Popular Technology Volume I Part 19

6. The judicial power of the United States is vested in one _supreme court_ and two inferior courts. The Supreme Court is now composed of seven justices who commence their session in the Capitol, at Washington, on the second Monday in January. The two inferior courts are the _District_ and _Circuit Courts_. In the first of these presides a single judge; in the second, one of the justices of the Supreme Court, and the district judge.

7. The judiciary of the United States takes cognisance of all cases which arise under the Const.i.tution, laws, and treaties, of the United States, and likewise of those cases arising under the law of nations.

It also embraces all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, as well as those controversies to which the government of the United States is a party, the controversies between two states, between a state and citizens of another state, between citizens of different states, and between a state or citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.

8. The judicial systems of all the states correspond, in many respects, with each other. In all, the office of justice of the peace is similar. To these magistrates, the general police of the counties is chiefly committed, as they have authority to cause criminals, and other disturbers of the peace, to be arrested; and, if the offence is small, to fix the penalty; but, if the offence is too great to be brought within their jurisdiction, they commit the offenders to prison, to be reserved for trial before a higher tribunal.

9. In many of the states, the common magistrates of the county, or a select number of them, form a court, called County Sessions, which has a comprehensive jurisdiction in matters of police, and in regulating the affairs of the county; such as building courthouses, a.s.sessing county taxes, opening roads, and licensing taverns.

10. In Virginia, the County Sessions is an important court. Its jurisdiction extends to many criminal cases, and to those of a civil nature involving the amount of $300. Although a great amount of business pa.s.ses through these courts, the justices discharge all their duties without compensation. In most of the states, the common magistrates, in their individual or collective capacity, have jurisdiction over civil cases, varying in their greatest amount from thirteen to one hundred dollars, a right of appeal being reserved to a higher court.

11. No definite qualifications are required by law or usage for practising in the magistrates' courts, accordingly, there are many persons who plead causes here, who do not properly belong to the profession of law; these are called _pettifoggers_, and the practice itself, by whomsoever performed, is called _pettifogging_. Lawyers of inferior abilities and acquirements are, also, frequently termed pettifoggers.

12. In all the states, a cla.s.s of county courts is established, denominated Courts of Common Pleas, County Courts, District or Circuit Courts, which have original jurisdiction of civil actions at law, or indictments for crimes. Over these are established the Superior or Supreme Courts, or Courts of Error and Appeal, to which appeals are admitted from the inferior courts.

13. Civil cases are frequently decided on principles of equity; and, in some states, courts of chancery are established for this purpose.

But, in most of the states, there are no decisions of this kind; or the same courts act as courts of law and equity, as is the case with the courts of the United States.

14. There are several other courts that might be mentioned; but enough has been said of these inst.i.tutions, to give an idea of the extensive range of the profession of the law. It may be well to remark here, that few lawyers aspire to the privilege of practising in the supreme courts; since, to be successful there it would require not only great abilities, but more extensive reading than the profession generally are willing to encounter.

15. When a client has stated his case in detail to his attorney, it is the province of the latter to decide upon the course most proper to be pursued in regard to it. If the client is the plaintiff, and litigation is determined upon, the attorney decides upon the court in which the case should be brought forward, and also upon the manner in which it should be conducted.

16. The suit having been brought, say into the County Court, it is tried according to law. If it involves facts or damages, it is canva.s.sed before a jury of twelve men, who are bound by oath or affirmation to bring in their verdict according to the evidence presented by both parties. It is the business of the lawyers, each for his own client, to sum up the evidence which may have been adduced, and to present the whole in a light as favorable to his own side of the question as possible.

17. When the case involves points of law which must needs be understood by the jury, to enable them to make a correct decision, the advocates of the parties present their views with regard to them; but, if these happen to be wrong, the judge, in his charge to the jury, rectifies the mistake or misrepresentation. The case having been decided, each party is bound to submit to the decision, or appeal, if permitted by law, to a higher tribunal.

18. Causes to be determined on legal principles only, are brought before the judge or judges for adjudication. In such cases, the advocates present the statute or common law supposed to be applicable, and then reports of similar cases, which may have been formerly decided in the same or similar courts. These reports are the exponents of the common law of the case, and are supposed, in most instances, to furnish data for correct decisions.

10. Besides the management of causes in public courts, the lawyer has a great ma.s.s of business of a private nature; such as drawing wills, indentures, deeds, and mortgages. He is consulted in a great variety of cases of a legal nature, where litigation is not immediately concerned, and especially in regard to the validity of t.i.tles to real estate; and the many impositions to which the community is liable from defective t.i.tles, render the information which he is able to afford on this subject, extremely valuable.

