returned anniversary of the State Medical Society 
 of T^ew Jersey. Ninety-nine years of its existence are now- 
 joined to the memories of the past, and the fresh, dewy da-^vn 
 of its Imndredth natal morn is already casting its twilight 
 shadows upon us. Venerable with the acquirements of age, 
 yet vigorous with the energ}'- of youth, it again welcomes us 
 to the council-board of professional re-union, and bids us ex- 
 change the kindred sympathies of a mutual art. 
 
 We come together to review the medical history of the 
 year, to maintain the true courtesy of our calling, to pay defer- 
 ence to the mementoes of the past, to measure the claims and 
 progress of our science, to join the hands of a genial friend- 
 ship, and to bid each other God-speed in all that relates to the 
 true advancement of the noble profession to which are devoted 
 the stirring energies of our manhood. 
 
 But a temporary sadness comes over my heart as I proceed 
 to the duty which devolves upon me. I can not forget that 
 since last we met, from among the honored members of this 
 Society, one has fallen, who, each returning year, was wont to 
 greet us here, with all the warmth of personal and professional 
 attachment. You have not forgotten his last utterance in our 
 midst. It was a plea in behalf of the interests of unfortunate 
 humanity ; in which the arguments, derived from elaborate in- 
 vestigation, were presented with the earnest voice and the 
 thrilHng enthusiasm of a hving sympathy. He felt that while 
 
 1 
 
4 MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-JERSEY. 
 
 others may be i^hilanthropists by occasion, the physician is 
 such also by profession ; and, had he known his time to be so 
 short, he could not have pronounced a valedictory more con- 
 sonant with himself, or said parting words more worthy of his 
 honored memory. The name of Condit, for his own sake, as 
 well as for his father's sake, will not be forgotten by us ; and 
 the mantle of their honor shall inspire us to be faithful to our 
 profession, to humanity, and to God. 
 
 But my duty to-night is not so much to speak of our cher- 
 ished dead, as to the living members of a living profession. 1 
 beg that you will pardon me the formality of an extended in- 
 troduction, and permit me to propose, as the subject of ad- 
 dress this evening, 
 
 OUR PROFESSIOX IN ITS THKEE-FOLD RELATIONS, AS A SCIENCE, A BUSINESS, AND 
 
 AN ART. 
 
 At the vej-y outset of student life, Medicine is presented to 
 us as a science, vast in the area Avliich it encompasses ; and 
 when years of practice have added to the treasuries of knowl- 
 edge and experience, its claims as such are ever impressing 
 themselves upon us. And yet we hSve stout and sturdy crit- 
 icisms, to meet us, in respect to it. In the midst of our soar- 
 ings to its heights, our penetration into its depths, our meas- 
 urings of its lengths and its breadths, the world stands up, 
 and, striking a blow at its foundations, asks, " Is it a science at 
 all." Men, perhaps learned in other respects, but ignorant as 
 to it, too often bring it to their false judgment-bars, and, from 
 isolated facts and vague generalities, give sentence in the neg- 
 ative. The poet that thrills me with the real philosophy of 
 verse, presides, over a college for graduating quacks. My city 
 pastor gives diluted tinctures to his complaining horse ; and a 
 learned theological professor, by the identical argument, which, 
 if applied to his own theme of instruction, would land him and 
 it into hideous infidelity, assumes that the human organism, 
 and its relations to disease and remedies, is so mysterious and 
 complex, that it is safest to rely upon a system which can do 
 no harm. Many thus (Avho are well instructed in the other 
 
PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 5 
 
 sciences or in literature) infer that the}^' are abundantly com- 
 petent to decide upon this. Now and then a physician who, 
 because he cannot understand everything, concludes he under- 
 stands nothing, by tlie false logic of doubt falls into the same 
 error ; and even a late President of the Excelsior Strio Pc> 
 ciety has announced the doctrine that Medicine, as an art, has 
 T^ever been profited by Medicine as a science. In mind, as in 
 nature, centripetal and centrifugal forces sometimes loose their 
 co-ordinate action ; the orbit is disturbed, and great planets be- 
 come little asteroids. History had its Gibbon, as a man, a 
 downfall like that of Rome ; philosophy its Voltaire 5 astron- 
 omy its La Place ; and Religion its Colenso ; and the fact that 
 now and then a great soul goes overboard from the vessel 
 which moves, even upon unfathomed depths, as on a friendly 
 clement, only shows the occasional frailty of reason, in contrast 
 with the substantial basis of truth. 
 
 If we could submit this ^yhole question to antiquity, and to 
 the confirmed verdict of the ages, we should have no trouble. 
 The ancients saw in man, even as to his bod}^, a condensation 
 of human knowledge, and an object for scientific research, such 
 as was presented in no other created thing, and thus made of 
 the ^'- yvG^vi 5SavT0v^'' a science by itself. 
 
 They viewed the human form as the grandest idea of nature, 
 developecf it by the skill of the athlete, sculptured it in the 
 choicest of Parian marble, painted it in enduring colors on 
 speaking canvass, and when they found an art whose design 
 'Was to preserve it, they called it the Science of Physic — not 
 physic iif the paltry sense of drugs, but cpvai?, Nature's grand 
 embodiment, its most meaning text ; and amid all the false 
 systems of medical theory and medical practice, that have 
 gleamed across the galaxy of almost every decade, with Mi- 
 nerva, the goddess of wisdom, as its patron deity, it has pre- 
 served for us that which it fears not to send word along the 
 wires of time is the true science and art of medicine. But 
 this 19th century will not take antiquity at its word. It is a 
 mighty doubter — ^full of endless questionings. Human thought 
 >!eeks new channels. There is more excitement and vivacity 
 
6 MEDICAL SOCIETY OP NEW-JERSEY. 
 
 in a freshet, breaking over into new courses, than in the ocean 
 stajang where it belongs, lasting portraiture of the unchanged 
 Infinite. 
 
 Men say not the old is better, but give us the new, bub- 
 bling and boiling though it may be with scum. The old Fa- 
 lernian will not do. Champajgne and carbon gas are more 
 representative. In government, in law, in ethics, they call in 
 question the grand consolidations and expressions of the past. 
 America, especially, with its vindicated nationality, its stirring- 
 activity in all that relates to mind or matter, breathes its spirit 
 of inquiry over every science, and with its " cui bono," its 
 whys and its wherefores, puts the past to its test without a 
 bow to "your Riverence." We^ must not, therefore, complain 
 if the great fortress of Esculapius, with its massive turrets and 
 elaborated enclosure, is battered and stormed like a citadel ; or 
 if, beside it, some pseudo-medical philosopher opens up his 
 arsenal, and with sarsaparilla, seaweed tonic, life bitters, teeth- 
 ing fluid, and cephalic pills, builds on foundations cemented 
 with prepared glue imposing superstructures. 
 
 In all this there lurks, for us, no real harm. In such a pro- 
 fession as ours, founded in antiquity, and sustained, developed, 
 itnd improved through centuries, we need sometimes to take 
 reckoning, in order to appreciate it. Truth does not always 
 move in unobstructed air-lines. It fronts the cave of iEolus, and 
 often faces grim North-westers. Even in a seeming calm, gales 
 spring up about it; but, tliough its progress is thus made zig- 
 zag, the very adverse winds beat it forward. Although not an 
 ocean steamer, plowing its way through the broad bpne, care- 
 less of wind or tide, it is a little Pinta, beating hither and 
 thither, not in vain. Though the crew are sometimes discour- 
 aged, and Faith below deck instead of at the helm, there are 
 men like Columbus aboard, and faithful ones watching around 
 the mast-head ; and, when all is dark and mutinous, " I see a 
 light ", breaks the spell of the shoreless sea, and the very drift- 
 wood tells of land. True science and true art, which are al- 
 ways practical epitomes of truth, have a similar experience, 
 but need never fear the rude buffethigs of change or the test 
 of searching criticism. 
 
president's address. 7 
 
 Let us then fully to the question : Is medicine a science ? 
 True science has three prominent characteristics : 
 
 It deals with some object of nature, with a view of eliciting 
 truth. 
 
