COMMUNICATION, 
PRESENTED BY 
JOHN McCALL, m. D., OF UTICA, 
tlje Annual meeting of tlje Societg, 
HELD LX FEBRUARY, 1853. COMMUNICATION. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen ; 
Forty years' steady devotion to a man's profession, might, per- 
haps, be considered as entitling him to some claim to attention 
in regard to matters of experience, so far as regards his own per- 
sonal examination and knowledge therein ; provided, alwrays, that 
he be well endowed by nature with faculties of clear and patient 
thought, his intellect duly enlightened by a thorough course of 
sound education, and without prejudice or old opinions to be over- 
come before attempting an investigation into all the circumstan- 
ces and facts of the case, which may come under his critical ex- 
amination. • 
Such mental state and process would be just what would be 
needed to form a sensible physician, who, of course, should be 
moved and guided only by reason and sound argument, while the 
feelings, which are too often blind, should be kept in subjection 
to the understanding, a state of mind notalways met with in these 
days of wonder and belief. 
The question which was asked by the great moral teacher, 
" Are ye yet without understanding?" not, do ye believe thus 
and so, but " Are ye yet without understanding ?" might, perhaps, 
with equal force and propriety be propounded to many nowa- 
days ; for it is to be feared that belief and credulity too often 
either take the place of knowledge and understanding, or, not 
unfrequently, go in advance of both. 
Knowledge is, emphatically, power; while ignorance is as truly 
weakness. But error is yet a worse evil. The illustrious au- 
thor of that immortal instrument, the Declaration of American 4 
Independence, regarded " ignorance as preferable to error." 
" That man," said he, "is less remote from the truth who be- 
lieves nothing, than he who believes what is wrong." 
Knowledge and sound understanding, with a high and enlight- 
ened sense of justice, are the only certain means of cure in such 
cases. 
The science of medicine, like that of intellectual and moral 
philosophy, must rest on the truth, and not on the authority of 
great names. Its principles and doctrines must be carefully and 
patiently examined, in order to be thoroughly understood, and 
never taken on trust. 
Instead of insisting on the exercise of mf n's perception and re- 
flection, in acquiring knowledge of himself and the objects of ex- 
ternal nature, his feelings are too often appealed to and called 
into action, while the understanding and reason are less thorough- 
ly instructed, and thus poorly fitted for the great purpose of form- 
ing correct judgment. 
The question too often seems to be, " What do you believe ?" 
not what do you positively know of the thing or matter under 
examination ? 
And yet it is certainly not presumption to say that man is 
the only minister and expositor of nature, beyond which he knows 
nothing positively, and that he only knows of the rich treasures 
in her field of observation just so far as he has closed observed, 
whether of mind or body, and that more he neither knows nor 
can know. 
< 
Such is the method of slow, yet sure induction-the pathway 
to be sought for by every philosophical enquirer. 
Now, if such could be the course pursued in all cases by phy- 
sicians, their knowledge, though limited, as all knowledge must 
be, would be of the positive and useful kind, while belief and 
wonder would soon fall far below par, for the reason that a cart- 
load thereof could not disprove one positive fact. 5 
I need not, gentlemen, trespass on your time to prove that the 
science of medicine depends on a thorough knowledge of the hu- 
man economy and its relation with the world around us, and 
that such knowledge can only be acquired by personal experi- 
ence and severe observation. 
The day of system making has passed away, never to return, 
and the ingenious and obstrusive speculations ot the school men 
have fallen, lifeless, at the feet of those two faithful school- 
masters. 
The amiable and philosophical Dr. Spurzheim made a happy 
reply to the celebrated Mr. Jeffrey, afterwards Lord Jeffrey, of 
Edinburgh. When the Dr. first visited that city,' distinguished 
for its learning and metaphysical spirit, and talent for profound 
speculations into man's nature, irrespective of the light afforded 
thereon by cerebral physiology, and while Dugald Stewart's 
philosophy of mind was in its full meridian, he first met Mr. 
Jeffrey in the hall, where the courts were held, and on their in- 
troduction to each other, Mr. Jeffrey inquired ot the Dr. how long 
he had beep in Edinburgh, and whether he had come to teach 
the people of that city his new philosophy of mind ? in other 
words, phrenology ; to which the Dr., in his gentlemanly man- 
ner, replied that he had come, not to teach, but to show, or let 
them know what he maintained on that subject. 
The wily metaphysician said : " We are infidel incredulous," 
while the philosopher, as the Dr. truly was, mildly remarked, 
" Sir, in phrenology no belief or faith is required. The objects 
must first be seen and examined before coming to any decision in 
the matter, as in the investigation of nature in all her de- 
partments, for scientific truth." 
To return. Who among us now refer to the systems or specu- 
lations of Boerrhave, Hoffman, Cullen, Brown, Darwin or Rush 
except as things which have passed awS.y before the light of ex- 
perience. 
