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Maps, plates, charts, etc.. may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre film6s A des taux de rMuction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichi. il est film6 A partir de I'angle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 t' * % % REVIE^V •\i^ 1^0 i" THE PRESENT STATE OK THERAPEUTICS. BY HKRHERT H. READ, M.I)., L. R.C. S.E., Steiitber of the Amei'ican fnstitvte of Homoeopathy. c> HALII^\X. N. S. PKINTEL> 13V .)Mi. B0WK8 vVc SONS, IJEDFORD ROW. 1873. - ■.'.:^ 4f • I A REVIE^AT OF THE PRESENT STATE or THERAPEUTICS. BY liERBERT M. READ, M. D., L.R.C. S. E., Member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy. HALIFAX, N. 8. PRINTED BY JAMES BOWES & SONS, BEDFORD ROW. 1873. I 1 ^ A REVIEW OF THE riiESENT STATE OF THERAPEUTICS. CHAPTER I. I TnK iMiRSENT STATE OF TlIF.RArEUTICS (THE ArT OP HeALING) IN THE Ai-LorATiiic School. ■' Consultation tcith I/omncopafhs. — ' A pliysician practises modicino not tor tlio sake of solvirijj puzzles, hut ot savinjr patients.'. .' If a flisca-etl person, who in liis ijrnoi'ance suhn\its himself to tlie homwo- pathic (leliisioii. find the wit of his homoco[)athist ohviously dull on the nature ol" his disease, and desiri' a j)hysician to sharpen it, in order that the houin'opathist may with the jrreater ease of mind practise '.i[)()n the patient with ji;loi)ules, the physician obviously may and oujjht to decline to he a party in any such mischief. The [)hysician who consents to ' iliairnose' a disease for a houKcopathist be(!omcs a party either to a lolly or to a fraud. It wci^jhs nothing, in the decision, tha't the |)atient, in his iirnoranee, is willing to be defrauded or be fooled. He is free to make suelj a choice : we are not free to assist him in it. A physician is only called upon to exercise his callinji when and as his conscience approves it. 'J'oiijours pret is an excellent motto for u cabman. When duty (;alls, and as conscience bids, is the rule for all medical workers. It is an individual harm to each patient that he should submit to the delusion, and wt; are called upon to have no part in it. It is a general injury, and tends to propagate the error that homa'opathists have any claim to scientific consideration or footing of piofessional respectability (we mean always scientifically, and not personally or socially), that a physician should consent to do anything whiidi could bear the semblance of a consultation with a homocopathist, or a recognition of any claim on his part to be a rational therapeutist, or to possess any claim to rank or associate with healers and physi- cians. Homipopathy, Avhich began as a delu.sion, is now rapidly ending as a fraud. The ignorant delusion that all diseases were varieties of the itch, which was a cardinal point of homoeopathic belief at the outset, had faded before the discovery of the itch-inseet. The mystic tolly of extreme dilutions, the potency of increasing weakness, the value of direction in .shaking and stirring, are fading follies likewise ; their place is being taken by frauds. We hear now of eastor oil and hydrate of chloral, tincture of aconite and tartar emetic, in heroic and almost poisonous doses, to produce purgation, give sleep, reduce the Iicart's action, anil pronioU; secretion. It no more bcconics us lu assent to a framl tli.in to yicM to a dchision; and now more tlian ever, perhaps, must it. l)i' held (iisd,' ^dohiilist o;- lrinunei".'--/,'/j7. Mt'l. ./niini.. Oct. -JUi, 1S72." CoAKSK .'ind vulvar as is the luii<;ua;.ie iiisl riuoteil, it is "mellow music" wlieii matched with the imprecations of an earlier date. On the 'Jnd of February, IS'jG, the '• Lancet" ^^ave utterance to the foUowing: "When \\ illiam the Third was induced on one occasion to laj' his hainl on a poor wretch, wishin;^ to be ciirtMl of the Kinj^'s evil hy the royal loiudi, he said, ' God Ijive you better health and more sense.' We must confess that our wishes for the patients of homoeopathic physicians are not so seemingly merciful, and that we are ])rone to utter such impreca- tions on them as would make the shade of Ernulphus walk disturbed. May youii vicor of mind and p.odv faii,, youk UONES DKCAY, YOUK MM15S HK EATKN UY DISKASF,, YOUK .JOINTS STIFFEN AXD 1$E EVERLASTINGLY IMMOVABLE, Tllis steril temj)er, however, is uot vindictive (!), but rather is the con.secjueiice ol' a firm conviction that the best way of reclaiming fools is to let them taste to the ftdl the bitter effects of folly." The spirit which dictated these words still lives. Its presence aud baleful effects have been seen wherever the standard of Homoeopathy has been erected. The language is that o{ conceit aud ignorance ; of conceit, since it rests ou the assumption that the Allopaths are the monopolists