AN ADDRESS, 
BEFORE 
LOUISIANA STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY 
E. H. BARTON, A. M. M. D. 
LATE PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY,-PERMANENT MEMBER OF 
THE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES-. 
FORMER PROFESSOR OF THE THEORY AND PRAC- 
TICE OF MEDICINE AND CLINICAL PRACTICE 
IN THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF LOUISIANA- 
DOCTOR OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY OF 
THE ROYAL UNIVERSITY OF 
HAVANA, &c., &c. 
(On retiring from tbe Chair ) 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 
PRINTED AT H. SPENCER'S, 
Magic Press Book and Job Office, 89 Magazine Street, 
NEW ORLEANS. TABLE OF CONTENTS-OF ADDRESS. 
Recommendation of a Registry Law for the State, and action of the Board 
of Administration on it......... 5 
Early Medical History of the State , 6-8 
Origin of the Medical College of Louisiana 8 
Changes in diseases, and particularly Yellow aud Intermittent Fevers, 
and causes 
Result-Alterations in treatment, interpretation of "fashion in physic" 
► 8-9 
The influence of the awakening spirit of free institutions 9 
The peculiar demand, from our physical condition, for Medical knowledge in 
this State 9 
Change in diseases in New Orleans, and when the city will be healthy 8 
Proofs of the constant interest taken by Medical men in advancing the sani- 
tary condition of the country ; works published by them 10 
The probable consequences that would have resulted, by this time, to the 
city, if the authorities had adopted the advice urged upon them by 
Medical Men, more than 30 years ago 10 
Proofs of a defective police and other sanitary arrangements, in a now well 
recognized ratio of mortality 12 
Remarkable prediction of Dr. Rush 12 
Neglecting public health, a punishable offence-Report by Lord Morpeth to 
the British Parliament 12 
Claims of Medical Men upon Society , 13 
Licentiate Board, was it created for the protection of the profession, or of society 13 
Why empiricism did not formerly flourish in Louisiana 13 
True competition-on what founded 13 
Claims of educated professional men on society-as a seperate class,-it em- 
braces something more than mere curing diseases-the value of preven- 
tion,-contrasted with the operations of the Charlatan 14 
"Value or lenght of Professional life" in Louisiana,-average age at death. 14 
Testimony to the memory of Dr. Hort, 15 
Appeal to the profession,-its great value 15-16 5 
ADDRESS. 
Gentlemen: 
Since your last meeting, the Board of Administrators has been occupied in 
performing the duties assigned it under the Constitution. It has endeavored to 
extend a knowledge of the great objects of the Society, and of course its useful- 
ness, to the remotest parts of the State. 
The chairmen of the Permanent Committees were appointed by me soon after 
your adjournment, and I am gratified to be enabled to state to you, that every 
expectation has been created of compliance with the objects of their appoint- 
ment ; should such fortunately be realized, the Society will do itself credit and the 
State honor ; it will aid, in developing the professional talent which has only re- 
quired a proper opportunity to excite it, and I trust now our pride is fully aroused 
to do justice to ourselves. ' 
The Board has taken great interest in forwarding the wishes of the Society, in 
addressing a memorial to the Legislature on the important subject of a Registra- 
tion Lawfor the State, embracing a Record of the Births, Deaths and Marriages. 
Dr. Simonds was appointed by the Board, he has drawn it up with his usual 
ability, and it has been forwarded to the Legislature with the full concurrence of 
the Physicb Medical Society: Copies will be laid before you. 
In the present condition of the State no subject could engage Legislative at- 
tention that is more vitally important to its well being; for it must be perfectly 
evident to you, and as palpable to every one who will reflect for a moment upon 
it, that a knowledge of our actual condition must clearly precede any intelligen t 
attempt at change or amelioration ; this is more especially important when it is 
known that two opposite opinions exist as towhat that condition consists in. The 
developements of the late U. S. Census (so far as published) give us serious 
warning of its immense bearing upon the interests of our State, and she will be 
deaf to the frightful future that is before us, if it is longer overlooked. Louisiana 
has been retarded in her advance to prosperity, by neglecting to develope 
her inexhaustible resources; this is mainly to be accomplished by those improve- 
ments which tend, either directly or indirectly, to ameliorate her sanitary con- 
dition. The alleged insalubrity of the State has been for years used as a valid argu- 
ment abroad, against the safety of immigration : had her actual condition been 
such as it might and ought to have been, her population and wealth would doubt 
less have been doubled. It is hoped that this stigma will soon exist no longer 
to her detriment, and that her present intelligent Legislature will accomplish this, 
to crown with unfading honor, the meeting of 1852. Long and deeply has this 
subject been cherished by me, and for more than fifteen years have I in one way 
or other recommended it to public attention. 
