TRI-STATES MEDICAL SOCIETY, 
Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. 
SECOND ANNUAL SESSION, 
1 8 76, 
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, 
JOSEPH W. THOMPSON, M. D., 
Of Paducah, Ky. 
Delivered at Vincennes, Indiana, November 22, 1876, 
PADUCAH, KY.: 
Martin & Co., Steam Printers and Binders. 
1 877. TRI-STATES MEDICAL SOCIETY, 
Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. 
SECOND ANNUAL SESSION, 
1 8 76. 
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, 
JOSEPH W. THOMPSON, M. D., 
Of Paducah, Ky. 
Delivered at Vincennes, Indiana, November 22.187ft 
PADUCAH, KY.: 
Martin & Co., Steam Printers and Binders. 
1 877. ADDRESS. 
Gentlemen : 
We have met again, after the lapse of one year from the organiza- 
tion of this Society. To see you all once more is a great pleasure, and 
the earnestness in the work, which seems to move each individual mem- 
ber, strikes a responsive chord in my heart. Our humble thanks are 
due to the great Giver of all good, that since our last meeting we have 
not been called to mourn the loss of a single member by death. We 
should continue to leaven our labor with praise to Him who “healed the 
sick,” and made merciful provision for the salvation of mankind. 
This Society has its birth in an eventful period of our national his- 
tory, the centennial of liberty and independence. Our people with 
commendable zeal, actuated by true patriotism, have celebrated this 
anniversary by a collected exhibition of their progressive development 
in the various branches of science and art on the memorable spot where 
a noble and determined body of men declared, by the pen of the 
immortal Jefferson, that they would be free. 
Defying the world in honorable rivalry, we invited all the nations of 
the earth to compete with us in the comparison of achievements and 
resources; and from every land and clime they came; the Turk, the 
Persian and the almond-eyed Mongolian vied with the cultivated Euro- 
pean for the award. Europe, Asia, Africa and the isles of the sea 
contested with us and with each other for the medal of America, and 
the result has been highly creditable to our own country. 
The Medical Profession of the world, impelled by the same motives 
of patriotism and friendship, encouraged this grand and attractive exhi- 
bition and reunion of the American people around the “cradle of 
liberty,” and caused to be held at the same time at Philadelphia the 
annual meeting of the American Medical Association and the Interna- 
tional Medical Congress; thus paying a willing tribute to American 
enlightenment and progress, rekindling the memory of the founders of 
American medicine—Morgan, Shippen, Rush, Physic, Wistar, Kuhn 
and Bond—that noble band of pioneers, our professional ancestors 
forever enshrined in our grateful hearts. 
The brief discussion of the past and present of medicine, ayd espe- 4 
cially American medicine, will, it is hoped, be not entirely uninteresting 
on this occasion. As has been beautifully and poetically said of one 
year, we may well say of one hundred years: This is “a sort of post- 
house, where the fates change horses,” and a review of the past with 
consideration of the present as a basis of hope ,for the future, cannot 
but be pleasant and instructive to all those who desire improvement, 
and are willing to labor for it. 
Some men think our great improvement in the teaching and science, 
as well as our wonderful mechanical apparatus and appliances are 
useless in the interrogation of nature, because they believe the field of 
discovery exhausted by our illustrious predecessors; but deep thinking 
investigators all say that the science is yet in its infancy. Behind the 
veil which shuts out the future from our mortal vision is a vast store- 
house of fact, to be brought forth by those who follow after us, and as 
inexhaustible as time. A celebrated steamboat captain on our western 
rivers, about the year 1830, made the round trip from Louisville to 
New Orleans and back in forty days, which was much shorter time than 
it had ever been accomplished in before; and on his return to Louis- 
ville there was a grand demonstration over this remarkable feat. 
Speeches were made, bonfires were blazing, and our captain predicted, 
amid tremendous applause, that the time would come when the same 
trip would be made in thirty days. Ordinary steamboats now make 
the trip in fifteen days, and the steamer Robert E. Lee can do it in ten 
days. That captain, (Anderson Miller) if he was alive, would be 
astonished to see his prophecy more than fulfilled. So it is with medi- 
cine. The knowledge is behind the veil, only waiting to be secured by 
intelligent, patient and well-directed effort. The huge, rough block of 
marble contains the statue, with all its curved lines and graceful pos- 
ture, and the sculptor must labor with diligent chisel if he would 
carve it out. 