of medical science aud thera- peutic skill ; of ignorance since it betrays an utter want of know- leajie of the only law of cure yet discovered. But since Therapeutics, or the Art of Healing, is that part of Medicine which chiefly concerns mankind, it is interesting and obviously pertinent to ascertain the basis on which such arrogant assumptions rest. Of hygienic means, surgical procedures and mechanical appli- ances used in Medicine, nothing need be said, as, on those all schools are agreed. In the administration of drugs, however, the medical schools are irrecoucileably hostile. Drugs in immense quantities aud in the most varied forms, arc daily exhibited, and the confiding patients who complacently swallow the nauseous and disgusting potions, prescribed with the sem- blance of wondrous skill, and compounded with elaborate care, are apt to suppose that they are given with some definite end in view ; that their effects on the organism have been carefully studied, that their administration is based on well-known scientific principles ; and that they bear a definite curative relation to the cases under treatment. Hov^ far their conjectures are justified, and what point of scientific precision has yet been reached in the K 1 Allopathic profossion, it is onr purpose to inquire. And if that protession liiis yt't y«!t risen to the faintest conception of the curative jxjvvers of remedies; if it is still en;;a^'ed in clcarinff the (ji-dHiHl on which to hiy the foundation of the Temple of Thera- peutics ; if its whole practice is hased on Foitli, a iilini> un- UKASONIXO FAITH IN AIJTIKHUTY AND TltAIHTION, the COllfuIeUCC of the non-medical public is clearly misplaced. In an inquiry like this, it is useless to look to those medical practitioners described by Prof Iln^^hes IJeiinctt, (;t Edinburgh, as having been •' educated in a blind faith as to tin; properties* and uses of drugs, a faith which has d(>scend(Hl to us from a barbarous age, has bocnmt; traditional, and possesses no relation to the present state of modical science." We must look to those who are autlsorities in the Allopathic school. Says Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine: '"One physician j)rescribes a strict diet, another allows a liberal one, a third forbids both : so we mijst not wondcM' that th(» art of medicine is said to resemble ohl-scjiool physician of the period, in the highest state of development, hitherto reached. Says Prof. Bouchardat, speakin;:^ of Therapeutics : '' Sricfirc is not yet esfahlislicd, its foun(Jatio7>fi have ypr/)iicliin(/ dninij'alf. ofanpii ical practice, you will, I trust, adhere to tluit j)lan of mefjical education which is based on Anatomy and Physiology * * * Everything promises that before long a law of true harmony will be formed out of the discordant materials which surround us ; aiul if we, your predecessors, Inive fnUed^Xo yon will belnn,; {he honor of building up a system of Medii'ine, which, from its r ou-i.-hMicy, simplicity and truth, may at the siime time atlrsict t!'c conhdeiu'c of the public, and command the respect of the scientriic v. orld." " We are," writes the same grc^at authority. '' gradually sweeping away the errors of empiricism, sVo;//// rJrari.ir 'he iasters, INI ^ odcra, member of the Academv d Paris : " We are surprised at the diiloreuce in tlie means iA oonsidoiMiiir disease md the divers nutio** of ti-eatment. !''ie bold ones administer most heroic dosc-> of medicine (doses of which the vulirnr very irreverently say its a kill nr cure.) Others more timid and feariufj to act. wait paticmtly for critical periods. Others amuse themselves with practiciujr polypluuMiiacy, one- orders purfTatives, another an emetic, a third bleeds, ;ind a fourth expects to fi:i(l calomel play the part of a univ(!r>us diseases presented to us in practice — and these few, for the most part of slight importance — are we able to act positively or cer- tainly, that is directly or specifically, on the disea.scd part, or on its morbid condition : while the whole huffe remainder of diseases can, as we have seen, be oidy indirectly, and distantly and slightly touched by our agents in any ease, — and in a large pro- portion of cases canrjt be touched at all. " From the survey in the last chapter, it appears tliat, with the exception of a very few, and those comparatively insignificant diseases, the Medical Art does not possess the power of curing diseases in a direct and positive manner. In the few diseases in which it may be said to do so speaking generally, it not seldom fails to do so in individual instances. " In all other cases — that is in the vast majority of diseases — the Medical Art, even when exerting its powers most successfully, cannot, in strict language, be said to cure diseases at all. All that it pro/esses