 It has definite and determinate laws. 
 
 These laws are studied in reference to their practical appli- 
 cation and results. 
 
 Surely our profession answers this first test of a science. It 
 deals with the grandest object of nature in order to define its 
 method of action. The sublimest combination of the handi- 
 work of Divinity is the material for our specific study. If the 
 natural philosopher, in the earnest investigation of his partic- 
 ular department, feels the thrill and joy of science, its poetry, 
 its pathos, its logic — if, as he analj'^ses the flower, questions the 
 sandstone or fossil, or scans the heavens Avith magnified vision, 
 he is engaged in scientific inquiry, how much more the physi- 
 cian, who, in one embodiment, can study both material and im- 
 material things, whose science is that of matter and its pre- 
 servation ; who has for analysis the most wonderful of mechan- 
 isms, the most admirable of combinations, and the most elabo- 
 rate connections of cause and effect. The man of numbers 
 may have to deal more with axioms and theorems, the meta- 
 physician may soar higher into the regions of the Infinite, the 
 natural philosopher, in his questionings of mother earth, maj- 
 have a wider field from which to gather his cabinets and herb- 
 ariums, and the astronomer a wider range through the star-lit 
 avenues of space, but this microcosm, man, is equal to them 
 all. In the construction of bone, so as to unite strength with 
 lightnesss and mobility ; in the arrangement of muscle and 
 tendon, so as to secure mechanical power at no loss of space ; 
 in the organs of nutrition and assimilation, performing func- 
 tions as elaborate and successful as the harmony of the uni- 
 verse ; in the lungs, inhaling, the sweet, rustling air, and trans- 
 acting the unique chemistry of life ; in the heart, lone prototype 
 of perpetual motion, throbbing out the melody of life, the soul 
 rhythm of humanity ; in the ear, with its bony chain-work, and 
 its labyrintii of waters rippling to the echoings of sound : in 
 
8 MEDICAL SOCIETY OP NEW-JERSEY. 
 
 the eyes, star planets of the mind, glorious in their orbits as 
 Castor and Pollux, the Gemini of the zodiac ; in the senses, all 
 combining the material and immaterial as no science can fully 
 display, and the whole subject to the nerve, net-work of 
 organic and inorganic life — surely, I need no longer stay my 
 course to prove that the science of nature is hfere enthroned 
 in all the glory of its royalty. And the physician takes hold 
 upon it just on purpose for investigation. To him it is the 
 more than golden ore-bed of material, and its principles, by 
 studious zeal perceived, constitute science — not symbolized, but 
 realized — not defined, but synonymed — not described, but felt 
 like love. 
 
 Nor is it general in its character. 
 
 II. It has definite and determinate laws. 
 
 It deals with man sjjecifically. It has to do with synthesis 
 and analysis, and obtains decisive results by strictly scientific 
 methods. If not demonstrative, lil^e Euclid, it is definite with 
 the logic of accumulated facts. Quinine and opium have their 
 results as w^ell as a binomial theorem. There are certainties in 
 this world besides logarithms and logic. Because mathematics, 
 as a pure science, is built only on Self-evident truths, or be- 
 cause metaphysics is built on certain generally admitted truths, 
 we are by no means to conclude that only these have deter- 
 minate laws. When, indeed, as in the natural sciences, you 
 bring togetlier the various facts which observation has afforded, 
 and thus have an assemblage of the general principles of an 
 art, YOU really come directly back to the very kind of reason- 
 ing upon which rest all the truths of metaphysics, i.e., you have 
 as a basis generally acknowledged facts. 
 
 Experiment itself is an effort in a scientific direction, and 
 when you classify the ascertained results of a series of well 
 conducted, oft repeated experiments, you have experience, and 
 that is as really a foundation and a part of real knowledge, as 
 to rest upon the laws of personal identity or the axioms of 
 numerical formulaB. Experience has the word experiment as 
 its root, and success as its fruit, and by its arranged aggrega- 
 tion of facts, assumes all the strength and dignity and certainty 
 
PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 9 
 
 of a science. It is the general assent of the learned to these 
 views, that has given the Baconian and Newtonian philoso- 
 phies their hold on the reasonings of men. We have come to 
 feel and know that it is safe to assume, that what is true of a 
 vast numbers of individuals of a class, is true of the class ; and 
 hence the inductive method of Bacon, and still more Newton, 
 applying the relations of cause and effect to natural science 
 has shown us, that deductions from these natural relations, as 
 determined by repeated observations, are safe as foundations, 
 and yield logical results. With such reflected light, it is not 
 difficult to recognize medicine as a science with fixed and de- 
 termined laws. We call Theology a science, not because it is 
 finished and has no mysteries, but because with Faith as the 
 substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not 
 seen, it reasons correctly of God and of man in his relations to 
 him. We call Law a science, because it has principles founded 
 on eternal equity ; and though often pettifoggers go quibbling 
 with it, and make it dispense injustice, it loses not its high 
 behest. So we call Medicine a science, because it too has 
 fundamental principles, and arrives at its conclusion by evi- 
 dence derived from nature, experience and observation. We 
 cannot select a single organ of the body in reference to which 
 enough is not known to entitle the study thereof to the name 
 of science, because of the specific laws which relate to it. We 
 know from absolute investigation of organ and function, what 
 kind of food is suited to the human organism, why pure air is 
 necessary for the lungs, and what pure air is ; why heart and 
 brain must sufier from causes that disturb the equilibrium of 
 circulation ; why impression made upon the skin by sudden 
 alternations of temperature must effect the inner man, and so 
 of multitudes of facts of wdiich these are but the passing illustra- 
 tion. Pathology too, as well as health, has its appreciable 
 laws. Our profession includes within its pale a knowledge of 
 the antecedents and sequehe of disease, its cause, its cure, its 
 effects. We hioiu that as a rule, its ana3sthetics and sedatives 
 will control pain, and that other remedies are in certain definite 
 and specified cases curative, and can rely upon them just as 
 
10 MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW- JERSEY. 
 
 well as the Mathematician, on the laws of Parallax, the Logi- 
 cian on the facts of established identity, or the Farmer on the 
 general results of Agriculture. There may be possible and 
 even unknown contingencies, interrupting the process of the 
 law ; but the mariner's needle, though it has its mysterious 
 variations, is on the whole a faithful guide amid ocean billows. 
 The learned and experienced physician knows that he can 
 approach disease with scientific forecast, and while none in this 
 or any other science are absolutely free from puzzling doubts, 
 yet only those are skeptical who are unduly influenced by 
 isolated cases, or who instead of lacking knowledge, lack the 
 ability to practicalize and apply it. 
 
 In the character of the foundations upon which it rests and 
 its superstructure, it will, in its harmonious subjection to prin- 
 ciples, compare favorably with any of the sciences of material 
 life. Although it is not a very Parthenon with every frescoe 
 finished, and every column fluted and assigned, it is nevertheless 
 an edifice with great huge blocks of granite truth for its corners, 
 upbuilded with stones polished after the similitude of a palace, 
 and better than if finished, each year is adding both to its solid- 
 ities and adornments. * 
 
 Nor need I spend long time in noticing the third respect in 
 which medicine answers the description of a true science. The 
 activities of our art are the standing proof that it is studied 
 in reference to its practical application and results. It does 
 not wrap the drapery of conscious greatness about it, and then 
 lie down to pleasant dreams. It is studied, not for theory, but 
 for practice. Having classified its truths, with admirable 
 promptness, it brings them to apply to the daily necessities of 
 life. It has no cold abstract formulas on which to prate, but 
 with a living ardor submits each and all to the test of utility. 
 Its constant effort is, mutually, to correct its science and its 
 -art by each other, to look to the one as the confirmative or test 
 of the other, and it thus seeks to have good theory only that it 
 may have good practice. Its whole object is result — such 
 result as identifies the causes of disease and prevents them ; as 
 seeks their cure and overcomes them, or when acknowledging 
 
president's addbess. 11 
 
 their mortal power, controls, assuages and delays them. 
 This, indeed, is science awake for a cause; and that the preser- 
 vation and prolongation of human life. With such foundations, 
 such aims, such devotion, it stands forth pre-eminently a science, 
 in the subject with which it deals — the determinate laws which 
 govern the utilitarian effort it puts forth. 
 