In the consideration and comparison of medicine and medical men, 
ancient and modern, many salutary lessons may be learned. Seeing 
the immense disadvantages under which the early doctors labored, and 
contemplating their wonderful achievements in spite of ignorance, 
intolerance, superstition and the thousands of obstacles which have 
impeded and retarded the march of science since the world began, we 
are filled with admiration for their genius, patience and perseverance, 
and we involuntarily pay our debt of gratitude by honoring and 
revering their memory. Comparing the new with the old, gives us the 
proper appreciation of the inestimable privileges we enjoy—education 5 
and civil and religious liberty—freedom to make any investigation and 
uphold any doctrine we please, without fear of the ignorance of the 
people or the pains of the Inquisition. And seeing what was accom- 
plished by the men of old with such limited liberty and means, may 
give us courage, while thankful for our good fortune, to exert ourselves 
and press forward in emulation of their noble deeds, against all obsta- 
cles, trusting, as they did, to the verdict of time, given by future gene- 
rations, hoping the same just praise may be accorded to us that we so 
heartily render to those who have gone before us. 
I deem it proper on this occasion to mention only a few of the 
ancient Physicians, sufficient to show how they labored and suffered, 
and what they accomplished; and also to give some views on the 
present enlightened and useful position of the Profession. And if I 
can awake one thrill of gratitude to our noble professional progenitors, 
or nerve one heart to exertion in behalf of our beneficent calling, for 
the future, I shall feel abundantly repaid. 
Medical practice of some kind has existed among all the various 
peoples of the earth as far back as we have any authentic history; and 
we have no doubt man has searched in nature for something to relieve 
pain since the creation. In the civilized parts of the world we find the 
educated physician, and among the savages we find the “medicine 
man,” who remains to-day the same as when first seen by travelers and 
adventurers. Leaving the latter in his wilderness, both mental and 
physical, we have at this time only to consider the former, who is the 
professional descendant of the great founder of the science, “the divine 
old man,” Hippocrates, the father of rational medicine. 
Hippocrates was born about the year 460 B. C., on the island of 
Cos, in the oEgean sea; in whose city of the same name was situated the 
famous temple of Alsculapius, with its school of physicians. His an- 
cestry, according to the heathen custom with men of renown, was 
traced in the misty regions of mythology to the “immortal gods,” 
being descended on his paternal side from Aesculapius, and on the ma- 
ternal from Hercules. 
It was believed in ancient times that all diseases were caused by the 
anger of some offended god, especially in epidemics and plagues. This 
led the people to look to the priesthood lor relief, and superstitious rites 
were used to appease such wr ith. But reason had already asserted itself 
upon the subject, to some extent, in the schools of philosophy, and much 
had been found out through study, experiment, by accident and other- 
wise. Hippocrates gathered up all that had been learned before his time 6 
and improved and enriched it with the labor of his life. He originated 
the first regular system of the treatment of disease; and opposing the 
superstitions idea, he advocated material views, and demonstrated the 
importance of cleanliness and light. He combatted the imposture of the 
priests and taught the pare doctrine of physical causes of disease, and 
applied physical remedies for its cure. “For the gods he substituted, 
with singular felicity, impersonal nature.” He contended that suppli- 
cation and penance were valueless in the curing of disease, being incom- 
patible with the philosophic use of hygienic measures. He changed com- 
pletely, though not without a struggle, the whole system of medicine; 
and as the revolution was effected amid the ignorant and fanatical 
prejudice of the people, stimulated by the unscrupulous priesthood, 
great courage, power, and influence must have been required to make it 
successful. It was successful, however, and should inspire us with 
courage to attack error and defend truth on any question arising in the 
Profession. 
It is not within the scope of my purpose at present, to discuss in detail 
the peculiar theories and treatment of disease by Hippocrates, which 
you are aware would fill whole books. All agree that his crude knowl- 
edge was certainly the “seed in good ground,” from which sprung the 
glorious, universal medical tree which covers us all with its protect- 
ing foliage. Many principles laid down by him are still accepted, 
and his labors form the basis of our science. His fame will live for- 
ever, and all the world, especially medical men, should venerate his 
name, certainly almost as fully, if not as irreligiously, as his follower 
Galen, who said that “we ought to reverence the words of Hippocrates 
as the voice of God,” He died in Thessaly, according to different 
accounts, of great age, varying from 85 to 109 years. 
Perhaps the most distinguished of the ancient philosophers whose 
attention was given to medicine was Aristotle. His investigation of 
nature was so able, and his reasoning and philosophy so sound, that 
twenty centuries later Cuvier and Bichat, the leading writers of the 
world on that subject, adopted his classification of comparative anatomy. 
Aristotle was deeply imbued with the views of Hippocrates, and the 
firm foundation of his teaching was' furnished by the supreme, com- 
manding genius of the “Sage of Cos.” 
