An appeal to the public and especially to the medical public : from the proceedings of the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, vacating the chair of materia medica and pharmacy / by John Redman Coxe.

  • Coxe, John Redman, 1773-1864.
Date:
1835
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An appeal to the public and especially to the medical public : from the proceedings of the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, vacating the chair of materia medica and pharmacy / by John Redman Coxe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    three lectures a week, and the residue of the time allotted to the Institutes of Physic, to be erected into an independent chair, with an equal division of the present fee. The grounds of this recommendation are now to be presented. It is a fact of sufficient noto- riety, that in the revolutions of our science, certain branches lose their importance, and become de- pressed, while others are correspondently ele- vated, and attract the utmost attention. The Materia Medica has met with the former fate. During the dark ages of medicine, when idle credulity and the superstition of ignorance had usurped the place of philosophical inquiry, reme- dies were infinitely multiplied, and the treatises on them swelled to enormous dimensions. This was the season of its highest estimation. But as we advanced in knowledge, and a severe scru- tiny was instituted, confidence ceased in thou- sands of these articles, and an expurgation so general came to be practised, that a very small portion only remains. On this point we are as- sured of the full concurrence of Dr. Coxe him- self. It cannot be denied, we think, that his lectures are remarkably characterized by such views ; the constant denunciation of remedies, as important or valueless, and by an eager desire to narrow in this way, by expulsion, the confines of the Materia Medica. These opinions we fre- quently have heard him express, and which are again and again reported to us by the class. Treating of the subject in a formal essay pub. lished some years ago, the following conclusive language is employed by him:— I believe, says he, it will be very generally admitted, that no physician, however extensive his practice, does actually employ more than fifty different and distinct articles, probably not even a third part of this number. If such is the fact, it may admit of a question, why we are so anxious to extend the boundaries of this branch of our pro- fession, and whether everything that can be an- ticipated from a greater variety of less active articles, may not safely be expected from a very few of the most efficient. He then goes on to enumerate, under separate heads, the articles he deems worthy to be retained, which do not ex- ceed the amount specified above. Entertaining such sentiments, it follows that his course must be extended and enriched by tres- passes on other departments, constituting one of the grievances of which wo complain. It is partly true, as he affirms, that similar invasions, though not to an equal extent, were made by his predecessors. But for this there was an apology, which can no longer be pleaded. It so happened, that from 1796 to 1806, the school had no Profes- sor of the practice of medicine. The vacancy cre- ated by the resignation of Dr. Kuhn, was not filled in this interval by the Trustees; and Dr. Rush, who held the chair of the Institutes, gave merely a summary of practice towards the con- clusion of his course, referring to his publications for the more important subjects. The Professor of Materia Medica at this time, very wisely en- deavoured to supply this deficiency, by the intro- duction of much practical disquisition into his lectures. From the infirmities of health, the successor of Dr. Rush was rendered incapable of performing his duty, he survived only two ses- sions, seldom appearing in his chair, and dying early in the third; the subjects of his department were distributed among the other Professors, the largest share being assigned to the then teacher of Materia Medica.* It seems, from this review, that the alleged encroachments, so far from having been pursued by any abstract sense of their propriety, or the sanction of legitimate usage, were the results of the necessities of the school growing out of its peculiar defective condition at these times. The dwindled and impoverished state of the Materia Medica might be further shown, were it really required, by exhibiting the relation in which it stands to the other departments of Me- dicine. Chemistry has taken from it all those processes by which the mineral articles are pre- pared. Botany embraces much of the history of the vegetable substances. Pharmacy appropri- ates to itself the manipulations of these, which only indeed can be taught in the shop of an apothecary—the principles on which medicines operate have been given to the Institutes, and the practice of physic spreads its wide hands nearly over its surface. But considerations of a different kind had also a material influence in dictating our advice.— The Institutes, always deemed one of the highest departments of the science, have recently excited an interest beyond all former example. They comprehend Physiology, Pathology, Therapeu- tics, and Hygeine; by which are meant the theory of the sound and diseased states of the body, the general principles as we have already said of the modus operandi of remedies, and the means of preserving health. It was by the suc- cessful illustration of this province that the late Dr. Rush contributed so liberally to the rearing of the reputation of the school, and to which de- partment the laborious researches of many of the most distinguished cultivators of medicine are now applied in Europe and in this country. The Institutes are the philosophy of medicine. Destitute of the lights which they afford, the science degenerates into empiricism, in the best acceptation of the term. Could it be otherwise, with such an appreciation of this branch, than that we should desire to see it restored to its former po- sition in the school, from which it had been acci- dentally dislocated?—And by the mode suggested, we conceived it might be done without any in- fringement of the just rights of the Professor of Materia Medica. Confessedly, or by his own showing, at least ample time would be left to him to deliver all which concerns that province, cut down to its proper limits. Nor could we mistake the policy of bringing to our aid an Tic- * What relative proportion of practical lectures fell to the province of each Professor to deliver, in conse- quence of the death of Dr. Barton, I do not know accu- rately. To myself, then in the Chemical Chair, were ap- portioned the following subjects, on which I had to pre- pare immediately a series of lectures, for the course had then commenced.—Small Pox, Vaccine, Tetanus, Epi- lepsy, Chorea Sancti Viti, Asthma, Pertussis, Colic, Cholera Morbus, Cholera Infantum, and Diabetes. All of which I was acquainted with, from that actual and positive experience, on which the Medical Faculty so co- piously dwell, and the want of which is so unhesi- tatingly and falsely ascribed to me. C.