 I ask you next to notice it as a progressive science, and thus 
 still more appreciate the glory of our calling. Where, in all 
 the range of hinnan investigation, will 3^ou find a field in which 
 is displayed more of intellectual activity and patient research. 
 Where will you go to find more of the enthusiasm of true phi- 
 losophers ; more of the zeal of fond, devoted pursuit, or more 
 rapid accumulations of the facts and principles which make up 
 a science. 
 
 In order to measure its progress, Ave need not to commence 
 with the history of medicine. We need only to retrace our 
 steps within the bounds of the present century to perceive 
 that our profession is all alive, not only with the spirit and 
 power, but with the fruits of active advancement. Early in 
 the present century a new idea, as to the proper basis of med- 
 ical truth, commended itself to the professional mind. Too 
 long had we relied upon the aphorisms of some prominent 
 medical author, or upon the empirical popularity of individual 
 practitioners. But a French work, under the title, " Med- 
 icine Illustrated by Observation and the Examination of Bod- 
 ies," struck the key-note which was to be the guide of future 
 and of successful investigation. The profession commenced, 
 as it had never learned before, to look to ascertained facts, to 
 statistical record, to anatomical and careful observation, as 
 the only true bases of substantial advance. From dealing 
 with general opinions, it came to inquire for specific facts. It 
 studied disease, not only in view of symptoms, but of lesions. 
 It penetrated into physiology that it might know what should 
 be, and into pathology that it might ascertain what was. 
 Broussais on Chronic Inflammations ; Corvisart, Laennec, Gri- 
 solle, Bouillaud, and Hope, on the Lungs ; Lallemand, Mar- 
 tinet, &c., on the Brain ; Andral and Gavarret on the Blood ; 
 
12 MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-JERSEY. 
 
 Raver on the Kidneys ; Bichet in General Anatomy ; Collins 
 and Ramsbotham in Practical Midwifery ; and multitudes of 
 other more recent o"bservers in every department of our sci- 
 ence, have given direction and precision to our inquiries. A 
 zeal arose to enrich medicine by facts, and to rely upon that 
 kind of conclusion, of which intelligent examination, careful 
 diagnosis, and an accurate enumeration of the ascertained 
 phenomena of disease, in numerous classified cases, consti- 
 tvited the material substance. The profession came to feel 
 that it must rest its claims as a science upon a careful study 
 of relations of cause and effect, of organ and function, of at- 
 tack and lesion, of disease and remedy, derived, not by any 
 philosophical abstraction, or from results in a limited sphere, 
 but from a numerical comparison of a large number of cases, 
 in which all points should be stated with clinical exactness. 
 Hence, the remark of Sir Henry Holland is fully justified, 
 that " the methods of research in medicine at the present 
 time have gained greatly in exactness, and in the just appre- 
 ciation of facts, upon those of any previous period." This, of 
 itself, is a grand progress, even were it oidy preparatory. 
 But this Tightness of method, and definitenesS of system, is 
 full of actual, practical results — a tree full of fruit for the 
 healing of the nations. Diagnosis has become a science by 
 itself, and, with admirable precision, we are often able not 
 only to give name to disease, but to specify its locality, its 
 extent, its stage — in fact, to have its fall descriptive vividly 
 before the mind ; and this is what we want, in order to lay 
 right hold of it for treatment. There is glory and progress 
 in the discovery of a little star, not so much because of the 
 momentary result, as because it shows accuracy and zeal in 
 investigation, and adds to the real material of a science ; and 
 so each step in diagnosis is a discovery in the range of our 
 profession which lights up the track of a hopeful destiny. 
 But not in accuracy of diagnosis alone do we note advance. 
 We have evolved therefrom, and from experience added 
 thereto, actual treatment very different from the methods of 
 the past. We study more accurately the relation between 
 
president's addeess. 13 
 
 remedies and disease in its particular stages. We know more 
 of the action of remedies, as modified by circumstances. We 
 see a reason why the medicine given in the second stage of 
 pneumonia is not to be depended upon when grey hepatiza- 
 tion has almost suspended vital action. 
 
 If the case be one of rheumatism, or pleuritic effusion, we 
 can measure the relation of our medicine to the appearance 
 of chlorides in the urine, or if the kidney is involved, tell 
 with no small degree of accuracy whether the disease is to be 
 treated as one functional or organic. Even in cases where, 
 with all our knowledge, we are yet too often unsuccessful, we 
 have dispensed with a great deal of false treatment, and, if 
 we do not cure, we at least understand the design of treat- 
 ment, and prolong life, and deliver the patient from long 
 courses of ill-advised medicines. The action of remedies, too, 
 has become an important part of our study. We have more 
 definite medicines, can measure their effects more accurately, 
 and suit them more judiciously to the invasions of disease. 
 
 If one doubts the progress of medicine as a science, let 
 him but turn to the standard works of 1800 and those of 1865. 
 Then the whole of medical science could be kept in a corner 
 book-case, and, even of that, a larger proportion was specu- 
 lative than now. Instead of chemistry you had alchemy, melt- 
 ing up medleys in crucibles, and looking in the dark for elixirs 
 and magical stones ; materia medica, with a little more sense, 
 searching amid the luxuriance of vegetable life, and yet, but 
 Cor a Cullen, scarcely a science at all. Uterine diseases were 
 sadly misunderstood. Surgery, though bold, had not even 
 enunciated much of what is now regarded as a part of its 
 fundamental principles ; and practical medicine was so ex- 
 clusively an art as to be too artistic, and so little of a science 
 as to be empirical. As for special anatomy, it was a very 
 little infant. Physiology had but an indefinite meaning, and 
 the oldest professor of Pathology in this country, who had 
 not been born when the century commenced, has told me that 
 when he returned from Paris and commenced to lecture, as 
 he might be permitted to do, on pathological science, many 
 
14 MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-JEESEY. 
 
 looked upon him as a medical visionary, and the first chair 
 had to be made for him with misgiving. 
 
 As for the nervous sj^stem, as little was known of it as of 
 the circulation of the blood before Harvey ; and the whole 
 of hygienic and sanitary science had scarcely been thought 
 of as a part of the study of medicine. 
 
 Too often empiricism asserted ro3'alty in dealing with dis- 
 eases of the body, and the straight-jacket was the catholicon 
 for the diseases of the mind. But now, turn to Virchow, amid 
 the elements of molecular action, tracing the starting points 
 of organic life ; Clark on Clinical Pathology ; Dalton in Phys- 
 iology, and the fields of biological research ; Barclay, Turner, 
 and Da Costa, on Diagnosis ; Hall, S6quard, and Bernard, on 
 Nervous Affections ; Watson on General Practice ; to Yel- 
 peau, Miller, Sym, Mott, and Gross, on Surgery ; and to mul- 
 titudes of elaborate monographs on the specialties of our 
 calling, and we have enough to satisfy us that outspeaking 
 facts have taken the place of speculation, and that these have 
 been so studied and classified as, in most cases, to form a part 
 of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Even where we have 
 not reached the ultimatum of their fTpplication, we know that 
 we have hold of the right handle, just as much as Sir Hum- 
 phrey Davy, when he had discovered two or three of the 
 alkalies, knew that he was on the road to scores of like re- 
 sults. 
 