Aristotle, the founder of the school of Peripatetics, was born at 
Stagira, a Greek colony of Macedonia, about the year 384 B. C., and 
died at Chalcis, at the age of 62 years. He was naturally a physician ; 
his father having been medical adviser to King Philip of Macedonia, and 7 
he himself practised medicine for some years. But his studies and 
researches in anatomy and physiology, and his philosophical doctrines in 
mode of teaching, formed the basis and were adopted and used almost 
exclusively for many centuries. Losing his father early, he plunged 
into dissipation and wasted his patrimony in prodigality of all kinds, and 
became a soldier, and was afterwards forced by poverty to resume his 
early studies, medicine and philosophy. He attended the school of 
Plato, and became completely absorbed in study and contemplation. He 
supported himself at this time by keeping a small shop, where he sold 
medicinal herbs, and prescribed their use according to the custom of 
the day. From such a beginning arose one of the mightiest minds that 
ever enlightened the world in any science. The drug clerk in his little 
shop dispensing the rude medicinal preparations of his day was the 
same Aristotle, the preceptor and friend of Alexander the Great, who 
afterward, by study and experiment, reasoned out the true doctrine of 
comparative anatomy, which has stood all the tests of time, which has 
been approved and adopted by the ablest leading writers, and which 
forms the basis of our teaching and practice at this day. It was his 
influence that gave a beneficent drift to the mighty physical force of 
the “conqueror of the world,” and secured the founding of the city of 
Alexandria, wTith its famous library and school, under the Ptolemies, 
where knowledge of all kinds from every source was collected, 
preserved, distributed and handed down to succeeding generations, even 
to us as we meet together here, a professional brotherhood, bound by 
ties of mutual respect and assistance, and standing erect on the ever 
enduring foundation of the science laid by the transcendent genius, 
courage and devotion of Hippocrates and Aristotle. 
Nearly five centuries after Aristotle came Claudius Galen, whose 
authority in medical matters for 1,000 years after his death was almost 
supreme. He was born at Pergamus abbut A. D. 130, and died there 
A. D. 200. He commenced the study of medicine at the age of 17 
years, and afterward spent some time in Pome where his reputation as a 
philosopher and an anatomist became preeminent, and he was employed 
as physician to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. His lectures, practice 
and writings placed him at the head of the Profession, a high position 
which he held for more than ten centuries without a rival. His com- 
mentaries on the works of Hippocrates inseparably connect these two 
great masters in medicine. Together with Aristotle, they are the great 
luminaries that light the lonely way through thousands of years of pain 
and suffering of the human race, furnishing the only rays of hope 8 
during all that dark period. Though a heathen, his physiological inves- 
tigations, confined to the lower animals, convinced Galen of the exis- 
tence of the true God. With all the enthusiasm of a religious man, 
he denominated his writings “a true and real hymn to that awful Being 
who made us all.” He tells us, that in his opinion, “true religion 
consists not so much in costly sacrifices and fragrant perfumes, offered 
upon His altars, as in a thorough conviction impressed upon our mind, 
and an endeavor to produce a similar impression on the minds of 
others, of His unerring wisdom, His resistless power, and His diffusive 
goodness.” There is no doubt that the analysis of nature, unaided by 
the “written word,” carried conviction to the philosophic mind of this 
great man, whose authority for a hundred decades gave direction to 
science in the medical schools. 
Besides consuming too much time, it is altogether unnecessary for 
the present purpose to give a more extended view of ancient medicine, 
and we pass over the various noted men and schools who flourished 
after Galen, and c >me at once to some distinguished names of more 
modern times, and nearer to us geographically as well as in chronology. 
Previous to the fall of Constantinople the Greek medical writers 
had been read only in faulty Arabic translations; but after that event 
learned Greeks carried their language and literature to the Western 
World, and medical men, availing themselves of .this knowledge now 
read the works of Hippocrates, Galen and others in the original. 
Thomas Linacre, physician to Henry VIII of England, was very zeal- 
ous in this and established professorships at Oxford and Cambridge for 
illustrating the works of Hippocrates and Galen, and laid the founda- 
tion of the Royal College of Physicians at London. Medicine and 
Surgery, constantly progressing, have since that time generally received 
the counten mce and support of the British court and people, and also 
of most of the other nations of Western Europe. 
During the middle ages surgical operations were avoided by the 
priests, who also acted as physicians, because it was held to be a vio- 
lation of the law of God to shed blood; and that branch of the Pro- 
fession was entrusted to what were termed barber-surgeons, men who 
cut flesh as well as hair. At this time there lived a man who began 
his career as a barber-surgeon, but his genius and power of thought and 
observation enabled him to work a revolution in an important branch 
of surgery In 1536, Ambrose Pare, while serving as surgeon with 
the French army, in Provence, on one occasion discovered that his 
supply of oil, which was used boiling hot for cauterizing wounds, was 9 
exhausted; this circumstance caused him great anxiety, but he was soon 
relieved at finding the wounds which were not cauterized to be in bet- 
ter condition than those that were. By this fortunate circumstance, 
the result of neglect or inability to procure the oil, he had accidentally 
made a great discovery in the treatment of wounds, and he at once 
abandoned the use of oil. He also substituted the ligature instead of 
the cautery in controlling hsemorrhage after amputation, and the prin- 
ciple then discovered by him is now used every day. 