In medicine, as in the other arts and sciences, some of its la- 
borers will, of course, be in advance, for the reason, that they 
possess a higher order of intellect; in other words, large, healthy 6 
brains, and the brain, too, in the frontal and sincipital regions, or 
have used, perhaps, their understandings to better advantage, 
by studying and examining for themselves, and not relying on 
the opinions of others. 
No doubt the seeds of ability are naturally pretty equally dis- 
tributed among men, and that the great difference in human 
capabilities results from the difference in use of man's faculties 
of mind. 
To suppose otherwise would be to distrust the justice, wisdom, 
and goodness of creative power. 
With these preliminary remarks I now proceed to the object of 
my discourse. The great law of intellectual progress, which is 
slowly moving mankind onward, in knowledge and useful im- 
provements, has done much within forty years for our profes- 
sion. 
When I commenced its study, in 1807, I well remember the 
practice and doctrines of several of its most eminent members 
of this, my native State. I may mention the names of Dorr, 
Fitch, Allen, Hall, Livingston and Baldwin, of Washington 
county, in which I was born. Post, Kissam, Seaman, Osborn, 
Miller, Hammersley and Stringham of New-York. Now, though 
comparisons are sometimes invidious, it may be stated that those 
gentlemen who have now passed away were really the lights of 
the profession in the State in their day and generation. 
Some of them were followers, to some extent, of Mr. John 
Hunter, others of Drs. Cullen, Brown, Darwin or Bush, while 
several relied mainly on their own experience, disregarding, to a 
commendable degree, the authority of great names, as well as 
several of the systems and dogmas of the schools of medicine, 
which were then, not as now, sufficiently " few and far between." 
I wish some gentlemen among us, who have time and the means, 
would furnish some account of the lives and professional charac- 
ter of those good men, alike eminent and useful as members of 
the healing art. 7 
Dorr, Allen, Post and Kissam were distinguished as surgeons; 
others as physicians, and a few as teachers of medicine ; of this 
number were Miller, Post, Stringham, Hammersley and others. 
Blood-letting, calomel, opium, tartar emetic, blisters, and a few 
other medicines were then used, as nowT, in several diseases, as 
the chief and efficient means of medication; and in most fevers 
and inflammations, certain fever powders, consisting of some of 
these items, with the addition, perhaps, of nitrate of potassa, &c., 
were much used 40 years ago, and even down to a later period. 
I recollect of calling, a few years since, at the office of a dis- 
tinguished physician, then far advanced in age, and seeing him 
preparing a parcel of said powders, I observed, pleasantly, 
" Well, Doctor, you seem to be furnishing a good supply of the 
fever powders." " Yes," said he. 
I remarked, jocosely, that I had often feared that they were 
really fever powders, in other words calculated, in some instances, 
to perpetuate instead of curing the fever. 
He desired to know when or where I had obtained that item of 
distrust as to their effects, manifesting, at the time, a little dis- 
turbance of his self-esteem. 
Now, age and experience usually, and sometimes rightfully, 
claim the credit and consideration they really merit. And it is 
quite certain that opinions once formed and maintained to old 
age are not as easily thrown aside, under the conviction of their 
unsoundness, as an old worn out coat. In proof of this remark, 
I may mention, that few men of 45 years ever become reformers, 
or bless the world with new or useful discoveries, much less 
make any grand advancement in intellectual or moral science. 
The improvements, whether in the arts or sciences, have 
generally been the work of young, independednt and thinking 
minds. History assures us that not a single physician of the age 
of 45 believed in Dr. Harvey's grand discovery of the circulation 
of the blood. 
I 
The master-spirits of all great and useful works commenced, 
and often finished their task in early life. Such, it is believed 8 
was the case with Galileo, Newton, Harvey, Priestley, John Hunter, 
Burns, Byron, Gall and Spurzheim, Bichat, Napoleon and Mr. 
Theodore Parker. 
Now, after all, it is sometimes a blessed thing for truth and 
human happiness that man is mortal. 
Liberty, freedom of thought and conduct have always been 
more or less fettered by those whose age or standing had too often 
given them, as commanding generals, an undue influence over the 
thoughts and feelings of the mass of mankind. 
But death sooner or later clears the track of life, from all such 
obstacles to a knowledge of truth and the rights of man. 
What could the world of thought do, without this grand, pro- 
vision of the All Supreme, in behalf of the great law of human 
progress ? 
As it is, bigots, fanatics, old fogies and their conservative as- 
sociates must all pass away with their rickety notions and oppos- 
ing prejudices before the light of scientific truth, to make room for 
the young advancing army of philosophical enquirers. But to 
our profession and the times. Now among the mistakes formerly 
made in our management and treatment of diseases, that of doing 
too much, and relying too little on the restorative powers of na- 
ture are facts pretty well understood, now, by thinking men, not 
of the profession. The healing powers of the human economy 
had been kindly regarded by some of the ancient physicians ; but 
the fact that in many cases little or no medicine is sometimes the 
best medicine was only discovered in our day by the trials and 
experience of medicinal expectors. 
The fact that the sick would often recover where little or no 
medicine had been given, became known to me in 1812, while 
surgeon in the U. S. army. 