A brief retrospect of the condition of our profession in the State, may not be 
u nacceptable to the Society. Such a review should not be without its instruc- 
tion, if it only warns us of the errors of the past; for while it shows us that as our 
own peculiar physical condition has had need for the exercise of great Medical 
intelligence to correct it, the profession has nobly stepped forward with charac- 6 
teristic philanthropy and supplied the amplest instruction ; and if the community 
has not been as much benefited by this advice as it should have been, a deep 
penalty, which has followed on all alike, has been experienced for this culpable 
negligence on the part of the public authorities. That our profession at least 
has performed its duty to Society, that it has acted a self sacrificing part, which 
has hardly been appreciated, and that if it has sometimes listened to the syren 
voice of pleasure, deeply has it paid for it in abbreviating the period of profes- 
sional life. 
The science of Medicine, in the early history of our State, was hardly cultiva- 
ted in a manner adequate to its high calling, except by a few; but a very Emit- 
ted number have devoted themselves to this noble department of science for itst 
own sake, and hence its representation before the great scientific republic, has not 
been corresponding to its claims. This comparative apathy, until a recent period, 
has long existed, notwithstanding the influence which the Medical Societies, the 
Medical College, and the Medical Journal have exercised ; which, nevertheless, 
has been very considerable. To account for this lamentable condition of things 
is very difficult. At an early period of our professional history (that is between 20 
and 40 years ago,) a large proportion of the medical men that immigrated to the 
State, had not received the highest education of the science: giving themselves 
up to the calling as a means of livelihood, they did not adequately appreciate, as 
none such ever can, the loftier and more ennobling claims which the profession 
had upon them for the repayment of the debt which they owed it; hence it was 
not cultivated to any great extent, and we do not find in the Medical Annals of 
our country, many records of this early industry and honorable zeal. The pro- 
fession then was too lucrative, the temptation of gain was too strong for the calls 
of science, upon th*3 great mass of those who represented it, a rich and sickly coun- 
try, (for at the period I speak of, it was remarkable for both) fair and fertile fields, 
teeming with with golden harvests; a climate the largest part of the year luxuriant 
beyond the experience or conception of our northern sisters ; redolent with plea- 
sure it was alluring in the extreme, to all the enjoyments of life ; and it is hardly 
to be wondered at, that the multiplicity of so many temptations, where a kind 
of arcadian life was enjoyed by the inhabitants, and in the almost gorgeous mag- 
nificence of the scenes around them, that the early years of most of them, should 
have been led astray from the severer studies of the profession. 
But that time has long since passed-there has been a natural cure to all this; 
competition, invited by the reputation of the country for wealth and insalubrity 
has very materially lessened remuneration-the country has become more heal, 
thy, the usual consequence of clearing and draining, adapting it to the wants of 
life, and time and opportunity have been long since allowed, for the cultivation of 
all the branches of the science : excuse then exists no longer, of the want of time, 
or on account of the alluring temptations of wealth ; and it will not be admitted 
that the climate is un-adapted to the cultivation of the mind. Situated on the 
limits of the temperate zone,-exposed to neither extreme,-protected from the 
^clemencies of northern blasts, by large bodies of water; and fanned on the south 
by perpetual breezes from the sea, we enjoy that happy medium which forbids 
us supplying ourselves with apologies either for indolence on the one hand, 
or hardships on the other. You see then, we have no reasons for lagging 7 
behind ; the influences T have mentioned, have long since been working out their 
proper effect; these, we trust, will be immeasurably increased by a body that 
should and must extend its bearings throughout the state, and the feeling will no 
longer exist, that we have not done our duty to science. 
From this cursory glance at the rather personal history of the faculty in the 
state,-of what was the main character of the mass, with some honorable excep- 
tions ; of the comparitively easy acquirement of property by them ; of their early 
abandonment of their calling, and cultivation of the science ; of the change pro- 
duced by crowded competition, and a more healthy country1,-let me invite you 
lo a still briefer view, of the peculiar opinion advocated by them at that time. 
Let it be understood, in this review, I confine myself to the Am. Med. Profession. 
In the early periods I speak of (15 to 35 years ago), the theory of Dr. Rush 
was the great leading doctrine in the schools. The teachings of the English (and 
particularly of Dr. J. Johnson of the Med. Chirug. Review,) and of Dr. Cook and 
others of the Transylvania school, filled the minds of most young men settling in 
this country ;-these, with the plausible connexion of a warm climate and de- 
ranged liver, and of the influence of the mercurial preparations on this supposed 
monopolysing organ, led to a degree of empirical administration of that drug, 
that would now hardly be credited; I have myself known pounds of it used on a 
single plantation, of sixty or seventy negroes, in a single season, and I have seen 
many die from mercurial mortification, in a single family, in a few weeks. In- 
deed, when a practitioner was puzzled about the administration of any medicine, 
in a disease, it was deemed perfectly proper for him to prescribe a dose of calo- 
mel ; which he did conscientiously, with well satisfied assurance, that if he did not 
give the exact medicine adapted to the case, he could not be far wrong.! The 
extensive use of this drug was fully sustained by public opinion, out of the pro- 
fession, and it was as hazardous to the physician's interest to abandon it (as I 
well know to my cost, as I was among the first) as it was to the patient to ad- 
minister it. 