to r?o, and all that it does, is to influence diseases in an indirect and partial, or imperfect manner, by moditying to a greater or less extent, the functions of certain organs, with the view and in the hope of thus modifying the processes in which the malady consists. " The degree to which the Medical Art cau fulfil eveu this humble office, we have seen to be ivfinitely Iksh^ gimerally speak- ing, than the public, and even than the members of the medical ■profession^ have always believed, and still believe." Said Claude Bernard, the leading physiologist of modern times, speaking in 1847, in reference to therapeutics: "The scientific medicine which I am charged to teach you, does not EXIST." lu 1869, after twenty-two years of unexampled progress in Physiology, Pathology, and the other sciences accessory to Therapeutics, — progress of which he might well have exclaimed " magna pars fui" — this same Claude Bernard says : " 1. The medicine of observation wus founded by Hippocrates. This medicine has for its object prognostics, diagnostics, nosology. Here the ignoramus can not be confounded with the scholar, and he who has not studied clinical medicine, pathological aruitomy, semeiology — in a word the medical science of observation, will be incapable of solving the problems which relate to the history of diseases. " 2. Experimental medicine corresponds to therapeutics, to the treatment of disease. To this day this medicine does not yet EXIST ! IT IS PLUNGED IN EMPIRICISM. Here the ignorant, the charlatan, and the learned physician become confounded with each other again, .so that those who regard the treatment of diseases have good reason to say that their medicine is not yet a SCIENCE." Dr. Girtanner, one of the heroes in the phalanx of Allopathy. in speaking of the confused state of therapeutics, said : '' Seeing that the art of healing has no positive principle — nothing settled or proved — and since experience goes for little, the physician has % a ri^'ht to follow his own opinions. When it is not a scientific qnestion, one hypothesis is as pfood as another. /;? tht: Kijyjitian darkness of ignorance in which phi/sicians gropc^ there is not the j'dintest nil/ of Uyhf. to enable them to see where they are." Listen to the illustrious Broussais : *' Let any one cast an eye on society, and look on those j^looniy countenances, those pale leaden faces who pass their wliole life in thiukin^i^ of their stomachs, whose digestion is made more painful and slow hy the doctors orderini]; nourishing diet, generous wines, tinctures, elixirs, tonics, &c.. until these victims fall a prey to diarrhoea, dropsy or marasmus. Let us observe those tender creatures scarcely (Jut of their eiadle — the tongue is hot anption. Ayid then let any one pronoiun-e, whether medie'nie up to the presod time, has not been more injurious than henejicial to humanity.''' A vivid picture of the present stato of tiierapeutics in the dominant school has been drawn by Di. Dickinson of St. George's Hospital. '' The remedial branch of medicine," writes Dr. Dickinson, "• all important, though it be, can hardly yet be said to exist as a science. We hold to measures of treatment which our forefathers introduced, notwithstanding that our forefathers were led to them by suppositious now known to be erroneous. We allow the therapeutics of by-gone generations to hold its place beside the pathology of to-day, and place in ill-matched opposition, the art of one centiMV and the science of atu)ther. Therapeutical traditions long survive the theories which gave them birth. In our use of drugs we are often unwittingly guided by consideraiious as mys- tical as the cabalistic reference to Jupiter with which we never fail to commence our prosc-iptions. The ancient doctrine of signatures taught that rose leaves would stop bleeding, because they were the color of tlie blood ; and to the present day infusion of the red rose commoidy forms the basis of a styptic draught. •■' The use of exterual applications is often based upon the effete extravagancies of humoral pathology, and guided by doc- trines as n\ysterious and fanciful, as those which were put forth 10 '! by Sir Kenolm Din;1)v, who professed to cure wounds by his powder of ' sympathy,' the efficacy of which was nndiiniiiished by distance, and which could be applied in one country for the advanfaiife of patients living in another. " Rules of medical treatment once authoritatively placed in the code of medical practice are exceedinii;ly difficuU to displace. They become the property of medical men, who are content to resort to the usage of their day without inquiring for the evi- dence on which it rests, and who hold to therapeutical traditions with a steadfast faith, worthy of a less variable creed. The prac- tice of such men is