THE

WESTERN JOURNAL

or

MEDICINE AND SURGERY.

COLLABORATORS.

EDWARD H. BARTON, M. D. Profes- | SAMUEL P. HILDRETH, M. D. Marietta, sor of the Theory and Practice of Ohio.

Medicine, in the Medical College of SAMUEL HOGG, M. D. Nashville, TenLouisiana.

WILLIAM J. BARBEE, M. D. George M. Z. KREIDER, M. D., Lancaster, town, Ky.

A. CLAPP, M. D. New Albany, In- JOHN L. RIDDELL, M. D. Professor of

ART. I.-Remarks on Statistical Medicine, contrasting the result of the empirical with the regular practice of Physic, in Natchez. By SAMUEL A. CARTWRIGHT, M.D., of Natchez.

I HAVE Witnessed two very different eras in the practice of Medicine in Natchez. In the first, the practice was confined to physicians, who had been regularly educated for that purpose, and the doors closed against all species of empiricism. In the second, the practice has not been confined to physicians properly so called, but fully and freely laid open to all kinds of quacks and ignorant pretenders. I am now about to test the results of the practice of medicine in these two eras,

standing as I do as a link between them, by the unquestionable facts of statistical medicine.

Statistical medicine or political arithmetic, as it is sometimes called, is that searching department of our science which separates the ore from the dross. It melts down and consumes the scaffolding which elevates empiricism, ephemeral success and accidental popularity, into high places. It undeceives the public by substituting for the caprices of the credulous, the partial and the prejudiced, the unerring results of time and truth. Statistical medicine furnishes the key which opens to public view in a manner the most convincing, simple and summary the actual results of the regular and empirical practice. The doctrine of annuities, successions, reversions and life assurances, are all founded upon the truths afforded by statistical medicine. The facts, which it discloses in regard to the practice of medicine in this city, are well calculated to make every member of this society proud of the profession to which he belongs and of the noble science to which it pertains. They show that the syren voice of the empiric is not to be trusted. They prove that there is no short road to knowledge in medicine-no safety for the afflicted, but in the counsels of those who have patiently climbed the rugged hill of science—no reform to be found by descending lower, but by climbing higher.

The excitement, which of late years, has been kindled throughout the United States against the medical profession under the popular catch word "reform," not only struck at physicians, but at some of the most valuable medicines of the materia medica. The medicines, most commonly used by physicians, particularly all the mineral preparations, were denounced as poisons, and pnysicians were represented as a set of men who followed the avocation of poisoning their fellow

citizens for mere gain, or from a species of infatuation, and so far from being useful to the public were more mischievous than an equal number of assassins or highway robbers. The excitement was fanned into a flame, with so much zeal, by the manufacturers of nostrums and patent medicines, that many ignorant, but in some instances good meaning persons, were stricken with a species of fanaticism, believing themselves called on to go out into the world to bring about a reform in medicine. Cobblers left their lasts, blacksmiths their anvils, the barber threw aside his shaving-brush, and even grey headed tailors jumped down from the board to become reformers in physic. For some time our strict laws against empiricism kept the reformers out of Natchez. At length, from causes not necessary here to mention, our laws against empiricism were virtually annulled. Very soon afterwards no less than half a dozen reformers, full of zeal, made their way into this city and chose it as the place of their permanent residence to carry out a reformation in medicine. They had never studied the science they came to reform, nor had they ever acquired the elementary education necessary to enable them to begin the study. But their lack of knowledge only made them the louder in denouncing physicians and their remedies. They were particularly hostile to calomel and the lancet. The one, they accused of being in all cases a poison, and the other of being at all times unnecessary and pernicious. They excited the hopes of the afflicted and prevailed on the credulity of the weak, by puffing the many miraculous cures, which, the "reformed system" was said to have effected. But in regard to the more numerous tribes of curable diseases, which the reformed system failed to cure, they put the finger of silence upon their lips. All those cases which baffled the best directed efforts of the regular practitioners,