...........................*............................**^

         VALEDICTORY ADDRESS
fyf>
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
I
  OHIO STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY,
JUNE 13th, I860,

L.  FIRESTONE, M.D.,
     PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY.
         COLUMBUS:
PRINTED BY FOLLETT, FOSTER AND COMPANY.
            1860.
Mill V^^V^V^^
•**W*1^WWW*V* 
 
VALEDICTORY ADDRESS
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
OHIO STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY,
JUNE 13th, I860,
 /
J
y  by
pti~\f ) L. FIRESTONE, M.D.,
I /   I  J \     PRESIDENT, OF THE SOCIETY.
         ■'■>

GO          *•?
         COLUMBUS:
PRINTED BY FOLLETT, FOSTER AND COMPANY.
            1860. 
« 
ADDRESS.
Members of the Ohio State Medical Society :
   Another Autumn, with its " sear and yellow leaf," has passed —
another Winter gone — another  Spring, with its singing birds  and
rippling brooks, has come — another year  has been buried in the
great ocean of Time — another meeting of the Ohio State  Medical
Society is here, and its members have left their missions of mercy
and usefulness at home, to spend a short time in recounting the deeds
of the past, and prepare for greater exertions in  the future.  It is
meet to do so.  It is proper  to " sit down and reason together."   It
is the part of wisdom to " prove all things and hold fast to that which
is good."   The great enemy of our race is on the alert, and eager to
fatten  the tomb ; hence  the  necessity for us to  be fully prepared to
ward off his fatal thrusts, and be ready to defend against his insidi-
ous attacks.   As we advance in  years, we  become  more fully con-
vinced  of our  weakness  to  cure the many ills of life.   It was the
saying of the eccentric Radcliffe, " When I was young I had twenty
remedies for every disease; now I am old, and I find twenty diseases
without a single remedy."  Many of us have been long enough in
active  practice to realize that this remark  has some  foundation  in
truth.   A skilful general changes the position of his army,  when in
battle,  to secure a victory.  Death  is ever varying his means of at-
tack.   When one  form of disease is understood and vanquished by
the profession, another, still more formidable, takes its place.   We
read in heathen mythology, that one of the  labors of Hercules  was
to destroy the Lernasan monster.   He had a hundred heads, and as
fast as  one was cut off  two appeared in its place.
          "Art thou proportioned to the Hydra's length,
           Who by his wounds received augmented strength ?
           He raised a hundred hissing heads in air;
           When one I lopped, up sprung a dreadful pair." 
4
  Diseases, a century ago considered  incurable, are not at this day
regarded with much solicitude by medical men.   In their places others
of more import have appeared, making it necessary for us to meet
together and strengthen ourselves by the accumulation of facts for
the great work in which we have engaged.   Let us deliberate with a
becoming  spirit, adopt as our motto Excelsior, Excelsior, and may
it be said of us as of the father of medicine:

                        " Heal all nations,
                  And defraud the tomb."
  Let the world rage on the different questions of the day; let poli-
ticians vie  with each other for the spoils of office; let  Seward and
Douglas, Lincoln and Bell, take care of the Union and doctor the
Constitution ;  but let it be our mission to guard  well against the in-
vasions of  disease, and let it be our proudest ambition, if we cannot
save  the suffering victim, to  at least smooth  the pillow of death.
This  Society has done much good.   Before its organization we knew
but few of our professional  brethren.  The first object of the or-
ganization  was the association of the profession  for the purpose of
mutual recognition and fellowship, and kindred to this, the mainte-
nance of union, harmony  and good government among  its members;
thereby promoting the  character, interests, honor and usefulness of
the profession, as well as the advancement and cultivation of medical
science and hterature.   When this Society was organized, there were
but twenty-five members.  Now nearly five hundred names  are en-
rolled, most of whom meet once a year in  friendly greetings.  The
advantages of organizations  are  well understood, and practiced by
farmers, mechanics and  laborers.   Mechanics' institutes receive lib-
eral attention  and rich  bequests.   Agricultural societies are  formed
in nearly every county, auxiliary to the State Agricultural Society.