All great discoveries are the result of combined thought and labor, 
sometimes aided by fortuitous circumstances like the foregoing, but 
always accompanied with courage. 
Csesalpinus conceived some idea of the circulation of the blood. 
Servetus taught that there was a lesser circulation in some of the inter- 
nal organs of life, but it remained for William Harvey, an English 
physician born in 1578, after having taught the circulation of the 
blood in his lectures for ten years, to publish his great work on the sub- 
ject in 1628. Like all discoverers so much in advance of his contem- 
poraries, his book was severely criticised, but the professional mind of 
his time became satisfied it was demonstrable; and what is rather un- 
usual, he lived to see his doctrines fully established and accepted. He 
was a great man, and truly devoted to the science of medicine. At 
his death he endowed the College of Physicians with his paternal es- 
tate, one of the conditions of the grant being, that an annual oration 
should be delivered—“an exhortation to the members to study and 
search out the secrets of nature by way of experiment, and for the 
honor of the Profession, to continue mutually in love.” This is good 
advice for us now, and may we not indulge the hope that in following 
Harvey’s first injunction, we forget not the last? 
In the eighteenth century lived those distinguished contemporaries, 
John Hunter and Edward Jenner. At the age of 21 years Jenner 
was the pupil of Hunter, and a lasting friendship existed between them. 
No greater blessing was ever bestowed on the human family by the 
mind of man than the discovery of vaccination. Before its introduc- 
tion by Jenner it is estimated that the small-pox destroyed in Europe 
alone 400,000 people annually, besides leaving great numbers blind 
and disfigured. What estimate can be made of the good that has been 
done all over the world by the discovery of this great preventive to 
the loathsome scourge ? Besides saving useful and valuable lives, and 
preventing sorrow, suffering and woe to our race, Beauty is indebted to 
it, for its protective qualities have saved her queens from a loss which 10 
no human aid could, nor Divine aid ever did repair. It protects equally 
the hovel and the palace, falling like the gifts of Providence on rich 
and poor alike. How feeble are our weak attempts to give full meed of 
praise to the noble philosopher, who, in spite of many obstacles, at last 
succeeded in establishing it for the benefit of his fellow-man. 
Both William and John Hunter were men of genius. John was 
the younger by ten years, and was by far the most original man. He 
did more to advance the cause of medicine, by his scientific investiga- 
tion and doctrine of pathology, than any other one man. The basis 
upon which he relied to establish his views was the same source from 
which his ideas were drawn, the complete analysis of nature. In 
search of truth he subjected all doubt to the most critical test, being 
therefore very successful in discarding error. Buckle says of him: 
“For comprehensive and original genius he comes next after Adam 
Smith and must be placed far above any other philosopher whom 
Scotland has produced.” No man ever made greater exertion for the 
development of nature than this most indefatigable thinker and work- 
er. His investigations covered the whole range of the animal kingdom. 
“He dissected above five hundred different species of animals, exclusive 
of different individuals, and also exclusive of the dissection of a large 
number of plants, and the result was the celebrated museum which 
bears his name, and which at his death contained over ten thousand 
specimens, showing the various phenomena of nature..” This museum, 
the most noble contribution ever received by science from one person, 
was all the resource left to his wife and children for support, and was 
purchased by the British nation in 1789, and placed in the keeping of 
the College of Surgeons, where it now remains, emblem of the gratitude 
of the people to their great benefactor. Not so fortunate as Harvey, 
he did not live to see the full fruition of his labors, but they have been 
appreciated and accepted by succeeding generations. To him is justly 
given the credit for nearly all the improvements in surgery which 
appeared within about forty years after his death. “He is the father 
of pathology if we consider what pathology was when he found it and 
what it was when he left it.” His genius, his energy and his lofty 
mind have raised an imperishable monument to his memory; and in 
extending and enriching the science of medicine and surgery, he most 
worthily demands our gratitude and admiration as one of the greatest 
benefactors of his race. 
