REFOEM. MEDICINE A.ISTD MORALS. No. 3. An Address delivered before the Onondaga Medical Society, at Syracuse, JV. Y, June 1±, IS70, by J". A. 31 o w r i s, 31 . D JiV. President and Gentlemen : J &LjLf Basing a calculation on the statements of the TJtervne Specialists as to the extent of their trade in a city of forty thousand, we discover in the Uterus a susceptibility to derangement which may well astound the physiologist, alarm the friends of humanity, and impair veneration for Jehovah as the maker of us all. The pretended revelations of the specialty teach that the " Great First Cause," in an at- tempt to create a harp of a thousand strings, exhausted itself on the last but one, and left the last to dangle at loose ends. But perhaps they proffer the convenient plea of "new disease." Very well. Nature then made a harp of a thousand strings, which went well enough for several thousand years, when, with a revival of avarice, and the advent of the speculum, the harp fell hopelessly out of tune. The aggregate, from the basis before men- tiontd. is sufficient to supply every woman in the city about three applications of the speculum per year. Fifty per cent, of their number, six such operations,—twenty-five per cent., twelve —twenty per cent, fifteen,—ten per cent., thir- ty, and five per cent., sixty operations, which latter should certainly be enough to satisfy any speculator, and to cure the most obstinate case. We have thus, disclosed to us an amazing prevalence of the "peculiar" disease, or a re- markable number of patients undergoing a course of very diligent attention. Are all these really cases requiring treatment ? Who believes it ? Note the absurdity involved in the supposition. A like susceptibility to de- rangement in any one organ common to both sexes and all ages, would result, at once, in a grave popular calamity—an equal liability in all the other organs, would convert the world into a universal infirmary of helpless invalids. Adam was the handiwork of GOD. Was Eve the botch-work of a cobbler) From special inquiry, by letter and other- wise, I learn that physicians engaged exten- sively in general and domestic practice, men well up in the profession and of unexceptional private character, do not, in their judgment, find occasion for the employment of the spec- ulum more times during a year than it is used professedly, by others in a'single day. Pray ! how is this ? The former are as con- versant with the human system ; they under- stand the functions and appreciate the pecul- iarities of the persecuted organ—are the equals of the former in legitimate income, and at the bedside—their peers in convention, yet they can rarely find occasion for the employment of that instrument. Are these intelligent physicians blind in just this one direction, or do they not rather evince superior wisdom, comprehension and refinement, in contemplating their patients ac- cording to a higher standard ? While not in- ferior in medical qualifications, they evidently still maintain a gentlemanly regard for the sanctity of sex. Fully equal in medical skill —deficient only in modern medical gallantry. A mode of practice which is under the ban of nearly the entire profession, and under the shadow of popular distrust, can not be safely patronized by persons desirous of maintaining their respectability. This brings us to notice another serious objecli >n to the specialty.— Without improving either, it inlerentially ap- proximates the two extremes of female society. By a fostering indifference to the growth of this pernicious specialty, the profession is ma- king itself amenable for one of the greatest medical absurdities of the age. Regard for a moment the function of the uterus, and con- sider its claims to this monopoly of attention. Let the function of the lungs be suspended for three minutes, and death is inevitable. Let the heart stand still for half that period, and the vital spark may not be recalled. The ute- rus, on the other hand, is present in the per- sons of only half the human family—function- ally so at any given date, in only one-sixth— valid in the individual but three-sevenths of the allotted seventy years,—and, as we all know, good personal health has been enjoyed after its complete extirpation. Yet,sir, in'the very face and eyes of this proof of its numeri- cal and p!ivs/Ai.(.nK,nl insign/^crttt-ee, scores of • regular physicians desire to abandon them- selves to this specialty ; while, throughout this Sf;ite, from the suburbs of New York city to Buffalo, scarcely a single member of the pro- fession has signified his willingness to special- ize in behalf of the vital organs. Apprise the "peculiar" specialist of the fact that cardiac disease is carrying off its hnndreds, and consumption its thousands. What cares he for science? What cares he for languishing humanity, so long as he can find a solitary case of hypothetical ulceration ? May not the profession properly ask that that strange pro- clivity shall be accounted for ; that some de- voted'specialist, after undergoing a rigid self- examination, shall be required to inform us whether, in his own case he is actuated in this