CHAPTER XXX.
THE INSUFFICIENCY OF MEDICINE TO ACCOMPLISH ALL THAT THE PUBLIC REQUIRE.
One of the many causes of quackery may be found in the insufficiency of the profession fully to satisfy the demands of the public. Too much is always expected of physicians; and when they fail to accomplish all that is desired, the failure is not attributed, as it usually should be, to the irremediable condition of the patient, but to some supposed want of skill in the practitioner. Scarcely a patient dies but some appear to think the use of proper means might have saved him. In this respect public opinion is greatly in error. It is not in the power of the profession directly to save life so often as is generally supposed. The human system, in its most perfect condition, is a frail structure—every moment liable to derangement—predisposed to numerous diseases, and subject to a thousand casualties. And if it
