~0 Jt?D liKs'$ 
BEFpRE THE 
’Hat® 
BY 
3, B* WAMiJkm* A, M; m, B* 
RETIRING PRESIDENT, AND 
President of the State Medical Association of Texas. 
DELIVERED .1A XUARY 2i>, 1872. 
WACO, TEXAS: 
CSOl.l.KDGE * TOMI.INSOX, GENERAL JOB PRINTERS, “ADVANCE ” OFFICE. 
1872. AN ADDRESS 
BEFORE THE 
i*» $*«*•» 
BT 
0. R. WALLACE, A. H. M. B. 
RITIRINQ PRESIDENT, AND 
President of the State Medical Association of Texas. 
DELIVERED JANUARY 2d, 1872. 
WACO, TEXAS: 
GOLLEDGE & TOMLINSON, GENERAL JOB PRINTERS, “ADVANCE” OFFICE. 
1872. CORRESPONDENCE. 
Waco, Texas, January 11th, 1872. 
Dr/ D. B. Wallace : 
Dear Sir—We, the undersigned, having been appointed a 
Committee by the Medical Association of this city,*of which 
you were the late President, to ask for publication a copy of 
the polished, eloquent and appropriate Address read before 
them upon your retiring from the position you had so hon- 
orably and impartially filled, most respectfully express the 
hope that we may receive an early and affirmative response 
to this our earnest request for a copy of the same. 
With assurances of sincere esteem, we are, 
Very respectfully, your friends, 
W. P. Gunnell, 
H. W. Brown, 
S. B. Hamlett, 
S. A. Owens, 
Committee. 
Waco, January 11th, 1872. 
ToW. P. Gunnell. M. D., H. W. Brown, Al. I).. S. B. llainlett, M. D., 
S. A. Owens, M. D., Committee: 
Gentlemen: Thanking you for your very complimentary 
note soliciting copy of Address, and through you, the body 
you represent, for their appreciation of the same, I submit 
it to such further disposition as the Association may see proper 
to make of it. Fraternally yours, 
D. It. Wallace. ERRATA. 
Pago 5. lOtli lino from bottom, for “the” road “they.” 
Page 7. Gth lino from top, for “zyneotic” read “zymotic.” 
Pago 8, 20tli line from top, the word “ Orsis ” should he left out. 
Page 12, four lines from bottom, for “our” read “the.” 
Page 14, last two lines, the Latin quotation should read : “ Sed immedi- 
cahile vulnus ense reddendum ne pars sincera trn hatur.” ADDRESS. 
Gentlemen of the Association: Again we are in the midst 
of the 3’ears. We stand on the threshold of the new. The 
old is gone—gone, with its achievements and miscarriages, 
its joys and its sorrows, its gladness and sighs; with its real- 
ized hopes and blighted expectations;—gone, with its report, 
into eternity. Its memory only remains ; all else is irrevo- 
cable. Tt is befitting such a period to pause to reflect; to 
gather wisdom from the past to guide us in the future. We 
have erred, doubtless; all do, the wise as well as the unwise. 
But it is the prerogative of the wise only to turn their infirm- 
ities to good account, as bees extract sweetness from bitter 
flowers. Whatever in our retrospection we recall of good; 
born of high purposes, of noble resolves; whatever of a 
a character to elevate us to a higher plane of manhood—to 
raise us out of our lower selves, above our groveling basilar 
instincts—it were not only allowable, but commendable, to 
dwell upon, to cherish in memory, to gather therefrom 
strength and inspiration to sustain us in our conflict with a 
world that will require all the help at command to enable us 
to quit us like men—to perform our parts with honor to our- 
selves and usefulness to our fellows, than which we need de- 
sire nothing greater, and short of which our aspirations 
should not permit us to pause. 
The most inconspicuous insect that crawls through his 
unobserved career, has a mission—was created for a definite 4 
purpose—how much more man, made only a little lower than 
the angels. That every one, he the character of his endow- 
ments what they may, has a life work, to which, in the 
arrangements of society and the orderings of Providence, 
he is specially called, is the teaching of revelation, and the 
dictates of reason as well. 