choice mostly by animal instinct, or commer- cial sagacity,—by cupid x>r cupidity. ? And here appears the'glaring inconsistency of the profession. Diseases which might claim scores of special students, have no rep- resentatives, while rare cases of comparatively trifling derangements, count them by the hun- dred. What a preposterous dilemma for the faculty. Sir, if there is a member present who has the courage to contemplate this unscientific disparity, and to attempt to reconcile it with medical morality, it is the duty of this Society to welcome him to the floor. Since this specialty has been courted by phy- sicians hitherto refutable, it has been found convenient or necessary to defend it with a cool assumption of "professional superiority" Professional superiority! The claim being prompted by an emergency, rather than by sheer vanity, it should not be too severely re- sented, but still, it deserves not to escape scru- tiny. This vaunted superiority must consist in tact or scientific knowledge. Can it be that this superior tact of which they boast is all displayed in the application of the instrument. Further, the accounts of the specialists' per- formances rest so entirely on interested testi- mony, as to be quite apochryphal. That the uterus has been made by the specialist the subject of remarkable skill, is not favored by the law of probabilities ; for, in attempting to " suppose it, we are confronted by the query, whether physicians who have always shown a morbid solicitude to do their surgical skill where they may be seen of men, will be dis- posed to waste much of that precious com- modity in secret. But, perhaps at this stage, they are ready to acknowledge that it is not so much skill of which they boast as superior knowledge of the sciences. Sir, there is a science, and one which is eommonly regarded as rudimentary in a medical education, of which those gentle- men appear entirely ignoran_t^__Jrefer tojhat of physiology. (That sHencete^ches that the~ sexual passage in woman, unlike any other in the human economy, involves the emotional and affectional nature; that its function is in- timately related to private virtue, domestic peace and public morality. That, therefore, the interests of humanity demand that, among a civilized people it should never become the subject of foreign manual attention, not even by the physician, until local sensibility has been in part subdued by the solicitude arising from severe disease, or the exalting emotions of impending maternity^TeFa woman so fa/ orget herself as to forget this principle, and to her household there will be grief. Let a phy- sician disregard this distinction, and to the ex- tent of his patronage is he a foe to the commu- nity. Let the members of the medical pro- 6 ^ M fession generally, ignore this emphatic law of God, and the people shall mourn. Sir, I can- not respect a modn_&f practice whw^yds based on an audacious contempt for scientific truth. The odor of innocent blood will ever inhere to the proceeds. But the uterus, being the recepticle of the human germ, charity suggests that the special- ist may pursue his peculiar practice on the high plain of the humanitarian—that he has made it a matter of conscience to sacrifice in- dividual female convenience and delicacy in behalf of the race—that, having observed a waning tendency in the Anglo-Saxon element, under a deep religious sense of duty, he has interposed to avert its otherwise inevitable ex- tinguishment. O, jyir, for the credit of mankind, and the honor of our calling, how willingly would we accept that explanation. How diiigentty and long have we striven to conceal and deodorize this foul excrescence on the body professional. Sir, we have at length palliated to the limits of respectability. Some worthy men in our ranks, prompted by the partiality of friend- ship have extenuated this matter until its transparency has been pierced by the popular eye—uutil men of ordinary intelligence have discerned that the partial specialty is as inimi- cal to the interests of the race, as it is destruc- tive of personal delicacy—that this historic persecution of the uterus has been in a meas- ure pr/voked by its physiological faithfulness. How long can the profession carry this abomination? Those who have no respect for our high vocation—who have resolved to serve self rather than science, mammon rather than mankind,—may be curious to ascertain just how much iniquity the profession can bear; but they should also sometimes recol- lect that truly as well as proverbially, there is a limit to the endurance of even the meek and patient camel. Another particular in which the "peculiar" practice fails to commend itself, is in the effi- cacy of treatment. It is notorious that in no other department of medicine is there so much treatment with so little advantage—to the pa- tient. Its remarkable inconsistencies in this regard, as exhibited in the history of some ca- ses, confirm the growing belief that not unfre- quently the date of "cure" depends to quite an extent on the doctor's commercial discretion. This complaint, "Speculoid," for which some physicians are so diligently exploring, has