) 
 
 885 
 
 Shadov/s in the Ethics of tha 
 International Medical Conpress 
 
 Levi Cooper Lane
 
 '/ 
 

 
 Shadows in the Ethics 
 
 INTERNATIONAL' 
 
 EDICAL CONGRESS, 
 
 LEVI COOPER LANE, 
 
 A. M., M. D. (Jefkersox and Berlin), Professor of Surgery in Cooper 
 Medical College, and MEMuiiR of the Royal College 
 OF Sdrgeoxs, England. 
 
 WITH COMPLIMENTS OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 San Francisco : 
 
 A. L. BANCROFT & COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
 
 1885.
 
 Shadows in the Ethics 
 
 INTERNATIONAL 
 
 MEDICAL CONGRESS, 
 
 LEVI COOPER LANE, 
 
 A. M., M. D. (Jefferson and Berlin), Professor of Sdrgery m Cooper 
 
 Medical College, and Member of the Royal College 
 
 OF Surgeons, England. 
 
 gSte 
 
 San Francisco : 
 A. L. BANCROFT & COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
 
 1885.
 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The author of these pages believes it the duty of every 
 
 man, when wrongfully attacked, to defend himself; and 
 
 knowing, too, that the world has enough to do, to be not 
 
 <£> much concerned with the personal contention of individuals, 
 
 '^ it has been his aim to render this paper as nearly impersonal 
 
 ^ as possible, in avoiding the fallacy e^ tu quoque: had he 
 
 no 
 
 -^ chosen the personal method, he could have used a number 
 
 •** . ... 
 
 * of choice arrows that remains untouched in his quiver. 
 
 LEVI C. LANE. 
 
 San Francisco, Cal., July lo, 1885. 
 
 30477.5
 
 SHADOWS IN THE ETHICS 
 
 International Medical Congress, 
 
 For the information of readers who have not followed 
 the International Medical Congress through its phases of 
 change since it was decided to hold the next meeting in 
 this country, it may be stated that the original committee 
 of seven men, to whom the American Medical Association 
 in 1884 gave the matter in charge, being invested, in 
 accordance with the Act creating the committee, with full 
 powers to perfect such arrangements as would secure a 
 successful meeting, proceeded to outline the work that was 
 to be done, by the creation of nineteen sections, represent- 
 ing in detail every department in the Science of Medicine. 
 
 This division of the work, copied mainly from the 
 method pursued at the preceding sessions of the Inter- 
 national Medical Congress, was assigned to a like number 
 of committees, composed of medical men selected from 
 different sections of the United States.
 
 The American Medical Association, at its recent session 
 in New Orleans, declined to accept the work done by the 
 committee appointed the previous year, and created a new 
 one, with instructions to revise and change the work of the 
 former committee in whatever way it might see fit. No 
 impartial mind will admit that there was need of revision 
 and change of the work done by the first committee; and 
 it is greatly to the credit of nearly one-third of the delegates 
 at New Orleans, that they strenuously opposed it. What 
 a chaplet is this discord to place on the grave of Dr. 
 Thomas, who, in the discharge of his duties as a co-laborer 
 with the old committee, lost his Hfe! What a recompense 
 to Drs. Flint and Billings, through whose personal efforts 
 at the last meeting the Congress was induced to hold its 
 first session in the New World! Their scourging finds an 
 analogue in the fate of Columbus, who was borne in chains 
 over the ocean across which he was the first to lead the 
 Old World. How edifying this spectacle to the eyes of 
 the Pasteurs, Charcots, Virchows, Volkmanns, Esmarchs, 
 Listers, and Pagets, who are expected to honor with their 
 presence the coming Congress ! 
 
 The new committee lately met in Chicago, and under 
 the Chairmanship of Dr. R. Beverly Cole, Professor of 
 Obstetrics in the Medical Department of the University of 
 California, has accomplished its work of revision, of which, 
 at the time of writing this, I have no knowledge except of 
 the action taken in reference to myself, and hence I know 
 not whether local envy in that convention has invested 
 itself with similar infamy, by cowardly attacking others,
 
 whose absence rendered them helpless to defend them- 
 selves. 
 
 In my case the action taken was in direct violation of 
 that in use before the common tribunals of Justice, where 
 no one can be condemned without a hearing; and especially 
 was it out of place in a convention sitting- within that sacred 
 circle of Ethics, whose laws aim at a higher model of right 
 and equity than can be found in the Justinian Pandects, or 
 in any modern code of law. 
 
 Besides the denial hereafter given of the charges against 
 me, I will here say that no one has ever been more loyal to 
 Regular Medicine than myself, whether professionally as a 
 consultant, or didactically as a teacher. And this loyalty 
 has sprung from a study of Medicine in its Greek and Latin 
 sources, and in its later growth as contained in four promi- 
 nent weeklies, published respectively in America, England, 
 France, and Germany, a Spanish monthly, and a twenty 
 years' reading of Canstatt's Jahresbericht, " An Annual 
 Review of Medicine in all Lands." This reading will teach 
 any one that there is but one Medicine, and that the Old 
 School is its Oracle. 
 
 War Department, 
 
 Surgeon-General's Office, 
 
 Washington, June 29, 1885. 
 Dear Doctor : 
 
 You will see the doings of the Chicago Committee 
 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It
 
 8 
 
 made Cole, President of the Committee of Organization, 
 and Shoemaker, Secretary. All New Code men were 
 dropped. You were dropped at Cole's instance, as being 
 New Code. 
 
 Drs. Hays, Browne, and myself have resigned from 
 the committee. 
 
 It's a bad piece of business. 
 
 Regretting the results of our efforts, I remain, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 John S. Billings. 
 Dr. Levi C. Lane^ San Francisco. 
 