“ I magnify my office,” exclaimed perhaps the most untir- 
ing worker of earth. It was the secret of success of that 
great man, who left an impress upon the world which it will 
retain until time shall be no more. It may be questioned 
whether any one ever achieved anything entitling him to 
the grateful remembrance of mankind, who was not ani- 
mated with somewhat of this spirit. To its absence, failure 
in all the departments of human effort is due more largely 
than to any one cause; more, perhaps, than to all others com- 
bined. The mere lack of mind and culture does not account 
for the lamentable failures on all sides. Observation comes 
to the elucidation of inspiration, and forces upon attention 
again and again, as we journey on through life, that the race 
is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Intellect, 
culture, genius,—desirable all—to be sure should inspire with 
gratitude those who are so fortunate as to possess them. 
But alone, they will not stand. No endowment, however 
exalted; no culture, however profound, will panoply for the 
battle of life. Inspiration born of noble resolution—a 
heaven-given enthusiasm, that, in the midst of defeat and 
difficulties, the gibes and taunts of enemies and the falling 
away and lukewarmness of friends, sustains and enables the 
combatant to exclaim, “ I magnify my office!”—this it is 
that insures success. We behold, not seldom, mediocrity 
armed with this celestial fire, marching steadily onward, 
step by step, to the goal of success; the while, the most bril- 
liant endowments, dazzling, exciting now the astonishment 
and admiration of friends, the envy and jealousy of rivals; 
now spending its energies in erratic displays, desultory, spas- 
modic flights, finally sink into oblivion. 5 
To excite something of this feeling in our bosoms—to 
warm our enthusiasm, as we gather about the time-honored 
altars of our noble profession, is the purpose of the evening. 
When we look out upon society—reflect upon its wants and 
capabilities; its tendencies to evil and susceptibilities for 
good;—contemplate the instrumentalities employed to coun- 
teract the one and to develop the other; the means used for 
the amelioration of the condition of the race; see, notwith- 
standing, vice and misery everywhere prevalent;—the most 
striking feature in the whole survey—the one which one can 
easily imagine would force itself most irresistibly upon the 
attention of the thoughtful man, and the one from which he 
could but retire with a sad, melancholy emotion,—is the 
little that is accomplished in the direction Heaven seems to 
have ordained and sanctioned. We read the teachings of 
the God-man, and, as we realize the wonderful adaptation of 
these holy precepts to the wants of societ}*- and the well- 
being of each individual, see how all is conceived in infinite 
love for the race, our souls are stirred into the involuntary 
exclamation, “ Why does not the whole world accept at once 
and with gratitude the religion of Jesus? Notwithstanding 
the gi'eatest and best tneti of earth have been attempting for 
eighteen and a half centuries to fix the attention of men by 
an exhibition of these saci’ed truths, yet it may be said of 
the great mass of mankind, even in so-called Christian coun- 
tries, not to mention those who sit in the valley and shadow 
of death, like Gallio, of old, the “care for none of these 
things.” What is the explanation ? It is not enough to say 
they are wicked ; even that they are totally depraved. The 
solution of the mj’stery will be found elsewhere. The fol- 
lowers of Jesus have failed to magnify their office, as did 
the Apostle of the Gentiles; have ceased to account it an 
honor to suffer reproach even for the name of the Master. 
It may be safely asserted that a moiety of the zeal displayed 
by his immediate followers, would have long since converted 
the world to the religion of the despised Nazarene. 6 
If the medical profession would accomplish anything 
worthy the name—anything worthy the age in which we 
live, and to which we are responsible—we must magnify our 
office; must seek to honor the profession, not be honored 
bj' it; must be willing to labor, to sacrifice interest and ease 
for it; must regard the profession as something to live for, 
and not to live by. No man ever was or can be a Doctor 
who does not rise to the conception of the healing art. The 
great lights in medicine were such, not because so much more 
gifted than other men, but because they magnified their 
office. While in need of the common necessaries of life for 
themselves and their families, they literally took no thought 
as to what they should eat and drink, or wherewithal they 
should be clothed, so intent were they upon magnifying their 
office; more anxious to establish a principle than to build a 
mansion; more concerned about finding a remedy than mak- 
ing a dollar. But doctors have to live. Of course they 
have—have to eat, drink and wear, like other men. But let 
us attain to this spirit, and all these things will be added. 
