been signally useful in protecting the community against the impositions of quackery * Besides our medical schools and medical societies, -dispensaries, hospitals, infirmaries, and asylums for the reception of the poor, the sick, and insane, have been established in almost every part of the country. Several hundreds of these institutions, supported by public endowments, or private charity, are found in the United States; and, while they afford means of protection and relief to a large portion of the helpless and suffering part of the community, they furnish ample opportunities to the medical student to investigate the causes and nature of diseases, and become acquainted with the operation of remedies; thus uniting the objects of humanity and the advancement of medical science. This is not all that has been done in America for the interest of medicine. We have already produced some of the best works of the present day, on anatomy, surgery, the theory and practice of physic, materia medica, pharmacy, chemistry, obstetrics, and medical jurisprudence; works which have not only been adopted as the text books of our own schools, but have been republished abroad, and received the highest commendation of European professors. Our periodical journals,† of which we have no less than twelve published quarterly, or at shorter intervals, besides hos† See Note N. See Note M. pital reports, and the transactions of medical societies, abound with original papers, and many of them of great value. It must be gratifying to every American to know, that the medical literature of the United States is, at this time, sought for and read with avidity, in every part of the civilized world; while much of it is translated into the French, the German, and Italian languages, and republished in the journals of those countries: the highest compliment that could be paid to the genius and industry of our physicians. Such has been the progress, gentlemen, of medical science in the United States. If its advancement in the early periods of our country, was slow and obscure, its improvement in later times has been rapid, beyond a parallel in the history of the world. What age, or pation, has produced, in a little more than half a century, a system of medical education, and of medical police, to be compared to those of our country? At what period, or in what nation, can seventeen medical schools, twenty medical societies, more than two hundred hospitals, and other infirmaries for the sick, twelve periodical journals, to say nothing of other works on the various branches of medicine, -be found, the product of sixty years? Or where shall we find the salutary effects of medical educa E tion so extensively diffused, or so strikingly illustrated, as in the United States ? If we have produced no medical school which has dictated to the world the doctrines that should be taught and believed; it is because freedom of inquiry, independence of thought, and equality of condition, constitute the predominant features of our country, and enter into the genius of all our institutions. If we have produced no fortunate genius, whose discoveries have at once revolutionized the science, or established a new era in medicine; we have produced a host of able teachers, successful practitioners, and some of the best writers of the age. And if we examine the records which contain the history of the science, during the present century, it will be found, it is believed, that we are not behind other nations, in those great improvements in the practice of medicine and surgery, which so peculiarly characterize this period. It is not to medicine, exclusively, that our physicians have confined their labours; nor is it in this profession alone, that they have acquired reputation. They have cultivated, with great success, the kindred sciences. Some of the most approved works of the present day, on Mineralogy and Geology, on Botany and Ornithology, have been written by American physicians. In all our philosophical, literary, and humane institutions, they have taken an active, lead ing part; and, if we examine the transactions of those bodies, we shall find larger contributions from physicians, than from any other class of our citizens. If, in examining the present condition of medical science in the United States, and contrasting it with what it has been in times past, and with what it now is in other countries, we have cause for exultation; we have fresh motives presented to us for increased exertion. If much has already been accomplished, much still remains to be done. Though our large towns and cities, and the more populous parts of our country, are supplied with well educated physicians, -a large portion of our territory, remote from the schools, is still without those who have enjoyed the benefits of public instruction. If we have ten thousand physicians, as computed by a late writer, we have more than fifteen thousand practitioners of medicine, many of whom have never heard a public lecture, or seen a demonstration in anatomy. And, until medical schools be more extensively established through the country, many who enter the profession must necessarily be deprived of the privileges of a regular education. While such motives as these call on us for renewed and vigorous exertions, an animating prospect presents itself to our view. Medical science in the United States is already beginning to assume a national character. The uniformity of our medical schools; the co-operation of our medical societies; our text books, adopted as the standards of education in all our institutions; our periodical journals, which convey the same intelligence throughout the country; as well as the genius and constitution of our government, are all tending to such a result.* We have before us a country unexplored, almost boundless in extent, and inexhaustible in its resources. A country possessing every variety of climate, and consequently calculated to develope every form of disease. A soil abounding in medicinal plants and minerals, which chemistry has not yet analyzed, and but few of which have been applied as medical remedies. With such a field before us, what claims have not humanity and science on our best exertions; and with well directed efforts, aided by the light that now beams upon us, what may we not hope to accomplish! If, in sixty years, with the limited means we have possessed, and with all the difficulties we have had to encounter, we have produced the best system of medical education, the most perfect code of medical police, that has been exhibited to the world; if we have produced some of the best practical and elementary books, and some of the most eminent * See Note Q. |