 It would be pleasant, did time permit, to draw attention to 
 other points illustrating the power of medicine as a science. 
 There is, evidently, about it an attraction which awakens the 
 most noble enthusiasm in the intellects and hearts of those 
 who pursue it, as such. To-night, could you take a passing 
 glance into the ofiices and laboratories of our profession 
 throughout the world, you would find an activity and enter- 
 prise which, of themselves, would stamp it with the sign-tokens 
 of a true philosophy. Anatomists, amid unpleasant odors, by the 
 midnight lamp, are still picking away, to discover the minute 
 relations of the human organism. Microscopists are spending 
 lone hours where no plaudits of stimulating audiences greet 
 
pkesident's addeess. 15 
 
 them, revealing in the human world wonders as marvelous as 
 those which the telescope notes as it traverses the loftier hut 
 not deeper depths of another science. The medical chemist is 
 busy prying into the nature of poisons, or discovering new- 
 therapeutic combinations ; and so, in every department, there 
 are zealous votaries, pursuing their investigations with a care. 
 an accuracy, and a diligence, which would be inexplicable if 
 they were not impelled by that love of learning which meas- 
 ures its devotion, not by the acquirement of wealth, or the 
 huzzas of fame, but which, with a magical charm, binds the 
 scholar to his pursuit, and fills his soul, as by a spell, with tlie 
 inspiration of an indescribable enthusiasm. 
 
 Five or six years since, I was pleasantly chatting with a 
 distinguished professor of physiology, when in walked a jolly 
 old Irishman with a train of a dozen dogs. The professor 
 sprang from his seat as if in an ecstasy of delight, and as he 
 whistled and talked to them, and called them by pet names, 
 and heartily commended and rewarded his successful agent, I 
 could not but look upon it as quite a scene, and it was the first 
 love of dogs for which I had ever had much respect. He was 
 occupied in experiments which proved most important, and 
 had been scant of material, and as I beheld his sprightly joy, 
 his dehghted familiarity, his forgetfulness of every thing but 
 the objects of his scientific affection, it afforded me a perspec- 
 tive of the ecstasy of a true lover of science such as I shall not 
 forget. There was pictured right out, as a stereoscope does 
 it, the thrill of a scholar's zeal, in the consciousness that he 
 had before him, the demonstration of great physiological and 
 functional laws, and the method of illustrating how vital 
 action is performed. And this is but a homely specimen of 
 the true enthusiasm which warms many a hundred of those 
 who are studying the philosophy of human life in its bearings 
 upon health and disease. 
 
 Ours, too, is a God-adoring, as well as attractive science. 
 The poor materialist may stop short of its glory and grandeur, 
 and in dealing with matter, commit the same error that the 
 rationalist does in dealing with mind ; but the true logician 
 
16 MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW- JERSEY. 
 
 who is not content with half conclusions, and who does not 
 attempt to weigh with the balances of reason, that which 
 reason itself teaches to be beyond its boundaries, sees in 
 humanity and its construction just as it is, the highest proof 
 of divinity — the image and superscription not totally ('!':"■ ced. 
 He at times feels as did the ancient anatoraists, v/'n.o when 
 they first sawed into the bony labyrinth of the ear and beheld 
 its melodeon of bones, its winding channels, its pearly sea 
 rippling to the waves of sound, dropped as by instinct their 
 instruments, and together joined in a Te Deuin Laudamiis to 
 the Maker. 
 
 From our profession as a science i pass briefly to notice 
 IT as a business. As we have to do with it as a livelihood, we 
 are under the necessity of considering it and ourselves in 
 practical relation to society. As well as a science and an art 
 it is an occupation for support — avocation — if you choose a 
 trade, and as such it comes in contact with other callings and 
 must be pursued in some respects on a common basis. As 
 such, we claim for it all the rights which belong to any other 
 occupation in which learning and cutture are made conducive 
 to support. It is a. candidate for success as a living, as welL 
 as for scientific and artistic acceptance. It must bear its 
 share of jostling in the crowd of business rivalry, and must 
 expect to stand in part upon its business merits. 
 
 We think there are two classes of errorists in respect to 
 medicine as a vocation. The one " Mens conscia scientia," 
 hangs out its sign, and that is all. It uses no effort to sustain 
 itself as a branch of human industry. It throws itself back on 
 intrinsic merit,, with more of dignity than of perceived power. 
 It resorts to none of the usual efforts by which men build up 
 a business. It feels that it deserves success and then leaves 
 success to come as best it may through what it calls natural 
 channels. It is ovcr-.'^ensitive, would not be suspected of having 
 an eye to business, sneers at a man who attends to a specialty 
 as if he were a medical sinner, talks much of punctilious ethics, 
 and is as formal as a Romish archbishop in his robes. I have 
 
president's address. 17 
 
 known such men, appreciated only by the very few who knoAv 
 their real merit, living like artists and poets on hope instead 
 of assets, worthy of admiration because men of honor and 
 attainment, but still failing in the profession as a daily support, 
 in a way that it is not necessary to f^iil, in order to preserve 
 high models of professional self respect :\nd ethical propriety. 
 
 Another class is more impressed with medicine as a busi- 
 ness, than with it as a science or an art. They practice to 
 make money, have an air of mystery about them as if in the 
 secrets of patents, see no harm in pushing their claims upon 
 the public, take advantage of every operation as a means of 
 notoriety, cajole antiquated nurses that they may be recom- 
 mended in private circles, ride v'ery fast when not in a hurry, 
 have a pressure of business Sunday mornings at church time, 
 are specialists pre-eminently in self-esteem, and in a word, 
 place themselves on the same footing with Yankee tradesmen 
 and dealers in small wares. 
 
 Now there is a proper medium between these. There is 
 such a thing as a legitimate business tact in the practice of 
 our calling. The doctor should be above all petty arts, but 
 there are arts which are not petty. His culture, antecedent 
 .to his profession, should be such as will enable him to express 
 himself with correctness and ease, whether in conversation or 
 with the pen, as w^ell as to write elegant prescriptions. As a 
 business qualification, and as a debt due his profession, no one 
 more needs the culture and the heart of the true gentlemen. 
 His approach to the invalid requires none of the studied eti- 
 quette of the mechanical formalist, but it does demand the 
 happy ease of one wdio has learned how to adapt himself to 
 the phases of human nature. There is the child who often 
 needs by that true art, which has true feeling as its basis, to 
 be brought into confidence, the modest sex who have a kind 
 of felt repugnance to our art which deserves our respect, and 
 which if properly appreciated grows into reliant trust, the 
 man of business, anxious, restless, and perhaps unreasonable 
 in his sickness, and all need to be dealt with, not only with 
 medical skill, but with that discernment of character which 
 
18 ' MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-JERSEY. 
 
 also becomes an element in treatment. There is not a c.illing 
 in life, even including the other learned professions of which 
 the masses of men and those well educated in other respects 
 are so illy able to judge correctly. They can not measure the 
 doctor by the same standard they do the minister or the law- 
 yer, who deal with subjects of which the hearers know some- 
 thing, and hence, popular judgment is more often erroneous 
 in physic than in anything else. We come in contact largely 
 with the prejudices and impulses of men, at a time when by 
 their anxieties they are easily moved to try various remedies 
 in the hope of more speedy recovery, and we need, not so 
 much from self-respect, as out of respect to our profession, to 
 give it all the advantages of a favorable introduction. The 
 polite bow, the quiet manner, the word of firm but tender 
 kindness, the neat apparel and the general demeanor of cheer- 
 ful thoughtfulness for the welfare of the patient, are never 
 more in place than when illustrated by the medical attendant. 
 True and manly adaptation of ourselves to varying circum- 
 stances, is a fit accompaniment of an adaptation of our reme- 
 dies to the disease on hand, and the study of character belongs 
 to the business of our art. * 
 