The  Legislature has endowed them with  authority and furnished
funds.  The good effects are plainly to be seen in the improvement
of stock and the diffusion of intelligence among the masses.   Agri-
culture, by means of organizations, is becoming a science, and old
superstitions are passing away.   When a  foreign foe invades our
shores; when  the stirring drum of the enemy is heard; when their 
5
war cry salutes our ears ;  we arouse to action; in a word, we organ-
ize.  In all these things we become fully convinced that in " union
there is strength."   The object of our union is not merely for friend-
ly greetings, but for improvement in the healing art.  A celebrated
divine, upon a certain occasion, was asked  how it happened they
knew so much.  He answered, " We tell each other."   Gentlemen,
let us tell each other.  " Truth should be our polar star, benevolence
to man  our compass, and a knowledge of the human frame, in health
and  disease, our chart."   With these in our possession, and with
friendly feelings one to the other, we cannot fail.  The calling of the
physician is one of responsibility.   He is responsible to himself, in-
asmuch as he is a partner in the great human family.  The world is
but a partnership.  We are all partners in business.  The great cap-
italist in the east is but a partner with the foreigner who lands upon
our shores, and digs our lands and builds  our railroads.  The mer-
chant is but a partner with  the beggar in rags.  The physician is a
partner with  them all.  We  all have mutual privileges and mutual
wants.   All were created by the same Almighty hand, and were des-
tined to perform  each a part upon the stage of  human life.  We
should  be prepared when the curtain rises to play well life's  drama ;
to perform with honor to ourselves, and benefit to the world.   If the
physician is not responsible to himself, neither is he  to his  God.  But
the physician is not only responsible to himself, but to the sick.  From
the time that man by his disobedience partook of
                                     " The  fruit
            Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
            Brought death into the world, and all our woe,"

to the  present, pain and disease have afflicted the human family.
Disease is incident to mankind.  We drink it from the clear fountain
as it gushes from the rock ; we inhale it from the zephyr as it fans
our  brow; and we breathe it from the fragrance of the blushing rose.
This, if permitted to riot unchecked, will result in dissolution; if per-
mitted to go on, will blanch the cheek of the lovely maid ; nip as an
early frost the bud  of infancy;  prostrate  the king upon his eider-
down, as well as the beggar upon his pallet of straw. This curse the 
6
physician has assumed to stay;  he has assumed to drive away fever,
" as he dances with his fiery feet upon an aching brow;" and has as-
sumed to cool the parched  tongue.  He has assumed, in a word, to
cure disease, not unconditionally, but  he  has assumed to do all that
science and skill can do.  The  fluttering pulse at the wrist, and  the
tremulous breath, look to him as the controller of a destiny — a min-
ister of mercy.  The living and well anxiously watch him ; the sick
look to him in confidence, feeling, believing and  hoping that  he can
apply the healing balm.  Again, he is responsible to the community in
health.  It is an old  proverb that " an ounce of  prevention is worth
more than a pound of cure."  Prevention as well as cure is wanted;
prophylactics as well as  therapeutics.  The  physician should be on
guard to observe the approach and repel the attacks of the foe.   It
is a fact well known, that the enemy will attack where he meets with
the least resistance from within.  If one part of the system is weaker
than another, there is where the attack will be made.   He will there
riot until the fortress is taken, and then will attack others in succes-
sion  until he reigns supreme, and, like a fiend, laughs at the prostra-
tion of his victim.  The weaker parts must be well guarded, and the
enemy timely routed.  But the attack is not only made where there
is the least resistance from within, but where there is the least  resist-
ance from without.   If the  health of community is guarded at  places
by arrogant pretenders,  boasting  skill  (and possessing none) ;  by
those who have read through an entire course in one year, and are
doctors by intuition ; by those who dabble with all systems and un-
derstand none; by those who prescribe patent nostrums and encour-
