THE RELATIONS OF LAW AND MEDICINE. 715 
the gauge of battle thrown down by mountains covered with eternal snows, and 
fills their hearts with more piercing shrieks and groans than fell from the lips of 
Enceladus writhing under ^tna ; such a calling may well claim an entrance 
into the circle of those called learned. Of the power and extent of that intelli- 
gence that informs the press of to-day, one may repeat the words of Carlyle : 
" Great governors, clad in purple, with fasces and insignia, are governed 
by their valets, by the poutings of their women and children ; or, in constitutional 
countries, by the paragraphs of their able editors." 
It is the " fourth estate" of the French revolution, and though an English 
journalist, in a recent address, somewhat combats this exalted idea of the puis- 
sance of this new power in human affairs, yet even Mr. Hatton yields his assent 
to this conclusion : " It is not to be denied that the press is absorbing more and 
more of the power which once belonged to parhament, and is becoming more 
and more potent in all decisions affecting public interest." 
In our own country the widespread intelligence and the reading habits of 
the masses give to the press, not only in its sphere of proclaiming public opinion 
as it reports speeches, debates and current events, but in its reasoning, argument 
and philosophy, the power to create or direct the thoughts of men, of which 
Carlyle exclaims : '' Ever louder rises the plaint of such a multitude; into a 
universal continual peal of what they call public opinion. What king or conven- 
tion can withstand it ? " 
Without entering into any discussion of the extent of the accomplishments, 
the moral and intellectual brilliance and worth that should inspire the words of 
this ubiquitous teacher, we may well confess that a profession that can daily pro- 
duce columns sparkling with humor, weighty with thoughts upon themes of tran- 
scendent practical utility, political economy and problems of commerce, revenue 
and home thrift, or serious with contemplations of those sublime and mysterious 
subjects whose beginnings are in the sunlight of the To-Day, but whose unfolding 
and certainty lie amid the mists and silences of the unknown To-Morrow, may 
well find a name among the vocations of men called learned. And if I am told 
that this list is still contracted, that there be many more pursuits whose technical 
knowledge, difficulty and beneficence entitle them to this old-time distinction, I 
make no denial, but incline to admit the virtue of their claim. 
The true preacher, lawyer and doctor find no difficulty in admitting that 
there are many folds of that shepherd he calls learning, and none are more ready 
than they to admit that in the realms of practical discoveries, inventions, science, 
philosophy, and religion, the world is yet, as portrayed by the great Newton, 
gathering shells here and there among the sands, while the wide ocean lies yet 
unexplored. 
Having thus briefly recognized the equal worth and position of all those who 
pursue different lines of moral or intellectual investigation and acquisition, I may 
be permitted and without disparaging any, to dwell for a few moments upon some 
of the relations that link together the legal and medical professions. The two 