necessarily confirmed by their experience, since, while they arc apt to take to themsch'es the credit of every improvement, they attribute all changes for the worse to the in- evitable progress of the complaint. The murderous extravagan- cies in the use of blood-letting and mercury, which chara(;terised the earlier part of this century, could never have held their ground, had not the results of treatment been assigned to rons. Bonvier, and see what the seton does for him; but remeinb ^" this same Mons. Bonvier does not know at this moment, r?7/(r /■ how, irjipu or luhy we must avail ourselves of this means ; and what proves this is, that he appeals to me to tell hira ; a desperate appeal in truth " Said M. Marchal (de Calvi), the learned editor of the " Tribune Merlicale," in referring to the discussion at the Aca- demy of Paris, in which the words just quoted were used : ;* I i € 11 '• Moos. Mal,[raip^no is but too much in the rijrht, the seton is but a piece, of routine, applied for the most part without jud^nnent, or anv precise iudieatiou for it, having no othkr effkct than pain, the ineonvenicMice it always occasions, and the unhappy results it sonuitiinos induces." Thi' same writer, after criticisint; the cures professed to have been made by M. Bouvier, with his setons, continues : "The facts whif'h he alletres, are examples of that deplorable system of medicine which I have called cfitHndic ; the system of the hospi- tals, which uives to society medical men, oblijied to be,!.nn their education afresh at the expense of their patients, durinjr several vears of ij^ropiuir, experiment, chances and reverses, amidst anx- iety of mind and torment of conscience ; a system termed clinical, which lays so much stress, in the disease, to the episode, the actual casualty, the manifestation of the moment, to the neirlect of the disease itself ; a deceptive system which fjives itself the airs of mathematical exactitude, by making use of iigures to show cures fha', the Hi.rf hoar belies ; a system of plasteriuix, which bedaubs a ruined wall with a layer of mortar, when we ought to begin from the very foundation, to build afresh. We have, no tieed to measure terms, since it is not only d question here of personal, hut oj general error.'^ " Listen to M. Piorry : '* The eflPects they cause," says he, speaking of the abuse of revulsives, '' make the patients forget the lesser pain which was there before. It has an effect upon the mind of the patient, by turning away his attention from his sulferiiigs. 1 ask myself it medicine could not be less cruel, if it could not take the pain of the sufferers into greater consideration, if in the eyes of physicians the means are indifferent, if they would be as pro- digal of cauteries for themselves, as they are for their patier.ts." "Be honest," asked Granier of a physician, "have you ever received any benefit from cauteries ? " Yes," he replied with a knowing smile, " their pus is the sap that nourishes the trees of our garden." Dr. Dauvergne recites the case of a cl ild four years old, who had been confined to his bed two months, by a bronchitis, treated constantly, successively and solely by blisters upon the ai*m and about the chest. He always had one or two in a state of suppu- ration, so as not to belie the sarcasm of Molierc: s/ non sujficd^ reiteretur. "Thus," continues he, "when I saw this little patient he was mummilied, his emaciation was so extreme that the dentar arches projected as in a monkey or a skeleton, so thin Avero the lips and so large was the mouth. His eyes were deeply sunken, and his cheeks reduced to the malar bones. The child was reclining, his head hanging down, carried by its own weight, so Js 12 unable was its neck to siistiiin it. But the moment I wished to take hold of his arm to feel his pulse, he raised himself up like a lion, with open mouth, to bite my hand. ' What does that mean ';:" I said to the mother. 'Oh, sir,' she replied, 'he thought that you were going to dress his blisters ; he does so every time we dress them, and we are obliged to hold him fast.' " Prof. Forget, of Strasburg, says : " Blisters remain without eflfect, and provoke gratuitously, pain and exhaustion ; so that, for thfi most of refledinrf practitioners^ blisters are a sort of sacramental means, wjjicb are applied from obsequiousness, rather tiian with the hope of deriving the leiist advantage from them. For myself, how often have I seen the wretched victims perish from these ulcers, with which I have seen their chests perforated by practitioners of rohust faith." A fitting pendant for these quotations, is the fact, that the leadmg British authority in diseases of the chest could find nothing better than blisters to prescribe to a distinguished citizen dying of consumption Such is the queer chaos of