It is not necessary in such a presence to insist upon the 
relative superiority of our profession over most others, to 
which the wants, vices and passions of men have given rise. 
A simple enumeration of the duties the educated physician 
owes to society, would make this self-evident. Did anyone of 
you ever set himself seriously to contemplate the beneficent 
results to society from our profession, prosecuted practically 
upon an elevation of plane commensurate with its theoret- 
ical dignity? If you have not, allow me to say, you would 
be struck with astonishment at the spectacle. If you have, 
I know you realized a temporary lifting up of your soul as 
you recollected that you belonged to such a profession. But 
alas ! another recollection at hand dispelled the illusion. 
. I would not dampen your ardor, or darken the picture 
farther than may be necessary to the purposes of this ad- 
dress. I desire, however, to present a faithful portraiture of 
the profession'in this country. And just here I will remark, 7 
that it is not unforeseen that it may occur to some of you as 
Quixotic in me, to brand it with no stronger epithet, to be 
insisting upon medical reform out here in a back-woods vil- 
lage of Texas, thousands of miles away from the great cen- 
ters of medical influence. A little leaven leaveneth the whole 
lump, nor does it signify in what part of the lump the zyn- 
cotic process shall begin. I have no sympathy with those 
who say of this or the other social or other evil, it is irreme- 
diable; that this or that particular locality can do nothing in 
the interest of right and reform. Obscure and remote as it 
may be, if the Waco Medical Association sets itself to work 
in earnest for reform, it will make itself felt for good from 
the Lakes to the Gulf, and from Maine to California. But 
this by the way. To proceed to set forth the nature of the 
case, the remedy necessary, and its mode of exhibition. 
It is sufficient to startle attention and to stimulate inquiry 
to remember that some of the greatest and most conscien- 
tious men that ever graced the walks of practical medicine, 
after a leisurely, quiet survey of the whole subject—having 
weighed the evil and good resulting to societj' from the so- 
called healing art, have deliberately concluded that the evil 
is predominant, and that the profession is damaging to the 
best interests of society. While I should hesitate long be- 
fore adopting such a general conclusion, and do so at last 
when forced upon it by the unyielding logic of facts, most 
reluctantly, yet I cannot, if I would, conceal from myself 
the melancholy truth that there is but too much foundation 
for the suspicion. 
1 he priest, the doctor and the lawyer had their origin in 
the wants of society, and originally prosecuted their respec- 
tive duties without charge. To them the term Professional 
was applied. It may possibly be of service to refresh our 
minds by recurring to the primary meaning of the word— 
to the primal idea underlying the conception why one man 
rather than another should be .entitled to this honorable 
designation. It was old Cato who first remarked that as 8 
communities grow corrupt, they lose true names of things. 
“ Yera vocabula amisimus,” 
exclaimed the stern old stoic. Soeiet}7 has dropped out of 
mind the meaning that originally inhered in the word Pro- 
fessional. The word has become debauched—prostituted—by 
the company with which it has been associated. Sprung 
from a noble ancestry, at the head of which stands that pure 
old Latin word, profit)or, its early employment was in evmy 
worthy its ancestral claims to respectabilitv and honor, 
and it continued so to demean itself for centuries as to be 
above suspicion. None were admitted to its companionship— 
none allowed to assume the honored cognomen but such as, 
after a most rigid examination as to their fitness, took upon 
themselves a solemn obligation to devote their lives exclu- 
sively to the interests of humanity. 