20. In the preceding account of this profession, it is easy to perceive that it is one of great utility and responsibility. It is to the attorney, that the oppressed repair for redress against the oppressor; and to him, the orphan and friendless look, to aid them in obtaining or maintaining their rights. To this profession, also, as much as to any other, the American people may confidently look for the maintenance of correct political principles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The PHYSICIAN.]

THE PHYSICIAN.

1. Among the various avocations of men, that of the physician deserves to be placed in the foremost rank. The profession is founded in the multiplicity of diseases to which humanity is liable, and in the medical qualities of certain substances, which have been found to supply a remedy.

2. It is implied, though not expressly declared, in the Scriptures, that the diseases and other calamities pertaining to our earthly condition, originated in the fall of man from his pristine innocence; and the Grecian fable of Pandora's box appears to have originated in a similar tradition. It seems that Jupiter, being angry at Prometheus, ordered Vulcan to make a woman endowed with every possible perfection.

This workman having finished his task, and presented the workmanship of his hands to the G.o.ds, they loaded her with presents, and sent her to Prometheus.

3. This prince, however, suspecting a trick, would have nothing to do with her; but Epimetheus was so captivated with her charms, that he took her to be his wife. The curiosity of Epimetheus led him to look into a box, given to her by Jupiter, which he had no sooner opened, than there issued from it the complicated miseries and diseases, which have since afflicted the family of man. He instantly shut the box; but all had flown, save Hope, which had not time to escape; and this is consequently the only blessing that permanently remains with wretched mortals.

4. Since the introduction of moral evil into the world, it cannot be supposed that man has ever enjoyed the blessing of uninterrupted health; and, as it is an instinct of our nature to seek for means of relieving pain, we may safely infer that medicinal remedies were applied in the earliest ages of the human race.

5. Among some of the ancient nations, the origin of diseases was attributed to the malignant influence of supernatural agents. This notion produced a corresponding absurdity, in the means of obtaining relief. Accordingly, idolatrous priests, astrologers, and magicians, were resorted to, who employed religious ceremonies, astrological calculations, and cabalistic incantations.

6. The healing art was cultivated at a very early period in Egypt; but it was crippled in its infancy by ordinances, enjoining, without discrimination, the remedies for every disease, and the precise time and mode of their application. The practice was confined to the priests, who connected with it the grossest superst.i.tions.

7. We are informed by the most ancient historians, that the Chaldeans and Babylonians exposed their sick in places of public resort, and on the highways; and that strangers and others were required by law to give some advice in each case of disease. Amid the variety of suggestions which must necessarily have been given under such circ.u.mstances, it was expected that some would prove efficacious. This custom was well calculated to enlarge the boundaries of medical knowledge.

8. The first records of medicine were kept in the temples dedicated by the Greeks to Esculapius, who, on account of his skill in medicine, was honored as the G.o.d of health. The name or description of the disease, and the method of cure, were engraved on durable tablets, which were suspended, where they could be readily seen by visitors.

9. But medicine did not a.s.sume the dignity of a distinct science, until the days of Hippocrates, who reckons himself the seventeenth from Esculapius in a lineal descent. This great man, who flourished about 400 years before the Christian era, is universally esteemed the "Father of Medicine." After his death, the science was cultivated by the philosophers of Greece, to whom, however, it owes but few improvements.

10. After the dismemberment of the Macedonian empire, learning retreated from contending factions to Egypt, where it was liberally fostered by the Ptolemies. Under their patronage, a medical school at Alexandria became eminent, and the healing art flourished beyond all former example. To the disciples of this school, is the world indebted for the first correct description of the human structure. Their knowledge on this subject was obtained from the dissection of the bodies of criminals, which had been a.s.signed to them by the government.

11. The acquisitions of the Greeks in medical science at length became the inheritance of the Romans; but Rome had existed 535 years before a professional physician was known in the city. This inattention to the subject of medicine arose, chiefly, from an opinion, common to the semi-barbarous nations of those times, that maladies were to be cured by the interposition of superior beings. The sick, therefore, applied to their idolatrous priests, who offered sacrifices to the G.o.ds in their behalf, and practised over the body of the patient a variety of magical ceremonies.

12. Sacrifices were especially offered to the G.o.ds in cases of pestilence; and, on one occasion of this kind, a temple was erected to Apollo, who was regarded as the G.o.d of physic; and, on another, Esculapius, under the form of a serpent, was conducted from Epidaurus, in Greece, and introduced, with great pomp, upon an islet in the Tiber, which was thenceforth devoted to his particular service.

13. Archagathus, a Greek, was the first who practised physic, as an art, at Rome; and he was soon followed by many more of his professional brethren. These pioneers of medicine, however, were violently opposed by Cato the Censor, who publicly charged them with a conspiracy to poison the citizens. But the patients under their care generally recovering, he began to regard them as impious sorcerers, who counteracted the course of nature, and restored men to life by means of unholy charms.