conflicting opinions, that delights to call itself •' Scientific Medicine." It is fitly described in the eloquent words of Marchal (de Calvi): " In medicine, there- is not, nor has there been for some time, either principle., faith or laio. We build a tower of Babel, or rather we are not so far advanced, for we build nothing ; we are in a vast plain where a multitude of people pass backwards and forwards ; some carry bricks, others pebbles, others grains of sand ; but no one dreams of the cement ; the foundations of the edifice are not yet laid, and as to the general plan of the work, it is not even sketched. In other words, medical literature swarms with facts, of Avhich the most part are periodically produced with the most tiresome monotony ; these are called observations and clinical facts ; a number of labourers consider, and reconsider particular questions of pathology or therapeutics — that is called orvjinal labour The mass of such labours and facts is enormous ; no reader can wade through them ; hat no one has anij general doctrine. The most general doctrine that exists, is the DOCTRINE OF HOMr neglected, for il it had been treated skilfully in the commencement, things would not have gone so far ;' if issues have been ordered, he wishes them to be healed, if tlu^y have not been ordered, he prescribes them ; he breaks llie bottles, changes the medicines, merely for the sake of opposition ; and all this is sure to gratify the patient and every one about him. ****«♦ •Ar- * * * '' He then is a quack, who, while he pockets the fees, endeavors to make himself valued at the expense of a brother practitioner, and having some mistakes to accoimt for in his own practice, lays th(; blame on another. This is pretty nearly the character of an ordinary quack doctor. 1 say nearly, for I have but shown the lining of this specious garment. I say, also, * of an ordinary quack,'' for a Homa;opath is not only this but a great deal more. He is supposed to be a physician, and he is not ; he is thought to earn his money, but he steals it, for itistead of doing something, he does nothing. Oh, ye calumniators ! you are quite at liberty to vent all your spleen upon us, and though J risk being accused of borrowing from M. Guizot, I shall be satisfied with merely saying with hira. Your insults '.an never equal our disdain.** I i( CHAPTER Causks of thk i'resknt condition of the Healing Aut, in the Dominant School. \ Wliivt, now , are the caupes of the confusion and darkness that pervade tlu^ praetiee of the Allopathic school? These are mainly two : ii.Mi()raueeof the effects of remedies on the healthy ori.^aiiisni ; the want of a therapeutic law. It seems incredible that the dominant school — notwithstanding the '' accumulated wisdom of two thousand years" — should still be in ignorance of the eflects of drugs on tin; healthy organism ; yet such is ilu' fact. And, in this respect, physicians are liki' chemists who attempt to j)ei'forin experiments without an accurate know- ledge of the reciprocal etfects of their reagents, when brought in contact. The profission has contented itself with a vague and general knowledge ()f its implements; and has been sati-Hed (o })rescribe them eithcj' from the dictates of individual caprice, from the reconmiendatious, — often conflicting, — of leading practitioners, recognized i\» anUioritits hi medicine, or according to the traditions of long-past ages. To an outside observer, it would seem that the first and most essential step in the Art of Healing, the vrry foundation of the temple of Therapeutics ought to be an accurate knowledge of the reciprocal eflects or motions that ensue when drugs are brought in contact with the organism when in the repose of health. Strange as it may appear, no such knowledge, worthy of the name, has yet been attained by the professioti, that calls itself '' Scientific Medicine." " For my part," says Dr. Wilks, of Guy's, "' I believe that we know next to nothing of the action of medicines and other thera- peutic agents." A few years ago, the Clinical Society was formed in Loudon, chiefly with a view to ascertain the effects of remedies on the healthy organism. Sir Thomas Watson, the first President, in his opening address, states : " The greatest gap in the science of medicine is to be found in its final and supreme stage — the stage of therapeutics." And again, " we want to learu distinctly ichat is the action of drugs, and of other outward influences upon the bodily organs and functions — for every one now-a-days, I suppose. n; ackiiowlodiros tluit It is only by controlling or dircetinn; the natural fbrf'os of tlic body, that wc can reasonably hope to govern or guide its diseased actions," In his estimate of the spectial duties the (•linical Society was instituted to perform, he expressly