age the humbugs of the day; by those who are superstitious, and be-
lieve in  signs and wonders; by  those who divide  their time between
medicine, divinity and law; by money-makers engaged in  banking
or working on their farms, or by old fogies who sleep on their posts;
it is at such places the attack will be made.   How necessary that all
should be well qualified, and  ever on the watch-tower, to sound the
alarm when the enemy approaches!  Great  are  the duties we have
assumed, and mighty the responsibilities we have voluntarily taken
upon ourselves.   The riches in the fortress we assume to guard, are
the treasures embodied in the moral, intellectual  and  physical inter 
7
 ests of the world.  Our Society has done much to strengthen the
 hands of each other.   It has engendered a laudable ambition among
 its members.  As " iron sharpens iron," so have our frequent meet-
 ings and  our varied discussions sharpened  the intellect.   Several
 prize essays have been written, which have done honor to the authors,
 and been of great  benefit to the medical  world.  Committees have
 made able reports upon the different subjects to which they were ap-
 pointed.   These  reports have been spread  upon the pages of our
 transactions, read and reflected  upon by members,  as well as many
 outside of our organization.   These reports, doubtless, have been the
 means of  saving  many lives, and I trust will be the  means of saving
 many more.   Ovariotomy  has received an amount of attention in
 this State that it  would not have done had it not been for the labors
 of this Society.   It has been demonstrated that opposition to the op-
 eration, on account of its supposed fatality, is ill-founded — the per-
 centage of cures  being equal, if not superior, to  most of the  capital
 operations.  To object to the operation  now, would smack stroDgly
 of " old fogyism."  We have had the subject ably presented by our
 committees, and such confidence engendered, that we read of success-
 ful  operations in almost every medical journal.  Other  subjects  of
 great importance have been reported on by our committees, and original
 papers read by members, until we have accumulated an array of facts
 of credit to the Society, and created a growing healthful interest in
 the  profession.  We perhaps have not done our whole duty, but sure-
 ly we have done it in part.  While our advancement has not been  so
 great as might be wished, yet I can congratulate you in being able  to
 say  our advancement has been consistent  with the  progress of the
 age.   True  progress has always been  gradual. Learning  never
 sprang into the world at once.  It never came with the  rapidity  of
 lightning, dazzling with its brilliancy and electrifying with its thunder.
 Each age, each people,  each organization, and each society have ad-
 ded  to the general stock.  The widow has given  her mite, the weak
 his feebleness, and the giant his strength.   Cannot it be said of us,
 as a Society, that  we have  contributed a  liberal share.  We  may
have had our bickerings,our trials,our quarrels,and our dissensions;
we may at times have committed errors; we may occasionally have 
8
wandered from the true path ;  but it must at the same time be ob-
served that truth, in all its beauty, magnificence and  splendor, never
yet beamed on earth.   Science is not perfect.  Let us, by our future
conduct, correct whatever errors may have been committed in the
past, add our mite to the stock of medical knowledge, and make our
loved profession as perfect as possible.  By  doing this, we can emu-
late the true physician who is patient  in study, toil and investigation;
who makes himself familiar with the various departments of his pro-
fession ; whose progress is lighted  by the lamp of ages; and " who
walks in the paths of the great benefactors[and philanthropists of the
world."   Gentlemen, if we do  this,  great will  be  our reward.  It
will not be a puff in some newspaper,  or the  fulsome adulation of the
silly crowd, but  it will be  a greater  reward — the  consciousness of
having done our duty.  If we do this in a proper spirit, our profes-
sion will become so perfect in time that we can look in confidence to
the action of  our remedial agents.   We can  hope, yes, we  can know,
that the rose will return to the  cheek, fire to the eye, and  health re-
invigorate the whole frame.  Our reward will be the pleasure of see-
ing our patients  leap  from their  beds of sickness, in new physical
strength, to call us blessed.  These will cheer our midnight vigils,
our hours of toil, and the cold asperities of life.