14. Cato having succeeded in producing a general conviction, that the practice of these physicians was calculated to enervate the const.i.tutions, and corrupt the manners of the people, restrictions were laid upon the profession, and pract.i.tioners were even forbidden to settle at Rome. But after the people had become more vicious and luxurious, diseases became more frequent and obstinate, and physicians more necessary. The restrictions were, therefore, at length removed.

15. Among the Roman writers on medicine, Celsus was the first who is worthy of consideration. He has been denominated the Roman Hippocrates, because he imitated the close observation and practice of that physician. His work, as well as that of his great prototype, is read with advantage, even at the present day. He flourished at or near the time of our Saviour.

16. In the second century of the Christian era, Galen, a Greek physician from Pergamus, and a disciple of the Alexandrian school, settled in Rome. He was learned in all branches of medicine, and wrote more copiously on the subject generally, than any other person amongst the ancients. For 1300 years, his opinions were received as oracular, wherever medicine was cultivated.

17. After the destruction of the Western empire by the barbarous nations, the science of medicine was cultivated only in the Greek empire, and chiefly at Alexandria, until it began to arrest the attention of the Arabians, in the seventh century. The works of several Greek philosophers and physicians were translated into Arabic, under the patronage of the caliphs, several of whom were zealous promoters of learning.

18. In the eighth century, the Caliph Almansur established, at Bagdad, a hospital for the sick, and an academy, in which, among other branches of knowledge, was taught the medical art. But it was in Spain, that Arabian learning rose to the highest point, and produced the most successful results. The University of Cordova became the most celebrated in the world, and continued to maintain its reputation for a long series of years. Arabian medicine reached its greatest eminence, in the eleventh century, under Avicenna.

19. In the tenth century, this science began to be taught in the schools of other parts of Europe; but its professors derived their knowledge of the subject from the Arabian school, or from Arabic translations of the ancient authors; and this continued to be the case, until the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, in 1453. At this time, many erudite Greeks fled into Italy, and carried with them the ancient writings.

20. Before the general revival of this science in Europe, the cure of diseases was chiefly confided, in the western nations, to the priests and monks, who, however, generally relied more upon religious ceremonies, and the influence of sacred relics, than upon the application of medical remedies. The superst.i.tions of those barbarous times, respecting the means of curing diseases, have not yet entirely disappeared, even from the most enlightened nations of Christendom.

21. The science of chemistry began to attract much attention about the beginning of the sixteenth century; and the many powerful medical agents which it supplied, at length produced a great change in the theory and practice of medicine. Many valuable medicines of the vegetable kind, were also obtained from America. The discovery of the circulation of the blood by William Harvey, in 1620, imparted a new impulse to medicine; but, like chemistry, it gave rise to many absurd and hurtful theories.

22. Researches in different branches of medicine were continued with ardor in the seventeenth century, in various parts of Europe; and numerous discoveries of importance were made, especially in anatomy.

Many theories regarding the origin of diseases, and their treatment, were proposed, advocated, and controverted; but all these were overthrown by Stahl, Boerhaave, and Hoffman, three eminent theorists, in the early part of the eighteenth century.

23. These distinguished men were followed by others of equal celebrity, in the same century, who, in part at least, exploded the doctrines of their predecessors. The present century, above all other periods, is remarkable for men eminent in this profession; and, although all do not exactly agree in opinion, yet, guided in their conclusions by a careful observation of facts, they are less under the influence of visionary theories than physicians of former times.

Besides, many of the subjects of former controversy having been satisfactorily settled, there are now fewer causes of division and excitement among the medical profession.

24. Medical science comprises several branches, of which the following are the princ.i.p.al; viz., Anatomy, Surgery, Materia Medica, Chemistry, the Theory and Practice of Physic. On these subjects, lectures are given in several colleges and universities in Europe, and in the United States. In this country, an attendance on two regular courses of lectures ent.i.tles the student to the degree of Doctor of Medicine, provided he can sustain with sufficient ability, an examination before the professors, or, as they are usually termed, the medical faculty.

25. The degree of M. D. conferred by a college or university, is a pa.s.sport to practice, in every state of the Union; and, in some states, none are permitted to attend the sick, professionally, without having first obtained a diploma conferring such degree. In other states, however, no legal restrictions are imposed on the pract.i.tioners of the healing art; or, they are licensed by a board of physicians, const.i.tuted by law for the purpose.

26. The practice of this profession is generally attended with great labor, and, in many cases, with much perplexity. Diseases are often stubborn or incurable, and effectually baffle the most skilful pract.i.tioner. In most cases, however, diseases are under the control of medical skill; and the high satisfaction which a benevolent physician feels, in relieving the sufferings of his fellow-creatures, may serve as a recompense for the many adverse circ.u.mstances which attend the profession.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The CHEMIST.]