From this medical folly and period, when drugging was everything, and the 
constitution nothing; and which has dene so much injury to the profession and 
the public, succeeded the opposite system of Broussais, more than 20 years ago,- 
and as extremes often meet, bleeding and gum water now superseded calomel and 
purging. I do not intend to detain you, in dwelling long upon the consequences 
of the change; certainly anything was preferable to the directly injurious system of 
the former, and although this was, as with all new conversions, carried to a great 
extreme, the beneficial influence was sufficiently obvious. Experience, however, 
ere long, convinced observers, that if the substitution of the specific action of mer- 
cury, for morbid action, was not only unsound and false in theory, but often fa- 
tal in its results,-yet there was a special action, or secretory power, which the 
direct depletion of the Broussaist almost entirely overlooked, and that hence both 
physiology and pathology, as well as sound therapeutics, taught that both were 
ultraists. The investigation resulting from the controversies of their respective 
advocates, led to most importants improvements in practical physic, and to the 
firm establishment of eclectic medicines, where there is no predominance of any 
dogma. In the midst of these contentions, nay in a great measure springing out 8 
of them, in the, awakening of the public mind (inand out of the profession) to the 
important truths of medical science, and their value to the public health,-the 
first great result, was the origination and establishment of the Medical College of 
Louisiana, in 1834. I see before amongme the earlier founders of that school, som® 
of the prominent advocates of the improved doctrines of that day ; others have 
paid the great debt of nature, but the school itself, deriving its existance almost 
fiom the necessities of science, and our condition at the time, has contributed 
much to the cultivation and enlightenment of the profession, and the public 
since ; and every well wisher to the science, should hail its genuine prosperity as 
a real blessing to the country. 
But not only have medical men and medical theories changed, so also have di- 
seases. God has made nothing imperfect, hardly any country in a state of nature 
is sickly y>cr sc but during the transition incidental to the adaptation of it to the 
increased and higher wants of ours pecies, morbid conditions are developed, which, 
yet have to be, and doubtless are susceptible of being controuled by the intelli- 
gence of man. Several of my hearers will bear witness to the verity of state- 
ments in relation to some special diseases, and my own recollection, and recorded 
data in my possession, satisfy me of the same in relation to others. I will but men- 
tion now yellow and intermittent fevers,-the first once so distinct in its type as 
to be called the plague in some of its ferocious cases, and of typhus gravior in 
others, with its glaring lurid expression; and the latter, the algid fever or cold 
plague, sometimes running its course in the first paroxysm of a few hours,-its 
fatal congestions, reminding one of the blue stage of cholera, but with the full- 
ness of the capillary system, feeling like a cold marble statue, while the patient 
was burning up with an almost volcanic fire within. These aggravated types of 
these diseases are now rarely seen; and with the progress of improvements in 
cultivation and in hygiene, both will probably disappear altogether. That this 
change has resulted from the causes assigned, is rendered probable from the fact 
that the different classes of society suffer now in a less corresponding ratio than 
formerly, and that, in truth, it is now with its lessened ferocity, a more preventible 
disease. The same remarks are applicable toother forms of disease, that I need not 
delay you to dwell upon-the time may come in the progress of improvements, when 
Louisiana may merit and enjoy its early reputation for salubrity. These clim- 
atural changes and the severe influence upon the health of the inhabitants during 
the progress are well known in the history of medicine ; they account» with the 
alterations in our personal habits and modes of living, for these mutations in the 
administration of medicines, which have been so often thrown up to the profession 
as the "varying fashions of physic," but most unjustly. On the contrary, great 
credit is to be awarded to us for these changes, which are nothing more than the 
successive adaptation of therapeutic agents to conditions ever varying with these 
successive influences,it is to my mind the best evidence of awakened science and 
skill. With the love of freedom which characterizes the human mind in America, 
there are few things felt as a greater restraint upon us than the blind routinism in 
medicine, and hence it is that more experiments are made and more improvve 
ments result from them in America than anywhere else. The various modes of 
treating yellow fever, so different from the almost stereotyped manner I have 9 
witnessed in the West Indies and Mexico, fully verifies the statement, and I be- 
lieve the application of Quinine to its treatment would be a fair illustration of it- 
The former open and inflamatory types of yellow fever clearly call for the va- 
rious forms of depletion,-the changes in our habits and modes of life have ten- 
ded to a greater developement of the nervous system, and our diseases.have 
partaken more of the characterisics of this system and called for a treatment 
to correspond. A very distinguished authority (Professor Caldwell) has said that 
what has been ascribed to the happy conceptions of genius, in the various im- 
provements in the arts and sciences, is nothing more than the gradual develope- 
ment of the human mind in the progress of the successive advancements in knowl- 
edge, and in the philosophical history of man there is ample attestation 
to verify it. Now whether this is actually true or not, it is certainly indisput- 
able that in the free spirit of thought and action, which characterizes our 
countrymen, there is constantly an enhancing progress in every thing. Our own 
profession, and particularly in the south, has fully partaken of this feeling, and 
I look forward, with great confidence to the period, when the empire seat of 
knowledge will be transferred far south of its present location, and we shall be 
repaid for the many millions expended at the North for the education of our youth. 