The contemporaneous history of the great men I have named shows 
that scientific investigation and discovery were hampered and obstructed 11 
by all the obstacles which could be thrown in the way by bigotry, 
superstition and ignorance. In the earlier days there was less restraint, 
the philosopher being held in awe principally by his own superstitious 
fears; the arm of governmental power, instead of crushing, left the 
investigator to wrestle with his own dread of the anger of the gods or 
the rage of the ignorant people. But it was in the middle ages, when 
religious fanaticism enveloped the world in its dark and bloody robe, 
that a night of gloom set in on science which was to be contemplated 
only with horror by future generations. If a student worked early and 
late, endeavoring to wrest from unwilling nature some knowledge of her 
laws, he risked his life, being liable at any time to be accused of dealing 
with the devil and subjected to the pains of the Inquisition. The 
Bible was considered the rule to govern all human action, whether 
moral, medical or scientific, and the severest penalties were inflicted on 
those whose writings, in the judgment of the inquisitors, did not come 
up to the standard. Dissection) that most important of all things in 
the study of medicine, was forbidden. The ancient warlike people, 
though ever so fond of battle, carnage and the shedding of blood, 
looked with horror on such a thing as the investigation of human dead 
bodies for the purpose of learning the laws which sustain life. The 
scientific medical philosopher did not escape the general proscription 
which prevailed in the days when the writings of Copernicus were 
burned by the hangman ; those famous books which contained the origin 
of the principles by which we read the stars, the plan by which the 
ancient mariner sailed across the sea and in our day Professor Tice 
makes his prognostications of the weather. The age when Bruno was 
burned at Rome for teaching the plurality of worlds, and Galileo was 
forced to recant his philosophic conviction that the earth turned round. 
Aristotle, on account of his scientific investigations, was accused of 
impiety, banished from Athens and died in exile. Constantinus 
Africanus, the most celebrated member of the Medical School of 
Salerno, was driven from his native country as a sorcerer. Albertus 
Magnus, the most learned man of the middle ages, a follower of 
Aristotle, was regarded as a magician and accused of illicit intercourse 
with Satan. Many idle stories of his “miracles” were told by the 
ignorant people. Arnold de Villa ISova, Physician to the King of 
Arragon, great in medicine and alchemy, under accusation of defective 
orthodoxy, lost his position at court and was excommunicated. Having 
fled from Spain to Paris, he was pursued by ecclesiastical influence with 
the charge of having sold himself to the devil. Retiring to Montpellier, 12 
he became a member of the Faculty of Medicine. He was finally 
shipwrecked and drowned while on a journey to Rome, for the purpose 
of operating on Pope Clement V. himself, for stone, who, notwithstand- 
ing his sentence of excommunication, had earnestly besought a visit 
from the renowned Doctor, in hope of relief. Roger Bacon, the 
English Ecclesiastic, “the Admirable Doctor,” the great student and 
writer on philosophy, mathematics, physics and astronomy, was accused 
of practising magic and astrology, and selling himself to the devil, and 
at the age of sixty four years the feeble old man was cast into prison, 
where he remained ten years. Upon his death-bed at the age of 
seventy eight years, he repented having taken so much trouble for 
science, saying, “it is on account of the ignorance of those with whom 
I have had to deal that I have not been able to accomplish more.” 
The banishment of the learned Jewish physicians of the “Dark 
Ages,” the most scientific men of their day, through the animosity of 
French ecclesiastics in the fourteenth century, is described as “a most 
revolting spectacle to see so many learned men, who had adorned and 
benefitted France, proscribed wanderers without a country or asylum.” 
Awful are the details of the expulsion of the Jews from Montpellier, 
among whom were the leading Professors and Doctors of the Faculty. 
Such was the fate of intelligent men who endeavored to turn the tide of 
ignorance, bigotry and superstition in that distant age. The darkest 
night rested on science of all kinds, “ which only vanished when the 
JEsculapian cock announced that the intellectual dawn of Europe was 
on the point of breaking.” 
In later times, when men became more civilized, and the light of 
reason had begun to shine from accumulated knowledge, ignorance and 
prejudice, though with less success, still confronted science in its 
onward march and upward progress. John Hunter could never com- 
mand the attendance of more than twenty persons at one time at his 
lectures, and was denounced by his contemporaries as an innovator 
and enthusiast. Edward Jenner only succeeded in establishing vacci- 
nation after a bitter and determined contest, under most discouraging 
circumstances, which lasted for years. William Harvey himself pre- 
dicted, and afterward recorded the fulfilment of his prophecy, that the 
publication of his work on the circulation of the blood would diminish 
his practice. 
