IN our last issue we made a few suggestions relative to the stampede, of the past few years, away from the use of drugs as means of healing disease, citing some of the sayings of eminent members of the medical profession in support of our position. We made some suggestions of warning touching the refuge of those who are turning away from drugs, endeavoring briefly to point out the lunking dangers along the pathway of the stampeders.
We did not, however, for want of space, make mention of an intermediary danger between drugs and the subtle mental methods to which we referred. This danger is surgery. In turning from drugs, the medical profession, in a conscientious desire for something better, sought refuge in the scalpel and other instruments and appliances as means of reaching and eradicating diseases as to which their drugs had proved powerless. As a result, the instruments and appliances have multiplied with such amazing rapidity that the surgeon who keeps up with the demands of the inventive genius, must not only make a specialty of surgery, but have a patronage affording him an income sufficiently large to warrant the outlay necessary to his keeping abreast of the times. This leads to the concentration of the practice of surgery in the hands of comparatively few who have acquired a reputation wide enough to give them a practical monopoly; and the average physician is left to grope along as best he may with his drugs and limited assortment of surgical appliances.
The effect is apparent without mention. Either the patient must seek refuge in the hospital, entrust himself to the practitioner of inadequate appliances, or be wealthy enough to pay the large fee of the eminent specialist. Thus, speaking from" the ordinary standpoint, a hardship is worked upon a great majority of physicians as well as patients.