I have characterized our climate as a delightful one, yet there are conditions, 
associated with our position, which render it more susceptable of man's agency 
than any in America. The level character of the country, adapts it either for 
Canals or Rail Roads-the extensive area overflowed and subject to overflow, and 
which can be easily reclaimed-the immense primeval forests inviting the axe 
and the industry of man,-all show how wide the field and how tempting the 
State is to the enterprize of its citizens. But the records of the profession warn 
us, that during this change, man is subject to great mortality,-of the verity of 
this record my own lengthy experience fully convinces me ; our statistical records 
have been shamefully kept, and the precise official data are not to be had-it is pro- 
bably true, that the mortality has not so much varied in amount as ithas in the char- 
acter of the diseases, because the condition has never been long stationary, but has 
ever in its successive improvements, been in a transition state. The two monarchs 
of diseases which I before mentioned, have been evidently declining in intensity 
and number during the last thirty years, and when all the ameliorations which 
have been recommended shall have been applied faithfully to the city, it will 
doubtless bear the usual proportion to the salubrity of the country around us. 
In the rural districts however, the proof is very demonstrative, and the record 
furnished by the recent U. S. Census, clearly shows that the mortality isleastin the 
old and cultivated districts, and greatest in the new and recently opened portions of 
the country. Here then are two most important facts which should never be 
overlooked by the public, showing the great value of an intelligent, scientific 
faculty,-the first, a physical condition susceptible of the greatest changes and 
improvements; and the second, the immediate influence of these alterations on 
the sanitary condition. No state in the Union then can be so much benefitted by 
information derivable from Medical Science, as this. Now, Gentlemen I should 
be utterly unworthy of my position here, were I not to claim for our profession, the 
honor which cannot justly be denied it, of having done its duty-of proofs of this 
assertion I have in possession various valuable records-viz 10 
1st. A Memoir on the Yellow Fever of this country, from 1804 to 182yl, by 
Champmanuoir. 
2nd. There is recorded in the volume containing the minutes of the Licentiate 
Board, a Memoir on the sanitary condition of the city made in 1816 by its then 
distinguished President, Dr. Trabuc, at the instance of the city council. 
3d. We have a report from Societe Medicale of this city, upon the Yellow fever 
of New Orleans in 1817, by Messieurs Gross and Girardin, with special reference 
to the cause of its origin. 
4th. We have a most interesting precise analytique-of the labours of the same 
Society from August 1817 to January 1818.-again pointing out the causes of the 
great mortality of the city, and advice given to the city council, as to the mode 
of correction. 
5th. We next have a Report from the same Society, on the epidemic Yellow 
fever of 1819-replete also with the most valuable hygienic observations and re- 
flexions, with recommendations to the public authorities for their adoption. 
6th. An interesting Report by a Committee, consisting of Drs. Randolph, 
Davidson and Marshall, of the Pysico Medical Society, on the Yellow fever of 
1820, with valuable suggestions as to its cause and prevention. 
7th. We next have a lengthy Memoir of great value by Dr. P. G. Thomas^ 
on the epidemic of 1822, preceded by an interesting treatise on the hygiene of the 
place, by Dr. Picornell. 
These works are all the results of the mature reflexions and experience of the 
most distinguished Physicians of those days,' and are well worthy of perusal and 
republication,-the correctness of the advice contained in them, addressed to the 
city councils and the public, was never disputed-was, and is, to this day, indisput- 
able, and had their valuable suggestions been followed, it is hardly venturing too 
much to say, that New Orleans would probably have been at this period one of 
the largest and wealthiest, if not the healthiest city, in America ! 