The careful study of the history of medicine would be of great 
benefit to every medical man. It is a story of great antiquity and 
noble courage and achievement. For many centuries regularly organized medical societies for the discovery of truth were neither 
heard of nor thought of. The various schools filled their place to some 
extent, but each school taught its peculiar doctrine, and condemned all 
others as falsities. Bigotry and fanaticism reigned in them, as in other 
sects of that age of the world. Often when a great mind, no longer 
able to be held in leash by the dogma of some particular school, 
slipped the cords which bound him, and taking a new departure, 
announced to the world some great discovery, he was immediately de- 
nounced and persecuted, and especially by those who had grown old in 
the practice of some peculiar mode. The indomitable perseverance, 
the suffering and courage of the physicians of old, justly command our 
admiration and respect. Laboring among superstitious, ignorant 
people, cumbered with ignorance themselves, groping in the dark, as it 
were, with none to lead them, dependent on rude and imperfect appli- 
ances for experiment, they struggled on, some falling by the way side, 
others persecuted and prevented by every obstacle, even death itself, 
and yet through thousands of years they were true to the trust of 
Hippocrates, and succeeded in handing down to us those great funda- 
mental truths which form the foundation of our noble science. 
We, the members of the modern Medical Profession of to-day, own, 
possess and enjoy this priceless heritage. This broad, firm foundation, 
this noble legacy, has been accepted, and upon it the temple of medicine 
has been erected, whose lofty spires and shining minarets reach 
heavenward. Now magnificent medical colleges and schools cover the 
whole civilized world, where are taught by able faculties the true 
doctrines of disease and cure upon the highest and best scientific and 
practical principles. The enlightened rulers of the world, instead of 
frowning upon them, furnish every facility in their power to add to 
their perfection. How different from the past! What a wonderful 
improvement is here! When we consider what we accomplish 
now, we can but be astonished that the early doctors ever did 
anything. Free and untrammeled we pursue our course. Formerly 
the greatest mind and stoutest heart quaked with fear at the thought of 
attacking some popular superstition or ruling dogma, and only once in a 
great while a man appeared with courage sufficient for the undertaking. 
What a change! In these enlightened days we search for truth every 
where. No professional dogma nor religious superstition can screen 
with its mystery or antiquity the error which lies at its base. The 
ancientness of an idea does not secure it followers now. The human 
mind has been so opened and educated in the light of reason, that I am 14 
sure there is not a person within the sound of my voice who would not 
be willing to renounce tlie whole system of medicine, with all its glori- 
ous history, with all its endearing ties, if it was demonstrated to him, 
beyond doubt, to be a delusion. Truth is king, and in its path lie the 
dead bodies of the errors and fallacious dogmas of all ages. All are 
subject to it. There can be no exception. Every thing in life, every 
thing in death, must go down before the might, majesty and dominion 
of this our risen Lord. Our forefathers for a time, were compelled to 
grovel in the dust before the usurper, Error; but we in this blessed 
nineteenth century, have in all its glorious plenitude, the spirit of the 
words: 
“Truth crushed to earth shall rise again, 
The eternal years of God are hers.” 
When we experience a joy that glads our heart and gratifies our 
desires it is natural to look for the cause of our pleasure and render 
just gratitude to the author of it. When we look back on what medi- 
cine was, and then on what it is, we see a great revolution and natu- 
rally ask ourselves, why is this? What wizard wand hath wrought this 
change? And following the inquiry with investigation, we find that it 
is the human mind opened, enlightened and refined with knowledge. 
“The schoolmaster is abroad.” We worship in a grand- new temple 
now, and its God is Truth. Its influences extend to the uttermost 
parts of the earth. The medical papers and periodicals are its mission- 
aries, and the modern medical societies are its churches, scattered all 
over the world. Knowledge freed the world. With ignorance, 
vanished prejudice and intolerance, and now standing in the broad light 
of day, with their votaries around them, universal science and brotherly 
love spread their white wings of peace over the whole earth, to bless 
and protect it. 
Not a great many years ago members of the Profession were in a 
great measure strangers to each other in different countries; and 
neighboring practitioners were almost constantly at war, especially in 
small towns and country places, where consultations were wrangles, 
sometimes disputes over dying patients. All this is gone now, and we 
are an organized band of brothers. 
We have the medical clubs in the cities and towns, rendering ready 
help to each other by advice and assistance, the county medical society 
which meets once a month, the district medical society which meets 
quarterly, the Stite and Tri-States medical associations with their 
annual meeting, and the National Medical Association and the Inter- 15 
national Medical Congress, which also assemble once a year, the former, 
at some point in the United States, and the latter at different places in 
the Old and New World. The present extended and improved system 
of railroads, steamships and telegraph, annihilating distance and time, 
furnish easy means of communication and association, and our members 
now have friends and acquaintances in all parts of the world. 
These societies, clubs and associations have for their primary object 
the search after truth and its dissemination among the Profession and 
people, and also to promote and cultivate brotherly love and unity of 
action among us. In them every member has a voice. None are too 
proud and high to recognize and conform to their rules, for they repre- 
sent the majesty of- the sciei ce. None are too poor and low to be 
recognized and protected by them, for in the inquiry after truth the 
lowly have often found what the lofty were too elevated to discover. 
