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unknown or unacknowledged in others. Here he becomes an active 

 participator in all public matters; his voice is potential in every 

 social interest ; he decides upon what laws shall be enacted, and 

 what measures adopted for the public weal. In proportion as his 

 principles and powers are great, so rises the obligation of govern- 

 ment to protect his health and life. Yet, in the face of these ad- 

 mitted truths, we are compelled to make the humiliating confession 

 that the paternal care of the American government has not, in this 

 respect, been efficiently and justly exercised. Yet the governments 

 of Europe, where the life of the subject is not of equal force in 

 the social compact, have in effect placed a much higher estimate 

 upon it, inasmuch as we find them far in advance of us in fostering 

 and protecting that science to which is confided the care of the 

 public health. 



Throughout the continent of Europe great attention has been 

 paid to this object, as appears from the enactment of wise sanitary 

 laws. 



Upon the accession of the present ministry in England, the pre- 

 mier proclaimed "amidst the great social improvements which it AYas 

 the duty of ministers to protect, none was paramount to recommend- 

 ing the enactment of proper sanitary laws for the preservation and 

 cure of disease amongst the people." Here is not only a distinct 

 recognition of the duty of government, but a pledge of the revenues 

 to the preservation of the public health. But surely we do not require 

 the example of other governments in this matter; the impulse to 

 protect from, and to alleviate, disease in others, springs from a 

 higher source — it flows from the fountain of man's moral nature, 

 from that higher, holier feeling which prompts us all to do good to 

 our fellows — from that philanthropy which makes every man our 

 brother — his sufferings and his health, not only our solemn trust 

 and charge, but our pleasurable duty and care. To medicine pro- 

 perly belongs this sacred duty, and the profession has given the 

 most glorious proofs of faithfulness and devotion in the discharge 

 of it. To them we owe the staying of the pestilence. By them 

 that scourge of man, the small-pox, has been robbed of its loath- 

 someness and its terrors; its ravages are rarely seen, and its destruc- 

 tion is checked. By them the plague, that terrible infliction, which 

 so long annually devastated the eastern continent, has been ren- 

 dered comparatively harmless; and that more recent scourge, the 

 cholera, has been rendered more amenable to the healing art. The 

 superstitions of former ages, in regard to diseases and their reme- 