Among the eminent Medical men of those days, who made themselves conspicu- 
ous by their public labours for the good of the city, we willingly record,-besides 
those whose names are signed to the papers whose title pages I have read you, Drs 
Dow, Martin, LeMonier, Deveze, Chabert, Lacroix, and Lambert, besides 
others too numerous to mention here. These names are entitled to your grate- 
ful recollection; honor and respect are due to them for most important public 
instruction. Yes, Gentlemen, in-the midst of almost yearly devastating epidemics; 
at a period too-when they were justly entitled to their appellation of malignancy, 
they firmly remained at their posts, and as faithfully performed their duties to 
society : all honor to such noble specimens of the profession-may their example 
never be lost upon their successors! 
Of the list of the members of the two Societies of those days,-I know of but 
three survivors, and but one who still exercises the labours of our common calling 
and well may he say, in the language of an eminent statesman,-that he appears 
as it were, before posterity, to give an account of the deeds of your predecessors! 
In 1828-31-32-33, we have the published Memoirs and works of Drs. 11 
Riviere, Halphen and myself, * on the epidemic diseases of those years. In the 
autumn of 1835, dates the first establishment of the Medical College, and a new 
impetus was given to the Medical mind of this country-and thence onwards 
were successive emanations from the profession eliciting its talents, and showing 
its great value to the community. It was followed in 1844, by the publication 
of the Medical Journal, since when the press has, teemed with a mass of valua- 
ble matter which proves that the professional intellect of the country has been 
fully awakened, if not thoroughly developed. 
Gentlemen, this retrospective review of the course of your ^predecessors, in 
which many of you have largely partaken is made not without feelings of pride, in 
which I trust you all participate. That their labors have not been more successful 
in hastening to completion the great destiny of this country has been no fault of 
theirs,-they have done all that men could do in their positions-a short-sighted 
policy, one replete with sacrifices of the present and the future, has ever prevail- 
ed ; "damning with faint praise" all attempts to alter it, and aided with the plausi- 
ble support of those-the worst friends of the country, who, confounding a remote 
period with the present, continue to boast of its salubrity in face of the most 
1rrefragible proofs to the contrary, f The task is left then to the more enlight- 
* On the applications of Physiological Medicine to the Diseases of Louisiana 1828, by 
E. H. Barton. M. D. &c. 
Topographic Medicale de has Louisianne, par J. A. Riviere, 1831. 
Memoire sur la Cholera Morbus, complique d'uu epidemque de fievre jaune en 1832. 
par M. M. Hal phen. 
A Memoir on the epidemic, Yellow Fever of New Orleans, in 1833-by 
E. H Barton, M. D, &c. 
Observations sur la Cholera Morbus de la N. Orleans, in 1833 et 1834, par 
M. M. Halphen. 
tThe facts (of our large mortality) the great lever of Archimedes, are admitted ! facts 
are the great harbingers of truth-'they are the only certain props on which to rely, 
wanting these we wander into the speculative regions of fancy ;-thus it is when the expla- 
nation of this great mortality is avowed, it is asserted, without pretension of proof, that 
it proceeds from poor immigrants and intemperance, dodging the fact that this mortality 
is at its maximum when the immigration is at its minimum, and that the cities where this 
immigration is at least eight times as great as it is here, do not notice it at all I Indeed the 
whole argument is simply ridiculous, and only imposes upon ourselves,-nay, it is more, 
it is even suicidal; it is a barrier to all amelioration, it tends to blind the public to the real 
causes ; the almost absolute want of sanitary measures. Three-fourths of the city have 
been, probably, immigrants, they are the chief and indispensible materials to build up and 
maintain cities every where,-the poor are the first and chiefest victims of defective san. 
itary measures, all over the world,-in some instances, more than 40 per cent over those 
of the more comfortable classes. To select a class here as particularly subject to die, 
which is done no where else, is a slander upon the climate, which more effectually "writes 
down the city," by preventing accessions of population, than anything else. On the con- 
trary, I have maintained and stated, that neither the climate nor position is sickly perse, 
but arises from superadded conditions, which I have pointed out in detail, nearly all of 
which are, I believe, removeable, and referred, as illustrative proofs, to the salubrity of the 
adjacent country. 
No one is I believe, more sensible of the great vice of intemperance than I am; I have 
ever been among the first movers in the exposition of its manifold evils; and delivered the 
first address upon the subject in this city, some seventeen years ago. But let me sug- 
gest, that we do that great cause injury when we load it down usque ad nauseam, with 
all the ills to which society is subject. Let us proceed with the caution of more exact 
truth, not put the cart before the horse, but, "mount to its sources-get at its antecedents," 
and we shall be more apt to attain all our ends,-the permanent benefit and advance- 12 
ened wisdom of the present generation, to correct the errors of the past,-and upon 
you the responsibility rests to continue the warning, which for many years has 
been in a course of constant fulfillment, of the fatal policy, to our most important 
and enduring interests, of the almost entire neglect of the sanitary condition of 
this great country. 
