THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9088, 23 June 1888, Page 3

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln this morning's Herald there appears two letters representative of what may be termed broadly, in the medical profession, the Know-but-little and the Jiow-everything; and, as usual, in science, the know-but-littles have forgotten more than the knowi-everything ever learned, The wise man, who him*

self knows that comparatively he knows bub little, if- open to investigation, comparison, and reflection; if he has a law in his mind's eye, he tries to bring extraneous knowledge within, the working of that law, or seeks to know what laws they obey. The know-everything has no law, desires no law, for his own guidance, bub is very zealous for a law that will prevent anyone else from robbing the public but himself. The practitioner of surgery has to obey law, he is dependent upon the laws of mechanics, hydrostatics, and pneumatics, but the practitioner of medicine is lawless. He may be an allopath, hydropath, homoeopath, or eclectic, or all combined—in fact, an anythingarian. As a test, take any phase of disease, and consult the whole of your legally-qualified practitioners, and see how many would write the same prescription, let alone the divergency of opinion in regard to the complaint. By what right of justice has any of these men to call anyone else who differs in his treatment from theirs, quack, charlatan, humbug, etc. When they, in the treatment of disease, medicinal other than surgical, can show to the world that they are acting upon law as firmly based as the laws of surgery, then they may, and not before, lay claim to infallibility. In the meantime let them walk humbly, using their eyes and all their senses, investigating everything for themselves down to a cup of herb tea, seeking for a law that will give that necessary guidance of which they are so wofully ignorant.—l am, &c., One of the Crowd.