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:e]
PROPERTY OF
CASE. A No. ^.
AN ADDRESS
VPON THE I'KOGUKSS OK
klEDiciNE, Surgery % HvdiKNE,
DL'RINC^ THK L.\ST 100 YKARS.
Uelivered by retjiiest at the St. John Mrchanic^^ fiiKtltide, on Feb -ith, 1SS4.
BY
WILLIAM BAYARD, .M. D., Err.
li
Prog
jADIES
The
that th«
iddress
\ind Hii
to perfc
|]esitati(
subjects
Dopular
Wei
)e com
)hraseo
lible he
ipon tl
Ihem Q
Siuently
lUSt 11
kethrei
It n
Irt, and
lisease,
|nd pro
kig is a
Is to ot'
)miiiei
lie pos
AN ADDRESS
UPON THE
[Progress of Medicine, Surgery and Hygiene.
By WILLIAM BAYARD, M.D.
iADiES AND Gentlemen : —
The Governing Board of this Institute has deemed it right
that the Centennial of* oiir city shall he commemorated by an
iddress, among others, upon " The Progress of Medieine^ Surgery
ind Hygiene during the last 1 00 years." I have been requested
|:o perform that work, and I assure you I undertake it with much
lesitation, doubting my ability to command your interest upon
kibjects seldom or never, to my knowledge, introduced before a
popular audience.
Were I addressing a body of my " confreres" ray task would
)e comparatively easy; I could then make use of technical
)hraseology and enter into details such as would not be permis-
sible here. Nor can I attempt to give you an exhaustive report
ipon the subjects named ; time will not permit, and many of
Ihem are better fitted for the class room than this hall ; conse-
luently, a very superficial outline is all I can offer you, and I
lust necessarily repeat much that I said to my professional
j>rethreu upon a former occasion.
It must be acknowledged that the real nature of the medical
|rt, and its actual power m ministering to the relief and cure of
psease, is little understood, and can only be learned by continued
ind profound study. And while the truism that " a little learn-
kig is a dangerous thing" applies with equal force to medicine
Is to other subjects, still, a general knowledge of the healing art
)mmends itself to the consideration of all. It would enable
le possessor of it to form a more correct judgment as to the
Address Upon the Progress of ^ledicine.
capabilities of his me;lical adviser, teach liim to avoid the causes
of many diseases, and to recognize the approadi of others. It
would also teach iiiin the fallacy of lending a credulous ear to
the statements of "nostrum mongers" found in the daily papers, |
many of them as disgusting in expression as they arc plainly |
devoid of honesty and truth.
It has often been asserted that the healing art has remained
com}>aratively stationary, while all other departments of science
and art have, during the same period, advanced with great
rapidity. It is true that in 1760 every species of thread was spun
on the single wheel, that wind and water were the chief inanimate
motors, and the messenjxers the horse and the dromedary. Then
came industrial inventions fabulous in their results, justifying
statisticians in the assertion that within little more than a century
the increased power obtained through labor-saving machinery
equals the adult manual labor out of two worlds as populous as
our own. It is also true the marvellous applications of steam
are creations of the present century. Watt and others have |
taught mankind to subdue and harness that " docile monster" to
different kinds of machinery. By the steamboat we are wafted
with comparative safety from shore to shore, independent of I
wind or tide, and with the swift rush of the " iron horse" we are |
conveyed from place to place with the speed of the bird.
It is within the memory of most of us that a greater feat has |
been achieved. The " ""lectric Telegraph," that " railway of the
mind," has annihilated .space and enabled us instantly to whisper;
our very thoughts from one extremity of the world to the other, i
And more recently we have been taught that by the accumula-
tion and .storage of that wonderful and invisible agent, electricity,
light, heat and motion can be produced to such an extent as will
probably inaugurate a new era in our domestic economy.
By the Telephone we have learned that the intonations of thel
voice can be conveyed, enabling us at pleasure to conver.se,|
though separated by miles of distance.
And the science of Chemistry has taught the arti.st to convert
that sun him.self into a matchless painter, who, with wonderful
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine. 5
rapidity, can elaborate the most difficult portraits and com[)lex
landscapes with a degree of perfection unattainable by the
human hand.
Therefore, when Tennyson says,
"Science moves but slowly,
Slowly creeping on from point to point,"
he forgets the extraordinary progress it has made during the
])resent century.
Yet it may be confidently maintained that, during the period
in which these brilliant discoveries have been accomplished,
medicine has advanced, though silently and unobserved, in
[Various directions and forms, by strides as marked and as great
[as those belonging to any other department of art.
It may be asked. What is Medicine? It has been called the
jart of diagnosinji: variations from health, of which it is estimated
that there are 1146, and prescribing remedies. It is this and
more. It is essentially the science of health, and, I may add,
the prevention of those calamities which afflict mankind, and
which have received the title of diseases, and the recognition of
this fact has taken it out of the region of mere empiricism.
Iln order to arrive at a correct conclusion as to its progress
Iduring the period named, we should possess some knowledge of
[its state prior to that period.
Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry, Surgery and Physics had
[made some progress. Harvey had discovered the circulation of
the blood. Haller had demonstrated that muscular irritability
was connected with nervous action. Astruc had announced the
reflex phenomena of the nervous system. Morgagni had founded
the science of pathological anatomy. Sydenham, Mead, Hoif-
lan and Boerhaave had contributed to the advance of practical
Tiedicine. Boerhaave was one of the most accomplished physi-
cians of the eighteenth century, and, if we may judge from the
[egacy left by him to suffering humanity, he could not have had
high opinion of the efficacy of the drugs then in use. When
le died he left a handsome volume, the title page of which
lleclared that it contained all the secrets of medicine. When
.'I.
6 Addreiis Upon the Progress of Medicine.
the volume was oi)enc(], cvory j)ago but one was blank ; on it was
written : " Keep the head cool, the feet warm, and the bowels ope7i,'^
advice reminding us of that given by an old Scotch doctor, who
said : "There were but two things for here and for hereafter —
for here, to keep the bowels open ; for hereafter, to keep the fear
of God before our eyes." Boerhaave's legacy not i.iaptly
typified the acquirements of the medical art at that period. To
(piiet the nervous system, to equalize the circulation, to provide
for the normal action of the intestinal canal, and to leave the
rest to nature, was the goal that had been reached 100 years ago
by such cautious and wise men as Sydenham, Morgagni and |
Boerhaave.