These organizations are not only valuable but indispensible in the 
present condition of the people of the earth, and their preservation of 
knowledge is not more praiseworthy than the fostering care they 
extend to genius and ability struggling with poverty. If a rich man, 
a physician with national or world-wide reputation, makes a valuable 
discovery in his practice, or reasons out a sound theory with his well 
ordered and educated brain he gives all mankind the benefit of it by 
furnishing an essay on the subject before his medical society, county, 
State or National; it is heard by representative physicians, published in 
the proceedings, and the medical papers and periodicals scatter and 
distribute it broadcast over the earth. Many poor men, of little repu- 
tation and education, often possess powerful natural minds and when 
one of these brings to light some important fact or principle for allevi- 
ating pain and saving life, he is not compelled to struggle, as formerly, 
waiting, hoping and despairing of getting it before the Profession and 
people; but is heard in societies with equal respect, and the merit of his 
work is gladly accepted for the benefit of all. Before the day of 
medical cooperation men of genius and talent have been held back for 
years by the want of means and influence to make an experiment or 
reach the public ear. The societies have supplied this great want in 
the Profession, and they form the palladium of its strength and endu- 
rance. In their perfection they embody the idea of the millennium, 
where every member, forgetting himself, gives the benefit of his mind 
and might for the good of the whole. This community of interest 
reaches toward the conception of heaven, where each disembodied spirit 
in the shining throng endeavors to make every other spirit as happy as 16 
himself, and the happiness of the homogeneous whole is Heaven. 
What a great and glorious revolution has taken place! Instead of 
darkness, we have light. Instead of ignorance, we have knowledge. 
Instead of hatred and malice, we have brotherly love and kindness. 
And now considering what wonders the ancient philosophers accom- 
plished, under the adverse circumstances before mentioned, should not 
we with our civil liberty, and improvements in every branch of the 
Profession, scientific and mechanical, do a great deal more ? It will not 
do to say the field is exhausted. The future of the early doctors was as 
completely hidden and as uncertain to them as ours is to us; and with 
energy and faithful, laborious use of our immense advantages, our 
knowledge, and freedom, our frequent interchange of views and opinions, 
reports of actual experience through medical societies, papers and 
magazines, there can be no doubt of success. From the standpoint of 
our commanding position we see every reason to hope that the status of 
the Profession will be as much higher a hundred or a thousand years 
hence as our present condition is above that of the same number of 
years in the past. Indeed, with our unparalleled and delightful oppor- 
tunities, the ratio should be much greater. 
The Medical Profession is as far if not farther advanced than any 
other of the sciences. Ignorance, superstition and intolerance have 
received a defeat from which they will never recover. We are stepping 
far and fast. We are pressing onward to the goal of the hope which 
begun the race in the days of Hippocrates. When reason shall assume 
universal dominion, and all things unable to bear the test shall perish 
before the resistless power of thought, and no more cumber the pro- 
gressive march of science; when the human mind, laying aside every 
weight and disenthralled from every burden of error, shall duly and 
gratefully appreciate the goodness and wisdom of God and the “ adap- 
tation of all His works.” 
Properly considered and viewed aright, the guerdon of study and 
labor in our profession is worthy of the effort of the greatest mind. It 
may not possess the meteoric brilliancy which dazzles for a while in 
some of the sister sciences, but it has enduring qualities shared by none. 
Where are the laws which were in force in the early days of medicine? 
How long would a fortification of that age withstand the mighty 
cannon of the present day? Both the lawyer and the soldier have 
passed away with their work, but the teachings of Hippocrates, 
Aristotle, and Galen are, in the main, as good now as when first 
proclaimed. Compare the great contemporaries, Pericles and Hippo- 17 
crates. The first was an able, eloquent, and patriotic statesman of 
Athens; the last was the “Father of Medicine.” Pericles and his 
country and the political issues for which he battled have been dead 
and gone over two thousand years. Hippocrates and his work come 
home to each of us personally, when we feel the pains of disease, and 
we admit that he knew us better than we know ourselves. Take, 
if you please, two distinguished Kentuckians of our own century'— 
Henry Clay and Ephraim McDowell. Henry Clay, the lawyer and 
statesman shot like a meteor across the political horizon. He raised 
his voice in the Senate, and the whole people hung upon his words. 