 In the preparation of our medicines, too, we may use 
 another kind of justifiable tact. We should study to make 
 them taste better, and take much more pains to please the 
 palate when we can do it without sacrificing strength or value. 
 The people have a just claim upon elegant pharmacy. There 
 is now little need of nauseous potions, and as the law of 
 association is a law of life, strong in the cradle and growing 
 to the grave, we should conform to the demand it makes upon 
 us. There is np necessity that even the country doctor should 
 be, to the child or the adult, the synonym of assofoetida and 
 castor oil, and if you have ever been long sick yourself, you 
 will appreciate that kind of natural inclination there is toward 
 the attendant whose drugs are coated with sugar, fragrant 
 with essential oils, or flavored with odorous extracts. We 
 have no right, injustice to our calling, to allow paltry quacks, 
 wth sweetened bubbles, in their granular degeneration, to steal 
 away from truth, if possible, our verv elect. 
 
president's address. 19 
 
 There is much discussion uow-a-days as to specialties in 
 medicine, and as to how far the regular practitioner may, in his 
 business, give prominence thereto. We believe the tendency 
 of some medical organizations is, to be too strenuous in refer- 
 ence to them. I for one see in them the highest hope for 
 Progress. The scope of our science has become in the last 
 half century enormously enlarged. It is now rather a family 
 of sciences — a Banyan-tree with its grand old centre still in- 
 tact, but the branches have arched over and taken root, and 
 we have a noble group ; an academy amid whose groves, as 
 did Plato and his followers, we may sit and sup each our relish 
 of the fulness of Philosophy. One man can not now expect in 
 perfection to encircle this forest-city, and our most frequent 
 failures are in the attempt. It is only by joining hands that 
 we can complete the round. Let each one feel himself as of 
 the family ; draw nourishment from the same abundant 
 source ; receive a full curriculum in every department ; and 
 then choose his favorite branch. To be great aurists, occu- 
 lists, stethoscopists, microscopists, dermatologists, toxicolo- 
 gists, orthopoedists, obstetricians, physiological, pathological, 
 and chemical classifiers of all acute and chronic conditions, 
 surgeons, apothecaries and physicians, is asking too much 
 for three score years and ten. There must be division of 
 labor in order to success ; and the time is coming when 
 the general practitioner will dare to claim that he knows only 
 what he does know, and will feel it to be a not unworthy part 
 of his professional duty to serve his patient in divers other 
 cases, by directing him to those skilled in a specific branch. 
 The old distinctions, so well recognized in the British Empire, 
 will ere long be revived here under a different kind of classi- 
 fication ; and medicine pride itself, not as complete in each 
 practitioner, but complete because all its members will togeth- 
 er make up a harmonious whole ; and the man of real merit 
 and science, who puts up a modest sign of his specialty, will 
 be criticized no more than he who by his M. D. proclaims him- 
 self a proficient in all. Thus will we find exaltation accruing 
 to our profession, and be less in danger than now from imag- 
 
20 MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW- JERSEY. 
 
 inary and arbitrary distinctions. We shall then not fail to 
 distinguish between those who, in a proper way, lay claim to 
 superior skill, and those who, with gilded baubles, long adver- 
 tisements, and vaunted cures, seek only cash and notoriety 
 combined. 
 
 Let the practice of physic, as a business, have thus its defi- 
 nite plans and methoLls ; let love of it as a science and an 
 art, and energy, high-toned devotion to it as a daily vocation, 
 be the motive power, and it will not fail to place itself in a 
 still more commanding position, and reap brighter and more 
 golden rewards. 
 
 I HASTEN TO SPEAK LASTLY OF MEDICINE AS AN ART. 
 
 Old Playfair was right when he said, " a principle in science 
 is a rule in art." It is difficult to dissociate art from its sci- 
 ence, or science from its art. Wherever you find a real sci- 
 ence, there you are sure, ere long, to discover a corresponding 
 art. There is not always the same order of sequence, for 
 sometimes the science gives rise to the art, and then again the 
 art may introduce the science ; and oftener still, both are uni- 
 ting their labors to luminate and Tidvance each other. And 
 so it is in our calling. The science and the art of medicine 
 are indissolubly connected. They travel on in the same di- 
 rection, not always just alongside, but still ever in intimate 
 correspondence, aiding, abetting, and elucidating each other. 
 A true art ahuays seeks to illustrate and apply science, and to 
 test theory hy idility. The profession of medicine responds 
 to these requisitions. It is so practical that it is called the 
 practice of medicine. Its chief effort is to use its science and 
 its art, both in direct application to the wants of man. With 
 both, it aims at practical purposes, and has definite plans by 
 which it operates for the benefit of humanity. It is eminent- 
 ly utilitarian in all its ends and aims. All art is so. Even 
 the fine arts, with the exquisite pleasure they yield to the 
 senses, and the culture they give to the developing taste, are 
 humanitarian and utilitarian ; but still more, our art, as it 
 seeks to give that sweet relief which follows the lull from ex- 
 
president's address. 21 
 
 cniciiiting pain, and to delay the pangs witli which body and 
 soul take parting, is aiming at one of the most nseful offices 
 which it can propose, as the goal of its ambition. 
 
 Our art, as such, has a threefold relation to humanity. Its 
 designs are, 1st, TO CURE disease; 2nd, to prevent it; and 3rd, 
 To RELIEVE PAIN. It recognizes these as three separate depart- 
 ments for its effort. It is not only the healing nrt, but the 
 preventive and the soothing art. The true physician feels 
 that he has in charge the physical welfare of his species, and 
 nothing that relates to hygienic or preventive science is for- 
 eign to his occupation. In fact, as an art, independent of its 
 relations to business, it has no higher triumphs than in seek- 
 ing out and abating the sources of human misery. As it sur- 
 veys the broad expanse of disease, it perceives how much of 
 it is a direct result of a disobedience of natural laws, by the 
 individual himself, or by those who have in charge the sanitary 
 or municipal regulation of society, and the zeal of the true 
 philanthropist, combines with that of the earnest physician, 
 to strike at the roots and cut off the sources of human malady. 
 Thus, in reference to the laws of health and diet, in the study 
 of meteorological changes, and in various other matters bear- 
 ing upon the physical status of the nation, we feel no small 
 degree of interest and accountability, and realize that society 
 and humanity have claims which can not be measured or dis- 
 charged by pecuniary considerations, but which, like many 
 an out-gushing effort of earnest devotion to one's pursuit, are 
 j-endered, because of a living interest, in all that relates to the 
 material elevation and vitalization of the race. 
 
 But when our science can neither heal disease or prevent it, 
 it still has a noble office to perform. When the body is writh- 
 ing with the contortions of pain, and every nerve twinges 
 with the sensitiveness of misery, there is something wortliy of 
 the name of art and science, too, in the man who can speak 
 peace to the excruciating pang, and make quiet repose take 
 the place of agonizing wailing. Yet this is not all. We 
 know that we not only avert and relieve disease, but that we 
 often cure it. We step in between life and death, and with 
 
22 MEDICAL SOCIETY OP NEW-JEKSEY. 
 
 those remedies which the God of nature has placed at our 
 command, turn aside the reaper, deatb, and restore health 
 and strength to tlie prostrate form. However perplexing 
 may be the indications in some cases, every ph3'sician can re- 
 call manifold instances in which he knows, as far as human cer- 
 tain t}^ can go, that he has averted the stroke of the destroy- 
 ing angel, removed the barbed arrow rankling amid the life- 
 blood, and can say of this or of that one : " I saved his life." 
 Let others pursue the paths of fortune, and build their pal- 
 aces of wealth, or run the race of fame, and listen to the plau- 
 dits of the forum and the stage ; let the poet and the painter 
 revel in the delights of their ^vork and picture colorings, but 
 write my name as one who strove to quell the fountains of hu- 
 man misery, to delay the progress of fatal disease, and ward 
 off the strokes of earnest death — as one who learned to ease 
 the pain and lull the anguish of bitter trial — who loved to 
 work, and watch, and w\iit by the bed-side of suffering human- 
 ity, in order that mortal grief might be assuaged, and that mor- 
 tal maladies might yield to the remedial agencies of our art. 
 