The medical world was at this time governed by Theory,
Empiricism, Authority, and Speculation. The majority of
practitioners blindly followed the authority of the past, and bled
and dosed by the book, or adopted some strange theory. For |
example : Doctor Letsom, a practitioner of standing in London,
read a paper to the Medical Society of that city in 1783, recom-
mending lizards for the cure of cancer and other diseases. Well f
may the following; lines be attributed to him. He is made to |
say: —
" When patients comes to I,
I pliysics, bleeds and sweats 'era,
And if they choose to die
What's that to I, I lets 'em."
A good illustration of the speculative tendency may be found
in the theory formed by Hahnemann, at the close of the last
century. He ignored all previous medical knowledge; denied
the existence of any curative power in the human system ; that |
any knowledge of anatomy, physiology, pathological anatomy, i
diagnosis, or the investigation of the nature of disease, wasi
necessary to the physician, and claimed that symptoms alone i
should be treated, and that the more the medicine was diluted]
the greater its power over disease.
Doubtless very many recovered while swallowing his " in-
finitesimal nothings." But on account of its manifest absurdities,
and
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
reco ra-
it was 9 his theory was rejected by all Hciciitific men. And while it dis-
plays a curious instance of the aberration of the lunnan intel-
lect, it has reminded the physician of the limits of his art, and
of the great power which nature [)lays in the cure of disease.
Cullen, one of the most leai'ned physicians of that period,
fonnd'd his pathology and nosolot^y uj)on pure theory, and
declared it to be the duty of the philosophical in(piircr in medi-
cine to control his observations by ids theories, not his tiicorics
by his observations. His views were generally accepted in Eng-
land. The theory ])ropounded by Brown, which aj)peared shortly
after that of Cullen, is another illustration of the sj)eculative
tendency in medicine at that time. It rested upon assumptions,
not facts. He substituted a stimulating for a lowering mode of
treatment, which met with a{)proval in Germany, France, and
Italy. Such was the condition of the medical art and science at
the close of the 18th century.
It was reserved for John Hunter, one of those remarkable
men who appear at rare intervals, to recognize and teach that
medicine is one of the natural sciences, and should be studied by
rigid and careful observation ; that theory was useless, cxcej^t
so far as it rested upon facts. Regarding a knowledge of the
whole organic and inorganic world as necessary to a proper com-
prehension of the structure and functions of man, he contem-
plated nature as a united whole. The Hunterian Museum, in
London, testifies to his industry and researches, and stands as a
model for those who follow hira.
While Hunter was at work in London, his great contem-
porary, Bichat, was following the same line in France, who, it is
said, made upwards of 600 post mortem examinations in one
wasH winter. Such work killed him, for he died of typhoid fever at
the age of 31 years. He and Hunter represent the turning point
in medicine from theory, idealism, and speculation to accurate
and close observation.
m-H By observation, Cuvier, Owen, and others, ascertained the
intimate relation of the teeth of an animal to its whole organiza-
ii
8
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
tioM ; and Agassiz made the discovery that the organization of
fishes was connected with their tegumentary membrane.
I will now proceed to bring to your minds some of the
advances and changes that have been produced during the present
century.
By Chemistry, for example — the very language of which has
been revolutionized — we have been taught the various antidotes
to be used when poisons have been swallowed ; also by it we are
enabled to detect the presence of such poisons in the human
system. To such perfection has chemical analysis arrived, that
many poisons can be detected in numerous parts of the body
years after death — a warning and terror to evil-doers. Chemis-
try has also assisted and perfected our diagnosis in various
diseases of the kidney. By it we have learned that nitrogen gas,
one of the elements in the air we breathe, when forced into com-
bination with other substances, produces most destructive com-
pounds. When combined with oxygen gas, it gives us acids
with teeth sharp enough to gnaw a file. When combined with
potash, sulphur and charcoal, it gives us gunpowder. When
associated with the sweet and bland substance, glycerine, it
forms nitro-glyceriiie, dynamite, etc., agents so powerful as to
appall mankind by their destructiveness. It comes out of its
chemical unions with a crash, but at once floats in the air with
all the harmlessness of the summer breeze. It also teaches that
the chemical constitution of the oil, or attar of roses, is precisely
similar to that of the ordinary illuminating gas of our cities. In
the one case we have a volatile oil with a gratifying odor, while
in the other an invisible gaseous body with an exceedingly
oflTensive odor.
The chemist also knows that upon the sun, a body 93 millions
of miles distant, the metal Iron exists in vast quantities in a
volatilized condition, and that this earth of ours contains inflam-
mable and explosive material enough to blow it into atoms at a
moment. It has been shown that, of our 45 miles of atmos-
phere, one-fifth, or a stratum of nine miles in thickness, is oxygen
gas. In pure oxygen, steel burns like a candle-wick. Ani
Address Upon the Pro(/nss of Medicine,
9
elc'ctrioal or otiior convulsion whioli would (lisniTan<ro or decom-
pose this conihinatiou and send an increased quantity of oxygen
— the heavier gas — to the earth, would wrap everything in
flames. Or like etl'ects might follow from any great change in
the constitution of the water of the world. Vater is composed
of eight parts of oxygen and one of hydrogen, and the intensest
heat ever produced is by a combination in which the two gases
were in the exactt proportions found in water.
The department of Pathological Chemistry has advanced
much within the j)resent century ; it is advancing daily, and a
vast amount of information may be expected from it. Tlie
beautiful theory of Liebreich, suggesting the adoption of the
hydrate of chloral as a therapeutic agent, is due to it. He found
that " the hydrate, treated with an alkali, is resolved into chloro-
form and a fomeate. The blood being an alkaline fluid, there-
fore when the hydrate is introduced into the organism every
particle of it will consume the surrounding quantity of alkali,
and the decomposition will be completed oidy after the required
amount of alkali had been furnished by the blood. Immeiliately
a minimum quantity of chloroform is formed." The researches
of Dr. Richartlson, based upon the suggestion of Liebreich and
the practical experience of the medical profession respecting its
use, illustrates what may be expected from a higher pathological
chemistry.
By it the fact has been established that, in many inflamma-
tory diseases, the fibrin of the blood is increased in quantity,
thereby assisting our treatment of such diseases. Through it
Pasteur made the great discovery that fermentation is due to the
action of living organisms, a discovery which is rapidly revolu-
tionizing our ideas of the causes of disease.
Pathological Anatomy may be said to have been founded by
John Hunter, who bequeathed to England the best pathological
museum in the world ; and by the labors of Sir James Paget and
others this museum has been supplemented, and kept pace with
the advancement of pathological science.
/.