“He touched his harp and nations stood entranced.” But who cares 
now for the Missouri Compromise, or the gradual emancipation of 
slaves; the issues which he rendered famous ? Ephraim McDowell, 
sitting in his quiet study at Danville, Ky., was the “Father of 
Ovariotomy,” which has given to' the female sex more than thirty 
thousand years of actual life. I speak it with reverence as a Kentuck- 
ian who honors his memory, but Mr. Clay is being forgotten every 
day as the issues of his career are obscured by time and the present 
agitated political condition of the country. Ephraim McDowell’s fame 
has almost just begun, and will continue to live and grow as long as 
there is gratitude in a woman’s heart. The great reason of this is 
apparent from the fact that the exigencies of human affairs call for 
different laws and political positions in different ages of the 
world; and in military affairs the improvements in means of defence 
have kept pace with those of attack. Not so with medicine, where 
the improvement is all on one side. “Men die, but man is immortal.” 
There is no change in the subject upon which medicine operates. The 
citadel of disease, the human frame, has only the same defences as of 
old, while its great antagonist, the Medical Profession, with improved 
arms and better tactics, the accumulation of thousands of years of 
thought, is storming it still. 
It is a traditionary precept handed down from Hippocrates, that “we 
should suffer present censure for the sake of future good”; and although 
our system of medical societies has received the censure of those who 
ignorantly or wilfully misunderstand them, any intelligent man of 
candor will admit the comparative elevation of the Profession, and also 
that it is due, for the most part, to the cooperative action of the socie- 
ties, which of itself is sufficient vindication; and we can bear the blame 
and trust to time and a grateful people. And before closing, I wish to 
call attention to a special good accomplished by the organization in our 18 
own section in the treatment of diseases common in certain localities. 
Works on the practice of medicine, by London and New York authors, 
may be sound in general theory, but being based on experience with the 
prevailing diseases of those localities they cannot be relied on exclu- 
sively as guides to practice in our Western and Southern States, diseases 
with us having different leading characteristics and being influenced by 
dissimilar morbific causes. For instance, in some countries pneumonia, 
pleuritis, and inflammation of the serous membranes call for active 
blood letting; but the malarious complications, peculiar to our bilious 
locality, produce a tendency to depression and congestion, demanding a 
supporting course to elevate the vital powers and preclude the resort to 
the lancet in ordinary cases. In the city of New York the leading 
practitioners rarely use mercury, that remedy being required there in a 
much less degree than in the malarial regions of the West and South, 
where climatic influences producing torpid action of the secreting 
organs, mercury is much more frequently needed and used than in New 
York, where the poison exists only to a limited extent. We are, 
therefore, compelled to leave the standard works to some degree, and 
look elsewhere, and the papers read before the medical societies and 
contributions to medical journals by physicians residing in the malarial 
country furnish the most thorough experience and valuable information 
on the subject for use in our daily practice in this part of the United 
States. Without the societies, we should each be thrown upon our own 
resources, deprived of that interchange of opinion and experience, 
and denied that valuable cooperative unity of action so desirable and 
essential to general success in any branch of science. 
This Tri-States Medical Society was organized in this city just one 
year ago by the members of the Profession in the States of Indiana 
Illinois, and Kentucky, at which time the distinguished honor was con- 
ferred on me of first President of the organization, the appreciation and 
memory of which shall go with me while I live. Being chosen from 
among so many abler men, I only feel the more the force of the com- 
pliment and my own unworthiness. Being called to the position by my 
professional brethren,. I have tried and shall continue to try to fill it to 
the best of my ability, confidently and affectionately trusting to the 
same kindness which elected me to develop into charity for all errors of 
the head where the heart is right. 
This Society has for its object the promotion, collection, and pro- 
mulgation of medical knowledge, the improvement of its members, and 
to assist in elevating the standard of the Profession; and also to cultivate 19 
fraternal feeling, untrammeled by local prejudice, feuds of schools, or 
otherwise. We have had a good beginning, and we meet again under 
circumstances most propitious. The committees will report, and it is 
expected many able papers will be read for our edification and instruc- 
tion. I sincerely hope that all may enjoy the meeting, and return to 
their homes improved and gratified, and determined to do all in their 
power for the welfare of our noble and beneficent calling. We are a 
band of brothers united in a common cause, the undying warfare upon 
disease, a mutual struggle for the comfort, health, and life of the 
human family; and I devoutly trust that each and every member feels 
the importance and interest of the occasion. 
Gentlemen,—These are stirring times in our country; party feeling 
runs high and the people are excited; politics is the ruling topic of the 
hour; we all have our peculiar views, but they can not, they dare not 
encroach on the sacred domain of medicine. The National Medical 
Association meets, and its members come from all parts of the country, 
and laying aside all other issues, they join hearts and hands in honorable 
fraternal relation. We should follow the worthy example, that our 
endeavors may be auxiliary to the moral influence which proceeds from 
their assemblies, creating friendship and good will, and carrying sweet 
peace to all parts of our beloved and troubled land. So that when our 
work is done and life is ended, we can claim all the benefit of the 
precious promise: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be 
called the children of God.”