So much for generic Professional. Little less instructive 
the terms by which those engaged in the healing art are 
especially designated in modern society: the terms Doctor, 
Physician—the former from doceo (I teach), the latter from 
orsis—physis—nature. If Professional originally, in its pri- 
mary conception, suggested a moral distinction challenging 
the respect of the world, the specific terms are equally sug- 
gestive of intellectual superiority. Deference is made to 
these terms to remind us of what medical men ought to be; 
men of moral purity, intellectual superiority, and profound 
erudition. Contrast the conception of a professional man 
with the warts, excrescences upon humanity, that infest 
communities under the name. To confine our field of obser- 
vation to our own profession, so far from being physicians— 
i. e. acquainted with nature—the whole domain of natural 
science; not a few are ignorant of the commonest elements 
of science—persons unable to make a living by their wits in 
a vocation of which the masses are competent to judge, con- 
sequently selecting one in which their ignorance and knavery 
are not exposed to vulgar scrutiny. That such disgraces to 
our common humanity are permitted to depredate upon 9 
society; to traffic in the dearest interests—the lives and 
health of their fellows—is the fault of the medical profession. 
The people generally think and act as they do in regard to 
such men simply because they know no better. For this 
ignorance the profession is responsible. Until we bring our- 
selves to regard the healing art in its true character, and to 
invest it with its appropriate dignity,—which, by the way, 
we have not hitherto done—we shall fail, most signally fail, 
to magnify our office, while the people will continue, as now, 
the dupes of knaves and charlatans. 
We hear much and read more—every medical periodical 
teeming with it—about the best means of elevating the med- 
ical profession. I too would show mine opinion. For some 
years past the eyes of the profession have been turned im- 
ploringly to the medical colleges. Those institutions, in 
mere mockery, it would seem, have been wrangling about 
fees, and such extraneous matters, just if it were anything to 
the purpose whether a medical diploma cost ten or ten 
thousand dollars. It does not really, and should not con- 
structively, affect the chaificter of an institution, whether its 
course of instruction be free or charged for at whatever rate 
may be seen tit. Medical colleges, while they might exer- 
cise a most healthy and controlling influence, have proved 
totally recreant to their trust—have done nothing; nor is it 
to be presumed, from the present aspect of things, they will 
do more in the future than they have in the past. Those 
who control the policy of these institutions, it is not insinu- 
ated are worse or less honorable than their professional 
brethren, yet it is insisted that they have proved totally 
unequal to the situation. They want full classes—want to 
outstrip rival institutions. These sordid considerations in- 
duce them to matriculate all that applv, and in due time to 
graduate all who matriculate. So that it has come to pass 
that a medical diploma means, simply, that the bearer has 
taken out two full courses of tickets, it mattering nothing 
whether he attended the lectures or not. This statement 10 
needs no qualification in regard to not a few of the matricu- 
lants of the medical schools; for, ignorant of the very rudi- 
ments of an education, they are wholly incompetent to 
understand the plainest scientific lecture. Jn this country— 
i. e. the United States—any one can graduate, and any one 
may practice medicine, whether he has ever seen a medical 
college or not. Nor does it signify. There is infinitely 
more diplomaed than undiplomaed quackery; and society 
suffers immensely more from the conceited ignorance of the 
former than from the depredations of the latter. And, for 
one, I must say, 1 have long since ceased to regard a medi- 
cal diploma as establishing any claims whatever upon my 
respect. Now for this state of things the medical colleges 
are directly and wholly responsible. When the medical 
institutions of the country, that ought to stand as guardians 
of the purity and dignity of the profession, are deluging 
society with ignorant, conceited, diplomaed knaves, is it 
matter of wonder that the people should conclude that old 
women and plain matter-of-fact, common-sense doctors can 
practice the healing art, when si*di coxcombs are adjudged 
worth}- of doing so, and licensed and sent out by the med- 
ical colleges—the highest known medical tribunals? I 
charge it, therefore, upon the medical colleges of the United States, 
that they have done more in lowering the standard of informal ion 
within the profession, and debauching public opinion without, than 
all other instrumentalities combined. 