10
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
By the light of pathological anatomy the nature of diseases
l)reviously all but unknown have been explained. Bright's
disease, and very many others, can only be studied and elucidated
bv clinical and anatomical investigation. It has enabled us to
separate into sj)ecific diseases affections formerly confounded
together. With the aid of the microscope, it has taught that the
})arasites infesting some of the brute creation used as food of man,
when taken into the human stomach alive, will produce a parasite
of a different character, namely, the " tape-worm." For example,
the " bladder worms," growing between the fibres of the lean
flesh of a " measly pig," constitute a preparatory stage of the i
common human tape-worm, and wiien eaten by man are trans-
formed into those animals.
Physiology, with the aid of clinical medicine, has made great
progress, and is daily gaining additions to its domain.
Materia Medica has greatly improved during the present
century. Many new medicines have been added to the pharma-
copoeia, and some have properly been expunged from it. The
discovery of the active principles of our vegetable medicines,
under the form of alkaloids, as quinine, morphia, salicine,
atropine, etc., etc., has given the practitioner of the present day
the means of exhibiting some of the most powerful and useful
medicines in a concentrated form — not in the shape of large
powders, nauseous tinctures, infusions and decoctions — but in the
various elixirs, capsules, etc. And doubtless the work has only
commenced. We may expect that the chemist will assist us in
disarming most of our drugs of their revolting and disagreeable
taste — a boon to both practitioner and patienf.
While Inhalation has been occasionally practiced since the
time of Galen, still, modern chemistry and ingenuity have done
much towards establishing it as one of the methods of exhibiting
medicine. The method of Subcutaneous Injection is of modern
creation. Daily experience proves its value. By it we obtain a
more rapid and certain effect from the remedy employed.
The practitioner of the present day can point with pride and
satisfaction to the late improvements in Practical Surgery, with-
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
11
out comparing its present state with the period at which the
cliafing-dish and the searing-iron were as indispensable to arrest
bleeding as is now tlie ligatnre, and when tlieciies of the sufferer
were smothered only by the liissing of the heated iron against
the surface of the bleeding wound.
The most brilliant discovery in modern medicine, and one of
tiic greatest boons ever conferred upon mankind, is the power
tlie surgeon ])ossesses of wrapi)ing the })atient in a painless sleep
while he is subjected to the horrors of the operating table.
From time immemorial efforts have been made — some witli
partial success — to produce insensibility to pain. But it was
reserved for Morton, a dentist in Boston, wiio, in 1846, practi-
cally established the fact that sulphuric cdher possess(3d the power
required. Shortly after that Sir J. Y. Simpson produced similar
effects with chloroform. But, while accepting immunity from
suffering, the patient incurs a certain amount of risk, statistics
having proved that the deaths from tether are 1 in 23,204, and
from chloroform 1 in 2,873; consequently, sether, being eight
times less dangerous, siiould always be used. The effects from
chloroform are more rapid than those from a3ther, but this should,
not justify its use in the face of the statistics named. Many
other anesthetics have been discovered. Local Anccsthesia, by
freezing the part, or by the application of "Cocaine/' is suitable
alone for minor operations.
Pasteur, Tyndall, and others have established the fact that
living organisms are constantly floating in the atmosphere, and
when planted in a genial soil they multiply and induce decom-
position. Some of these micro-organisms, as the micrococci,
bacteria, and bacilli, are capable of producing disease in the
human body.
Long experience has taught the surgeon that the obstacles to
the speedy union of wounds are suppuration and fever. Pro-
fessor Lister, a classmate of mine when in Edinburgh, realizing
the trutli of the germ theory of Pasteur, and believing that
putrefaction in wounds is not a mere chemical change, but a vital
one, devised a complete system to annihilate putrefaction at its
12
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
, I.
I
source, and thus do away with the obstacles to union. His
system consists in treating the wound in such a way as to prevent
decomposition, in providing for the entire disinfection of every-
thing that can come in contact with it — fingers, sponges, instru-
ments, etc., and taking care, by means of drainage, that no
putrifying matter can be retained in the wound. This lie accom-
plished by antiseptic dressing ; in other words, by disinfecting
every part of the wound with a solution of carbolic acid, or some
other antiseptic — for there are many — by preventing the access
of air to it, and by providing for the drainage.
So successful has the system proved that it has properly been
called after him, and his name will be handed down to posterity,
beside that of Jenner, as a benefactor to mankind; and I am |
glad to add that the Government of England, recognizing the
good he has done, has recently created him a Baronet.
Prior to the antiseptic treatment of wounds, pyaemia, erysip-
elas, and hospital gangrene were the surgeon's terrors. He no
longer dreads them, and, in the words of Professor Volkman,
" he is responsible if either disease should appear."
While the insensibility produced by anaesthetics is a boon to
the patient, it greatly aids the surgeon. His mind is no longer
distracted by the cries and movements of the sufferer ; he is not |
compelled to hurry his work, and his operative procedure becomes I
more or less mechanical, dependant upon his steadiness of hand
and knowledge of anatomy. With the aid of auEesthetics, and |
the antisejitic treatment of wounds, he does not hesitate to per-
form operations which, fifteen years ago, would have been consid-
ered madness or crimes.
Under Listei'ism, the mortality from compound fractures i
and amputations of the thigh is between 4 and 5 per cent.,
while prior to its introduction the mortality was 40 per cent., and
nearly the same result applies to other operations and injuries.
As an illustration of the progress of operative surgery, I
may mention that a })ortion of the chest wall and ribs have been
removed, leaving the heart and lungs exposed by an opening as
large as a child's head, yet the patient recovered in four weeks.
Tl.
i:'\
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
13
. His
)revGnt
every-
instru-
:hat no
accom-
ifecting
or some
e access
ly been
jsterity,
ul I am
jing the
ery sip-
He no
oik man,
boon to
longer
he is not
becomes
of hand
(tics, and
B to per-
1 consid-
fraotiires |
)er cent.,
icnt., and i
injuries,
urgery, I
lave been I
pening as |
iir weeks.
The stomach and intestines have been frequently opened, — the
womb, kidney, and a portion of the wind-pipe removed. The
surgeon no longer hesitates to open joints, or to remove fluid
accumulated in the membrane covering the heart and lungs.
Recently a man was taken to one of the hospitals in London,
laboring under symptoms justifying the conclusion that a tumour
existed in a particular part of the brain. A portion of the skull
bone was removed, the brain substance cut into, the tumour
found and removed. While the man did not survive the opera-
tion more than four months, the improvement in his symptoms
was such as to justify the expectation of his ultimate recovery.
