Newspapers / The Weekly Raleigh Register … / Nov. 10, 1806, edition 1 / Page 1
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. .. j "--A.-. - 1 f'j! : -..-.'- . -f iV . S. "I t '- t - i " i -JJlua.MMiiB'i1i Urn mm -i ' rin 'iImiiiiimi" " mi i mtmm.t.u n i "')' mmaSt9m,ma'BamtmmtJmmnmmmmmmmmma "'' '"' 'faS'Oi,!f i"; Frcro th National Intelligencer. V Seen thou not,- what a deformed Tbief, , tbh fashion i' -Suaks, f it. Smith, - 4 ALT1KV in your capacity ofEdi tor, th publicth) bodyjeorporau is ihe'objt'rt af ypur.atieHtion, or (to peafc?jn tbe tinfeclit.al style) is the pa- skill, yet it tobe'prcUmcdr, that the natural body not beneath your care ;:andJhaCan; Pisay ..tending la the' benefit rihejater, may .find a corner ihyourjtpanini; the nu jnerous altempClvy'hich are tnade to explain and Jiromote the foraiebr the public. imprests.'. ;S; ' IF, I smigMn this conjecture, I shall procetd to cLim the attention of Your readers tt a subiecti which, though not.jentedrnmgttWfJc. j.n j structive, ahtediscusni5fhicr i (like the rnatHalshich u DeSng td it) may be sifctiiary in the operation, tlioucrh unpleasant to the taste. ;i H The diacutsian w hich I propose to J xnakets respecting the present mode J of treatllf disfeaseh,IucK (however it ntichtbe extended) will be confin,- crl '"-almost to' a sintrle question, to which the sinplicUyTf the modern j( practice seems to have rcdu;cd thcU lie aim g art. . -I am riot iniensible tf the rash- ness of this undertaking 1 knowj tvcll thtf powers of the faculty whomi I am about to encounter, even wnen j, extrtcd with the Tnos. tnenaiy mo-; tives ; and my dread of falling mto j tneir nanfls wnen m neann, is uiy ;. inferior to that of their attacking ine ndcr the pressure of sickness. I must not however, be understood as Ievell'msr an indiscriminate censure t the respectable body of phy-, aicians. Un the contrary, i noiu . the profession in the highest eAtima! lion. In an accomplished physician, J cenfeniiplatr man of enlarged sci ence, of libert.l mind, of humane disposition, of polished manners, of active and indefatigable exertions, ond of incorruptible integrity. The book of nature is open to him. The -course f his t.tudits leads him to a knowledge cf the " fearful and won derful make of." man." The pursuit f remedies carries him to the mine ral and vegetable kingdom's, and he discovers thej various combinations of which ttc'oi' productions are sus ceptible. Arid though the voice of . misery and ? nguish often reach his ear, to him lit is given to jjispel that misery, to 'iiooth that anguish and .restow the "(happiness which health alone can gVjve. - Siich min ht a physician be, but;it a heishtf vhich is hot easily cttain- cgfc Years! oi study, application and ' iKticriuntei seem lo be necessary .For j the puipojAe, and . it may reasonably J le doubto'd, whether the short time n-hich oy'.r young and adventurous; doctors allot to this part of their edu cation, in sufneient io qualify them Sav so iinporLant a trust. Vh?ln we consider the degree of perfection to which ;he science ol' mediciiVie might be brought, it is la mentable to see the. state in which It now is, "' Like other sciences it is liable to I)e perverted by ignorance or abused by dishonesty. All this might be borne. But it is dreiulful to reflect, that a profession which embraces the whole human race, and which 'as far as finite means cau, extend) deals out our life or our death, should be the flaroe and -victim of fashion .-J I hit it should be so, 1 deplore. That it is so, I seriously believe ; and it is tp this evil that my observa ISons ?.re intended to apply. It may indeed be Pledged that , there;is fa.kion in every thing. Learned Judges hjive accused their prtdecessot s of dr ciding according to j as hi on. Fas hi n has modelled the discourses, v.hkh aie mvant to instruct us in the pursuit, oi happi- r.tss in tne next world,, aiur those who watch ever our existence in thi, may pel haps' claim' the same privi lege. I mi ht produce the authority of many writers, -to shew that this fault has hitherto been attributed to ti e medical faculty. I shall not, however, fatigue, your readers by the trite ttory of Dr. Sangrado, or many cthcr that miht be adduced, I si:ail appeal only to the facts w hich have aris. n m our own times, and ihaiFtlve -i .test'mes, and i hat it is r. u:idt;r orii- own observation. 