All hope from the medical colleges abandoned, what of the 
American Medical Association ? It is matter of regret, 1 
venture to think, that this great body has done so little in 
the interest of scientific medicine. Though not very'well 
informed in regard to the proceedings, I have given them a 
cursory examination for the last twenty years, and if there 
has been any step taken to place scientific medicine out of 
the reach of charlatanry—to confine it, both in its practice 
and inculcation, exclusively to scientists—it lias escaped my 
reading. The reason, it is not difficult to understand—the 11 
association, in large part, has been controlled by the col- 
leges. It is not asserted that nothing has been done, looking 
in this direction. Some efforts have been made, resulting 
in the establishment of Medical Boards. But these boards, 
influenced as they have been, by the colleges, have looked 
rather to the protection of diploma-bearers, than to the inter- 
est of seientiiie medicine. 
But I have a word more for these colleges before dismiss- 
ing tlfem. I would not be understood as intimating that the 
medical colleges are not doing much in disseminating med- 
ical information, but that their labors are, as they should be, 
in the interest of scientific medicine, may be safely ques- 
tioned. That they are exerting the influence they should in 
elevating the standard of the profession, I apprehend no 
well informed physician will claim. The multiplication of 
these institutions has become a nuisance, deluging, as they 
are doing, the entire country with diplomaed quacks, who, 
so far from being able to take into their uncultivated minds 
the abstruse problems of disease, are quite unequaled to the 
task of grappling with the syntax of a single sentence of 
their vernacular. 
I call your attention, gentlemen, to these things, in order 
to lay before you, as I proposed, a faithful portraiture of the 
profession, that we may, in our respective spheres, as good 
citizens and faithful medical men, see what is necessary to 
do in order to magnify our office. Contrast this picture, by 
no means overdrawn, or in any respect too highly colored, 
with the medical profession in Prussia. The government of 
that noble kingdom has instituted such laws and thrown 
such other safeguards around scientific medicine as are 
worthy of the imperial splendor of the land of Frederick 
the Great—worthy the martial glory of William and Bis- 
marck. Among the glorious deeds that have placed Prussia 
in the front rank of the powers of the world, there is no 
one of which it has more cause to he justly proud than the 
fact that not a citizen, however ignorant or humble, in the 12 
realm, but is protected from charlatanry and empiricism, 
whether the pharmaceutist or the doctor. The unrealized 
boast of Louis XVL, that he looked forward to the time 
when there should not be a peasant in all Franco so poor as 
not to furnish his hoard with a pullet, pales into insignifi- 
cance before the beneficent results growing out of the regu- 
lations of Prussia on this subject. 
That these evils exist—that they are such as repre- 
sented—no well informed member of the profession will 
# • 1 
question. What is the remedy? Legislation. The stand- 
ard of the profession so low; public sentiment so debauched; the 
evil so inveterate, so interwoven in the frame-work of society, there 
is, that I see, but one resource, and that is in the strong arm of the 
Law. Nothing less potent will suffice to counteract the cor- 
morant avarice of men. Put this can he brought to hear 
only through the medium of public sentiment, and this, in 
its present debauched state, can only be reached hv organ- 
ized effort. The profession in the United States, thoroughly 
organized, could accomplish results in this respect beyond 
the expectation of the most sanguine. But it will require 
such organization as the jirofession has not yet seen in this 
country. 
But of matters that more immediately concern us locally: 
The good to accrue to any cause from organization is too 
obvious to need a word in elucidation. That ours is no 
better, I regret; that it is as good as it is, I am thankful. 
Though far from being all we could and should have made 
it, it has accomplished much. During the last six years— 
the period-of its existence—it has held more sessions, dis- 
cussed more important matters, I venture to assert, than any 
similar body on this side of the Mississippi Valley. This is 
matter of gratulation—something to be proud of—and, for 
one, I must sa\T, I am proud of it. I am proud of our fra- 
ternity of medical men, whose enthusiasm for their profes- 
sion brings them together every week for scientific discus- 
sion ; while the matter of fees—of money—is not permitted 13 
to be mentioned within the walls of our association rooms. 