The operation proved tiie correctness of the diagnosis, and what
can be done to a vital organ like the brain, and doubtless this
operation will be repeated with success.
The o[)eration of Ovariotomy, first performed by Dr. Mc-
Dowell in 1809, alarmed the medical world in consequence of
the supposed risks attending it, and fell into disuse, biit was re-
vived and established as one of the common operations of the
day by Sir Spencer Wells, who performed his first operation in
1858, since which time he has performed it 1000 times, with a
mortality of 231. And it has been estimated that in Great
Britain and the United States alone the operation has, within
the last thirty years, directly contributed more than 30,000 years
of active life to woman, all of which would have been lost had
Ovariotomy never been performed.
Practical Iledicine advances by the discovery of new facts,
and by the application of such facts to the treatment of disease.
The Microscope has changed and corrected our ideas respecting
certain maladies. It has revealed to us affections, the existence
of which was previously unknown, and without it could never
have been known.
The Ophthalmoscope has done more to increase our knowledge
of the secrets of the eye than has been accomplished during a
century by all other means, and the oculist can point to brilliant
[•triumphs over diseases hitherto deemed incurable, and he is not
I now obliged to class a number of deep-seated diseases of th^
I
14
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
eve under the head of "amaurosis," — a condition where the
patient saw nothing, and the doctor also — nothing. The Oph-
thalmoscope also teaches us that some states of the eye are pathog-
noinatic of suspected conditions of other parts of the body.
The StetJioscope has tauglit us how to map out the condition
of parts, tlic action of which we can hear but cannot see.
The Laryngoscope lias exposed to view organs of the body
before inscrutable, — the pharynx, the vocal cords, the wind-
pipe, etc., etc.
The Sphygmograph has so supplemented tiie sense of touch
that the wave phenomena of the pulse are registered, by which
we can fathom the secrets of the circulatory apparatus.
The Thermometer has recently been brought to our aid, greatly
facilitating our diagnosis and prognosis of disease.
Other instruments have been devised for the purpose of as-
sisting the medical man of the present day in his diagnosis.
In proof of the progress of practical medicine, I may refer
to consumption, — a disease destroying at present one-fifth of the
adult population, and a disease in which the physician's duty
consisted in watching the slow "gradations of disease," making
a prognosis of tico years duration, and alleviating suffering as
best he could. But now, under the use of cod-liver oil, mineral
acids, bitters, and supporting nourishment, he no longer regards
the disease as hopeless, and treats it, looking for a cure ; failing
that, he confidently expects to prolong life. Experience and cal-
culations justify the belief that the average duration of life of
phthisical patients has been extended from two years — the limit
assigned by Laennec and Louis — to eight 3'ears ; and in not
very few cases the disease is so permanently arrested that it may
be called cured. Recent investigations, establishing the belief
that the disease is caused by parasites infesting the lungs, induce
us to hope that means may yet be devised to arrest its ravages.
Indeed the " germ theory " has so changed our views respecting
the causes of disease, tliat great results are expected from it.
Pasteur's recent treatment of persons bitten by rabid animals is
an illustration of what may be expected from it.
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
16
Let us glance at the treatment of diseases by bleeding. It is
not many years since the lancet was in the hands of every prac-
titioner, in daily, and I might almost say hourly use, whereas
now it is one of the rarest operations; and instead of the loss of
hlood, we have the exhibition of stimulants; and in place of
almost starvation, we have the abundant use of nutriment.
Many of us can call to mind the time when cold water was for-
bidden to a person with fever; and, as for milk, he who gave it
would have been accused of " feeding the fever," and thereby
endangering the life of the patient. Now the question may be
asked. What is the cause of this great change? The best
authorities of the day — being unwilling to believe that all of
our forefathers were bad observers — attribute it to the change of
ti/pe of disease.
In pursuing this subject, let us contrast the state of the unfor-
tunate lunatic of the present day with what it was 60 years ago,
when, deemed incapable of human feelings, he was incarcerated
in a dungeon, bound with chains, surrounded by filth, cut off
from the friendship and charity of his fellow mortals, and treated
with contumely, scorn, and stripes, — a human being buried, yet
living. Need I say to you how changed all this is now, and
with what happy results. With the knowledge that the poor
sufferer possesses the feelings, impulses and affections of man, he
is surrounded by comfort ; all restraint is — or should be — re-
moved, and he is put under proper medical and moral manage-
ment.
Let me direct your attention lo another advancement of
practical medicine, one to which the physician can proudly point
as the greatest discovery of the age : a victory of medicine over
disease and death. I allude to the discovery of Vaccination by
Jenne}', to whom Providence, as it were, entrusted the office of
teaching the surgeon, with an almost invisible speck of matter
upon the point of his lancet, to defy, in a measure, one of the
most fatal diseases that ever afflicted the human race.
The vast importance of this discovery can only be apprecia-
ted when we take into consideration the ravages produced by
h
j f
i
I*
V
V
16
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
small-pox prior to the introduction of vaccination. We arc
told that this disease was a terror to mankind : " sweeping over
the land like fire over the prairies, smiting down prince and
peasant;" that about the year 1519, in Mexico, it suddenly car-
ried off three and a half millions of the population ; that in
Brazil, in the year 1563, it extirpated whole races of human
beings; that about the same period, in the single province of
Quito, it destroyed 100,000 Indians; that in France it caused
one-tenth of all the deaths, and in England one -fourteenth ; that
the annual mortality from it in Europe alone amounted to half
a million, and one-third of those attacked died, and that it de-
stroyed, maimed or disfigured one-fourth of mankind.
Let us now look at the pleasing side of the picture. Ex-
perience and statistics teach us that small-pox occasionally oc-
curs among those who have been vaccinated, — that if 1000
persons who have been well vaccinated should be exjmsed to the
contagion of the disease, about 26 will take it ; that among vac-
cinated persons infected with small-pox, the danger of the dis-
ease is chiefly determined by the badnes.^ and insufficiency of
their vaccination ; that the fatality of small-pox, when it attacks
the unvacdnated, is 350 per 1000; that its fatality to such vac-
cinated persons as it infects, is, taking then indiscriminately, 70
per 1000. But distinguishing vaccinated persons into two classes :
first, those who have been vaccinated in the best known manner,
and, second, those who have been badly vaccinated, the fatality
of small-pox, if it infects the former, will be 5 per 1000 ; if it
infects the latter, 150 per 1000, and that the risk of the one is
30 times that of the other. Or in other words, let an unvacci-
nated person contract small-pox and the chances are more than one
in three that he dies. Let a very badly vaccinated person — a per-
son with one imperfect cicatrix — contract small-pox, and the
chances are not quite one in eight that he dies. Let a person witli
two good cicatrices have small-pox and his chance of dying are
less than one in forty. But persons who have been vaccinated
in the best and the most complete way will, if they get small-
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
17
pox afterwards, not die of it at the rate of much more than one
in two hundred.
