A Treatise on the Eclectic Southern Practice of Medicine Page: 24 of 724
720 p. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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PREFACE.
affirmatively proved can never afterwards be overthrown, hs
published a new hypothesis upon this subject. Times have been,
when to promulgate a new discovery, was to invite persecution,
and to be the open advocate of a new truth, frequently led to
the prison or the stake. Mankind seems to have an appetite for
falsehood. And when a truth is for the first time ascertained
and promulgated, many persons, too ignorant to investigate, too
stupid to comprehend, or too bigoted to admit, stir up the pre-
judices of the unlettered multitude, and after having cried on
the pack, are reckless, for their part, if the truth itself, were it
possible, should perish with its advocates. Enoch and Noah, as
a great man said, were not the only ones derided by the multi-
tude for adherence to duty. Truth has always had her martyrs.
Socrates, with smiles received the hemlock--the popular reward
of his labours and devotion for his country and his race.
No matter how beneficial to the human family, no matter how
calculated to relieve suffering, let a mode of cure be new, it is
met with sweeping denunciations of humbug and quackery.
Pretension, alas ! is more common than knowledge. An empty
nod from an old official head has, too often, more influence over
the masses than real merit in the young. He who has the man-
liness to lift up his voice in defence of newly discovered truth
against old theory, though acting in behalf of the best interests
of the human family, is too often doomed to penury and perse-
cution. Such has been the case in our own day, and in this
land of liberty. But " the school-master is abroad in the land,"
and we may hope to realize a better state of things. hIence-
forth, those who would sway and control public opinion in respect
of science, must themselves be scientific. Age, as age, can
claim no extra privilege, unless the mind has been improved in24
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Massie, J. Cam. A Treatise on the Eclectic Southern Practice of Medicine, book, 1854; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143817/m1/24/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.