As in this part of our State public attention has been fully awakened by the 
profession, as was our sacred duty to society, of the direful consequences result- 
ing from the almost entire want of sanitary police, I trust our brethern in other 
parts of it, will be equally vigilant. It is now generally acknowledged that a 
mortuary condition exceeding 2 perct., is demonstrative of a deficiency of police 
regulations on the part of the public, that should render any administrative 
authority amenable to the tribunals of justice, and that no part of our State ought 
to be subject to a greater mortality, • Our late distinguished countryman Dr. Rush, 
with a prescience which often accompanies true genius, says. "To all natural 
evils the author of Nature has kindly prepared an antidote. Pestilential fevers 
furnish no exception to this remark. The means of preventing them are as much 
under the power of human reason and industry, as the means of preventing the 
evils of lightning and common fire. I am so satisfied of the truth of this opinion, 
that I look forward to the time when our courts of law shall punish cities and villages, 
for permitting any of the sources of malignant fevers to exist within their juris- 
diction." The General Board of Health in England, with the Earl of Carlisle 
(better known in this country as Lord Morpeth,) at its head, says, "The British 
parliament has legislated on the conclusion, submitted -with an accumulation of 
demonstrable evidence, that the causes of epidemic, endemic and contagious dis- 
eases are removeable, and that the neglect on the part of the constituted author- 
ities, to remove such causes, as far as they are obviously within their control, is a 
punishable offence. The foundation which the Legislature has thus laid for the 
physical and consequently for the moral improvement of the people is recognized. 
Half a century ago, it was said by a great Physician and Philanthropist," * "that 
the time would come when the legislature would punish communities for neglect- 
ing, the known means of preserving the public health, and that prediction the 
British parliament has been the first to realize." Now look at the record of the 
ment of society. "It is too much the custom, perhaps, to look upon moral degradation 
as the cause of the physical; to consider the disease, want, filth and indecency of the abject 
outcasts of society, as the result of their own uncoutroled passions and vices, and to view 
them with the stern eye of condemnation, rather than with the mild look of pity. The 
vice of intemperance is charged with the production of a large share of the want, diseases 
and suffering of the lower classes- ; it may well be questioned, however, whether the ab- 
sence of all domestic comfort in the miserable hovels of the poor ; the exhaustion from the 
severe toil requisite to provide the scanty necessaries of life ; the depressing and poison- 
ous influences of vitiated air, do not engender a state of system that irresistibly seeks re- 
lief in the sedative stimulation of alchohol. The real and true relation between moral 
and physical degradation is, however, now beginning to be more correctly appreciated, 
unddr the improved sanitary states of all classes of society, the important truth is beino- 
demonstrated, that the moral as well as the physical condition may be greatly ameliorat- 
ed ; ministers of the law as well as ministers of religion are "discovering that the scaven. 
ger and the the architect are among their best allies," and by their arguments and elo- 
quence, are urging file claims and speeding the progress of sanitary reform." Rogers. 
* That authority I have just quoted. 13 
late U. S. Census, and you will find that although in the Eastern District, there 
has been a great degree of salubrity enjoyed, (except in New Orleans,) not much 
exceeding 1 per ct., excluding cholera in several parishes, and only 1. 68 including 
Jt, in the white population : the mortality in the Western District, has been more 
than double what it should have been, under wise, sanitary and hygienic rules ; 
and I here call upon our brethren in that part of the state, to point out wherein 
have been these deficiencies and negligencies,-it is a duty they owe society and 
the profession,-if the public authorities neglect ro correct them, our noble calling 
which acts the part of a sentinel on the great watch tower-to overlook and guard 
the health of the community, willat least be exonerated, fiat justicia fuat codum. 
