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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 
 
 All 
 
 must 
 
 ay be 
 
 rroiig, 
 
 )athy ; 
 I was 
 I, like 
 :lit for 
 leories 
 
 )ressed 
 
 e Gureft 
 
 )f pro- 
 
 under 
 
 have 
 d to a 
 ark on 
 3 doses. 
 to 100 
 levoted 
 st dilu- 
 th of a 
 )f milk, 
 ne ten- 
 dilution 
 he two- 
 i Symp- 
 would 
 size of 
 le same 
 
 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