'fjf .;JiVgkFi: cj" uciUact areh, aud have ai'IS; IV in nnr tinrt l?rv-f. art A To couaterpoise the weight '.oi 'this chareeV I shall be ready - to admit- dy;1 that many valuable improvements have taken jfrace, both in medicine and surgeiyThe woundings of a jfatheVs curse," winild, not now, it in theUime ofKJtesJeare be the wors-e'for beinc untsnttd The suggestions qf com moil sense have taught us that? to heal round, it is not necessary 4JOcin5ict o?ie; of greater exichd moreM clifficuli of cure ; an&'we'Kstve dtcare?ed thosr; won dei nil compounds, the ingredients of wfrtcH were expected to detach tliem selves to the different parts of the bxlf, and to perform cn militairc, the duties which were severally al lotted to them. Wcpsvant only a steady - adherence to (ame prin ciples, to make us" reject systems which rely only on a name, and rules of practice which jaskion alone has contributed to' establish, i Atone time onr disorders were all Ulious At another, (he nen i:is uys- tem was in fault. In the former case, the apothecary followed close after the heels of the pTcscribihct-phvsi- cianf and pouted in his drugs in abundance. It was reserved to the Doctors of the present day, to reduce aU diseases to a level to disregard the causes predisposing, proximate; andimmedia e; and by the universal use of bleeding and mercury, to cure (orXill) 11 who fell m their hinds 'fhev seem to have realised the nic- ture drawn bv-M( liere in his exami- imjon of aci-ndidate for the profes- sirn bUcdcrc, pttgarc, et d? tiarc, andifihe did not succ;ed, re- bkedzrc, fepiirgiit, ct re-donare. 1 Shall we submit to be thus fiittint ! lij drained of our blood 5c subitance ? Shall we look into these things, and eri4IUtre cn whatcrounds the practice is founded ? C in pursuing this enquiry Itjtouy be necessary to use terms wnicn may ; not be cf the most delicate nature ; j but they will be used as sparingly as -the subject vail admit. "Vithout attempting a learned enu meration of the maladies inciaent to the human fvame, it may be safely asserted, that in thtir treatment, evatinuts me generally required : It is within my recollection, that for this purpose autimumal preparations have been deemed the most tuica cieus. acting, either as emetics, or secotidrtiily as cathartics ; and also by promothtg a greater degree of perspiration. They are how disused, the farkitn of them has passed away, u;:d caLvrl hi-s usurped their place. I shall en deavour to prove that they are the best, if not the only medicines that can be used in the disorders which alive in our climate, and that ir.tr- curial preparations are generally un safe and cften in the highest degree pernicious. It is, however, but a comparative praise which I mean to bestowpthe best medicines tre (like the. besf go vernments) but necessary evils, and J it is only adviscabie to choose the least of them. The diseases which most frequent ly occur amongst us, are, the inter mittent, the remittent and the con. tinned the latter of which is gene rally of a malignant nature, and op. proaches nearly to the yellow fever, with which our Urge towns have been ainic;vd, they arc frequently denominated the bilious fevers, and at e all attended with some deviation from the usual course and quantity of the bile The stomach appears to be principally affected ; and not only ceases to lequire, but is unable to retain the accustomed food --the re medy for this was formerly an cb vious and a natural one- by thrinv. ingout at once by an emetic the cause of the disorder, by removing the pet' J ralysis or torpQf of the stomach, and by resiorinic it tofts: former tone and vigor. . The emttic tartar$mm&ry cx-r u!n in this oi operation ana tre- queiitfy spends its remaining (brc n the intestinal canal that, and ot hi r preparations ot antimony, act povveri.il;y as suoonhes-, antr even by the shock of their operation, turn off tho-e obstructions which are of Un the Causes of disease.'