It may be safely asserted that the lancet of Jenner, armed
with the cow-pox matter, has saved in the world more human
lives than gunpowder and the sword were ever successful in
slaying during any century in the history of mankind. And let
us say honor to the man who found the way to arrest this dread-
ful scourge, and who taught us that the seeds of the disease,
transplanted to another soil, might be made to germinate with a
healthy and saving influence — a glory to our art and to the
nation claiming him as her son. Yet that nation neglected to
bestow any mark of distinction upon the doer of all this good,
such favors being reserved for the inventor of instruments for
the destruction of human life, the user of them, the courtier and
the politician ; the man whose life is spent in ministering to the
suffering of ins fellow man, however successfully, being generally
the last to receive such honors. It is true, a monument was
erected a few years ago to the memory of " this saver of milh'ons
of lives." It was placed in Trafalgar Square, but has since been
relegated to an obscure corner at the far end of the Serpentine,
to be admired by nursemaids engaged in keeping erratic children
from falling into its stagnant water — a disgrace to the nation
claiming the honor of his work. It is well, therefore, that the
charm of the medical profession does not lie in the shadowy
prospect of honors.
Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me say a few words to you
upon the siibject of Hygiene, which signifies the art of preserving
the health of body and mind during a period consistent with the
laws of life. It aims at the prevention of disease by the removal
of its avoidable causes.
Disease is a departure from a certain assumed standard of
health, and has been divided into general and local. General
diseases are such as affect the whole frame rather than a special
part of it. Local diseases, such as occupy special parts of the
body. There are 58 forms of general diseases, and 843 local
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
To these arc added 91 of other conditions of disease
5 forms of injuries. Of the whole diseases, 33 are said
fectious or contagious.
So we may start with the fact in our minds that there are in
detail before the scholar of the preventive art 1,147 diseases and
injuries to which the human family are liable, and which he has
to study with a view to their abatement or removal. Of the
c iseases, between 90 and 100 demand the attention of the sani-
tarian, as representing the more common maladies, and those
wli'ch yield the ordinary mortalities, and which, successfully
combattcd, would leave little to be done in the way of prevention.
The preservation of human health, and the prolongation of
human life, are two of the great and noble objects of practical
medicine. These objects are to be obtained more by the preven-
tion of disease than by its cure. But to enable us to prevent
diseases we should be acquainted with their causes. These
causes, and the best means of avoiding them, have, in a special
manner, engaged the attention of the physician of modern days.
By this study he has learned the vast benefits derived from
" preventive medicine" — the triumph of vaccination over small-
pox, the almost obliteration of that dread disease, scurvy, a
disease known to have yielded 10,000 helpless sick from the
Channel fleet after one voyage.
His investigations have taught him that the attacks of almost
all diseases are increased in intensity and frequency in our house-
holds and communities by the want of sufficient air, light, water
and drainage, as well as by the deleterious eflPects of decomposing
animal and vegetable matters allowed to remain within and
around our dwellings, and by the human effluvia: concentrated
in small and stifling bedrooms. They have taught him also that
when the preceding causes of disease have been removed or
abated in special localities by proper sanitary arrangements,
human life, as a consequence, lias been saved, misery avoided, and
pauperism prevented.
To recognize an evil and the cause of it is half way to curing
it. But the mast sanguine mind could not have anticipated the
a ,
year
41.(
Addreds Upon the Progress of Medicine.
19
wonderful improvement tliat has taken place during the last
twenty -five years. As an illustration, I may tell you that the
death-rate of the army in England is only two-fifths of what it
was before the Crlmeun war, the death-rate in India is only one-
third, and the death rate in the West Indies one-tenth. Indeed
life in the West Indies is actually healthier, especially for young
soldiers, than service in England, whereas sixty years ago a tour
of service there was looked upon as almost a sentence of death.
In civil life, statistics teach us that the improvements of later
days have resulted in "a diminution of 2 per 1000 in the gen-
" eral death rate ; and witii the knowledge we now have of the
" causes of disease, we may be sure that a general death-rate of
"not more than 15 per 1000 may be confidently looked for."
Class and Occupation exercise their influence upon mortality.
For example : In Liverpool it appears that the average age at
death of the gentry was 43 years; for tradesmen, 19 years; and
for labourers, 16 years — the average of all classes being 22 years.
Locality also exercises its influence, it having been found
that the mortality in country districts is always less than in
towns. In the country districts of England it is about one in
58, while in the owns it is seldom below ^ in 45.
Temperature exercises its influence. The mortality is in-
creased in extreme cold w^eather and in extreme warm weather.
Eegistration reports in England show a steady decline in the
death-rate. It is estimated that from 1870 to 1880 about a
quarter of a million persons were saved from death and three
millions saved from a sick-bed, as a result of a better general
knowledge and enforcement of sanitary laws in that country.
In London, for example, the death-rate in the seventeenth cen-
tury was 80 per 1000, while in the present day it varies from 22
to 24 per 1000.
The span of individual life is progressively lengthening.
Reliable statistics prove that in England, from 1838 to 1854, the
average length of woman's I'fe was 41.9, and of males, 39.9
years, while now the averages are for women 45.3, and for men
41.9 years.
i
20
Address Upon the Proyress of Medicine.
The (lead are not the only victims. Lyon Phiyfair states
that for every death tliat takes phice in the community of Glas-
gow, 34 people are ill, each on an average 18J days; or, in other
words, that for every death we must count G30 days of illness.
In New York, taking working people alone, and tenement-house
populations, where sound health is an exception, the constant
ratio of the sick to the well is often as iiigh as one-third.
In pursuing this subject, I may mention that it is estimated
that there are 8000 preventable deaths in Now York yearly. It
is further estimated that for everv death there are 27 cases of
sickness, which would give a total of 216,000 cases of prevent-
able sickness to be treated. It is also estimated that everv case
of sickness in a community is equivalent, on an average, to a loss
of fifty dollars. When we reflect upon the misery, wretchedness
and pauperism produced by these 216,000 cases of sickness ca|)able
of being prevented, it alTords ample occupation for the mind of
the physician, the philanthropist, and tlie statesman.