alludes to the want n[' " authentic repoits of trials with medicinal substances upon I lie benltiiy human body," and when concluding he gives Utterance to the hope that work of this kind may " lead at length. tardihi^ inrluipfi^ but surely, to a better attainment of the rules — jicradcviitia-c to the fViHcovcry iven of the lav: — by Avhich our prac- tice should be guided." It is instructive to note that the Clinical Societ}^ has failed, as yet. to give the profession an exhaustive proving of a single .. once ex- cluded from the Infirmary at the unanimous demand of his colleagues, a demand accompanied by a threat of instant resigna- tion in case of non-compliance. "Scientific Medicine," then, is without any but the most indefinite knowledge of the remedies on which it habitually relies, and which it so unsparingly, and so imscrupulously administers ; and the principal reason for so anomalous a otate of things, is the false direction in which the profession have looked for a method of cure. The leaders of medical thought have i-onstantly taught that Physiology — the science Avhich treats of the functions of the bodily organs while in health, — and Pathology — which tre;us of the phenomena, manifestations, and results of disease — must be re- garded as the foundations of Therapeutics. As if b} the most arduous study of the processes of disease, or the most intense gaze at its products, it were possible to evolve the true theory of cure. The particular piece of practice which may be regarded as the most brilliant outcome of pathological knowledge — Prof. Hughes Bennett's treatment of Pneumonia — affords an instance of the very limited results, in the way of cure, that can flow from Pathology alone. That treatment consists of the administration of remedies designed to affect the products of injlammation solely ; in the first place to dissolve the exuded matters, chemically, aud in the second, to remove them, mechanically. To give remedies that may affect the diseased process joret/ious to the exudation^ or which will restore the equilibrium of these molecular motions, which have been per- verted by the morbific cause, does not even come within the range of thought of the erudite professor ; although he has himself declared that a reg-lly scientific Therapeutics must be based on a knowledge 1 4 ^'. while I >;ic!, liow- ftin^iiliir y, simply t writers, :lt myself ot to rest uself aud a test, I myself a >K' to the V of con- less aud ouce cx- of his resigna- le most y relies, uisters ; i, is the thod of ^Iit that bodily of the be re- B most ?e gaze f cure. as the [uglies e very lology iiedies e first cond, affect istore 1 per- igeof lared ledge 11» of the motions of the infinitoly minute molecular constituents ()f the frame, and on the use of ji;:eiits capable of restoring those motions wIumi almormally cluingol in disease. To the Allopathic School, a Tlicrapentic Law is also wanting. That is to say, " ScicntiH<' IMcdicino" is not in pfissession of any Natural Law governing tlu> remedial action of remedies ; a Law expressing the ciirativi: nJadnn between the effects of drugs on the Jti.di'lhi/ nryrtnisyn, and the phenomena of disease. Such a Law is the Missing Link ; and it is obvious that the most complete knowledge of the action of drugs upon eveu the ultimate molecules of the healthy organism, would be useless, without a possession of tiik law^ of (Thi; which Natiu'c has im- pressed upon all remedial agents, and by means of which they are of such incalculable benefit to numkind ; the Law, in short, laid down by Hahnemann, eighty years ago, and acted upon by Ilomo"- opathists ever since. These two together, the knowledge of remedies and the Law of Cure, are the means to Avliich Sir Thomas Watson looks forward as acquisitions which may at some remote period give to the arras of the dominant school "the precision of the modern rifle, instead of the wild flight of the old-fashioned smooth bore." The absence of a Law of Cure is clearly put by Prof. Hughes Bennett, who, in consequence, relegates Practical Medicine to the limbo of uncertainty, occupied by Chemistry in the days of the Alchemists, and by Physical Science before the grand discovery of Newton. " Medicine," says he, '* in its present state, possesses no primitive fact (i. e. of law cure.) But is it not very possible that it may do so at some future time? During the many ages that existed before NcAvton, physical science Avas as inexact as that of physiology is now. Before the time of Lavoisier chemistry consisted of nothing but groups of phenomena. These sciences Avent on gradually advancing, hoAvever, and accumulating facts, until at length philosophers appeared Avho united these together under one laAv. So medicine, in trust, is destined to advance, and one day another NeAVton, another Lavoisier, may arise, Avhose genius Avill furnish our science with its primitive fact, and stamp upon it the character of exactitude and precision." The day, hoAVCA'cr, Avlion the Allopathic School shall possess a Therapeutic Law, is regarded as belonging to the distant future. Says the late Dr. Bence Jones : " The progress of all accurate knowledge of the actions of medicines depends noAv on exact chemical and piiysical experimiuts ; and by the perfection of these alone Avill the practice of medicine lose its doubts aud difficulties, disagreements and deceptions, and become esteemed by all as the art that can confer the highest benefit upon mankind. 