AS far as I can ascertain, the present season (1857-8,) has been a remarkable healthy one, in this portion of the west. But scientifically, every few days, some poor sufferer is consigned to the grave—but not until nature has disputed, most resolutely, every inch of ground, and at last has been compelled to yield to King Calomel! It is only a few days since, a child of ten or twelve years old was laid away, with a part of the lower portion of its face already fallen off, and appearances indicating that a large part of the rest would soon have followed, had not death terminated its sufferings in mercy, and spared its friends the anguish of beholding the farther devastations of this most potent “remedy.” In such instances, the outraged feelings of surviving friends, are usually quieted with the assurance that “it is the Lord’s will;” and so these works of iniquity are saddled upon the Supreme Arbiter of events, and He is made the scape-goat of one of the most wicked systems that ever cursed the world.

I am sometimes perfectly confounded by the blind bigotry which possesses the minds of those men, whose business it is to administer to the wants of suffering humanity. It does seem as though they thought more of conforming to the opinions of certain authors, and following the prescribed rules of a Medical Association, than they do of the lives of their patients. In their opposition, especially to reform in medical practice, some of them hesitate not to endanger the life of a fellow-being, if, by so doing, they can bring obloquy upon that system to which they are opposed.

These are hard sayings; but I am compelled to believe them, for it is but a short time since one of the poison-dealers tried to persuade a patient of mine to eat unripe peaches, only two days after he had reported him as in a very dangerous situation, with bilious fever. This same man, was prescribing for a slight ailment in a stout individual, who was still able to be about town and attend to his business. This person ate some of the same kind of fruit, and thought that it injured him. He told his physician what he had done, who broke out with an oath, and told him he wondered it had not killed him. This shows the estimation in which he held the fruit, which he had told my patient would do him good. Comments, upon such an act, are unnecessary, or upon a profession which feels itself obliged to treat with contempt, every thing not paying homage to its mandates—no matter how much it may promise to add to the welfare of mankind, if it cannot trace its origin within the walls of a legalized inclosure.

Of all men, the physician should be a liberal-minded man—ever anxious to learn all that will enable him to be of benefit to his suffering fellow-creatures. He should never conclude that he has nothing more to know, or that he can find all knowledge in any one system, or theory, of practice; he should ever be ready to learn, from every body. He who expects to find out all that can be known, in one train of reasoning, or round of study, is like a man traveling upon a circle, who thinks, because he can travel all his life-time upon that circle, he can consequently visit every place that the length of his life will permit him to visit. After a while, some one—who has learned that, in order to extend his knowledge, he must strike out a path diverging from that one, so long traveled—starts out accordingly in a new direction, and finds an extent of knowledge and research, of which he never before dreamed.

Our traveler, who thinks that the old path will lead him to all that he can ever know, comes around to the new road. He stops, and asks, “Who made this new track? Was it the man who marked out the one that I am in?”

“No!” says one; “the path which you are in, tells the same old story; this new path is a better way. Discoveries have been made in it, far more valuable than in the one in which you are, and they have been made by one who does not believe that your old way is perfect.”

Now see self-confidence, bigotry, and ignorance, encircling the lips of scorn. “Fools!” says he, and he goes, muttering vengeance on the “poor deluded fanatics!”

But this state of things cannot always remain. The light of truth is shining, and is destined to dispel the clouds of mystery, which have so long covered the pathway to the grave, of millions of our fellow-men. Men of intellect, science, and humanity, are engaged in this good cause, and, so sure as “truth is mighty,” it must prevail. In order, however, to the accomplishment of this desired event, physicians must be men of principle, and adhere firmly to that which they know to be right. In the practice of some, there is too much disposition to accommodate the taste and prejudice of the patient, even at his expense. I was talking with a physician not long since, who advocated the practice of making medicine to suit the taste of the patient. Instead of accommodating his desire too much, in a matter about which he cannot be a judge, the physician should take that course which will be most likely to cure him speedily, though the remedy be not quite so palatable; there should be no tampering with his whims, to the prolonging of his disease.

This principle cannot be too deeply impressed upon the mind of every one, while he is receiving his medical education; for the triumph of our cause, and the rescuing of suffering humanity from the iron grasp of medical tyranny, depend upon the integrity of our practitioners, and their strict adherence to the true principles of practice. In the name of Humanity, let us not fall into the same vortex of quackery, which characterizes the practice against which we war!