 I now further claim that, in all these respects, as a prevent- 
 ive, a relieving, and a curative art^ medicine is progressive 
 and successful. As we viewed its progress as a science, so 
 let us view its progress as an art. Here again we do not 
 need to e'xtend our vision over the remote past, but can gath- 
 er in abundant evidence from the scope furnished by the pre- 
 sent century. At its commencement comparativly little was 
 known of the relation of causes to disease. Certain facts, such 
 as the spread of epidemics in specific latitudes, and the cessa- 
 tion of diseases by special influences, as when the burning of 
 400 acres of tenement houses in London stopped the Plague, 
 had; indeed, long drawn attention to the fact that there was 
 some connexion between atmospheric and constitutional chan- 
 ges, between locality and disease, but no definite method of 
 investigation or law of action had been deduced therefrom. 
 But now hygienic and sanitary laws have their definite appli- 
 cations. Though we can not trace the origin of such subtle 
 causes as eliminate the poison of cholera, or the contagion of 
 
« 
 
 president's address. 23 
 
 certain fevers, yet, even in such cases, we know much that can 
 be turned to practical account. We recognize enough of the 
 antecedents of cholera, of the definite connexions between re- 
 mittent fevers and miasm, and between human filth and the 
 prevalence of typhus, to enable us to do much in diminishing 
 their frequency, or modifying their severity. We know that 
 certain measures as to cleanliness will secure immunit}'' from 
 many diseases, while the influence of proper drainage, good 
 air, good diet, and contentment of mind, are appreciated and 
 applied by the physician in many practical ways. 
 
 Besides, by the process of Vaccination alone, thousands upon 
 thousands have been rescued, not only from death, but from 
 disfiguring disease, and the greatness of the immunity and 
 blessing, can scarce be appreciated, now that variola has 
 ceased to be a sweeping, unchecked scourge. The value of 
 preventive medicine has been so frequently illustrated in the 
 last few years, that it no longer rests upon any doubtful evi- 
 dence. Cities in which all curative methods have failed to 
 arrest prevalent disease, have been delivered tlierefrom by 
 removal of accumulated refuse, and it is not too much to say 
 that were those laws of hygiene, which are no longer a matter 
 of doubt, applied with earnestness and efficiency, the aggre- 
 gate of sickness, in city and country, would be reduced not less 
 than forty per cent., and that of premature death in propor- 
 tion. Even in an economical point of view, such an applica- 
 tion of these laws is desirable, inasmuch as disease and mortal- 
 ity deduct from the industrial wealth of a nation, but in the 
 higher a-nd more important aspect of blessing to humanity, 
 there is the highest appeal to our professional and personal 
 effort. The cities of Boston and Providence have well illus- 
 trated the value of such efforts in their permanent methods, 
 and even New York and Washington been greatl}^ bene- 
 fitted by occasional awakening, but have been oftener stand- 
 ing proofs of neglect. 
 
 New York City, with its 5000 or 6000 cases of small pox the 
 last year, is good evidence on the point ; and the proportionate 
 surplus of deaths by 6000 or 7000 is not to be accounted for by 
 latitude or locality. 
 
24 MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-JERSEY. 
 
 As to miasmatic diseases, their laws are so well understood 
 that correct views, as to preventive measures, have often led 
 to the relief of prevailing disease, by resort to practical meth- 
 ods of drainage, and the removal of obstructions to the flow of 
 natural channels. Thus, by this one department of hygiene 
 and sanitary art alone, thousands have been rescued from un- 
 timely graves, and tens of thousands from the long-continued 
 inflictions of disease, and yet there is no field in which more 
 remains to be done. Strange to say, here, medicine as a sci- 
 ence is yet far ahead of medicine as an art ; in other words 
 we know far more of the general and specific laws of health, 
 as applicable to individuals and to crowded communities, 
 than has as j^et found its way into practice or municipal regu- 
 lations. 
 
 Not less, as a relieving art, has medicine recorded grand 
 progress in the present century. The discovery of such an 
 anesthetic as chloroform, or as ether, is of itself enough to 
 crown our profession with honor for an age. Human pain and 
 agony are sad and terrible things, and he is no small benefac- 
 tor to his race who discovers, or whose business it is to apply 
 principles and methods which lead to its relief. If we con- 
 trast the past age of medicine in this respect with the present, 
 we have reason for joyful congratulation. To perform opera- 
 tions without causing a struggle or a moan, which once re- 
 quired the lashing-table and the strength of human force ; to 
 substitute the sweet, calm smile of quiet sleep, for the scream 
 of distress, when the scalpel is penetrating nerves ; and yet 
 meanwhile, to accomplish the most skilful operations of sur- 
 gery — this is a glory and a triumph of which any science or 
 any art may well be proud. Could all the relief which has 
 been afforded to liuman pain by chloroform alone be express- 
 ed by measure of quantity, or test of quality, or power of hu- 
 man language, you would have an aggregate of capacity, of 
 choice selection, of thrilling delineation such as any mere con- 
 ception fails to impress. Could a painter in one glowing picture 
 present you the sum of relief and of comfort that thus our pro- 
 fession has bestowed, it would be worthy to take its place as an 
 
president's address. 25 
 
 image of contentment beside the sleeping Madonna ; and could 
 another portray the condensed misery and pain it has averted, 
 it would be a portraiture with La Miserable as its name, and 
 a part of Cornelius' "Last Judgment" as its model. 
 
 Nor are we to lose sight of manifold other methods of relief. 
 The whole class of narcotics and sedatives have, with all 
 their power, as a prominent design, the relief as well as the 
 cure of disease, , and how e-ffectually "and satisfactorily they 
 accomplish it, patient and physician are often the happy wit- 
 nesses. Improvements in ease and simplicity of treatment 
 have added, in the last few years, much to the comfort of the 
 sick or injured ; and the whole practice of medicine is now 
 pursued with less of inconvenience to the patient, and of less 
 expenditure of that vital power which constitutes pain, than 
 ever before. Thus, the art of relief becomes next in precious- 
 ness to that of cure ; and unquestioned, may take a high posi- 
 tion among well directed and philanthropic efforts. 
 
 No less progressive is medicine as a curative art. Where 
 once it shook the head of doubt, and trembled with the pre- 
 sentiment of failure, it now advances with the firm tread of a 
 reasonable certainty. While by reliable statistics it is able to 
 show an appreciable, numerical gain in the management of old 
 ailments, it cures others which were once consigned to the sad 
 Golgotha of hopelessness, and grapples with disease, not to lull 
 into unconscious security, but to renovate with the. blushing- 
 ruddiness of restored health. It attempts cure by methods 
 once unknown, and sustains their value by accurate experience. 
 In every department, it reaches out with energetic hand, for 
 all that reason can suggest and example prove, and hesitates 
 not to subsidize to its service every thing likely to overcome 
 or ameliorate injury or disease. Once dealing with disease by 
 name, it now successfully defines its stages, and assigns its 
 remedies, with no small degree of accuracy. Operations once 
 considered hazardous, or not even proposed, have become an 
 actual part of our science. Articles of Materia Medica, which 
 were unknown, or so crude as not to be available, have had 
 their virtues so extracted as to be manageable, and have taken 
 
26' MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-JEESEY. 
 
 their place as valuable remedies ; and in the department of 
 Uterine disease an almost radical change has been inaugurated. 
 The physician of the present day can approach almost any 
 disease with a consciousness of valuable facts in possession 
 bearing upon it, and in a large number of cases these facts are 
 such as advance our art as much as they elevate our science. 
 Notwithstanding the inroads of luxury, and the deterioration 
 of physical stamina, which too much marks our age, careful 
 statistics show that where the principles of our art are faith- 
 fully applied, there has been a uniform and appreciable de- 
 crease. Under improved hygienic regulations, Paris, since 
 1830, has diminished its percentage of death from one in thir- 
 ty-two to one in thirty-seven. In London a corrresponding 
 improvement has taken place, until the death rate is reduced 
 to one in forty. 
 