-' " In favor of cm tics i contend, 'that the stomach1 is affected by bilioti Vevef to a much greater degree less IMie to he destroyed by the pow ers of medicine ,. . is. frequently said that all medi . cmes are poisons, aau az oosef tion is a true one, wnr. we contras,' them with those productions vvhic: are used for our good, and can be assimilated to our substance, and i. it is necessary tb excite a pre tern a tural action in any of our vscls tho attempt, should be made upon those which are lest liable, to .injury by it. Those who are ticquaintet with physiology- mut know, hew much depends on the digestion which i principally carried on bv the peristaltic motion of the intet tines laid, must be satisSed thai any derangement of that action is attended with the most fatal effect. But, supposing the several viscera to be equal in their-strength and lia bility to injury, it would seem Jiai the readiest ana simplest methotta)H ejecting the cause cf complaints would naturally be preferred. L an enemy or trouoiesome inmate should be in our houses, v.e shoule act more wisely in escptlhng htm by the way that he got in, than by ta king him a circuitous route through all the rooms, to effect at last the same purpose. But, to apply to the test of ex perience. I cculd sifely appeal to every I -.t i i i uicm.uusci Yuijuii, wnriricr ov tile use 01 emetics, the stomach is not more immediately relieved, and tlif appetite more iu!!y resiored, than by the use cl purgative medicines. Those who hr e lldt the tffects ol a debauch, and hav? h,uud their sto machs oppressed by excessive diet, or immoderate-drinking, must have experienced the most immediate relief from an ejection of this kind ol the cause of their disorder an tf lect wnitn -.is sometimes prociucec! cy those very causes without the as sistance of art ; r.nd it will scarcely be deemed improper to follow the course dictatedby naturcyunkzsjdth ion should be sufTiciwiiUy powerful . M.rv. J io usurp ueiway. The operation of cathartic medi cines,evrn of the most harmless kind, is not calculated to attain this 'usaful purpose. They weaken the system without lessening; the disorder," and th-.-y never prr.duce that discharge j by pc-rjiraiion, wnicii is so essen tial in the cure of. fevers. It seemu indeed that by an obstinat adhe rence to such prescriptions, and the free use oi the lancet, the unfortu nate patients are quickly hurried to that end which they are seo likely to produce. -The stomach, for want of being relieved, is unable to take any fur ther sustenance. There is nothing left in the intes tines from which the chyle-5c blood cati bi formed. The bio-"! for which no renova tion can be provided) is sluiced from their veins, and their death is a con sequence as natural.as it is certain. : When I see one of those dreadful arbiters pf fate atmed vitt-' lancet and his mercurv, it renitftdsT me of the unfortunate Rosamond, to whom Queen Eleanor proffered her choice of the, dagger or the bowl. The dif ference is, that, to us no choice is left, and we are obliged to encounter both. ;V . .. - Every fever is accompanied with ah increased.aCtion of the blood ves sels ; this, which they denominate the afterul actio is the signal for repeated bleedings, and they bleed till the vessels can act no "more. I have been informed (though I will not say how truly) that a young phy sician, m .reporting to his lecturers at Philadelphia, the progress ef a disease wlucb ,J.been under his management, tilted that he had, by bleeding and mercury completely destroyed the fever. A regard for truth, induced him to mention (hs a collateral incident) that the day after the fever was removed ht patient departed also. . I have as yet formed my compa- J risons 'on those cathartics which are of the innoxious nature. I shall pro ceed to shew that mercury is not at- 3' 3 1 . .. I.I, 4 ! c-'.rytc rrvrt cflft-li; which they may in some cases pro--duce,'but:thattt is a nedicine of the most ilangcrouF, virulent and des tructive kind. A wapon which the h and of a master only "is able to wierf; snd which in the hand's bf 4ys and empirics, i deadly indeed., it is wen known that mercury is