In a highly enlightened state of society, the duties and claims of the citizen 
upon the body politic are reciprocal; I have given you a very brief sketch of what 
the profession has endeavoured to accomplish for the good of the public,-at every 
sacrifice of interest and even of life itself, (as I will show you presently,) but that 
is not all. From jto % of the entire sick of this city, (which according to statis- 
tical computations probably reach the enormous amount of between 45 end 60,000 
per annum!) are attended gratuitously by the the Medical men of the place. While 
there has not been a benevolent, scientific or eleemosynary institution of any kind 
existing here, but what their peculiar practical talent and literary acquirements 
are brought to bear, for the benefit of the community. With these claims then 
upon society, based too, upon an extensive and expensive education, requiring years 
of exclusive devotion, to render them competent to the discharge of its high duties, 
what has society done for the profession? specially and really nothing,-nominally, 
the legitimate profession is a body corporate, the admission to the right to practice, 
being through a licentiate board, and the admission fee $20. This board was 
formed for the protection of society against empirical pretenders,-and I venture 
to say that no man was ever refused admission by that board who had the claims 
of practical scientific skill, or whom it would not have been' dangerous to let loose 
upon society. I see the legislature, in its wisdom is about destroying all the bar- 
riers making a distinction between the charlatan, and the man of .science and ed- 
ucation, and the future will decide who has been the gainer by it. There will 
arise no loss in the $20 fee, as that has long since been devoted to a charitable 
institution. At an earlier period of our history, the regular profession did not 
require even the nominal protection of a license law,-the severity of the diseases 
was such, that few of them could withstand the test of a single season; this 
feature showing the utter failure of empirics in our malignant diseases, has been 
very remarkable, and tended, onthe occurrence of epidemics, to purify the profes- 
sion of impostors. Since these great touchstones have become more rare, and 
diseases have gained in multiplicity what they have lost in intensity, the result 
may somewhat vary, or at least not be so easily discovered. 
The public may and probably does think, that the abrogation of all special laws 
in relation to the profession of Medicine, is throwing open to free competition the 
curative calling,-that is not so; intelligent and educated men fear no competition 
founded upon seience and skill; they object to being reduced to the level of char- 
latanry where neither exists, where secrecy supplies the place of science, and 
imposture skill,-and where the credulity of the public in baseless promisses 14 
is substtuted for legitimate faith. Society is more deeply interested in uphold- 
ing the profession of Medicine as a separate class of specially educated men, than 
it seems to be aware of. The actual curing the sick is really but a small part 
of the great science of Medicine, (as valuable and humane as that is,) the prcven- 
tion of disease, the great and all embracing subject of general and special hygiene, 
by which not only individuals, but whole communities are saved from disease, 
and taught how to preserve the invaluable blessings of health, is alone thoroughly 
understood through this great stndy;-it is through this that the exalted value of 
a Medical education becomes appretiated, and its eminent worth elevated among 
intellectual pursuits^ Now can any man furnish an instance in the whole history 
of sanitary science, where what is well known as the irregular, uneducated prac- 
titioner or empiric, has added one iota to the improvement of his neighborhood 
one permanent addition to the blessings of his race-one to redeem the whole 
class from oblivion or from infamy! none-no-not one, nothing but the most in- 
tense selfishness, that begins with selfmvX ends with self, actuates the whole; bound 
to their secret nostrums by the cement of public credulity, the solution of whichby 
publicity, at once dissolves the charm, which has been amply proved by the history 
of secret remedies, from the time of Mrs. Stevens, who obtained 6620000, from 
the Brittish Goverment, for her remedy for worms, which was used long before 
her time, to the present day ! The profession of Medicine would be a great bless- 
ing to society, and especially in sickly countries, did it not possess the means of 
curing a single disease, as the amount of preventible sickness or diseases, is in 
such countries more than twenty times as great as the ordinary deaths. 
From the foregoing observations, I cannot come to the conclusion, that the pro- 
fession of Medicine in this state, is fully appretiated by society, or that in a 
pecuniary point of view, it is in a state of prosperity-or that it receives the re- 
muneration adequate to its claims, exposures and sacrifices,-or that there is any 
class of society which is not succeeding as well, if not better. All these influences 
bear upon the value of professional life, and the brevity of this give ample attes- 
tation of the truth of what I have advanced. From the record kept by the Licen- 
tiate Board, of the age of applicants for licenses, to exercise the profession from 
1816 to 1840, (and it has been imperfectly kept since,) it seems that these were 
usually granted at the average age of 30 years and 4 months, and hence this 
must be taken as the average age of the commencement of professional life in 
La., while from all the data I have, with much tronble, been able to procure, the 
average age at death, of practicing physicians in this state, has been but a frac- 
tion over 43 years and 8 months! Thus it seems, that on the best general ave- 
rage that could be obtained, the profession is exercised in Louisiana only about 
13 years and 4 months ! This is a melancholy record-probably one third less 
than the average age at death of Professional men, in countries where it has been 
a subject of investigation. Gentlemen, this subject is one pregnant with import- 
ant and serious reflection,-it should solemnly warn you of the shortness of life, 
and invite you to that preparation for it, which is so often most neglected, where 
death is most common,-as if real wisdom alone come with the maturity of age. 15 
As a fitting commentary on these solemn reflections, duty as well as inclination 
induces me to remind you, that it has pleased the Almighty Disposer of events 
in his inscrutible wisdom, to take from his sphere of usefulness, our estimable 
confrere Dr. Wm. P. Hort. It is but bare justice to his memory, to say-that, 
through this serious dispensation the profession has been deprived of a great orna- 
ment-one of its most indefatigable and talented members, and the city itself has 
cause to mourn his untimely loss. Of fine talents, which he had improved by 
extensive cultivation, of bold conception and indomitable perseverance, he had 
arrived at that useful period of life, when his matured mind replenished with the 
vast stores of accumulated reading-observation and experience, could have 
been most beneficially employed, and long had been in the course of employment, 
for the public good, that he is suddenly cut down from among us, and society is 
made most sensible of his great value by his untimely death. Let us mingle our 
tears with those of his bereaved and beloved offspring, and console ourselves with 
the hope that our loss is his gain. 