   Gentlemen, a great work is yet to be done, and if our Society ful-
fils its mission, a great labor is before us.  We have a work  outside
of our organization, if we wish to advance.  It is to be feared that
wealth is the great object and aim of some physicians.  All their labors,
struggles and ambition are for its accumulation.  When this becomes
a leading  object — when it covers  up and conceals everything else
among the members of the profession, then the standard of profes-
sional eminence  proportionably sinks.  I do not wish to  be under-
stood to say that a physician should labor, and expose himself to rain,
sleet  and storm, without  a reward;  for I  believe the " laborer is
worthy of his hire," and if any man  should be well paid for his ser-
vices  it is the physician; but I do mean to say that wealth—the accu-
mulation of property — should not be his sole, his highest ambition.
He should have a better, a holier object in view.   He should en-
deavor to elevate the honor and usefulness of his professional breth- 
9
ren; and if he is so fortunate as to come into possession of some of
the gold that glitters, he should at the same time have an approving
conscience  of having done his whole  duty to the afflicted, as well as
to strengthen the hands  of  his younger and  weaker professional
brethren.  Great desire of wealth begets parsimony, and hence but lit-
tle money is expended for their own or others' advancement.  I am sor-
ry to say, yet it is nevertheless true, that I am acquainted with phy-
sicians in this State, and members of this Society in good  circum-
stances, owning houses and lands, who do not and have not taken a
medical journal for years.  Whether there  are any such  present I
cannot  say.  If there are, I pity them.  Such physicians solace
themselves  with the reflection that they have become rich, and need
pay no further attention to  the profession, other  than to attend to
those of the afflicted who are able to pay, and  receive their reward
for services  I fear but poorly rendered.   Talk to them about new
remedies, and you are told  the good old paths are the best; that
what was known three hundred years ago, is known now; and that
nothing is known  now that was not known then; that all new dis-
coveries are humbugs.  They come under the class — " It is hard to
teach an old dog  new tricks."   Go to their libraries, and you find
there has been no advancement.  Their latest work on Surgery is
Desault; on  Practice, Armstrong and Thomas;  Materia  Medica,
Cullen; Midwifery, Burns or Denman, with perhaps a copy of Aris-
totle for private reference.  If the profession  had been left in such
hands; if it had been confided to  physicians who make wealth their
great object in life, what would it  be to-day ?   Where would be the
new discoveries in Physiology and Pathology ?  Where the micro-
scope, revealing to us the nature of disease ?  Where the new reme-
dies that have saved  thousands from their graves; and where the
Anaesthetics, robbing surgical operations  of all their terrors ?   In-
stead of these we would still be talking of the  " open mouths of the
absorbents," of " good humors " and " bad humors," " Cato's reduc-
tion of luxations by incantations," " Montaigne's epigrams," " arte-
ries full of air " instead of blood,  of " six  canals  up " and  " six
down," of  " eight transverse " and " fifteen oblique," through which
the blood was said to run, and we  would be equally led captive  with
            2 
10
" Des Cartes " and Von Helmont," with the jargons of the Asclepia-
des, and the spirits of which ancient medicine was full.  It is neces-
sary for the agriculturalist to  have the implements of husbandry,
the chemist his laboratory, and the mechanic his tools.  The physi-
cian, to be "up with the times," must have  his library filled, not with
old works merely, but with late ones, and take some well-conducted
medical journals.  Point me to the physician who, from parsimony,
does not and will not take them, and I will  point to one " behind the
times" — an "old fogy."  If the profession  of medicine is worth
pursuing at all, it is worth pursuing well.   If we assume to cure dis-
ease, we should avail ourselves of all the lights and improvements of
scientific men,  even if attended  with some expense.  In a word,
wealth should  not swallow up the motive to do the greatest good to
the afflicted, and elevate the standard of the profession of our choice.
  But again, great desire of wealth leads our medical men into other
pursuits.  Some buy farms, some are engaged  in banking, some  in
rail-roading, and some turn speculators.   The wants  of the afflicted,
the distresses of the diseased,  the duties and responsibilities of the
physician,  require not a part, but the whole of his  time.  He can-
not discharge his duties without being  assiduous  and attentive, and
without being unceasingly and individually engaged in his profession.