The mortality of infants is still very large, but of late it has
greatly decreased, 'i^owards the middle of the last century 60 out
of every 100 children born in London died before they had reached
their fifth year of age ; but the mortality has steadily diminished so
that now about 35 in every 100 die at that period. About 600,000
are born annually in Great Britain ; of these, 300,000 would
have perished. In New York the mortality is still very large
— one-third oi the children born die in the first year, and o)ie-
Aa^f before they have attaine<l their fiftli year of age.
About the middle of the seventeenth century one in every 40
or 50 women delivered in London died of child-birth and its
consequences; but as medical science has advanced that mortality
has decreased, till now about 1 in 150 or 200 die.
The present death-rate of fever in England amounts to
nearly 385 per 10,000 of population, while a century ago its
death-rate was nearly 539. At the middle of the last century
the annual death-rate from all causes in London was 355 per
10,000 of population, but in the middle of the present century
it was only 249.
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
21
It has been estlmatoil by Mr. Simon "that the deatlis which
''occur in England are fnWy a thii'd more numerous than they
"would be if our existing knowledge of the chief causes of
'•'disease were reasonably well aj)i)lied tiiroughout the country."
Pure air is composed of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid
gases in various proportions, with watery vapor and traces of
ammonia. But the air we breathe is seldom pure, often contain-
ing certain impurities. It is so vitiated by respiration and
transpiration that the changes j>roduced in an occupied air space
are as follows: The aniount of oxygen is greatly lessened, the
carbonic acid and watery vapor are largely increased, ammonia
and organic matter are evolved, and suspended matter, in the
shape of low forms of cell life and epithelium scales, thrown off.
A decrease in the proportion of oxygen, with an increase of
carbonic acid, together with the organic impurities, so vitiate the
air as to render it one of the most potent of all the predisposing
causes of disease. Aniong many other diseases developed bv
respired air, consumption holds a prominent place on the list.
About 30 cubic inches of air are carried into the lungs at
each inspiration, to be brought in contact with that wonderful
surface, said to occupy a space of from 10 to 20 square feet,
covered with delicate tufts of blood-vessels, which stand upon
the surface of between five or six millions of air-cells, and
through which the blood flows with great velocity. The solid
particles entering with the air may lodge in the mouth or nose,
to pass into the stomach, or decompose or dissolve in the lungs,
or remain there to become a source of irritation and perhaps
disease. Many of them are inhaled without any knowledge on
the part of those who breathe them. We can, therefore, readily
understand the rapidity with which gaseous substaices will enter
the blood. As an example of the effect of vitiate 1 air, I need
only mention the sad mortality in the Black Hole of Calcutta,
where 123 prisoners died in one night out of a total of 146.
The air in an inhabited room cannot be maintained in as pure
a condition as the external air. To keep it at a healthy standard
it should be renewed without perceptible draughts, at the rate of
22
Aihh'CHH Upon the Prorfresa of 3Icdmne.
3,000 cubic feet per liour for each juliilt. If the cubic space per
head is small, the renewal of air must necessarily be more fre-
(pient. Thus, with a s|)ace of 100 cubic feet, it should be re-
newed 30 times per hour, whereas with one of 1000 feet, three
renewals would be sullicient. You will therefore readily recog-
nize the necessity for proper ventilation in our houses, in our
bed-rooms, and in our public 'iwHtitutum^, particular/i/ our .school.^,
where — very improperly — hundreds are congregated under one
roof.
Recent iu'-estigations have taught us that the gases generated
by the (lecomi)osition constantly taking i)lacc in sewers and cess-
pools are carl)onic acid, nitrogen, sulphurated hydrogen and
ammonium sulj)hide. Tiie particularly f(ctid smell of sewer-
air is owing to the ])resencc of organic matter. It contains
bactarisD and other forms of cell life, and, like other organic
eifluvia, promotes the growth of fungi, infects water and milk,
and taints meat, and is recognized as one of the most, if not the
most, })rolific causes of disease. Tiiere can be no question that
the polluted air from cesspits, drains and sewers becomes the
medium through which enteric fever and other diseases are frc-
<iuently propagated, if not engendered. The sewer-air, laden
with morbific ferments or contagia, rapidly finds its way into
liouses, especially in cold weather, in consequence of badly con-
structed drains and soil pij^es. It may be imperceptible to the
senses, but its baneful effects make themselves felt none the less.
Therefore with our present knowledge of these facts it becomes
the imperative duty of house-owners, architects and plumbers to
so construct the drains and plumbing that the atmosphere of the
house shall not be poisoned by this sewer air, and they assume a
heavy responsibility when they neglect to do so.
The soil pipe should always be made of iron, well tarred
inside and out; it should be perfectly air-tight, open at the upper
end, and extend from the sewer to several feet above the roof of |
the house, but below the chimney and four or five feet from it,
and ten feet from any window or opening in the roof. Special
care should be taken that the part of it entering the house from
conti
bran
pute
brail
the
Address Upon the Pror/rcss of Medicine.
2:i
the drain ho iJiorourfhhj closed, and every openin*^ into it should
he properly tra[)ped. For any huilding without traps and vent
pl[)es, itself becomes a vent for any common sewer it may con-
nect with. No vent i)ipe should ever enter a chimney, for wiien
tiiere is no heat in it there will he a downward drau^Iit. 1 may
further remark that street drains should he ventilated by shafts,
so as to i)revent the eilluvia from them entering the windows, as
they do, of many houses in this city.
While dwelling upon sanitary sul)je(;ts, I may claim the
ri^ht to say a word upon the treatment of the young in our
sciiools.
The secret of a thorough education lies in tlic uniform
development of all the powers. One should not be develoi)ed at
the expense of others. Anatomy and physiology teacii us that
the brains of children under seven or eight years of age are im-
])erfectly d(!veloped ; their reflective faculties and powers of con-
centration are feeble. As a rule they learn from observation and
mcmorv, not from understanding;. Tiieir bodies and minds alike
re(iuirc frequent change, consequently they cannot perform long
continued tasks without injury. It has been justly said that
a task or lesson of 15 minutes duration is long enougli for a
child between the ages of five and seven years, and 20 minutes
for one between seven and ten vears.
V
In children at this earlv age the memorv and attention
should be stimulated, not taxed. The muscles should not be en-
feebled by sitting or standing for hours, but should be invigora-
ted by exercise. This cannot be accomplished by school restraints
for three or four hours. Better let them be entertained iu the
"Kindergarten."