Gentlemen I cannot close these imperfect observations, without again urging 
upon you, the important and sacred obligations of your profession, and for your 
great responsibility to society for their due performance,-let us do our several 
duties, whether it is appreciated by the public now or not,-the time must come 
when they will be; these duties together with your fine educations and social 
position, present claims, which cannot be overlooked always in an enlightened 
state of public opinion: we have then no excuse for indolence,-indeed, there exists 
every incentive to the most strenuous exertion; with fine preparatory instruction, 
and minds richly stored with the elements, the foundation is laid for a superstruc- 
ture embracing all science and all art, and an excursion over the fair fields of na- 
ture : no profession is so rich in its gifts-none requiring such extensive prepara- 
tion-nope that rewards the possessor with accomplishments so extensive, varied 
and sublime, (excepting in this last sense-the theological.) If the "undevout 
astronomer is mad,") how much more irrational it would be with him, who wit- 
nesses the play of all the functions of animated nature ; nay, who traces them up 
by their very action to their fountain head-the very sources of his being ; in 
the language of an eminent English judge-"if ever the great law which governs 
human life was to be discovered, it could only be through the accumulated ob- 
servations of those who devoted themselves to the Medical profession. He knew 
no profession, without disparagement to his own or any other-more valuable or 
interesting than that of Medicine. The whole study of nature lay before them, 
while the profession to which he belonged, after leaving science and literature at 
Cambridge and Oxford, were confined to the dull study of precedents and acts of 
parliament, many of them contradictory, and hardly to be rendered consistent with 
each other. The advantages of industry could hardly be too highly appretiated, 
Demosthenesbeing asked what were the requirements of an orator, replied-firstly, 
action; secondly, action ; and thirdly, action. Now if he were asked what would 
insure success in life, he would say, firstly, industry; secondly, industry ; and 
thirdly, industry. He believed it was the Count de Buffon who said that genius 
was nothing. He would not go to that extent but, though the public admired 16 
and revered genius, it did not reward it, the real rewards in this life were only 
obtained by labor-continuous labor. The greatest reward in this life, was to be 
found, not in wealth, not in power, but in the consciousness that a man possessed 
of having faithfully performed his duty,-and he knew of no sphere in life in which 
that consciousness was so fully enjoyed as in the Medical profession." This is 
indeed a high compliment to our calling, flowing spontaneously from a sourcce 
-elevated by lofty attainments in science and knowledge of human nature, which 
is fully merited, as well as the important advice of the valne of industry. Esti- 
mate it then properly while you can-cultivate all its collateral branches so re- 
plete with delightful instruction, and in the language of my distinguished precept- 
or.* never desert your profession." Let us guard then with the strictest vigilance, 
admission into the holy temple dedicated to Medicine-its shrine has ever been the 
chosen residence of science, of high honor and patriotic impulses,-protect its 
vestibule from the unhallowed entrance of selfish empiricism and arrogrant igno- 
rance, and an enliightened state of society will appreciate you according to your 
true merits. 
Nor can I better close this discourse than by quoting the highly applicable re- 
marks of Marks and Willis-"True knowledge and true good go hand in hand. 
In the old Grecian Mythology, light was held to be joy-to be bliss also; Phcebus 
Apollo, who illumined the world, was likewise the healer; to him was the poean, 
the song at once of joy and thanksgiving, upraised. What antiquity, in mystic 
foreboding announced, in the lapse of milleniums is made manifest. The more 
humanity attains to the knowledge and the evolution of all its capabilities, the 
more sure will the full harmony of corporeal existence also be unfolded. It may, 
with every reason, be said, therefore, that intelligence is not only synonimous 
with moral power, but also with bodily health. Access to the treasures of mind 
is denied to none; the Art of Printing, and our educational institutions, place par- 
ticipation in this highest good within the reach of all. Medicine has not lagged be- 
hind the other evangiles of enlightened humanity : on the contrary, she has ever 
been foremost in the race, when tho object was to enlighten and to raise; and as her 
purpose has still been to root out disease, and to lessen its power, to help the sick 
and the suffering, to confirm the healthy and the strong; so has she also striven 
to make her truths common property, irrefragabile evidences of civilization. 
* Professor Chapman.