He cannot  divide his time.  No objections should be  urged against a
physician becoming a farmer, but  there is  a serious  objection to his
becoming farmer and doctor.  He should not, he cannot consistently,
divide his time between the two pursuits   By so doing, he is either
a miserable doctor or a miserable farmer.  I apprehend, in a great
majority of instances, he is both.  The same objection exists against
those who practice medicine and preach the gospel.  I should be loath
to trust either my body or my soul in their  keeping.
  Another duty of the  Society is the  elevation  of the standard  of
medical education.  This  may properly be considered  under  two
heads:  A proper  education before entering  the office of the  pre-
ceptor, and an education proper for the degree of Doctor of Medi-
cine.  Upon the subject of preliminary education of  young men be-
fore entering upon the study of medicine, much has been written, yet
but little practical good has been accomplished.   That  there is a de- 
11
feet, all will admit.  The community judge in some degree of the profes-
sional qualifications of the physician  from his  knowledge of general
subjects.  If they find him ignorant of every  thing  outside, they
naturally conclude he is equally ignorant  of that which is  inside of
the profession.   If they discover that he is a novice  in Grammar,
Philosophy, History and Chemistry, they at once conclude that he
knows but little of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology and Therapeu-
tics.  By what other evidence  can  they determine?   They know
nothing of  medicine proper, yet they do know that a correct knowl-
edge of medicine  includes a knowledge of most of the collateral
sciences.  The time has passed when by mere display a man can
palm  himself off as an intelligent  physician.  The  time has passed
when a mere knowledge of calomel  and jalap will serve as a pass-
port to the confidence of the public.  This Society numbers nearly five
hundred members, scattered over this great  State.  If proper exer-
tions are used,  with our present strength, the evil in question can be
corrected.   It  can  be done by adopting a standard of preliminary
education, and  then by admitting no young man as a student of med-
icine who does  not come up to that standard.   Some years since  the
difficulty was to adopt a standard, but it is not the case now.  The
National Medical Convention, which  met in New York in 1846,  ap-
pointed a committee  on medical education, to report to that body.
Before doing so, they made inquiries of  thirty-six medical schools, as
well as several  distinguished practitioners in different parts  of  the
Union.   From  the answers received, it  appeared there  was no uni-
form standard of preparatory education  required of  students.  They
also found  great diversity of opinion as to the proper qualifications,
varying from a common school education to the highest collegiate at-
tainments.   The committee thought there could be no hope of a use-
ful result by making the standard higher than the wants of the coun-
try wisely concluding, in order to be  successful, it was better to make
it  too low than too high;  and hence recommended a good English
education;  a knowledge of Natural  Philosophy and the elementary
mathematical sciences, including Geometry  and Algebra, and such
acquaintance with  the Latin and Greek as to enable the student to
appreciate  the  technical  language of medicine, and  read and write 
12
prescriptions.  This report was adopted by the convention which met
in Philadelphia in 1847.  The standard has been fixed by the Ameri-
can Medical Association, and it only remains for us to adopt it, or
some other equally good, and then discharge our duty in the prem-
ises.
  This subject has received  some action  from the  Society already,
but nothing definite has been done.  Let us renew the work at once.
In order to carry out  the reform, examiners should  be appointed  in
each county, or in each congressional district, to examine students be-
fore entering  an office to study medicine.   Do this, and then let us
pledge ourselves to each other that we will not receive under our in-
struction, as a student of medicine, any young man  who has not  in
his possession a certificate from this  board of examiners; and let us
recommend to our professional  brethren  throughout  the State  to
adopt a similar rule of action.   But  one  thing more is requisite to
complete this needed  reform.   It is for the medical colleges of the
State to  refuse to matriculate any student who has not in his posses-
sion this certificate, backed with one from his preceptor, that he has
pursued  a regular course of professional studies.   From my acquain-
tance with the members of the different  medical faculties in Ohio,
their desire to elevate the standard of the  profession, their ambition
to send out men well  qualified to discharge their duties as physicians,
I feel confident they will cheerfully carry out the recommendation of
the Society, and adopt it as a rule of action.