Daily observation teaches us the injurious effects of long
continued and excessive mental strain upon fully developed
brains. If such "tijury is produced — and I think few will dis-
pute it — then how much more injurious must be the effect upon
brains, the anatomical structure of which is in no way fitted for
the work.
24
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
The rule in scliools requiring or exacting all to accomplish a
certain amount of work, regardless of the mental or physical
ability to perform it, in many cases produces an injurious strain
upon the mental faculties. And while a system of rank and
rewards, based upon the possession of an arbitrary standard of
acquirements, may be desirable as having a stitDulating influence
upon boys, I think it highly injurious for girls. The eagerness
for success, the apprehension of failure, and the dread of disgrace
in them, are so much more acute than in boys, that they are
easily injured by apjieals to these emotions. In my own experi-
ence I hiive repeatedly known the illness of young girls to be
exaggerated and prolonged in consequence of the anxiety respect-
ing the loss of place or marks at school.
Again, I think the health of teachers — who arc largely
composed of young females — is an element for consideration.
It is well known that a large proportion of them fall from a con-
dition of perfect health and energy into invalidism, too often
followed by consumption. Many causes aid in producing this
condition ; some eat too little, or take tea and bread instead of
meat, or go to bed hungry and cold, or neglect their noon meal,
or hurry their breakfast, and some are weighted down with home
cares. But the chief causes are excessive and long-continued
mental strain in a vitiated atmosphere, and often at times when
they should be on the sofa.
From a health standpoint, the "half-time" system, such as
is largely adopted in England, should commend itself to all who
are responsil)le in this matter. It consists in sending the children
to school for three hours each day, and employing them in other |
pursuits, such as learning different trades, etc., for the rest of the
working hours — six in all. " It has been found generally that
" children thus employed make as good progress in study as
" those who attend school for six hours each day."
If this system were generally adopted, I believe it would
prove of incaluable benefit to the rising generation. It would i
largely prevent the serious consequences of that mental strain \
whicli medical men are too often called upon to treat.
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
25
It cannot be doubted that a large number of lives would be
saved yearly if our existing knowledge of the causes of disease
were reasonably well applied. This knowledge is not applied,
because people cannot be dragooned into cleanliness or made
virtuous by [)olice regulations. They must be educated upon
the subject, and taught the benefits resulting from its application
and the misery consequent upon the neglect of it.
As an illustration of the apathy displayed regarding sanitary
measures, I may mention that vaccination is very generally
acknowledged to be a protection against small-pox. Yet in 1871
when that disease appeared, in a malignant form, in this city, it
was known that there were upwards of 5000 persons — chiefly
children — who had not been vaccinated, while for years they
had the privilege of having it done, free of charge, at the Board
of Health office. So sluggish were they in this matter that the
authorities were compelled to a])point physicians to visit every
house and vaccinate all before the disease could be "stamped
out."
While I contend that medicine has advanced much, I must
acknowledge the uncertainty of the art. The source of this
uncertainty may be found partly in its imperfections, but more in
the intractability of intense forms of disease, the ferments of
which poison the system to such an extent that death must in-
evitably be the result. Take as an example malignant scarlet
fever, or diphtheria ; observe the utter prostration, rigors, swollen
throat, oifensive breath, and thready, failing pulse, which indi-
cate intense blood poisoning. Here death is as certain as if the
patient had taken a poisonous dose of prussic acid ; medicine is
foiled by the overwhelmning power of its antagonist.
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, let me thank you for
tiie patient hearing you have given this address. I freely
acknowledge its many imperfections. The subject covers such a
wide range that I have found it difficult to condense it : but I
hope that enough has been shown to prove that the science of
medicine has kept pace with other sciences in the marcli of im-
provement. And, it may be asked, who has achieved this
26
Address Upon the Progress of Medicine.
progress? I answer, The workers in the medical profession —
men who, wliile earning a living, perform more gratuitous labor
tiian all the other professions combined. It has been truly said
by and eloquent writer ; " Go into the abodes of the sick, and
"the poor and deserted, wherever there is disease or distress, there
"you will find some medical practitioner exercising his glorious
" art, patiently, freely and fearlessly, for those whom poverty or
" vice or the breath of pestilence has deprived of every other
"friend. Or, again follow him among the higher classes of
" patients, and you will find him there the friend and honest ad-
" viser of those who can seldom hear truth from any other lips."
And when their daily round has ended may be found committing
their observations and experience to paper for the benefit of
mankind.
" Such are the toils — the perils that he knows —
Days without rest and nights without repose.
Yet all unheeded for the love he bears
His art, his kind, whose very grief he shares."
An estimate may be formed of the literary work of the
medical profession when I tell you that it comprises one-thirtieth
of that of the world.
Again, follow them on the field of battle, where — without the
excitement of contest, but in equal danger with the combatant —
they are found ministering to the suffering wounded, or perhaps
winning " Victoria crosses " by some act of heroism for the
benefit of their disabled patients, and I am proud to say such
examples are not few.
May I not therefore, in the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes,
say:
" How blest is he who knows no meaner strife
Than art's long battle with the foes of life.
No doubt assails him, doing still his best,
And trusting kindly nature for the rest."
them
and
grav
-grt.
"see
the^
u no
REPLY TO DR. PRESTON'S LETTER.
To the Editor of the Sun :
giii; — In mv lecture at tlic Mcclianics' Institute I said
that tlie medical world, at the close of the 18th century, was
governed by theory, empiricism, authority, and speculation. In
support of my assertion, I spoke of a strange theory propounded
by Dr. Letsora, a so-called allopathic physician, and as an illus-
tration of the speculative tendency of that age, I mentioned the
theory formed by Dr. Hahnemann, the founder of homoeopathy.
I said that he ignored all previous medical knowledge, denied
the existence of any curative power in the human system, claimed
that symptoms alone should be treated, and that the more the
medicine was diluted the greater its power over disease.
I also said that, on account of its manifest absurdities, his
theory was rejected by all scientific men, and, while it displays a
curious instance of the aberration of the human intellect, it has
reminded the physician of the limits of his art, and of the great
power which nature plays in the cure of disease.
These remarks do not appear to have pleased the friends of
Dr. Preston, or himself, for he felt bound to animadvert upon
them in your paper of the 22nd instant. He gave us an elaborate
and well written history of Hahnemann from his cradle to his
grave, an account of the books he wrote, and classed him " as the
" greatest benefactor of the human race that the past century has
"seen," but he forgot to inform us that at one time he deceived
the world by selling at a high price, under the name of " Piwmm"
a nostrum which contained nothing but borax.
(27)
I
1
28
Reply to Dr. Prcston^s Letter.