been by them designated the "peculiar" dis- ease, and we must admit they have most fit- tingly christened it; for it is a peculiar disease. It is peculiar in the suddenness of its accession —peculiar in prevalence,—peculiar in the choice of its victims,—peculiar in its exemp- tions,—peculiar, O, how peculiar, in patholog- ical insignificance,—peculiar in the exorbitant price of its treatment,—and peculiarly capri- cious in all its varied manifestations. la short true science will ever regard it as the most pe- culiarly peculiar disease that ever afflicteVa»**,,!'a* mankind. We cannot then accord toihisrank specialty the importance it arrogates, without denying the efficacy of medical treatment, ig/doring the un-~C/Oj / animous verdict of ninety-six per cent of the / / profession, admitting a physiological absurdity, ' and endorsing God's incompetency. We can quite easily account for the special feature of this form of practice, though we cannot justify it. It is a fact, well known to all physicians, that on its introduction, every medicine or mode of treatment is extravagant- ly overused. There is not an article in our remedial list which has not undergone this ar- dent ordeal, but after the first flush, each falls back into a more rational patronage. For a few mouths, several years ago, the application of tincture of iodine and solution nitrate silver to the internal throat was the rage. Almost every body was supposed to be suffering from subacute or chronic inflammation of those parts, and every physician must needs be ever armed wi tti the facilities for the application; but the treatment, being neither agreeable nor lu- crative, nor half as efficacious as had been hoped, it soon subsided among occasional rem- edial means, and mark, nobody died of conse- quent neglect. Thus this uterine treatment rose like it, promises scarcely more, and would have declined like it, but for this trifling circum- stance, a money making error dies hard. Those medical gentlemen who seem to fancy that the circulation of the speculum was the chief end of their creation have seemed impa- tient to know precisely to what extent I en- dorse their hobby. I would prefer to define my position on tins point in a paper rather ^^ojC than iu a paragraph, but that they may have no further pretext for misrepresenting me, I will briefly explain. The Uterine Speculum,! believe was invent- ed in the interests of medical science. I know that there are cases in which the instrument is valuable as a means of diagnosis. In the same time concerning the Specialty I as firmly believe that its cultivation never was conducted by clean hands, that practicaUy, if not inherent' ly, it is the child of corruption, the most illusive, <1 C^yO insidious, and effective demoralizer of the present day; that it needlessly deflorates the virgin, favoring her ruin, or escaping it brings her nuptial bed under the cloud of unjust and cruel suspicion. Aye sir, and more than this, it has become to tlie wriFE—to her who alone of all her sex, is commissioned for that consigning embrace which lights the lamp of the soul, to her £(_*.(^ it has become the extinguisher of maternal af- fection. On a former occasion I characterized it the rampant Herod of the nineteenth cen- tury. Let me now sir, be just to the ancient dead. The jealous king came with that mer- .. ciful instrument, the sword, which did not de- Juli^ bauch woman—which, Avhile indeed TTlaid low the innocents, left woman uncorrupted. .iipolluted, untouched. For amid the desolat- ion, thank Heaven ! there yet was Rachel, in the sublimity of true motherhood .weeping for her children, refusing comfort. ^ , Sir, the uterine specialty is no common eviK it subverts the foundations of civilization, and pollutes the fountains of public virtue. Its di- rect antagonism to the spirit and design of our high calling is too conspicious, too flagrant to escape the reproving notice of the profession. The vital question is inevitable. It urges itself on the mind and judgment, aye Sir, and better still, on the conscience of every physician pres- ent. " Shall we longer suffer this scourge to de- vastate under the banner of our beneficent profession ?" Six months ago, at our last meeting, I read a paper, the concluding portion of which was directed to the condemnation of the excessive It excited the opposition of two or three members of the society. What kind of opposition? open and manly argument ? No, sir ! From the moment, it was intensely hated, and it was accordingly misrepresented, cari- catured, jeered at and spit upon. It aroused just that virulent animosity which ever lies in wait for the utterance of a reformatory soul- saving truth. Self respect, fidelity'to principle, and a de- cent regard tor that unqualified endorsement which the paper received from this society forbid that I should abandon my posit- ion. I prefer rather to continue to agitate the question. And^sjr, with the permission of the society, I propose in some form to reiterate this orthodox sentiment until the opposition shall have become decently tolerant or respect- ably argumentative. kQc^ For Sale at Durston's Book Store.