  I have but little to  say about medical lectures on the qualifications
necessary for the degree of Doctor of Medicine.  It is a subject about
which much has been said, and perhaps a great deal  said of but little
profit.  There are difficulties surrounding  medical colleges, to inter-
fere with well-concerted  plans and the  honest  intentions of the pro-
fessors, that we " outsiders " know but little about.   The great fault,
in my opinion, is not in the teaching, but in the shortness of the term.
Our young men  are  taught  in our medical colleges with lightning
speed.   An amount of matter  is presented each day requiring two
or three  days to properly consider.   The student, from the time  he
enters college, has to  sit six or seven hours each day, and listen to as
many professors  deliver learned lectures  upon the several depart- 
13
ments taught.   When night comes  he is weary and worn, and then
must visit the dissecting room and  stay  two or three hours in its
filthy inclosure studying practical anatomy.  From  the  amount  of
matter presented  he becomes confused and  bewildered.  Much has
been taught him, but he knows but little more at the end of the term
than when he  entered college.  At night his pillow supports an ach-
ing head, his bed  has a restless occupant.   He  is disheartened, dis-
couraged, and leaves college either with his health seriously impaired,
or but little better prepared to discharge the duties of a physician
than he was when he left the office of his preceptor.  This evil can
be corrected by lengthening  the term of lectures without  increasing
the matter taught, and at the same time dividing the course of study.
Make the term six months.  Let the first three months  be devoted
to Anatomy, Physiology, Materia Medica and Therapeutics; the last
three to Pathology, Theory and Practice, Midwifery and Surgery.
This plan, I think, would  be an improvement  hailed with delight by
the student, and one that would redound with much good to the pro-
fession.  As the system now is, too many subjects of study are crowd
ed upon the mind at once, and  the consequence is, none are under
stood.   It should also  be borne in mind, that there are great differ-
ences in  the  capacity of young men ; some will hear lectures read,
and understand four departments of medicine  better  and with more
ease than others will two.  As now managed no distinction is made;
all are considered upon a level in capacity, and all taxed too severe-
ly.  Who ever heard of a literary institution requiring students to
be engaged with  seven or eight studies  at  one time ?  Such a rule
would be considered barbarous, and would  not  be tolerated.  Such
an institution could not live a  single year.  Students would not at-
tend, and the professors, however eminent,  would have to talk to a
" beggarly account of empty boxes."
  The reason such a  system is tolerated in medical colleges is, be-
cause the profession encourage it.  No fault is to be found with the pro-
fessors.  They are willing to make a change as soon as supported by
the profession.  We cannot expect or ask them to make  it without.
As long as  we are silent the present will be the rule.  One reason
why we have  so many young men and old in our ranks poorly quali- 
14
fied to  practice the healing art is, because  they have been educa-
ted, or rather an attempt has been made to educate them, with such
unnatural rapidity.   The remedy for  the evil is with  us; let us but
administer it and the patient will  recover.  One thing more on  this
branch of my subject and I shall have done.
   It has become proverbial that it is an easy task to obtain a diploma.
This is so well understood that  hordes of young men  of but limited
powers of mind  enter  the  profession, and offer their  services to the
afflicted.  The profession is positively crowded.  Every little village
and every " cross-roads " can boast of a doctor.  Some  are good, some
indifferent, and some notoriously bad.   Some have  diplomas, and
some have none, and  the people  knowing with what  ease diplomas
are obtained, are in doubt who is the best qualified, who to employ,
the doctor with his diploma, or the doctor without.