t cufiarldestmctive to insects of tjlj Hi Kinos ; aiul the samp tanwrtliftt occasion their drstructionvarc btle yd to operate on the fluids? of the iiiman bt;dy j to destroy tlheir con istthce, and to alter their nature, nd the effect which it. has beenu ound to possess as an antidote to th.e trus of certain disorders and poi--.ps, my be traced 1q this cause. It will he recollectt d by main -: at in the preparatory steps to ino- uiation, mercury was formerly used with this view, and that4 whatever he remote consequences might have. oeen, it seemed to deaden the malig nancy oi the disorder, and to prevent. its active effects on the system. IMercUry has aUo beet) u-ed, and perhaps to advantage, in other disea- es, andparticulail)' in those by" which tue circulation throuerh the .different vicera had been obstructed, and in vhich a dissolution ottha' obstructing matter became necessarv; iLhas been used (though perhaps oi) freely) in those disorders, which originating in vice, seemed to merit the punithment of ouch a cure. The oatieiits there miht have no iust :suse ot compluiiit. In the pursuit o: pleasure, they had braTed all Umj- er, and " from the powdering tub cf infamy," theyvrcsc to reflect at ieisure on the nati&rtl consequeiices. of (heir folly. To whom no right might be left, to repine at the lass ot teeth, the loss oi nair. tiie ciiscolormsr- ot their skin and nails, and a debilitated and sht- tertd cons titu-ion. But their betters are new brcueht to a level with them. The grave and circumspect citizen, and the blooming and innocent vir gin, now share tne same fate, and are alike the victims of this dest ruc tive poison, which in the hands of our modern physicians, stalks about 11 v iiw iiuutiaii uuimiivitj spares neither agCjHSf;x or conditinn. But, (as the frir;tjration of v vice became hardened byfmnuTtitv) so. hue the Russian Suwrrow, and snares neither ai?eiex or conditinn. ell became hardened &byrlmpuTity) so, 4 our m.dical gentry have advanced step by step, on the credulity of their patients, ad in addition to the use of bleeding, having boldly ven t tired on alivtion for the cure of ibe most trifling dissases. "Lancet 'in this, and p 11 in t'other hand, " Th-cy bleed 4nd, talivate throughout ' the land. i transgress hot the bounds of ruth, when l'say, that a physidaiMifMni beinir a cure for the vclldw-fe- ! has recommended ntvalism (the distil charge attendant on salivation) ts the ' " . I best method of evacuating ihebile iransgress not the boumis Qf truth i when I say, that another hasna distension of 1 ther abdomen whichJ a dose of salts wctild have removed, recommended and procured tha mode of discharge, to be used ac We can say with the frogs in the t-ible, that it may be diversion to them, buthtis death to us. There is "an old observation which is frequently a true one, that the re medy is worse than the disease j and it cannot be more fully exemplified than in those cases in which slight uiuoua icvcj 3 arc curcu oy saiiyauoii; When I say that by this remedy, me eompicxxou is uesiroyeu, me nair tost, the najls discolored and the teeth loosened and decayed, I say no more than can be attested by hun dreds, who bear on them the taelan. choly and lasting proofs of my as sertion; but th frequency of the event seems to have made it familiar and to fuye. rescued it from particu lar observition. 4 , In one cf the papers of' Ute 8ee- iator tt is stated taat in a Urere com pany in England during the lime of war, an officer was giving an ac count of aa engagement in ,which many livas had been Ijst, and was describing those sctnes of horroi which usualiy occur in such occa sions , and tne author remarks, that I 1 the audience seemed but little xdfec- j .ted with so general a picture of dts-1 tress : but that, hehf.ppcned to men tion an instance where the parties vere kn6wnj?ud ithe particular ci: ft fcfr.aw ef 4istii4s eiiscrat'-di Uis uuitiin iu me luiuidi y puro&c; as a in one oi .our: large .ruies,(;a Jetter diversion, or drawing to anothrer point was- published in the newspapers, as the cause of complaint. coming from two of ihe v most emi ( mosfeli vely "sehs4Ucohss erep(r$cm,, ol , 1 V .nil . .l.R'iH . l Kliir.Ht. - ",V pairitVg to excite skf(icient cmtvtise-v: - ation for. - the, imlfipns 'S'yii tdokta: single captive ;;in order to i 11 i' tln'nia ivu :?