 I am not now, nor have I ever been, connected with 
 the New Code movement, either here or elsewhere; in fact, 
 the subject has never been a matter of division on this 
 Coast. I am a member of the American Medical Asso- 
 ciation, and as a duly accredited delegate, I represented 
 that body not long since in the British Medical Asso- 
 ciation, and my mission was not dishonored by ostentatious 
 show there or elsewhere, during a sojourn of over two 
 years, during which I met the leading men connected with 
 the medical institutions of Great Britain, Sweden, Russia, 
 France, and Germany. I am a Member of, and very 
 recently President of, the State Medical Society of Cali- 
 fornia, from which Dr. Cole was sent as delegate to New 
 Orleans. 
 
 But my offense was quite outside of the New Code. 
 Four years ago I reorganized in this city the first medical
 
 school ever established on the Pacific Coast, and to in- 
 crease its efficiency and permanency, I gave it a property 
 of value greater than any sum ever before given by 
 any physician in this country for the advancement of 
 medical science. This school, by winnowing out improper 
 material; by an enforced preliminary examination, and by 
 the thoroughness of the instruction given in it by an 
 educated faculty working in harmony, has naturally become 
 the rival of another medical school in this city, Dr. Cole 
 being connected with the last-mentioned school. Would 
 it not be distrusting the reader's acumen to add further 
 words to connect this paragraph with the subject here in 
 question ? 
 
 London, Sept. 30, 1881. 
 My Dear Doctor Lane: 
 
 Your very kind letter of the 8th was received but yes- 
 terday. You cannot imagine how much pleasure it gave 
 me to learn directly from you of the permanent improve- 
 ment of my son-in-law, as also your expression of approba- 
 tion of the conduct of my dear child in the case. A better 
 child never lived, and in my experience, good children 
 make good wives, and I believe she is one of the best. 
 
 It is needless, dear Doctor, to presume to attempt to 
 express my gratitude for your unremitting attention. I 
 feel, from what my child has so often repeated — as well as 
 the patient — that you could not have done more had she 
 been of your kin ; and to venture to say all I would under 
 the circumstances would result in an utter failure, hence I
 
 lO 
 
 will only request that you reverse our positions, and what 
 you would feel I do feel! With kind remembrances to all 
 mutual friends, in which Mrs. C. unites with me, 
 I remain, dear Doctor, 
 Yours, 
 
 R. Beverly Cole. 
 
 In addition to this letter, two others were received of 
 tenor so similar that I will limit myself to this quotation 
 from one of them, viz.: That, although he has his pecu- 
 liarities, he is - a man of heart, and, besides gratefully 
 acknowledging the favors done, hopes the day may come 
 when he can give some proof of his gratitude. 
 
 The services here referred to began in response to a 
 transcontinental telegram to the daughter from the father 
 on his way to the International Congress in London; they 
 embrace a period of nearly three years, of which nine 
 months consisted of nearly daily visits up many tiresome 
 flights of stairs; for in large cities, worthy* penury is forced 
 to take such refuge in its misfortunes. Besides these 
 visits, frequent consultations were given at my office, in 
 which the patient always received preferred attention. In 
 addition to the husband, the wife also was often under 
 treatment, and the attention to the latter reaches to within 
 a few weeks ago. 
 
 In thus striking my name from the Committee of 
 Arrangements, from the list of Vice-Presidents of the com- 
 
 * Worthy, for heredity, here presents a notable variation.
 
 II 
 
 ing International Congress, and from the Section of Surgery, 
 he has paid his debt. Stones — and only stones — have 
 been received for the life saved. 
 
 One seeks in vain for words to describe such action, 
 since such action has been so nearly unheard of as to have 
 rendered it unnecessary to create words for its expression. 
 
 The honors conferred on me by the original Committee 
 of Arrangements were given unasked for. I had already 
 sketched out some work as a contribution on a topic of 
 surgery, in which I have had much experience; besides, I 
 was in negotiation with a man of wealth for the establish- 
 ment of an international medical prize for researches upon 
 typhoid fever. These facts are here mentioned to show 
 that I had not entered on this labor with an idle hand. 
 
 But my retirement has the solace of most excellent 
 company; retirement with such men as Drs. Hays, Browne, 
 and Billings can be borne. The first, the worthy heir of 
 an illustrious name in American medicine, is the editor of 
 the veteran mouth-piece of American medicine, viz.: J he 
 Ai7ierican yournal of Medical Sciences. The second has 
 long been an ornament to the Surgical Corps of the United 
 States Navy — a body of men second to none in refined 
 culture and scientific attainments. As to the third, he and 
 Dr. Cole were both at the Congress in London, 1881; and 
 while Dr. Cole, conspicuous in his livery of bombast, was 
 bringing derision on himself* and odium upon American 
 
 * As he also did upon himself in this State, where the only effort in his department 
 destined to live is to be found in the proceedings of the State Medical Society, in 
 which he dishonored the character of every mother and daughter of California. 
 
 304775
 
 12 
 
 medicine by his exaggerations and incredible statements ; 
 while he was squandering the golden moments of that 
 learned body, in the parade of his vaginal mechanical jim- 
 cracks, which adverse criticism has already consigned to 
 the lumber-room of oblivion (where a lover of antiquities 
 might have found them years ago) — while this man was 
 strutting and filling the learned ears from all nations with 
 his ''sound and fury." there stood there another man of 
 unpretending demeanor, whose learned escutcheon bore the 
 simple inscription, Modesty ; and whose able papers, be- 
 sides partially atoning for his countryman's parade and 
 superficiality, won for their author an enduring place in the 
 literature of the Congress, as well as in the memories of 
 those present, and caused him to be recognized as the 
 tongue, voice, fame, and honor of American representation 
 in that august assembly ; and this man was — John Shaw 
 Billings.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
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