However, tlie character of the man is not the question ; his
"speculative theory" is that with which we have to deal. All
that Dr. Preston says of hira may be true — though he must
pardon me if I do not agree with hira — but his theory may be
absurd, nevertheless. I have classed it as such ; if I am wrong,
I must take the consequences ; if right, no wrong is done.
It is not my intention to discuss the merits of Homoeopathy;
I have neither the time nor the inclination to do so. But I was
under the impressic^n that Homceoj)athy had progressed, like
rational medicine, with time ; and I give Dr. Preston credit for
too much good sense to believe that he accepts all the theories
propounded by his " benefactor."
Let us see what a few of them are. His system is expressed
by the I^atin aphorism, similia similibus curantur, or like cures
like; that is, diseases are cured by substances capable of pro-
ducing symptoms resembling those found in the disease under
treatment.
The second great fact which Hahnemann professes to have
established is the '* efficacy of medicinal substances reduced to a
wonderful degree of minuteness or dilution.'^ In his work on
chronic diseases he gives us his mode of preparing his little doses.
He tells us that one grain of the medicine is to be added to 100
grains of sugar of milk, and after just so many minutes devoted
to rubbing and scraping it together, it constitutes the first dilu-
tion. Each grain of this powder contains the hundredth of a
grain of the medicinal substance mingled with the sugar of milk.
Continue the process, and the second dilution will be one ten-
thousandth, the third dilution one-millionth, the sixth dilution
one-billionth, and so on to the thirtieth, and even up to the two-
hundredth dilution. It has been computed by Sir James Symp-
son that one grain of arsenic, at the fifteenth dilution, would
require material equal in bulk to sixty-one globes the size of
this earth to absorb it. When liquids are to be used, the same
process of dilution is to be observed.
Again, he informs us, at page 316, of his Organon, that "The
" homoeopathic medicine becomes poteutized at every division,
Reply in Dr. Prcdon^s Letter.
2J)
; his
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ay be
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e Gureft
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to 100
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st dilu-
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ne ten-
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he two-
i Symp-
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size of
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at "The
division,
"and diminution by trituration or succnssion (shako), a dcvolop-
" ment of the inherent powers of medicinal substances which
" was never dreamed of before my time, and which is of so
" powcrfid a character that of late years I have been compelled,
" hy convincing experience, to reduce the ten succussions (shakes),
" formerly directed to be given after each attenuation, to tiro.
"Tliere are, however, hom(eo])athists who carry about with them,
''on their visits to i)atie!its, the homoeopathic medicine in a fluid
"state, and vet who assert that thev do not become more hi";hlv
" potentized in the course of time; but tiiey thereby show their
" want of ability to observe correctly." Is this reasonable or
absurd? Give it a ten-mile ride in the pocket of a doctor, on
the back of a hard trotting horse, and dynamite would be
iiothino; to it.
At page 822 of his Lesser Writin(/s he says : " If we wisii
"to attenuate a drop of the juice of sun-dew to the decillionth,
" shake each of tiie bottles with 20 or more succussions from a
" powerful arm, in the hand of wiiich the bottle is held ; in that
"case this medicine, whicii I have discovered to be the specific
"medicine for whooping cough. Mill have become so powerful in
"the fifteenth attenuation liiat a drop of it given in a teaspoon-
"ful of water would endanger the life of the child ; whereas, if
"each dilution bottle were shaken but twice (with two strokes of
"the arm) and prepared in this manner up to the decillionth
"attenuation, a sugar globule the size of a poppy seed, moistened
" idtli the last cdtemmtinn, cures this terrible disease with this
"single dose, without endangering the health of the child in the
" slightest degree.'' M'lrahile dictu ! !
At page 879 of his Lesser Writings h ■ advocates another
mode — discovered by Korsakoff — of pre|)aring his little glo-
bules. He says : " Thus much is deducible from his (Korsa-
" koff's) experiments, that since a single dry globule, imbibed
"with a high medicinal dynamization, communicates to 13,500
" unmedicated globules, with which it is shaken for five minutes,
" medicinal power fidly equal to what jioioer it 2)ossesses itself, with-
"out suffering any diminution of power itself, it seems that this
/
'.1
30
Reply to Dr. Prcston^a Letter.
"marvelous communication taivcs place by means of proximity
" and contact, and is a sort of infection, bearing a strong resom-
" blance to the infection of healthy persons, by a contagion
"brought near or in contact with them." Wonderful indeed !!!
The third great doctrine of Hahnemann is that seven-eicjhtlis
at least of all chronic diseases are produced by the existence in
the system of that infectious disorder known in the language of
science by the appelation of Psora, but in the less refined por-
tion of the community by the unmentionable name of Itch.
In his Organon, page 183, he tells us "that Common Itch
" (Psora), is the only real fundamental canse arid producer of all
" the other numerous innumerable forms of disease which, under
" the names of nervous debility, hysteria, hypochondriasis, epi-
" lepsy, mania, melancholia, imbecility, caries, convulsions of all
"sorts, cancer, fungus hoematodes, malignant organic growths,
" gout, jaundice, dropsy, hcemorrhage from the lungs, nose, stom-
" ach, bladder,etc., asthma, barrenness, deafness, impotence, cater-
" act, paralysis, defect of the senses, and pains of a thousand kinds,
" etc., which figure in the systematic works on pathology, as pe-
" culiar independent diseases."
In his "Lesser' Writings" page 831, we are informed that
^^No one free from psora {itch) ever gets inflammation of the lungs."
He also informs us, at page 292 of his "Organon," "that
" even a primary itch eruption of recent origin, though it may
" have spread all over the body, may be perfectly cured in per-
"sons that are not too weakly, by a dose of sulphur, thirtieth
" dilution (or potency) given every seven days, in the coiu'se of
" from ten to twelve loeeks, so that it will be seldom necessary to
" aid the cure with a few doses of carbo vegetabilis, thirtieth
" dilution, also given at the rate of one in the week, without the
" slightest external treatment, besides frequent changes of linen
" and good regimen."
He recommends another mode of giving his medicine, which
he calls "Olfaction" — in other words, smelling. It is needless to
describe it.
I
Reply to Dr. Preston's Letter.
31
I have given the above extracts from the writings of Hahne-
mann, in vindication of the remarlis I made in my lecture, not
ill a si)irit of opposition to believers in liomcopathy — they have
a perfect right to their opinion, and I doubt not they will grant
me the same privilege.
W. BAYARD, M. D., Etc.
St. John, Feb. 23, 1884.
I