But had we given more time and labor to informing our- 
selves and fellow-members—in educating public opinion—we 
would have been casting bread upon the waters. It is true, 
in all the departments of life, as in alms-giving: “ There is 
that scattereth, and yet inereaseth ; there is that withholdeth 
more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” I venture to 
hope, that by suitable effort, such as will make none of us 
the worse of it, the Waco Medical Association will make 
itself felt throughout Texas. More, I am induced to hope 
further, that this association, in connection with the hun- 
dreds and hundreds of educated, big-hearted medical men 
scattered over our broad State—the Heards, the Eagans, the 
Joneses, the DeJernetts, the Hudspeths, the Welches, Calla- 
ways and Herfs, with others no less prominent—can, within 
five years, so work up and modify public sentiment, that the 
practice of medicine in Texas shall be confined to scientists, 
and quackery unknown. Gentlemen, can this not be accom- 
plished ? Let us magnify our office. 
The field of medical observation is extensive and divers- 
ified. Those engaged in its exploration, from peculiarity of 
mental structure or habits of thought, will have their atten- 
tions directed more intently on some portions of it than on 
others, and will acquire a correspondingly more accurate 
knowledge, which may be turned to good account, both for 
themselves and for the community, where there is a properly 
organized medical faeultv. Each one’s merits may be made 
prominent, to the benefit of himself and the interest of all 
concerned; being mado useful in that special direction for 
which each one has most qualification. Here let us magnify 
our office. 
The tendencies bearing upon the pi’ofessional intercourse 
of physicians are more or less repellant. It is true in this 
as in every other relation of life, it is best to exercise the 
better feeling of our manhood. But mankind—doctors with 
the rest — “are unco weak,” and under the influence of their 14 
lower instincts, albeit resisted by their better judgments, do 
not act in accordance with their true interests or higher 
promptings. But associated in an organization for mutual 
benefit, they learn to appreciate each other’s excellencies, 
and to overlook each other’s infirmities. Professional zeal 
assuming control, they think less of self and more of the 
genei’al weal; the more basilar instincts subside, or grow 
weaker, the higher obtaining the mastery. Geniality takes 
the place of surliness, friendship of that of enmity, envy 
and jealousy give place to healthy emulation and a noble 
rivalry. Let us magnify our office. 
By organization, such as should exist in every community 
the size of ours, we are enabled to assert our professional 
importance in the relation we sustain to society. The occa- 
sions are by no means infrequent or unimportant in which 
it is best for all concerned that this influence should be 
brought to bear upon community interests. Let us magnify 
our office. 
It only remains for me to say a brief word in taking leave 
of the position your choice assigned me one year ago. 1 en- 
tered upon the discharge of its duties with misgivings. 
I have been most agreeably surprised. A record of the pro- 
ceedings will show at least as many meetings as have ever 
been held in any previous year, yielding in interest to none 
previously had. In the mean time, the society has been har- 
monious, the friction as little, I imagine, as is usually inci- 
dent to such bodies. It is true, the necessity was forced 
upon the association to cut off one of its members. In doing 
so, the society displayed in an eminent degree the virtues 
that should ever characterize professional gentlemen organ- 
ized for mutual benefit—moderation and firmness. In the 
exercise of the one, they exhausted everjr means of reclaim- 
ing an erring brother; but this found impracticable, sustained 
by the other, they cut him off as unworthy their eonfra- 
ternit}’. “ Sed immedicable vulmes ease necidendum, ne pars 
sincera tra hatur.” 15 
I thank you, gentlemen, most heartily, for the uniform 
courtesy with which you have treated me. I shall carry’ 
with me, as I pass on down the declivity' of yrears, a pleasing 
recollection of our intercourse; and if spared to that time, 
it will be the most grateful reminiscence of age. 
FINIS.