20 '* Instead of being, as formerly, blhid wielders of heavy cluha that may cure the disease or kill the patient ; or instead of being as at present ^judicious* or injudicious bottle-holders, physicians at some future time will estimate exactly the effect of the increased or diminished action of any one force npon all the other forces concerned in the production of general or local disease ; and by adding to the resistance of one or more forces, or bt/ liberating more energy by means of the powers that arc latent in food and medicine, they will restore that equilibriuin of action in the body upon which our health depends." In like manner, Dr. Sturges, Prof, of Mat. Medica, in West- minster Hospital, after stating that a knowledge of the physiolo- gical properties of drugs led to no definite or satisfactory result in the treatment of diseases, adds : " Neither our fathers nor we, have succeeded in obtaining that sanction for oar proceedings, which must be reserved for the time when, from a number of empirical observations, we are able to enumerate the exlsteuco of some general law." Why then, it may be asked, does the Allopathic School con- tinue the practice of polypharmacy, declared by Bichat, to be " revolting to a rational mind ? " Dr. Sturges has himself vouch- safed an explanation. Addressing the Materia Medica Class at Westminster Hospital, he says that " in the out-patient department of hospitals" the physicians, "m violation of all their professed principles, and opposed to their most stremious teaching, have to administer drugs daily to a promiscuous assembly of individuals ignorant enough to accept treatment of no other kind." It has come to this then, that by the most advanced thinkers of the dominant school, drugs are prescribed, with not the faintest idea of cure, and not even to relieve pain, but to satisfy an ignorant faith in physic, that finds its only stronghold in the rainds of the credulous and the vulgar ! Is there no thread of Ariadne to guide the benighted " medical workers " of the old school out of the labyrinth of confusion and doubt in which they are painfully groping ? There is, and some of the more enterprising practitioners have found the clew. Said Sir James Paget, the second president of the Clinical Society in his inaugural address, speaking of the cure of disease, " We must look for any advance in this direction to chance — to a happy accident." The form of accident found to be most fruitful, during the last few years, has been an excursion — say rather a raid — into the field of Homoeopathic literature. The gleaners in this field have plucked such of the fruits of the laborious toil of Hahnemann and his successors, as they could make use of without risk of public detection, and have palmed ^ i I I avy cluhfi being us lic'iaos at increased lir forces ; and by iberatiiKj ''ood and the body in West- physiolo- result in ve, have 3, which mpirical of some ool cou- t, to be f vouch- Class at artment rofessed ave to viduals [is come minant f cure, aith in dulous ledical >a and some [liDical isease, ince — most I — aay )f the Icould Itlmedl 21 thom off on llioir cro.dnlou«» readers as ori ,t7ial coyitrihutions to knowledfre. Dr. Thorowprood, for instance, recommends Arsenic in irritable (lyspcpsia^ Lead in ileus, and ol)stinate constipation, and Phosphorus in bronchitis and pneumonia. Dr. Wilks adduces Aconite in inflammations and rheumatism, but the j^reatest sitmer of all is Dr. Sidney Ringer of Uiiiversity College, the author of a Handbook of Therapeutics, pronounced by the " Medical Times and Gazette," to be the best work of the kind extant. All Dr. Ringer's orif/inal sufft/estions are stolen from MonKropathy, though the names of Ilahnemain and IIouKcopathy ate studiously ignored ! He even goes the hingth of advising sulphide of calcium (well known to Homfnopathi;'ts as Hepar) in abscesses ! The force of this statement will be seen when it is known tluit the venerable Dr. liering ''.j-st made known that power in Hepar, and that the remedy itsel " was previously totally unknown, as a remedy, to the Allopathic School. Dr. Ringer has many followers. They