   The above is not a fancy sketch, but a reality.   What is the reme-
dy ?  The language of the committee on Medical Education, in their
report to the American Medical Association at  the meeting in Charles-
ton in 1851, is so appropriate that I take  the liberty to quote it:
   " Though we have great  confidence  in the honor of  the professors
in our schools, as a body of men, it is  not to be denied that in some
of the  schools the  examinations have sometimes been a mere farce,
and men have been dignified  with the honorable title of M.D., who
are totaly unfit to practice the medical art.  And this being the  case
with some schools in  the midst  of the rivalry which exists, the  ten-
dency is to induce other schools  to relax their rules in some measure,
and the influence of this may extend  even  up to those which stand
upon the most firm basis, quite above the  fluctuating popular influen-
ces which have been so much felt by schools that have not been  long
established.   To guard against  such abuses and  such tendencies, it
is the opinion of your committee that a plan which has been  long in
operation in Connecticut, and  we believe in some other States, should
be  universally adopted, viz.:  that the examining board should be
composed in part by the professors in the  school in each  case, and  in
part of censors appointed  by the Medical Society of the State  in
which the school is located."
   Let this rule be adopted in Ohio, and let this Society see it enforced. 
15
The professors in our schools will certainly not object.  It can work
no harm to them.  It will break up a part of the rivalry that natur-
ally exists between the schools.   It will take  away much of the re-
sponsibility resting on their  shoulders, and place it upon the profes-
sion at  large.  It will create a  common bond  of interests between
the schools, and the profession.   It will beget union and harmony,
increase the number of students, as it will increase confidence, and in
more  ways than these will work  to the benefit of the schools and the
honor and dignity of  the profession in the State.
   Sometime  since the Society took action upon  the subject of regis-
tration, and through the influence of its members an act was passed
by the Legislature.  It may be said with truth that  this law has been
nearly a dead letter  upon the statute  book.  Certain it is, nothing
beneficial has as yet been accomplished.   Physicians  throughout the
State, including  members of this  Society, refused to obey the law.
Some contended  that the proper officers did not furnish the blanks ;
some  that it was imperfect, and  some that  it was unjust.   This mat-
ter was discussed  at  some length at  the meeting  of the Society in
Massillon, and a committee appointed who promised us  an amend-
ment to the law.   From some cause nothing has been done, and we
to-day are in no  better condition than when we first began  to move
in the premises.   The advantages of such a law are so great and so
well  understood, that not a word is  needed from me  by way of
argument.  I only allude to it for the purpose of urging the Society
to complete its work.   The committee appointed  at Massillon is still
in existence,  and I perhaps should ask pardon  for the allusion I have
made, as they will doubtless report progress in the matter, releasing
the Society from further action.
   I am not a very warm advocate for legislative enactments for the
purpose of strengthening the regular profession, or of putting down
error.  It has been tried, and has failed.  Wise legislation on such
matters is construed by the ignorant into persecution, and instead of
doing good, appears  to do  harm.  There is  one subject, however,
which calls loudly for the strong arm of the law.   Legislation is not
needed for the benefit of the regular profession merely, but for the
health, comfort and happiness of the people. I allude to patent med 
16
icines or secret nostrums.   There appears to be a rage for them.  If
we could believe the advertisements we read every day in the news-
papers, we would be constrained to come  to the conclusion that the
concentrated essence of all healing virtues discovered from the days
of Esculapius down to the present moment were embodied and done
up in sugar, in  some " Indian vegetable " pill.  The market is flood-
ed with  them.   The shelves  of our drug stores groan beneath the
weight of syrups, balsams, expectorants, panaceas, and other magical
compounds, each bearing well-authenticated certificates of marvellous
and sovereign powers.  They are compounded by illiterate, ignorant
mountebanks, who take this as a convenient and popular method to
steal  the  people's money.   Many of them labeled with the  catch-
word title " Vegetable," contain the most dangerous poisons (even
arsenic), held  in solution  by a dishwater menstruum.  Certificates
without number are obtained by stealing names from the tombstones
of the sleeping dead, attesting their curative properties.   The same
pill or syrup cures every disease;  " headache and chilblains,"  " pain
in the side and  in the toe," " hysteria and apoplexy," " asthma and
sore eyes," " the itch and worms."  The regular profession have been
toiling and investigating the laws of health and  disease,  " in season
and  out of season;" they have imperiled their lives in discoveries
for the relief of afflicted mankind, and yet we are asked to believe
in this, the nineteenth century, after  a lapse of over five thousand
years in darkness and obscurity, that these ignorant patent-medicine
manufacturers have discovered the all-important fact that there is but
one disease and one remedy, and that, a " vegetable " pill, a syrup, or
balsam.  I need not argue the evil done by these agents.   Those pos-
sessing  poisons do  positive harm, while those having no medicinal
properties, lull the patient under curative, though grave disease, into
security until the golden moment is past, and that which at first was
curable becomes incurable.