Our army was poorly supplied as to what was really needed, 
during the first two years of the war of 1812, declared against 
England ; and especially so in regard to medicines and hospital 
stores. Hence economy in their administration became necessary, 
especially in the use of medicines., 9 
In the treatment of disease, I commenced by giving very little 
medicines of any kind : and from thence soon ascended the scale, 
if I may be allowed the expression, by administering in some in- 
stances, colored mixtures, bread pills, &c., and in a few cases, with 
equal success. These trials and their results led me to think 
more favorably of the curative pqwers of the human economy. 
Now, gentlemen, it was on the shores of the magnificent Niagara 
river, while stationed in the army, and where the thunder of wa- 
ters is always heard, that my attention was first called to consid- 
er whether nature or the physician aided most in the work of 
recovery, in these cases. 
From thence I continued experimenting ; in other words, ad- 
ministering medicines sparingly, and relying on thorough venti- 
lation as the spirit of life, cleanliness as all important, and an 
element of piety in the opinion of an old divine; and strict at- 
tention to diet, as the grand curative agent. 
In this way I soon found that even bleeding was less needed 
than I had supposed; and yet the patients generally recovered 
under this course of non-medication. 
Here then the barren and shallow claims of homeopathy could 
be studied and understood. 
Nature aided, perhaps, in some small way, by medicines ac- 
complished the work of recovery to health, and not the senseless 
means which only act if any sensible effect be ever produced, in 
such cases, on the ignorant and credulous minds of those thus 
deluded. But, my friends, some shame, if not blame, may attach 
to us, in having too often given our patients not only too liberal, 
but nauseous doses of medicines. 
Such practice, no doubt, hastened the introduction of infinite- 
simal doses into dilutions, drops and spider's eggs, and withal 
taught us a lesson, which will not soon be forgotten. 
This experience, sufficiently eventful, though neither wholly 
merited, nor yet ruinous to the character of the healing art, or 
the welfare of its accredited members, has, as might have been 
expected, served to embolden and imperiously urge the vis medi- 10 
catrix natural to put in again her plea ; " medicine me but little ; 
only give me fair play, and I will, in most cases, relieve myself; 
yes, gentlemen, physicians do so, and you shall have, as hereto- 
fore, all the pecuniary benefits of my labors." What condescen- 
sion ! 
But, my friends, our noble profession, after all its trials and 
draw-backs, was never, in my opinion, in a more sound and pro- 
mising condition than now; and I feel assured that its course 
will be right onward and upward to higher and greater achieve- 
ments in all its branches. I have no doubt that newT and stronger 
light will be yet discovered and applied for its improvement and 
advancement. 
From the very nature of things, the science of medicine, like 
the other sciences and arts, must be progressive, for there are new 
revelations constantly being made in all the departments of scien- 
tific search. The man of untiring observation and careful re- 
flection, who examines for himself, and takes nothing on trust, 
must advance in knowledge and become wiser, and I should hope 
and expect better, too, as he growrs older. 
• 
But rather unfortunately, as it seems to me, all laborers in the 
field are not endowed by nature with those faculties so much 
needed; nor have they always had the necessary preparation in 
the way of education, consisting of instruction and training, re- 
quired for the due enlightenment of the understanding and judg- 
ment ; or if so, it is to be feared they have not in all case$ used 
or applied their capabilities to the best advantage in the pursuit 
of scientific truth. It is an old, though not always a true saying, 
that "practice makes perfect." 
Too many in the trades, and some few too, in the professions, I 
fear still pursue the routine practice. Some men really revolve, 
as it wrere, in the same dull round from day to day, and from year 
to year, and seem hardly to have moved one inch ahead, in the 
line of new discoveries or useful attainments in knowledge. 
Onward should be the watchword with all the sons of men. 11 
Now, gentlemen, in addition to these desultory remarks, I 
would speak, had I time, of man's other and higher relations, 
and by man, I mean his mind as well as body. 
In a word, his whole a domestic, social, religious,in- 
tellectual and moral being. 
And why should not the medical philosopher be a teacher and 
expounder of all that belongs to human nature; not only of 
man's moral constitution but in the great subjects of religion and 
theology, as any other man ? 
And for the reason that the physician is', or ought to be, and 
might be, the best acquainted with the being man, said to have 
been created in the image or likeness of the divinity ? 
Now as no one hath seen or can see God, we must study his 
character and attributes through the first grand revelation made 
of himself, in his works. 
And as man is emphatically ]e chef d'oeuvre, thereof created in 
the beautiful, intellectual and moral likeness of the All Supreme, it 
seems quite clear to my mind that medical men ought to under- 
stand this great subject, which I have long regarded as the queen 
mother of science. • 
But, gentlemen, I forbear any further observations for the pre- 
sent, simply remarking that if these few hints, imperfectly pre- 
sented should elicit one useful idea in behalf of man and our 
noble profession, I shall feel satisfied. 
And now I have only to thank you, Mr. President and G» e- 
men, for your kind attention and indulgence on this ccasmn.