m.iy be known by the method — curious for Allopaths — in which they administer most of the 'borrowed' remedies. In order to attain /he required minute- ness, a grain or two of a solid drug, or a few drops of a liquid, are placed in a tumblerful of water and the patient is directed to take a teaspoonful of the solution at a do.se. The instances in which Dr. Ringer makes use of Homoeopathic remedies are too numerous to be quoted ; but one of the greatest tributes ever paid to the truth of the Homoeopathic law, is the fact, that Dr. Ringer's book lias passed to a third edition in as many years. I have only to add, that to denounce Homo^.opathy as a '' delu- sion or a fraud," and at the same time, make use of facts gained only from the practical application of the Homoeopathic law, is a course ot conduct deemed not imbecoming by the leaders of a pro- fession that vaunts itself to be liberal and enlightened. .. ^ ' — It 22 CHAPTER Homct:opatiiy Notwithstanding all that has been said, the foundations of the Art of Healing have been laid. They consist of accurate and exhaustive provings of drugs on the healthy organism. The corner stone is the Law of Similars. And when the adherents of the dominant school lay aside all preconceived opinions, and seriously undertake a scien- tific study of Therapeutics on its own basis, they will awake in astonishment to the fact, that the Temple of Therapeutics is gradually rising into view, beautiful in proportions, symmetrical in design, and replete with blessings to mankind. For this the world is indebted io Hahnemann, from whom has emanated more light in medicine than from all other medical luminaries combined, and the value of his grand discovery is only fitly appreciated by the large and annually increasing numbers who enjoy its inestimable benefits. During a space of thirty years Hahnemann and his associates, with the most minute care and painful self-denial, ascertained by experi- ments on thi'mselves, the effects of about one hundred drugs, taken in doses of every size. Since his death the work has been carried on by his sui.'c^ssors in all lands, and now the HoincBopathic Materin Medica is a splendid monument to the genius and toil of the slandered workers in the Geld of true scientific Therapeutics. AMiat, now, is the Law of Similars, Nature's law of cure 'i As Hahnemann long ago pointed out, however n)uch physicians may ignore princi})les or theory in their practice, yet as everj act in prac- tice is (he result of some idea that inspires it, every physician when prescribing remedies in disease, must select them in accordance with one of three principles, or theories. 1. Allopathy, wherein the remedy will be one, whose effects have no relation whatever to tlie disease under treatment, but are expended on parts more or less removed from the seat of disease. In this case the remedy is designed to act on the healthy parts alone, in the ex- pectation, — to use the words of Sir John Forbes, — " of influencing disease in an indirect and partial oi' imperfect manner, by modifying to a greater or less extent, the functions of certain organs, with the view and in the hope of thus modifying the processes in which the disease consists." All that is, in truth, really accomplished, is the production of another disease in addition to that already existing ; and as experience too often shows, the medicinal disease may prove infinitely worse than the other. > 23 Thd greater part nf tlio practice of thn dominant scliool is in accorfliince with this iiloa ; and as under it. drusi's are ^i^'cn with a view of (!X(M'tin^^j(;n that, so far, the idea of cure is foreign to the Allo- pathic mind. 2. Enuntiopathy, in which the remedy will be one whose effects are sup])o:-(^elf; and as it ]iresunies to influence one diseased condition favorably only by inducing another, none Imt the disease-producing powers of drugs are made use of. and the idea oi curt.' is as far off as ever. Since drugs, therefore, according to the two principles just laid down, bear no close or definite relation to the disease for which they are prescribed, it would be surprising if the practice of *.!ie Allopathic schoid v»ere in any other than its pteseut chaotic state. The (pi(.'s{i(!n then arises: — Do I'cmedies bear any close and definite relation to diseases, and if st) what is that relation V The effects of drugs on the healthy organism are found to be wonderfully similar to the conditions observed in di-ease ; and. therefore, 'he only definite relation at present known to exist between drugs and di.seases, is that of likeness or similarity. Is it not possible that this similarity may express something more ; that it may expre-s the curative relatfom ])etween drugs and diseased states ; thai, in fine, it may be the diviiudy apjiointed L