 "We next pass in conclusion to inquire whether medicine as 
 an art is successful. This is in fact involved in the idea of 
 progressiveness, for that scarcely deserves the name of a pro- 
 gressive art, which does not eventuate in advantage and suc- 
 cess. But it may be well briefly to inquire to what extent the 
 art of prevention, relief, and cure, as represented in the prac- 
 tice of medicine, is successful. 
 
 A general proof of the success of an art is^ to be derived 
 from its antiquity, and from the estimation in which it is held 
 by all civilized communities. While the deference and pat- 
 ronage which is often extended to empiricism may sometimes 
 lead to disgust and doubt ; yet this can only result from a cir- 
 cumscribed view of the area of our profession. While, ever 
 and anon, some new system is vaunted and popular, yet the 
 great fact stands out from the rubbish of all these false meth- 
 ods, that the regular profession still holds its wa}^ amid them 
 all, and not a single system, which has stood the test of time, 
 pretends to vie with it. The alchymists and vegetarians, the 
 Thompsonians and hydropaths, the chrono-thermalists and 
 eclectics, and many other upstarts whose very names are 
 now forgotten, have passed away, as Avill Homeopathy in 
 its turn, with the age begetting them, and the progress of the 
 
president's address. 27 
 
 world writes Nihil, as their epitaph. This alone shows that 
 in the general estimate of mankind it is snccessful ; for a pro- 
 fession in which are involved the actual life and health of the 
 people, would not have had such perpetuity conferred upon it, 
 in compare with other systems, unless in the main it had com- 
 manded the intelligent assent and approval of the world. This 
 alone confers upon it, so far as the " vox populi" is concerned, 
 the crown of successful competition, as having, in the long run? 
 fairly and fully distanced its more pretentious rivals. Mankind 
 have thus lionored it, because in general they have recognized 
 it as the most successful dispenser of the preservatives of life, 
 and the restoratives of health ; and that old English duke is 
 yet worthy of admiration, who, in a time when Popery and 
 Quackery were rampant in England, was taken sick, with in- 
 curable ailment, and when informed by his medical attendant 
 that his disease was mortal, replied, "I am content, inasmuch 
 as I am permitted to die in the faith of the regular church, and 
 under the care of a regular physician." 
 
 But we need not rely for proof of success upon the general 
 assent of mankind. Our advance is more demonstrative than 
 this. When a man is writhing with the contortions of pain, 
 as the result of intestinal irritation, and successive narcotics 
 quell the griping monster, and relax the woful spasm, that 
 relief which is as responsive to the remed}'' as ever effect is to 
 cause, is quite convincing enough to the patient and to us. 
 When the injured artery is pouring out the life blood, with 
 the pale death damp settling on the countenance, and the well 
 applied ligature is the thread which interweaves with the 
 parting thread of life, and gives it strength for other years, 
 the patient does not fail to see the connexion between his 
 surgeon and his rescue. These are but specimens of number- 
 less cases of direct demonstrative success, and besides these, 
 there are thousands of others, which, although not so accurate- 
 ly sequent, yet can appeal for proof of success to the same 
 kind of evidence deemed satisf;ictory in other vocations. 
 
 In dangerous diseases it is always safe to refer recovery to 
 treatment, where the s3^mptoms have been such as are gene- 
 
28 MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-JERSEY, 
 
 rally fatal, and where the treatment adopted has been such 
 as experience and statistics prove to have diminished the 
 fatality of the particular disease. In respect to pleurisy, 
 pneumonia, puerperal fever, typhus and many other diseases, 
 we may rest our proof upon just this kind of evidence. In 
 phthisis pulmonalis, although cure is seldom effected, we have 
 many and indisputable principles of treatment, and that we 
 are able to elevate the system above the consumptive mark, 
 and to prolong life, we have all that kind of assurance which 
 is furnished by increasing strength, diminished cough, 
 higher vitality, and cessation of serious symptoms. In other 
 cases, such as organic heart disease, where we can not change 
 structure, yet we are able to make accurate diagnosis, and by 
 warning the patient against certain contingencies, lead him to 
 prolong his life, and thus secure a partial success. I knew a 
 man with pulmonary aneurism, who, after treatment for con- 
 sumption and divers other ailments, had his obscure case 
 recognized by a learned auscultator, and not only was relieved 
 from all doubt and long courses of ill advised medicines, but 
 led to such a judicious course of regimen and life, as served 
 to add much to his comfort and his dij^^s, and even this cannot 
 be called fiilure. A profession which had no higher claim 
 than that of thus securing partial deliverance, would not be 
 cast out as useless, and much less, one which has in it so much 
 of real success that we need scarcely allude to such evidences. 
 
 There is another kind of success, not attracting the public 
 eye, which our profession has a full right to claim. 
 
 By the writings and opinions of medical men, a very great in- 
 fluence is exercised in behalf of public and private medical 
 charities, which, while adopted in most civilized countries, is 
 seldom traced to its primal source. As many a river is bounding 
 mth life, and bearing over its waters the commonwealth of the 
 people, whose fountain-head away off in the quiet top of some 
 rocky mountain has never mirrored a single face of those who 
 travel on it ; so these sources of correct physical law are un- 
 seen and unknown while the world is gathering in the rich 
 reward of their labors. Thus, a large part of what has become 
 
president's address, 29 
 
 the common stock of enlightened humanity, as to the laws of 
 life and health, and pubHc provision therefore is due to the 
 investigation and experience of our profession. Those noble 
 charities which grace the world, with the realizations of a prac- 
 tical philanthropy, as exhibited in infirmaries and dispensaries, 
 for the poor and needy ; in hospitals for the sick, the wounded, 
 and the sore ; in asylums for the deaf and the blind, the 
 outcast and the destitute, are in no small degree the direct 
 outgrowth of our profession. If religion is the foster-mother, 
 our scientific art is the foster-father. All over the broad area of 
 Christian civilization, every asylum for the blind is a monument 
 to the energy of Dr. Howe, who not only looked to their tempo- 
 ral wants, but invented the raised letters, which introduce them 
 to the Bible and the literature of the world. The hospital 
 upon the Alps, on the grand landscape slope of the Abend- 
 berg, which has demonstrated how much can be done to ameli- 
 orate the condition of the cretin and the idiot, is the life-work 
 of Dr. Guggenbuhl ; the idea of rescuing the drunkard from 
 the wierd power of the spell enchantress' habit, by medical 
 treatment, has been happily practicalized under the fostering 
 care of Dr. Turner ; and never let it be forgotten, that the noble 
 charity at Trenton, which confers upon our state all the honor 
 due to a generous* provision for the most unfortunate of her 
 children, had its origin in the action of this society, and its in- 
 ceptions in the minds and hearts of some who to-night honor 
 us with their presence. In no profession is so much of service 
 thus rendered without pecuniary reward ; and even the call of 
 public institutions for the relief of their suffering inmates, is re- 
 sponded to by the very ablest men of the profession, without per- 
 sonal recompense. I speak after investigation of the subject, when 
 I say, that in all countries a very large proportion of the public 
 provisions made for mental and physical disability, its prevention 
 and its cure, is traceable to our profession, and we need only to 
 read their careful reports, to satisfy us how much of success 
 has attended our efforts. Civil and political power have neces- 
 sarily been called upon to consummate endowments, and to 
 secure munificent pecuniary patronage, and thus have gene- 
 
30 MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-JERSEY. 
 
 rally been regarded as the authors. But, behind all this, you 
 will find the earnest labors of medical men, by essays, by 
 appeals, by petitions, by expenditures of time and skill and 
 money, touching the main springs which have started these me- 
 chanisms of philanthropy into motion. Their success is the 
 success of our profession ; and though the world may not regis- 
 ter our names upon the tablet of fame's temple, in the eternity 
 of knowledge, in the hidden registry of human benefaction, " Lo, 
 Ben Adhem's name leads all the rest." 
 