- Vjlr t f tl lustrste the horrors lof coiifintnerjt. Perhaps, If 1 can, do justiceto the s ubj e cith e base whiph 1 1 am afcbu 1 1 to desbf i be wilV interest the feelitigs ... of your, readfersJVbrii than any gene-; v3 A lady an a neighboring; state haa been married in earlt1fej ? ai-tf f&xi become early a vidovv. , y.- - ' Wiihout incurring i titjzasjrat feviVy, she hadcftvertd fmlio,5 first emoucaisJ o3(ief, she was in thp possession of-ypiath, and beauty and was in the ecjbyment of that kind' of cheeriul society which might na- tur: Icad to a. second connection . The. bloom of 'health as Norrher cheek, and the smile of innocence and pleasure on her lipsi 'ButJ alas, she smiles ho more' Going to vi sit a relation irt thecoUntry- shea . taken yrjtan intermutenriever arjcl unfortitoy rhe with a discipl: 6 the newchool, iresh lrom his'stu dies at Philadelphia." His meicuriaf ptl!s were ready and in a shorj, time a saltation was produced, the effect of which -can neter be removed. The tettjVed was, gone, buti with it i went also hef.dfcbmplexion, the ap pearance of her youth, the strength of her cdnstitotioni and every charm which had contributed to makepte$ fz tlie omcment of society and thNctie-f V tigni oi ner iricuus, mm sue IS con-1 demned to drag outa'llngeri itis' tence, a hopeless prey to remorse ' and a victim to the medical fashion of ' he day. V ' - , .' ..... .j -. . . It is cer tainj that we ought not tcr murmur at the dispensations of Pro vidence, by which we are subject to the vanousrmaladies ivliichf precede iur dtsspluttorf," and that m endca- vouring at a ctf?fer'"we" ii.vist submit . to the effect stviich the , necessary Unedicmes are calculated. to pxoducti I but there is in this resbectia choir.s of evils, and! cannot conceive a si-" tuation, in whic mi&, so noble in reason, so infinite in faculties, so express and admirable in ; fornt and moving,? becontles so lo ath some ant object,; as woen operated onF by sail- - - Vition. t . :; . . I shall not be satbed with Stating thatfinercursj is unnecessary and in jurious in sjignt complaints, but shall contend,-tliat uit is-e.uallyvio in fe yers of the: fnalitmaiit kinStfid T Bhall hazard the opinion, that sd faf ' venit has occasioned nearlw i m. I - ' - - . . - J w- deaths as the disorder iiseif. I might, perhaps, rest for proof of the correctness of this opinion On, the biils. of mortality which have beeri published where this dreadful fever has prevailed, but I shall bring for ward a particular initance in corro. bDTatlOVl. "' '. - .y In the summer of the year I79S4 PheM physicians addressed to another rof the faculty. It was stated bytherii, that in their practice in the city and in the hospi ials, upwards Ot Tour, thousand oer- KMis-naa ajtea jxana thahey had ' riedevery ?prescriptionVfch their knowledge and experience could sug i gest, anu niey conclude With this I men soluble question, ; 44 -PerAaSs km u cmeiic j migni oe op strytct fn Gra cious heaven I Thousands hart a,i under the prevailing practice, and yet a medicine which had heretofoi- heen so generally used in fevers ct the most inf&ctious kiad, had neven been tried ' ? It appeared bj the same: paper, that the physician to whom the letter was sddreiscd, admitted in his reply thut he had found emetics useful, iiio without giving up the efficacy of his favorite remedies, bleeding and mercury., . v -A ' I shall not here enter ihto!detait: of those symptoms of theylow-tfe-vcr, which are so generally known, and which seem; so strongly to point out that course of treatment which I have endeavoured to recommend 5 but shall leave them for the rcflec-5 Lion of those whose duty it is to con sider the subject, and eTt those Whose- situation may expose thtm to the- J danger cf cojatweiingr the disease 1 flfH ffi I- ft '4i. at . 1. . 4t
The Weekly Raleigh Register (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Nov. 10, 1806, edition 1
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