  A law should be passed by the Legislature requiring every manu-
facturer and vender to write on the labels in plain English, or in tech-
nical  medical language, the recipe of the compound manufactured
and sold.   The effect of such a law would be to take away the mys-
tery and magic of these compounds.   The worthless trash will  be 
17
made public, and condemned, while those possessing  medical virtues
(if there  are  any such) will be retained  and prescribed  as  other
medicines.  An effort has been made to get such a law passed, and
at one session came within  one vote of becoming  a law.  The mea-
sure has been defeated in each  instance by the persistent opposition
of those engaged in the traffic.   If each and every member of this
Society will go to work with spirit and energy, I have no doubt such
a law can be passed the coming session  of the Legislature.  Let us
to work with a determination and we will do  honor to ourselves, the
State, and the profession at large.  Set the example in Ohio, and I
have no doubt  that in a short time similar action will be  taken in
every State in the Union.   I urge this, well knowing that the reform
will result in a pecuniary loss to the regular profession, believing and
knowing as  I do, that these nostrums produce more diseases than
they cure, but at the same  time urge it, and urge it strongly, for the
sake of afflicted humanity.
   But I find I am carrying  this address to too great a length, and
have already occupied more time than I expected when I commenced.
Many more subjects might be alluded to, but time positively forbids.
I trust  enough have been considered, though very imperfectly treated,
to show that we need not sit idle for want of  work, and to show that
our Society should be active and vigilant.  To succeed in our mission
and to carry out the great object of our organization, we want, must
have, zealous, active, working men.  As yet we have not come up to
our whole duty, not accomplished what we might have done.  If you
will take  the trouble to examine the transactions of this Society from
its organization till this time, you will  not fail to observe that only
about one-fourth of the committees have ever been heard from after
their appointment, except to ask to be continued another  year.  Out
of eleven special committees  appointed at our meeting in Sandusky,
only one has reported; the  balance  sleep.  While such a state of
things exist, we  are not discharging our  duty as we  should.  Our
committees  should be composed  of working men, of  live  men, and
each member, while he does not consider himself at liberty to decline
the honor, should at the same time take upon himself the labor of an
appointment.  Without this we cannot and will  not prosper  as we
            3 
18
should.   The aim of the retiring President at our last meeting was,
to appoint active, working men on the  different committees.   How
he succeeded you will soon see.  If he did succeed, it will be a source
of great gratification to him ;  and if he failed, it is  to be hoped the
gentleman who now has the honor  to preside over this Society, will
be most eminently successful.
  In conclusion, permit me, on resigning my position as President of
this Society, to again return my sincere thanks for the honor you con-
ferred upon me.  It was an elevation desirable, but unsought and but
little expected.   I am and have been but an humble member of the
noble band of medical men throughout the State.  The duties incum-
bent upon me have been but feebly  performed, yet  notwithstanding
my weakness and inability you have kindly sustained me.  I  shall
ever hold your kindness in grateful remembrance, and it shall  be to
me a source of pleasure and delight to hear of the prosperity of each
and every member of our beloved organization.  That you may be
spared  many days of usefulness, that you  may  be  blessed with  a
bounteous supply of the  good things of life unalloyed with its ills,
that your  pathway may be strewn with  sweet-scented flowers, and
your brows  encircled with wreaths of the never-dying amaranth, is
the ardent wish of  your grateful and  sincere friend.