 Another proof of success is to be found in the spirit and in 
 the result with which we grapple new diseases. If diptheria, 
 or spotted fever, or malignant pustule or other sudden epidemic 
 invades a locality, how quickly medical men afe on the alert to 
 trace its history and to stay its deadly tramp ; and even in 
 such a class of cases, we are conscious of increasing success. 
 Although we may not fully eliminate the poison, or eradicate 
 the disease, w^e can and do meet it with the powerful antago- 
 nism of an earnest and a practical art, and generally have the 
 satisfaction of seeing the severity decrease ai we the more 
 thoroughly study and treat it. 
 
 Besides all this, there are numbers ^f diseases now success- 
 fully treated which once bade defiance to all the investigations 
 of our science, and the experience of our art. There are dis- 
 eases of the eye, such as Iritis, which once consigned nine-tenths 
 of those attacked to hopeless blindness, when now such a result 
 is only the sparse exception. There are affections of the brain, 
 such as the Hydrocephaloid disease, which a careful diagnosis, 
 has so separated from acute dropsy as to save many a child. 
 Diseases of the heart, the lungs, and the alimentary apparatus 
 are much more definitely understood, and we know, from 
 a comparison of aggregated results, that we meet them better 
 than did our fathers, and almost every year improve upon our- 
 selves. 
 
 In Uterine affections, the last twenty-five years have wit- 
 nessed great modifications of treatment, and the operation for- 
 vesico-vaginal fistula has been but the prelude to local treat- 
 ment of other sexual ailments, which has lifted many a sigh 
 
president's address. 31 
 
 from off the sorrows of womanhood and returned many a chron- 
 ic invalid to the useful happiness of restored health. A new 
 era has dawned upon this department ; and new and surprising- 
 success is attending those who keep pace with the advance. 
 
 In the domain of surgery it would be too tedious to particu- 
 larize the progress. With chloroform as the presiding almoner 
 of peace, the dislocated joint, by scientific manipulation, falls 
 into its socket without the seven mechanical powers ; and 
 French surgery, during the past year, even reports the reduc- 
 tion of a broken neck. The broken bone no longer consigns 
 the patient to weeks of bed-ridden impatience, and exsection 
 and resection preserve many a limb, once buried before its 
 time. The system of extension and counter extension no longer 
 means a cumbersome appliance of boards, and bandages, and 
 dragging weights, but with simple adhesive plaster, or Smith's 
 anterior splint, ease and motion are alike secured. The 
 pitiable sufferer from hip disease, no longer lingers long- 
 months of weary confinement, but with well adjusted splints 
 walks forth to breathe that air which is health to his bones 
 and doeth good like a medicine. 
 
 The swollen epiglottis no longer necessarily proves fatal, and 
 had George Washington lived in our day his valuable life might 
 have been prolonged for many years. Plastic operations, if we 
 can judge from growing custom have made hare-lip popular, 
 while the orthopoedist has no apology to offer for any limping 
 Mephibosheth he may meet. 
 
 The beautiful system of arterial lignature, as with silken or 
 silver thread, it has passed from one success to another, has 
 recorded the grandest triumj^hs of modern surgery, until since 
 last we met, it has reached the climax of its achievements in a 
 successful tieing of the ateria innominata. With wounds and 
 bruises and putrifying sores we deal in a simpler and more suc- 
 cessful way, while diseases of the joints are less fatal than for- 
 merly. Hernia admits of many a radical cure, and encysted 
 dropsy, and ovarian tumors are not unfrequently relieved by 
 operations, which by their extent, and length, and boldness^ 
 seem to the unpracticed eye almost superhuman. Contracted 
 
32 MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-JERSEY. 
 
 tendons yield to mechanical contrivances ; and spinal curvatures 
 resume the g-racefnl symmetry with which nature has elaborat- 
 ed the great flexible column of upright humanity. Scientific 
 ingenuity has provided us with the microscope, the ophal- 
 mascope, the laryngoscope, in such rapid succession, that we 
 have yet only partially profited b}' their augmenting revela- 
 tions. Numberless minor instruments have simplified or ren- 
 dered possible mau}^ operations ; wooden limbs are walking 
 as if with the comfort and agility of living calibre ; and in the 
 various departments of mechanical appliance we are daily prov- 
 ing, by our success, how nuich can be done externally to over- 
 come the invasions of disease and injury. 
 
 In a word, our profession in all its departments, is teeming 
 with the trophies of recent success, and is bidding its votaries 
 to keep pace with its advancing triumphs. 
 
 As thus we have glanced over the field of vision presented 
 in this hasty review, there is found enough to thrill the heart 
 of science with zealous enthusiasm, and to warm the practi- 
 tioner of medicine with all the glowing energy of a living, ad- 
 vancing art. 
 
 Such, my fellow laborers, is the nobie calling Which we have 
 selected as ours, among the leirned professions. In the name 
 of all that is precious in humanity, of all that is joyful in the 
 ecstacy of advancing knowledge and successful application, I 
 bid you hail ! Called by your kind preference to the highest 
 honor within the gift of the Profession of this State, I desire 
 to magnify my office only by endeavoring to arouse one and 
 all to an adequate appreciation of the power and progress of 
 our noble vocation. When I address you as the Fellows and 
 Delegates of the State Medical Society of New Jersey; I call 
 you by no common name. With it are intertwined not only 
 the precious memories of ninety and nine years full of friend- 
 ship and renown, but the devotion of true men to a glorious, 
 scientific art ; the majestic campaign of an organized battal- 
 ion against the encroachments of- disease ; the unflinching 
 valor of tried heroes, battling with life-energ}' against the 
 grim forces of Death. It is the combination of learning and 
 
president's address. 33 
 
 experience ripened into accurate judgment, and wielded with 
 intelli!2:ent skill, in order that the a;^ed grandparent may still 
 occupy the good old family chair ; that the bonds of conjugal 
 affection, cemented in love, may not be rudely severed by the 
 untimely separations of the grave ; that the prattling cherub 
 may still cheer the household with his ringing laugh ; that the 
 fond parents may still gather their loved ones, like olives, 
 about the table, and that all the sweet amenities that render 
 life a social, holy joy, may be prolonged as much as the insta- 
 bility of the world will permit. 
 
 Consecrated to such work, we meet, that our plighted vows 
 may be renewed. We review the past, that we may gather 
 strength for the future ; we grasp the hand of professional 
 friendship, that we may warm our mutual sympathies to no- 
 bler and stronger endurance. We trace our progress, and re- 
 cord our success only that we may rise up and tread the road 
 that leads to more ; we compare our experience, that each 
 may profit by that of the other, and thus hope to return to 
 OUT respective fields of labor, the better prepared to meet the 
 exigencies of disease. 
 
 Thus, in our own appropriate spheres, we will do our part 
 to make America, in the triumph of her arts, coequal with 
 America in the triumph of her arms. Over all the broad do- 
 main we will spread the protecting B3gis of the Healing Art ; 
 and while others are battling for the nation's life, with the 
 booming roar of the sea-fight or the terrible conflicts of the 
 battle-field, we will bring sanitary and prophylactic science to 
 bear, in hold, hospital and camp, will care for the people's 
 health with the well directed effort of good Samaritan admin- 
 istration ; and, when at home, the strength and glory of the 
 land, its men, its women and its children, are prostrate with 
 disease, unheralded as the dew, noiseless as the sun, we will 
 dispense those remedies, which, with the blessing of God up- 
 on them, will give strength, and health, and vigor to the land. 
 With such high resolves and strong desires, let us welcome 
 each other to these deliberations, hoping and expecting bene- 
 fit from this fraternal and professional interview, and from 
 
34 MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-JEESEY. 
 
 hence shall we return to our duties, with invigorated deter- 
 mination to act well our parts as members of that profession, 
 whose foundation is a true science, whose superstructure is a 
 growing temple of successful art, and around whose Doric pil- 
 lars. Religion, Philosophy, Philanthropy and Humanity bind 
 the chaplets and entwine the garlands of their majestic ap- 
 proval. 
 
ICI