"Those members of the profession," he says, "whom science has only
_perfumed_, are the most apt 'to look down with proud disdain' on any
discovery originating 'with individuals not indoctrinated.' They do not
make the proper distinction between selfish quacks who seek publicity
'to line the pocket,' and those 'who, prompted by some mysterious
power,' come forward against their interest, and at the risk of their
reputation. 'Rather than to contemn and ridicule, it were better to
study the manifestations of that mysterious power.' They do not consider
that the truth thus brought to light, while they fail to acknowledge it,
is affording 'to selfish quackery' a capital to trade on."
To the same effect is the advice given to the profession by Dr. B. F.
Washington, of Hannibal, Mo. He says, in the Nashville _Journal of
Medicine_, July, 1854, "it is time for us to be acting; the honor of the
profession is in danger. The theory of respiration is a truth which will
cut its way; and if we do not take it up and teach it, in a few years we
may see the mortifying spectacle of the community teaching the
profession scientific truths. Quacks have already taken it up, and we
have inhalers and air cures of various kinds."[9]
The first appearance of Dr. Washington as the advocate of my theory was
in the _Nashville Journal_, March, 1854; and his fertile genius had
there brought a new illustration of its truth.
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